Pope Francis has been buried at Santa Maria Maggiore basilica following his funeral in the Vatican.

In a statement the Vatican says Pope Francis’ coffin has been entombed in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in central Rome. 

“The Pope is the first in over a century to be buried outside the Vatican, and his entombment was a private event, allowing for those closest to him to pay their respects,” the statement adds.Pope Francis “touched minds and hearts” and wanted to “build bridges, not walls”, said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who led the funeral service.

Dozens of leaders and dignitaries – including Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and Prince William – joined an estimated 400,000 mourners who lined the streets of Rome and gathered inside St Peter’s Square itself.

(BBC News)

At least four people have been killed and 500 more injured in a massive explosion in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, state media is reporting.

The blast took place at the Shahid Rajaee port on Saturday morning, blowing out the windows of nearby office buildings and causing the roof of at least one building to collapse.

Footage showed people fleeing from the wharves at the time of the explosion and others lying wounded on the street. There are also reports of people being trapped under collapsed walls.

A fire is still raging at the site and pictures show huge clouds of black smoke billowing over the wharfs.

Workers were rushing to evacuate and transfer the injured to nearby hospitals, authorities said.

Some workers are “still trapped under collapsed roofs and we are trying to rescue them”, one official has told local media according to BBC Persian.

Footage shared online shows people bracing at the point of explosion and then fleeing the area.

According to reports, witnesses say the explosion occurred after a small fire on the wharf spread to open containers storing “flammable materials” and most likely, chemicals.

“The fire spread quickly and caused an explosion,” one witness told local media.

“The source of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area,” a crisis management official said, according to BBC Persian.

Residents also reported hearing the explosion from several kilometres away.

Shahid Rajaee is the country’s largest commercial port, located in the Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast.

(BBC News)

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today said he’s ready for a “neutral investigation” of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam where 26 people, including a Nepalese national, were gunned down. 
The terror attack, one of the deadliest since the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019, has triggered high-level diplomatic and security responses from the government against Pakistan, which has been accused of harbouring the handlers and backers of this terrorist group. 

Addressing a graduation ceremony at the Pakistan Military Academy in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kakul, Prime Minister Sharif said that his country is open to taking part in a “credible” investigation. 

“The recent tragedy in Pahalgam is yet another example of this perpetual blame game, which must come to a grinding halt. Continuing with its role as a responsible country, Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation,” Mr Sharif said. 

The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy for the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack. Pakistan has often been accused of harbouring and funding terror groups engaged in cross-border infiltrations. 

“Pakistan has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Mr Sharif added. 

Mr Sharif’s remark comes a day after Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif in an interview with New York Times said that Pakistan was “ready to cooperate” with “any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors”.

(NDTV)