14 die in central Nigeria road crash: official/node/2591303/world
14 die in central Nigeria road crash: official
A pedestrian walks next to paintings of the President of Nigeria Bola Tinubu (3rd L on wall) and US President Donald Trump (2nd R on wall) displayed in the street in Lagos, on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
KANO: Fourteen people were killed on Saturday when a bus collided with a petrol tanker in central Nigerian Niger state, a road safety official told AFP Sunday.
The passenger bus rammed into the on-coming petrol tanker as the driver tried to overtake another bus outside Kusobogi village, 80 km from the state capital Minna, Kumar Tsukwan, head of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Niger state, said.
“Fourteen people died in the head-on collision while six others were injured and taken to hospital for medical attention,” Tsukwan said.
He blamed “speeding and wrongful overtaking” by the bus driver for the accident.
The bus was heading to the northern city of Kaduna from the Nigerian economic capital Lagos, Tsukwan said.
Road accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly maintained roads due largely to speeding and disregard to traffic rules.
Last week 23 people died when a truck laden with goods and passengers overturned in northern city of Kano.
Last year Nigeria recorded 9,570 road accidents which resulted in 5,421 deaths, according FRSC data.
What happens to the leadership of the Catholic Church when a pope becomes sick or incapacitated?
Pope Francis’ hospital stay is raising obvious questions about what happens if he loses consciousness for a prolonged period
Canon law does have provisions for when a bishop gets sick and can’t run his diocese, but none for a pope
Updated 40 sec ago
AP
VATICAN CITY: While the Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, they do not apply if he is sick or even unconscious. And there are no specific norms outlining what happens to the leadership of the Catholic Church if a pope becomes totally incapacitated.
As a result, even though Pope Francis remains hospitalized in critical condition with a complex lung infection, he is still pope and very much in charge.
Still, Francis’ hospital stay is raising obvious questions about what happens if he loses consciousness for a prolonged period, or whether he might follow in Pope Benedict XVI’s footsteps and resign if he becomes unable to lead. On Monday, Francis’ hospital stay will hit the 10-day mark, equaling the length of his 2021 hospital stay for surgery to remove 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon.
His age and prolonged illness has revived interest about how papal power is exercised in the Holy See, how it is transferred and under what circumstances. And it points to the legislative loophole that currently exists in what to do if a pope gets so sick that he can’t govern. The Vatican Curia
Francis may be in charge, but he already delegates the day-to-day running of the Vatican and church to a team of officials who operate whether he is in the Apostolic Palace or not, and whether he is conscious or not.
Chief among them is the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Other Vatican functions are proceeding normally, including the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year celebrations. What happens when a pope gets sick?
Canon law does have provisions for when a bishop gets sick and can’t run his diocese, but none for a pope. Canon 412 says a diocese can be declared “impeded” if its bishop — due to “captivity, banishment, exile, or incapacity” — cannot fulfil his pastoral functions. In such cases, the day-to-day running of the diocese shifts to an auxiliary bishop, a vicar general or someone else.
Even though Francis is the bishop of Rome, no explicit provision exists for the pope if he similarly becomes “impeded.” Canon 335 declares simply that when the Holy See is “vacant or entirely impeded,” nothing can be altered in the governance of the church. But it doesn’t say what it means for the Holy See to be “entirely impeded” or what provisions might come into play if it ever were.
In 2021, a team of canon lawyers set out to propose norms to fill that legislative gap. They created a canonical crowd-sourcing initiative to craft a new church law regulating the office of a retired pope as well as norms to apply when a pope is unable to govern, either temporarily or permanently.
The proposed norms explain that, with medical advancements, it’s entirely likely that at some point a pope will be alive but unable to govern. It argues that the church must provide for the declaration of a “totally impeded see” and the transfer of power for the sake of its own unity.
Under the proposed norms, the governance of the universal church would pass to the College of Cardinals. In the case of a temporary impediment, they would name a commission to govern, with periodical medical checks every six months to determine the status of the pope.
“At first, the promoting group was accused of imprudently choosing topics that were too sensitive and controversial,” said one of the coordinators, canon lawyer Geraldina Boni.
But then, “a widespread consensus formed,” she told The Associated Press. Even Francis’ own canon lawyer, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, acknowledged some sort of norms were necessary if the pope “incurably, then irreversibly, lost consciousness or otherwise the ability to perform human acts.”
