Vanguard, MONDAY, MARCH 11 , 2013—45
115 Cardinals pray before conclave to select new Pope R
OMAN Catholic Cardinals prayed yesterday for spiritual guidance ahead of a closed-door conclave to choose a new pope to lead the Church at one of the most difficult periods in its history. Cardinals will hold a final pre-conclave meeting today to discuss the state of their Church, left reeling by the abdication last month of Pope Benedict and struggling to deal with a string of sexual abuse and corruption scandals. The 115 cardinals who
will take part in the secret ballots, which start tomorrow fanned out around Rome yesterday to hold myriad Masses, either in the quiet of private chapels or in the grandeur of Rome’s great cathedrals and basilicas. Each cardinal is traditionally assigned to a church in the Italian capital and congregations swelled in parishes visited by those considered the most likely papal contenders — such as Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of
Anxiety mounts over French Family in captivity •UK, Greece, Italy confirms killings The where about of the French family of seven kidnapped in northern Cameroon and moved over the Nigerian border by Islamic militants, remains unknown as Italian and Greek Foreign Ministries confirmed yesterday that the nationals have been killed in northern Nigeria. Seven foreign construction workers who were kidnapped last month were killed at the weekend by Islamist group. Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansaru said on Saturday that it had killed the hostages seized on February 7 in Bauchi because of attempts by Nigerian and British forces to free them. The group had published photos purporting to show the bodies of a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers snatched from the Lebanese firm Setraco. Ansaru was suspected of being behind the killing of a British and
Italian hostage a year ago in northwest Nigeria during a botched attempt to rescue them by British and Nigerian forces. Britain has labeled it a terrorist organization. There is no news on the French family of seven which Ansaru claimed it siezed. The group also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in December of a French national who is still missing. Although Nigerian authorities have continued to say they had no evidence, after doubting the veracity of the Ansaru, Greece has however confirmed its citizen was dead, adding the Foreign Ministry had informed his family. Lebanon declined to comment. Britain said it was “likely” the Briton was killed along with the six others, with Foreign Secretary William Hague saying: “This was an act of cold-blooded murder, which I condemn in the strongest terms.”
Sao Paulo, Brazil. “We’re all preparing for the conclave because we need to make the right decision to decide who is going to be the new pope,” Scherer told a small Baroque church in the heart of Rome, crammed with well-wishers. He was later driven away in a minivan with darkened windows, declining to speak to the waiting hoards of reporters — a taste of the pressures to come if he should become the first non-European to be elected pope in some 1,300 years. Just up the road, another non-European touted as a possible candidate, U.S. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, also received star treatment as he arrived for Mass in ornate vestments.
Kenya election: Uhuru Kenyatta hails ‘democracy triumph’ N
EWLY elected Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has hailed his victory as a “triumph of democracy” and peace. After being declared winner of last Monday’s poll by the slimmest of margins of 50.07% Mr Kenyatta said voters had upheld “respect for the rule of law”, and promised to work with opponents. However his main rival, Raila Odinga, vowed to challenge the result in court. Mr Kenyatta is set to be tried at the International Criminal Court over violence that followed the 2007 polls. He is accused of fuelling
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E N E Z U E L A’ S charged election race kicked off yesterday with throngs attending mass at the coffin of deceased leader Hugo Chavez and vowing to back his preferred successor, Nicolas Maduro, over likely opposition contender Henrique Capriles. The pair have until today to register their
candidacies for the April 14 vote, which will determine whether Chavez’s self-styled nationalist-socialist revolution will live on in the OPEC nation, home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Chavez died on Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer.
the communal violence that saw more than 1,000 people killed and 600,000 forced from their homes. On Saturday the election commission said Mr Kenyatta had narrowly avoided a runoff by winning 50.07% of votes in a credible and
transparent poll. It said the turnout, at 86%, was the largest ever in the country. Observers said it was the closest of races with the tightest of margins. After the results were announced, Mr Kenyatta told cheering supporters
T
HE Indain High Commissioner to Nigeria, H.E. Mahesh Sachev, weekend disclosed that a large and endowed country like Nigeria should stop employing foreign teachers to prevent another round of no-colonialism. Sachdev said Nigerians are well educated enough to take charge of all educational aspect of their lives. He made this disclosure
he would serve all Kenyans “without fear or favour”. Speaking at the Catholic University in Nairobi, he said Kenyans were celebrating the “triumph of democracy, the triumph of peace, the triumph of nationhood”.
Mandela discharged from hospital
F
ORMER South African president, Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital after routine tests and is well, the government said yesterday. “The doctors have
completed the tests. He is well and as before, his health remains under the management of the medical team,” the government said in a statement. The 94-year-old anti-
Stop employing foreign teachers, envoy counsels Nigerians By DOTUN IBIWOYE
Venezuela’s poll holds April 14
•Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley (R) gives communion under Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 17th century sculpture “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa”, while leading mass at the Santa Maria Della Vittoria church in Rome yesterday.
at a workshop in Lagos organised Maxmind and Educomp with the theme: “Implementing best-inclass solutions for enhancing schools’ pass rate. The High Commissioner said that Predident Goodluck Jonathan, Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Governor Babatunde Fashola have were though by Indian teachers in Nigeria sometime in thier lives but the country has now reached the stage where
its citizens should be though mainly by Nigerians. He added that Nigeria only needs to partner with countries which has should only benefit the people and his country will assist becuase they have several historical and socio political antccdents. According to him: “A large country like Nigeria must not be educated by foreigners but must be educated by Nigerians.”
apartheid leader was admitted to hospital on Saturday for a scheduled medical check-up. He spent the night in hospital in the capital, Pretoria, and had returned to his Johannesburg home, the statement said. A spokesman for President Jacob Zuma said doctors treated Mandela for a preexisting condition consistent with his age. He spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones. It was his longest stay in hospital since his release from prison in 1990 after serving 27 years for conspiring to overthrow the government under the apartheid regime. Since his release from that stay in hospital on December 26 he had been receiving treatment at his Johannesburg home.