International
Pope Francis is “very interested” in visiting the Dominican Republic, according to Abinader
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, said that Pope Francis was very interested in visiting the Caribbean country, as the pontiff would have told him last week during a private hearing in the Vatican.
“We invited him” to visit the country “and I saw him very interested in coming and we are following up on that invitation,” Abinader said during his weekly press conference, dedicated this Monday to the trip made last week to Europe, which took him to Italy and Portugal.
The conversation with the pontiff was “quite fluid, I found him in very good health, with some difficulties walking but totally lucid and in a very good mood, in a very good mood.” “That meeting was very cordial and very pleasant,” said Abinader, who during the meeting with the pope also addressed issues such as the situation in Ukraine or Haiti.
In addition, the president met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, and with the Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Holy See, Monsignor Richard Gallagher.
On the other hand, as for the meeting he had with the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Abinader pointed to the success of the European country in aspects “of great interest to the Dominican Republic, it is an eminently tourist country, they have a population similar to the Dominican one, but they receive 30 million tourists, and they have made a lot of progress in the digital transformation part “and they are collaborating with us” in that matter.
In that sense, Abinader mentioned the Simplex program, equivalent in Portugal to the Dominican “Zero Bureaucracy”, which will be addressed in a virtual meeting and later a Portuguese delegation will visit the Dominican Republic to make an exchange of experiences and “see the cases that we can replicate in the country.”
The Dominican president also visited the Portuguese Navy, the oldest in the world, an institution with which the acquisition of several patrol ships was addressed, vessels that are not very old, but that are changing them for a series of requirements and that are destined for the fight against drug trafficking from North Africa.
Abinader also referred to his intention to be present at the Ukrainian peace conference in mid-June in Switzerland and in which about 160 States will participate: “I think that. the more countries we are present advocating for world peace (…), it will help peace and that is what we are looking for,” he said.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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