ANTI-TAX protesters in Kenya are in shock after a 29-year-old man was killed during nationwide demonstrations against a new finance bill. Rex Kanyike Masai, who was protesting on Thursday in the centre of Nairobi, died of gunshot wounds, a doctor from a hospital in the capital has told a local newspaper. Police fired tear gas and water cannons at largely peaceful protesters near parliament as lawmakers were debating proposals to bring in new taxes. Amnesty International has accused the police of using excessive force to contain protesters, many of whom were arrested. When the protests, dubbed “Occupy Parliament”, began on…
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THE World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed a cumulative death of 194, 897 deaths and 1,932 cases globally as a result of a cholera outbreak. A statement by the health organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region said the outbreaks were recorded from the 1st of January, 2024 to the 26th of May, 2024. The cases were reported from 24 countries across five WHO regions with the Eastern Mediterranean Region recording the highest numbers followed by the African Region, the Region of the Americas, the South-East Asia Region, and the European Region. No outbreaks were reported in the Western Pacific Region during this…
SPAIN qualified for the last 16 of Euro 2024 with a match to spare on Thursday after beating Italy 1-0 in a dominant display which ensured that La Roja would go through as Group B winners. Riccardo Calafiori’s own goal nine minutes after half-time was the difference between the two sides at Gelsenkirchen in the biggest match to date at the tournament in Germany. But the slender margin of victory didn’t reflect a statement performance from Spain who completely nullified Italy and should have had the game won by half-time, as they did in their opening round thumping of Croatia.…
ISRAELI forces pounded areas in the central Gaza Strip overnight, killing three people and wounding dozens of others, according to medics, while tanks deepened their invasion into Rafah in the south, residents said. Israeli planes struck a house in Al-Nuseirat camp, killing two people and wounding 12 others, while tanks shelled areas in Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij camps, wounding many other people, health officials said. Nuseirat, Maghazi, and Bureij are three of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps. In Deir al-Balah, a city packed with displaced people in the central Gaza Strip, an Israeli air strike killed one Palestinian and wounded several…
PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin said that Russia might supply weapons to North Korea in what he suggested would be a mirror response to the Western arming of Ukraine. Putin was speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Thursday, a day after visiting nuclear-armed North Korea and signing a mutual defence agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un. Western countries have shunned North Korea because of its development of nuclear and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions, and view the growing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang with concern. Putin threatened earlier this month that Russia might supply arms to Western adversaries…
NIGER Republic has revoked the operating licence of French nuclear fuel producer Orano at one of the world’s biggest uranium mines, the company said Thursday, in a move that highlighted tensions between France and the African country’s ruling junta. Orano said it has been excluded from the Imouraren mine in northern Niger which sits on an estimated 200,000 tonnes of the metal, used for nuclear power and weapons. Mining was meant to have started at Imouraren in 2015 but development was frozen after the collapse in world uranium prices in the wake of the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster. The Niger…
AN attack that reportedly killed over 100 soldiers on an army base in Burkina Faso has snowballed into speculation about unrest in the security forces, in a country where the military has been in power since 2022. The leader of the military junta has since appeared on state TV in an attempt to debunk the rumours. Burkina Faso has been battling Islamist insurgents for several years and about half the country is outside government control. Jihadist group Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has said it was behind last Tuesday’s attack in the northern town of Mansila. The following day, there…
FRIENDS and family searched for missing hajj pilgrims on Wednesday as the death toll at the annual rituals, which were carried out in scorching heat, surged past 900. Relatives scoured hospitals and pleaded online for news, fearing the worst after temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, on Monday. About 1.8 million people from all over the world, many old and infirm, took part in the days-long, mostly outdoor pilgrimage, which this year fell during the oven-like Saudi summer. An Arab diplomat told AFP that deaths among Egyptians alone had jumped to “at least 600”,…
ALBANIA left Croatia in danger of a group-stage exit from Euro 2024 after a thrilling 2-2 draw on Wednesday as Albania’s Klaus Gjasula scored at both ends, including a dramatic injury-time equaliser. After a disappointing 3-0 loss to Spain in their opener, Croatia were behind again when Qazim Laci gave Albania an early lead in Hamburg. But Croatia improved after making two half-time substitutions and Andrej Kramaric levelled with 16 minutes remaining, before Gjasula put through his own net. The Albania midfielder became the last-gasp hero, though, slotting into the bottom corner in the fifth minute of injury time to…
THE Israeli military’s “deliberate” use of heavy weapons in the Gaza Strip has been an “intentional and direct attack on the civilian population”, a new report by a United Nations-backed independent commission has found. Navi Pillay, chairperson of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said on Wednesday that Israel has committed crimes against humanity, forced starvation, extermination, murder, and inhuman and cruel treatment of Palestinians. She also accused Palestinian groups of war crimes. As she presented the report to the UN Human Rights Council, Pillay said the Israeli military operating in Gaza “forcibly transferred almost…
