VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will visit Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore in September, the Vatican announced Friday, confirming the longest trip of Francis’ papacy that is sure to test his health, stamina and mobility.
The Vatican confirmed the Sept. 2-13 visit, saying the 87-year-old pope would visit Jakarta, Indonesia; Port Moresby and Vanimo, Papua New Guinea; Dili, East Timor; and Singapore. Further details will be announced later.
Francis’ health has become a source of increasing concern and speculation, even though the pontiff is able to carry on with a rigorous schedule of meetings at the Vatican and even excursions to local parishes.
Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, had to cancel a planned visit to Dubai late last year after he came down with a bad case of bronchitis. He suffered from respiratory problems all winter and had to curtail his participation in Holy Week events to save his energy for Easter.
Francis has also been using a wheelchair for nearly two years because of bad knee ligaments, and has said that traveling has become increasingly more difficult.
And yet at 11 days, the trip would be the longest of Francis’ papacy, outpacing by a few days some of his long trips to the Americas early on in his 11-year papacy. It will bring the Argentine Jesuit to the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, as well as the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence.
In a statement announcing the visit, the Indonesian foreign ministry welcomed the visit and recalled that it had originally been scheduled for 2020 but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The visit of Pope Francis to Indonesia holds significant importance to the Indonesian people, not only for Catholics but also for all religious communities. The visit is also expected to strengthen the message of tolerance, unity and world peace,” the statement said.
Indonesia is home to roughly 242 million Muslims and 29 million Christians — 8.5 million of whom are Catholics — according to a 2022 report by the Religious Affairs Ministry.
East Timor, which today has a population of about 1.2 million people, is Southeast Asia’s only predominantly Christian nation with the exception of the Philippines. According to the 2015 census, 97.6 percent of East Timor’s population is Catholic.
The visit to East Timor will likely reignite attention over a clergy sex abuse scandal involving its revered independence hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner. The Vatican confirmed in 2022 that it had sanctioned Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo following allegations that he sexually abused boys there during the 1990s. Belo is believed to now be living in Portugal.
Francis will be the first pope to visit Papua New Guinea since St. John Paul II went there in 1984. The country, in a strategically important part of the South Pacific, has struggled with tribal violence and civil unrest.
John Paul also visited Singapore, in 1986. The country today is home to some 395,000 Catholics.
The Vatican has planned only one other papal trip this year — to Belgium to celebrate the anniversary of the country’s Catholic university. Francis has also said he wants to return to his native Argentina, but no plans or dates have been announced.
Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore in longest trip of papacy
https://arab.news/cftyy
Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore in longest trip of papacy
- Pope Francis’ health has become a source of increasing concern and speculation
- Pontiff wants to return to his native Argentina, but no plans or dates have been announced
India police detain second suspect in Saif Ali Khan stabbing incident
- The Bollywood star was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt
- Doctors say he out of danger after undergoing surgery in the wake of the incident
MUMBAI: Police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday detained a second person suspected of involvement in a knife attack in which Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was wounded.
Khan, 54, was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt at his home in Mumbai early on Thursday. He had surgery after sustaining stab wounds to his spine, neck and hands, and is out of danger, doctors said.
“We got information from Mumbai Police that a suspect is traveling by Jnaneswari Express train,” Sanjeev Sinha, a represenatative of the Railway Protection Force, told ANI news agency, in which Reuters holds a minority stake.
“...Mumbai Police officials were contacted through video call and the suspect’s identity was confirmed. He has been detained,” Sinha said.
Police in India’s financial capital of Mumbai had on Friday detained another key suspect in the knife attack.
The attack on Khan, one of Bollywood’s most bankable and well-known actors, shocked the film industry and Mumbai residents, with many calling for better policing and security.
Melania Trump hosts Queen Rania of Jordan in Florida
- Monarch speaks of pleasure at reconnecting with returning first lady
LONDON: Jordan’s Queen Rania met incoming US First Lady Melania Trump in Florida on Thursday.
Trump hosted the queen in Palm Beach during her visit to the US.
The queen said on Instagram that “it was a pleasure reconnecting” with Melania, who will return for a second term as first lady when her husband Donald is sworn in as president on Monday.
The two women “discussed various issues of mutual interest, including children’s welfare, as well as improving their education,” the queen’s office said.
The meeting, which was followed by a lunch, is the third to take place between the two in the US.
In 2018, Trump welcomed Queen Rania and her husband King Abdullah II to the White House ahead of meetings with the president.
The royals also visited the White House in 2017 and toured an all-girls school in Washington.
Ski lift accident leaves 30 injured at Spanish resort in the Pyrenees
- Regional emergency services said that 10 people needed to be treated in hospitals
- State TV channel TVE reported that around 80 people were trapped on the chairlifts
BARCELONA: At least 30 people have been injured in a ski lift accident at the Spanish resort of Astún, in the Pyrenees mountain range, emergency services for Spain’s northern Aragon region said Saturday.
Regional emergency services said that 10 people needed to be treated in hospitals, including two who were seriously injured.
State TV channel TVE reported that around 80 people were trapped on the chairlifts in the immediate aftermath.
“It’s like a cable has come off, the chairs have bounced and people have been thrown off,” one witness told TVE.
Fernando Beltrán, a representative of Spain’s government in Aragon, later posted on X that “all the skiers affected by the accident” have been evacuated and those who were injured were receiving medical treatment.
