Author: Editor

THE UK ambassador to Mexico reportedly sacked earlier this year after he pointed a gun at a local member of embassy staff. A video posted on social media, originally reported by the Financial Times, purports to show Jon Benjamin aiming a rifle at another man while looking down the weapon’s sights. It was captioned: “In [the] context of daily killings in Mexico by drug dealers, he dares to joke.” Mr Benjamin hasn’t commented so far on what appears to have been a badly misplaced joke. No official announcement about Mr Benjamin’s position has been made by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth…

ZAMBIA’s former first lady has been arrested on money laundering charges, her lawyer said Friday, days after her husband claimed he was being targeted as part of a political vendetta. Esther Lungu, 66, was held Thursday evening alongside her two daughters, after being quizzed for hours about properties the family holds in the capital, Lusaka, lawyer Makebi Zulu told AFP. She has now been released on bail. “The former first lady has been arrested for being found in possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime and money laundering charges,” Zulu said. He said the properties, a block of…

FORMER President Jacob Zuma, is emerging as the biggest victor of South Africa’s general elections as his new breakaway uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MK) appears poised for major gains at the expense of the country’s governing African National Congress. With more than 90 percent of votes counted on Friday evening, the MK appeared to be on the cusp of grabbing power in KwaZulu Natal, comfortably leading in a province where the ANC has never previously lost since the first post-apartheid elections in 1994. Nationally, as results trickled in, the MK stood third with approximately 13 percent of the vote, behind…

CHELSEA have appointed Leicester’s Enzo Maresca as their new head coach, according to British media reports late Thursday. The Daily Telegraph said the Italian would be joining the Blues on a five-year contract, plus an option of a further year, designed to give the club stability after two years of upheaval under the new regime led by US investors Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly. Maresca, who until last year was Pep Guardiola’s assistant at English champions Manchester City, oversaw an immediate return to the Premier League for Leicester following their relegation 12 months ago. The 44-year-old Italian’s style of football…

ISRAELI tanks have rolled into Rafah’s city centre and its army announced that it now controls the entire Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of land that runs along Egypt’s border with Gaza’s Rafah Governorate. This violates the conditions of its treaty with Egypt that stipulate the strip, also known as the Salah al-Din Axis, is a buffer zone that Egypt oversees from its side of the border. Israel had been threatening a “full-scale” land invasion of Rafah for months, much to the distress of the international community, which warned that such an attack would be a “red line”. Then, a little…

A NEW York jury convicted Donald Trump on all charges in his hush money case Thursday in a seismic development barely five months ahead of the election where he seeks to recapture the White House. The first criminal trial of a former US president ended with the 77-year-old Trump found guilty on each of the 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a payment meant to silence porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump — who was released without bail and is all but certain to appeal — initially sat still in the drab Manhattan courtroom, shoulders dipping. Addressing reporters outside…

POPULAR private television channel Canal 3 Niger has sacked 36 employees who went on a three-day strike to demand pay arrears. Those sacked on Tuesday include journalists, cameramen and technicians. Media associations say many journalists in the country, one of the world’s poorest, have not been paid for a year or even more. Media outlets are grappling with plummeting revenues after Covid-19 pandemic and regional sanctions on the landlocked nation following a coup last year. Canal 3 Niger head Ismaël Abdoulaye told AFP on Thursday some of the dismissals were for “insubordination” and the others “breach of contract”. Chamssiyatou Kimba,…

WITH a third of the votes counted, South Africa’s ruling ANC is on course to win another general election but lose its 30-year-old outright majority, partial results showed Thursday. According to the Independent Electoral Commission, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress has won 42.19 percent of the votes, with 7,658 districts out of 23,293 reporting. This would leave it the largest single party in the National Assembly but, crucially, without the absolute majority it has won in every previous national vote since the advent of democracy in 1994. With a third of votes in Wednesday’s election tallied, the ANC was…

IN a significant breakthrough, troops from Niger Republic’s Operation Faraoutar Bushiya apprehended the leader of a notorious bandit group, Baleri, on Tuesday, May 28. The arrest occurred at Rouga Kowa Gwani in the Guidan Roumdji commune and department. PRNigeria reports that Baleri, originally from Shinkafi, who escaped from Nigeria, had been terrorizing Zamfara and Maradi regions and was a close associate of the infamous Bello Turji. He was ranked the 40th most wanted person in Nigeria by the Nigerian army, with a price on his head. According to Colonel Mohamed Almoctar Seydou Niandou, Chief of the Tactical Staff of Operation…

SUPER Eagles and Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi was left stunned after inspecting facilities at the remodelled Maracana Stadium in Ajegunle, Lagos on Wednesday. The 19-pitch sports facility, which has a 192-bed space hostel, basketball and lawn tennis courts, table tennis hall, canteen and restaurant under construction, 24-hour power and solar backup, treated water supply and top-notch shower and changing rooms, upon completion, will perhaps become the biggest sporting arena for school-age children in Nigeria. The facility is courtesy, Chairman, Nathaniel Idowu Foundation, Yemi Idowu. Ndidi, who along with Borussia Dortmund forward of Nigerian descent Karim Adeyemi donated to the…

