BULGARIA and Romania joined Europe’s vast Schengen area of free movement on Sunday, opening up travel by air and sea without border checks after a 13-year wait. A veto by Austria however means the new status will not apply to land routes after Vienna expressed concerns over a potential influx of asylum seekers. Despite the partial membership, the lifting of controls at the two countries’ air and sea borders is of significant symbolic value. “I travel often and this really eases things”, Kristina Markova, 35, said as she readied to fly out of the Sofia airport on Sunday morning. “We…
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TWO people died and almost 2,000 were left homeless when fires engulfed hundreds of shacks in three separate incidents in South Africa’s Cape Town during the weekend, emergency services said Sunday. Two of the fires occurred on Saturday evening and one in the early hours of Sunday morning, they said. “An adult male and female sustained fatal burn wounds and were declared deceased by medics” at one of the informal settlements, the Cape Town’s fire and rescue spokesman Jermaine Carelse said in a statement. The biggest fire which happened around 2:30 am on Sunday engulfed over 150 shacks leaving over…
ETHIOPIA’s state-run power company has said large portions of the country have been hit by an electricity blackout due to “issues in our system”. Ethiopian Electric Power did not disclose exactly what those issues were but said in a post on its Facebook page that it was investigating what prompted the outage. All parts of the country, except Bahir Dar, a city in the north-west, and its surrounding area, have experienced the power problem which began around 15:40 local time. In a separate statement, the company said it had begun restoring power in the capital, Addis Ababa, and some other…
Q: Salaamu Alaikum Ya Sheikh. What are virtues of Umrah performed in Ramadan? Hamisu Saleh, Kebbi A: Ibn ‘Abbaas may Allaah be pleased with him narrated, “When the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allah exalt his mention )returned after performing Hajj (major pilgrimage), he asked Umm Sinaan Al-Ansaariyyah,‘Why did you not perform Hajj?’ She replied, ‘The father of so-and-so [i.e., her husband] had two camels and he went on pilgrimage on one of them, and the second is used for the irrigation of our land.’ The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allah exalt his mention )said…
SUPER Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, is the highest-paid footballer in Serie A with his recent Napoli contract and bonuses seeing him rise above Juventus forward in the Italian topflight earnings chart. Osimhen, who joined Napoli from Lille in 2020, signed a new contract in December that earns him a monthly salary of £1.29m, almost doubling his previous earnings. Paris Saint-Germain forward, Kylian Mbappe, is the best-paid player with an eye watering monthly take home of £5.15 million. Osimhen’s new salary was a reward for his performance in the 2022/23 season where he inspired Napoli to a first Serie A title…
SON Heung-min’s late winner fired Tottenham into the Premier League’s top four with a 2-1 win over Luton as Chelsea twice blew a lead against 10-man Burnley in a 2-2 draw on Saturday. An action-packed afternoon also saw Newcastle come from 3-1 down to stun West Ham 4-3 and Fulham hit back for a 3-3 draw at bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United. Spurs have now come from behind to win in four of their last five home games and needed another second-half turnaround to keep their challenge for a return to the Champions League next season on track. Tahith Chong’s strike after…
THE death toll in Israeli air strikes on Syria has risen to 52, including 38 government soldiers and seven members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, a war monitor said Saturday. Friday’s strikes fuelled concerns of a wider regional conflagration. They targeted “a rocket depot belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah” near the Aleppo airport in northern Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It was the latest deadly raid on Iran-backed forces in Syria, where Hezbollah has been backing the government in its fight against opponents since the 2011 Syria civil war erupted. Israeli strikes on targets in Syria have…
POLISH Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned of the “real” threat of conflict in Europe, saying that for the first time since the end of World War II the continent has entered a “pre-war era”. “War is no longer a concept from the past. It is real, and it started over two years ago. The most worrying thing at the moment is that literally any scenario is possible. We haven’t seen a situation like this since 1945,” Tusk said in an interview with the European media grouping LENA on Friday. “I know it sounds devastating, especially for the younger generation,…
A CYCLONE that hit northern Madagascar on Wednesday has left at least six people dead and forced 2,000 out of their homes. Local news reports say that “flooding caused significant damage” with roads and bridges affected. The AFP news agency, citing the disaster management authority (BNGRC), puts the death toll from cyclone Gamane at 11. It reports that six of the victims drowned, while the others died after being hit by falling trees or collapsing houses. “It’s rare to have a cyclone like this. Its movement is nearly stationary,” Gen Elack Andriakaja, BNGRC director-general is quoted by AFP as saying.…
IN a rare visit, a Russian navy warship has arrived at Eritrea’s main Red Sea port of Massawa, amid tension in the region caused by Iran-backed Houthi militants. Senior Eritrean military chiefs and officials were there to welcome the ship, the Marshal Shaposhinkov, as it docked on Thursday, Russia’s ambassador to Eritrea was also present. According to Eritrea’s Minister of Information Yemane Gebre Meskel, the frigate belongs to Russia’s Pacific Fleet. He said, in a post on X, that it was there to mark the “30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Russia and Eritrea”. A US naval task force is…
