NAHARIYA, Israel — Thousands of mourners gathered today in a northern Israeli town to bury the first of two soldiers returned in a prisoner exchange with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.

Ehud Goldwasser was one of the soldiers whose remains were returned by Hezbollah in exchange for five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of some 200 Arab fighters.

His wooden coffin was lowered into the ground in Nahariya by soldiers wearing the purple caps of an elite brigade. His widow, Karnit Goldwasser, held on to her late husband's father as each wiped away tears.

In keeping with Jewish tradition, Goldwasser's father Shlomo wore a shirt ripped at the front, to signify mourning. Later, an Israeli military rabbi recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning.

Another funeral is expected later today for Eldad Regev, the other soldier returned on Wednesday.

SYDNEY, Australia — The world's natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption," Pope Benedict XVI said today in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.Benedict, speaking to more than 200,000 pilgrims gathered for the Roman Catholic church's youth festival, expanded on a theme that has led to him being dubbed "the green pope." The crowd, massed on a disused wharf in Australia's largest city, regularly erupted in cheers.He noted that during his more than 20-hour flight from Rome to Sydney he had a bird's-eye view of a vast swath of the world that inspired awe and introspection."Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption," he said.Types of "poison" are afflicting the world's social environment, he said, such as substance abuse, along with the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation, for which he blamed television and the Internet.