News In Brief

Pope visits gunman who wounded him in 1981

Pope John Paul II, paying a Christmas visit to a Rome jail, Tuesday met the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded him in 1981. The Pontiff and Mehmet Ali Agca were left alone as they spoke for 20 minutes in Agca's isolation cell in Rebibbia prison. Prison officials and members of the papal retinue could see but not hear the conversation as they waited in the corridor outside.

The Pope said after the meeting: ''I spoke with a brother of ours in whom I have total trust.'' Agca is serving a life sentence for his attack on the Pope in St. Peter's Square.