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World in brief June 23 2025

NORTHERN IRELAND: A thirty-four-year-old man has been arrested under the Terrorism Act for allegedly throwing a suspicious device into the Belfast Islamic Centre during Friday evening prayers.

No-one was injured, but Assistant Chief Constable Anthony McNally of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said officers had determined that the object was capable of causing harm.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn called the incident a “shameful attack.”

 

BRAZIL: A hot-air balloon caught fire and fell to earth on Saturday in the southern state of Santa Catarina, killing eight people.

Footage showed smoke coming from the balloon as it hurtled towards the ground.

Thirteen people of the 21 on board survived and were taken to hospital, Santa Catarina’s military fire brigade said.

 

VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV has said that the Catholic church should show zero tolerance of any type of abuse and called for “transparent processes” to create a culture of prevention.

Leo’s first comments came in a written message to a Peruvian journalist who documented abuse and financial corruption in a Peruvian-based Catholic movement called the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.

 

NIGERIA: Police arrested 22 people yesterday on suspicion of involvement in a mob attack that left at least a dozen people dead.

The victims were killed in the Mangu area of the state of Plateau on Friday night while travelling by bus from Zaria, in north-western Kaduna state, to a wedding.

Police said that 21 people had been rescued.

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