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Pope calls for peace

French police foil Paris bomb attack PARIS: French police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris on Saturday when they arrested a person about to set off a homemade explosive device, said officials and sources close to the case. The incident occurred in front of a Bank of America building in the chic 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets from the Champs-Elysees. Police grabbed the suspect just after he placed a device, made of five litres of liquid, believed to be fuel, and an ignition system, one of the sources said. After his arrest, the suspect claimed to be a Senegalese citizen, said a police source, who cautioned that the authorities were still verifying his identity. He was accompanied by a second person, who took flight when officers arrived to arrest the pair. The ignition component had 650gm of explosive powder in it, according to an initial assessment. The whole device was taken to the Paris police forensics lab for a full analysis. Prosecutors at France’s counter terrorism office said they had immediately taken over the investigation and confirmed the suspect caught was in police custody. It said the probe it had launched was into “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous means in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and a “terrorist criminal conspiracy”. Both the Paris judicial police and France’s domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security, were involved in the investigation, the office said. According to a police source, the suspect said he had been recruited via the Snapchat app to carry out the bombing in exchange for the sum of €600 (RM2,771). When the patrolling officers arrested him, he was about to ignite the device with a lighter. Another police source said that while he was placing the charge, the accomplice stepped back, apparently to take a photo or video of the crime with his mobile phone.

o End airstrikes, urges pontiff

a higher thrust of 2,500 kilonewtons. The development demonstrates North Korea’s “resolve to acquire missiles capable of hitting targets around the globe”, said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “Given the increased maximum thrust, this indicates its intention to possess ICBMs with global strike range, as well as the ability to overwhelm missile defence systems,” he said. – AFP VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo said yesterday that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood”, in unusually forceful remarks as the US-Israeli attacks on Iran war entered its second month. Addressing tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, the celebration that opens the holiest week of the year in the lead up to Easter for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the pontiff said that Jesus cannot be used to justify any wars. “Jesus rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo, the first US pope, told crowds in brilliant sunshine. “(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’,” he said, citing a Bible passage. Leo did not specifically name any world leaders, but he has been ramping up criticism of the West Asia war in recent weeks. The pope, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict and said on Monday that military airstrikes are indiscriminate and should be banned. Some US officials have invoked Christian language to justify the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb 28 that initiated the expanding war. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has started leading Christian prayer services at the Pentagon, prayed at a service on Wednesday for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy”. Leo yesterday referenced a Bible passage in which Jesus, about to be arrested ahead of his crucifixion, rebuked one of his followers for striking the person arresting him with a sword. “(Jesus) did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war,” Leo said. “He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence.” – Reuters

Pope Leo delivers a homily in St Peter’s Square. – REUTERSPIC

Kim oversees ground test of high-thrust engine SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the ground test of an upgraded rocket engine, state media reported yesterday, marking another key step in its weapons programme. The latest test was “part of the national defence development plan in the new five-year plan”, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, without elaborating on the date or location of the test.

A spokesperson for Bank of America, whose US headquarters is in Charlotte, North Carolina, told AFP they were aware of the situation and were in communication with the French authorities. – AFP Stranded humpback whale freed from sandbank near Germany Defence experts believe North Korea is planning to use its solid-fuel rocket engines for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. The engines enable faster missile launches as they require little preparation before ignition. It was the first officially confirmed high thrust solid-fuel engine test since September last year, when state media said an engine generated a maximum thrust of 1,971 kilonewtons. KCNA reported the recent test had achieved

BERLIN: A humpback whale stranded on a sandbank off Germany’s Baltic coast has freed itself and was heading back out to sea yesterday but was still at risk, authorities said. The 13.5m long mammal spent six days struggling on sandbanks in Lubeck bay and vets had feared for its health as the ordeal went on. It freed itself from a first sandbank on Friday, after a mechanical digger set up an escape route but became trapped again on another. Rising waters in the bay helped the whale a second time and it started swimming away late on Saturday, a regional

government spokesman told German media. A German maritime police vessel is tracking the whale as it could become trapped again in the bay’s shallow waters, the spokesman said. Police have kept tourist boats away from the animal to avoid adding to its stress. Experts hope the whale will return to its natural habitat in the Atlantic through the North Sea. Humpbacks are rarely seen in the Baltic and the experts said it may have been following a shoal of fish or been distracted by the noise of a submarine. – AFP

The humpback whale searching for a way out of the Baltic Sea. – AFPPIC/ FLORIAN MANZ/ GREENPEACE GERMANY