Middle East

“It’s another revolution! Be happy!” a group of girls shouted. Like them, thousands of other Iranians took to the streets last night, singing and dancing. Such behaviour is officially banned in the Islamic republic but was tolerated. Still, many Iranians are aware of hard-liners’ strength. “"Will the revolutionary Guard support the deal?" wondered one Iranian.

In the last two weeks four community members were kidnapped in the capital; for two of them their kidnapping ended with the death, despite the payment of ransom. In a statement the Patriarchate denounces deteriorating security and appeals to the government for the protection of persons and their property.

UN inspectors will be allowed to question scientists and inspect military sites. “This deal is not built on trust - it is built on verification,” said Obama. For his Iranian counterpart, Rouhani, it is a “victory of diplomacy and mutual respect over outdated paradigm of exclusion and coercion. And this will be good beginning.”

At present there are no official claims for yesterday’s attacks. Suspicions point to Islamic State, who want to conquer the Iraqi capital. Security forces have armored the area north of Baghdad, in fear of more explosions. Markets and checkpoints targeted creating numerous civilian victims.

Pray for "a free heart that is not enslaved to the world’s deceits, its comforts, a beautiful life, of vices, of a false freedom of doing what you want when you want. We have to ask for a free heart. "

In the Bekaa Valley, the Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School will help 200 girls and young women, between 14 and 18 years, get a diploma or receive technical training. The Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace laureate is in Lebanon for "the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict.”

On the plane taking him home from Asunción to Rome, Pope Francis answered reporters’ questions about Greece, religious freedom, the crisis of the family, support for grassroots movements (not anarchy), neo-colonialism and Vatican “mediation” between Cuba and the United States.

Francis celebrates Mass in the large Nu Guazu plain, within a military air base. During his homily, the Pope stresses that Christ " the Christian journey is about changing hearts. It is about learning to live differently, under a different law, with different rules". Welcome is key to witness and conversion.

Pope arrives in the nation known as "the heart of Latin America," for the last leg of his pastoral visit to the continent. Speaking to the local authorities and the diplomatic corps, Francis remembers the Civil War and pays tribute "to the many ordinary Paraguayan people, whose names are not written in history books but who have been, and continue to be, the real protagonists in the life of your nation. I would also like to acknowledge with profound admiration the role played by the women of Paraguay in those dramatic historical moments".

This was announced by the Custody of the Holy Land. The Al-Nusra Front Jabhat brigade has denied any involvement and has allowed the police to investigate and find the religious. Fr. Dhiya "was seized by another jihadist group that hoped to ransom his release." Prayers for other religious still missing in Syria.

Francis celebrates Mass in one of the most popular Marian shrines in Latin America, Caacupé, which " preserves and treasures the memory of a people who know that Mary is their Mother, and that she has always been at the side of her children." Like the Mother of God, the women of Paraguay "lived through many difficult situations which, in the eyes of the world, would seem to discredit all faith”. " " When all seemed to be falling apart, with Mary you said: “Let us not be afraid, the Lord is with us; he is with our people, with our families; let us do what he tells us”.

Today in the Austrian capital new round of talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear program. US Secretary of State said major powers were not in a rush. Iran also expressed a similar position. Iranian Foreign Minister speaks of “ working hard" to "get the job done". Positions remain far apart on the timing of removal of sanctions.