Pope Francis offered encouragement to prisoners, artists and young people in Venice on Sunday, with his first trip of the year testing his mobility and resilience after a number of health scares in recent months.
The 87-year-old pope travelled by helicopter, motorlaunch and golf buggy, hopping the city's famed canals on his first visit to Venice since he became pontiff in 2013.
He started the day by flying directly into a women's prison where the Vatican has set up a multimedia exhibition that is part of the Venice Biennale -- a prestigious international art show that has never been visited by a pope before.
Through a deal with the Italian Justice Ministry, the Vatican chose to stage its pavilion inside Venice’s women’s prison and invited inmates to work alongside the artists. Between them they created what is called “With My Eyes”, the multimedia exhibit open to the public.
Upon his arrival the Pope said: "Let us not forget that we all have mistakes to be forgiven for and wounds to heal, I too, and that we can all become healed who bring healing, forgiven who bring forgiveness, reborn who bring rebirth".
At least 24 people were killed and 93 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
Russian air attacks on Ukraine kept the eastern half of the country under air raid alert for more than five hours, Ukraine's military said early on Sunday, with Moscow launching several waves of strikes targeting Kyiv and other cities.
Massive consecutive strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs from late Saturday into Sunday, sending booms across the city and sparking flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
Over 80 police personnel have been injured in clashes with supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan taking part in a march near Islamabad, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday.
Ukraine will present its "victory plan" at a regular meeting of its allies at Ramstein in Germany on October 12, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram on Saturday.