Peace

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis marked Christianity's most joyous day with a passionate plea for world peace, celebrating his first Easter Sunday as pontiff in the enthusiastic company of more than 250,000 people who overflowed from St. Peter's Square. With eloquent words in his Easter message, Francis lamented enduring conflicts in the Middle East, on the Korean peninsula, and elsewhere and remembered the world's neediest people. With physical gestures, he illustrated the personal, down-to-earth caring he brings as a pastor to this new papacy - cradling a disabled child held out to him in the crowd and delightedly accepting a surprise gift thrust at him. Francis shared in his flock's exuberance as they celebrated Christianity's core belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after crucifixion.

David W. Brown is founder of the Bridge Walk for Peace and serves on the ministry staff of Arch Street United Methodist Church We avoid uncomfortable situations and relationships at all costs. We text instead of talk, send an e-mail rather than risk a personal encounter, and find it easier to "friend" someone online than in real life. In such an environment, it's no wonder we scream at each other when it comes to difficult issues such as race. Look at the debates and shouting matches triggered by the Philadelphia Magazine article "Being White in Philly.

LOS ANGELES Lakers forward said an MRI on his left knee revealed a lateral meniscus tear. World Peace, the only Lakers starter who hasn't missed a game due to injury this season, left Monday's loss to the Golden State Warriors with what was thought to be a strained knee. On Tuesday night, he discussed the injury via Twitter. "Sorry bout the injury," he tweeted. "First ever knee injury. Recovery time hopefully is a week and a half. I can't wait to get back But our team is so good We will win and get into the playoffs.

In the beginning, when the war in Iraq was still making headlines and CNN was still showing footage of the air strikes in Baghdad, the Chester County Peace Movement could draw crowds as large as 700 to its weekly protests outside the county courthouse in West Chester. These days, the group is lucky if more than a dozen show up. But every Saturday for the last 10 years, they have never missed a protest. And though the war in Iraq is technically over - U.S. troops pulled out in December 2011 - for the members of the peace movement, the protest never really ends.

By Yaron Sideman With the Middle East roiling, the timing of President Obama's visit to Israel this week sends a powerful message of U.S. support for the region's only stable, democratic, unwaveringly pro-American state. And it may be an opportunity to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, where, Israel and America hope, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will join us in taking risks for peace. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has taken such risks.

KEVIN STREELMAN finally won on the PGA Tour with a game that looked as if he had done this many times before. Streelman didn't make a bogey over the final 37 holes on the tough Copperhead course at Innisbrook. He didn't miss a shot over the last 11 holes on his way to a 4-under 67 on Sunday for a two-shot win in the Tampa Bay Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla. Boo Weekley, who teed off 3 hours before the leaders, had a tournament-best 63 and waited to see if that would be enough.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Relatives of an 87-year-old woman who died after a nurse at her retirement home refused a 911 dispatcher's pleas to perform CPR expressed satisfaction with the care she received, saying her wishes were to die naturally. Meanwhile, the company that owns the facility now says its worker failed to follow proper procedures. Lorraine Bayless' death last week at Glendale Gardens, a Bakersfield independent living facility, prompted outrage after a seven-minute recording of the 911 call was released.

The West Chester Borough Council approved the purchase Wednesday of "quiet zone" signs to be posted in several neighborhoods, among initiatives to ease residents' concerns over noise at night in student-heavy downtown areas near the West Chester University campus. Installing about 240 signs will cost $4,230, Councilman Jordan Norley said. The signs will indicate that the area is a "quiet zone" between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. and warn passersby that they risk a minimum $250 fine if they make too much noise.

DID METTA World Peace turn back into Ron Artest? On Sunday, the Lakers forward who changed his name 2 years ago, received a flagrant foul after mixing it up with 6-3 Pistons guard Brandon Knight. In the Palace of Auburn Hills of all places! Some websites reported that World Peace suckered Knight. On video, it looked more like a lightly thrown, sneaky jab to the jaw. "The play needs to be reviewed because he definitely threw a punch," Knight told the Detroit Free Press.

War is being declared - literally and repeatedly - on stage at the Academy of Music in the acclaimed opera Silent Night , which has much to do with Christmas, though on an anything-but-silent World War I battlefield. Knowing that, audience members at Friday's Opera Philadelphia opening might wonder if they're in the wrong theater: Initially, the opera appears to be, and for some minutes sounds like, 18th-century Mozart. But that opera-within-an-opera, being performed in 1914 Germany, is interrupted by officers of the Imperial Army announcing the outbreak of World War I. Soon, the stage is dominated by a bombed-out church surrounded by German, French, and English encampments.