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BRITAIN’s criminal prosecution body said Sunday it had twice received evidence against the now-disgraced ex-Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed, accused by multiple women of sexual assault and rape, but had not brought charges. Numerous women previously employed at the high-class London department store accused Fayed of sexual assault in a BBC documentary released on Thursday, including five alleging rape. Thirty-seven women are being represented by a legal team bringing claims against Harrods, accusing it of enabling the “systematic” abuse of young women and girls over 25 years. Lawyers said they had received over 150 new enquiries since the BBC investigation. A…

KENYA has pledged to send 600 more police officers to Haiti in the coming weeks to help fight gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby areas. This would bring the Kenyan contingent, deployed incrementally since June to help the Caribbean nation’s beleaguered police force, up to 1,000. During a visit to the country, Kenya’s President William Ruto also said he supported turning the current Kenya-led security mission into a full United Nations peacekeeping operation. A handful of other countries have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops. Violence in Haiti is still rife and a UN human rights…

A NUMBER of emerging economies across Africa have the potential to become digital asset hubs. Simultaneously, the cost of compliance for crypto exchanges is increasing as regulatory clarity emerges, according to Ben Caselin, chief marketing officer of VALR, a crypto exchange based in Johannesburg, South Africa. “South Africa is the entryway to the rest of Africa with a good rule of law and independent judiciary. It’s easy to open a company in South Africa,” Caselin told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. Caselin views several emerging economies in the African subcontinent as promising hubs for digital asset adoption. In April, South…

DANIEL Dubois sensationally dismantled fellow Briton Anthony Joshua in five rounds to catapult himself into global sporting stardom in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. The 27-year-old dropped Joshua multiple times to retain the IBF heavyweight title and leave his domestic rival’s career in ruins. Londoner Dubois stopped Joshua, 34, with an incredible counter right hook to secure the biggest win of his 24-fight career. “Are you not entertained?” Dubois shouted post-fight, to huge cheers in the packed-out stadium. “I’m a gladiator. I am a warrior to the bitter end. I want to get to the top level of…

THE sounds of gunfire and teargas continue around the Al Jazeera offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli soldiers raided and shuttered the bureau. Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully entered the building where Al Jazeera’s bureau is and handed the 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari early on Sunday. They did not provide a reason for the decision. Speaking over the phone from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the West Bank raid and closure order “comes as no surprise” after the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.…

KAMALA Harris has challenged Donald Trump to a second debate before the United States presidential election, saying she “will gladly accept” to go head-to-head again against the former president. In a statement on Saturday, Harris’s campaign spokesperson Jen O’Malley said the US vice president had accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on October 23. “We look forward to Vice President Harris again having the opportunity in the CNN debate to show her command of the issues and why it’s time to turn the page on Donald Trump and charge a new way forward for America,” O’Malley said. More than 67…

THE Zimbabwean government has approved the slaughter of 200 elephants to feed hungry citizens. A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority, Tinashe Farawo, confirmed the development to CNN on Monday. “We are targeting to cull 200 elephants,” Farawo said, lamenting rising cases of elephant-human conflict amid lingering food insecurity caused by severe drought in the East African country. He added: “The animals are causing a lot of havoc in communities, killing people. Last week, we lost a woman in the northern part of the country who was killed by an elephant. “The previous week, the same thing happened.…

KENYAN President William Ruto has landed in the Haitian capital to assess a Kenya-led security mission in the Caribbean nation, a day after a United Nations expert warned that Haiti faced deepening violence and insecurity. In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for Ruto said the Kenyan leader would “visit and commend the Kenyan contingent working alongside their Haitian counterparts”. Ruto also planned to meet with Haiti’s transitional presidential council and other officials, Hussein Mohamed said in a social media post. The visit to Port-au-Prince comes about three months after the first Kenyan officers arrived in Haiti as part of…

TOP-LEVEL footballers playing too many games will have a damaging effect on the sport in future, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) president has told the BBC. In recent weeks, a handful of leading figures in the game have spoken out against the increase in games, with Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri saying players are close to going on strike. Fifa’s expanded 2025 Club World Cup has increased the burden, since a competition that lasted around ten days and involved a maximum of two matches for the big teams will now span a month and require seven matches for…

LEBANON’s Ministry of Public Health says at least 14 people have been killed and 66 wounded in an Israeli air attack on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut. The National News Agency (NNA) reported that five children were among the casualties from Friday’s attack on a building in Jamous Street. The agency said an F-35 jet hit the residential area with two attacks. The Israeli military said it has carried out a “targeted strike” in the Lebanese capital targeting top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders of the Radwan special forces unit. Hezbollah later confirmed that Aqil…

