Leila Sherwood first met the heir to the throne in 1979 as a 14-year-old, when she skipped school to see him at Cairns Airport.

“I broke through a barrier and jumped out in front of him.

“I said ‘Charles, may I kiss you?’ He said ‘yes, all right then’, so I pecked his cheek. I was all over the TV afterwards.”

Greeting the prince once again outside St John the Evangelist Church on Sunday, the now 54-year-old showed him a newspaper clipping from the time.

She said: “He held my hand and said ‘bless you’ – I didn’t want to let go of his hand!”

The Prince of Wales hailed the “remarkable” Flying Doctors service as he visited the Cairns base – and said he was “very proud” to be its patron.

On a tour of the base, the prince chatted to staff about their work in giving urgent medical help to people in rural areas of Queensland, and was given a demonstration of how to treat a snake bite.

He also had the chance to speak to people who rely on the service, before formally naming the newest addition to the Flying Doctors fleet, uniquely configured as an ‘intensive care unit of the sky’, as the Outback Angel.

He said: “I’m very proud to be patron of the Flying Doctors. It’s a remarkable operation.”

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

German prosecutors have no indication why a 48-year-old man drove a van into a crowd of people in the western city of Munster, killing two and injuring 20 before shooting himself dead inside the van.

“As of now, we don’t have any leads regarding a possible background for the deed,” prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt wrote in a joint statement with police.

“The investigations are being led under high pressure in all possible directions.”

Authorities have identified the two fatalities of Saturday’s crash as a 51-year-old woman from Lueneburg County and a 65-year-old man from Broken County.

The city’s Roman Catholic bishop, Felix Glenn, invited all of Munster’s citizens to a joint Catholic-Lutheran memorial service at the famous Paulus Cathedral on Sunday night.

Local media have identified the perpetrator as a German industrial designer living in Munster who had been suffering from psychological problems, but police would not confirm the details.

All three bodies were taken from the scene in front of the well-known Kiepenkerl pub early on Sunday night.

The silver-grey van was hauled away hours later after explosives experts had thoroughly checked it.

“The van is not at the crime scene any more, all kinds of objects have also been removed, waste of course, as well as evidence that we’ve found on the ground,” police spokeswoman…

A poison gas attack on a rebel-held town near the Syrian capital has killed at least 40 people, according to activists, rescuers and medics.

The alleged attack in the town of Douma occurred on Saturday night amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 80 people were killed in Douma on Saturday, including around 40 who died from suffocation.

Opposition-linked first responders, known as the White Helmets, also reported the attack, saying entire families were found suffocated in their houses and shelters.

Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is sending emergency aid including food, medicine and shelter as well as pastoral help to families in Syria.

After visiting the war-torn country, John Pontifex from the charity, said: “The people of Syria have been living through unimaginable pain and suffering for the past seven years, as the conflict has caused terrible devastation.

ACN has completed 143 aid projects in Syria over the past 12 months.

Government forces resumed their offensive on rebel-held Douma on Friday afternoon after a 10-day truce collapsed over disagreement regarding the evacuation of opposition fighters.

Violence returned days after hundreds of opposition fighters and their relatives left Douma towards rebel-held areas in northern Syria. Douma is the…

Fifteen people were killed and 14 others injured when a lorry collided with a bus carrying a junior hockey team to a playoff game in western Canada, authorities have said.

The bus driving the Humboldt Broncos had 29 people on board, including the driver, when it crashed at about 5pm local time on Friday on Highway 35 in Saskatchewan, Canadian police said.

Head coach Darcy Haugan and team captain Logan Schatz are among the 15 dead, relatives said.

Three people are in critical condition.

Kelly Schatz, Logan’s father, said his 20-year-old son had played for the Broncos for just over four years and had served as team captain for the past two-and-a-half years.

“It’s hard,” Mr Schatz said.

Christina George-Haugan confirmed that her husband Darcy is among the dead.

Tributes poured in online for the father of two, who was described as an amazing mentor to young players.

To the entire Humboldt Broncos hockey community: We are here for you. As neighbours, as friends, and as Canadians, we grieve alongside you. Statement: https://t.co/jKloGgn5io

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 7, 2018

Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks, who the Broncos were set to play against, said: “It’s a horrible accident, my God.”

The Broncos are a close-knit team from the small city of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, which has a population of about 6,000.

Many gathered at the community centre…

A Vatican statement said that Monsignor Carlo Capella was being held in gendarmerie barracks inside the Vatican, and that his arrest follows a Vatican investigation.

Police in Windsor, Ontario, said Capella allegedly uploaded child porn from a social networking site while visiting a place of worship from over the 2016 Christmas holiday.

In the statement, Windsor police accused Capella of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography.

The Vatican recalled Capella, the number four in its Washington embassy, after the US State Department notified it on August 21 of a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by one of its diplomats in Washington.

Capella was a high-ranking priest in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps.

He served on the Italy desk in the Vatican’s secretariat of state and was part of the official delegation that negotiated a tax treaty with Italy before being posted to the US embassy last year.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.