Author: Finance for Sight

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died, the Vatican said in a video statement on Monday, ending an often turbulent reign marked by division and tension as he sought to overhaul the hidebound institution. He was 88, and had survived a serious bout of double pneumonia. “Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican’s TV channel. “At 7:35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.” Francis’…

DUBAI: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit China on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, ahead of a third round of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington due on Saturday in Oman. Iran will not hesitate to defend its nuclear programme, foreign ministry says In a trip to Moscow last week, Araqchi told state TV that Tehran always closely consults with its friends, Russia and China, over the nuclear issue.

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis entered St. Peter’s Square on Sunday in an open-air popemobile for the first time since surviving double pneumonia, greeting tens of thousands of Catholics after the Vatican’s celebration of Easter Mass. The 88-year-old pope sat in a raised chair in the back of the white vehicle, as people lined the aisles inside the square, many holding aloft national flags and shouting “viva il papa!” (long live the pope!). The popemobile briefly stopped at several points around the square, decorated with colorful flowers for Easter, as papal aides brought forward babies from the crowd for Francis to…

DOHA: Qatar’s chief negotiator voiced frustration over talks for a truce in Gaza in an interview with AFP, a month after Israel resumed its strikes on the Palestinian territory and another round of negotiations ended without a deal. “We’re definitely frustrated by the slowness, sometimes, of the process in the negotiation. This is an urgent matter. There are lives at stake here if this military operation continues day by day,” Mohammed Al-Khulaifi said on Friday. Qatar, with the United States and Egypt, brokered a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which came into force on January 19 and largely…

COTONOU: Al Qaeda affiliate JNIM said it killed 70 soldiers in raids on two military posts in north Benin, the biggest death count claimed by militants in the country in over a decade of activity in West Africa, the SITE Intelligence Group said on Saturday. The West African state and its coastal neighbour Togo have suffered a series of attacks in recent years as groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda have expanded their presence beyond the Sahel region to the north. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report independently. Benin’s army spokesman Ebenezer Honfoga did not respond to…

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Sunday acknowledged professional failures and violations of orders in its review of last month’s killing of 15 emergency workers in Gaza but said there was no attempt to conceal the incident, despite dismissing a field commander for providing an inaccurate report. The paramedics and other rescue workers were shot dead on March 23 near the southern Gaza city of Rafah and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. A commanding officer is to be reprimanded and a…

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli air strikes since dawn on Sunday have killed at least 25 people across the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Israel resumed its aerial and ground assault on Gaza on March 18, reigniting fighting after a two-month ceasefire that had paused more than 15 months of war in the coastal territory. “Since dawn today, the occupation’s air strikes have killed 20 people and injured dozens more, including children and women across the Gaza Strip,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency told AFP. In a separate statement later, the agency…

NEW DELHI: At least 11 people, including three children, were killed in New Delhi Saturday after a residential building collapsed on the outskirts of the Indian capital, local reports and authorities said. The incident happened in the early hours in the northeastern district of the city that mostly houses migrant workers, with rescue teams digging through the rubble throughout the day. Eleven people were pronounced dead, NDTV channel reported, though 11 others were rescued and taken to hospital. Five were still undergoing treatment, the network said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “saddened by the loss of lives”.…

TOKYO: Japan will emphasise “fairness” in any discussions with the US on exchange rates, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Sunday, as bilateral trade talks grab global attention in President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive. Ishiba, in a talk show on public broadcaster NHK, indicated Tokyo could buy more US energy and suggested flexibility on US accusations of non-tariff barriers to the Japanese automobile market. Trump – who unexpectedly joined the first round of US-Japan talks on Wednesday and touted “big progress” – has indicated he wants the negotiations to include his accusations that Tokyo intentionally weakens its currency to give…

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court, in a dramatic nighttime intervention Saturday, paused President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of an obscure law to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process. The emergency ruling, delivered in two terse paragraphs, noted that two of the most conservative of the nine justices had dissented. The order temporarily prevents the government from continuing to expel migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II. Trump invoked the law last month to deport Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The unusual decision was triggered by imminent…