“The problem is, who declares that the pope is in a situation where he cannot govern?” he told Italian daily Il Giornale in 2022.
Ghirlanda largely backed the crowd-sourcing initiative’s idea, proposing a committee of medical experts to determine if the pope’s condition is irreversible. If they confirm it is, the Rome-based cardinals would be summoned to declare the pope cannot govern, triggering a conclave.
A photo of Pope Francis with a phrase that reads in Spanish: "Francis, the city prays for you" is projected onto the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Feb. 23, 2025. (AP)
What about the letters?
Francis confirmed in 2022 that shortly after he was elected pope he wrote a letter of resignation, to be invoked if he became medically incapacitated. He said he gave it to the then-secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and said he assumed Bertone had delivered it to Parolin’s office when he retired.
The text is not public, and the conditions Francis contemplated for a resignation are unknown. It is also not known if such a letter would be canonically valid. Canon law requires a papal resignation to be “freely and properly manifested” — as was the case when Benedict announced his resignation in 2013.
In 1965, Pope Paul VI wrote letters to the dean of the College of Cardinals hypothesizing that if he were to become seriously ill, the dean and other cardinals should accept his resignation. The letter was never invoked, since Paul lived another 13 years and died on the job. What happens when a pope dies or resigns?
The only time papal power changes hands is when a pope dies or resigns. At that time, a whole series of rites and rituals comes into play governing the “interregnum” — the period between the end of one pontificate and the election of a new pope.
During that period, known as the “sede vacante,” or “empty See,” the camerlengo, or chamberlain, runs the administration and finances of the Holy See. He certifies the pope’s death, seals the papal apartments and prepares for the pope’s burial before a conclave to elect a new pope. The position is currently held by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the head of the Vatican’s laity office.
The camerlengo has no role or duties if the pope is merely sick or otherwise incapacitated.
Likewise, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who would preside at a papal funeral and organize the conclave, has no additional role if the pope is merely sick. That position is currently held by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91.
Earlier this month, Francis decided to keep Re on the job even after his five-year term expired, rather than make way for someone new. He also extended the term of the vice-dean, Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 81.
American Airlines flight lands in Rome after ‘security’ issue
An American Airlines official said the aircraft landed in Rome due to Indian protocol requirements
Updated 24 February 2025
AFP
ROME: An American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was diverted to Rome on Sunday afternoon following an “alleged bomb scare,” an Italian airport spokesman said.
The US-based carrier gave no details on the nature of what it called a “possible security concern” on the flight carrying 199 passengers plus crew, which was escorted by two Italian fighter jets before landing.
“The flight landed safely at FCO (Rome), and law enforcement inspected and cleared the aircraft to re-depart,” American Airlines said in a statement.
Mahesh Kumar, an IT consultant aboard the flight, said the pilot announced the diversion to Rome due to “security reasons” about three hours before landing.
“Everyone was afraid. Everyone was staying quiet and obeying the orders,” the 55-year-old from Texas told AFP.
“They asked us to sit down and not to roam around while the fighter jets were near us,” Kumar said, adding that Italian police escorted passengers for a security screening in the airport when they landed.
The flight had taken off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday at around 8:11 p.m. local time (01:11 GMT Sunday), according to flight tracker FlightAware.
It turned around sharply while flying over the Caspian Sea, the website showed.
An American Airlines official said the aircraft landed in Rome due to Indian protocol requirements.
“The possible issue was determined to be non-credible, but per DEL Airport protocol, an inspection was required before landing at DEL,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The flight will stay in FCO overnight to allow for required crew rest before continuing to DEL as soon as possible tomorrow.”
Rome airport operations were not affected by the incident, an Italian airport spokesman said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the plane had landed safely “after the crew reported a security issue.”
American Airlines, one of the largest US air carriers, is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.
Its international operations serve more than 60 countries, according to the airline’s website.
Key federal agencies refuse to comply with Musk’s latest demand in his cost-cutting diktat
The pushback from appointees of President Donald Trump marked a new level of chaos and confusion within the beleaguered federal workforce
Musk’s team on Saturday gave federal employees roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week, or risk getting fired
Even some Republicans were critical of Musk’s ultimatum, which came just hours after Trump encouraged him on social media to “get more aggressive”
Updated 24 February 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: Key US agencies, including the FBI, State Department and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with cost-cutting chief Elon Musk’s latest demand that federal workers explain what they accomplished last week — or risk losing their job.
