Daily Asia briefing

Israel barred Catholic officials from privately praying at a historic Jerusalem church for the first time in centuries over security concerns involving the war -- sparking outcry from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

The US-Israeli war against Iran has all but halted shipping through the strait, but Iran ​said this week that "non-hostile vessels" may transit the waterway ​if they coordinate with Iranian authorities.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed on Palm Sunday under Israeli wartime rules, drawing rebukes from the Catholic Church and Italy.

Three other soldiers were moderately wounded in the same incident, according to the IDF.

"This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, ​whom no one can use to justify war," Pope Leo, the first US pope, told crowds in ​St. Peter's Square.

Iran's parliament speaker vows never to accept "humiliation" as the Pentagon reportedly prepares ground force options near the Strait of Hormuz for Trump.

At least 33 bodies, including 25 children, were unearthed from a mass grave in Kericho, Kenya, as authorities investigate a reported hospital morgue transfer.

An Air Canada flight attendant who was thrown from the plane during the crash at LaGuardia has been seen in her hospital bed for the first time.

Police said officers stopped the vehicle believed to be involved shortly after the incident and arrested the driver, a man in his 30s, who remains in custody.

After American Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina went missing, a mayor in Colombia noted the discovery of a corpse that he said likely is that of the missing man.

A North Korean forced labor survivor describes earning $800 a month but keeping only $10, with passports seized and no way to leave Russian work sites.