President Daniel Noboa said the government would work to set up shelters

International news via Reuters:

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck near the coast of Ecuador on Friday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, damaging buildings in the city of Esmeraldas and temporarily shutting down some oil infrastructure.

The quake struck at a depth of 23 km (14.29 miles), EMSC said, with Ecuadorean authorities ruling out issuing a tsunami warning.

The government in a preliminary report said that one person was injured, while several public buildings and private homes were damaged. Some areas were also hit with power outages.

President Daniel Noboa, in a post on social media platform X, said the government would work to set up shelters, deliver humanitarian aid kids and “assist with everything our people need.”

State oil company Petroecuador said it had suspended operations at the Esmeraldas refinery and SOTE pipeline as a preventative measure following the quake, without detailing potential production impact.

Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute, which had estimated the quake’s magnitude at 6.0, also reported a second earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 minutes later in the province of Guayas.

Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Writing by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Kylie Madry

The body of the pope was brought to St. Peter’s in a solemn procession on Wednesday

International news via Reuters:

Tens of thousands of mourners filed into St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday on the last day to pay final respects to Pope Francis ahead of his funeral on Saturday.

Long queues snaked around St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding roads, before being funnelled through the heart of the basilica in a single column leading to the central altar, where Francis’ open coffin was displayed on a dais.

The basilica was open for most of Thursday evening into Friday morning, shutting its doors for only three hours overnight.

The body of the 88-year-old pope, who died on Monday in his rooms at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse after suffering a stroke, was brought to St. Peter’s in a solemn procession on Wednesday.

Since then, about 150,000 people from all over the world have bid farewell to the pontiff, the Vatican said.

“It’s a very strong feeling (to be here),” said Patricio Castriota, a visitor who, like the pope, is from Argentina. “This farewell was very sad, but I thank God that I was able to see him”.

“He’s the only pope we’ve had who came from South America, a pope who had many good intentions for the Catholic Church,” said Castriota. “He cleaned up (a lot) of the bad, maybe not all of it, but he tried.”

Francis, who became pope in 2013, was the first pontiff from the Western hemisphere and was known for an unusually charming, and even humorous, demeanour.

His 12-year papacy was sometimes turbulent, with Francis seeking to overhaul a divided institution but battling with traditionalists who opposed his many changes.

“He humanised the church, without desacralising it,” said Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo, who leads the Church on the French island of Corsica.

Queues on Friday morning were stretching halfway down the main boulevard leading through Rome into the Vatican.

People were pressing forward slowly, some waiting hours, in order to have a few minutes inside to pay their respects to Francis.

Vatican officials plan to end viewings at 7 p.m. on Friday, ahead of a formal rite to seal the late pope’s coffin. The Vatican said it would close access to the line to enter the basilica about an hour earlier at around 6 p.m.

ROME PREPARES FOR FUNERAL

A conclave to choose a new pontiff is unlikely to start before May 6. In the meantime, the world’s Catholic cardinals have assumed temporary control of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinals present in Rome are convening almost daily, primarily to discuss logistical matters, in what is called a “general congregation”.

149 of the world’s 252 cardinals were present for the meeting on Friday morning, the Vatican said, with dozens more expected to arrive through the rest of the day.

Francis’ coffin will be sealed in a private ceremony on Friday evening led by eight Catholic cardinals, including a U.S. prelate who has faced criticism over his handling of sexual abuse cases.

Among those also present will be the late pope’s secretaries.

Rome is preparing for the arrival of dozens of world leaders attending Saturday’s funeral, including U.S. President Donald Trump and 10 reigning monarchs.

There had been speculation that foreign leaders might have diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of the funeral to discuss the war in Ukraine, but the Elysee Palace said on Friday that French President Emmanuel Macron would not host any such meetings.

Trump was due to spend only about 15 hours in Rome, arriving late on Friday evening and leaving directly after the funeral.

Authorities have started ramping up security ahead of the ceremony, with snipers on rooftops, drones watching from the sky and an army device readied to neutralise hostile flying objects.

The heart of Rome is expected to be closed to traffic on Saturday to allow a funeral motorcade carrying the pope’s remains to make its way slowly to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major), where Francis, in a break from tradition, asked to be buried instead of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Crowds are expected to gather along the route, which will pass by many of Rome’s famed monuments, including the Colosseum.

The pope’s tomb will be in a niche in a side aisle of the basilica, with just the word “Franciscus”, his name in Latin, engraved on the marble.

Reporting by Joshua McElwee and Giulia Segreti; Additional reporting by Leonardo Benassatto, Malgorzata Wojtunik, Hanna Rantala, Miguel Pereira and Lavinia Sdoga; Editing by Alex Richardson and Peter Graff

Indian financial markets fell sharply but recovered some losses to close 0.7%-0.9% lower

International news via Reuters:

Armed police and soldiers searched homes and forests for militants in Indian Kashmir on Friday and India’s army chief reviewed security there after the killing of 26 men at a tourist site – the worst attack on civilians in nearly two decades.

The attack triggered outrage and grief in India, along with calls for action against neighbour Pakistan, whom New Delhi accuses of funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir, a region both nations claim and have fought two wars over.

India’s army chief visited Srinagar, capital of Indian Kashmir, and authorities scoured Pahalgam, the scenic town where the attack took place on Tuesday.

India has said there were Pakistani elements to the attack, in which 26 men were shot in a meadow. Islamabad has denied any involvement.

The nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with India putting the critical Indus Water Treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines.

The treaty, negotiated in 1960, split the Indus river and its tributaries between the two countries and regulated water sharing.

“We will ensure that not a single drop of the Indus River’s water reaches Pakistan,” Indian Water Resources Minister C.R. Paatil said in a post on X.

Pakistan depends heavily on the Indus system for hydropower and irrigation, and has said any attempt to stop or divert its waters will be an “act of war”.

Indian financial markets fell sharply but recovered some of their losses to close 0.7%-0.9% lower. The Indian rupee fell 0.2%, while the yield of India’s 10-year benchmark yield rose four basis points.

SOME IN MODI’S PARTY URGE MILITARY RESPONSE

Indian general Upendra Dwivedi visited Kashmir to review security a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to chase the perpetrators to the “ends of the earth”.

Those killed in the attack came from all over India, Modi said.

India’s top two airlines, IndiGo and Air India, said some of their international routes, including to the United States and Europe, would be affected by the closure of Pakistani airspace, leading to extended flight times and costs.

In 2019, India conducted a military strike in Pakistani territory in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police.

Several leaders of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have called for new military action against Pakistan.

The two countries both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full, but rule it in part. India, with its Hindu majority, has long accused Islamic Pakistan of aiding separatists who have battled security forces in Indian Kashmir – accusations Islamabad denies.

Indian officials say Tuesday’s attack had “cross-border linkages”. Kashmiri police identified three suspects and said two were Pakistani nationals. India did not elaborate on the links or share proof.

Authorities in Indian Kashmir demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one a suspect in Tuesday’s attack, an official said.

Governments in many states ruled by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have torn down what they say are illegal houses or shops belonging to people accused of crimes, many of them Muslims, in what has come to be known popularly as “instant, bulldozer justice”.

In an unrelated incident, sporadic firing was reported along the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, the Indian army said.

Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari and Shivam Patel in Srinagar, additional reporting by Dharamraj Dutia in Mumbai and Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alexandra Hudson and Kevin Liffey