According to international media, his comments came as he visited the city of L'Aquila in central Italy, which was hit by an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in 2009.
The 85-year-old pope praised the people of L'Aquila's "resilience" and "dignity".
Pope Francis, who used a wheelchair during the visit, was due to return to the Vatican early this afternoon.
He will chair a meeting with cardinals from around the world on Monday and Tuesday, where they will discuss the future of the Catholic Church.
The violence early on Saturday comes in the wake of a build-up of rival forces in Tripoli over the past week, who are jostling for power, as the North African country remains divided between rival administrations in the east and the west.
The country’s democratic transition was delayed after the presidential elections scheduled for last December were postponed indefinitely.
Tensions have risen after Fathi Bashagha, backed by the east-based parliament, was sworn in as prime minister in February, amid calls for Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the head of the transitional government based in Tripoli, to cede power. The United Nations had voiced concern after the Tobruk-based parliament voted to install Bashagha as prime minister.
Under a UN deal signed last year, Dbeibah was expected to hand over power after the December presidential elections. Dbeibah has refused to step aside, pledging to hold on to power until elections take place.
International media reported that houses and cars were damaged in the clashes between fighters from rival militia leaders Haitham al-Tajouri and Abdel-Ghani al-Kikli.
According to international media, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday that health workers were conducting genetic tests on the samples taken from four people in the Ryanggang Province who exhibited fevers to confirm whether they were caused by the “malignant epidemic”.
Authorities immediately locked down the areas where the fever cases emerged and plan to maintain tight restrictions and quarantines until health workers determine the cause of the illness.
“[Health authorities] pay attention to the fact that those with fever had not been infected by the malignant epidemic,” KCNA said.
The country’s emergency anti-virus headquarters dispatched “talented epidemiological, virology and test experts to the area” and is taking steps to “trace all persons … connected with the suspect cases, and persons going to and from the relevant area and keep them under strict medical observation”, the report said.
North Korea said there have been no confirmed COVID-19 cases in any part of the country since August 10 when Kim declared victory over the virus and ordered preventive measures eased, just three months after the country acknowledged an outbreak.
The court agreed to hear a case brought by opposition MPs, who say Prayuth, who came to power in a coup in 2014, should have left office this week. Under Thailand’s constitution, prime ministers are barred from ruling for more than eight years.
According to international media, The court said in a statement that Prayuth would be suspended until a verdict was reached.
“The court considered the petition and supporting documents and deems the facts according to the request indicate reasonable grounds to suspect that there is a case as requested,” the court said in a statement. “Thus, a majority vote (five against four) for (Prayuth) to be suspended as prime minister, effective 24 August 2022, until the court issues a verdict.”
The deputy prime minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, 77, a former army chief and close ally of Prayuth, will act as interim leader, according to the government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri.
Prayuth has been given 15 days to respond to the petition. It is not clear when a verdict will be issued.
Hundreds of Afghans carried banners and shouted for freedom on Monday and Tuesday, two Afghans in the facility told Reuters, estimating that thousands were awaiting resettlement to the United States or other countries.
Pictures and videos shared with Reuters showed children, women and men protesting inside the facility in Abu Dhabi, known as Emirates Humanitarian City, with temperatures in the Gulf Arab state reaching 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).
One boy held a small banner that read: “One year is enough!” Men and children chanting “we want justice” were seen in one video wearing white blindfolds inscribed with the word “freedom”.
The men and some children had bound their wrists, in an apparent gesture to what some Afghans said are prison-like conditions in the facility.
The UAE says it is committed to ensuring Afghan evacuees can live in safety, security, and dignity.
“Nearly one year, we have been here in detention and the camp is like a modern prison. No one is allowed to go out, they don’t know when (we) will be settled permanently to any country,” said one Afghan who declined to be identified.
A UAE official acknowledged there were frustrations and said that Abu Dhabi was working with the US Embassy to resettle the Afghans in the United States or elsewhere.
