World news:Pope Benedict XVI to resign on February 28:First time after 600 years!

Pope Benedict XVI announced on Monday that he would resign on February 28 because he was simply too infirm to carry on - the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March. The 85- year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

He emphasised that carrying out the duties of being pope - the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide - requires "both strength of mind and body". "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my
strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine
ministry," he told the cardinals. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.