Pope's hospital stay extended

Doctors have advised Pope John Paul to extend his hospital stay by “a few more days", but he will return to the Vatican by the start of Holy Week on March 20, his spokesman said today.

“The pope would like to come back to the Vatican as soon as possible but accepts his doctors’ advice,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said after the 84-year-old Pope was rushed back to a Rome clinic with his second breathing crisis in a month.