Foreign News
Labour Unions Warn Nigerian Companies From Buying Phosphate and Fishes From Morocco

By Gom Mirian, Abuja
The Nigerian Movement for the Liberation of western Sahara including the Nigerian labour congress (NLC), the Trade Union congress (TUC), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and civil society organizations has warned Nigerian companies to desist from buying stolen phosphate, fertilizer and fishes imported from Morocco.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on behalf of the movement, comrade Oladipo Fashina explained that the movement’s determination and its plans was to ensure all companies in the country currently receiving phosphate stolen by the Morocco kingdom from western Sahara faced the law of the land.
According to Fashina, the movement was taking legal moves to ensure that the country did not continue to be receiver of the stolen goods and profit from such theft.
Comrade Fashina assured that after notifying those companies dealing in stolen western Sahara resources of the dangers, they would also bring them before the courts.
He pointed fingers at super markets selling sardines and fishes from Morocco because 92 per cent of these fishes he said were stolen from the western Sahara coast.
He said the movement was in full support of the country’s development but would not support stolen resources.
“We insist that although our country needs fertilizer, but not that produced with the blood of our brothers and sisters in western Sahara,” he explained.
Among other demands made by the movement were a call on the African Union to give Morocco a deadline to vacate Western Sahara and impose stiff sanctions as they did to the defunct apartheid regime in South Africa as well as putting a stop to the Moroccan monarchy, while the leadership should be called to order for gross human rights violations.
Foreign News
China Aims For Stable Vatican Relations Under Pope Leo XIV

China on Friday congratulated the newly elected Pope Leo XIV and expressed hope for a “steady” improvement in relations with the Vatican.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian stated this while speaking with reporters in the Chinese capital.
According to Lin, he hopes that under the new Pope’s leadership, the Vatican will continue dialogue with China in a constructive spirit, deepen communication on international issues of mutual concern.
He also expressed hope that they would continue to work together to steadily advance China-Vatican relations, while contributing to global peace, stability, development, and prosperity.
The Vatican on Tuesday announced that American Cardinal Robert Prevost had been elected as the new Pope, taking the name Leo XIV.
He is the first American-born pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church.
In 2024, Beijing had extended a provisional agreement with the Holy See by four years regarding the appointment of bishops.
The agreement which allows both sides to have a role in selecting bishops for China’s Catholic community, which numbers around 12 million in the world’s second most populous countr. (AA/NAN)
Foreign News
Pope Leo XIV To Be Inaugurated May 18

The Vatican on Friday announced that Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration will take place on May 18 with a mass in St. Peter’s Square, following his election to succeed Pope Francis.
The ceremony is to take place at 10a.m (0800 GMT) May 18 at the Vatican.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was announced as the first U.
S. pontiff on Thursday after white smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel following four rounds of voting in the papal conclave.The new pope is set to keep Francis’ top employees in the Vatican in place for the time being, the Holy See said.
The first of his weekly general audiences is planned for May 21. (dpa/NAN)
Foreign News
Pope Leo XIV Election Excites Former Employers, Students

The election of Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, has ignited pride and celebration at St. Rita of Cascia High School, where the new pope once served as a teacher.
The 69-year-old Augustinian cardinal’s historic rise as the first American pope was met with elation across his former school community.
Students and faculty remembered him not just as a religious leader but as a humble and compassionate mentor.
Leo was born in Chicago and graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of Villanova in Pennsylvania in 1977.
He also studied religion at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
In 1982, he received a doctorate in church law from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome before being sent to serve in a Catholic mission in Peru.
In 2023, he became prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Catholic administrative body, based in Rome
He succeeds Pope Francis who died on April 21. The late pontiff made Prevost a cardinal in September 2023.(AA/NAN)(www.nanne
The election of Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, has ignited pride and celebration at St. Rita of Cascia High School, where the new pope once served as a teacher.
The 69-year-old Augustinian cardinal’s historic rise as the first American pope was met with elation across his former school community.
Students and faculty remembered him not just as a religious leader but as a humble and compassionate mentor.
Leo was born in Chicago and graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of Villanova in Pennsylvania in 1977.
He also studied religion at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
In 1982, he received a doctorate in church law from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome before being sent to serve in a Catholic mission in Peru.
In 2023, he became prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Catholic administrative body, based in Rome
He succeeds Pope Francis who died on April 21. The late pontiff made Prevost a cardinal in September 2023.(AA/NAN)