Died in the Vatican at the age of 88 after battling illness

International news via Reuters:

Argentines, fresh from holding Easter family gatherings around the parrilla barbecue, woke on Monday to the sad news that Pope Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, had died in the Vatican at the age of 88 after battling illness.

Born in Buenos Aires as Jorge Bergoglio in 1936 to Italian immigrant parents, Francis was the first Latin American pope. Some in his homeland regretted that he never returned as pontiff, but he gained plaudits for his focus on the poor.

“It is with profound sorrow that I learned this sad morning that Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, passed away today and is now resting in peace,” Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei wrote in a message on social media platform X.

Milei, a bombastic economist strongly in favor of free markets, had clashed with the pope previously, lambasting him as a socialist and even calling him the devil’s representative on earth, though patched things up once in office.

Argentina’s presidency office praised Pope Francis’ focus on inter-religious dialogue, building up spirituality amongst the young and for pushing cost-cutting in the Vatican, something that tallies with Milei’s ‘chainsaw’ austerity.

“Despite differences that seem minor today, having been able to know him in his goodness and wisdom was a true honor for me,” Milei added on X. “I bid farewell to the Holy Father and stand with all of us who are today dealing with this sad news.”

In the still-dark early morning outside the Buenos Aires cathedral, most Argentines were still just finding out about the news as they made their way to work. A mass for Pope Francis was expected to be held at 8.30 a.m. local time (1130 GMT).

Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Writing by Adam Jourdan

Experts say the problem is exacerbated by emissions from heavy vehicles and its topography

International news via Reuters:

 Two-year-old Sumaiya Ansari, a resident of India’s Byrnihat town which is ranked the world’s most polluted metropolitan area by Swiss Group IQAir, was battling breathing problems for several days before she was hospitalised in March and given oxygen support.

She is among many residents of the industrial town on the border of the northeastern Assam and Meghalaya states – otherwise known for their lush, natural beauty – inflicted by illnesses that doctors say are likely linked to high exposure to pollution.

Byrnihat’s annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2024 was 128.2 micrograms per cubic meter, according to IQAir, over 25 times the level recommended by the WHO.

PM2.5 refers to particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can be carried into the lungs, causing deadly diseases and cardiac problems.

“It was very scary, she was breathing like a fish,” said Abdul Halim, Ansari’s father, who brought her home from hospital after two days.

According to government data, the number of respiratory infection cases in the region rose to 3,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022.

“Ninety percent of the patients we see daily come either with a cough or other respiratory issues,” said Dr. J Marak of Byrnihat Primary Healthcare Centre. 

Residents say the toxic air also causes skin rashes and eye irritation, damages crops, and restricts routine tasks like drying laundry outdoors.

“Everything is covered with dust or soot,” said farmer Dildar Hussain.

Critics say Byrnihat’s situation reflects a broader trend of pollution plaguing not just India’s cities, including the capital Delhi, but also its smaller towns as breakneck industrialisation erodes environmental safeguards.

Unlike other parts of the country that face pollution every winter, however, Byrnihat’s air quality remains poor through the year, government data indicates.

Home to about 80 industries – many of them highly polluting – experts say the problem is exacerbated in the town by other factors like emissions from heavy vehicles, and its “bowl-shaped topography”.

“Sandwiched between the hilly terrain of Meghalaya and the plains of Assam, there is no room for pollutants to disperse,” said Arup Kumar Misra, chairman of Assam’s pollution control board.

The town’s location has also made a solution tougher, with the states shifting blame to each other, said a Meghalaya government official who did not want to be named.

Since the release of IQAir’s report in March, however, Assam and Meghalaya have agreed to form a joint committee and work together to combat Byrnihat’s pollution.

Reporting by Tora Agarwala; Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

Being held on charges of treason against the Tanzanian government

International news via Reuters:

Tanzania’s main opposition party said on Saturday its leader Tundu Lissu, who has been held and charged with treason, had been moved to a different prison, a day after the party said his whereabouts were unknown.

The charges against Lissu have brought new scrutiny to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s human rights record as she bids for re-election in late October. Hassan has frequently said her government is committed to upholding human rights and good governance.

A spokesperson for Lissu’s CHADEMA said the party’s leaders had met Tanzania Prisons Service officials and been informed that he had been moved.

“CHADEMA would like to inform the public … Lissu has been transferred to Ukonga Prison,” party spokesperson Brenda Rupia said in a statement.

