Headline

Pope Francis To Miss Weekly Sunday Blessing After Surgery

Published

11 months ago

June 11, 2023

Editor

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

Iran Gets Interim President After Raisi’s Death

Published

4 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber to assume interim duties after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash a day earlier.

“In accordance with Article 131 of the constitution, Mokhber is in charge of leading the executive branch,” said Khamenei in a statement, adding that Mokhber will be required to work with the heads of legislative and judicial branches to prepare for presidential elections “within a maximum period of 50 days”.

Recall that President Raisi was confirmed dead on Monday after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.

Raisi was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died in the accident.

Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, the foreign minister and other officials had gone missing.

Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.

“The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people,” state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.

State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.

Iran’s vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced a five days of mourning for President Raisi.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province.

Headline

UK Threatens To Deport Physically-challenged Nigerian After 38 Years

Published

4 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The United Kingdom has threatened to deport a physically-challenged Nigerian man, Anthony Olubunmi George, over an alleged forged entry stamp in his passport.

George who has lived in the UK for 38 years, after he left Nigeria at the age of 24 in 1986, according to the Guardian UK.

The 61-year-old Nigerian has no criminal convictions and made several applications for leave to remain in the UK, which the Home Office has rejected, most recently on 7 May.

George’s case became the second African facing a huge disappointment with the UK Home Office after spending several years in Britain.

Vanguard reported last week that a 74-year-old Ghanaian Nelson Shardey, who has resided in the UK since 1977, was refused indefinite leave to remain despite being in the country for most of his adult life.

As the case of the Nigerian, he has never left the UK and has no criminal convictions, with the reports of having two strokes, which left him with problems with speech and mobility in 2019.

When George arrived, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and Rishi Sunak is the ninth to hold office since George has lived in the UK.

He has endured many periods of homelessness and disclosed he has lost count of the number of friends who have given him shelter over the years, adding that he no longer has any close family in Nigeria.

The Guardian UK said in 2005, his previous solicitors submitted a forged entry stamp in his passport and have subsequently been reported to the police and the legal regulatory bodies.

George told the Guardian he knew nothing about the passport stamp until many years later. His current lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, cited his poor previous legal representation as the reason for George’s problems.

In his most recent refusal, Home Office officials said: “Unfortunately this is not something that is considered an exceptional circumstance.”

Kandiah has lodged an appeal against the latest refusal.

A previous Home Office rejection of his case states: “It’s open to your family and friends to visit you in Nigeria.”

George said, “I don’t know how many different sofas I’ve slept on – too many to count. I don’t have my life, living the way I’m living now. My health problems since I had my stroke are my biggest worry. All I’m asking for is some kindness from the Home Office.”

Headline

JUST IN: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Hamas Leaders

Published

5 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza for war crimes.

According to BBC, Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well.

Mr Netanyahu recently called the prospect of senior Israel figures joining the ICC’s wanted list “an outrage of historic proportions”.

Last week, 13 Western countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Japan and others cautioned Israel over its resolve to launch a full-scale operation in Rafah.