Author: Editor

ARSENAL are set to discover the full extent of the thigh injury suffered by Gabriel while on international duty amid concerns he faces several weeks out. The centre-back limped off in visible discomfort during Brazil’s friendly against Senegal at Emirates Stadium over the weekend and has returned to Arsenal for treatment. The early fears are that the 27-year-old will miss a minimum of four weeks, with sources indicating the defender’s absence could stretch to January. The exact severity of the injury, and the timescale for recovery, will be finalised in the coming days, with Gabriel undergoing further assessment. His absence…

HAMAS and other Palestinian factions in Gaza have rejected a United Nations Security Council resolution that establishes a governing board and an international stabilisation force to take over the Israeli-besieged enclave. In a joint statement released on Tuesday, Hamas and other factions in Gaza said the United States-led effort will act as a framework “that paves the way for field arrangements imposed outside the Palestinian national will”. They said that in its current proposed form, the international military force to be deployed in Gaza “will turn into a type of imposed guardianship or administration – reproducing a reality that restricts…

PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Tuesday angrily dismissed a question about the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, claiming the Saudi dissident journalist was “extremely controversial” and insisting the subject was only raised during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to embarrass his visitor. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you liked him or didn’t like him, things happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office as he presided over a pageant-filled visit for the de facto Saudi leader. Trump went on to insist Prince bin…

ESWATINI’s government has confirmed that it received $5.1m (£3.8m) from the Trump administration for accepting people deported from the US as part of a hard-line approach towards immigration. The southern African kingdom, led by absolute monarch King Mswati III, has come in for heavy criticism from rights groups for striking the deportation deal with President Donald Trump’s government. Questioned in parliament about the deal on Monday, Eswatini’s Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg confirmed the sum received from the US. “We were told it was for the US deportees after we enquired,” he said, adding the ministry had been kept in the…

A FRENCH energy company is facing war crimes allegations, which it denies, over a massacre near its multi-billon dollar international gas project in northern Mozambique in 2021. In a complaint filed with French prosecutors, a human rights group accused TotalEnergies of complicity in war crimes, including the torture and execution of dozens of civilians held by local security forces in a cluster of shipping containers at its facility. Total has always denied responsibility for the actions of government troops and related security forces who were involved in guarding the Afungi peninsula gas refinery development. It was the biggest foreign investment…

THE bitter dispute between Kylian Mbappe and his former club Paris Saint-Germain reached the French labour court on Monday for a tense hearing in which the France captain claimed 263 million euros ($304m) and the club responded by demanding he pay them 440m euros. Both sides offered a long shopping list of grievances with price tags attached. PSG said they are basing their figure in part on a botched 300 million-euro transfer to Saudi club Al Hilal, which Mbappe refused in June 2023, and its aftermath. Mbappe left for Real Madrid on a free transfer when his contract expired the…

THE United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution mandating a transitional administration and an International Stabilization Force in Gaza that envisions a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood. The resolution, drafted by the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, passed in a 13-0 vote on Monday, paving the way for the crucial next steps for the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Russia and China abstained from the vote. Arab and other Muslim countries that expressed interest in providing troops for an international force had previously indicated that a UN mandate was essential for their…

A SPECIAL tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death after a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. The International Crimes Tribunal in capital Dhaka, which tried Hasina, 78, and two others for charges related to crimes against humanity, handed down the sentence on Monday. The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands injured as Hasina’s government cracked down on protesters last year in a desperate bid to cling to power. The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national…

SOUTH Africa has said it does not want to receive any more chartered flights carrying Palestinians, days after the controversial arrival of 153 passengers from Gaza in the country. Many aspects of their arrival remain unclear and disputed. The flight was part of “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday. The Israeli authorities have not responded to this allegation. However, they said that South Africa had previously agreed to receive the 153 Palestinians. The BBC has asked the South African authorities to comment. The Palestinian embassy in…

A CROWD runs in panic along a dusty street. Shots ring out. A woman wearing a purple jacket carrying a stick falls to the ground. Another woman can be heard pleading, “Mama, mama, stand,” as she tries to lift her. Blood is spreading around her stomach as another stain appears on her back. This verified footage, filmed in Tanzania’s city of Arusha, is just one of many graphic scenes to have emerged showing the violent actions of police as they attempted to crush widespread protests last month during the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The protests started in the city…

