Among the roughly 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, many are keenly anticipating the upcoming Vatican conclave at which members of the College of Cardinals will elect a successor to Pope Francis. At a grocery shop in Beirut, a university in the United States, a Black township in South Africa and other far-flung locations, The Associated Press asked nine of them what they hope to see from a new pope.

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There are U.S. pressures on Israel to withdraw from the five border points and fully implement the ceasefire agreement to enable the Lebanese Army to extend its control over the whole of the South, informed sources said.

Israeli airstrikes overnight targeted “a Hezbollah strategic weapons production and storage facility in the Bekaa area in Lebanon,” the Israeli army said, as Lebanon’s National News Agency said the strikes hit the mountainous al-Shaara area on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Under the global theme “Reporting in the Brave New World: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Press Freedom and the Media”, UNESCO marked on Monday World Press Freedom Day 2025 with a celebration, held under the patronage of Dr. Paul Morcos, Minister of Information.

The event brought together media professionals, technology and AI experts, government representatives, civil society actors, and young journalists to reflect on the evolving relationship between technology and media in an era shaped by artificial intelligence.

An Israeli drone on Monday carried out three strikes on the southern town of Aitaroun near Israel’s border, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The Lebanese Army said Monday that Hamas handed over a second Palestinian suspected of involvement in rocket fire at Israel, one day after the first suspect was handed over and several days after authorities warned the militant group against harming the country's security.

The Iranian foreign ministry on Monday condemned Washington’s calls for disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon, noting that “this decision is a domestic affair that no side has the right to interfere in.”

Voter turnout reached 45.08 percent in the first round of Lebanon’s municipal elections that was held in Mount Lebanon on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.

Emirati citizens will be able to visit Lebanon as of May 7 after a ban imposed during a diplomatic row in 2021 was lifted, the official WAM news agency reported.

Hamas has handed over a militant suspected of firing rockets into northern Israel, the Lebanese Army said.

The Palestinian group turned over the suspect, who the Lebanese military only identified by the initials M.G., at the entrance of the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp, in the southern city of Sidon. The army says the militant was suspected of being involved in two rocket launches into Israel in March.