By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo will embark on his first trip outside Italy on Thursday, travelling to Turkey and Lebanon. Here is a history of papal foreign visits, which have become a major part of the agenda for the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

POPE PAUL VI (1963 to 1978)

By Saeed Shah

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Tensions flared between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday as the Taliban accused Pakistani forces of air strikes in eastern Afghanistan, which killed 9 children and a woman, and injured four others.

There was no immediate comment from Islamabad. The bombardment followed a series of recent attacks in Pakistan, in which Islamabad says the militants came from Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held talks with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi on Monday, a U.S. official told Reuters, the latest effort by President Donald Trump's administration to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

The meeting comes after U.S. and Ukrainian officials sought to narrow the gaps between them over a plan to end the war in Ukraine, agreeing to modify a U.S. proposal that Kyiv and its European allies saw as a Kremlin wish list.

Charbel Matar says a Lebanese saint saved his life when he was a child. Now, he is among pilgrims of all faiths who visit Saint Charbel's tomb, soon to be graced by Pope Leo XIV.

"My family and I have great faith in Saint Charbel and always visit him," said Matar, 69, at the Saint Maron Monastery in Annaya in the mountains of north Lebanon.

"I almost died when I was five. He performed a miracle and saved me from death, and kept me alive for 64 more years," said Matar, whose parents changed his name from Roger to Charbel to honour the saint.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing his administration to determine whether to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, as foreign terrorist organizations and specially-designated global terrorists, the White House said.

"President Trump is confronting the Muslim Brotherhood’s transnational network, which fuels terrorism and destabilization campaigns against U.S. interests and allies in the Middle East," according to a White house fact sheet.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -Victims of Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel sued Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao, accusing them of facilitating millions of dollars in payments to the group and other U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

According to a complaint made public on Monday, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange laundered money for Hamas even after pleading guilty in November 2023 and paying a $4.32 billion criminal penalty for violating federal anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Monday announced a unilateral three-month ceasefire a day after the army dismissed a US truce proposal from international mediators.

The RSF, which has been fighting Sudan's regular army since April 2023, said it was declaring the ceasefire "in response to international efforts, including the initiative of US President Donald Trump and the Quad mediators".

The Quad group comprises the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

(Reuters) -The head of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces said late on Monday that his paramilitaries would immediately enter into a three-month humanitarian truce, after U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that he would intervene to seek an end to a war that has plunged the country into famine.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) -The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S.- and Israeli-backed organisation to distribute aid in Gaza, said on Monday it was ending its operations after months of criticism over deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach GHF hubs.

The GHF, which had bypassed the United Nations and long-established aid agencies to distribute food, upsetting European leaders, made the announcement weeks after suspending its operations following the October 10 ceasefire in Gaza.

ANKARA (Reuters) -A delegation from a Turkish parliamentary commission overseeing the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group paid their first visit to its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan on Monday, the parliamentary speaker's office said.

In their meeting in a prison on the island of Imrali off Istanbul, the delegation asked Ocalan about the PKK's dissolution and disarmament as well as the implementation of an agreement with the Syrian government and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a statement said.