AFP UK

Manado (Indonesia) (AFP) – Three people died and more than 500 others were rescued after a ferry caught fire off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, emergency officials said Monday.

London (AFP) – Olesksandr Usyk says “discipline” rather than “motivation” is fuelling his desire to box on after he underlined his status as the supreme heavyweight of his generation with a fifth round knockout of Daniel Dubois at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Castel Gandolfo (Italy) (AFP) – Pope Leo XIV slams the “barbarity” of the war in Gaza and urges for a “peaceful resolution of the conflict”, just days after a deadly strike by Israel’s military on a Catholic church. “I once again ask for an immediate end to the barbarity of the war,” Leo says at the end of the Angelus prayer at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence near Rome.

Congham (United Kingdom) (AFP) – A village in Norfolk, England, hosts the 2025 World Snail Racing Championships during which dozens of entrants are seen off by a rented snail called Bilbo Sluggins. The tournament dates back to the 1960s with contestants sent off with the starting announcement of “Ready. Steady. Slow”.

Caracas (AFP) – Cyclists speed through the tangled alleys and staircases of one of Latin America’s largest slums, and Venezuela’s biggest. In Caracas’ Petare, home to 600,000 people and long plagued by gang violence, a downhill mountain bike race hopes initiatives like this will help the neighborhood shake off its reputation as a “dangerous” place.

Berlin (AFP) – Dozens of Kate Bush fans dressed in red dresses gather in a park in Germany’s capital Berlin to dance together to the British singer’s cult hit Wuthering Heights. This was just one of a number of similar events taking place across the world, a global tradition known as “The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” which dates back to 2013.

Basel (Switzerland) (AFP) – Germany players train on the eve of their Women’s Euro 2025 quarter-final against France. “We’re convinced of our strengths, we know we have a lot of qualities, both offensively and defensively,” says French captain Griedge Mbock during a press conference ahead of the game. The winner will face Spain in the semi-finals.

Damascus (AFP) – Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa renews his pledge to protect minorities, after sectarian clashes left more than 700 people dead in the Druze-majority province of Sweida.

Ha Long (Vietnam) (AFP) – Rescuers continue to search for more than a dozen people missing after their boat capsized in a storm in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. According to state media, 34 people have died and the boat was carrying 48 passengers and five crew members. Most of those on board were families visiting from the capital Hanoi with more than 20 children among the passengers, the VNExpress news site said.

Lima (AFP) – Images released by the Peruvian National Police show a special squad, including an officer disguised as the popular character “El Chapulin Colorado”, raiding a house in northern of Lima and arresting five suspected members of a gang involved in drug trafficking.

Munich (Germany) (AFP) – Surfers ride the wave on the Eisbach (“ice brook”) in Munich’s Englischer Garten park as it reopens with new guidelines after two months of closure, following the drowning of a 33-year-old woman during a night-time winter surf.

Maiquetía (Venezuela) (AFP) – Venezuelan migrants, freed from a notorious Salvadoran prison where they had been sent by the United States, arrive in Caracas. IMAGES