Author: Editor

ATALANTA reached the Europa League final on Thursday after beating Marseille 3-0 to claim the biggest win in the Italian club’s history. Goals from Ademola Lookman, academy product Matteo Ruggeri and El Bilal Toure put Atalanta through to their first ever European final with a 4-1 aggregate win in front of delirious fans in Bergamo. Atalanta’s passage to the Dublin final, where they will face Bayer Leverkusen, later this month was fully deserved after a dominant performance in which Marseille barely had a kick in yet another poor away display from the Ligue 1 outfit. Marseille have won just four…

BENJAMIN Netanyahu has said Israel can “stand alone” after the US warned it could halt arms shipments if the Israeli prime minister ordered a full-scale invasion of Rafah in Gaza. “If we need to … we will stand alone. I have said that if necessary we will fight with our fingernails,” he said. US President Joe Biden said he would withhold some arms including artillery shells if Rafah was invaded. The US has already paused a shipment of bombs over fears of civilian deaths. Mr Netanyahu on Thursday however recalled the war of 1948 to dismiss warnings from the US,…

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin accused the “arrogant” West of risking a global conflict, warning the nuclear power’s “strategic forces” are combat-ready, as he marked the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II. In a defiant speech on Thursday at Moscow’s Red Square before thousands of soldiers dressed in ceremonial attire, Putin said that Western elites had forgotten the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazism and were now stoking conflict around the world. “We know what the exorbitance of such ambitions leads to. Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash,” he said. “But at the same time, we…

MILITARY leader Mahamat Idriss Deby has won a closely watched presidential election in the country of Chad, according to provisional results released by its National Election Management Agency. Deby secured more than 61 percent of the vote, according to the numbers released on Thursday, eliminating the need for a runoff with his closest rival, Prime Minister Succes Masra, who received 18.5 percent. The victory allows Deby, the incumbent, to hold onto the presidency with a voter mandate. Previously, he led the country as its interim president, seizing power after his father, the late President Idriss Deby, was killed in April…

A BOEIING 737-300 aircraft has skidded off a runway in Senegal, injuring at least 10 people, four of them seriously. The incident occurred as Air Senegal flight HC 301 was taking off for the Malian capital Bamako in the early hours of Thursday, Dakar’s Blaise Diagne airport said in a statement. The pilot was slightly injured, but most of the 78 passengers on board were not hurt in the incident. Operations were halted at the airport for a few hours but have now resumed. Emergency services at the airport were mobilised to evacuate passengers, the airport’s statement said. An inquiry…

REAL Madrid snatched an incredible semi-final victory as two late goals defeated Bayern Munich and set up a Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund. Bayern looked to be heading to the final when Alphonso Davies cut in and blasted past Andriy Lunin after England captain Harry Kane had found him with a superb pass. But Joselu grabbed an 88th-minute equaliser when he reacted quickest after Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who had been excellent up until then, fumbled Vinicius Jr’s effort. There was even more drama to come two minutes later when Joselu, a former Stoke City striker, swept home from…

GAZANS are feeling the toll of seven months of war, with women bearing the brunt as hospitals face overcrowding and shortages, says a doctor who just left the southern city of Rafah. “In my 25 years of experience, I’ve never seen a conflict where people must run around in circles with nowhere to go,” Hairhound Lahna said. A gynaecologist, Lahna was head of mission for Rahma Worldwide, an American non-governmental organisation, and Palmed, a France-based association for “health in Palestine”. The war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel was “awful for women”, especially those forced to leave…

MALTA’s former premier Joseph Muscat, the current deputy premier and the central bank chief have been charged in a hospital privatisation scandal that has rocked the Mediterranean island nation. Muscat and one of his ex-ministers, Konrad Mizzi, have been charged with accepting bribes, corruption in public office and money laundering, according to documents obtained by AFP late Tuesday. It is the first time a former premier will face criminal charges in court. Muscat has rejected the allegations as “fantasies”, saying he is the victim of a “political vendetta”. Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne — who had been tipped to be…

KENYA’s government has signed a deal with striking doctors, the health ministry announced Wednesday, after almost two months of industrial action that left thousands of patients struggling to find medical care. “After 56 days, @kmpdu signs agreement, ending nationwide doctors’ strike,” the ministry said on X, formerly Twitter, using the abbreviation for the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, which launched the action in mid-March in protest over pay. Details of the deal were not immediately available and there was no comment from the union about the agreed provisions. Talks had previously collapsed over the government’s refusal to pay…

THE South African electoral commission has rejected a request to remove former President Jacob Zuma as the leader of the newly formed Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. It was responding to a letter by MK founder Jabulani Khumalo who wanted the commission to remove Mr Zuma as the face of the party and from its list of potential members of parliament. Mr Khumalo, who was recently expelled from the party, said Mr Zuma fraudulently occupies the position as leader of the new party. He also wrote to Mr Zuma, placing him on precautionary suspension for what he said was “several acts…

