William Crawley BBC News NI Philip Massey Pope Francis in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 2018 Fr Jorge Bergoglio often described Ireland affectionately as “the green country”, recalling his first impressions of its landscape when, in 1980, he spent a short sabbatical in Dublin trying to improve his English. When the Argentinian priest made a return … Read more
Reuters Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, after 12 years as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church. His death has set in motion the centuries-old process of electing a new Pope. What does the Pope do? The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church. Roman Catholics believe he represents a … Read more
Pope Francis’s last public appearance was for an Easter Sunday blessing at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square. It had been unknown at the time if the pontiff would join the service following his discharge from hospital last month, after five weeks of treatment for an infection that led to double pneumonia. He has died at … Read more
A church building has been destroyed in a large fire in County Donegal, in the Republic of Ireland. Five units of the fire service and gardaí (Irish police) attended the blaze at St Mary’s Church in Derrybeg, Gweedore, and remain at the scene on Monday morning, Irish broadcaster RTÉ News has reported. RTÉ News said … Read more
AP His ascension to the papacy heralded many firsts. Francis was the first Pope from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere. Not since Syrian-born Gregory III died in 741 had there been a non-European Bishop of Rome. He was also the first Jesuit to be elected to the throne of St Peter – Jesuits were … Read more
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has described an Israeli military report into a deadly attack on its paramedics as “full of lies”. The Israeli military said in its report that “professional failures” led to the killing of the 15 workers in Gaza. It dismissed the deputy commander of the unit involved. A spokeswoman for … Read more
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared information about US air strikes on Yemen in a second private group on the Signal app, the BBC’s US partner CBS has confirmed with sources familiar with the messages. The messages, sent on 15 March, included flight schedules for American F/A-18 Hornets carrying out strikes on Houthi targets. The … Read more
US Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in the Indian capital where he is due to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid global trade tensions sparked by Washington’s tariff policies. The talks are likely to focus on fast tracking a much-awaited bilateral trade deal between the two countries. Vance is also expected to go … Read more
A nine-year-old boy who got trapped between rocks at a New South Wales beach on Sunday has become the seventh person to drown in Australia over the Easter weekend. The majority of deaths were caused by strong swells washing people into the ocean from rocks. Two people remain missing. Steven Pearce, the CEO of Surf … Read more
Ukraine’s military has reported Russian drone attacks on several regions overnight, just hours after the end of a 30-hour “Easter truce” declared by Moscow. Ukraine’s air force issued raid alerts for the Kyiv region, as well as Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia. In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said “explosions were … Read more