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The United States has reiterated its condemnation of the recent terrorist attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), while choosing not to address whether it has undertaken any mediatory efforts to de-escalate tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi.

An attack on tourists in IIOJK this week sparked a new crisis between nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan, with New Delhi blaming Islamabad for the killings — with the Pakistani government strongly denying the allegations.

During a press briefing at the State Department, spokesperson Tammy Bruce said: “The United States stands with India [and] strongly condemns all acts of terrorism.”

“We pray for the lives of those lost and for the recovery of the injured and call for the perpetrators of this heinous act to be brought to justice,” the State Department spokesperson said.

To answer a question about President Trump’s first term when he offered to make peace between Pakistan and India, Bruce said: ” I’m not going to be remarking on it. I will say nothing more on that situation. “

“The president and secretary said some things. They made their positions clear. I will not continue with something of that manner.”

To another question about playing role in trying to defuse tension between India and Pakistan, Bruce said: “It’s a rapidly changing situation and we are monitoring it, closely. And we, of course, are not now taking a position on the status of Kashmir or Jammu either”.

Suspected militants opened fire in the Baisaran Valley, a popular tourist attraction in Kashmir’s Pahalgam area, on Tuesday afternoon, killing 26 people and wounding several others before fleeing into the surrounding pine forests.

Indian officials say Tuesday’s attack had “cross-border linkages”. Kashmiri police, in notices identified three people “involved” in the violence. However, India has not elaborated on the links or shared proof.

Pakistan said India’s accusations were made without any “credible investigation” or “verifiable evidence”, saying they are “frivolous” and “devoid of rationality”.

In response, both countries have closed the only open land border they share, and suspended special South Asian visas that enabled people to travel between them.

They have declared each other’s defence advisors in missions in New Delhi and Islamabad persona non grata, and reduced the strength of their embassies.

India has also suspended the Indus Water Treaty that regulated the sharing of water from the Indus River and its tributaries. Pakistan has warned that any attempt to stop or divert the water will be considered an act of war and met with “full force”.

Pakistan has paused all bilateral agreements and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. It has closed its airspace to all Indian-owned and Indian-operated airlines.

BEIJING: China has issued a stern warning after a US guided missile destroyer sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, a move that China condemned as provocative and destabilising. 

The Chinese military said on Thursday that it had dispatched naval and air forces to monitor and warn a US guided missile destroyer that sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait – the second such mission since Donald Trump became US president.

The US Navy sends ships, occasionally accompanied by vessels from allied countries, through the Taiwan Strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.

China held its latest round of war games around Taiwan earlier this month, drawing condemnation from Taipei and concern from the United States and its allies.

The Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army named the ship as the guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence, and said it passed through the strait on Wednesday in an act of “public hyping”.

“Relevant remarks by the United States have inverted right and wrong, distorted legal principles, confused the public and misled international perception,” the command said in a statement, without specifying which comments it was referring to.

“We are telling the United States to stop their distortions and hyping and to work together to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

The command also published a short video on its social media account showing a Chinese navy sailor observing the US warship with a pair of binoculars from a distance. It did not give an exact location for the encounter.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said in an emailed statement that its ship had conducted a routine transit of the strait “through waters where freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.”

The sailing demonstrates US commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations, it said.

“The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited.”

The US Navy’s last publicly announced sailing through the strait was in February, the month after Trump was inaugurated for a second term.

PARIS: The Vatican on Thursday said at least 130 foreign delegations had confirmed their attendance at Pope Francis’s funeral, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs.

Here is a list of VIP guests whose offices have confirmed they will be in Rome on Saturday.

Americas

ARGENTINA: President Javier Milei.

BRAZIL: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife Janja.

HONDURAS: President Xiomara Castro.

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General António Guterres.

UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump and his wife Melania.

Europe

AUSTRIA: Chancellor Christian Stocker.

BELGIUM: King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, with Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

BULGARIA: Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov.

CROATIA: President Zoran Milanović, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

DENMARK: Queen Mary.

ESTONIA: President Alar Karis.

EUROPEAN UNION: EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.

FINLAND: President Alexander Stubb.

FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron.

GERMANY: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz will not attend.

GREECE: Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

HUNGARY: President Tamás Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

IRELAND: President Michael Higgins and his wife Sabina, plus Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin.

KOSOVO: President Vjosa Osmani.

