Trump and Zelenskyy among dignitaries converging on Rome for funeral of Pope Francis

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Heads of state and royalty will start converging on Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square, but the group of poor people who will meet his casket in a small crosstown basilica are more in keeping with Francis’ humble persona and disdain for pomp.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei are among the leaders arriving Friday, the last day Argentine pope will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica before his coffin is sealed in the evening in preparation for his funeral Saturday.

The Vatican said 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns.

Tens of thousands of mourners have waited hours in line to bid farewell to Francis, who died Monday after suffering a stroke at the age of 88. A higher-than-expected turnout prompted the Vatican to extend the basilica's opening hours overnight.

By Thursday evening, more than 90,000 mourners had filed past Francis' open coffin placed in front of the basilica’s main altar — at times praying, at times holding smart phones aloft for a photo of the late pontiff laid out in red robes, a bishop's pointed miter and a rosary entwined in his hands.

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Donald Trump's trip to Pope Francis' funeral puts a sharper focus on their clashes over the years

WASHINGTON (AP) — The day before he died, in his final public address, Pope Francis expressed an Easter Sunday message of unity and an appeal for the marginalized and migrants. “All of us,” he proclaimed, "are children of God!”

In a dramatically different message Sunday, President Donald Trump issued an insult-laced post wishing a happy Easter to his opponents, including “Radical Left Lunatics,” “WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials,” and former President Joe Biden, “our WORST and most Incompetent President."

Some of the fundamental differences between the U.S. president and the late pope — not only their divergent styles but their positions on migration, the environment and poverty — will come into sharper focus as Trump travels to Rome on Friday for Francis’ funeral, to be held Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Square.

David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York, put it this way: “Obviously, it's been a fraught relationship.”

Things weren't great between Trump and the pope during Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2021. But, says Gibson, “Trump II was even worse with the Vatican because of how much more aggressive it has been on every level, against migrants, against international aid.”

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Pope Francis bestowed a special nickname on AP's Vatican reporter for her often-tough questions

VATICAN CITY (AP) — He called me “la prima della classe,” or “the first in class.” It wasn’t necessarily a compliment.

I had earned the nickname from Pope Francis in 2018, a year that marked a low point in his papacy, and a turning point in how he handled cases of priests who sexually abused children.

The pope had just bungled a big abuse case in Chile and I, like many in the Vatican press corps, reported the scandal during Francis’ problematic trip to the South American country. Francis had discredited abuse victims, defended a bishop implicated in covering up their case and showed himself to be insensitive to their trauma.

Returning to Rome, Francis was inundated with questions about the Chile scandal during the traditional in-flight news conference. Turbulence temporarily halted the session, but when it resumed, I picked up where others had left off, pressing the issue and incredulous that he seemed so unaware of the victims' pain.

Francis insisted no victims had come forward to accuse Bishop Juan Barros of protecting the abuser priest, Fernando Karadima. I knew otherwise, and told Francis as much in a tone of voice that still shocks me today.

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Indian officials say troops exchanged fire with Pakistani soldiers in disputed Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarized frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, Indian officials said Friday, as tensions soared between the nuclear-armed rivals following a deadly attack on tourists.

India has described the massacre in which gunmen killed 26 people, most of them Indian, as a “terror attack” and accused Pakistan of backing it. Pakistan denied any connection to the attack near the resort town of Pahalgam in India-controlled Kashmir. It was claimed by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.

With the region on edge, three Indian army officials said that Pakistani soldiers fired at an Indian position in Kashmir late Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.

Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on the report.

Tuesday’s attack in Kashmir was the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region. Since then, tensions have risen dangerously between India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety.

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India and Pakistan again teeter on the brink of conflict over Kashmir. Here's why

NEW DELHI (AP) — A deadly attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir has again moved India and Pakistan closer to war as the two rivals downgraded diplomatic and trade ties, closed the main border crossing and revoked visas for each other’s nationals.

