Vatican City: Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana is reported to have answered positively to a question of whether the next pope could be black. A website, www.int.iol.co.za quotes Cardinal Appiah Turkson as retorting "Why not?" to the question, after the election of Barack Obama as the first black US president. "If God would wish to see a black man also as pope, thanks be to God," Peter Appiah Turkson is said to have told a news conference. Turkson, the rapporteur of a synod on the future of the Roman Catholic Church in Africa, is among cardinals considered possible candidates to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict and his predecessor John Paul II both served as rapporteurs at previous synods.