Write a short, clear, factual news headline based on this article:
A malnourished nine-year-old boy was rescued after being locked in his father’s van since 2024 in eastern France, a prosecutor said.
A neighbour alerted police to “sounds of a child” coming from a vehicle in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany.
After forcing the van open on Monday, officers found a child “lying in a foetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement”, the prosecutor, Nicolas Heitz, said.
He added the child was malnourished and could no longer walk because he had been sitting down for so long.
His 43-year-old father told police he had kept the boy in the utility vehicle since November 2024 to protect him from his 37-year-old partner who “wanted to put the child in psychiatric care”, the prosecutor said.
The couple lived in a block of flats with the boy’s siblings, his 12-year-old sister and 10-year-old half-sister.
The boy told police his father brought him food twice a day and left him bottles of water, according to Le Parisien newspaper.
He said he had to urinate in plastic bottles and defecate in bin bags, adding the last time he had a shower was at the end of 2024.
According to the father, his partner did not know the boy was in the van.
The man has been charged with the “sequestration and arbitrary detention of a minor”, as well as depriving him of proper food and medical care, and has been remanded in custody.
His partner has been charged with “non-assistance to a minor in danger” and “non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor” and has been granted conditional bail.
The three children have been placed in temporary care pending the decision of a children’s court judge.
Neighbours told police that the boy seemed to have disappeared suddenly at the end of 2024, but they understood from the couple that he had been placed in care.
Some local residents said they heard noises occasionally emanating from the van, but had been told it was a cat.
One neighbour, named Danielle, described the situation as “truly devastating”, Sky News reported.
She said: “We don’t understand it. It’s horrific, there are no words.
“I never once noticed anything, never heard anything … It feels like we’re living in a movie or a dream, and we keep thinking, ‘Tomorrow I’ll wake up, and maybe it’s not real.’ We just can’t comprehend it.”
Please rewrite the following news article into a professional, SEO-friendly English report in 400 to 600 words.
Article:
A malnourished nine-year-old boy was rescued after being locked in his father’s van since 2024 in eastern France, a prosecutor said.
A neighbour alerted police to “sounds of a child” coming from a vehicle in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany.
After forcing the van open on Monday, officers found a child “lying in a foetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement”, the prosecutor, Nicolas Heitz, said.
He added the child was malnourished and could no longer walk because he had been sitting down for so long.
His 43-year-old father told police he had kept the boy in the utility vehicle since November 2024 to protect him from his 37-year-old partner who “wanted to put the child in psychiatric care”, the prosecutor said.
The couple lived in a block of flats with the boy’s siblings, his 12-year-old sister and 10-year-old half-sister.
The boy told police his father brought him food twice a day and left him bottles of water, according to Le Parisien newspaper.
He said he had to urinate in plastic bottles and defecate in bin bags, adding the last time he had a shower was at the end of 2024.
According to the father, his partner did not know the boy was in the van.
The man has been charged with the “sequestration and arbitrary detention of a minor”, as well as depriving him of proper food and medical care, and has been remanded in custody.
His partner has been charged with “non-assistance to a minor in danger” and “non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor” and has been granted conditional bail.
The three children have been placed in temporary care pending the decision of a children’s court judge.
Neighbours told police that the boy seemed to have disappeared suddenly at the end of 2024, but they understood from the couple that he had been placed in care.
Some local residents said they heard noises occasionally emanating from the van, but had been told it was a cat.
One neighbour, named Danielle, described the situation as “truly devastating”, Sky News reported.
She said: “We don’t understand it. It’s horrific, there are no words.
“I never once noticed anything, never heard anything … It feels like we’re living in a movie or a dream, and we keep thinking, ‘Tomorrow I’ll wake up, and maybe it’s not real.’ We just can’t comprehend it.”
The talks in Islamabad were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Strait of Hormuz, a major transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen, is crucial to negotiations between the sides during a two-week ceasefire agreed last week.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the waterway remains among the main points of “serious disagreement” in talks between Iranian and US delegations in Islamabad.
The US military said two of its warships had passed through the strait and conditions were being set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any US ships had transited the waterway.
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted on social media.
Ceasefire holds, but Strait of Hormuz remains at a standstill
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US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner flew in on Saturday and met Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for two hours before a rest, according to a source from mediator Pakistan.
The Iranian delegation arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the US bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said.
“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” another Pakistani source said in reference to the first round of talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict.
Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews said talks would resume later on Saturday night or Sunday.
Pope Leo, in an impassioned appeal on Saturday, urged world leaders to end what he called the “madness of war.”
Different demands
The war has sent global oil prices soaring, killed thousands of people and led to strikes on Gulf Arab states.
Before the talks began, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the US had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks. But a US official denied it.
As well as the release of assets abroad, Tehran is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz, payment of war reparations and a ceasefire across the region including in Lebanon, according to Iranian state TV and officials.
Iran: a mediator on the mediations
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Trump’s stated goals have varied during the campaign, but as a minimum he wants free passage for global shipping through the strait and the crippling of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme to ensure it cannot produce an atomic bomb.
US ally Israel, which joined the February 28 attacks on Iran that launched the war, has also been bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and says that conflict is not part of the Iran-US ceasefire.
Mutual distrust is high.
“We will negotiate with our finger on the trigger,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on state TV.
“While we are open to talks,we are also fully aware of the lack of trust; therefore, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.”
Tehran’s agenda includes aiming to collect transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
The biggest-ever disruption there has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.
Nevertheless, three Liberian- and Chinese-flagged supertankers passed through the strait on Saturday, shipping data showed, marking what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the ceasefire.
Dozens dead in Lebanon
More than 90 people were killed in Israeli air strikes across Lebanon on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said, bringing the war’s death toll to 2,020 people, including 165 children, nearly 250 women and 85 medics.
Hezbollah said it had conducted several military operations against Israeli positions on Saturday, both within Lebanese territory and in northern Israel.
Israeli and Lebanese officials plan talks in the US on Tuesday.
For the US-Iran talks, Islamabad, a city of more than 2 million people, was locked down with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.
Pakistan’s mediating role is a remarkable transformation for a nation that was a diplomatic outcast a year ago.
“This was a world war that Pakistan stopped. It played a big role and we should appreciate it,” Nasir Khan Abbasi, a dry cleaner, said at a market in Islamabad. “I really like this and I feel great that Pakistan’s name is shining in the world.”