Pakistan has denied it was behind Tuesday's attack that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists at a scenic spot in the Himalayan region, where India claimed it restored a sense of calm despite a decadeslong rebellion. A previously unknown militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance has claimed responsibility for the attack.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety. Here's what to know about an escalation in tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been shaped by conflict, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicion, most notably in their competing claims over the stunning Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Armed insurgents in Kashmir have resisted New Delhi for decades, with many Muslim Kashmiris supporting the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting violence, a charge denied by Islamabad. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict over the years.

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Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's nuclear program return to secluded Oman

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program will return Saturday to the secluded sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Neither Iran nor the U.S. have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to Muscat, the Omani capital nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend's talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations.

But Rome remains in mourning after the death of Pope Francis, whose funeral will be Saturday. And Iranian state television, in covering last weekend's talks, complained at length on air about the “paparazzi” gathered across the street from the Omani Embassy in Rome's Camilluccia neighborhood.

“As you can see, unlike the first round of talks where the presence of journalists was limited and the Omanis had special management in place to prevent a large and chaotic media presence from disrupting the negotiations, this time in Rome, Italy, that kind of control hasn’t been applied,” said Hosnieh Sadat Shobeiri, an Iranian state TV journalist dressed in gray, all-encompassing chador.

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While the world watches Gaza, here is what’s happening in the West Bank

After the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, ignited the devastating war in Gaza, a deadly new reality also took hold for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Israeli military operations in the West Bank grew in size, frequency and intensity. The army launched the stepped-up campaign to counter what it says is a growing militant threat.

Here’s a look at where things stand, with data collected by the U.N.’s humanitarian office and Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement tracking group.

Since the war in Gaza erupted, the majority of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank have been shot during military raids in villages and towns.

Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy. Many of the dead were militants killed in clashes, or youths throwing stones or firebombs.

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Judge halts parts of Trump’s overhaul of US elections, including proof-of-citizenship requirement

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are run, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form.

The decision is a setback for President Donald Trump, who has argued the requirement is needed to restore public confidence in elections. But the judge allowed other parts of Trump's sweeping executive order on U.S. elections to go forward for now, including a directive to tighten mail ballot deadlines around the country.

Trump's March executive order overhauling how U.S. elections are run prompted swift lawsuits from the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters Education Fund, the Democratic National Committee and others, who called it unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sided with voting rights groups and Democrats, saying that the Constitution gives the power to regulate federal elections to states and Congress — not the president. She noted federal lawmakers are currently working on their own legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote.

In a 120-page decision on Thursday, she said the plaintiffs had proven that the proof-of-citizenship requirement would cause their clients irreparable harm and go against the public interest, while the government had offered “almost no defense of the President’s order on the merits.”

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A Mexican musician uses a contentious genre to sing of women imprisoned for killing their abusers

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two days before her new album was launched, musical icon Vivir Quintana was behind barbed wire at a women’s prison in Mexico. The singer had spent the past 10 years visiting women incarcerated after defending themselves and, in doing so, killing their abusers.

Their stories became part of “Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia” (Things that Surprise the Audience), Quintana's latest album, released Thursday.

It tells the story of 10 such women but in a first, Quintana does it through “corridos,” a typically male-dominated and controversial Mexican music genre that’s soared into the spotlight in recent years.

The album, Quintana explained, was born out of her desire to dive into the more complicated aspects of gender-based violence.

“This album has a different heart,” Quintana, 40, said in an interview, donning bright red boots, her signature streak of gray slicing through her black hair. “This album wasn’t made to sell, it’s to change minds.”

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PHOTO ESSAY: 2 girls survived Nepal's 2015 earthquake. Each lost a leg but found a friendship

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The devastating 2015 Nepal earthquake that killed thousands changed the lives of many in the Himalayan nation. But it was the beginning of a friendship for two girls who each lost a leg in the tremor.

Nirmala Pariyar and Khendo Tamang were 7 and 8 years old when they met at the hospital in Kathmandu after they were brought there for treatment. Both were injured during the April 25, 2015, earthquake, which damaged more than 1 million houses and buildings in Nepal.

They shared the same hospital bed and supported each other. They went on to attend the same boarding school.

“Our friendship is still strong and she has been my biggest support even during the times when I am away from family,” Pariyar told The Associated Press.

“When I sometime miss my family and cry she is always there for me," she added. “She has been not just a friend but like my own sister to me."