Resettlement was taking longer than Abu Dhabi wanted, the official said.
A State Department spokesperson said Washington was working to identify Afghans who may qualify for resettlement in the United States and “will be relentless in this effort” while “ensuring standard screening and vetting measures”.
More than 10,000 Afghans had been relocated from the Abu Dhabi facility to the United States and Washington was cooperating with the UAE and other countries to find “resettlement options” for those ineligible for US relocation, the spokesperson said.
Protests erupted at the facility in February after the resettlement process appeared to have stalled, prompting a visit by a US State Department official who said all Afghans there would be resettled by August.
The process resumed shortly after the visit. At the time, there were an estimated 12,000 Afghans at the facility in Abu Dhabi and another site nearby.
In August last year, Afghanistan’s Taliban ousted a US-backed government as US-led foreign troops were withdrawing.
Since then, the United States has taken in more than 85,000 Afghans, many processed in the Middle East and Europe.
The leaders sent video addresses to the Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv which was attended in person by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.
The Crimean peninsula was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014. Since February, Moscow has been using Crimea as a staging post for attacks on Ukraine as well as “a testing ground for the brutal methods Russia is now applying across the other occupied parts of Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the conference.
“Putin is planning to do to parts of Ukraine, indeed, to all of Ukraine, what he’s done to Crimea,” British PM Boris Johnson said. “He is planning more annexations and more sham referendums, so it has never been more important to stand together.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Western leaders “condemn Russia’s attempts to forcefully integrate parts of Ukrainian territory. Any sham referenda or other attempts to alter the status of parts of Ukrainian territory will never be recognised. Such steps preclude any negotiations.”
The 2014 annexation of Crimea led to a “clear deterioration of the humanitarian situation and of human rights in the peninsula,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the participants in a video address.
Six months after the conflict erupted, “Our determination has not changed and we are ready to maintain this effort for the long term,” Macron said.
The United Nations also voiced alarm on Tuesday at reports that Russia is preparing to prosecute Ukrainian prisoners of war (PoWs) under conditions that could amount to war crimes. The UN human rights office said it was concerned by images and footage appearing to show metal cages being built in the philharmonic hall in the shattered Ukrainian city of Mariupol, apparently to hold PoWs during proceedings.
According to international media, Events to mark Ukraine's Independence Day on Wednesday have been banned in the country's capital, Kyiv, and second-largest city, Kharkiv, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials warn that Russia may carry out missile strikes.
Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia might be planning "particularly ugly" attacks to coincide with the occasion, which will mark 31 years since Ukraine broke its ties with the Soviet Union and as the war nears its six-month milestone.
"We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious," Zelensky said in a video message.
"One of the key tasks of the enemy is to humiliate us, Ukrainians, to devalue our capabilities, our heroes, to spread despair, fear, to spread conflicts. Therefore, it is important never, for a single moment, to give in to this enemy pressure, not to wind oneself up, not to show weakness," he said.
The day will also mark 31 years of Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly video address called for vigilance, saying Moscow could try “something particularly ugly”.
As Ukraine prepared to mark its independence day embroiled in a war that has flattened towns and cities, killed thousands and forced millions to flee, military and regional officials reported more Russian strikes on targets in the east and south of the country.
Of particular concern was the shelling of Nikopol, a city which lies across the Dnipro river from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear plant. It has been held by Russian forces since March.
Nikopol was shelled on five different occasions overnight, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, causing a fire at an industrial premises and cutting power to 3,000 residents.
The fighting in the proximity of Zaporizhzia and Saturday’s missile strike on the southern Ukrainian town of Voznesensk, which is not far from Ukraine’s second-largest atomic plant, has spurred fears of a nuclear accident.
Cruise missile strikes
Local authorities also reported overnight missile attacks in the Odesa region, home to Black Sea ports critical to a U.N.-brokered plan to help Ukrainian agricultural exports, key for global food supplies, reach world markets again.
Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea at the region overnight, the regional administration spokesperson said, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defences while three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties.
Russia said on Sunday the missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, while Kyiv said a granary had been hit.
There were no fresh reports of incidents in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, after a series of explosions made headlines in recent weeks.
In his speech, Zelenskiy referred obliquely to the blasts, for which Ukraine has not claimed responsibility, but analysts have said at least some have been made possible by new equipment used by its forces.
“You can literally feel Crimea in the air this year, that the occupation there is only temporary and that Ukraine is coming back,” Zelenskiy said.
In the latest incident, a drone attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet was thwarted on Saturday morning, according to a Telegram post by Mikhail Razvozhayev, Crimea’s Russian-appointed governor, who is not recognised by the West.
In a daily Facebook update, Ukraine’s general staff also reported several attempted Russian assaults over the past 24 hours in Donbas, the eastern region partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists that has been a key target of Russia’s campaign in the past months.
In the south, Russian forces conducted a successful assault on the village of Blahodatne on the border between Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, it said.
The city of Mykolaiv was hit with multiple S-300 missiles early on Sunday, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.
According to international media, the driver of a heavy goods vehicle did not slow down in good time and hit a stationary minibus,” Ulyanovsk’s interior ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Roadworks at the scene of the accident meant the minibus was waiting in a queue to move. “The minibus was wedged between two lorries,” the ministry said.
Video footage broadcast by the police showed the crumpled husk of what appeared to be the minibus sandwiched between two trucks and emergency service workers inspecting the flattened vehicle.
Russia’s investigative committee opened a criminal investigation, the truck driver was among those killed.
Three other people, two men and a woman, were taken to hospital in a serious condition, Ulyanovsk Governor Alexei Russkikh wrote on Telegram.
As per media reports, Violations of road safety regulations are common in Russia, where several deadly bus accidents have occurred in recent years.
In January, five people were killed and 21 injured in a bus crash in the Ryazan region, 270km (170 miles) south of Moscow.
In December 2019, a bus with 40 passengers on board plunged into a frozen river in the Zabaikalsk region of Siberia, killing 19 people and injuring 21.
Misuzulu Zulu, 47, is set to succeed his father, Goodwill Zwelithini, who died in March last year after 50 years in charge but a bitter succession dispute threatens to overshadow the ceremony.
Although the title of king does not bestow executive power, the monarchs wield great moral influence over more than 11 million Zulus, who make up nearly a fifth of South Africa’s population.
Men and women in colourful traditional outfits assembled outside the marble palace on the hills of Nongoma, a small town in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, the Zulu heartland. Tens of thousands more were expected to arrive throughout the day to honour the new sovereign. “Today the king will be acknowledged by the whole Zulu Nation,” Misuzulu’s sister, Princess Ntandoyesizwe Zulu, 46, said. Yet, an acrimonious family dispute over the throne raged.
On Saturday, a court in Pietermaritzburg was to hear an urgent application by a branch of the royal family to block all ceremonies.
In Nongoma, lines of Zulu warriors, known as amaButhos and holding spears and shields of animal skin, marched into the palace grounds.
Women — some bare-chested, others in pleated skirts and beaded belts or draped with fabrics bearing the effigy of the sovereign — sang and danced.
On Friday night, Misuzulu entered the palace’s “cattle kraal” where he took part in a secret rite designed to present the new monarch to his ancestors. Only select members of the royal family and amaButhos were allowed in the enclosure which is protected from curious eyes by a thick fence of tree trunks.
“It’s a holy place, we can’t reveal to the world what is happening there,” said Muntomuhle Mcambi, 34, an amaButho.
Earlier this week, the soon-to-be king also killed a lion at a nearby reserve - in one of the last steps before the coronation.
His path to the crown has not been smooth. King Zwelithini left six wives and at least 28 children when he died last year. Misuzulu is the first son of Zwelithini’s third wife, who he designated as regent in his will.
