Vatican announces Pope Francis’ funeral will be held on Saturday, many world leaders expected
The Pope started to feel unwell at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Monday and was promptly attended to by his team. More than an hour later he made a gesture of farewell to his ever-present nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti and slipped into a coma, the Vatican’s official media channel said.
Scramble in Holy See: Guinean Cardinal Sarah among top contenders to replace fallen Pope Francis as head of Catholic Church
Any baptised Catholic male is eligible, although only cardinals have been selected since 1378. The winner must receive at least two-thirds of the vote from those cardinals under age 80 and thus eligible to participate. Pope Francis, who died on Monday, appointed the vast majority of electors, often tapping men who share his pastoral priorities, which suggests continuity rather than rupture.
After years of grassroots mobilisation, 700 young Maasai girls spurn genital mutilation for alternative rite of passage
During the three-day session, over 700 girls aged between 10-17 years received training on life skills and decision making, sexual and reproductive health, child rights and gender equality, hygiene and personal care and education and career aspirations.
Great grandchildren of former slave owners and slaves in the Caribbean up the ante for reparations at UN meeting
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council has called for global action for years, including reparations, apologies and educational reforms to make amends for racism against people of African descent. The 15-nation Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, has a 10-point plan for reparatory justice, starting with demands for European countries where enslaved people were kept and traded to issue formal apologies.
Divine message: Catholic cleric blasts Kenya president’s reckless borrowing, misuse of loans
The cleric further termed human organ trafficking as unacceptable saying a person can donate their organ upon demise through a will to be used by patients who want it.
Bluffs and contradiction that were Ugandan kingdoms: Why Museveni created so-called cultural institutions to manipulate politics
The strategy was to de-politicise the defunct kingdoms and make them completely dependent on the centre, which wanted to use them to achieve its political ends. This strategy made the LC1 politically more powerful than “the new cultural leaders”. LC1 or Local Council One is the lowest level of political organisation and administration of government.
Girls at War: Rattled Kenya regime fires bullets and teargas at unarmed schoolgirls to stop Echoes of War play as world filmmakers zoom in
The inconsistencies in government position on creative have at times been hilarious, even ridiculous, the kind of flip-flopping that has now attracted the likes of Hollywood to inquire about playwright’s willingness to turn the play into a film on Kenya’s outrageously corrupt Ruto administration.
No love lost: In Hollywood movies vultures are evil and in Africa they’re harbingers of death not treasured for gift of ‘killing’ diseases
Vultures also have extremely strong stomach acid, don’t get food poisoning and are able to consume and neutralise anthrax, botulism and other bacteria and toxins in carcasses that would kill other animals, removing deadly threats from the environment. Just this week, more than 50 hippos died from suspected anthrax poisoning in a reserve in Congo.
Livestock rights: Chinese voracious craving for donkey meat, skins decimating African populations
Emmanuel Sarr, the West Africa regional director of the international animal welfare group Brooke, argues that the illegal trade in donkey hides persists due to the high demand from the ejiao industry. “The situation is further exacerbated by weak enforcement and the vulnerability of local farmers,” he says
Unwanted in France, lost in Africa: Trouble with new French deportation law that hounds Africans
Interviewed, more than 40 people including five individuals said they were affected by the new law, along with rights advocates, lawyers and researchers, for a detailed look at the impact of France’s 2024 immigration reform.
