Author: Editor

ANGRY spectators broke down barricades and stormed the pitch at a stadium in India after football star Lionel Messi, who is on a three-day tour of the country, abruptly left the arena. As a part of a so-called GOAT Tour, the 38-year-old Argentina and Inter Miami superstar touched down in the eastern state of West Bengal early Saturday, greeted by a chorus of exuberant fans chanting his name. Hours later, thousands of fans wearing Messi jerseys and waving the Argentine flag packed into Salt Lake stadium in the state capital Kolkata, but heavy security around the footballer left fans struggling…

THE Israeli military sats it has killed senior Hamas commander Raed Saad in a strike in Gaza City. The attack on Saturday killed five people and wounded at least 25, according to Gaza health authorities. Hamas in a statement did not confirm the death of Raed Saad. It said a civilian vehicle had been struck outside Gaza City and asserted it was a violation of the ceasefire that took effect on October. In a post on Telegram, the army alleged that the commander had been operating to re-establish Hamas’s capabilities, which have been severely depleted by more than two years…

BELARUS has freed 123 prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova, in exchange for sanctions relief from the United States. John Coale, the US special envoy for Belarus, announced the lifting of sanctions on potash on Saturday after two days of talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. Belarus is a leading global producer of potash, a key component in fertilisers, the former Soviet state is a leading global producer. The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Lukashenko since the Trump administration opened talks this year with the close ally…

A DRONE attack has hit a United Nations facility in war-torn Sudan, killing six peacekeepers, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. The attack on Saturday hit the peacekeeping logistics base in the city of Kadugli, in the central region of Kordofan, Guterres said in a statement. Eight other peacekeepers were wounded in the strike. All the victims are Bangladeshi nationals, serving in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). “I strongly condemn the horrific drone attacks that targeted the United Nations peacekeeping logistics base in Kadugli, Sudan,” Guterres said in a statement. “Attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war…

TOP US diplomat Marco Rubio said Saturday that Rwanda had clearly violated a peace agreement signed with US President Donald Trump. He also vowed unspecified “action” in response, after Rwandan-backed forces advanced in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. “Rwanda’s actions in eastern DRC are a clear violation of the Washington Accords signed by President Trump, and the United States will take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept,” Rubio wrote on X. The capture of Uvira, along the border with Burundi, has raised fears of the conflict breaking out into a regional war. Part of an offensive…

LIVERPOOL forward Mohamed Salah is in the squad for Saturday’s Premier League match against Brighton after positive talks with head coach Arne Slot on Friday. It is understood the decision was made with Slot wanting to act in the best interests of the club, particularly with a number of players out through injury. Issues still remain unresolved and those will continue to be tackled by Liverpool and Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas, while the player is at the Africa Cup of Nations. Salah, 33, was left out of the travelling squad for Liverpool’s Champions League trip to Inter Milan on Tuesday…

STORM Byron has swept across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 14 people and injuring others as harsh winds, relentless rain and collapsing structures crush families already displaced by Israel’s devastating assault on the enclave, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security. The ministry said five people died overnight into Friday after a house sheltering displaced civilians in Bir an-Naaja, in northern Gaza, collapsed during the storm. At dawn, two more people were killed when a wall gave way and fell onto tents in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood. A day earlier, another person died after a structural collapse…

WHAT caused an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to crash, killing 260 people? Six months on, investigators have yet to provide clear answers, fuelling disputes between pilots, the airline, and the manufacturer. As required by international law, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) published a preliminary report one month after the June 12 disaster, when the plane exploded into flames shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India. That report provided some technical information, but the investigation is still ongoing. Air India flight 171 took off at 1:38 pm from Ahmedabad airport with 230 passengers and 12 crew members on…

SOME 200 West African soldiers, mainly from Nigeria and Ivory Coast, are in Benin to support the government following Sunday’s failed coup, Benin’s foreign minister says. The attempt was foiled after Nigeria deployed fighter jets to drive the mutineers out of a military base and state TV headquarters, where they had declared a takeover. This is the first time that officials have said how many foreign soldiers were deployed to the country, although it is not clear if some have been withdrawn since Sunday. Benin’s Foreign Affairs Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari on Thursday said some of the regional troops sent…

ETHIOPIAN police have arrested nine TikTok content creators this week for allegedly violating norms in the culturally conservative country. Six of these individuals were accused of wearing “indecent attire” at the Ethiopia Creative Awards, an event for TikTok creators that took place a fortnight ago. The others were arrested for their social media content, with the police alleging that two creators were involved in an “inappropriate act” during a TikTok livestream. The detentions have ignited widespread debate across Ethiopian social media. Among those arrested for their clothing at the Ethiopia Creative Awards was Adonay Berhane, a 25-year-old lifestyle and motivational…

