- Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over 'secession plot' attack
- Van Gogh museum to launch Impressionism show
- French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
- Japan PM calls snap election to 'create a new Japan'
- German police shut pro-Palestinian camp over Thunberg invite
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- SE Asian summit urges end to Myanmar violence but struggles for solutions
- Wimbledon replaces line judges with electronic system
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England power to 351-3
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England's power to 351-3
- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
Pope celebrates mass at North America's oldest Catholic shrine
Pope Francis celebrated mass Thursday at the oldest Catholic shrine in North America, preaching reconciliation on the fourth day of a visit to Canada as he seeks to reset the Church's relationship with Indigenous people.
Thousands of people, many of them Indigenous, were on hand as the 85-year-old pontiff arrived at the shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre under heavy security and greeted them from his popemobile.
Inside the shrine, just in front of the altar and a few feet away from Francis as mass began, demonstrators unfurled a sign which read: "Rescind the doctrine" -- referring to the Doctrine of Discovery, the 15th century papal edicts that empowered European powers to colonize non-Christian lands and people.
The writing was only on the side facing away from the pope, and it was calmly removed shortly after.
But it was demonstrative of the work that many Indigenous people, while hailing the pope's trip as historic, say the Church has left to do.
Francis came to Canada to apologize for the Church's role in the abuse of Indigenous children in Catholic-run schools.
From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada's government sent about 150,000 children into 139 residential schools run by the Church, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture in a failed policy of forced assimilation.
Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect.
The pope apologized for the abuse as his trip began on Monday. For many Indigenous people, his plea for forgiveness has been overwhelming.
Desneiges Petiquay said his visit was a "message of hope."
The 54-year-old housewife from the Manawan reserve was in the front row at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre.
"This pope, he knows we exist here, he recognizes us," she told AFP. "Yesterday, I saw him up close, it touched me here," she added, putting her hand on her heart.
But many others say there is more to do. "Personally, it wasn't enough," said Abigail Brook, a 23-year-old member of Saint Mary First Nations, regretting in particular that the pope did not specifically mention sexual abuse.
During the mass at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre, on the shores of the St Lawrence River some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Quebec City in Canada's east, the pope said the Church was asking "burning questions... on its difficult and demanding journey of healing and reconciliation."
"In confronting the scandal of evil and the Body of Christ wounded in the flesh of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, we too have experienced deep dismay; we too feel the burden of failure," he said.
"Why did all this happen? How could this happen in the community of those who follow Jesus?"
Later, the pope will deliver a homily at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec City.
On Friday, the last day of his six-day trip, he will stop in Iqaluit, in the Arctic territory of Nunavut.
Francis has appeared weakened since the beginning of this trip, and is using a wheelchair because of knee pain.
J.Oliveira--AMWN