The cause of the incident is unknown.
Several helicopters were deployed to the area to rescue those trapped and transfer the injured to nearby hospitals.
Social media images and video appeared to show a number of people lying on the snow beneath the ski lift.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he was “shocked” by the news of the accident, expressing his closeness to the injured and their families.
The ski resort said on X that it was “working with emergency services” and that its management expressed “consternation and support for those affected” by the incident.
AlUla is top destination as Saudi tourism gains appeal in India
- India’s outbound tourism is expected to reach 45 million travelers by 2030
- Destinations in Saudi Arabia especially popular among Gen Z tourists
New Delhi: India is seeing an increase in travelers heading to Saudi Arabia, according to a top Indian tourism body, which also said there is growing interest in the Kingdom’s heritage, especially among Gen Z Indians.
Tourism is booming in Saudi Arabia under the Vision 2030 transformation plan. In the past few years there has been significant investment in the development of destinations including its eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, eco-friendly and luxury resorts on the Red Sea coastline, and entertainment and sports complexes.
The promotion for these developments has also included Bollywood stars, and more and more Indians are looking to visit Riyadh, Jeddah and AlUla, rather than Dubai — traditionally the most popular destination in the GCC for Indian travelers.
“Earlier it was only Dubai ... but now that trend is changing,” Himanshu Kesari Patil, president of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India, an organization representing over 800 travel companies and agents, told Arab News. “There are lots of inquiries for Saudi Arabia, a lot of people are going. The top-selling destination for Saudi Arabia is AlUla,”
AlUla, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, is often described as an “open-air museum.” One of its most famous areas is Hegra, a UNESCO World Heritage site that features tombs and monuments from the Nabatean civilization dating back to the 1st century BCE.
Another is Elephant Rock, a natural rock formation in the AlUla desert, which has become one of the region’s most photographed natural landmarks.
Many notable Bollywood celebrities, including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, and Priyanka Chopra, have visited AlUla, while others, such as up-and-comers Janhvi Kapoor and Ali Fazal, have partnered with the local authorities to promote it, increasing the site’s appeal among Gen Z travelers, which data portal Statista refers to as the “most travel-hungry” generation.
“Gen Z, they are more tech-savvy, they are always on social media and they want to explore unexplored places. (They) are not going to the routine places where everyone else is going, they want to do something different,” Patil said.
India’s outbound tourism market is growing, and the Pacific Asia Travel Association estimates that the number of Indians traveling abroad annually will reach 45 million in the next five years.
By then, the Kingdom expects to welcome 7.5 million Indian travelers a year, according to the Saudi Tourism Authority.
“Saudi Arabia is investing a lot of money in the Indian market and I’m sure, soon, Saudi Arabia will get more numbers out of India,” Patil said.
“They are friendly, have great multicultural cuisine … for the tourists it’s amazing,” he continued. “I think, soon, with the new developments and new cities they are building, the new luxury hotels they are building, there is a bright future for Saudi Arabia on the tourism side.”
ASEAN and China must start tackling thorny issues of South China Sea code, Philippines says
- The South China Sea remains a source of tension between China and its ASEAN neighbors
- ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct, but took 15 years to start discussions and progress has been slow
LANGKAWI, Malaysia: The regional bloc ASEAN and China should make headway on a protracted code of conduct for the South China Sea by tackling thorny “milestone issues,” including its scope and if it can be legally binding, the Philippines’ top diplomat said on Saturday.
The South China Sea remains a source of tension between China and neighbors the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, with ties between Beijing and US ally Manila at their worst in years amid frequent confrontations that have sparked concerns they could spiral into conflict.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct, but took 15 years to start discussions and progress has been slow.
In an interview ahead of Sunday’s meeting with his ASEAN counterparts on the Malaysian island of Langkawi, Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said discussions on a code were well underway, but it was time to start thrashing out the meatier, trickier aspects.
“It’s time that we try to look at issues which are, in our view, essential, which have not really been discussed in a thorough way or even much less negotiated. These are the so-called milestone issues,” Manalo told Reuters.
Those would include the code’s scope, whether it is legally binding and its impact on third-party countries, he said, adding the aim was to make it effective and substantive.
“We have to begin addressing these important issues,” Manalo added. “This might be the best way to at least move the negotiation forward.”
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, which it asserts through a fleet of coast guard and fishing militia that some neighbors accuse of aggression and of disrupting fishing and energy activities in their exclusive economic zones.
China insists it operates lawfully in its territory and does not recognize a 2016 arbitration ruling that said its claim has no basis under international law.
‘US interests are still there’
Manalo also said that as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, there was no sign the United States would reassess its engagement in Southeast Asia.
“We haven’t heard any or seen any indication of scaling down or any kind of particular change,” he said.
“We have to wait until the administration actually takes over. But from what we’ve seen so far, US interests are still there.”
Manalo said the civil war in military-ruled Myanmar remains a big challenge for ASEAN, which has barred the generals from meetings for failing to implement the bloc’s peace plan.
The junta plans to hold an election this year in which its opponents either cannot run, or refuse to contest.
Manalo said it was premature to discuss if ASEAN would make preconditions for recognizing the election, which he said must involve as much of the population as possible.
“If elections are held without being seen as inclusive, not transparent, I believe it would be very difficult for those elections to create more legitimacy,” he said.
