Thousands of Guatemalan worshipers wearing black hoods and purple tunics funnel slowly through the streets of Antigua carrying images of Jesus over a multicolored carpet of flowers and scented sawdust as somber music rings out.. In Mayan neighborhoods, locals wearing traditional outfits take turns carrying images of their saints through the streets.
Moscow has formally charged US journalist Evan Gershkovich with espionage, Russian news agencies reported Friday, accusations rejected both by the reporter and his employer.. The Wall Street Journal, one of the leading US newspapers, said it heard of the charges through the media reports and rejected them.
Pope Francis, who is recovering from bronchitis and last week spent three nights in hospital, did not attend the traditional "Way of the Cross" prayer service on Good Friday, the Vatican said.. "Due to the intense cold of the past days, Pope Francis will follow this evening's Way of the Cross from Casa Santa Marta, joining the prayer of those who will gather with the Diocese of Rome at the Colosseum," the Vatican said in a short statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mobilised police and army reserves late Friday after one man was killed and five people were wounded in a car-ramming attack in central Tel Aviv.. Netanyahu ordered the mobilisation of police and army reserves following the attack, his office said in a statement.
Vice President Kamala Harris headed to the southern US state of Tennessee on Friday as the expulsion of two Black legislators from the state assembly escalated into a major row over race and representation.. While the White House did not explicitly comment on the racial aspect of the standoff, the decision by the country's first Black vice president to head to Nashville sent a clear message of solidarity.
French policemen said they were "mentally exhausted" when they were recorded threatening arrested protesters, in a case that has triggered an investigation, an internal report showed Friday.. "We were physically and mentally exhausted," he said.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest in the first quarter of 2023 was one of the worst on record, according to official figures released on Friday.. In the first quarter of 2023, Amazon deforestation was the second highest on record for that period with 844 square kilometers destroyed.
Moscow has formally charged US journalist Evan Gershkovich with espionage, Russian news agencies reported Friday, adding that he had denied the accusations.. "FSB investigators charged Gershkovich with espionage in the interests of his country," Russian state-run agency TASS said, citing a law enforcement source.
The French judiciary is launching a probe into the controversial expulsion of a Chechen dissident back to Russia where he was subsequently jailed, a source said.. His expulsion to Russia came as France moved against alleged radical elements in the Chechen diaspora after a Chechen Islamist radical beheaded teacher Samuel Paty outside Paris in October 2020.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow's exports remained. . "If there is no further progress in removing barriers to the export of Russian fertilisers and grain, we will think about whether this deal is necessary," Lavrov told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara, alongside his counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