The pushback from appointees of President Donald Trump marked a new level of chaos and confusion within the beleaguered federal workforce, just a month after Trump returned to the White House and quickly began fulfilling campaign promises to shrink the government.
Administration officials scrambled throughout the weekend to interpret Musk’s unusual mandate, which apparently has Trump’s backing despite some lawmakers arguing it is illegal. Unions want the administration to rescind the request and apologize to workers, and are threatening to sue.
Some officials are resisting. Others are encouraging their workers to comply. At some agencies, there was conflicting guidance.
One message on Sunday morning from the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instructed its roughly 80,000 employees to comply. That was shortly after the acting general counsel, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to. And by Sunday evening, agency leadership issued new instructions that employees should “pause activities” related to the request until noon on Monday.
“I’ll be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration’s priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,” Keveney said in an email viewed by The Associated Press that acknowledged a broad sense of “uncertainty and stress” within the agency.
Keveney laid out security concerns and pointed out some of the work done by the agency’s employees may be protected by attorney-client privilege: “I have received no assurances that there are appropriate protections in place to safeguard responses to this email.”
Musk’s team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadline — set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Monday — would lose their job.
Democrats and even some Republicans were critical of Musk’s ultimatum, which came just hours after Trump encouraged him on social media to “get more aggressive” in reducing the size of the government through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The day before, Musk celebrated his new position by waving a giant chainsaw during an appearance at a conservative conference.
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, was among the members of Trump’s own party who had concerns. Utah has 33,000 federal employees.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis said. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. ... It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., questioned the legal basis the Trump administration would have for dismissing tens of thousands of workers for refusing to heed Musk’s latest demand, though the email did not include the threat about workers losing their jobs.
For Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., there was no doubt: “The actions he’s taking are illegal, and we need to shut down this illegal operation.”
Trump mocked the affected workers in a meme he posted Sunday on his social media network. The post featured a cartoon character writing a list of accomplishments from the previous week led by, “Cried about Trump,” “Cried about Elon,” “Made it into the office for once,” and “Read some emails.”
Screen grab of President Donald Trump's post on his Truth Social platform mocking federal employees who were told by Elon Musk to reply to his email by listing what they had done at work the past week.
Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, an outspoken Trump ally, instructed bureau employees to ignore Musk’s request, at least for now.
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in an email confirmed by the AP. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
Ed Martin, the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, sent his staff a message Sunday that may cause more confusion. Martin noted that he responded to Musk’s order.
“Let me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,” Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management.
“Please make a good faith effort to reply and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will, as I mentioned, have your back regarding any confusion,” Martin continued. “We can do this.”
The night before, Martin had instructed staff to comply. “DOGE and Elon are doing great work. Historic. We are happy to participate,” Martin wrote at that time.
Officials at the Departments of State and Defense were more consistent.
Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary of state for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” Nagy wrote in an email.
Pentagon leadership instructed employees to “pause” any response to Musk’s team as well. “The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” according to an email from Jules Hurst, the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses.”
Everett Kelley, president of the 800,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, said in a letter Sunday to the administration that it should rescind Musk’s original email request and apologize to all federal workers by the end of the day.
“We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this plainly unlawful email absent other lawful direction,” he wrote, describing Musk as “unelected and unhinged.”
Make no mistake - AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country. https://t.co/BSAx4qiLQn
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce — either by being fired or through a “deferred resignation” offer — during the first month of Trump’s second term.
There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but the AP has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside of Washington.
Musk on Sunday called his latest request “a very basic pulse check.”
“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” Musk wrote on X. “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”
He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have falsely claimed in recent days that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
Meanwhile, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this coming week, including probationary civilian workers at the Pentagon and virtually the entire staff at the US Agency for International Development.
The Trump administration said Sunday that it is eliminating at least 1,600 US-based staff positions after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world.
Curtis and Van Hollen were on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and Lawler appeared on ABC’s “This Week.”