LATVIA: President Edgars Rinkēvičs.

LITHUANIA: President Gitanas Nausėda.

MOLDOVA: President Maia Sandu.

MONACO: Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene.

THE NETHERLANDS: Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.

NORTH MACEDONIA: President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova.

NORWAY: Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

POLAND: President Andrzej Duda and his wife.

PORTUGAL: President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.

ROMANIA: Interim President Ilie Bolojan.

RUSSIA: Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova.

SLOVAKIA: President Peter Pellegrini.

SLOVENIA: President Nataša Pirc Musar and Prime Minister Robert Golob.

SPAIN: King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.

SWEDEN: King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

UKRAINE: President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska.

UNITED KINGDOM: Prince William representing head of state King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Middle East

ISRAEL: Yaron Sideman, Ambassador to the Holy See.

Africa

CAPE VERDE: President José Maria Neves.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

Asia

INDIA: President Droupadi Murmu.

PHILIPPINES: President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Liza Marcos.

Indian opposition parties have extended full support to the government in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, while also questioning the “security failure” in the incident that left at least 26 tourists dead.

The opposition parties condemned the Pahalgam attack during an all-party meeting summoned to shore up support for the incumbent BJP-led government, reported the country’s media on Thursday.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the opposition raised the issue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absence at the crucial moot as well as the “security lapse” in the incident.

He, however, maintained that opposition parties asserted that they will fully cooperate with the government on this issue to give a message that the country is united.

“It was said in one voice that whatever action the government takes in the interest of the country, we are together and will support the government. We will cooperate on this issue to give a message that the country is united,” the Congress leader said.

Indian media added that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting instead of Modi. Kharge added that the Congress pointed out that PM Modi should have joined the meeting because he has the power to take the final decision.

The attack on Tuesday claimed the lives of 26 people — including one Nepali national — and India’s government blames Pakistan for the attack, a claim that Islamabad vehemently denied and also termed as a “false flag operation”.

Despite Pakistan’s categorical denial regarding its role in the incident, the PM Modi-led government has suspended the Indus Water Treaty and banned the entry of Pakistani nationals.

Apart from the immediate closure of the Integrated Check Post Attari, New Delhi has also asked military, naval and air advisers in the Pakistani High Commission to leave the country within a week while declaring them persona non grata.

Recalling its own advisers, the neighbouring country has also announced the overall strength of the High Commissions to 30 from the present 55 by May 1 — which is also the deadline for Pakistanis to leave the country.

NANTES, FRANCE: A student killed a girl and wounded three other pupils in a stabbing spree on Thursday at a private high school in France, prompting the prime minister to urge better security in and around schools to combat “endemic youth violence”.

The pupil — whose name and age were not specified but whose classmates said had written a manifesto against “globalised ecocide” — was arrested after finally being overpowered by school staff.

France has in recent years been shaken by a series of school incidents involving attacks on teachers as well as schoolchildren by their peers.

In the latest case of teenage violence, the assailant attacked fellow students with a knife at the Notre-Dame de Toutes-Aides secondary school in the western city of Nantes at around 12:30 pm (1030 GMT), a police source said.

President Emmanuel Macron, writing on X, saluted the bravery of the teachers who intervened saying they prevented an even higher toll.

“Through their intervention, teachers likely prevented other tragedies. Their courage demands respect,” he said.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou urged “an intensification of controls in and around schools” following the attack.

He called for a “collective awakening” in the face of “endemic violence” among “a segment of our youth”, and demanded proposals within four weeks to prevent further “violence committed by minors” with knives.

AFP spoke with one student who gave an account of what happened.

“I was in the cafeteria with my friends and we were told that a high school pupil had stabbed students in several classrooms,” she said, without giving her name.

“We were told not to leave the cafeteria for about 20 minutes and then we were confined to a gym.”

She added the assailant “was known to be depressed, he said he loved Hitler”.

Another school pupil sent AFP the suspected attacker’s manifesto in which he said “globalisation has transformed our system into a machine to decompose humanity”, advocating for a “biological revolt” to facilitate a return to “the natural order of things, even if cruel” instead of “globalised ecocide”.

Site sealed off

The school administration sent a message to the families of the some 2,000 students who attend the school, informing them of the incident.

Students had been immediately confined inside the school, the statement added.

