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ERLING Haaland scored on his 100th Manchester City appearance as the Premier League champions began their title defence with a win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Haaland opened the scoring on 18 minutes with a dinked finish over Robert Sanchez for his 91st City goal since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022. Former Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic made the game safe late on with a curling shot from just outside the penalty area. A low-key match only fleetingly burst into life, with Kevin de Bruyne curling just wide from the edge of the box shortly after Haaland’s opener, before Sanchez…

A FAMILY, including six children, have been killed in the central Gaza Strip, in the latest waves of Israel’s deadly attacks across the besieged Palestinian territory. At least 25 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Sunday. The parents and their six children were killed in Deir el-Balah in the central part of the Strip, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. The grandfather of the children said their mother worked for the United Nations. “My daughter, together with her husband and six children, was sleeping peacefully at home in Deir al-Balah. They were taken by…

BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko says Kyiv has stationed more than 120,000 soldiers along its border with Belarus, the country’s state news agency reported, as fighting continues amid Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that Minsk had deployed nearly a third of its armed forces along the entire border in response to the Ukrainian deployment, BelTA reported. Kyiv did not immediately respond to the claims. “Seeing their aggressive policy, we have introduced there and placed in certain points – in case of war, they would be defence – our…

SUDAN has been stricken by a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly two dozen people and sickened hundreds more in recent weeks, health authorities said. Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement on Sunday that at least 22 people have died from the disease, and that at least 354 confirmed cases of cholera have been detected across the war-torn country in recent weeks. On Saturday, he declared a cholera epidemic in Sudan and noted that the outbreak was “because of the weather conditions and because drinking water has been contaminated”. He said the decision was taken in conjunction…

NINETY-FIVE Libyans found at a suspected military camp in South Africa’s northeast in July would be deported back to their country on Sunday, the home affairs ministry said. The Libyan men have been detained since July 26 when police raided the remote training camp near the town of White River about 360 kilometres (220 miles) east of Johannesburg. “They are scheduled to leave South Africa from the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport this morning in a flight that has been paid for by the Libyan Government,” the home affairs ministry said in a statement. Police had said the men entered South…

ARSENAL made a flying start to their bid to win the Premier League title as the “unbelievable” Bukayo Saka inspired a 2-0 victory against Wolves on Saturday. Germany forward Kai Havertz put Mikel Arteta’s side ahead from Saka’s assist in the first half at the Emirates Stadium. England winger Saka wrapped up the points after the interval with a brilliant strike to cap a virtuoso display. “Bukayo had an unbelievable action to score the 2-0. With good players it’s like that. With (Lionel) Messi, I know he’s going to come in and do that, but you can’t stop him,” Arteta…

THE Israeli military has bombed a warehouse sheltering displaced Palestinians in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, killing 15 members of one family, including nine children. The civil defence spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, said on Saturday that 15 people killed in the overnight attack were members of the al-Ejlah family, with three women among the dead. The total death toll from the attack was 16. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said three Israeli missiles hit the warehouse, located a few kilometres south of the Nuseirat refugee camp. “A massive fire broke out,…

SOCIAL media giant X has announced it will shutter its operations in Brazil following a legal tussle with a top Brazilian judge over the platform’s rights and responsibilities to counter disinformation. The platform, previously known as Twitter, said on Saturday the shutdown was “effective immediately” but that Brazilian users would still have access to X. “We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision,” the company said, adding that responsibility for the decision “lies solely” with Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes. The move is the apparent culmination of a continuing legal battle between Moraes,…

TENS of millions of people in Southern Africa are suffering the effects of an El Nino-induced drought, a regional bloc has warned, with a drop in crop and livestock production causing food shortages in several countries. Elias Magosi, executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said on Saturday that 17 percent of the region’s population – some 68 million people – are in need of assistance. “The 2024 rainy season has been a challenging one with most parts of the region experiencing negative effects of the El Nino phenomenon characterised by the late onset of rains,” Magosi said.…

THE international mediators engaged in talks to bring Sudan’s war to an end have welcomed decisions by the warring sides to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief to the country. In a joint statement on Saturday, the sponsors of the talks in Switzerland lauded the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’s commitment to cooperate with humanitarian deliveries to Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan states. The mediators – the United States, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations – also praised the Sudanese Armed Forces’s decision to open the Adre border crossing with Chad into North…

