Longtime AP bureau chief Victor Simpson, who covered 5 popes, dies at 84

ROME (AP) — Victor L. Simpson, the longtime Rome bureau chief for The Associated Press whose four decades as a foreign correspondent spanned five popes, wars and violence that touched him personally, has died. He was 84.Simpson died of cancer Sunday at his home in Rome, his children said Monday.During a 46-year AP career, Simpson covered many of the defining stories of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the 1967 Newark, New Jersey, race riots and war in the Middle East to the papacy of Pope John Paul II, whom he accompanied on dozens of trips.A native New Yorker, Simpson joined the AP in Newark in 1967, where he wrote an award-winning series on organized crime. He transferred to the General Desk in 1968, editing top domestic stories, and then to the Foreign Desk in 1970.He was assigned to Rome as news editor in 1972, where he promptly met his future wife, Daniela Petroff, who became a distinguished AP fashion and Vatican correspondent. She died in February at age 80.He became