PARIS Saint-Germain have not paid Kylian Mbappe his wages for April as well as a mega-bucks bonus amid a financial dispute between the club and the player as he prepares to leave the French champions, sources close to the talks told AFP on Wednesday. PSG’s decision to withhold Mbappe’s salary is related to an agreement between the two parties made last year, at the start of the season, when the player accepted to waive part of a bonus due to him, the source said. However, the source stated the talks between the club and the France captain were “relaxed” and…

ISRAELI shelling and airstrikes killed dozens of people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight and on Wednesday — pummeling the same area where strikes triggered a deadly fire days earlier in a camp for displaced Palestinians — according to witnesses, emergency workers and hospital officials. The tent camp inferno has drawn widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies, over the military’s expanding offensive into Rafah. And in a sign of Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday. The…

NORTH Korea has sent balloons full of trash, toilet paper and suspected animal faeces into the South, local media reports said Wednesday, with Seoul’s military slamming Pyongyang for their “low class” actions. Photographs showing white balloons bearing garbage bags full of trash and what appeared to be excrement were shared widely by South Korean media, after the North warned this weekend it would shower border areas in “mounds of wastepaper and filth” to punish Seoul. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that “unidentified objects believed to be North Korean propaganda leaflets have been identified in the Gyeonggi-Gangwon border area and…

VOTES are being counted after what is seen as South Africa’s most closely fought elections since the African National Congress (ANC) came to power 30 years ago. Long lines snaked outside polling stations across the country. One electoral official in Johannesburg told the BBC the queues were reminiscent of the historic 1994 election, when black people could vote for the first time, and which saw Nelson Mandela become president. Many people were still waiting to vote when polls officially closed at 2100 local time (1900 GMT) but the electoral commission said they would all be allowed to cast their ballots.…

ACTION must be taken immediately to address the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel or other countries will be drawn in and it will “become a problem for the world”, a UNHCR official warned Wednesday. The volatile situation in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso risks overflowing into neighbouring countries, the UN refugee agency’s director for west and central Africa, Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde told AFP in an interview in Brussels. “The Gulf of Guinea, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire are already suffering because of the spiral of insecurity and the humanitarian situation — the same with Mauritania, the same with Algeria,” he said.…

CRISTIANO Ronaldo broke the record for the most goals in a Saudi Pro League season when he struck for the 34th and 35th time in Al Nassr’s final game of the campaign. “I don’t follow the records, the records follow me,” the 39-year-old Portuguese forward tweeted afterwards. The former Real Madrid and Manchester United star struck in first-half stoppage time and again in the 69th minute with a header as Al Nassr defeated Al Ittihad 4-2 at home on Monday. The previous record for most goals in a single season was the 34 scored by the Moroccan Abderrazak Hamdallah in…

SPAIN, Ireland and Norway formally recognised a Palestinian state on Tuesday in a coordinated decision slammed by Israel as a “reward” for Hamas, more than seven months into the devastating Gaza war. The three European countries believe their initiative has a strong symbolic impact that could encourage others to follow suit. After Ireland’s government formally approved the measure, Prime Minister Simon Harris said the aim was to keep Middle East peace hopes alive. “We had wanted to recognise Palestine at the end of a peace process. However, we have made this move alongside Spain and Norway to keep the miracle…

MELINDA French Gates has announced that she will donate $1bn over the next two years to people and organisations working on behalf of women and families, including on reproductive rights. In an op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday, French Gates said she felt “compelled” to support abortion rights in the United States after the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade. “For too long, a lack of money has forced organisations fighting for women’s rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offence. I want to help even the match,” French…

KENYA’s President William Ruto has reversed a contentious ban imposed in parts of the country on muguka, a variety of the popular stimulant known as khat or miraa. The consumption of the freshly plucked buds and soft leaves has been blamed for a rise in mental health issues and increased social ills, including crime. Three county governors from the coastal region banned its sale and use last week, sparking anger in the areas where the crop is grown. President Ruto on Monday said the muguka crop was legal and its sale should not be prevented. Muguka, a cheaper, more potent…

SOUTH Africans are set to vote in the most pivotal election since the racist system of apartheid ended in 1994. More than 27 million people are registered to cast their ballots in a poll that highlights growing political fragmentation after 30 years of democracy. A record 70 parties and 11 independents are contesting an election that will see South Africans vote for a new parliament, and nine provincial legislatures. “The huge growth in parties shows disillusionment with the old big parties or, cynics would say, people are looking for an opportunity to get into parliament and earn a pension,” political…