REAL Madrid fans rallied around star striker Kylian Mbappe on Thursday as the France captain battles a media frenzy linking him to a rape investigation in Sweden. Swedish prosecutors on Tuesday confirmed an investigation had been launched — without naming Mbappe — following an alleged rape at a plush Stockholm hotel on October 10. Media in Sweden had reported the French superstar was the target of the probe following his two-day visit to the capital last week, which Mbappe and his lawyer have denied. For Juan Castro, a 72-year-old Real Madrid supporter, the press reports are merely “fake news” that…
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ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that the war in Gaza is “not over” following the alleged killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even as Western leaders expressed hope that his death would present an opportunity to end the yearlong conflict. “Today, evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not yet complete,” Netanyahu said in a recorded address on Thursday. Netanyahu’s sentiments were echoed by other prominent Israeli politicians, including Benny Gantz, the leader of the centre-right National Unity party. Gantz, who resigned from Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet in June amid disagreements over the…
BILLIONAIRE Elon Musk has donated almost $75 million to the political action committee he created to support Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign, according to filings made late Tuesday, illustrating the Tesla founder’s growing commitment to the Republican’s cause. Musk, estimated to be the world’s richest man, has taken an increasingly visible role in Trump’s campaign, accompanying him on stage at a recent rally in Pennsylvania and frequently lambasting his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, on social media. Trump frequently name-checks Musk at rallies, and has promised to appoint him to a committee tasked with slashing government bureaucracy. Harris and Trump are…
NIGER’s military authorities have banned rice, cereal and other food exports to all countries except fellow junta-led Burkina Faso and Mali to protect local supply, the government has said. With the Sahel nation experiencing high inflation on certain foods, the products banned for export besides rice include legumes such as cowpea as well as cereals like millet, sorghum and corn. Junta chief Abdourahamane Tiani took the measure “to protect the supply of the internal market” and “make the goods of mass consumption accessible”, the government said in a statement late on Wednesday. “These prohibitions do not apply to exports” to…
THE Kenyan Senate voted on Thursday to oust Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in a historic impeachment vote. The upper house has so far voted to impeach the 59-year-old on five charges out of a total of 11 against him, after two days of hearings. The Senate only had to find him guilty of one charge to remove him from office. He is the first deputy president to be ousted in this manner since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution. A similar motion against President William Ruto’s number two was overwhelmingly approved by the lower house National Assembly last…
SERENA Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, revealed on Wednesday she had a grapefruit-sized cyst removed from her neck and is doing well as she recovers. The 43-year-old former women’s tennis world number one said in a Tik Tok video that she found a lump in May on the right side of her neck and an MRI showed she had a brachial cyst. “I am still recovering, but getting better. Health always comes first,” Williams posted on X. Williams did not have the cyst removed immediately but after it grew in size and she had multiple tests and a…
ISRAEL carried out dozens of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Wednesday, killing dozens including a city mayor, toppling buildings and causing widespread destruction in several southern areas. The latest exchanges in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed increasing calls for a ceasefire. The Israeli army said its warplanes struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, where the Lebanese group and its ally Amal hold sway. The Lebanese health ministry said dozens were killed and 43 injured in the strikes on two municipal buildings, adding that rescuers were searching through…
MORE than a million copies of books by Han Kang, the first South Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, have sold locally since the honour was announced, bookstores said Wednesday. The short story writer and novelist is best known overseas for her Man Booker Prize-winning “The Vegetarian”, her first novel translated into English. The 53-year-old, who also became the first Asian woman author to win the Nobel, was chosen “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”, the Swedish Academy said last week. Han’s win has created a sensation in…
NIGER’s military leaders have renamed streets and monuments bearing French names, in the latest move to cut links with the country’s former colonial power. Avenue Charles de Gaulle in the capital, Niamey, is now Avenue Djibo Bakary in honour of the Nigerien politician who played a key role in the West African country’s struggle for independence. “Most of our avenues, boulevards and streets… bear names that are simply reminders of the suffering and bullying our people endured during the ordeal of colonisation,” said junta spokesman Maj Col Abdramane Amadou. Niger’s relationship with France and other Western allies deteriorated after President…
KENYA’s parliament has begun the final step to remove Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua from office just two years after he was elected on a joint ticket with the president. An overwhelming majority voted in the National Assembly last week to approve his impeachment, setting the stage for the two-day trial in the Senate that takes the final decision. The deputy president faces 11 charges including corruption, inciting ethnic divisions and undermining government – all of which he denies. The row follows his recent fallout with President William Ruto, who has remained silent about the matter. Gachagua’s trial is being conducted…
