Muslim-majority Turkey, which is hosting Pope Leo XIV on his first overseas trip as pontiff, is not "a hostile environment" for Christians, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople told AFP in an interview.
"It is simplistic to see adversaries everywhere and to imagine the pope's visit as taking sides in a hostile environment," said Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the world's 260 million Orthodox Christians.
By Jeff Mason and Jasper Ward
PALM BEACH, Florida/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A National Guard member died on Thursday after being shot near the White House in an ambush that investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national, an attack President Donald Trump blamed on Biden-era immigration vetting failures as he ordered a sweeping review of asylum cases.
The Israeli army and police said Thursday they were investigating the circumstances in which two Palestinians were shot dead in the occupied West Bank while seemingly surrendering to Israeli forces.
The incident in Jenin in the northern West Bank, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, was filmed from several angles, including by AFP.
The Palestinian Authority named the two men killed as 37-year-old Yussef Ali Asa'sa and 26-year-old Al-Muntasir Billah Mahmud Abdullah.
By Ali Sawafta
JENIN (Reuters) -Israeli security forces shot two Palestinian men on Thursday who appeared to be surrendering and unarmed during a raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestine TV news footage showed.
In the footage, the men are seen exiting a building surrounded by armed Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, lifting their shirts and lying on the ground in an apparent surrender. The forces then appeared to direct the men back inside the building before opening fire at close range.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on Thursday said she was permanently barred from leaving Iran, in a birthday message to her teenage twins who she has not seen for over a decade.
Mohammadi, 53, had been in prison for over three years until her release in December last year for a limited period on medical leave.
Her legal team has warned she could be re-arrested and sent back to jail at any time, and she is not able to leave the country.
Lando Norris insisted Thursday he was feeling calm and composed ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix where he could win his first drivers' world championship title.
Unperturbed by the double disqualification of himself and McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri in Las Vegas last weekend, the 26-year-old Briton told reporters he was completely at ease ahead of this weekend's showdown.
"I feel as relaxed now as I was before when I was 35 points behind and I feel the same when I'm 24 points ahead," Norris said.
By Julia Harte and Lucia Mutikani
-From battlefields in Afghanistan to a scenic home in the Pacific Northwest, Rahmanullah Lakanwal had followed a promising path before Wednesday, when U.S. authorities say he shottwo National Guard soldiers blocks from the White House.
Lakanwal, 29, drove across the country from his homein the state of Washington, said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., at a news conference on Thursday. He lived in Bellingham, acoastal city near Canada's border, with his wife and five children.
The Israeli military carried out a fresh series of strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Thursday, exactly a year into a ceasefire with the militant group.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Israeli aircraft launched "a series of raids on Al-Mahmoudiya and Al-Jarmak", just north of the Litani River.
The November 27, 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between the two sides.
LONDON (Reuters) -Irish novelist Sally Rooney said Britain's decision to ban pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation could stop her receiving royalties and even lead to her books being withdrawn from sale due to her support for the group.
The bestselling author said in a witness statement made public on Thursday, the second day of a legal bid to overturn the ban, that production company Element Pictures had expressed concern that paying her royalties could be a crime.
ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised Pope Leo's stance on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday, and said he hoped his first overseas visit as Catholic leader will benefit humanity at a time of tension and uncertainty.
"We commend (Pope Leo's) astute stance on the Palestinian issue," Erdogan said in an address to the Pope and political and religious leaders at the presidential library in the Turkish capital Ankara.
