Thousands of mourners carrying Syrian flags and pictures of the dead took part in a mass funeral today for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus.

THE next pope will have a hard act to follow in Asia and the Middle East, where Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists alike mourned the loss of a man they saw as a messenger of peace and tolerance.

Pope John Paul II offered a prayer for peace today in the rubble of a town Syrians claim was destroyed by Israel.

The Middle East political passions and religious drama stirred up by Pope John Paul II’s visit to Syria have often seemed to obscure what he has stressed is the reason for his pilgrimage.

John Paul II has become the first pope to enter a mosque.