ROME: Pope Leo XIV hit back at US President Donald Trump today, saying the Vatican’s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he did not fear the White House.

Mr Trump had said that the Chicago-born pontiff was not “doing a good job” and should “stop catering to the radical left,” after Pope Leo called for an end to war.

Leo responded as he arrived for an 11-day visit to Algeria to promote Christian-Muslim coexistence, a first such trip for a Pope.

PERU: Thousands of Peruvians were back at the polls today for a second day of voting after failure to deliver ballots to voting centres extended Sunday’s election by a day.

Electoral authorities granted the extension to more than 52,000 voters in Lima, with Peruvians in Florida and New Jersey also allowed to vote late.

A surge in violent crime and corruption has fuelled discontent, with 35 candidates vying to become Peru’s ninth president in just 10 years.

UGANDA: The trial of a man accused of killing four children began today in a tent near the crime scene, after the president ordered a mobile court session to allow locals to attend.

Christopher Okello Onyum pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in the machete attack at a Kampala nursery school on April 2.

The Uganda Law Society condemned the president’s directive as executive interference, calling the spectacle a “judicial lynching rally” that undermines a fair trial.

SOUTH SUDAN: The UN has expressed concern over violence in the strategic town of Akobo, which was retaken by opposition forces after they ousted government troops over the weekend.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition said it captured the town and seized military vehicles, while government forces withdrew.

The UN mission warned of worsening humanitarian conditions and called for a cessation of hostilities as thousands fled the town bordering Ethiopia.