Vatican Pope John Paul II was laid to rest in Saint Peter's basilica after an elaborate and emotional funeral rite attended by about one million people and watched by countless others around the world. Vatican Pope John Paul II's native Poland came to a standstill as tolling bells and wailing sirens signalled the start of his funeral in distant Rome. Vatican Bells tolled around the globe and flags hung at half-mast as from the streets of Calcutta to the heart of Africa the world paused to mourn Pope John Paul II, with millions glued to televisions to watch his funeral live. Vatican Israeli President Moshe Katzav shook the hand of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and spoke in Persian with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at the pope's funeral, public radio reported. China From Beijing's old official churches to underground congregations in the countryside, China's Catholics were marking the burial of Pope John Paul II despite an official blackout on the ceremony. Timor Indonesia and East Timor signed an historic border agreement, removing one of the last obstacles to reconciliation between Jakarta and the territory it brutally occupied for almost quarter of a century. Djibouti Djibouti police fired teargas into an unruly crowd of opposition supporters calling for a boycott of the one-candidate presidential election as voters trickled into polling stations to cast ballots in the uncontested race. South Korea South Korean helicopters flew into the inter-Korean buffer zone to fight forest fires for the first time since division of the two Koreas, officials said. Monaco The husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, Prince Ernst-August of Hanover, was in intensive care in a Monaco hospital suffering from an inflamed pancreas, palace insiders said, as the statelet prepared to bury Caroline's father. Japan Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Tokyo, triggering the latest Chinese protest against Japan, even though Japanese officials plan to give him the usual cold shoulder. Britain On the day they were to have married, Britain's Prince Charles was away for the pope's funeral and his fiancee Camilla Parker Bowles was to be fitted for the dress she will wear when the couple finally wed on Saturday.