World News

By Jatindra Dash

April 15 (Reuters) – At least 14 people lost their lives and 20 others were injured following a boiler explosion at a power plant operated by India’s Vedanta Ltd in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, local police confirmed on Wednesday.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately identified.

The incident took place on Tuesday at Singhitarai, about 230 km away from the state capital of Raipur.

“The death toll from the Vedanta power plant blast in Chhattisgarh has risen to 14, and the number of injured has increased to 20,” District Superintendent of Police PK Thakur told Reuters.

The blast was likely caused by overheating in the boiler tube, said Thakur.

In a statement, Vedanta said an “unfortunate incident” had occurred at its Singhitarai plant and that a thorough investigation is underway to determine the cause.

(Writing by Abhirami G in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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BAMENDA, Cameroon (AP) — Caro Bih says she was once kidnapped, chained and held for ransom by the separatist fighters who have clashed for years with government soldiers in parts of Cameroon. Several relatives have been killed, jailed or abducted. Her family home was razed.

Now she says her hopes for peace rest with Pope Leo XIV.

She is among millions in Cameroon anticipating his arrival on Wednesday as part of his four-nation Africa tour. It comes as the Central African nation is still reeling from a disputed presidential election that left dozens dead as the world’s oldest president, 93-year-old Paul Biya, extended his long rule.

The papal visit with its call for peace is expected to highlight the separatist conflict in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions. Thousands of people have been killed in what humanitarian groups call one of the world’s most neglected conflicts.

The separatists said Tuesday they will pause fighting for three days to allow safe travel for the pope, civilians and dignitaries.

Officials have framed Leo’s visit as a moment of national unity for the country, which is ruled by Francophone authorities and divided along ethnic lines.

“We have been praying ceaselessly for the conflict to end, to no avail,” said Bih, a 52-year-old mother of six and a nurse by training. She spoke to The Associated Press from Bamenda, the epicenter of the violence. “We want the pope to intercede for us. I strongly believe his coming will help heal my wounds.”

Cameroon’s western regions have been plagued by fighting since English-speaking separatists launched a rebellion in 2017 with the stated goal of breaking away from the French-speaking majority and establishing an independent state.

The pope will preside over a peace meeting on Thursday in Bamenda with community leaders and celebrate Mass at the local airport.

Critics of the government worry the pope’s visit will be seen as an endorsement of the Biya administration, which has been accused of committing abuses in the conflict and not being open to dialogue.

“I would caution the pope against allowing the regime to exploit his presence to mask the pain of profound historical injustices with empty appeals to peace and unity,” said Benjamin Akih, a U.S.-based Cameroonian activist and member of the Council for the Sovereignty of Cameroon, a civil society group.

Eric Chinje, who leads the Project Cameroon diaspora democracy group, said the pope might steer clear of trying to admonish those determined to stay in power at all costs, referring to Biya’s long rule.

“The visit has more to do with the pope’s global evangelical mission than with the fate and future of Cameroon,” Chinje said.

The Rev. John Berinyuy Tatah, a Catholic priest, was kidnapped by separatists in November alongside five fellow clergy and held two weeks in the bush, “cut off from the world.”

He said he believes the pope will sow a seed that could heal Cameroon if nurtured.

“The cry of every Cameroonian is for the pope to help us to mediate for dialogue in the ongoing crisis,” said Tatah, who plans to attend a pope-led Mass.

Cameroon also battles Boko Haram extremists who carry out attacks from across the border with Nigeria, often targeting military posts and villages.

More than 3.3 million people affected by conflict in Cameroon are struggling to find enough food, with families skipping meals, selling livestock or taking on debt to survive, according to the U.N.’s World Food Program.

“My hope is that the pope touches the soft spot of our collective wounds,” said Yeeika Desmond Nangsinyuy, a spoken-word artist who uses his art to speak out against violence.

Nangsinyuy said he was abducted by separatists in 2024 and told to stop his performances. But he never did.

“I want him to speak directly to the pain of families torn apart by conflict, and to inspire renewed hope that peace is possible,” he said of Leo.

The separatist fighting has upended communities.

Bih said only two of her children remain in school. One lives with a friend to reduce the burden of taking care of them all. Others work on the farm or at construction sites, or wash people’s clothes to help support the family.

Including money from the vegetables she cultivates and sells, the family’s monthly income is the equivalent of about $53, barely enough to feed them.

