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• REACTION POURING IN | 3:40 p.m. ET

"The angels welcome you," Vatican TV said after the announcement came from papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, while shortly afterwards bells tolled in St. Peter’s Square.

Meantime, reaction came pouring in from across the world.

Poland’s Lech Walesa: “[Without him] There would be no end of Communism or at least much later and the end would have been bloody.”

Israel’s Shimon Peres: “Even though he represented Catholicism, he managed, with his talent and personality, to also represent our entire global partnership.”

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque: “ We will never forget the pope's visit to Cuba in 1998... his words for peace... his courtesy to president Fidel Castro when he visited the Vatican (in 1997)."

• THE POPE IS DEAD | 3:12 p.m. ET

Pope John Paul II has died. The news was conveyed in an e-mail to the world's media by papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. The message was simple, "The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) in his private apartment."

• CONDITION MAY NOT BE WORSENING | 1:44 p.m. ET

Dr. Peter Salgo, associate director of the intensive care unit at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, tells the Associated Press that the reference to fever in the latest Vatican statement doesn’t necessarily indicate that the pope’s condition is worsening.

"This is not a turn for the better, but it doesn't mean he's getting worse," he is quoted as saying. "Fevers come and go and it is often the last thing to go away when you get over an infection. You can still have a fever in response to antibiotics."

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