Town Hall News

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has asked Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops conference, to carry out a peace mission to try to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine, the Vatican said on Saturday. Francis first spoke cryptically of his intention to launch a mission when he was returning from a trip to Hungary last month but he gave no details. (Reporting by Philip […]

HIROSHIMA/ROME (Reuters) -Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday she would leave the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima a day earlier than scheduled to lead the response to flooding which hit the north of her country this week. Torrential rains devastated eastern parts of the Emilia-Romagna region, killing 14 people, causing billions of euros worth of damage and hitting agriculture particularly hard. Around 36,000 people were forced […]

(Reuters) -Three people died when their light aircraft crashed on Saturday morning in Switzerland’s Ponts-de-Martel area close to the French border, the Swiss police said. The crash occurred around 10:20 in the morning local time (0820 GMT) in a forest near the village of La Combe Dernier in the canton of Neuchâtel, the local police said. The pilot and his two passengers died at the scene of the accident. Rescue […]

By Lori Ewing LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Roberto Firmino scored a dramatic late equaliser in his final appearance at Anfield for Liverpool to keep the Merseyside squad’s slim chances of a top-four finish in the Premier League alive with a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa on Saturday. Firmino, who is one of four players leaving when his contract runs out, scored in the 89th minute to the delight of the crowd […]

LONDON (Reuters) -A late goal by Joel Ward rescued a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace at Fulham on Saturday, after the hosts’ striker Aleksandar Mitrovic bagged two goals on his first start since serving an eight-match ban. Fulham have 52 points from 37 games – four behind ninth-placed Brentford – and remain 10th in the Premier League standings. The draw has snuffed out the west Londoners’ faint hopes of securing […]

By Ange Kasongo KINSHASA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo security forces fired tear gas and fought running battles in the streets of the capital Kinshasa with anti-government protesters demonstrating on Saturday over alleged irregularities in voter registration. The protesters are also angry over the rising cost of living and the prolonged insecurity in the east of the country, where armed militias and rebel groups have been carrying out attacks […]

By Martyn Herman LONDON (Reuters) – Roberto Firmino scored a late equaliser in his last home game for Liverpool to salvage a 1-1 draw for his side against Aston Villa that just about kept their hopes of a Premier League top-four finish alive on Saturday. Liverpool had won seven games in succession to make a late run for Champions League qualification but defeat by Villa would have guaranteed that Newcastle […]

HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met on Saturday at the Group of Seven nations summit seeking to turn the page after a French minister accused Rome of mishandling an influx of migrants. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in early May that Meloni’s right-wing government had been unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected and that she had […]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Rights groups and the top U.S. justice envoy on Saturday criticised a meeting between a leading United Nations official for children and Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, who is wanted by the world’s permanent war crimes court. An arrest warrant was issued in March by the International Criminal Court for Maria Lvova-Belova, who is accused by the ICC’s prosecutor of the war crime of deporting hundreds of […]