Bih in 2024 abandoned physiotherapy and medicines for a stroke she suffered as she fled conflict multiple times. She relies on herbal remedies.

“I had dreamt of seeing my children become doctors, magistrates and so on,” she said quietly. “Now their future is uncertain.”

The children’s father, 60-year-old Ngwa Manases, is separated from her and also affected by the fighting. He was forced to quit his job as a Catholic missionary teacher because of the insecurity.

Their 9-year-old daughter, Lydiane, had to drop out of school to help take care of the other children.

“I miss school,” the girl said. She had wanted to become an accountant.

Bih said she hopes the pope’s visit will change all their lives.

“We believe he will be a turning point,” she said.

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For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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BEIJING, April 15 (Reuters) – The United States’ claims about China exerting military pressure on Taiwan are distorted, and demonstrate its “malicious intentions”, a government spokesperson in Beijing said on Wednesday.

China has stepped up military activity around democratically governed Taiwan, which it views as its own territory, holding several rounds of war games, most recently with live-fire drills in late December.

“Certain people on the U.S. side are jumping up and down, continuously rehashing the so-called ‘mainland threat’ or ‘military pressure,’” Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters.

This represented “a complete distortion of the facts and harbours malicious intentions,” he added, saying Taiwan was an internal affair for China, which would brook no outside interference.

Chen urged the United States to act with great caution, and handle Taiwan-related matters carefully and prudently.

China has repeatedly demanded a halt to weapons sales to Taiwan by the United States, its most important international backer, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties.

Wednesday’s remarks came after the U.S. State Department urged China last week to talk to Taiwan and halt its military and other pressure on the island, after Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun met President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

China refuses to speak to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, calling him a “separatist”. Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

‘PATH OF PEACE’

Cheng said she aimed to foster peace with her visit, when China unveiled measures it said would benefit Taiwan, such as easing controls on exports of food, though it did not cease regular military activities around the island during her trip.

Taiwan’s government says it should be leading engagement efforts with China rather than private party-to-party contacts.

Cheng, whose visit was a month before one planned by U.S. President Donald Trump, hopes China and the United States can reconcile and cooperate.

“We can definitely go down the path of peace,” Cheng, the chairwoman of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang, told a Taiwan radio station on Wednesday. “This is the important message I hope to send to Washington.”

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, but says it prefers “peaceful reunification”, a message it has ramped up in recent weeks.

Chen hoped Taiwan’s people would see the advantages of such a step, from cheaper living costs to sprucing up aged housing.

“In short, national reunification is not only a great moral cause, but also of great benefit,” he added.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — It’s said that a bowl of soup made of bovine bellies and legs can cure ulcers, hangovers and an assortment of other ailments — if you’re courageous enough to try it.

And Dimitris Tsarouhas, the owner of a restaurant in the Greek city of Thessaloniki that specializes in “patsa” is striving to register the soup with UNESCO as a unique and traditional dish of Greece that harks back to the time of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.”

That has conjured up a new dispute with age-old rival Turkey, which also claims the soup as its own. Greeks and Turks have been feuding over everything culinary from coffee, stuffed grape leaves and even the famous baklava — the legacy of life under centuries of Ottoman rule. Now, the Turks are up in arms that Greeks are taking sole credit for a soup they call “iskembe,” which according to them has been a cultural staple for centuries.

Tsarouhas told The Associated Press that he’s compiled a large and detailed file with the help of a local cultural organization and Lena Oflidis, the author of the only book that chronicles the soup’s history, to incorporate the delicacy as part of Greece’s cultural heritage.

Dozens of patrons show up at Tsarouhas’ restaurant at all hours — particularly at the crack of dawn — to enjoy patsa as many say the soup eases the stomach after a night of heavy drinking. It’s usually garnished with a sprinkle of seeds and a dash of hot peppers.

A bowl of the soup is usually prepared to the customer’s liking, particularly how the bovine legs are chopped — either coarse or fine, which is the usual morning preference.

“The bovine leg contains 33.4% pure, consumable collagen — that’s what helps greatly after surgery on the joints,” the 53-year-old restauranteur says, citing medical experts. “But it also cures ulcers and other stomach ailments caused by alcohol consumption.”

Inside the restaurant’s kitchen, the soup’s preparation is almost ritualistic, as chef Pantazis Koukoumvris works his knife in front of boiling cauldrons where the legs and bellies stew in their broth.

