‘Hope and dignity:’ Pope calls for peace in Easter message
VATICAN CITY (AP) — On Christianity’s most joyful day, Pope Francis called for peace in a world marked by war and conflict, “beginning with the beloved and long-suffering land of Syria” and extending to Israel, where 15 Palestinians were killed on the Israeli-Gaza border two days before Easter Sunday.
Francis reflected on the power of Christianity’s core belief — that Jesus rose from the dead following crucifixion — in his formal “Urbi et Orbi” Easter message delivered from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to a packed square of some 80,000 faithful below.
The pontiff said the message of the resurrection offers hope in a world “marked by so many acts of injustice and violence,” including parts of Africa affected by “hunger, endemic conflicts and terrorism.”
“It bears fruits of hope and dignity where there are deprivation and exclusion, hunger and unemployment; where there are migrants and refugees, so often rejected by today’s culture of waste, and victims of the drug trade, human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery,” the pope said.
Francis called for a “swift end” to the seven years of carnage in Syria.
Kim watches performance by SKorean pop stars
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un clapped his hands as he, along with his wife and hundreds of other citizens, watched a rare performance Sunday by South Korean pop stars visiting Pyongyang, highlighting the thawing ties between the rivals after years of heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear program.
A South Korean artistic group, including some of the South’s pop legends and popular girl band Red Velvet, flew to Pyongyang over the weekend for two performances in the North Korean capital, one on Sunday and the other on Tuesday.
How North Koreans would react to Red Velvet was particularly the focus of keen media attention in South Korea.
During Sunday’s performance at the packed East Pyongyang Grand Theater, Kim made a surprise visit with his wife Ri Sol Ju, sister Kim Yo Jong and other senior North Korean officials including nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam. Kim applauded during the event and shook hands with South Korean performers, even taking a group photo with them after their performance, according to South Korean media pool reports from Pyongyang.
Short pool TV footage also showed Kim, clad in a dark Mao-style suit, clapping from the second-floor VIP stand as South Korean Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan bowed and greeted North Korean spectators looking on from the first floor.
“We should hold culture and art performances frequently,” Kim told South Korean performers.
Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ tops holiday box office
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Steven Spielberg has found his way back to the top of the box office with the action-adventure “Ready Player One,” while Tyler Perry has scored again with “Acrimony.”
Studio estimates on Sunday say Spielberg’s virtual reality-focused film earned a solid $53.2 million in its first four days in theaters from 4,234 locations since opening Wednesday night, with $41.2 million of that coming from the three-day weekend.
Not adjusted for inflation, it’s Spielberg’s best opening in a decade following “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which launched with $100.1 million in 2008. Aside from “The BFG,” Spielberg has lately favored smaller historical dramas instead of the big-scale blockbusters of his heyday.
Based on Ernest Cline’s popular novel and chock-full of references to 1980s pop culture, including some nods to Spielberg’s own films, “Ready Player One” is a return to the popcorn filmmaking that he became known for.
China space lab mostly burns up on re-entry in South Pacific
BEIJING (AP) — China’s defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere today over the central South Pacific, Chinese space authorities said.
The experimental space laboratory re-entered around 8:15 a.m.
Scientists monitoring the craft’s disintegrating orbit had forecast the craft would mostly burn up and would pose only the slightest of risks to people. Analysis from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center showed it had mostly burned up.
Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at Australian National University, said Tiangong 1’s re-entry was “mostly successful” and that it would have been better if the space station had not been spinning toward Earth.
“It could have been better obviously, if it wasn’t tumbling, but it landed in the Southern Pacific Ocean and that’s kind of where you hope it would land,” Tucker said.
