INDONESIA: An explosion during the disposal of expired munitions in Indonesia’s West Java province on Monday killed at least 13 people, including four soldiers, military officials said. 

Members of the Indonesian army were carrying out the disposal of unusable and expired ammunition in an environmental conservation area in the Sagara village, in Garut district. 

POLAND: Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said on Monday that he was ordering the closure of Russia’s consulate in the southern city of Krakow after Polish authorities said that Russia was responsible for a fire that destroyed a shopping centre in Warsaw last year.

The fire broke out on May 12 2024 in the Marywilska 44 shopping centre, a budget marketplace in a northern district of Warsaw. 

VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV today called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the “precious gift of free speech and the press” in an audience with about 6,000 journalists in Rome to cover his election as the first US-born pontiff.

The Pope called for journalists to use words for peace, to reject war and to give voice to the voiceless.

He expressed solidarity with journalists around the world who have been jailed for trying to seek and report the truth. 

SYRIA: The remains of 30 people believed to have been killed by the Islamic State (Isis) group have been found in a remote Syrian town in a search led by Qatari search teams and the FBI, according to a statement from Qatar today.

Dozens of foreigners, including aid workers and journalists, were killed by Isis, who controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq for half a decade.