HARRY Kane scored twice in the second half as England beat Albania to complete a flawless World Cup qualifying campaign with eight wins from eight. The Three Lions were already qualified as group winners and Thomas Tuchel made seven changes to the side that beat Serbia at Wembley on Thursday. Alongside the changes to the starting XI, Tuchel made tactical tweaks with John Stones stepping into midfield whenever England were in possession but despite the victory it was not a vintage England performance. Kane, who took his personal tally to 78 international goals, scored his first in the 74th minute…

ISRAEL is engaged in a last-ditch bid to change the wording of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on the next phase of United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan that was recently amended to mention a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that his opposition to a Palestinian state had “not changed one bit”, one day before the UNSC votes on the US-drafted resolution, which would mandate a transitional administration and an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Netanyahu’s government…

UKRAINE is working to resume prisoner exchanges with Russia that could bring 1,200 Ukrainians home, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, a day after his national security chief announced progress in negotiations. “We are … counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Sunday. “Many meetings, negotiations and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.” Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said on Saturday that he held consultations mediated by Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates on resuming prisoner of war exchanges, which the two sides have carried out successfully multiple times. He…

A BRIDGE collapsed at a cobalt mine in southeast Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 32 wildcat miners, a regional government official said Sunday. The bridge came down Saturday onto a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for. The DRC produces more than 70 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt, which is essential for batteries used in electric cars, many laptop computers, and mobile phones. More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in…

SOMALIA’s Immigration and Citizenship Agency has confirmed that hackers breached its electronic visa platform, exposing sensitive personal data of travellers who used the system. The admission on Sunday marks the first official acknowledgement by Somali authorities after the United States and United Kingdom issued warnings earlier in the week. At least 35,000 people, including thousands of American citizens, may have had their data compromised when “unidentified hackers” penetrated the system, according to a US Embassy statement issued on November 13. Somalia’s Defence Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi had praised the electronic visa system this week, claiming it had successfully prevented ISIL…

BRAZIL beat fellow World Cup qualifiers Senegal 2-0 at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on Saturday thanks to goals from teenager Estevao and veteran Casemiro. Carlo Ancelotti’s team, featuring a mouthwatering attacking combination of Estevao, Matheus Cunha, Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr, dominated the first half of the friendly in London. Manchester United’s Cunha headed against the bar as Brazil took a firm grip on the game but Chelsea’s Estevao gave the South Americans the lead they deserved in the 28th minute. The 18-year-old was fortunate that the ball fell to his feet on the right side of Brazil’s attack but he produced…

DOZENS of Palestinian prisoners are being held indefinitely in an underground Israeli detention facility, deprived of sunlight and subjected to extreme violence, Palestinian lawyers say, as more reports of abuse emerge from the devastation of Israel’s war on Gaza. Lawyers for Palestinians held at Rakevet, an underground wing of the Ramla (Nitzan) prison complex in central Israel, said their clients have been assaulted, starved, and denied medical care despite serious injuries. “When the prisoners arrive for the interview [with their lawyer], their faces show what they’ve endured,” lawyer Nadia Daqqa told Al Jazeera. “Particularly in this prison, prisoners are afraid…

NINE people were killed and 31 injured when confiscated explosives accidentally blew up at a police station in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said Saturday, just days after a car blast in Delhi killed a dozen people. The incident happened in Nowgam, and the explosives at the police station were recovered from Faridabad in the northern state of Haryana earlier this week, just hours before the powerful blast in Delhi that killed 12 people. Samples from the recovered material were being sent for further forensic examination since Thursday, the region’s director general of police Nalin Prabhat said, and the procedure was being…

RWANDAN-BACKED M23 rebels and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a framework for peace in the east of the country. The ceremony was held in Qatar, which along with the US and the African Union, has been trying to mediate an end to decades of conflict in the resource-rich region. Earlier this year, the M23 captured the eastern region’s main cities of Goma and Bukavu. Previous attempts to secure peace have failed. The US’s Africa envoy Massad Boulos said the document covered eight protocols and that most still required work. He also acknowledged that prisoner exchanges…

AT least four people have been killed when two boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off Libya’s coast, according to the Libyan Red Crescent. In a statement on Saturday, the organisation said the incident occurred off the coastal city of al-Khums on Thursday night. It said the first boat was carrying 26 people from Bangladesh, four of whom died. The second boat carried 69 people, including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, the Red Crescent added, without specifying their fate. Eight of them were children, it said. Al-Khums is a coastal city, some 118km (73 miles) east of the…