ALEX Ferguson is leaving his reported £2 million-a-year ($2.6m) ambassador role with Manchester United at the end of the season as part of a cost-cutting exercise. The former United manager, 82, won 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League crowns among a huge trophy haul during nearly 27 years at Old Trafford. The Athletic reported that the decision had been made amicably, with Ferguson stepping down from the global ambassador role when the season ends. Ferguson, a regular at matches since he stepped down in 2013, will remain a non-executive director of the football club board. It comes as…
HEZBOLLAH’s acting chief has warned the group plans to fire rockets into more areas of Israel until the Netanyahu government stops its air strikes and ends its ground invasion of Lebanon. “I am telling the Israeli home front: The solution is a ceasefire,” Naim Qassem said in a speech broadcast live on Tuesday, adding that the group would not be defeated by the ongoing bombardment of its strongholds as well as the killing of its leadership. Qassem said Hezbollah is focused on “hurting the enemy”, signalling that it would ramp up attacks further south in Israel. Qassem has led the…
NORTH Korea blew up sections of the deeply symbolic roads and railways connecting it to the South on Tuesday, Seoul’s military said, adding it had conducted a “counter-fire” operation in response. Pyongyang’s military last week vowed to permanently seal its southern border after spending months laying mines and building anti-tank barriers in the wake of leader Kim Jong Un declaring the South his country’s “principal enemy”. The North also accused Seoul of using drones to drop anti-regime propaganda leaflets on the capital Pyongyang, with Kim convening a security meeting to direct a plan of “immediate military action” in response, state…
MILLIONS of people across Southern Africa are going hungry due to a historic drought, risking a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe, the United Nations has warned. Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have all declared a state of national disaster in the past months as the drought has destroyed crops and livestock. Angola and Mozambique are also severely affected, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a briefing, warning that the crisis is expected to deepen until the next harvests in March or April next year. “A historic drought – the worst food crisis yet – has devastated more than 27…
UKRAINE has denied allegations that it had supplied drones to rebels fighting against the Malian army and Russia-backed mercenaries. It comes after Paris-based Le Monde newspaper reported reported that Ukrainian drones were providing support for the Tuareg rebels “who are benefiting from discreet but decisive support from Kyiv”. Mali ‘s junta-led government ended a long-running alliance with former colonial power France in 2022 in favour of Russia in a bid to tackle a years-long insurgency in the north. But it has been unable to quell the unrest and recently suffered heavy losses, alongside its Russian allies. Mali and its neighbours…
STRIKING images from the Sahara Desert show large lakes etched into rolling sand dunes after one of the most arid, barren places in the world was hit with its first floods in five decades. The Sahara does experience rain, but usually just a few inches a year and rarely in late summer. Over two days in September, however, intense rain fell in parts of the desert in southeast Morocco, after a low-pressure system pushed across northwestern Sahara. Preliminary NASA satellite data showed nearly 8 inches of rain in some parts of the region. Errachidia, a desert city in southeast Morocco,…
FORMER Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy borrowed money from teammates for legal fees and child support after he was charged with sexual offences, an employment tribunal heard on Monday. Mendy is claiming £11.5 million ($15 million) in unpaid wages by the Premier League champions, who stopped paying him after he was charged with rape and sexual assault in 2021. The ex-France international was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in January 2023, but the same jury could not reach a verdict on another count of rape and one count of attempted rape.…
IRAN said Monday it currently sees “no grounds” for its indirect talks with the United States via intermediary Oman, citing the crisis in the Middle East. In June, Tehran said it had engaged in indirect talks with Washington via Muscat, despite the two countries having no diplomatic relations. US news website Axios reported at the time that officials from Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Oman “on how to avoid escalating regional attacks”. On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited the Gulf sultanate as part of a regional tour in which he met allies and Middle…
SOUTH Korea’s military said on Monday it was “fully ready” to respond after North Korea ordered troops on the border to prepare to fire in a dispute over drone flights to Pyongyang. The nuclear-armed North has accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital to drop propaganda leaflets filled with “inflammatory rumours and rubbish”, and warned on Sunday that it would consider it “a declaration of war” if another drone was detected. Seoul’s military initially denied it was behind the flights, with local speculation centred on activist groups in the South that have long sent propaganda and US currency northwards,…
THE Duchess of Edinburgh has described distressing scenes of sexual exploitation, after meeting refugees from Sudan’s civil war who had fled to neighbouring Chad. “People are having to exchange food and water for sex, for rape. That is violence that is being enacted through conflict. It is being used as a bargaining tool,” said Sophie, after a visit to this conflict-hit region of Africa. She spoke to women who had travelled into Chad to escape the conflict across the border in Sudan. “These women have no option but to leave. And, even then, they’re lucky if some of them can…