IN what looks like a pre-announcement to an epic political battle ahead in Kaduna State, Bashir El-Rufai has accused the State governor, Uba Sani, of shying away from his responsibility by always staying away from the state and hibernating in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. Bashir, who is a son of the immediate-past governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, also accused Governor Sani, who is a friend of his father, of surrounding himself with a retinue of incompetent aides appointed for political patronage. Bashir said that instead of admitting its incompetence, the Uba Sani administration has resorted to deflect…
Q – Salaamu Alaikum, Ya Sheikh. I was wondering what a woman can do on laylat al-qadr if she is menstruating at that time. Can she earn extra rewards for engaging herself in worship? if so, what is permissible for her to do so that night? Hannatu Sabo Ibrahim, Abuja A – A woman who is menstruating may do all acts of worship apart from praying, fasting, circumambulating the Ka’bah and doing i’tikaaf in the mosque. It was narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to stay up at night during the last ten…
MANCHESTER City have been dealt a double injury blow as Kyle Walker and John Stones will miss Sunday’s crucial clash in the Premier League title race against Arsenal. Both players were injured on international duty with England. Walker was replaced early during a 1-0 defeat to Brazil with a hamstring problem, while Stones limped off in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Belgium due to an adductor issue. Defending champions City are third in the Premier League, but just one point behind leaders Arsenal, who are ahead of Liverpool only on goal difference. The absence of the key defensive duo is also…
ISRAEL’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks to take place in Doha and Cairo, his office said Friday, days after the negotiations appeared stalled. Since the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday demanding an “immediate ceasefire”, Hamas and Israel have traded blame for their failure to agree a deal. Mediator Qatar said Tuesday that talks between Hamas and Israel on a Gaza truce and hostage release were continuing, but the warring sides and mediators have offered little information since. Netanyahu’s office said the premier spoke to Mossad chief David Barnea about…
A PRESENTER for a London-based Iranian TV news channel has been repeatedly stabbed outside his home in the city, his channel has said. Iran International, which reported extensively in 2022 on anti-government protests in Iran, said Pouria Zeraati, 36, was attacked by a group. The Metropolitan Police said specialist counter-terrorism officers were leading an investigation into the stabbing. The victim was stable in hospital, the force added. Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s counter-terrorism command unit, said officers were keeping an open mind as to any motivation behind the attack. The Met said counter-terrorism officers had been assigned due…
SOUTH Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been involved in a car crash but was unhurt. A drunk driver collided with his “official armoured state vehicle” on Thursday evening, police have said. But a leading member of his uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party alleged that he had been targeted. He has been suspended by the governing African National Congress (ANC) and is campaigning for the MK ahead of May’s general election. Mr Zuma was in the car, along with his official protection team, when it was hit on a road in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal at about 18:40 local…
BRITISH MPs have warned that food aid is being used as a weapon of war in Sudan’s bitter civil conflict. Vicky Ford, the chair of parliament’s all-party group on Sudan, said there was evidence both warring sides – the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces – were restricting humanitarian aid. She was speaking after new research suggested more than 100 villages in western Sudan had been burned. The war in Sudan has been raging for almost year and the fighting is brutal. The Centre for Information Resilience – a government-funded research group – says that 108 villages and settlements…
THE federal government has released a sum of N90 billion to subsidise the 2024 pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this newspaper has learnt. An impeccable source within the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) revealed this to this newspaper on Thursday. The source, who asked not to be named, noted that without this intervention, each of the intending pilgrims would have been requested to add at least N3.5 million to the initial fare which was pegged at N4.9 million. A top official at the Presidency also confirmed that the federal government “actually provided some financial support for the…
THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has extended by one week the second phase of SIM-NIN linkage deadline, top officials of the commission told this newspaper. It would be recalled that the disconnection process was rolled out in stages, with the second phase scheduled for today, March 29. The first phase took place on February 28, 2024, after NCC directed telecom operators to bar millions of subscribers for refusing to link their SIMs with their NINs. The third phase is slated to commence on April 15, 2024, as previously announced by NCC in December, 2023. The first phase took place on…
Multiple questions from our social media pages: Q: Who Must Fast? A: Fasting is compulsory for those who are mentally and physically fit, past the age of puberty, in a settled situation (not travelling), and are sure fasting is unlikely to cause real physical or mental injury. Q. Why do Muslims fast? A: Fasting is common in many religions. The Quran, the reveled text in Islam, says in chapter 2 verse 183, “O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who were before you, in order that you may learn piety and God…