Headline

Pope Francis To Miss Weekly Sunday Blessing After Surgery

Published

2 years ago

June 11, 2023

Doctors have asked Pope Francis not to deliver his Sunday blessing from a hospital balcony.

They said the pontiff is recovering well from a three-hour surgical operation he underwent to repair an abdominal hernia in Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters on Saturday, surgeon Sergio Alfieri said the 86-year-old would not perform the weekly blessing to avoid strain on his abdomen.

He added the Pope would stay in hospital for all of next week, according to BBC.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the Pope would instead say the traditional noon Angelus prayer from his hospital suite and urged the world’s Catholics to join him.

“Only three days have passed. We asked the Holy Father to be prudent and avoid the strain [of standing at the balcony]”, Dr Alfieri told reporters.

He added that the Pope had a mesh prosthetic inserted into his abdominal wall to help it heal and doctors want it to settle and attach properly to avoid another operation if it breaks.

“You can understand how that would not be pleasing for him, and for me,” Dr Alfieri joked. “Each time he gets out of bed and sits in an armchair puts stress on the abdominal walls.”

But he insisted that Pope Francis remained in good spirits, and had started eating a diet of semi-solid foods again.

BBC said the pontiff did not have a fever, the doctor said, adding that his heart rate and blood pressure were stable.

Pope Francis, who was chosen by cardinals to lead the Catholic Church after his predecessor Pope Benedict resigned in 2013, has faced a host of health issues in recent years.

Due to knee pain, he regularly uses a cane and wheelchair to get around, and in March he spent three days in hospital to treat a lung infection.

In 2021, he spent 10 days in hospital after having a part of his colon removed, while last month he pulled out of his Friday audiences due to a fever.

But while his predecessor Benedict XVI quit the role citing health issues – becoming the first Pontiff to resign in nearly 600 years – Pope Francis has dismissed the possibility of leaving office too.

“You don’t run the Church with a knee but with a head,” he is said to have told an aide last year.

The Pope is considered to have been in general good health during his decade leading the Catholic Church

He continues to maintain a busy schedule and is due to visit Portugal and Mongolia from August.

Headline

Woman Wanted Over Mutilation Of Boyfriend’s Genitals In US

Published

7 hours ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, United States, are searching for a 45-year-old woman, Jeanita Hopings, accused of breaking into her boyfriend’s home and attacking him with a sharp object, causing serious injuries to his genitals.

As reported by PEOPLE on Thursday, warrants issued for Hopings’ arrest show she faces charges of felonious assault and aggravated burglary in connection with the October 7 incident.

Investigators allege that Hopings “forcefully kicked open the front door” of her boyfriend’s home before entering “without permission,” according to one of the warrants.

Once inside, she allegedly attacked the victim with an “unknown instrument,” inflicting a deep wound.

“The victim’s testicle was clearly exposed as the result of the laceration,” the warrant stated.

The man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police confirmed.

Hopings has not yet been arrested and has not entered a plea to the charges. Court records from Lucas County indicate that she has no prior felony history, though she has previously faced several traffic-related misdemeanour offences.

Police say Hopings remains at large as the investigation continues.

Headline

US To Execute Man Convicted Of Rape, Murder Of Teen

Published

11 hours ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

A 53-year-old man convicted of the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl is to be executed by lethal injection in the US state of Indiana on Friday.

Roy Lee Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne at her home in the town of Dale.

Payne was repeatedly stabbed and died of her injuries several hours after the attack.

Ward was arrested at the scene while still holding a knife.

The execution is to be carried out between midnight and sunrise on Friday morning at a state prison in Michigan City.

Ward will be the third person put to death in Indiana since the state resumed executions last year after a 15-year hiatus because of difficulties obtaining the lethal drugs used in them.

There have been 34 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2014, when 35 inmates were put to death.

Florida has carried out the most executions — 13 — followed by Texas with five and South Carolina and Alabama with four.

Twenty-eight of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and four by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

AFP

Headline

Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal

Published

1 day ago

October 8, 2025

Editor

Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he may go to the Middle East at the end of this week as a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is “very close.”

Trump said during an event at the White House that he would “go to Egypt most likely” but that he would also consider going to war-torn Gaza.

“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually. And we’ll see, but there is a very good chance. Negotiations are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the event.

“Our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas, and it seems to be going well. So we’ll let you know, if that’s the case, we’ll be leaving probably on Sunday, maybe on Saturday.”

Near the end of the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio unexpectedly entered the room and handed Trump a note.

The US president told reporters the note said that “we’re very close to a deal” and that his presence was needed. “I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East,” he added.

Hamas and Israeli officials are having indirect talks in Egypt on a 20-point peace proposal unveiled by Trump to end the two-year-old war.

– ‘Very close’ –

Trump said as he began the event that he had come off the phone with officials in the Middle East, where his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had just joined discussions in Egypt.

“‘Peace for the Middle East,’ that’s a beautiful phrase, and we hope it’s going to come true, but it’s very close, and they’re doing very well,” Trump added.

“We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they’re, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it’s something I think that will happen.”

Asked if he would consider going to Gaza if a deal happens, Trump replied: “I would, yeah. I would. I might do that. I may do that. We haven’t decided exactly.”

Trump said he would insist on the release of hostages held by Hamas before traveling to the region.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had received “encouraging” signs and hailed the support of Trump.

Hamas too expressed “optimism” over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel.

Trump’s plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
AFP