“In coordination with the authorities present, we are organising the gradual release of students from 3:30pm onwards in accordance with a strict protocol,” the message said.

Concerned parents gathered outside of the school, which had already been cordoned off by police who, with French soldiers, were guarding the site.

Ludivine, 48, said she had learned that the attack had happened in her daughter’s class.

“As an anxious mother who doesn´t let her out alone, I never thought anything would happen to her at her school,” she said.

French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau arrived on site in the afternoon.

Borne in February said police would start random searches for knives and other weapons concealed in bags at and around schools in a bid to deal with an increase in violent attacks.

TOKYO: Police in Okinawa, Japan, on Thursday said that two US marines are being investigated for suspected rapes, in the most recent in a series of sexual assault cases that have infuriated locals.

About 54,000 US military personnel are based in Japan, primarily on the island of Okinawa, which lies east of Taiwan and in the subtropical region of the country.

“A US marine in his 20s is suspected of raping a Japanese woman at an American military base in March, and is also suspected of injuring another woman,” a local police official told AFP.

The second marine, also in his 20s, is suspected of raping a Japanese woman at a US base in January, the official said.

Police have referred the two cases to prosecutors.

Washington will cooperate “fully” with Japanese authorities in the investigations, said US ambassador George Glass.

“We deeply value the ties of trust and friendship we have built over many decades with our Japanese hosts, and I am committed to doing everything I can to prevent actions that may jeopardise these bonds,” he said in a statement.

On Friday, US service members joined Japanese officials and residents in Okinawa for a one-off joint nighttime patrol along a downtown street dotted with bars.

The patrol — the first such joint operation since 1973 — followed other sexual assault cases in Okinawa involving American servicemen.

A 21-year-old marine was charged with rape in June last year, just months after prosecutors charged a 25-year-old US soldier for allegedly assaulting a girl under 16.

Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki called the latest cases “deplorable” and said authorities would urge the US military to prevent similar incidents, Japanese media reported.

Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the cases at a regular briefing on Thursday, but said crimes by US troops were “unacceptable”.

The alleged rape in March took place in a restroom, and the woman injured was trying to stop the assault on the other woman, Japanese media said, citing police sources.

Relations have long been fraught between Okinawans and the US bases.

Last year, a total of 80 people connected to the US military were charged in Okinawa for various crimes, police said.

The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa prompted a major backlash — with calls for a rethink of the 1960 pact allowing the United States to station troops in Japan.

NEW DELHI: Students from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have reported facing harassment and intimidation in various parts of India following a deadly assault in the disputed Himalayan territory, according to a student association on Thursday.

The attack, which occurred in the tourist town of Pahalgam on Tuesday, claimed the lives of 26 men, all of them Indian nationals except one Nepali, and has been described as the deadliest assault on civilians in the region since 2000.

Indian media reports allege that the assailants selectively targeted men.

Kashmiri students in states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were allegedly asked to leave their rented apartments or university hostels on Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir Students Association convenor Nasir Khuehami said.

At a university in Himachal Pradesh, students were harassed and physically attacked after hostel doors were broken, Khuehami said.

The students were allegedly called “terrorists”, he added.

“This is not just a security issue”, he said. “It is a deliberate and targeted campaign of hate and vilification against students from a particular region and identity”.

In Uttarakhand’s capital city Dehradun, around 20 students fled to the airport on Wednesday following warnings from the Hindu Raksha Dal, a fringe right-wing group.

The students said that the group threatened Kashmiri Muslim students with dire consequences if they did not leave town at the earliest.

Freedom fighters have waged a freedom struggle in IIOJK since 1989. Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt in IIOJK for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.

On Wednesday, New Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with a raft of diplomatic measures.

Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack.

SRINAGAR: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday vowed to pursue and punish attackers and their backers behind the attack on tourists in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam area.

At a speech in India’s eastern state of Bihar, Modi folded his hands in prayer in remembrance for the 26 men who were shot and killed in a meadow in the tourist hotspot, exhorting thousands gathered at the venue to do the same.

“We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” Modi said, referring to the attackers, without referring to their identities or naming Pakistan.

His comments are, however, bound to further inflame ties between the nuclear-armed rivals after India downgraded ties with Pakistan late on Wednesday, suspending a six-decade-old water treaty and closing the only land border crossing between the neighbours.

Pakistan’s Power Minister Awais Leghari called the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty “an act of water warfare; a cowardly, illegal move”.

