Talk of mutiny in Pope's army

VATICAN CITY - The commander of the Swiss Guard yesterday rejected reports a mutiny was brewing in the Pope's personal army because of restrictions placed on the soldiers.

Colonel Elmar Theodor Maeder said reports in Britain's Independent and Italy's La Repubblica newspapers were "totally false" and that he might sue the papers for damaging the reputation of the 110-strong militia.

The Independent wrote yesterday "there is mutiny afoot" in the world's smallest army because of "the heavy-handed policies of ... Maeder, who has banned men from holding the traditional year-end parties on the terrace atop their barracks".

It said guardsmen were angry rules preventing them from staying out after midnight were rigidly applied in the holiday season while Maeder himself often partied until the early hours.

Maeder rejected all the accusations, adding there was not even a terrace on the roof of the buildings that housed the guardsmen.

The guardsmen are traditionally recruited from a group of Swiss towns that for five centuries have provided soldiers for the popes.

- AFP