A wave of bomb attacks across Iraq killed 22 people Sunday. In Baghdad, back-to-back bombs left 15 dead and wounded 60 near a Shiite mosque. Police said the second explosion was from a suicide car bomber who drove into the crowd helping victims of the first blast. In Eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed an American soldier Sunday. To the north in Tikrit, 2 suicide bombers killed 6 people including 4 policemen outside a police academy.

    Speaking on CNN's Late Edition Sunday a member of the former Iraqi Governing Council Ahmed Chalabi expressed concern that the delay in forming a new government is having consequences.
We need a government immediately, and the delay in forming a cabinet has encouraged the terrorists when I believe that we must move forward very very quickly.
In other developments, Pakistani officials say a Pakistani embassy employee kidnapped earlier this month in Baghdad has been released.

    Pope Benedict the 16th has tried to reach out beyond his church in his first homily as leader of the world's Roman Catholics. Speaking at his inauguration at the Vatican Sunday, Pope Benedict sent a special message to members of all Christian faiths and to Jews who he said share a special heritage with Christianity. Here he speaks through a translator.

    For you my brothers of the Hebrew people with whom we are tied with a common spiritual patrimony. And who also have the roots in the Biblical promises of God. " The pontiff added his thoughts go out to believers and non-believers alike. Cloaked in golden vestments the pope told some 350, 000 people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square that he is a weak servant of God. He has asked for prayers in leading the world’s 1. 1 billion Catholics, calling it an enormous task. After the 2-hour mass, the pontiff rode through the square in an open-topped jeep waving to a parade of cheering pilgrims.

    North Korea's military chief has vowed to bolster the Stalinist Nation's nuclear deterrent to counter what Pyongyang says are hostile moves by the United States. Vice Marshal Kim Yong-Chun, Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a message of warning aimed at the United States Sunday that the north will not remain passive in the face of any American moves to stifle and isolate the communist regime. Pyongyang announced on February 10th that it does have nuclear weapons but the claim has not been independently verified.

    In Ivory Coast the United Nations patrols a buffer area known as the Zone of Confidence which separates the government-held south from the rebel-held north.

    Despite the UN presence, serious human rights violations have taken place across the area, Gabi Menezes reports for VOA from within the north of the Confident Zone.

    About 6000 UN peacekeepers and 4000 French troops are in Ivory Coast. And most of them patrol the Zone of Confidence. But the United Nations says this is not enough to provide security to the people in the vast area that spans the width of the country and has few good roads. The head of the UN Human Rights' Program in Ivory Coast Simon Munzu recognizes there are massive human rights violations in the Confident Zone. He says the main purpose of the peacekeepers is to separate the belligerent parties not to enforce law.

    It is a very peculiar situation that the UN has a certain presence there that does not have a mandate to administer the territory. There is therefore an administrative and judicial void in the area. The United Nations began patrolling the Confident Zone a year ago. But the 2003 peace accord has never been fully implemented and there have been numerous clashes in the neutral zone between government and rebel forces. Gabi Menezes for VOA News in the Zone of Confidence.

    Lebanese and Syrian officials say Syria has almost completed withdrawing its troops and intelligence personnel from Lebanon. Officials say only a token force of Syrian soldiers will remain in Lebanon until Tuesday for a farewell ceremony. A UN team is expected to arrive in Lebanon shortly to verify that Syria has pulled out all of its 14, 000 troops. International pressure on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon increased following the February 14th assassination of Rafik Hariri. Opposition leaders blamed the Beirut government and its Syrian sponsors for the killing.

    Former Israeli president Ezer Weizman has died. Mr. Weizman was Israel's 7th president and held the post from 1993 to 2000. He died at the age of 81 at home.