Pope calls for workers' rights to be respected

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - In his first Sunday Angelus blessing, Pope Benedict XVI issued a clarion call for workers' rights to be respected, saying solidarity, justice and peace were the pillars of the human family.

"I hope that the young, especially, will not want for work, and that working conditions will be ever more respectful of the dignity of the human person," the 78-year-old pope told more than 50,000 pilgrims in St Peter's Square in an address on May Day.