Police in IIOJK published notices on Thursday naming three suspected attackers “involved in” the attack and announced rewards for information leading to their arrest.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Wednesday a cabinet committee on security was briefed on the cross-border linkages of the attack, the worst on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.

Misri, the top diplomat in India’s foreign ministry, did not offer any proof of the linkages or provide any more details.

New Delhi will also pull out its defence advisers in Pakistan and reduce staff size at its mission in Islamabad to 30 from 55, Misri said.

India has summoned the top diplomat at the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi, local media reported, to give notice that all defence advisers in the Pakistani mission were persona non grata and given a week to leave, one of the measures Misri announced.

Modi has also called for an all-party meeting with opposition parties to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

Embassy protest

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave on Thursday, shouting slogans and pushing against police barricades.

In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is also chairing a meeting of the National Security Committee to discuss Pakistan’s response.

The Indus Treaty, mediated by the World Bank and signed in 1960, regulated the sharing of waters of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan. It has withstood two wars between the neighbours since then and severe strains in ties at other times.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were weak even before the latest measures were announced as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.

Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback to what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have projected as a major achievement in revoking the special status Jammu and Kashmir state enjoyed and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s cabinet members will likely move to limit the influence of Department of Government Efficiency employees and reassert control over budgets and staffing once Elon Musk steps back from DOGE, two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Efforts to shrink the federal workforce and slash the deficit via mass firings, contract cancellations and reduced services to Americans across the federal government have been spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency, created by executive order the day Trump took office and helmed by billionaire Musk.

But Musk confirmed plans on Tuesday to reduce his government time commitment to one or two days a week to focus on his battered car company Tesla, raising questions about the future of the agency’s work. As a special government employee, his mandate appeared due to expire at the end of May.

The billionaire has provided the White House with political cover while DOGE pursued a cost-cutting drive that has made it deeply unpopular among career staffers. Cabinet secretaries view DOGE employees as encroaching on their traditional authority to hire and fire, and some have been reluctant to do its bidding.

In recent weeks, tensions had escalated within the Trump administration over the authority granted to Musk. During a March cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with Musk, accusing him of undermining USAID and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confronted Musk over proposed layoffs of air traffic controllers amid aviation safety concerns, sources familiar with the situation said.

Cabinet secretaries have consistently pushed for greater control over budgetary decisions, and without Musk’s high-profile presence as a counterbalance, their efforts to implement targeted spending cuts — rather than sweeping reductions — are likely to move forward with fewer obstacles, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss things they are not authorised to talk about.

The most significant shift will be the increased authority of the cabinet itself. Agency heads will now have the final say on which proposals move forward, solidifying their role at the centre of federal efficiency and spending strategy.

The cabinet will have more autonomy and will no longer need Musk’s sign-off on every decision, said one of the sources.

The shifting leadership dynamics within DOGE will also lead to a reassessment of the roles and responsibilities of young engineers initially hired by Musk to staff DOGE.

The engineers’ influence may diminish, the source said, adding that they will come under increased scrutiny. The source said the qualifications and authority of the coterie of young engineers with little government experience will be questioned.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields pushed back on the idea that Musk stepping back from his role signals a shift in the direction or influence of DOGE.

“The way DOGE has been designed is that the Cabinet already has that autonomy over spending cuts. DOGE has just been an element of the agency,” Fields said. “There will be no changes. DOGE is running effortlessly. In a way it’s almost on cruise control, and it’s working well within the federal government to execute the President’s agenda,” Fields said.

Many DOGE-watchers, from academics to advocates for and against his agency’s work, see the budget slashing efforts continuing apace despite Musk’s shift to part-time work, citing executive orders that have set the wheels in motion and Trump Cabinet officials on board with his agenda.

“A lot of what DOGE has done has been internalized by a lot of these agencies, and it’s going to keep moving forward,” said Nick Bednar, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School who has been tracking the government layoffs, and who sees government agencies as unlikely to reverse the cuts DOGE has made.

“There’s a train that’s left the station, it’s difficult to stop,” Bednar said.

‘Mostly done’

Musk, a top backer of Trump in the 2024 election and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and executive chairman of X, is the ideological driving force behind the government overhaul. He has installed top lieutenants at key government agencies, while dispatching former staffers of X and SpaceX across a swath of federal agencies to oversee deep staff cuts.

