Page 52 - Rel News Today

Pope Francis arrived in Athens on Saturday for the second leg of a visit to the Mediterranean that aims to draw attention to the plight of migrants and refugees.

Pope Francis called on Friday for healing during an outdoor Mass in Cyprus within sight of a huge Turkish Cypriot flag on a mountainside on the other side of a line that has divided the island for nearly half a century.

Police in Cyprus arrested a man carrying a knife during security screening to an outdoor stadium where Pope Francis was celebrating mass on Friday, but authorities said it appeared unrelated to the pontiff's presence on the island.

Unidentified armed men attacked a convoy belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali on Friday, killing one civilian worker and wounding another, the mission said.

Cyprus said on Friday that 50 migrants in the country would be re-located as part of an initiative by Pope Francis coinciding with his visit to the east Mediterranean island.

Paris riverboat cruise company Seine-En-Bateau was braced for a bumper Christmas party season reminiscent of the world before COVID-19. But that was before the Omicron variant landed.

Any move by China to invade Taiwan would have "terrible consequences," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, adding that he hoped Chinese leaders would think very carefully about "not precipitating a crisis" across the Taiwan Strait.

Dutch authorities on Friday arrested around 50 protesters who breached security around the building of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, local police said.

Islamist militants killed seven Nigerian soldiers, including a commanding officer and a lieutenant, in northern Nigeria's Borno state, a military source and two residents told Reuters on Friday.

A mob of factory employees in eastern Pakistan tortured and burned a Sri Lankan manager on Friday over apparent blasphemy in a "horrific" attack that Prime Minister Imran Khan said brought shame on the country.