JOSHUA Zirkzee made himself a Manchester United hero on his debut with a late winner to beat Fulham 1-0 in the opening match of the Premier League season on Friday. Zirkzee, lacking match fitness after his £36.5m ($47 million) move from Bologna last month, came on only for the final half hour. The Dutch international saved the Red Devils from a frustrating evening at Old Trafford when he poked in Alejandro Garnacho’s cross on 87 minutes. United boss Erik ten Hag survived at the end of last season, despite finishing eighth in the Premier League, thanks to winning the FA…

THE Health Ministry in Gaza has said that it detected the first polio case in the besieged enclave, hours after United Nations officials called for a pause in the fighting to enable a vaccination campaign for children against the virus. In a statement on Friday, the Health Ministry blamed the “difficult” conditions in Gaza – including the spread of sewage water in the streets, shortages of medical supplies and lack of personal hygiene products due to the Israeli blockade – for the emergence of the virus in the territory. Hours earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called for humanitarian pauses…

DONALD Trump was criticised Friday after he said the top civilian award he gave to a donor was better than the highest US military medal because his supporter remains “healthy and beautiful” while soldiers tend to be dead or shot before being honoured. At a campaign event with Jewish supporters late Thursday in New Jersey, Trump turned to Miriam Adelson and noted that during his time in the White House he’d given her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He said that Adelson — a major campaign donor and widow of the late Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson — had received an…

BURUNDI on Friday freed journalist Floriane Irangabiye, who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly “undermining the integrity of the national territory”, according to journalists. Irangabiye, 36, was arrested in August 2022 while visiting her family in the East African nation and sentenced in January 2023, provoking international criticism. “I am very happy because I have just reunited with my family,” Irangabiye told reporters outside the Muyinga prison after she was released. President Evariste Ndayishimiye published a decree on the X social media on Thursday granting a “presidential pardon measure in favour of Mrs Floriane Irangabiye”. It…

THREE Zimbabwean activists who were arrested in dramatic fashion after being forced off an aeroplane last month have been denied bail, on the eve of a high-profile international summit in the country. Robson Chere, Namatai Kwekweza and Samuel Gwenzi have been charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly protesting outside a court in June about the arrest of dozens of opposition supporters. The magistrate ruled they were likely to abscond, could commit other offences and cause public despondency, according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). A lawyer representing the trio says they were held for hours without access to a…

FOUR people have been arrested after a knife attack on the father of young Spanish football star Lamine Yamal in Catalonia, local police told AFP Thursday. The attack took place at 1910 GMT on Wednesday in a car park in the Catalan town of Mataro, around 30 kilometres from Barcelona, in the Rocafonda neighbourhood where Lamine Yamal is from, said a spokesman for the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan regional police force. Yamal’s father Mounir Nasraoui was stabbed several times the police said, and is being treated at the Can Ruti hospital, who could not be reached by AFP for comment.…

NEWLY resumed Gaza ceasefire talks are expected to continue on Friday, US and regional officials have said, amid efforts to defuse intensifying tensions across the Middle East. White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that negotiations were under way in Doha with the participation of officials from Israel, the United States, Qatar and Egypt. “We do not anticipate coming out of these talks today with the deal,” Kirby said. “In fact, I’d expect the talks to continue into tomorrow. This is vital work. The remaining obstacles can be overcome, and we must bring this process to a close.” Egyptian…

THAILAND’s parliament is set to vote on whether 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra should become the country’s next prime minister after the ruling Pheu Thai party nominated her to replace dismissed leader Srettha Thavisin. Parliament is due to convene in Bangkok at 10am (03:00 GMT) on Friday, two days after the country’s top court sacked Srettha over his decision to appoint a minister who had a criminal conviction. Paetongtarn is the youngest child of billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra and would become the third member of the family after her father and aunt to hold the nation’s top job if she secures parliamentary…

US-LED talks on the 16-month civil war in Sudan opened in Switzerland on Wednesday, with the discussion centring on humanitarian assistance for millions facing hunger, and displacement amid the brutal conflict. Only one of the two warring parties accepted the US invitation to the talks, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) choosing to shun the meeting. A power struggle between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been raging in the African country, which lies south of Egypt, since April 2023. “Belligerents must respect international humanitarian law and enable humanitarian assistance. “It is high time for the guns…

SOUTH African prosecutors have dropped charges against 95 Libyans who were arrested on suspicion of receiving training at an illegal military camp. The case was withdrawn because of insufficient evidence, said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Monica Nyuswa. The men have only been charged with breaching South Africa’s immigration laws and will be deported to their home country. The Home Affairs department said in a statement it would ensure “the deportations are conducted swiftly”. One of the men’s lawyers, Nico du Plessis, told Associated Press the group was “happy” the charges had been dropped. The group is expected to be deported…