Was Pope Benedict XVI proper in successfully urging Italian voters to boycott a ballot on loosening that nation's assisted-fertility laws?

The pope took the throne of Peter upon the death of John Paul II. Others in the parade of passing faces: ABC anchor Peter Jennings died, CBS anchor Dan Rather called it quits — and Camilla Parker Bowles moved up from mistress to wife of Britain's Prince Charles.

As usual, a good slice of the year's news was stuff of the sort that Shakespeare called "sound and fury, signifying nothing."

We watched the bizarre antics of pop nonesuch Michael Jackson as he fended off a child-molestation rap.

We wondered as faded actor Robert Blake beat a charge of murdering his wife (but later lost a civil case in the same homicide).

And we marveled as ex-convict Martha Stewart made a show-biz comeback, with nary a hair out of place.

An old mystery was solved when retired FBI official Mark Felt said that yes, he was "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame. And a new tale of the mysterious — "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" — fairly flew off bookstore shelves.

A pair of hoaxes by a pair of women grabbed an unseemly share of our attention:

One Anna Alaya complained that a Wendy's in California had served her a bowl of fast-food chili garnished with a human finger. She later admitted that she had been trying to scam the restaurant chain.

On the eve of her wedding in Georgia, Jennifer Wilbanks was abducted — or so we thought. Then sheturned up in New Mexico, where she had fled on her own. She'll forever be a footnote to 2005: "The Runaway Bride."