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The Queen is celebrating her 93rd birthday, which this year coincides with Easter Sunday. Elizabeth II, who is head of the Church of England and has a strong faith, usually celebrates Easter at Windsor Castle by joining members of her family at a service in St George's Chapel. © Getty The Queen is Britain's longest-reigning monarch At Buckingham Palace, the Band of the Irish Guards will perform a rendition of Happy Birthday in her honour on the forecourt as part of the Changing the Guard ceremony. April 21 is the day the Queen was actually born - but she has a second birthday, her official one, which she marks on the second Saturday in June. © Provided by The Press Association The Queen at the Easter Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2018 (Tolga Akmen/PA) Her June birthday is commemorated with the Trooping the Colour parade. Gun salutes are also fired as a mark of respect to the Queen on her special day - but never on a Sunday, so this year ...

An anti-poaching ranger in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has described his striking selfie with a pair of endangered mountain gorillas as "just another day in the office". Virunga National Park anti-poaching ranger Mathieu Shamavu posted his selfie with the two gorillas on Facebook as part of his units' efforts to raise awareness and funds for the species at the UNESCO World Heritage site. The image, featuring the two gorillas standing upright and looking at the camera, has grabbed international attention on social media, bringing the plight of the species into the spotlight. According to the Virunga National Park website, one third of the world's population of critically endangered mountain gorillas live in the region. The park is protected by a team of more than 600 rangers, and is situated in a region of the country which has been impacted by war for more than 20 years. "These local men and women go through intensive training, risking their ...

Pope Francis led the world’s Roman Catholics into Easter at a vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday night, urging the faithful to live not for transient things like wealth and success but for God. The largest church in Christendom was dark at the start of the long service as the pope carved into a candle the numbers of the year 2019 and the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet - Alpha and Omega - signifying that God is the beginning and end of all things. Easter, the most important day in the Church’s liturgical calendar, commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead. Francis, marking his seventh Easter season as pope, wove his homily around the Bible account of the women who went to Jesus’ tomb only to find it empty and the large stone that had sealed it had been cast away. “God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness,” he said. “There is another stone that often se...