But the queen died suddenly a month later, leaving a will naming Misuzulu as the next king — a development that did not go down well with other branches of the family. Queen Sibongile Dlamini, the late king’s first wife, has backed her son Prince Simakade Zulu as the rightful heir.
Pyongyang last week declared victory over the coronavirus, ending a little-detailed fight against “fever” cases that had risen to 4.77 million. It has registered no new such cases since July 29.
Still, China exported 1.23 million facial masks to North Korea in July, worth $44,307, surging from 17,000 the previous month, according to data released by Chinese customs.
From January to July, the last month for which data is available, the North bought more than 11.93 million masks from China, data showed.
North Korea did not import any Covid-19 prevention and control products from China in May, the data showed.
China’s overall exports to North Korea surged to $59.74 million in July from $19.05 million in June.
Top exports were semi- or wholly milled rice, cigarettes, disodium carbonate and smoked sheets of natural rubber.
North Korea bought $5.16 million worth of semi or wholly milled rice, $1.98 million of soybean oil & fractions, $1.21 million of granulated sugar in July, the Chinese customs data showed.
China suspended cross-border freight train services with North Korea following consultations due to Covid-19 infections in its border city of Dandong, China’s foreign ministry said on April 29.
“It is important that all governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market,” he said from the Joint Coordination Center (JCC).
The JCC oversees the implementation of the Ukrainian grain export agreement signed in July by Kyiv and Moscow with the UN and Turkey as guarantors.
The agreement also guarantees Russia the right to export its agricultural products and fertilisers despite Western sanctions.
“What we see here in Istanbul and in Odessa is only the more visible part of the solution. The other part of this package deal is the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food and fertiliser, which are not subject to sanctions,” Guterres said, adding that despite this, Russian fertiliser and agricultural exports still faced “obstacles.”
“Without fertiliser in 2022, there may not be enough food in 2023. Getting more food and fertiliser out of Ukraine and Russia is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers,” he said.
Guterres travelled this week to Ukraine, where he met with the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey, Volodymyr Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the western city of Lviv on Thursday. He headed to the southern city of Odessa on Friday.
Earlier on Saturday, he visited the first aid ship chartered by the United Nations to transport Ukrainian grain on the southern shores of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara.
The Brave Commander left the Ukrainian port of Pivdenny on Tuesday with 23,000 tonnes of wheat before crossing the Bosphorus on Wednesday evening.
The UN chief vowed Thursday that his organisation would try to “step up” grain exports from Ukraine before the onset of winter, which are crucial for food supplies in many African countries.
Under the agreement signed in July, 650,000 tons of Ukrainian grain and agricultural products have left the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny since August 1.
Ships must use a safe corridor to travel in the Black Sea and then be inspected by the JCC before being allowed to cross the Bosphorus Strait. Cereal exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s leading producers and exporters, were blocked for several months due to the Russian invasion, raising fears of a global food crisis.
According to international media, three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu wrote in a tweet on Saturday. The other eight deaths were on the bus, he added.
As per media reports, two journalists were killed after pulling over to help the victims of the initial accident, in which a car came off the highway and slid down an embankment.
Television footage showed an ambulance with severe damage to its rear while the bus lay on its side alongside the highway.
As per international media, Turkey has a poor record of road safety. Some 5,362 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, according to the government.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin during a media briefing in Beijing said CPEC is an important pilot program under Belt and Road Initiative.
He said the programme focuses on development and people’s livelihood and has got wide recognition from outside.
The spokesperson said that the CPEC has brought tangible benefits for socio-economic development of people’s lives.
A flare-up in fighting around Europe’s largest nuclear facility in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine has sparked urgent warnings from world leaders and UN chief Antonio Guterres cautioned during talks with Erdogan that any damage to the plant would be akin to “suicide”.
“We are worried. We don’t want another Chernobyl,” Erdogan said during a press conference in the eastern city of Lviv, during which he also assured the Ukrainian leader that Ankara was a firm ally.
“While continuing our efforts to find a solution, we remain on the side of our Ukraine friends,” Erdogan said.
Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation at the plant and said it had to be demilitarised, adding: “We must tell it like it is — any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide”.
Erdogan, who has major geopolitical rivalries with the Kremlin but maintains a close working relationship with President Vladimir Putin, met with the Russian leader less than two weeks ago in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The Turkish leader along with Guterres were key brokers of a deal inked in Istanbul last month allowing the resumption of grain exports from Ukraine after Russia’s invasion blocked essential global supplies.
Ahead of the press conference with Zelensky, Ukraine’s port authority announced that the 25th cargo ship under the deal had departed for Egypt carrying 33,000 tonnes of grain.
Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s biggest grain exporters and the halt in exports saw grain prices soar and fears rise of global food shortages, particularly in poor countries already experiencing shortfalls.
Guterres said during the meeting with reporters that the sides hoped to intensify efforts to bolster operations at three southern ports designated for exports under the deal.
“We will do our best to scale up our operations to face... the coming winter,” the UN chief said, hailing the deal that saw a safe corridor established for cargo ships to exit Black Sea ports.
The success of the grain deal contrasts with failed peace talks early in the war and Zelensky on Thursday ruled out peace with Russia unless it withdraws its troops from Ukraine.
He told reporters he was “very surprised” to hear from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Russia was “ready for some kind of peace”, adding: “First they should leave our territory and then we’ll see”.
Fighting raged along the front on Thursday.
In the war-scarred eastern region of Kharkiv, Russian strikes left several dead and dozens injured.
The early morning bombardments across the city of Kharkiv and nearby Krasnograd left at least six dead and 25 injured, just one day after Russian bombardments killed 13 in the country’s second-largest urban centre.
The regional governor Oleg Synegubov posted images from the scene of one Kharkiv strike showing the smouldering remains of several burnt-out buildings and twisted wreckage of destroyed vehicles nearby.
“Kharkiv. 175 days of horror. Daily terror, missile strikes on residential areas and civilians,” a senior presidential aide, Mykhaylo Podolyak, wrote on social media.
But fighting in recent weeks has focused around the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and the nuclear facility there, and Zelensky has called on the UN to ensure security at the plant after direct talks with Guterres in Lviv.
“The UN must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarisation and complete liberation from Russian troops,” he said, blaming Russia for “deliberate” attacks on the facility.
Russian forces took the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine in March and uncertainty surrounding it has fuelled fears of a nuclear incident, recalling the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Moscow meanwhile dismissed Ukrainian allegations Thursday saying its forces had not deployed heavy weapons at Zaporizhzhia and accused Kyiv of preparing a “provocation” there.
“Russian troops have no heavy weapons either on the territory of the station or in areas around it. There are only guard units,” the ministry said in a statement.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia’s seizure of the plant “poses a serious threat” and also called for a Russian withdrawal and inspections by the IAEA.
The UN chief is due to travel on Friday to Odessa, one of three ports involved in the grain exports deal.
He will then head to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Centre, the body tasked with overseeing the accord.
According to international media, the death toll since the rainy season began in May now stands at 77, the spokesman for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defence, Brigadier General Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim, said on Thursday.
Provinces most affected by the seasonal rains include North Kordofan, Gezira, South Kordofan, South Darfur and River Nile, the spokesman said.
Heavy rains usually fall in Sudan between May and October, and the country faces severe flooding every year that wrecks property, infrastructure and crops.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported earlier this week that, according to the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission, humanitarian organisations, and local authorities, more than 136,000 people have been affected by the floods.
The UN agency said it expected the number of those affected by flooding to increase as assessments were still under way and heavy rains had been forecast. The UN also said the number of people and localities affected by the seasonal rains as of August 14 had “doubled” compared with the same period last year.
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