World News

China’s central bank increased its gold reserves by 23 tonnes in September, the largest monthly acquisition since October 2023, bringing total holdings to approximately 2,410 tonnes. This move aims to reduce reliance on US dollar assets amid rising geopolitical and financial risks, with private demand for gold also soaring as households seek secure savings options.

A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

“This is the first cardinal to be prosecuted in a Vatican criminal court”, said FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Rome, Italy, Seema Gupta.” Cardinal Angelo Becciu is the most senior Vatican official to face such charges; “the 75-year-old cardinal was a former advisor to Pope Francis, so he was somebody who would meet with the pope and he was seen as a papal contender”. 

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