A BABY girl whose family was displaced by Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza has died of exposure to the winter cold as Storm Byron lashed the enclave amid Israel’s continued restrictions on essential winter supplies. Eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar was reported dead on Thursday after her family’s tent in Khan Younis took in water as heavy rainfall flooded tent camps across the enclave overnight, according to the Reuters news agency. Her mother, Hejar Abu Jazar, fed the baby before they went to sleep. “When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind…

BULGARIA’s prime minister announced Thursday that his government was resigning after less than a year in office following a series of anti-corruption protests. Jeliazkov’s announcement came just ahead of a vote in parliament on a no-confidence motion against the government that the opposition had filed. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Bulgaria on Wednesday to protest against the government and corruption in the latest rally since the end of last month. The demonstrations were sparked by a 2026 draft budget, which protesters branded as an attempt to mask rampant corruption. The government withdrew the budget last…

NIGERIA’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has met with his Beninese counterpart, Olushegun Adjadi Bakar, in Abuja. At the office of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), both sides reflected on the recent attempted coup in the Republic of Benin and the growing security concerns across the region. Tuggar explained that much of Nigeria’s insecurity is exogenous, noting that Nigeria and Benin share very close ties, and whatever happens in one country inevitably triggers ripple effects in the other. According to him, this is why a coordinated regional response is no longer optional. Both ministers emphasised the…

M23 fighters combed the streets of Uvira in eastern DR Congo on Thursday to flush out remaining enemy combatants a day after taking over strategic parts of the eastern city near Burundi, security and local sources said. Businesses have been closed for several days, and only a few motorcycles were out in the streets, while sporadic shots still rang out, local civil society representatives said. Around 10 bodies were collected from the streets between Wednesday and Thursday, according to local sources and witnesses. “Yesterday we collected at least nine bodies and today two on the avenue leading to Saint Paul’s…

MANCHESTER City came from behind to beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Wednesday in the Champions League and leave Xabi Alonso’s position as coach of the Spanish giants in grave danger. Without injured superstar Kylian Mbappe, Madrid took the lead through Rodrygo but Nico O’Reilly and an Erling Haaland penalty secured Pep Guardiola’s City the three points. Spanish media reported in the lead-up to the game that a defeat would seal Alonso’s fate as Madrid coach, although his team’s performance was creditable, despite the eventual outcome at a frustrated Bernabeu stadium. The record 15-time Champions League winners have now won just…

STORM Byron is threatening to heap new miseries on Palestinians in Gaza, with families making distress calls from flooded tents and hundreds of others fleeing their shelters in search of dry ground as the fierce winter storm lashes heavy rains on the besieged territory. Officials warned Wednesday that the storm was forecast to bring flash floods, strong winds and hail until Friday, conditions expected to wreak havoc in a territory in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in tents, temporary structures, or damaged buildings after two years of Israel’s genocidal war against…

AUSTRALIA banned under-16s from social media in a world-first crackdown on Wednesday, declaring it was time to “take back control” from formidable tech giants. A raft of popular apps and websites — Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X among them — face US$33 million fines if they fail to purge Australia-based users younger than 16. Australia becomes one of the first nations to push back so forcefully against tech companies with immense political power, in a move other countries are looking at closely. “Enough is enough,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “It is one of the biggest social and cultural changes…

REBEL forces have entered the last government-held city in mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in an offensive that has forced thousands to flee across the border into Burundi, residents say. Heavy artillery and gunfire could be heard in Uvira, with terrified residents describing the situation as chaotic. The escalation in fighting comes despite the peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump last week between DR Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame to end the long-running conflict. The M23 rebel group said it had “liberated” the city, while UN-backed Radio Okapi quoted residents as saying that rebel…

AT least 22 people have been killed and a further 16 injured after two buildings collapsed in the Moroccan city of Fez. The two four-storey residential buildings that came down early on Wednesday morning contained eight families, state media reports, citing local officials. Several Moroccan news outlets report that the buildings – located in the south-westerly Al Massira suburb of the new part of the city – had shown signs of deterioration for several years. An investigation is now under way. Fez, in north-eastern Morocco, is one of the North African nation’s oldest cities, with parts dating back to the…

CHELSEA’s hopes of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockouts were dealt a blow as Super Eagles’s Ademol;a Lookman dazzles for Atalanta who came from behind to win in Bergamo. Both sides went into this game with identical records in the league phase of this year’s tournament, having won three, drawn one and lost one to sit on 10 points. For large parts there was little to separate them in this game, too, although Chelsea got their noses in front in the first half when Joao Pedro turned in Reece James’ cross. But Atalanta always looked a threat going forwards,…