He has had his fingerprints on a host of White House initiatives, from a federal hiring freeze, to several rounds of government-wide buyout offers, as well as a directive to agencies to craft restructuring plans to reduce their staffs. His demand that federal workers account for what they have achieved in time-consuming weekly emails was initially enforced by most cabinet secretaries but has now mostly stopped.

“The large slug of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place and working in the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done,” Musk said on Tuesday.

With Musk turning to his business, DOGE will need to find another leader. One possibility is Amy Gleason, who in February the White House named as acting administrator. She said in a court filing on March 19 that Musk does not work at DOGE. Trump himself has contradicted that by saying on numerous occasions that Musk is in charge.

However, it has never been clear what his role day to day is, and that will become even more important to clarify in the lead up to his departure.

Tom Schatz, a proponent of DOGE’s mission and president of the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, said his exit could make DOGE more effective.

Musk “is a lightning rod” who “draws attention to whatever he does,” he said. With Musk taking a small role, “it will be… maybe more effective because of less attention played to him.”

VATICAN CITY: Cardinals will meet Tuesday to decide the date for Pope Francis’s funeral, starting a process that will culminate in the election of a new Catholic leader within three weeks.

Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday aged 88 after suffering a stroke.

He had been recovering from double pneumonia that saw him hospitalised for five weeks.

Tributes have poured in from around the globe for Francis, a liberal reformer who took over following the resignation of German theologian Benedict XVI in 2013.

The Argentine pontiff’s home country prepared for a week of national mourning while India began three days of state mourning on Tuesday, a rare honour for a foreign religious leader in the world’s most populous nation.

Heads of state and royalty are expected for his funeral, due to be held at St Peter’s Basilica, with Donald Trump the first to announce he would attend.

“He was a good man, he worked hard and loved the world,” the US president said, despite the pontiff’s criticisms of his migrant deportation programme.

The funeral should be held between the fourth and sixth days after the pope’s death, according to the Apostolic Constitution — so between Friday and Sunday this week.

But the details will be decided by the cardinals, who have been summoned for a first of a series of “general congregations” starting at 9:00am (0700GMT).

Cardinals of all ages are invited to the congregations, although only those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote for a new pope in the conclave.

The conclave should begin no less than 15 and no more than 20 days after the death of the pope.

Simple tomb

The pope’s body was moved into the Santa Marta chapel on Monday evening, and his apartment formally sealed, the Vatican said.

His remains are expected to be transferred from the Santa Marta residence, where he lived and died, to St Peter’s Basilica starting Wednesday to lie in state.

Francis, who wore plain robes and eschewed the luxury of his predecessors, has opted for a simple tomb, unadorned except for his name in Latin: Franciscus, according to his will released Monday.

He will be buried in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, becoming the first pope in more than 100 years to be laid to rest outside the Vatican.

His death certificate released by the Vatican said Francis died of a stroke, causing a coma and “irreversible” heart failure.

He had been discharged from Rome´s Gemelli hospital on March 23, ordered to spend at least two months resting.

But Francis delighted in being among his flock and made numerous public appearances in recent days.

He appeared exhausted on Sunday during the Easter celebrations, but nevertheless greeted the crowds in his popemobile in St Peter’s Square.

Argentine football great Lionel Messi hailed his compatriot — himself a huge fan of the beautiful game — for “making the world a better place”.

Eyes of God

On Monday evening, thousands of faithful, some bringing flowers or candles, flocked to St Peter’s Square at sunset to pray for Francis.

Born Jorge Bergoglio, Francis was the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit to lead the worldwide Catholic Church.

An energetic reformer, he sought to open the Church to everyone and was hugely popular — but his views also sparked fierce internal opposition.

In 12 years as pope, Francis advocated tirelessly for the defence of migrants, the environment, and social justice without questioning the Church’s positions on abortion or priestly celibacy.

A fierce opponent of the arms trade, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires repeatedly called for peace in conflicts from Sudan to Gaza and Ukraine — although his pleas fell largely on deaf ears.

Outspoken and stubborn, Francis also sought to reform the governance of the Holy See and expand the role of women and lay people, and to clean up the Vatican’s murky finances.

Faced with revelations of widespread child sex abuse in the Church, he lifted pontifical secrecy and forced religious and lay people to report cases to their superiors.

However, victims’ groups said he did not go far enough.