Vatican City - The Vatican's official website, www. vatican. va will feature a new Chinese section from January 19, the Vatican said Monday.

"Thanks to the new service, internet users from throughout the world will be able to navigate in Chinese to access the texts of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI which will be available in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters," the Vatican said in a statement.

Rome  - The Vatican and Washington are in the process of organizing a meeting of Pope Benedict XVI with US President Barack Obama, Italian media quoted US Vatican representative Thomas J Reese as saying.

It is possible that the two leaders would meet during Obama's first visit to Europe on the occasion of the G20 summit in London in April, Reese said in an interview on Italian television.

According to the Ansa news agency, the Holy See has unofficially confirmed the proposed meeting.

Johannesburg  - Four years after his ascension to the throne of St Peter, Pope Benedict XVI embarks on his maiden visit as pontiff this week to Africa, the continent where the Catholic Church is growing the fastest.

The pope's six-day visit takes him to Cameroon and Angola to meet with political and church leaders, lead young Catholics in prayer at two mass rallies and visit charities working with some of the world's poorest people.

Rome  - The Vatican has admitted to "errors" in its handling of a decision to reinstate four ultra-nationalist bishops, including a failure to do internet research that might have raised alarm bells about some of the bishops' beliefs, an Italian newspaper reported Wednesday.

According to Rome-based daily Il Foglio, Pope Benedict XVI conceded the errors in the decision making process to revoke the excommunication of the bishops, one of whom embarrassed the church by denying the scale of the Holocaust.

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI condemned on Wednesday the recent killings in Northern Ireland, which have sparked fears of a new wave of violence which for decades marred relations between the province's Catholic and Protestant communities.

"It was with deep sorrow that I learned of the murders of two young British soldiers and a policeman in Northern Ireland," Benedict said during his traditional mid-week General Audience.

New York  - The World Jewish Congress welcomed on Monday the planned visit to the Holy Land in May by Pope Benedict XVI, suggesting that his presence would ease some of the controversies between the Vatican and Israel.

Benedict announced on Sunday his intention to make the pilgrimage from May 8 to 15, starting with a stop in Jordan and then Israel and Palestinian territories. It would be the third visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to the Holy Land.