“This is where the art begins from the morning,” Koukoumvris says, drawing from his 22-year experience of patsa-making.

“We place the bellies and legs to boil, so that we can make the broth in the smaller pot,” he says, adding that the recipe was taken by the Byzantines from the ancient Greeks and passed on to the Ottomans.

Tsarouhas notes that the recipe for patsa is mentioned in “The Odyssey,” specifically the feast that Odysseus’ wife Penelope prepared for suitors on the day that her husband came back from his decadelong journey.

Tsarouhas said that it refers to bovine bellies filled with suet – animal fat used in cooking – and blood.

“If this isn’t patsa, then what else could it be?” he asks.

Although neighboring Turks are claiming the soup as their own invention, Tsarouhas isn’t worried. He says that they’re welcome to try if they can put their money where their mouth is.

“Nobody’s stopping them from trying,” he says. “We believe that we have all the tools to secure and certify it (patsa) as such. We don’t have anything to divide with our neighbors — rather the taste unites us.”

Unity in taste isn’t what Ali Turkmen has in mind. The 59-year-old Turkish restauranteur says the dish is historically and culturally specific to Turks, even though the soup — just like in Greece — is also a late-night and go-to comfort food after a boozy night.

“Just like with baklava and many other things, they want to claim it as their own,” Turkmen said of the Greek bid for ownership of the soup. “But it will probably be difficult for them to claim something unique to us. Because it’s been a staple in our culture for centuries. Tripe is something specific to Turks.”

Ali Ohtamis is in charge of the kitchen at Turkmen’s restaurant Alem Iskembe, an establishment that specializes in the soup in Istanbul’s Kiziltoprak neighborhood.

Ohtamis starts boiling the cow stomachs — or tripe – at 4 a.m. every day after the innards are cleaned and washed. It cooks for eight to nine hours, he said, after which the meat is cut to customers’ preference.

While both the Greek and Turkish soups are based on a rich, garlicky broth, the Turkish iskembe uses only tripe.

Turkish media have accused Greece of “appropriating” a dish that is nationally celebrated. The Onedio news portal reported that 17th-century traveler Evliya Celebi, in his “Book of Travels,” described vendors selling tripe and trotters soup in Istanbul, citing it as evidence that the soup has a 400-year history in Turkey.

Alem Iskembe customer Murat Pajik says in no uncertain terms that Turkey shouldn’t allow the Greek move.

“I don’t know exactly who is responsible, but measures need to be taken. Tripe soup is one of the dishes we should be promoting to the world,” Pajik said.

Engin Cakar said that the Greeks are fighting in vain to claim ownership.

“I don’t think Greece is doing the right thing. This tripe dish is from our grandfathers, our mothers,” he said.

Over in Greece, Christos Mousoulis sees it differently. A regular at Tsarouhas’ restaurant, he says that patsa has been made in the traditional way in Greek homes for generations.

“I don’t doubt that the taste of patsa, either Greek or Turkishm which I haven’t tried, may be similar, but we grew up with Greek patsa,” he says.

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Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Ayse Wieting and Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul, and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.

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April 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure in a call on Tuesday, Modi said in a post on X.

The call between the two leaders lasted nearly 40 minutes, Indian media, which first reported the call, said. 

“Received a call from my friend President Donald Trump. We reviewed the substantial progress achieved in our bilateral cooperation in various sectors,” Modi said on X.

“We are committed to further strengthening our Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership in all areas. We also discussed the situation in West Asia and stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure.”

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Joe Bavier and Alison Williams)

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Two state officials in Haiti were dismissed from their posts on Tuesday following a stampede at a mountaintop fortress that killed 25 people over the weekend.

The Ministry of Culture and Communication said in a statement that it fired a director with Haiti’s Institute for the Preservation of National Heritage, accusing him of “serious negligence.” Also dismissed was a director with the ministry, which officials accused of “biased passivity.”

The stampede occurred on Saturday at La Citadelle, a historic fortress and tourist site in northern Haiti, where an event organized by a local DJ on social media was held. The event was also promoted via loudspeakers on a vehicle driven through neighborhoods.

“The Ministry of Culture and Communication, without going into the details of the criminal investigation, believes that the tragedy at La Citadelle is the result of administrative negligence,” the department said in a statement, adding that the state “will fully assume its responsibilities.”

