By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer  VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul II was near death Saturday, his breathing shallow and his heart and kidneys failing, the Vatican said. Millions of faithful around the world knelt, crawled on their knees, bowed their heads and lit candles to pray for the 84-year-old pontiff.“This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the pope,” Angelo Comastri, the pope’s vicar general for Vatican City, told a crowd at St. Peter’s Square, where up to 70,000 people prayed and stood vigil in the chilly night. Wrapping themselves in blankets, many tearfully gazed at John Paul’s third-floor windows, where the lights remained on early Saturday. The Vatican said Friday morning that John Paul was in “very grave” condition after suffering blood poisoning from a urinary tract infection the previous night, but that he was “fully conscious and extraordinarily serene” and declined to be hospitalized.

By Philip Pullella and Crispian Balmer

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope John Paul appeared close to death on Friday after heart failure, the Vatican said, sparking an outpouring of emotion and anxiety around the Roman Catholic world.

Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the 84-year-old Pope had received the “Holy Viaticum” communion, reserved for those near death, and had told his aides he did not want to return to hospital for treatment.

A Vatican statement said the Pope was still “conscious, lucid and tranquil” and had taken Mass as dawn broke, but senior clergy indicated his life was ebbing away.

“He is fading serenely,” Polish Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur, a close friend, was quoted as saying by Agi news agency. A new health bulletin was due at around 5:30 a.m.-6 a.m. EST, after the Vatican angrily dismissed as “rubbish” Italian media reports that the Pope was in a coma.

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer  VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul (news – web sites) II had difficulty breathing as he battled the flu and will spend a few more days in the hospital, the Vatican (news – web sites) confirmed Wednesday, but it said tests showed his heart was functioning normally and the pope had rested for several hours overnight. The 84-year-old pontiff had “just a little fever,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in elaborating on a terse medical bulletin issued by the Holy See. He told Vatican radio the pope would spend “a few more days” in the hospital, but added that there was “no cause for alarm.”

By Ted Galen Carpenter, North Korea’s continuing development of nuclear weapons is one of the most serious security challenges the United States faces.  The most recent six-party talks (China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, United States) made, at best, incremental progress toward a solution to the crisis. Throughout the negotiations, the U.S. goal has remained the same: a complete, verifiable and irreversible end to North Korea’s nuclear program. North Korea’s continuing development of nuclear weapons is one of the most serious security challenges the United States faces.  The most recent six-party talks (China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, United States) made, at best, incremental progress toward a solution to the crisis. Throughout the negotiations, the U.S. goal has remained the same: a complete, verifiable and irreversible end to North Korea’s nuclear program.

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Maurice Brubaker probably wouldn’t have gone to see “Fahrenheit 9/11″ on his own, but free admission helped change the Republican’s mind. Brubaker, chairman of the Bush/Cheney campaign team in Union County, was among at least 40 people who went to the Campus Theatre on Saturday to take advantage of a free showing for card-carrying GOP members. I don’t think you can consider it a documentary, because I don’t think both sides were represented,” Brubaker said of the Michael Moore film that criticizes the Bush administration’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks.