Pope addresses crowd at hospital

ROME - Pope John Paul, joking about his temporary exile in a hospital, appeared in public for the first time in a week yesterday after surgery to remove his appendix. "I cordially greet all those people here in what has become the third Vatican," he told a crowd of 2,000 from his window at the Gemelli hospital. "The first Vatican is St Peter's, the second is Castelgandolfo. The Gemelli hospital has become number three," he said.