Sydney - Up to 200,000 pilgrims were Saturday trudging Sydney's streets on their way to the papal mass that caps a youth festival stirring hearts in Australia's biggest city.

Melbourne, July 19: News of the arrest of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) much respected South Asian correspondent Peter Lloyd has left his colleagues and the company management qui

Sydney - Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that he was "deeply sorry for the pain and suffering" of those who had been sexual abused by Catholic clergy. 

Speaking in Sydney on his first visit to Australia, the pope was responding to a chorus of calls that he offer the same condign apology in Australia that he tendered in April during his visit to the United States. 

Melbourne, July 18 : Many Catholics were left disappointed when the Pope travelled too fast through Sydney in his popemobile on Thursday, as they failed to see him properly.

Melbourne

Sydney - Not all the 225,000 pilgrims at Sydney's week-long Catholic youth festival are hoping that the picture-perfect weather holds until after the closing open-air Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.

"Rain. We're praying for the drought to break," local youngster Johanna Kelly told the Daily Telegraph on Friday.

The worst drought on record forced the sale of the family farm last year. Her Father is out of work and the family of seven get by on her mother's wage as a teacher.

Kelly, 19, is one of 100,000 local pilgrims in Australia's biggest city to meet the pope and proclaim her faith at World Youth Day.

"Drought is such a large part of Australia and while it does challenge people's faith at times, it has to rain eventually," she said.