■ Italy
Pope grants writer a visit
Oriana Fallaci, the controversial Italian author who is awaiting trial on charges of vilifying Islam, has been granted a secret audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Fallaci's diatribes against Muslims have turned her into a hate figure for the Italian left and a heroine for the anti-immigrant right. The Pope's decision to grant her the privilege of a private meeting came after he appeared to reach out to Muslims on his first trip abroad since becoming pontiff. Vatican sources reacted with embarrassment to the disclosure of the Pope's meeting with Fallaci.
■ Poland
Solidarity's launch marked
World leaders paid tribute to Solidarity, saying the movement launched 25 years ago in the Gdansk shipyards was a catalyst for some of the most profound changes Europe has seen in recent decades: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and democratic revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia. The movement's leader, Lech Walesa, has often credited John Paul with inspiring the birth of the movement with his historic 1979 visit to his homeland, during which he celebrated Masses that subtly criticized the communist regime. A year after that, on Aug. 31, 1980, 18 days of strikes began at the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk and elsewhere that culminated with the communist regime making unprecedented concessions to the workers, including allowing the Soviet bloc's first free trade union.
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