World Briefs

Pope Francis no longer requires mechanical ventilation

rome: Pope Francis had stabilised enough on Tuesday after two respiratory crises to be taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resume receiving just high flows of supplemental oxygen via a nasal tube to help him breathe, the Vatican said. Francis, 88, woke up and was resuming respiratory physiotherapy after sleeping through the night, the Vatican said. The Vatican said as of Tuesday morning, Francis no longer needed to wear the mechanical ventilation mask that covers his nose and mouth to pump oxygen into his lungs. He had to resume using the mask on Monday after suffering two respiratory crises that required doctors to extract “copious” amounts of mucus from his lungs.

Row erupts over use of New Zealand’s Maori name in Parliament

Wellington: The speaker of New Zealand’s Parliament told lawmakers he would not consider further complaints about the use of the country’s Maori name, Aotearoa, in parliament, after one lawmaker made a bid to have it banned. “Aotearoa is regularly used as a name of New Zealand,” Speaker Gerry Brownlee said in a ruling on Tuesday at Parliament in Wellington. “It appears on our passports and it appears on our currency.” The conflict over a word increasingly prominent in New Zealand life arose last month when one lawmaker objected to another’s use of the term.