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       Dutch police detained a man Saturday after he left a nightclub where hostages had been held, apparently bringing a peaceful end to a tense, hours-long standoff.

       “The last hostage has just been released. One person was arrested. We cannot give more information at the moment,” police said in a message on X.

       The man walked out of the club and was ordered by armed police to kneel with his hands on his head. He was then handcuffed before being led into a waiting police car.

       Earlier, three young hostages left the Cafe Petticoat in the central town of Ede. A fourth person was released shortly before the suspect was arrested.

       Heavily armed police and special arrest teams, some wearing masks, had gathered outside the popular club. Some 150 nearby homes were evacuated.

       Before the latest developments, Ede Mayor René Verhulst called the standoff a “terrible situation for all these people. My concern and thoughts go out to them and their loved ones. I hope that the situation is now resolved quickly and safely.”

       Ede is a rural market town 85 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam. The municipality said that all shops in the centre of the town would remain closed while the situation continued. Trains to and from the town's station also were halted.

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       Pope Francis skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum to protect his health, the Vatican said.

       The last-minute decision has added to concerns about his frail condition during the busy period.

       Francis had been expected to preside over the Way of the Cross procession, which re-enacts Christ’s Passion and crucifixion, and composed meditations that are read aloud at each station. But just as the event was about to begin, the Vatican announced that Francis was following the event from his home at the Vatican.

       “To conserve his health in view of the vigil tomorrow and Mass on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis will follow the Via Crucis at the Colosseum this evening from the Casa Santa Marta,” a statement from the Vatican press office said.

       The Vatican's Press Office posted on X that Pope Francis prayed from his residence rather than the Colosseum to "preserve his health."

       While Francis had also skipped the event in 2023 because he was recovering from bronchitis and it was a cold night, his decision to stay home this year suggested his plans had changed suddenly.

       87-year-old Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been battling what he and the Vatican have described as a case of the flu, bronchitis or a cold all winter long.

       For the last several weeks he has occasionally asked an aide to read aloud his speeches, and he skipped his Palm Sunday homily altogether.

       On Saturday, he is scheduled to preside over a lengthy evening Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s, one of the most solemn events in the liturgical calendar.

       He is also due to preside over Easter Sunday Mass in the piazza and deliver his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) speech rounding up global crises and threats to humanity.

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       Tajikistan's state security service has detained nine people over suspected contact with the perpetrators of last week’s attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said Friday.

       The reported arrests came exactly a week after the massacre in the Crocus City Hall, in which gunmen shot people waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire.

       The four suspected attackers were arrested and identified as Tajik nationals.

       An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest on Russian soil in years. The Kremlin, however, has insisted that Ukraine and the West had a role, something Kyiv has vehemently denied.

       RIA Novosti said Friday, citing an unnamed source in Tajikistan’s security services, that those detained in the Central Asian country were residents of the Vakhdat district that lies east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

       The report said those detained are suspected of having connections with the Islamic State group.

       In Russia, a total of nine suspects have faced court so far and were remanded in pre-trial detention.

       Shifting blame

       Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have persistently claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine and the West had a role in the attack.

       The Investigative Committee said Thursday that it has “confirmed data that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack received significant amounts of money and cryptocurrency from Ukraine, which were used in preparing the crime.”

       Mediazona reported that a 9th suspect has been charged, with investigators claiming that they were instructed to flee to Kyiv following the attack.

       Ukraine denies involvement and its officials claim that Moscow is pushing the allegation as a pretext to intensify its fighting in Ukraine.

       The death toll from the raid continues to rise, with the number of deaths increasing to 144 on Friday when a severely injured victim died in a hospital, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko.