World leaders, dignitaries, and thousands of mourners have started arriving at the St Peter’s Square to bid farewell to Pope Francis. US President Donald Trump, his predecessor Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and the Prince of Wales are among attendees at the requiem mass in St Peter’s Square, which begins at 9am UK. Others include French President Emmanuel Macron, former US President Joe Biden , and Irish President Michael D Higgins. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, arrived on Saturday morning and will attend with his wife Olena Zelenska, following uncertainty over where he could attend after his travel plans were disrupted by air strikes in Kyiv.  About 500,000 people are expected to gather for the open-air service. Pope Francis, who died aged 88 on Monday, just hours after greeting crowds to mark Easter, had been lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica for three days, with some 250,000 mourners passing him day and night, before his coffin was formally sealed in private on Friday.  Nuns who gathered in St Peter’s Square ahead of the service told the Associated Press news agency that the late pontiff had been a ‘saintly man… a man of peace, who wanted peace for the whole world’.  Sister Nilma Navarro from the Philippines said that Francis was ‘the most humble person I have ever met,’ adding that he shepherded people ‘not only in the Catholic Church. He also embraced other religions.’   Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru, lined up from 7am to enter the square. ‘He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind,’ he said.  The post Trump, Biden, Macron and world leaders arrive in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral (Photos) appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio and other members of Nigeria’s official delegation have arrived in Vatican City for the burial ceremony of Pope Francis, scheduled for Saturday, April 26, 2025.

The Senate President is leading a five-member high-level delegation constituted by President Bola Tinubu to represent Nigeria at the funeral rites of the 88-year-old pontiff.

The Nigerian delegation consists of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji; the Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah; and the Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, Ignatius Kaigama.

According to presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the delegation will deliver a letter conveying Tinubu’s sympathy and condolences on the passing of Pope Francis to the Acting Head of the Vatican.

ALSO READ: PHOTOS: Peter Obi attends Pope’s lying-in-state ceremony

Meanwhile, in a post on his Facebook page on Friday, Akpabio said he paid tribute to the departed Pope on behalf of the President and the Nigerian people.

“As the Leader of Nigeria’s delegation to the burial ceremony of Pope Francis, I paid tribute to our departed Pope, on behalf of President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian People at the Lying-in-State of Pope Francis, inside St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City,” he wrote.

Pope Francis drew his last breath on Monday, April 21, 2025, serving as the head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013.

Tinubu, in a condolence message on Monday, joined the Catholic faithful and Christians worldwide to mourn the demise of the Pope, whom he described as “a humble servant of God, a tireless champion of the poor, and a guiding light for millions.”

ALSO READ: PHOTOS: Vatican releases images of Pope Francis’ corpse

A 37-year-old woman in Spain has been accused of selling her baby for 2,000 euros to a family in Cordoba. The baby is now in the care of the Junta de Andaluca’s social services department and the mother has been arrested by the National Police, together with four other people involved in the case. The investigation began in March this year, when the mother herself filed a complaint. She claimed that a family from Cordoba had kidnapped her newborn daughter and demanded a payment of 3,000 euros in order to let her see her again. The complainant said that, in November 2024, she had met a 24-year-old man at a party in Madrid. She told him that she was afraid that the social services would take her daughter away from her if she was born in the Spanish capital. The reason for her fears was that they had already taken the custody of her six other children from her. According to the version she fabricated for the police, the young man had offered to take her to Cordoba and take care of her until she gave birth. The complainant stated that she wanted to go back to Madrid with the baby after the birth, but the family in Cordoba assured her that they would take her there a few days later. The woman then claimed that, when she did not get her daughter back after a week had passed, she started to receive threats from the family in question demanding that she pay 3,000 euros for her month’s stay in Cordoba if she wanted to see her daughter again. The initial investigations found that the woman had altered her version of what had happened. In reality, the biological mother had allegedly reached an agreement to sell her daughter for 2,000 euros to a couple that was undergoing fertility treatments in Cordoba. The investigators found that, after being discharged, the complainant went to the civil registry in Cordoba with the alleged buyers. There, the biological mother and the future “father” were listed as parents of the newborn. The man then withdrew 2,000 euros from an ATM cash machine and gave it to the mother. After that, she was taken to Madrid by another member of the family. The police also discovered that the mother’s six other children were taken away from her following a court order from 2022, which found that the children were in a situation of neglect. All six of them were placed under the guardianship of the Madrid region. According to the investigation, the woman regretted selling her daughter, which is why the family demanded the return of the amount they had paid her, plus another 1,000 euros for the expenses from the month’s stay in Cordoba. The National Police arrested the mother and the four members of the family that bought the baby. The buyers were intercepted while they were on their way to a paediatric appointment.The post Woman arrested in Spain for selling her baby to a family for 2000 euros appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.