Benedict XVI

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on September 26th, 2010
AFP photo

What is art?

That is the question many Brazilians have been forced to ask themselves after the country’s most important alternative art show displayed nine drawings depicting the assassination of world leaders.

Each charcoal drawing shows the artist, Gil Vicente of Recife, Brazil, holding a weapon moments before assassinating a world leader.

The exhibition is titled “Enemies” and is seen in the photo above.

File 3631 

Photo: Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

One drawing depicts Vicente, the artist, holding a knife to the throat of Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Others show the artist pointing a gun at Pope Benedict XVI, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Queen Elizabeth.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Europe on September 16th, 2010

18:30 GMT: Right, that's it from me for the day. Hope you enjoyed the coverage. Don't forget to check back for more updates tomorrow, and remember, you can follow this and other world news 24 hours a day by tuning into Al Jazeera English, or online at www.aljazeera.net/english. But I'm guessing you knew that...

18:23 GMT: Susan Boyle is back on stage, and the first day of the Pope's visit to Britain is over. He will now head to London to spend the night there, ahead of a visit to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canturbury, scheduled for Friday.    

18:11 GMT:  Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports from the mass: "What the pope got here in Glasgow was what we would have expected from the fathful. It's not just Scots that are here; we've seen flags from all over Europe.

By Barbara Serra in Europe on May 15th, 2009

On the last day, I met him.

After shadowing his every step for a week, I met Pope Benedict XVI on the return flight.

Veterans of papal trips told me it was tradition for any journalist on their 'virgin' flight to get a picture taken with the pope.

However, as the group got bigger, and the popes got older, that tradition fell by the wayside.

By Barbara Serra in Middle East on May 13th, 2009

Photo by AFPI must have done dozens, even hundreds, of interviews about Israel and the Palestinian territories: the separation wall, the check points, the difficulties faced when moving around (or trying to) and the frustration they bring. But still, I only fully understood the situation when I had to travel from Israel to the West Bank for the pope's visit to Bethlehem.

A very sleepy press entourage gathered at the hotel lobby at 0445. Early starts are not unusual on these trips, but Bethlehem is only around 10 km from Jerusalem and we did not need to be at the welcoming ceremony until 0900. But when we got to the border we realised why we set off so early.

By Barbara Serra in Middle East on May 12th, 2009

The tests this trip was going to throw at Pope Benedict XVI came, as expected, during the second, and most challenging phase of the journey: Jerusalem. A shared city, a crucial place for Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and one of the main sticking points of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Photo by AFPDuring Benedict's two hectic days here (hectic for the press too, so please forgive the  two days in one diary entry) it would have been easy to forget that one of the key parts of his trip was to support and visit the region's dwindling Catholic community.

When the word Christian was mentioned in news reports it was in passing: what all the headlines focused on was the pope's relationships with Israelis and Palestinians.

By Barbara Serra in Middle East on May 10th, 2009

Photo by AFPYou know a country is excited about a distinguished visitor to its soil when the visit has its own theme song.

Like a lot of music, it's actually a remix of another tune, namely the chant that you hear in St Peter's Square in Rome when the crowds are calling to Pope Benedict XVI.

It is not far from what you might get at a football stadium, complete with clapping: "BEEEEEEN…EDETTO" (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap-clap!).

In Rome, you just repeat his name, but the Jordanians have added some Italian lyrics to the chorus (Beeeeen….venuto! in Giordaaaaa –niaaaa - welcome to Jordan) and then whole verses in Arabic about his mission of peace and the beauty of their land.

By Barbara Serra in Middle East on May 9th, 2009

Compared to the political minefield that next week's visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories promises to be, this was meant to be the easy part.

A few days in peaceful and stable Jordan were meant to be a chance for pope Benedict XVI to mend fences with Muslims after the offence caused by his Regensburg University comments in 2006 linking Islam to violence.

But rather than Islam, it was the relationship between the Church and Jews that ended up dominating the Arab media agenda.

The pope's most important speech of his trip so far came at around noon local time, at the King Hussein Mosque in Amman.

One of the main themes of the pope's pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been to seek better relations between Islam and Christianity, and his speech called for focus on what unites the two religions rather than what divides them.

By Barbara Serra in Europe on May 8th, 2009

A news conference at 11,000 metres was always going to be slightly different.

Add to that an interviewee who is the spiritual leader of more than 1.1 billion Catholics around the world and you have an initial press conference of Benedict XVI's first trip to the Middle East.

The conference took place on the papal plane as the entourage headed from Rome to Jordan.

Banish any mental images you may have of Air Force One. Prayer Force One, as some journalists have artfully dubbed it, is a humble Alitalia Airbus A320, which is normally part of the general fleet until it occasionally receives a higher calling.

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