RUSSIA said Wednesday it had presented its ideas for a prisoner swap to the United States and was waiting for a response, days before it was set to put US reporter Evan Gershkovich on trial. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges rejected as false by his family, employer and the White House. President Vladimir Putin said in February that talks on a prisoner swap involving the journalist were under way, but the Kremlin has not given any details on the progress of the negotiations. “The ball is in the court of the…
THE President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo told AFP Wednesday that he ordered the partial closure of its border with Senegal after deadly clashes erupted between two Muslim communities. The two communities in southern Senegal have long been at loggerheads over control of the local main mosque and accuse each other of being at the root of tensions that have led to several deaths in the past. During Eid on Monday, clashes between the two communities erupted in the holy town of Medina Gounass — just a few kilometres from Guinea-Bissau. One person died and around 20 others were injured,…
KENYA’s government has scrapped some proposed taxes in this year’s controversial finance bill, including a 16% levy on bread, after a public outcry. The announcement by MPs came as police fired tear gas and used water cannon to try to disperse angry protesters in the capital, Nairobi. Dozens of people have been arrested, and lawyers earlier joined chanting crowds at the city’s main police station to demand that detainees be freed. Since coming to office in 2022, President William Ruto has introduced several new and unpopular taxes with the aim of eliminating the country’s national debt of nearly $80bn (£63bn).…
YOUNGSTER Francisco Conceicao snatched Portugal a last-gasp 2-1 win over the Czech Republic in their Euro 2024 Group F opener on Tuesday just minutes after coming off the bench. The 21-year-old Porto winger capitalised from close range after the Czechs were unable to clear a cross, completing his team’s comeback. The Czechs went ahead against the run of play through Lukas Provod’s fine strike from the edge of the box after the hour mark. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal did not shine but dug just deep enough to claim victory, with Robin Hranac’s own goal pulling them level before Conceicao’s dramatic winner.…
LOCAL authorities in Gaza on Tuesday raised the alarm of over 3,500 children across the Gaza Strip being at risk of hunger amid Israel’s ongoing tightened siege and the closure of aid crossings. In a statement, the Gaza-based Government Media Office said Gaza is “rapidly” heading towards famine amid an “Israeli and US conspiracy to prevent” humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. “3,500 children are threatened by death due to malnutrition and lack of nutritional supplements and vaccines which became part of the prohibited items to enter Gaza,” the statement said, referring to Israeli restrictions. It added that “the crime of…
NVIDIA edged ahead of other tech companies Tuesday to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company in the latest sign of the might of artificial intelligence. The chip company, which has enjoyed a monumental ascent over the last 18 months amid enthusiasm over generative AI, jumped 3.4 percent near 1:25 pm (1725 GMT), giving it a market capitalisation of about $3.3 trillion, slightly ahead of Microsoft and Apple. The California-based company, which is led by Jensen Huang, has seen profits soar due to torrid demand for its powerful GPU chips, which have set the industry’s pace in pushing new…
DIPLOMATS said on Tuesday that at least 550 pilgrims died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year. At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, the two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP. “All of them (the Egyptians) died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca. At least 60 Jordanians also…
A FRESH UN fact-finding team examining abuses in Sudan’s brutal civil war said Tuesday it was investigating reports of sexual slavery in detention facilities and ethnic-based attacks on civilians. War has raged for more than a year between the regular military under army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The recently-established UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission had “received credible reports of many cases of sexual violence being committed by the warring factions”, mission chief Mohammed Chande Othman told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Women and girls…
THE Nigeria team has won bronze at the 2024 Chovken World Championship held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Nura Kangiwa, patron of NSK polo team, disclosed this in a statement by Joesef Karim, Media Assistant to Vice President, African Region, International Chovken Federation on Monday in Abuja. Kangiwa, who is also the Chairman, African Region of the International Chovken Federation, said that Nigeria drew 1-1 with Uzbekistan to win bronze on points from previous matches. “This is the first time Nigeria participated in any global Chovken, an ancient equestrian sport similar to polo. “Team Nigeria’s build-up to the finals, Nigeria beat Germany…
MAXIMILIAN Woeber’s own goal was enough to give France a winning start to their Euro 2024 campaign on Monday as they edged Austria 1-0 in their opening game but Kylian Mbappe came off late on with a bloodied nose. Woeber diverted Mbappe’s cutback into his own net seven minutes before half-time in Duesseldorf to allow the French, one of the leading contenders to win the tournament, to come through a stiff test. Austria have been much-improved under Ralf Rangnick and their pressing game often made life uncomfortable for the 2022 World Cup runners-up, who saw Mbappe leave the field near…