Dozens of people were injured in the stampede. Officials said late Monday that 30 of those who were hospitalized had since been released.

Nine suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident, including five police officers.

Eno Zephirin, a prosecutor in the city of Cap-Haitien, told Radiotélévision Caraïbes on Tuesday that authorities are investigating what caused the stampede. He declined to identify two of the nine suspects arrested. Two others were identified late Monday as employees of Haiti’s Institute for the Preservation of National Heritage, which oversees La Citadelle.

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ROME (AP) — Two U.S. families went to Italy’s highest court Tuesday to challenge the scope of a year-old law passed by Giorgia Meloni’s government limiting citizenship claims to Italian descendants removed by more than two generations.

Their lawyer, Marco Mellone, argued before the Cassation Court that the law should apply only to people born after it took effect, potentially opening a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the United States and parts of Latin America.

A decision by an expanded panel, which makes the ruling binding in lower courts, is expected in the coming weeks.

A decree by the government in March 2025 put the brakes on previous rules allowing anyone who could prove ancestry after Italy’s formation in 1861 to seek citizenship. Italy’s constitutional court last month ruled the new law is valid, but Mellone said the supreme court has the power to clarify the scope of the law.

“The families involved in this case are simply descendants … from an Italian ancestor who emigrated in the late 19th century to the United States, like millions of other people, of other Italians,’’ Mellone said before the hearing. “Today they are invoking their right to Italian citizenship.”

Mellone’s case would clarify the citizenship rights of the descendants of some 14 million Italians who emigrated between 1877 and 1914, according to Foreign Ministry statistics, and beyond.

While Mellone’s case involves two families, another dozen people whose citizenship claims were stopped by the law were present outside the courthouse in solidarity.

Karen Bonadio said she hopes one day to move to Italy on the strength of her ancestry. She brought photos of her as a young girl alongside her Italian-born great-grandparents, who emigrated from Basilicata in southern Italy to upstate New York, along with their birth certificates.

“The new law says, ‘all these great-grandchildren didn’t know their great-grandparents.’ This is from 1963, I think I was 3 ½,’’ she said, showing the photograph.

At least one of Mellone’s cases had been rejected in lower courts before the new law, hinging partially on rulings that Italian emigrants who took on another citizenship before having children cannot pass on Italian citizenship.

Jennifer Daly’s case has been working its way through the Italian bureaucracy for nearly a decade. Her grandfather, Giuseppe Dallfollo, immigrated to the U.S. in 1912 from the northern province of Trento when it was under Austro-Hungarian control. He later married an Italian woman and brought her over, and at some point became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Daly said she always had a strong Italian identity that transcended her last name anglicized by U.S. immigration officials. She petitioned for citizenship because “it is truly a recognition of who I am, where I am from. It’s so much more than citizenship. It’s everything,” Daly, a retired history professor, said by phone from Salina, Kansas.

Outside the courthouse, Alexis Traino said great-grandparents on both her maternal and paternal sides had come from Italy, where she now lives, mainly in Florence.

“My entire life, I grew up knowing — and my parents always emphasized — that I was Italian. I had a very, very strong connection with Italy,” said Traino, 34, who was waiting for documents from Italy and the U.S. when the law passed, blocking her case.

“I want to be Italian. I want to contribute to Italy and be a citizen,’’ she said.

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Barry reported from Milan.

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ROME, April 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday he was “shocked” by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and had expected her to be more courageous, delivering a blunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies.

Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she has criticised his decision to go to war with Iran, and on Monday, denounced his weekend criticism of Pope Leo as “unacceptable”.

Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera, saying Meloni was “very different from what I thought” and denouncing her for refusing to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran.

“I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong,” he is quoted as saying in the Italian-language article posted online.

The White House declined to comment on the reported quotes. Meloni’s office also declined to comment.

The criticism marks a dramatic change in tone toward Meloni, who was the only European leader to attend the president’s inauguration in 2025.

Only last month he told Corriere della Sera that Meloni was “a ​great leader”, but on Tuesday he accused her of failing to back U.S. efforts over energy security and Iran, and said Italy wanted America “to do the job for her.”

Asked about her condemnation of his comments on Pope Leo, he said: “She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up in two minutes if it had the chance.”

Meloni had hoped that her close relationship with the U.S. president would strengthen her standing at home and abroad, but instead it risks becoming a political liability.

