An ambulance with its emergency lights flashing left the site of a flooded cave in northern Thailand on Monday afternoon where a youth football team has been trapped for two weeks.

Hours after the second phase of a rescue operation was launched, the ambulance drove towards a helipad, where a helicopter was seen taking off shortly afterwards to the cheers of the crowd below.

The same process was used for at least one of the four boys rescued in the first attempt at getting the twelve boys and their coach out of the underground Tham Luang Nang Non complex in Chiang Rai province.

Bryan Kaui-Pai, who helps lead Grace Bangkok Church in the capital of the country, told Premier News Hour the nation rejoices as each child is rescued.

“When they were found it was almost like a big sigh of relief as a country,” he said.

“It’s like ‘wow they’re still alive, all of them are still alive. Wow.'”

Authorities have been rushing to extract the boys, aged 11-16, and their coach from the cave as the annual monsoon bears down on the mountainous region in far northern province.

Eight people remained trapped in the cave, including the team’s coach, as of Monday afternoon.

Workers have been labouring round the clock to pump water out of the cave, and authorities said heavy downpours overnight did…

Mr Pelly, a close friend of William and his brother the Duke of Sussex for many years, is among six godparents William and Kate have chosen for their 11-week old son.

Mr Pelly, whose family are wealthy Kent landowners, has settled down in recent years, marrying hotel heiress Elizabeth “Lizzy” Wilson in 2014.

But he was often cited as a bad influence on the royal brothers in their youth.

He helped organise William’s stag do, and was dubbed William and Harry’s “court jester” for his wild ways.

The former Stowe public schoolboy, who met the young princes through the Beaufort Hunt, once dressed up as the Queen and imitated her voice in 2005 when Harry was infamously photographed wearing a Nazi uniform at a fancy-dress party.

In the past, he ran celebrity nightspots Mahiki and Whisky Mist, a favourite with the young royals, and he has been banned from driving three times – twice for drink-driving and once for speeding.

Louis’ other godparents are: Nicholas van Cutsem – one of the van Custem brothers, who are long-time family friends of William and Harry; Harry Aubrey-Fletcher who went to Ludgrove School and Eton with William; Lady Laura Meade, who is married to William’s close friend James Meade; Kate’s Marlborough schoolfriend Hannah Carter (nee Gillingham); and the duchess’s cousin Lucy Middleton.

While Louis has six…

Speaking to leaders of Middle East churches in Italy on Saturday, Pope Francis said: “There is also the danger that the presence of our brothers and sisters in the faith will disappear, disfiguring the very face of the region.

“For a Middle East without Christians would not be the Middle East. Indifference kills and we desire to lift up our voices in opposition to this murderous indifference.”

In his opening prayer, Francis described the Middle East as being “covered by dark clouds of war, violence, and destruction, instances of occupation and varieties of fundamentalism, forced migration, and neglect”.

The pontiff has voiced his disapproval of wars on a number of occasions and in his address he also called on global powers to end their “thirst for profit that surreptitiously exploits oil and gas fields without regard for our common home”.

Christians make up approximately 5 per cent of the population in the Middle East – down from 20 per cent in the early 20th century, according to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

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The Archdiocese claimed the incident happened after Canon Tom White was meeting and greeting parishioners on Saturday evening after Mass at St Alphonsus Church.

It said it all started right as the parade came by.

“Police – who had been guarding the church – were called away to deal with another nearby incident leaving the priest and parishioners defenceless,” the Archdiocese posted in a statement on Facebook.

“Canon White and parishioners were subjected to vile abuse … ‘Fenian b*****d’ being the most typical.

“The priest was spat upon. Spittle landed on the back of his head. He wiped it away. Another mouthful of thick spittle was spat into his eye socket. Again he wiped it away leaving his hand full of the vile liquid.

“He was then further insulted and lunged at by a man carrying a pole before police arrived to restore some kind of order.”

The Archdiocese questioned the integrity of the Orange Order marches.

“Why is the Orange Order still allowed to schedule its intimidating parades on streets containing Catholic Churches at times when people are trying to get in and out for Mass?,” it asked.

The Church also said: “What kind of society is it that allows ministers of religion and church-goers to be intimidated and attacked by a group which has a long history of fomenting fear and anxiety on city streets?”

A…