Author: Editor

UK religious leaders joined forces Sunday to say they are “deeply concerned” by draft legislation to legalise assisted dying that MPs will vote on this week. Two new polls ahead of Friday’s parliamentary vote showed a majority of Britons support changing the assisted dying laws. The House of Commons will get a free vote on Labour lawmaker Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill, allowing them to vote with their conscience. If approved, the legislation, which would only affect England and Wales, will advance to further votes in both chambers of parliament. The issue — last voted on in 2015, when MPs…

AT least 24 people have died after two boats carrying mostly Somali nationals capsized off the coast of Madagascar, local authorities said. A statement from Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said efforts were underway to “ensure the safe return of the survivors”. The two boats carried a total of 70 passengers. The vessels were discovered adrift off Madagascar’s north coast on Saturday in the Indian Ocean. It is believed their engines had failed. A senior Somalian government official told local media that survivors were rescued by fishermen. Survivors say they were trying to reach the French island of Mayotte, a…

WAR-STRICKEN Sudan is in danger of becoming another failed state because civil society is disintegrating amid a proliferation of armed groups, the head of a leading international aid agency has told the BBC. As well as the two main warring parties in Sudan – the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – there are many smaller “ethnic armies” looting and going “berserk” on civilians, Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said. “The parties are tearing down their own houses, they are massacring their own people,” he said. For nineteen months, there has been a brutal power…

NIGERIA enjoyed a good start at the ongoing African Military Games at the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja by claiming gold medals in the men’s and women’s handball events. While the male team won 31-23, the female team won 36-18. Only two teams—Nigeria and Ghana—featured in the event, with Ghana settling for silver in both categories. Speaking after the win, the handball team coach, Emeka Nnamani, said he was glad his team played to instructions to secure the win. “I felt very happy and delighted to win. I planned with them very well and they played exactly as I…

MANCHESTER City crashed to a stunning fifth consecutive defeat as Tottenham won 4-0 at the Etihad to end the English champions’ 52-game unbeaten home run on Saturday. James Maddison struck twice in seven first-half minutes before Pedro Porro rubbed salt in the wounds of his former club and Brennan Johnson completed the rout. City’s first defeat on home soil from open play since the eve of the 2022 World Cup leaves them still five points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool, who play their game in hand at bottom-of-the-table Southampton on Sunday. A great day for Tottenham eases the pressure…

AT least 120 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in two days, Palestinian health officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment across the besieged territory. At least seven people were killed when a residential home was hit overnight in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, health officials said on Saturday. The other deaths were recorded in central and southern Gaza. Israeli air raids caused significant damage to al-Faruq Mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a social media video verified by Al Jazeera. Israeli forces also deepened their ground offensive and bombardment of…

THE European Union on Saturday raised an offer by rich nations to help poor countries worst hit by climate change to $300 billion a year in a bid to salvage talks that the developing world warned were on the brink of collapse. Negotiators worked through the night in a windowless sports stadium in the Caspian Sea city of Baku in a search for compromise as the two-week UN climate talks dragged into an extra day. In a year set to be the hottest ever recorded, developing nations bearing the brunt of rising drought and disasters flatly rejected Friday an initial…

CONFUSION and mystery linger in South Sudan after the home of once-powerful former spy chief Gen Akol Koor Kuc was rocked by deadly gunfire. The battle lasted for more than 50 minutes on Thursday night, prompting locals in the capital city of Juba to close their businesses and remain indoors for their safety. Gen Kuc, once a key member of President Salva Kiir’s inner circle, was sacked last month from his post as the head of the National Security Services (NSS) and was placed under house arrest last week. Two soldiers and two civilians were shot dead following a “serious…

MEDICS at the epicentre of the mpox outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have told the BBC there has been a notable reduction in new infections since the first batch of vaccines were rolled out last month. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed to the BBC that new cases appeared to be “plateauing” in DR Congo, but cautioned that it was too early to tell the impact of vaccinations. Mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – is a highly contagious disease and is suspected to have killed at least 900 people in DR Congo this year. WHO officials…

HARRY Kane made history by reaching 50 Bundesliga goals at the fastest pace ever with a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win over Augsburg. The England captain needed to score three goals to get to the landmark and after scoring a 63rd-minute penalty for the opener, he added two more in injury time. His second strike also came from the spot after he was fouled by Keven Schlotterbeck, who was sent off for a second yellow card, just before Kane headed in his third just before full-time after a fantastic first touch to control the ball. With the 50 goals…

