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King Charles III Shrugs off Health Scare to Begin Italy Visit

(FILES) Britain's King Charles III meets well-wishers as he arrives with Britain's Queen Camilla to visit the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, in Limavady, on March 20, 2025, during a three-day trip to Northern Ireland. Britain's King Charles III on March 27, 2025, was forced to cancel his appointments after suffering "side effects" following his cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / POOL / AFP)
(FILES) Britain's King Charles III meets well-wishers as he arrives with Britain's Queen Camilla to visit the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, in Limavady, on March 20, 2025, during a three-day trip to Northern Ireland. Britain's King Charles III on March 27, 2025, was forced to cancel his appointments after suffering "side effects" following his cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / POOL / AFP)
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King Charles III Shrugs off Health Scare to Begin Italy Visit

(FILES) Britain's King Charles III meets well-wishers as he arrives with Britain's Queen Camilla to visit the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, in Limavady, on March 20, 2025, during a three-day trip to Northern Ireland. Britain's King Charles III on March 27, 2025, was forced to cancel his appointments after suffering "side effects" following his cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / POOL / AFP)
(FILES) Britain's King Charles III meets well-wishers as he arrives with Britain's Queen Camilla to visit the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, in Limavady, on March 20, 2025, during a three-day trip to Northern Ireland. Britain's King Charles III on March 27, 2025, was forced to cancel his appointments after suffering "side effects" following his cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / POOL / AFP)

King Charles III arrives in Italy on Monday for a four-day visit where he will become the first UK monarch to address Italy's joint parliament, but will not meet Pope Francis due to the pontiff's health issues.

The trip comes 10 days after Charles, 76, had his own health scare, being admitted to hospital after experiencing temporary side effects from his cancer treatment, AFP said.

Royal sources cited by the UK media said the king was "raring to go" on the trip, during which he will also celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with wife Camilla.

Charles, who is the head of the Church of England, was scheduled to meet Pope Francis on Tuesday.

But the 88-year-old head of the Catholic Church is recovering from life-threatening pneumonia at his Vatican home, where doctors say he will need at least two months of convalescence, forcing the king to reschedule his plans.

"Their Majesties send The Pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in The Holy See, once he has recovered," said the royal family's official X account.

Francis made a surprise appearance Sunday as he mingled with crowds at the Vatican, two weeks after leaving hospital.

Charles, who is making his first visit to Italy as king, will instead spread his Rome engagements over two days, allowing "the program to breathe a bit", according to a royal source.

The couple will visit the Colosseum Archaeological Park in Rome, where they will be met by Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, his ministry has announced.

Charles will also meet Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella, and is set to become the first British monarch to address a joint sitting of the Italian parliament, according to Buckingham Palace.

'Minor bump'

The king and queen are expected to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on Wednesday at a state banquet in Rome.

Following a decades-long affair, the couple married on April 9, 2005, at a ceremony in Windsor, followed by a religious blessing in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Charles announced he had cancer in February 2024.

Just six weeks after came the news that his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, had also been diagnosed with cancer and had begun chemotherapy.

Catherine, who is married to throne heir and Charles's eldest son, Prince William, said in January that she was now in remission.

Charles returned to work within two and a half months and gradually ramped up his duties during the rest of 2024, making several foreign trips that took him as far as Australia and Samoa.

But the Italy trip was thrown into doubt on March 27, when the palace announced Charles had been hospitalized due to side effects from his weekly treatment.

Officials said the stay of a few hours was a "minor bump" in his medical journey, and he resumed engagements last Tuesday.

Charles and Camilla will also visit Rome and Ravenna in northern Italy to celebrate "the strong bilateral relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom", the palace said.

While there, they will attend a reception marking the 80th anniversary of the region's liberation from Nazi occupation by Allied forces on April 10, 1945.

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Japan City Gets $3.6 Mn Donation in Gold to Fix Water System

FILE PHOTO: Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo
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Japan City Gets $3.6 Mn Donation in Gold to Fix Water System

FILE PHOTO: Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Factories line the port of Osaka, western Japan October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo

Osaka has received an unusual donation -- 21 kilograms of gold -- to pay for the maintenance of its ageing water system, the Japanese commercial hub announced Thursday.

The donation worth $3.6 million was made in November by a person who a month earlier had already given $3,300 in cash for the municipal waterworks, Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama told a press conference.

"It's an absolutely staggering amount," said Yokoyama, adding that he was lost for words to express his gratitude.

"I was shocked."

The donor wished to remain anonymous, AFP quoted the mayor as saying.

Work to replace water pipes in Osaka, a city of 2.8 million residents, has hit a snag as the actual cost exceeded the planned budget, according to local media.

