INTERNATIONAL in brief

Pope declares John XXIII, John Paul II saints

VATICAN CITY (AP):

Pope Francis declared his two predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints yesterday before hundreds of thousands of people in St Peter's Square, an unprecedented ceremony made even more historic by the presence of retired Pope Benedict XVI.

Never before has a reigning and retired pope celebrated Mass together in public, much less at an event honoring two of their most famous predecessors.

Benedict's presence was a reflection of the balancing act that Francis envisioned when he decided to canonize John and John Paul together, showing the unity of the Catholic Church by honoring popes beloved to conservatives and progressives alike.

Francis took a deep breath and paused for a moment before reciting the saint-making formula in Latin, as if moved by the history he was about to make.

He said that after deliberating, consulting and praying for divine assistance "we declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be saints and we enroll them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole church."

Robot submarine to extend Indian Ocean seabed search area

CANBERRA, Australia (AP):

A robotic submarine scanning the Indian Ocean floor for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will extend the area of its current search, which will end soon with no clues of the Boeing 777 found yet, authorities said yesterday.

The US Navy's Bluefin 21 has been creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor for more than two weeks near where signals consistent with airplane black boxes were heard on April 8.

The search area is a circle with a 10-kilometre (6-mile) radius, 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles) deep off the west Australian coast.

The sub was expected to complete the focused underwater search area and continue examining the areas adjacent to it, the search coordination centre said in a statement. The sub spends four hours travelling to and from the sea bed, and 16 hours searching the ocean floor. It takes another four hours to download data from each search.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said last week that an announcement was likely this week on the next phase of the search for the jetliner that vanished with 239 passengers and crew - mostly Chinese - on board on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Abbas calls Holocaust 'most heinous crime' of modern history

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP):

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday called the Holocaust "the most heinous crime" of modern history and expressed his sympathy for the victims, a rare acknowledgement by an Arab leader of Jewish suffering during the Nazi genocide.

Abbas' comments appeared, in part, aimed at reaching out to Israeli public opinion at a time of deep crisis in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. The remarks were published by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA just hours before the start of Israel's annual Holocaust commemoration.

The decades-old conflict has been accompanied by mutual mistrust among Israelis and Palestinians about the other side's intentions.

Many Israelis fear that the Palestinians aren't truly ready to accept a Jewish presence in the Holy Land, and that widespread ignorance or even denial of the Holocaust among Palestinians is an expression of that attitude.

Denials or attempts to minimise the Holocaust, which saw the systematic killing of six million Jews in World War II, are widespread in the Arab world.