SINGAPORE has carried out its third hanging of a convicted drug trafficker in a week despite appeals for clemency from the United Nations. Rosman Abdullah, 55, was executed for trafficking 57.43 grams of heroin into the Southeast Asian city-state, Singapore’s drug enforcement agency said on Friday. Rosman, a Singaporean, was “accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process,” the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement. “Capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just…

ISRAELI forces have bombarded southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut, killing at least five medics and crumpling a multistorey building, as ground troops have clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli warplanes launched strikes on Friday on two buildings just inside Beirut’s southern suburbs. A missile struck the middle of an 11-storey building housing shops, a gym and apartments located on a usually busy street in the heavily populated area. The impact sparked a fireball and caused the structure to collapse on top of itself, littering the road with debris. The NNA…

THE mourners at a cemetery in crisis-hit Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, were strikingly young – children shedding tears as they bade farewell to a 16-year-old friend, who was shot dead while banging pots and pans in an opposition-organised protest against the outcome of last month’s presidential election. “Antonio was shot in the mouth, and the bullet went through the back of his head,” his uncle, Manuel Samuel, told the BBC. “We saw CCTV footage from nearby shops of police shooting at protesters,” he added. Antonio Juaqim’s killing is a tragic reminder of the volatile political climate in the southern African state…

A FAMINE-STRICKEN camp housing about 500,000 displaced people in Sudan has received its first convoy of aid in months. The United Nations’ trucks arrived in Zamzam – which houses masses forced to flee during Sudan’s 18-month civil war – on Friday. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said food deliveries had been held up for months by fierce fighting in the nearby Darfur city of el-Fasher, as well as the “impassable” roads brought on by the rainy season. The war – a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – has created the world’s largest…

MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola says he could not leave the club after suffering four consecutive defeats for the first time in his coaching career. Guardiola has signed a two-year contract with City which will keep him at the club until 2027. The 53-year-old Spaniard joined City in 2016 and has won 18 trophies, including six Premier League titles. His contract had been due to expire at the end of the current season, and he signs a new deal on the back of defeats to Tottenham, Brighton, Sporting and Bournemouth. “I felt I could not leave now. Maybe the four…

ISRAELI air raids have killed dozens of people in the Baalbek region in eastern Lebanon, a local official said, as a United States mediator sought to advance ceasefire talks in Israel. At least 47 people were killed and 22 others wounded in the attacks, Bachir Khodr, governor of Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel province, said in a post on X on Thursday. Rescue operations were under way, he added. Elsewhere in Lebanon, Beirut shook as Israeli air strikes hit the southern suburbs about a dozen times, sending up clouds of debris in some of the most intense air strikes yet. The Israeli army…

MOSCOW on Thursday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine for the first time, Kyiv said, marking the latest escalation of the conflict since Ukraine fired Western-supplied long-range missiles on Russia. The Ukrainian air force said in a statement that Russian forces in the morning had launched several types of missiles at the central city of Dnipro, targeting critical infrastructure. “In particular, an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation,” the statement said. A source in the Ukrainian air force confirmed to AFP that it was the first time since the Kremlin launched its…

THIS year’s winner of France’s biggest book prize is being sued in Algeria over claims he stole the story from a patient of his psychiatrist wife. Kamel Daoud was awarded the Goncourt prize earlier this month for his novel Houris, a searing account of Algeria’s 1990s civil war in which up to 200,000 people were killed. But a woman who survived one of the massacres has appeared on Algerian television, alleging that the book’s heroine – named Fajr – is based on her own personal story. As a girl, Saada Arbane had her throat cut in an Islamist militant attack…

SOUTH Africa’s central bank on Thursday cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.75 percent, adopting caution amid mixed data and global uncertainty. It follows a fall in inflation in October to 2.8 percent, its lowest level since June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Inflation appears well contained in the near term, South Africa’s Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago told reporters. However it was “highly uncertain” in the medium term given the possibility of higher costs of food, electricity and water, as well as insurance premiums and wage settlements. While recent manufacturing data was subdued, mining was…

FOOTBALL fans in Sudan, a country torn apart by war, are savouring a rare moment of pride after the national team qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals. The feat, achieved at the expense of Ghana, one of the continent’s traditional powerhouses, comes despite the team having to play all their matches abroad and the domestic league being suspended. Streets of Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced endure agonising waits for water and healthcare, came alive after the match, with car horns blaring and ecstatic fans waving Sudanese flags from the windows. The match marked Sudan’s 10th…