Cuban president Raul Castro arrived at the Vatican yesterday to thank Pope Francis for his role in brokering the rapprochement between Havana and Washington.

The Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican today.

THE conclave will be the most physically comfortable in history. For centuries, the cardinals - almost all men over 60 years old - had to sleep on iron cots scattered in small rooms near the Sistine Chapel, off the Vatican Museum.