Some 66% of Italians now hold a negative view of the U.S. leader and pollsters say Meloni’s ties to the White House may have contributed to her defeat last month in a referendum on judicial reform.

The war in Iran has pushed up energy prices in Italy, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas imports.

“They (Italy) pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz… They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open,” Trump said.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Ros Russell)

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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia will jointly make combat drones with Israel, populist President Aleksandar Vucic was reported as saying Tuesday, as the Balkan country seeks to boost its military and weapons production.

Vucic said that “we will have the best drones in this part of the world,” according to the Tanjug news agency. He added that the drones won’t be cheap but will be highly efficient in destroying armored vehicles, the report said.

Vucic didn’t specify details of the future production, according to the report.

“We don’t know how to make drones as Israel does,” he said. “I am proud of that (plan,) we will do it together, it will be half-half, 50-50.”

Serbia “will get innovation and (educate) our people who will be able to do it in the future,” Vucic said.

The Balkan country’s Yugoimport SDPR state arms producer will open a drone plant with Elbit Systems, according to Serbia’s BIRN news service. The report said the Israeli company will own 51% of the future plant.

Vucic’s government has sought to strengthen its military. Serbia ordered 12 French-made Rafale jets in 2024 in a bid to modernize its fleet.

Belgrade also has acquired military equipment from China and Russia, maintaining close ties to those two countries despite formally seeking membership in the European Union.

Serbia has pledged to stay out of NATO, which bombed the country in 1999 to stop a war in Kosovo following a decade of wars in the volatile Balkan region.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The trial of seven health care professionals accused of negligence in the death of soccer great Diego Maradona resumed on Tuesday, nearly a year after the original proceedings collapsed when a presiding judge stepped down after appearing in a documentary about the case.

The negligence case centers on seven medical professionals accused of failing to provide adequate care in the weeks leading up to Maradona’s death five years ago at a home outside Buenos Aires. Maradona, widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, died at age 60 from cardiac arrest while recovering from a procedure to treat a blood clot on his brain.

The seven defendants are charged with culpable homicide, a crime similar to involuntary manslaughter that alleges that the accused were aware that their reckless conduct posed a risk and failed to prevent it. If convicted, they face prison sentences ranging from eight to 25 years.

Defense attorneys argue that the captain of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup-winning team suffered from multiple serious medical conditions and that no crime was committed.

Maradona had suffered a series of medical problems, some because of an excess of drug and alcohol consumption. He was reportedly near death in 2000 and 2004.

Among those on trial are physician Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s personal doctor during the final years of his life, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Díaz.

Hearings will take place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Slightly less than 100 witnesses are expected to testify, including family members, people close to the former player, medical professionals and police officers.

Judges Alberto Gaig, Alberto Ortolani and Pablo Rolón are expected to deliver a verdict in early June.

Fernando Burlando, attorney for Maradona’s two eldest daughters and plaintiffs in the case, Dalma and Giannina, told reporters before Tuesday’s hearing that he had confidence in the new panel.

“We place enormous trust in them,” Burlando said. ”They are judges with extensive experience and backgrounds.”

He said that Maradona’s daughters remain “very exhausted.”

“It is very difficult,” Burlando said. “They are Maradona’s daughters, and that alone is not easy, and the fact that they cannot even have a moment of relief to know what happened to their father … although we are convinced of what happened.”

The initial trial ended in a mistrial last May after Julieta Makintach, one of the three judges overseeing the proceedings, stepped down following criticism over her participation in a documentary about the case.

Makintach withdrew after prosecutors presented footage showing her featured prominently in the documentary “Divine Justice,” which covered events from the aftermath of Maradona’s death, when allegations and suspicions of foul play first emerged, through the start of the trial.

“I present my resignation with serenity, without renouncing the right to exercise my defense in the appropriate arenas,” Makintach wrote in a letter sent to judicial authorities in June.

Maradona died on Nov. 25, 2020, weeks after undergoing surgery for a subdural hematoma. He had been admitted earlier that month to a clinic in La Plata, suffering from anemia and dehydration, before being transferred to Clínica Olivos, where he underwent the procedure. After being discharged on Nov. 11, he moved to a home outside Buenos Aires, where he remained under medical supervision.

A 20-member medical panel appointed to investigate Maradona’s death released a report in 2021, where they accused Maradona’s medical team of acting in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner,” leaving him in agony and without help for more than 12 hours before his death.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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