Pope Francis praises Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's "kindness"
CBSN
Pope Francis has praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's "kindness" in his first public comments since the death of the retired pontiff. Francis thanked Benedict on Saturday for "his testimony of faith and prayer, especially in these final years of retired life."
Speaking during a New Year's Eve vigil, Francis said only God knew "of his sacrifices offered for the good of the church."
Pope Francis is set to celebrate Benedict's funeral Mass on Thursday, the first time in the modern age that a current pope will eulogize a retired one.
Thieves with a nose for fine cheese have pulled off a massive cheddar ripoff in London.
Israel launched its long-awaited retaliatory strikes on Iran early Saturday local time, the Israeli military said. Israel had vowed payback for Iran's Oct. 1 attack, during which the Islamic republic launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
A Northern Ireland man was sentenced Friday to a minimum of 20 years in prison after being found guilty by a U.K. court in what has been described as the biggest criminal "catfishing" case in the country. Alex McCartney, 26, had pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of manslaughter in a Northern Ireland court after a young American girl who was among the thousands of alleged victims he blackmailed online died by suicide.
London — There are almost 4,000 emojis to help people express themselves online, but a group of young design students in London says none of them feature Black or mixed-race hairstyles, and they're determined to change that.
Kazan, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West's "perverse methods." The three-day summit in the city of Kazan covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, efforts to settle regional conflicts and expansion of the BRICS group of nations.
Turkey launched airstrikes late Wednesday in Kurdish-held parts of Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a deadly attack at a state-owned defense manufacturer in Ankara that saw at least two attackers kill four people and wound more than a dozen others.
Sri Lanka deployed troops and increased police patrols around a Jewish community center in a popular surfing town on Wednesday after the U.S. embassy warned American citizens of a possible attack on popular tourist sites in the area.
Gisele Pelicot, the woman at the center of the mass-rape trial that's shocked her own country of France and the world, told her husband in court on Wednesday that she still "did not understand why" he had drugged and raped her for nearly a decade, along with dozens of other men he invited into their home.
Toronto — Police in eastern Canada are investigating the death of a 19-year-old woman who was found inside a walk-in oven at a Walmart store in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Authorities received a call reporting a death Saturday night, prompting the evacuation of the store. The deceased woman, a Walmart employee, was found inside the walk-in oven in the store's bakery department.
Mexican troops shot dead 19 suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel after they came under attack in the northwestern state, the ministry of defense said Tuesday.
French-Polish director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old, will no longer face trial over an alleged assault of another minor after reaching a settlement, his lawyer said Tuesday.