Black smoke billows from Vatican's chimney

Black smoke emerged from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney again today as the scarlet-robed cardinals inside failed in their second attempt to elect a new Pope to build on John Paul II’s legacy and heal deep rifts within the Roman Catholic Church.

Several thousand pilgrims and tourists who packed St Peter’s Square to stare at the slender stovepipe jutting from the chapel’s brown-tiled rooftop gasped as the smoke appeared just before noon (11am Irish time).