Pope Francis down with flu
Rome: Pope Francis went to the hospital on Saturday for tests after he came down with the flu, but the results ruled out any respiratory problems, the Vatican said. Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, underwent a CAT scan, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The test at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where Francis was treated for a respiratory infection earlier this year, was done to rule out any possible respiratory problems and came back negative, Bruni said in a statement. Earlier Saturday, the Vatican said the pope had cancelled his audiences because of the flu. Francis is due to travel on Friday to Dubai for the COP28 conference on climate change. Bruni provided no information about any change in his plans and in fact the Vatican on Saturday gave new details about his itinerary, suggesting the trip was still on. The pope will turn 87 next month. When asked about his health in a recent interview — after setbacks that included abdominal surgery just a few months ago to repair a hernia and remove intestinal scarring — Francis quipped in reply what has become his standard line — “Still alive, you know.”
3 children killed in explosion in Pak: Police
Peshawar: At least three children were killed and four others injured when a mortar shell they were playing with exploded in Pakistan’s restive northwest tribal region on Saturday, police said. The incident occurred in Kurram tribal District of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan when the the children were playing with the mortar shell in a field unaware of it being a bomb when it went off killing two of them on the spot. “Such incidents have happened in the past as well. Today the children were playing with the mortar shell when it exploded and three of them died on the spot. Four others were injured,” said the police. The police have started investigations into the explosion caused by an unattended mortar shell. Police said the mortar shell that landed in mountainious village Matkhoza was not exploded in the recent fight between two tribes.
Avalanche in west Iran kills 5 climbers
Tehran: An avalanche killed five mountain climbers and injured four others in west Iran, state media reported on Saturday. A report by the state-owned IRNA news agency said rescue teams recovered the bodies of five climbers from San Boran peak, some 300 kilometres (about186 miles) southwest of the capital Tehran. The other four injured were taken to hospital. The report said the 9-member team of climbers began their journey on Thursday despite a warning by local authorities about possible risk. The peak, the highest of the Oshtrankooh mountain range at 4,150 metres (about 13,600 feet), witnessed heavy rain and snow in recent weeks. Iran has occasionally seen deadly avalanches. In 2020, a series of avalanches killed 12 people in a mountainous area north of Tehran.
‘At least 9 killed in Syrian govt shelling’
Beirut: Syrian government forces' shelling of a northwestern village on Saturday killed at least nine people, including six children, as they picked olives, opposition activists said. The shelling of the village of Qawqafeen, in Idlib province, is the latest violation of a truce reached in March 2020 between Russia and Turkey, who back rival sides in Syria’s 12-year conflict that has killed half a million people. Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded over the past years in violations of the truce that ended a monthslong Russian-backed government offensive on the northwestern Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. The shelling of the farm was reported by the Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the opposition's Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets. The White Helmets said it treated one woman who was wounded and handed over the bodies of the dead to their families. Idlib is home to more than 4 million people, many of them internally displaced by Syria’s conflict that broke out in March 2011. The war displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million and left large parts of Syria destroyed.