South Pacific: The category 5 Cyclone Pam has left widespread destruction in the island nation of Vanuatu. The eye of the storm passed right over Vanuatu’s capital city Port Vila. Winds were up to 170 MPH and some reports say entire villages have been destroyed. Boats sank in harbors and houses were torn apart. With communications down, the number of deaths and the extent of damage may not be known for days. International relief efforts are gearing up to go.

Permawar: Iraqi forces have pressed “pause” for a second day in a row in their fight to take back the city of Tikrit from Islamic State extremists. Military leaders say they are waiting for reinforcement by better-trained troops. About half the city is back under government control, but nasty street fighting is likely to be necessary to take the rest. ISIS has laced the city with booby traps and roadside bombs.

Boston Bombing: The evidence piled up this week in the government case against accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The jury was shown videos of Tsarnaev and his brother Tamarlan walking through the crowd with backpacks … and later without them. Dzhokhar did not react when a bomb went off not far behind him.

Witnesses described the impact on their bodies and lives. A woman named Danling Zhou said, “I remember there is a man who used to be standing right in front of me. At that point he is sitting down and turning his face to me, like in slow motion. I can see his face and it’s very scared. I think he is yelling to me, but I can’t hear. His leg is not there anymore.”

A man who had been riding a bicycle described seeing the brothers at the murder of a police officer and another man described having his car hijacked at gunpoint by the brothers the night Tamarlan was killed and Dzhokhar was arrested.

Jurors were also shown a picture of a message Tsarnaev scrawled on the bulkhead of a boat in which he was hiding shortly before his capture. It said, in part, “Know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven. . . . ” Tsarnaev wrote. “We are promised victory and we will surely get it.” The message was pocked with bullet holes and dripping blood.

The Obit Page: Jimmy Greenspoon, the keyboardist for the 60s rock band Three Dog Night, has died of cancer at age 67. The group is known for its hits “Joy to the World,” ”Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” and “Black and White.”

>The Rev. Willie Barrow, the petit civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and has been a lifelong fixture n the movement, died this week in Chicago at age 90. Barrow got her start when she was just 12 in Texas fighting for the right to ride the school bus with white kids. She said in a recent interview that she told the bus driver, “You got plenty room. Why you want me to get off? Because I’m black? We got to change that.”

Il Papa: The popular Pope Francis told a Mexican television station that he may not stay on the job for very long. Although it’s customary for the pope to die in office, Francis said, “I have the feeling that my pontificate will be brief. Four or five years; I do not know, even two or three,” he said. He’s already been on the job two years.

On the Side: The American Egg Board has chosen a new spokesman to front the campaign to encourage people to eat more eggs. It’s Kevin Bacon.

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