Author: Editor

AUTHORITIES in Gaza say that Israel has only allowed a fraction of the humanitarian aid deliveries agreed on as part of the United States-brokered ceasefire into the enclave since the agreement came into effect last month. In a statement on Saturday, Gaza’s Government Media Office said that 3,203 commercial and aid trucks brought supplies into Gaza between October 10 and 31. This is an average of 145 aid trucks per day, or just 24 percent of the 600 trucks that are meant to be entering Gaza daily as part of the deal, it added. “We strongly condemn the Israeli occupation’s…

UKRAINE has deployed special forces to the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk, the country’s top military commander said, as Kyiv seeks to maintain control of the area amid an intense Russian offensive. Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk”, since mid-2024 in its campaign to control the entirety of the eastern Donetsk region. “We are holding Pokrovsk,” Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Facebook on Saturday. “A comprehensive operation to destroy and dislodge enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing.” Home to more than 60,000 people before the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, Pokrovsk…

PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has been declared the winner of Tanzania’s presidential election, securing another term amid days of unrest across the country. Samia won 98% of the votes in Wednesday’s poll, the electoral commission said. In her Saturday victory speech she said the election was “free and democratic”, accusing protesters of being “unpatriotic”. Opposition parties rejected the results, calling the vote a mockery of the democratic process as Samia’s main challengers had been either imprisoned or barred from running. International observers have expressed concern over the lack of transparency and widespread turmoil that has reportedly left hundreds of people…

CAIRO is set to open the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum that Egypt hopes will celebrate the nation’s heritage and also revitalise its struggling economy and tourism sector. According to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, world leaders – including monarchs, and heads of state and government were expected to attend the grand opening ceremony in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Saturday. It described the museum opening as “an exceptional event in the history of human culture and civilisation”. Massive statues and historical artefacts from the country’s ancient civilisation will be on display across the 24,000 square metres (258,000 square feet)…

THREE of Nigeria’s leading attacking talents in Europe; Victor Boniface, Umar Sadiq and Taiwo Awoniyi will be stepping onto the pitch today under increasing scrutiny, as all three battle worrying goal droughts that stretch back several months. Victor Boniface, who took Europe by storm at Bayer Leverkusen in the 2023/24 season with 14 goals and nine assists, has seen his form dip dramatically. Last goal: March 2025 vs Bochum Drought: 12 matches / 8 months Now on loan at Werder Bremen, the striker has played six games this season, registering just one assist. Even in his first start for Bremen,…

THIRTY more bodies of Palestinians who were detained by Israel have been returned to the besieged Gaza Strip, some showing signs of torture. The return of the Palestinian remains, via the International Committee of the Red Cross, came as Israeli forces continued air strikes across the Strip despite a shaky ceasefire, killing at least three people on Friday. One Palestinian was killed and his brother wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Shujayea neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City, while another was killed by Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported. A third Palestinian died of wounds sustained…

UNITED States President Donald Trump has said he is not considering strikes within Venezuela, appearing to contradict his own comments earlier this month, amid a major US military build-up in the region. The US has now deployed fighter jets, warships and thousands of troops to the Caribbean, with the world’s largest warship, aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, on its way towards the Venezuelan coast. When asked by reporters on board Air Force One on Friday if media reports that he was considering strikes within Venezuela were true, Trump answered: “No.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered the same…

HUNDREDS of people have been killed in Tanzania during three days of protests following Wednesday’s general election, the country’s main opposition party has said. The death toll varies, and a nationwide internet shutdown is making it difficult to verify the numbers. While a spokesperson from the opposition Chadema party told AFP news agency that “around 700” people had been killed in clashes with security forces, a diplomatic source in Tanzania told the BBC there was credible evidence that at least 500 people had died. The government has sought to play down the scale of the violence – and authorities have…

MORE than 60,000 people have fled the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the weekend, according the UN refugee agency. There have been reports of mass executions and crimes against humanity as the RSF fighters stormed the city after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment. The flow of those fleeing the violence towards the town of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had increased in the past few days, the UNHCR’s Eujin Byun told the BBC. They were narrating horrendous stories of atrocities, including rape, and…

SAUDI Arabia has revealed it rejected an offer to bring global football icon Lionel Messi to the Saudi Pro League on a short-term deal ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Abdullah Hammad, CEO of the Mahd Sports Academy, disclosed that Messi’s representatives approached him during the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup, seeking a temporary move while the Major League Soccer (MLS) season goes on its extended break. “During the last Club World Cup, Messi’s team contacted me and offered for him to play in Saudi Arabia because the MLS will stop for nearly four months,” Hammad said on the…

