Pope pays tribute to WWII heroes

Pope Benedict XVI marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain earlier by paying tribute to the those who sacrificed their lives resisting the "evil ideology" of the Nazi regime.

The German-born Pope, who was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a 14-year-old schoolboy, said it was "deeply moving" to be in Britain for the occasion, which was a chance to "recall with shame and horror the dreadful toll of death and destruction that war brings".

The Pope was addressing a special Mass to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman on the last day of the state visit, with about 55,000 people from the UK and around the world converging on Cofton Park in Rednal, Birmingham.

It is the first beatification to be carried out by Benedict since he was elected Pope in 2005, a mark of his lifelong interest in the 19th century clergyman and famous convert to Catholicism.