Headline

Cardinals Hold Last Mass Before Conclave To Elect Pope

Published

3 months ago

May 7, 2025

Editor

Cardinals from five continents held a final mass in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Wednesday before sealing themselves away to elect a new pope to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

A total of 133 cardinal electors are expected to take part in the conclave, the voting process to pick a successor to Pope Francis, who died last month after a 12-year papacy.

No clear frontrunner has emerged from among the prelates — representing a range of progressive and conservative traditions within the Church — and the contest to lead the 2,000-year-old institution appears wide open.

In a time of geopolitical uncertainty, the new pope faces diplomatic balancing acts, as well as Church infighting, the continued fall-out from the clerical child abuse scandal, and — in the West — increasingly empty pews.

The “Princes of the Church” began a pre-conclave mass in St Peter’s Basilica at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), presided over by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re.

It was the last rite to be celebrated publicly before the Church’s 267th pope is presented to the world from a balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, likely several days later.

Both Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI were elected within two days, but the longest papal election in Church history lasted 1,006 days, from 1268 to 1271.

With clerics from around 70 countries, this conclave is the largest ever, and the next pontiff will have to secure at least 89 votes — a two-thirds majority.

The cardinals, who must be younger than 80 to take part, are staying at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse — where Francis used to live — and Santa Marta Vecchia, a building next door usually housing Vatican officials.

At 3:45 pm they will set off from Santa Marta to gather at the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, where a prayer will be held from 4:30 pm.

They then proceed into the 15th-century Sistine Chapel for the conclave, which is “one of the most secret and mysterious events in the world”, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

– Swear an oath –

Under a ceiling of frescoes painted by Michelangelo, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin — the senior elector — will call on God to give the cardinals “the spirit of intelligence, truth and peace” needed for their task.

Parolin, a frontrunner who was Francis’s number two as secretary of state, will then lead the cardinals in chanting the Latin invocation of the Holy Spirit: “Veni, Creator Spiritus”.

The cardinals have spent days discussing the most pressing challenges facing the Catholic Church and the character traits its new leader needs.

Burning issues include falling priest numbers, the role of women, the Vatican’s troubled balance sheets and how to adapt the Church to the modern world.

Some 80 percent of the cardinals were appointed by Francis — an impulsive, charismatic champion of the downtrodden.

But while interviews in the run-up suggested that some cardinals favour a leader able to protect and develop his legacy, others want a more conservative defender of doctrine.

More than a dozen names are circulating, from Italian Pierbattista Pizzaballa to Hungary’s Peter Erdo and Sri Lanka’s Malcolm Ranjith.

We may never know how close a race it is. Having surrendered mobile phones, the red-robed cardinals will swear an oath to keep the conclave’s secrets.

They also each pledge to “faithfully” serve as pope should they be chosen, before the master of liturgical ceremonies says “Extra omnes” (“Everyone out”).

Once the doors close, the cardinals fill out ballots marked “Eligo in Summum Pontificem” (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”).

They then carry them, folded, and place them on a silver plate which is used to tip them into an urn, set on a table in front of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.

The cardinals traditionally cast just one ballot on the first evening, burning the votes along with a chemical that produces black smoke if there is no decision, white for a new pope.

Outside, hundreds of the faithful have gathered on St Peter’s Square, all eyes trained on the Sistine Chapel chimney, with news of the first vote expected by early evening Wednesday.

Headline

FULL LIST: Ghana Releases Identities Of Helicopter Crash Victims

Published

7 hours ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

The Ghanaian Government has released the names of individuals who died in Wednesday morning’s military helicopter crash.

The crash involved a Z-9 helicopter belonging to the Ghana Armed Forces, which lost contact during a flight from Accra, the capital, to Obuasi, a gold-mining town in the south, where the crew headed for an official engagement.

In a post via its official X handle on Wednesday, the Ghana Armed Forces said the victims comprise eight people.

The names and portfolios of the victims are listed below:

1. Edward Omane Boamah – Minister for Defence

2. ⁠Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed – Minister for Environment, Science and Technology

3. Muniru Mohammed – Acting deputy, National Security Coordinator and former Minister for Food and Agriculture

4. Samuel Sarpong – Vice- Chairman, National Democratic Congress

5. ⁠Samuel Aboagye – Former parliamentary candidate

6. Peter Baafemi Anala – ⁠Squadron leader

7. ⁠Manaen Twum Ampadu – Flying officer

8. ⁠Ernest Addo – Sergeant

Following the sad development, Ghanaian President John Mahama described the incident as a national tragedy and suspended activities upon receiving the news.

He also directed that flags fly at half-mast to honour the memory of the victims.

Headline

Bodies Of Helicopter Crash Victims Arrive In Accra

Published

8 hours ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

The Ghana Armed Forces on Wednesday confirmed the arrival in Accra of the remains of the victims of the Z-9 military helicopter crash, which claimed the lives of eight personnel.

It stated that the victims’ bodies were transported from the crash site aboard a Ghana Air Force Casa aircraft and received at the Air Force Base in Accra on August 6, 2025.

According to a statement issued by the Acting Director General, Public Relations, Ghana Navy, Captain Veronica Arhin, government officials, military personnel, and sympathisers led by the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Julius Debrah, were present to receive the bodies.

The statement said the remains have since been deposited at the 37 Military Hospital for preservation and preparations for burial.

It noted that all eight bodies were recovered from the crash site located in the Sikaman area, near Adansi Akrofuom in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.

The Ghana Armed Forces extended its appreciation to the people of Sikaman and the security services for their support during the recovery operations.

“The Deputy Minister for Defence, Hon. Brogya Genfi, and the Military High Command extend their deepest condolences to the families in this difficult national tragedy,” the statement added.

Headline

Hiroshima Marks 80 Years As US-Russia Nuclear Tensions Rise

Published

20 hours ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” close to midnight.

A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.

On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded.

In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world”, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.

“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan’s mission “to take the lead… toward a world without nuclear weapons”.

The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.

Three days after “Little Boy”, on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.

Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many.

On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.

Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.

Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims.

“My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn’t see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.

“People are still suffering,” she added.

Wednesday’s ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives.

The United States — which has never formally apologised for the bombings — was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha.

As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.

“I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened,” the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.

Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts”, Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained “living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion”.

– Younger generation –
The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.

Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.

“The younger generation is working hard for that end,” he said ahead of the ceremony.

But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.

The clock symbolising humanity’s distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world’s over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

SIPRI warned in June that “a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened,” with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.