KYLIAN Mbappe would have dreamed of his final Champions League act as a Paris St-Germain player being to lift the trophy at Wembley. The reality was very different. Instead, Mbappe’s final moment in the competition for PSG had him slipping over as he chased a lost cause, a through ball he was never going to reach, in a game which was by that point beyond the Parisians. That slip in the final seconds of injury time came as Borussia Dortmund’s 2-0 aggregate victory was safe and sealed following a stout defensive display full of energetic pressing, helped by a sizeable…

THE United States has played down the deadly Israeli assault on Rafah, saying the offensive appears to be “limited” despite concerns over the fate of the more than 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in the southern Gaza city. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that the US still opposes a major Israeli offensive against Rafah. Israel had stepped up its bombardment of Rafah on Monday, killing dozens of people after ordering about 100,000 residents in its eastern areas to evacuate. Israeli troops also stormed the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt,…

PRINCE Harry arrived in the UK on Tuesday for events marking the anniversary of his Invictus Games but will not meet his father King Charles III, who is undergoing cancer treatment, according to his spokesman. Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, was last in the UK in February to visit his father, who had just been diagnosed with cancer. It was expected that the pair would meet at some point during his latest trip. But a spokesman for the prince, who quit royal frontline duties in January 2020 and now lives in the United States with wife Meghan,…

THREE children are among four people reported missing after a five-storey apartment block collapsed in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday night, a local official said. The cause of the accident in Uthiru, a settlement that lies to the northwest of the city centre, is not known, Nairobi disaster management chief officer Bramwel Simiyu said. “As of 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), all the families except four persons have been accounted for,” Simiyu said in a statement. “The four missing persons include a nanny and two children from one household, as well as a 10-year-old girl from another residence,” he said, adding…

TOGO’s media regulator on Tuesday warned radio broadcaster Radio France Internationale that it would face suspension if it continued with “unbalanced” reporting and spreading “fake news”. The warning came as media watchdogs accuse the government of a press crackdown since lawmakers passed a highly contested constitutional reform that opposition parties say allows President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his rule. Togo’s High Authority for Audiovisual and Communications or HAAC last month suspended authorisations for foreign journalists to travel to cover the April 29 legislative elections. In its warning letter, HAAC accused RFI of ignoring repeated appeals for neutrality in coverage of…

SEVEN maritime travellers have been feared kidnapped along the Onne estuary. News Point Nigeria learnt that the incident occurred on Monday as some unsuspecting travellers set out to Port Harcourt by boat. The Rivers State Police Command confirmed the incident on Tuesday. In a telephone conversation, the Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command Grace Iringe-Koko said 20 passengers were onboard the boat. “Yes the O.C Marine informed me that a boat carrying 20 passengers from Bonny to Onne was intercepted by daredevil sea pirates along the Onne River where they were robbed before 7 of them were…

NO more than 200 houses including a healthcare centre, classrooms, business premises as well as poultry farms were destroyed by a rainstorm that blew off rooftops in the Miango District of Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State. Though no one died in the early Monday downpour, three persons were injured and receiving treatment while several others have been rendered homeless. But the socio-cultural group in the district, the Miango Youth Development Association said some of the affected persons have found refuge in neighbours residents within the area. In a statement, the group’s spokesman Nuhu Nga appealed for quick intervention…

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released additional 531 results from the ones it withheld, taking the total number of results released so far to 1,842,897. The Board, in a statement signed by Dr. Fabian Benjamin, its spokesman, said in the course of the exercise, other cases of examination misconduct were also established to make a tally of 92 from the 81 initially discovered. He said the board is proceeding with the screening of over 64,000 withheld results. “The Board is also looking at cases of unverified candidates and would soon come up with a position,” the statement…

JUST a day after French giants Paris Saint-Germain expressed their intention to sign Victor Osimhen from Napoli by making a €90m plus €40m first offer, Premier League club, Chelsea, have also tabled an offer of €90m plus Romelu Lukaku for the Nigerian striker. Osimhen only signed a new contract at Napoli at the start of the year with his release clause set at around €130m but that has not deterred interested clubs from making offers for the coveted striker. Following impressive seasons with the Partenopeans, the Super Eagles striker has emerged as one of the most sought-after strikers in Europe.…

JUST when you think things can’t get any worse for Manchester United, they do. Crystal Palace’s 4-0 demolition of United on Monday has left Erik Ten Hag’s men in real danger of missing out on a European place for next season as unwanted records continue to tumble. The loss leaves them eighth in the Premier League and out of the European places – although a victory against Man City in the FA Cup final would guarantee a Europa League spot. And, despite having 10 first-team players out injured, Ten Hag was not pulling any punches. “It is clear and it…