BANGLADESH’s former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury spent more than $500m on luxury real estate in London, Dubai, and New York but did not declare his overseas assets on his Bangladesh tax returns, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) has revealed. The I-Unit went undercover in the UK to investigate how the 55-year-old Chowdhury, from a powerful family in the port city of Chittagong, amassed a property empire despite a $12,000 annual limit as part of the nation’s currency laws on the amount a citizen can take out of Bangladesh. Dr Shahdeen Malik, an advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, told…

SCHOOLS in Niger will start the new academic year almost a month late because of heavy rainfall and flooding, says the military government. “Several schools have been affected, and others are being occupied by those impacted,” a government spokesperson said on the state-run broadcaster. Authorities have pushed the start date from 2 to 28 October. Over the last few weeks, the West African country has been battered by relentless downpours, resulting in over 300 deaths either due to drowning or buildings collapsing, according to the interior ministry. In the central-southern city of Maradi, one of the worst hit areas, around…

A BRITISH businessman, who was a former contractor for South Africa’s ailing power utility Eskom, has been extradited from the UK to face 65 counts of corruption. Michael Lomas is accused of taking kickbacks on contracts between his firm, Tubular Construction, and Eskom for work at the Kusile power station, which were worth in excess of 1.4bn rand ($80m; £60m). “He allegedly manipulated contracts. He was previously arrested, got bail and fled the country to the UK,” national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe told AFP. He has not yet commented on the allegations against him. Eskom has been beset with…

NIGERIAN striker George Ilenikhena scored on his Champions League debut as Monaco produced an upset against 10-man Barcelona. The 18-year-old substitute raced on to Vanderson’s long ball over the top of the defence in the 71st minute and blasted his shot past Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Eric Garcia had earlier been shown a straight red card with just 10 minutes gone when he fouled Takumi Minamino as the last man after a poor pass out from the back by Ter Stegen. Monaco took the lead soon after when Maghnes Akliouche slotted past Ter Stegen who was rooted to the spot. Barcelona’s…

ISRAEL will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, has told Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to state media. Salami made the statement on Thursday after unprecedented attacks in the previous two days on Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, which killed 37 people and wounded more than 2,900 when hundreds of devices were detonated almost simultaneously. The “axis of resistance” refers to Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces. Lebanon and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the attacks on…

CANADA announced Wednesday it was slashing international student permits next year, and tightening foreign worker rules to further bring down the number of temporary residents in the country. The move comes after several recent rounds of restrictions aimed at taming record immigration levels that pushed Canada’s population past 41 million earlier this year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has pointed to the high immigration as straining the country’s housing sector, jobs market and social services. “It is a privilege to come to Canada. It is not a right,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a news conference. In 2025, Ottawa plans…

GABON’s deposed President Ali Bongo has announced he will quit politics a year after he was toppled from power by a military coup. “I wish to reaffirm my withdrawal from political life and the definitive renunciation of any national ambition,” Mr Bongo said in a letter addressed to the Gabonese people. The 65-year-old also called for the release of his wife and son who are in detention awaiting trial on corruption allegations. It is not clear whether his statement follows any negotiations with the military rulers, or if he is hoping that by agreeing to quit politics, he will secure…

GUINEA’s most wanted fugitive – a former senior military officer who escaped from prison last November – has been extradited from neighbouring Liberia, along with his son. Ex-Col Claude Pivi will now serve his life sentence after being convicted in absentia for his role in a massacre of opposition supporters at a stadium in the capital Conakry in 2009, Guinea’s military prosecutor said. He and his son, Verny Pivi, were arrested on the border of the two states during a routine security check on Tuesday. Photos circulating online showed Pivi looking frail and handcuffed alongside his son, who is accused…

SPARTA Prague marked their return to the Champions League after almost 19 years with a thumping win over Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg. The Czech champions’ last appearance in the competition proper came in December 2005 when they finished last in a group containing Arsenal, Ajax and FC Thun. After such a long wait Sparta needed just 107 seconds to take the lead at home to Salzburg through Kaan Kairinen’s effort on the rebound. Victor Olatunji doubled Sparta’s advantage shortly before half-time with a fine volleyed effort. Qazim Laci rounded off the win in the 58th minute with a simple…

AT least 20 people have been killed and more than 450 wounded by a second wave of explosions from wireless communication devices in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry says. Walkie-talkies used by the armed group Hezbollah blew up in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon – areas seen as its strongholds. Some of the blasts took place during funerals for some of the 12 people who the ministry said were killed when Hezbollah members’ pagers exploded on Tuesday. Hezbollah blamed Israel for that attack. Israel has not commented. The attacks came as Israel’s…