Tanzania Prisons Service spokesperson Elizabeth Mbezi did not respond to calls and text messages requesting comment.

Gerson Msigwa, the government spokesperson, said once a person is charged any comments related to their cases was the responsibility of the authorities in charge of the case.

On Friday, CHADEMA had said party officials, Lissu’s lawyers and family members had tried unsuccessfully to get access to him at a jail in the capital Dar es Salaam where he had been held since April 10.

Rupia later told Reuters the party had not been told why their leader was transferred to the new prison. 

Lissu, the runner-up in the country’s 2020 presidential election, was charged with treason last week over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt the election due later this year. He was not allowed to enter a plea on the treason charge.

Last weekend the election commission said CHADEMA would be disqualified from the election over its refusal to sign a code of conduct as it demands electoral reforms.

Hassan earned accolades after coming to power in 2021 for relaxing repression of political opponents and censorship of the media that took root under her predecessor John Magufuli, who died in office.

But she has received mounting criticism from human rights activists over a series of arrests and unexplained abductions and killings of political opponents.

Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Hugh Lawson

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International news via Reuters:

A Russian court handed down a prison sentence of nearly three years to Darya Kozyreva, a young activist who used 19th-century poetry and graffiti to protest the conflict in Ukraine.

A Reuters witness in the court on Friday said Kozyreva, 19, was found guilty of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army after she put up a poster with lines of Ukrainian verse on a public square and gave an interview to Sever.Realii, a Russian-language service of Radio Free Europe.

She pleaded not guilty, calling the case against her “one big fabrication,” according to a trial transcript compiled by Mediazona, an independent news outlet.

She was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

Kozyreva is one of an estimated 234 people imprisoned in Russia for their anti-war position, according to a tally by Memorial, a Nobel Prize-winning Russian human rights group.

In December 2022, aged just 17, Kozyreva sprayed “Murderers, you bombed it. Judases” in black paint on a sculpture of two intertwined hearts, erected outside St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum and representing the city’s links with Mariupol, a Ukrainian city largely razed to the ground during a siege that spring.

In early 2024, after being fined 30,000 roubles ($370) for posting about Ukraine online, Kozyreva was expelled from the medical faculty of St Petersburg State University.

A month later, on the conflict’s two-year anniversary, she taped a piece of paper containing a fragment of verse by Taras Shevchenko, a father of modern Ukrainian literature, onto a statue of him in a St Petersburg park:

“Oh bury me, then rise ye up / And break your heavy chains / And water with the tyrants’ blood / The freedom you have gained.”

Kozyreva was swiftly arrested and held in pre-trial detention for nearly a year, until she was released this February to house arrest.

Addressing the court on Friday, Kozyreva said she believed she had committed no crime.

“I have no guilt, my conscience is clear,” she said, according to Mediazona’s transcript.

“Because the truth is never guilty.”

($1 = 80.9000 roubles)

Reporting by Reuters in St Petersburg and Mark Trevelyan and Lucy Papachristou in London; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Pakistan has expelled more than 80,000 Afghan nationals since the end of March

International news via Reuters:

The Taliban’s acting foreign minister on Saturday expressed “concern and sadness” during a rare meeting with Pakistan’s foreign minister over the deportation of tens of thousands of Afghans, according to a statement.

Pakistan has expelled more than 80,000 Afghan nationals since the end of March, a senior official said on Friday, as part of a renewed surge in a repatriation drive that began in 2023.

But Saturday’s meeting marked a possible thaw in relations for the neighbouring countries, whose forces have also clashed violently in recent months. Islamabad says Islamist militants who have carried out attacks in Pakistan have safe havens in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies.

Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar travelled to Kabul for the one-day visit to discuss security and commerce, the first such visit by Pakistan since 2022.

The Taliban administration’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a statement he “expressed deep concern and sadness over the situation of Afghan migrants in Pakistan and their forced deportation.”

“He strongly urged Pakistani officials to prevent the violation of the rights of Afghans residing in or arriving in Pakistan,” the statement said, adding that they also discussed a boost to bilateral trade and ensuring returning Afghans could take the proceeds of their property in Pakistan with them.

Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement that Dar: “emphasised the paramount importance of addressing all pertinent issues, particularly those related to security and border management, in order to fully realise the potential for regional trade and connectivity.”

Tensions between the nations have run high, with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes on Afghan territory last year and a key border crossing between the two countries being closed for almost a month in February amid clashes between forces from both sides.

Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad; Editing by Hugh Lawson