Varieties

Thai Cops Go Undercover as Lion Dancers to Nab Suspected Thief

People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
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Thai Cops Go Undercover as Lion Dancers to Nab Suspected Thief

People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

Thai police donned a lion dance costume during this week's Lunar New Year festivities to arrest a suspect accused of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artifacts, police said Thursday.

Officers dressed as a red-and-yellow lion made the arrest on Wednesday evening after receiving a report earlier this month of a home burglary in the suburbs of the capital, Bangkok, AFP reported.

Capital police said the reported break-in involved "numerous Buddhist objects and two 12-inch Buddha statues", along with evidence of repeated attempts to enter the house, according to a statement.

With few leads, police kept watch for weeks before hatching an unusual plan to join a lion dance procession at a nearby Buddhist temple.

"Officers gradually moved closer to the suspect before arresting him," police said.

A video released by police showed the festive lion dancers approaching the suspect before an officer suddenly emerged from the head of the costume and, with help from colleagues, pinned him to the ground.

Police estimated the value of the stolen items at around two million baht ($64,000).

The suspect, a 33-year-old man, has a criminal record involving drug offences and theft, police added.

Varieties

Sudan's Historic Acacia Forest Devastated as War Fuels Logging

Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
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Sudan's Historic Acacia Forest Devastated as War Fuels Logging

Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP

Vast stretches of a once-verdant acacia forest south of Sudan's capital Khartoum have been reduced to little more than fields of stumps as nearly three years of conflict have fueled deforestation.

What was once a 1,500-hectare natural reserve has been "completely wiped out", Boushra Hamed, head of environmental affairs for Khartoum state, told AFP.

Al-Sunut forest had long served as a haven for migratory birds and a vital green shield against the Nile's seasonal floods.

"During the war, Khartoum state has lost 60 percent of its green cover," Hamed said, describing how century-old trees "were cut down with electric saws" for commercial timber and charcoal production.

Where tall acacias once cast cool shade over a wetland just upstream from the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, barren ground now lies exposed, criss-crossed by people gathering whatever wood remains.

Hamed called it "methodical destruction", though the perpetrators remain unknown and there has been no investigation.

Similar devastation is unfolding across several regions -- including western Darfur, neighboring Kordofan and the central states of Sennar and Al-Jazirah -- as insecurity and economic collapse drive unchecked logging, according to Sudan's Forests National Corporation.

According to a 2019 study by the Nairobi-based African Forest Forum, Sudan had already lost nearly half of its forested land since 1960 due to agricultural expansion, firewood collection and overgrazing.

By 2015, the country ranked among Africa's least forested nations, with around 10 percent of its territory still covered by woodland, the study said.

The report had also warned of further degradation if reforestation and sustainable management efforts were not implemented -- concerns now compounded by the ongoing conflict.

- 'Barrier' -

Aboubakr Al-Tayeb, who oversees Khartoum's forestry administration, said the damage "affects not only Khartoum, but Sudan and the wider African continent."

"The forest was home to several migratory species from Europe," he told AFP.

More than a hundred bird species, including ducks, geese, terns, ibis, herons, eagles and vultures, had been recorded in the area, alongside monkeys and small mammals.

Al-Nazir Ali Babiker, an agronomist, said the loss of tree cover could cause more severe seasonal flooding because the "forest acted as a barrier" against rising waters.

Flooding strikes Sudan every year, destroying homes, farmland and infrastructure and leaving many families with no choice but to flee to safer areas.

The war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has already killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and shattered critical infrastructure.

Before the fighting, forests supplied roughly 70 percent of Sudan's energy consumption, primarily through charcoal and firewood, according to data from the African Forest Forum.

Al-Sunut had also been a popular leisure spot for Khartoum residents.

"We used to come in groups to study and have a good time," recalls Adam Hafiz Ibrahim, a student at Omdurman Islamic University.

Today, wood gatherers have supplanted the usual walkers. Disregarding army notices alerting them to landmines, men and women traverse the dry, open ground that now stands where the ancient forest once grew.

"We're not cutting the trees. We just pick up whatever wood's already on the ground to use for the fire," said Nafisa, a woman in her forties navigating the dry grasslands.

"We found the trees down. We collect the wood to sell to bakeries and families," said Mohamed Zakaria, a construction worker who lost his job because of the war.

Experts say that the economic hardship caused by the war combined with a lack of enforcement has encouraged logging.

"The logging continues, because those responsible for forest protection cannot access many areas," said Mousa el-Sofori, head of Sudan's Forests National Corporation.

Efforts to replant acacias are underway, Tayeb of the Khartoum forestry administration said, but seedlings grow slowly and can take years to mature.

Restoring the lost woodlands would be "long and costly", said Sofori.

"Some of these forests were centuries old," he added.