THE Palestinian group Hamas has handed over two bodies it said were of deceased Israeli captives, a day after the fragile Gaza ceasefire was shattered by a series of deadly Israeli strikes across the besieged enclave. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the two bodies had been received by Israeli forces via the Red Cross in Gaza and would be transported into Israel for identification. Under the US-brokered accord to halt Israel’s two-year war on Gaza, Hamas released 20 living captives in exchange for Israel releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Israeli forces have…

UNITED States President Donald Trump has announced the lowest refugee admission cap in the country’s history, limiting entry to just 7,500 people for the fiscal year 2026. In a presidential document published on Thursday but dated September 30, the Trump administration indicated that the US refugee system would remain largely closed to the millions of people around the world fleeing unsafe conditions. “The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Executive Order 14204 and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands,” the document said. Trump has repeatedly said white South…

PROTESTS have escalated in major cities across Tanzania as opposition supporters denounce Wednesday’s presidential and parliamentary elections as a sham. Hundreds of demonstrators also crossed into Kenyan territory, barricading roads, lighting bonfires and tearing down posters of President Samia Suluhu Hassan along the way. Kenyan police said two people died after fleeing running battles with Tanzanian police. Protesters accuse the government of undermining democracy, as the main opposition leader is in jail and another opposition figure was disqualified from the election, bolstering Samia’s chances of winning. Anger grew on Thursday after the electoral commission started announcing results, with Samia getting…

CAMEROON’s Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji says opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary will face legal action over allegations he incited “violent post-election demonstrations”. At least four protesters have been killed during clashes between security forces and opposition supporters since Cameroon’s election on 12 October, with 92-year-old President Paul Biya winning an eighth consecutive term. Tchiroma Bakary insists he won the election, a claim dismissed by Biya’s ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM). Violent crackdowns by police and security officers on protesters have alarmed the international community, with the UN, African Union and EU calling for restraint. On Tuesday,…

LIVERPOOL crashed out of the League Cup on Wednesday as Crystal Palace’s 3-0 win in the fourth round added to the mounting crisis at Anfield. Ismaila Sarr struck twice in the first half and Yeremy Pino grabbed the third to condemn Arne Slot’s side to a sixth defeat in their last seven games in all competitions. Slot fielded a weakened team as he prioritised Liverpool’s crucial games against Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City over the next two weeks. But it was still another embarrassing result for Liverpool, coming hot on the heels of a 3-2 loss at Brentford…

DURING Israel’s war on Gaza, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, was warned by Israeli soldiers for months in 2024 to take his family and leave his duties. But Abu Safia refused to leave his patients behind, as his colleagues and family said in a documentary by Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines. Then in December as Israeli forces surrounded the hospital, an Israeli officer called Abu Safia and promised to relocate him and his staff to another hospital. But the promise was a lie. Instead, the paediatrician and neonatologist was abducted…

RESIDENTS of a Rio de Janeiro community lined up their dead in the street Wednesday after Brazil’s bloodiest police raid killed at least 119 people, spotlighting the city’s controversial war against drug gangs entrenched in poor neighborhoods. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was left horrified by the death toll from the operation, just days before Brazil hosts COP30 global climate talks in the Amazon city of Belem. While activists and the United Nations raised concerns over the use of force by police, Rio’s state government hailed the operation as a success in its bid to halt the takeover of…

THE Rapid Support Forces militia reportedly killed hundreds of civilians at the main hospital in el-Fasher, days after it captured the Sudanese city, the head of the UN’s health agency says. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reported killing of 460 people at the hospital. Earlier, the Sudan Doctors’ Network said that on Tuesday RSF fighters had “cold bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present”. It gave no causality figures, but said medical facilities in the city had been “transformed into…

TANZANIA’s authorities have imposed a curfew in Dar es Salaam, the nation’s biggest city, following violent clashes between the police and protesters on election day. Sources at the city’s Muhimbili Hospital told the BBC they had seen an influx of wounded patients, as Tanzanians voted in presidential and parliamentary elections. The poll is expected to be a shoo-in for President Samia Suluhu and her ruling party, as the main opposition leader is in jail on treason charges, which he denies, and his party has boycotted the vote. The protesters, who want electoral reforms and free political activity, set fire to…

THE Israeli military has killed at least 20 Palestinians in attacks across Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful” strikes following an exchange of gunfire in southern Rafah, during which one Israeli soldier was wounded. The attacks on Tuesday marked the most significant flare-up in violence since a ceasefire brokered by United States President Donald Trump came into effect in the war-devastated territory on October 10. Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, accused Israel of violating the truce and said it would postpone the planned handover of the body of a missing captive. In a statement, it also warned…