Germany’s conservatives win election but tough coalition talks loom
After the collapse of incumbent Olaf Scholz’s unloved coalition, Merz, 69, promised cheering supporters his government meant making Germany “present in Europe again
Updated 24 February 2025
Reuters
BERLIN: Germany’s conservatives won the national election on Sunday but a fractured vote handed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) its best ever result in second place and left conservative leader Friedrich Merz facing messy coalition talks.
Merz, who has no previous experience in office, is set to become chancellor as Europe’s largest economy is ailing, its society split over migration and its security caught between a confrontational US and an assertive Russia and China.
After the collapse of incumbent Olaf Scholz’s unloved coalition, Merz, 69, promised cheering supporters his government meant making Germany “present in Europe again, so that the world notices that Germany is being reliably governed again.”
“Tonight we will celebrate, and from tomorrow we start working. ... The world out there is not waiting for us.”
US President Donald Trump, whose ally Elon Musk had repeatedly endorsed the AfD during the campaign, cheered the conservative victory on Truth Social.
“Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years,” Trump wrote.
Following a campaign roiled by violent attacks for which people of migrant background were arrested, the conservative CDU/CSU bloc won 28.4 percent of the vote, followed by the AfD with 20.4 percent, said a projection published by ZDF broadcaster.
All of the mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD, which looks set to double its score from the previous vote and saw Sunday’s result as just the beginning. “Our hand remains outstretched to form a government,” leader Alice Weidel told supporters, adding “next time we’ll come first.”
MERZ’S JUGGLING ACT
Merz is heading into what are likely to be lengthy coalition talks without a strong negotiating hand. While his CDU/CSU emerged as the largest bloc, it scored its second worst post-war result.
It remains unclear whether Merz will need one or two partners to form a majority, with the fate of smaller parties unclear in a way that could jumble parliamentary arithmetic.
A three-way coalition would likely be much more unwieldy, hampering Germany’s ability to show clear leadership.
Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) tumbled to their worst result since World War Two, with 16.4 percent of the vote share, and Scholz conceding a “bitter” result, according to the ZDF projection, while the Greens were on 12.2 percent.
Strong support particularly from younger voters pushed the far-left Die Linke party to 8.9 percent of the vote.
The pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) and newcomer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party hovered around the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament.
Voter turnout at 83 percent was the highest since before reunification in 1990, according to exit polls. Male voters tended more toward the right, while female voters showed stronger support for leftist parties.
“A three-party coalition runs the risk of more muddling through and more stagnation unless all parties involved realize that this is the last chance to bring change and to prevent the AfD from getting stronger,” Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
CARETAKER SCHOLZ
A brash economic liberal who has shifted the conservatives to the right, Merz is considered the antithesis of former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led Germany for 16 years.
Merz conditionally supports equipping Ukraine with longer-range Taurus missiles, a step Scholz’s government shied away from, and sees Europe as firmly anchored in NATO.
Sunday’s election came after the collapse last November of Scholz’s coalition of his SPD, the Greens and pro-market FDP in a row over budget spending.
Lengthy coalition talks could leave Scholz in a caretaker role for months, delaying urgently needed policies to revive the German economy after two consecutive years of contraction and as companies struggle against global rivals.
It would also create a leadership vacuum in the heart of Europe even as it deals with a host of challenges such as Trump threatening a trade war and attempting to fast-track a ceasefire deal for Ukraine without European involvement.
Germans are more pessimistic about their living standards now than at any time since the financial crisis in 2008.
Attitudes toward migration have also hardened, a profound shift in German public sentiment since its “Refugees Welcome” culture during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, that the AfD has both driven and harnessed.
Europe must reach defense ‘independence’ of US: Germany’s Merz
Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU alliance, said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America”
Updated 24 February 2025
AFP
BERLIN: Germany’s conservative election winner Friedrich Merz said Sunday that Europe must boost its own defense capabilities amid growing US-Europe tensions over Ukraine and NATO funding.
“For me, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA” in defense matters, Merz said.
“After Donald Trump’s statements in the last week it is clear that the Americans... are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said in a TV debate with other top candidates after the election.
“I am very curious to see what will happen between now and the NATO summit at the end of June,” he said.
But he added that it was questionable “whether we will still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”
Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU alliance, said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America.”
He also reiterated his condemnation of “the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Elon Musk.” The US tech billionaire and key Trump ally stridently supported the far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and impertinent than the interventions we have seen from Moscow, so we are under massive pressure from two sides,” Merz said.
