DESPITE boasting the best defensive record at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro, has demanded more goals from his strikers as they entered into the semi-finals of the tournament. Ademola Lookman scored his third goal of the competition as Nigeria made it into the last four of the 34th edition of the Africa showpiece after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Angola at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium on Friday. Despite boasting some of the continent’s top attackers, Peseiro’s men have not been effective in front of goals with just six goals scored…
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THE 2026 World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey, organisers FIFA announced on Sunday. The New York bid held off a strong challenge from Dallas to secure the July 19 game, the culmination of the expanded 48-team tournament being co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico. The competition will kick-off with the opening game at Mexico City’s iconic Azteca Stadium on June 11. Atlanta and Dallas will host the semi-finals while the third-place game will take place in Miami. The decisions were announced on a live television broadcast in North America which featured FIFA…
ISRAELI strikes across Gaza killed scores overnight and battles raged Sunday in the besieged territory’s south as Hamas was reviewing a proposal for a halt in the nearly four-month-long war. French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne was in Egypt and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected in the region in the coming days to push for a ceasefire and hostage release. The health ministry in Gaza said at least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, more than 90 of them overnight. The Hamas government media office said a kindergarten where…
AT least 112 people have been killed by forest fires in Chile’s Valparaíso region, local authorities have said. Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency and said he would make “all necessary resources” available to tackle the situation. It is believed to be Chile’s deadliest forest fire on record. Many of those affected were visiting the coastal region during the summer holidays. A health alert was put in place in Valparaíso by the health ministry. The ministry called for the suspension of elective surgeries and authorised temporary field hospitals to be set up. Medicine students nearing the end of their…
NANGOLO Mbumba has taken his oath of office as Namibia’s new president hours after the death of Hage Geingob. Geingob died on Sunday in a hospital in Windhoek, his office said. He was 82. During his acceptance speech, Mbumba paid tribute to his late predecessor and called for calm. “It is poignant and reassuring to note that today, even in this time of loss, our Nation remains calm and stable,” he said. “This is owing to the visionary leadership and foresight of President Geingob, who was the chief architect of the Namibian Constitution and the champion of our Governance Architecture,…
PROTESTERS and police clashed in the Senegalese capital Dakar and at least one senior opposition figure was arrested Sunday, a day after President Macky Sall announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election. The presidential election had been set for February 25 and Sall has not announced any new date, sparking a wave of criticism from opposition leaders and international concern. In his statement Saturday, Sall said he was intervening because of a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of candidates. Lawmakers are investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process…
THE Ekiti State Police Command says it has arrested eight suspects over the recent killing of two traditional rulers as well as the abduction of some pupils in the state. Ekiti has witnessed a wave of attacks recently. On January 29, gunmen killed two Ekiti monarchs – the Onimojo of Imojo, Oba Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin. Also in the same area, the assailants attacked a school bus and whisked away five pupils of the Apostolic Faith Group of Schools, three teachers, and the bus driver. Giving an update on Sunday, the police authorities…
HARRY Kane scored his 24th Bundesliga goal to help Bayern Munich beat Borussia Monchengladbach and keep pace with leaders Bayer Leverkusen. Kane headed Bayern in front in the 70th minute after Aleksandar Pavlovic had cancelled out Nico Elvedi’s opener for Gladbach. Matthijs de Ligt added a third for the German champions who remained two points behind Leverkusen. Two goals from Nathan Tella helped Xabi Alonso’s side beat Darmstadt 2-0. Already the record holder for taking the fewest Bundesliga matches – just 14 – to reach 20 goals, England captain Kane continues to eclipse expectations in Germany. Kane’s headed finish after…
PALESTINIAN news agency Wafa reported that at least two children were killed in Israeli attack on kindergarten in Rafah, southern Gaza. Concerns over a potential Israeli ground incursion into the southern border city have mounted in recent days, with hundreds of thousands of displaced seeking refuge from the fighting there in makeshift shelters and encampments. Many made the journey from even harder-hit areas after being told the city was a safe zone, but strikes have continued there as well, with mourners gathering outside a local hospital Saturday to pray for the dead after another bombardment. “The children were just sleeping…
A EXPLOSIVE device went off overnight in front of the Greek labour ministry in central Athens without causing any casualties, police said on Saturday. The explosion, which caused material damage, was preceded by an anonymous telephone call to the Greek daily Efimerida ton Syntakton about an impending blast, the police said. The caller warned that an explosive device had been placed in front of the ministry which would be detonated 40 minutes later. According to media reports, the man claimed to be a member of Revolutionary Class Self-Defence, a previously unknown organisation. The area around the building was cordoned off…
NAMIBIAN President Hage Geingob has died at the age of 82, his office has said, less than three weeks after it was announced he would undergo treatment for cancer. Geingob died on Sunday at Lady Pohamba Hospital in the capital Windhoek with his wife and his children at his side, acting president Nangolo Mbumba said in a statement posted on Geingob’s official Facebook page. “The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution and the pillar of the Namibian house,” Mbumba said. “At this moment of deepest sorrow,…
SENEGALESE President Macky Sall on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election scheduled for February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start. In an address to the nation, Sall said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date as lawmakers investigate two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned. “I will begin an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election,” Sall added without giving a new date. It is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been…
AN INCREASE in prize money has contributed to the success of lower ranked teams at the ongoing 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, according to the president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf). Patrice Motsepe was speaking ahead of the quarter-finals, which got under way in Ivory Coast on Friday. A number of pre-tournament favourites suffered early exits including holders Senegal, the 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and former winners Egypt and Algeria. On the eve of the Nations Cup, Caf announced that the overall winners will pick up $7m (£5.5m) in prize money – a 40% increase on the…
MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola has dismissed claims by Spanish media that Erling Haaland is unhappy at the club. According to Spanish outlet El Desmarque, the Norway striker “can’t stand” the city and the poor weather and would be interested in a move to Real Madrid. Haaland moved to Manchester City in 2022 and hit 36 Premier League goals in his first season as they won the title. “You have to ask the media from Madrid if he is unhappy,” Guardiola said. “Maybe they have more info than we have. “We don’t have that feeling that he’s unhappy. He was…
THE United Nations said on Friday it estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated nearly four months into the war. “Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief,” said Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF in the Palestinian territories. “This figure corresponds to one percent of the overall displaced population — 1.7 million people,” he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Jerusalem. Each one “is a child who is coming to terms with a horrible new reality”. Crickx said that tracing who the…
POLICE in Washington state say an old rusted rocket found in a local man’s garage is an inert nuclear missile. On Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio called police in the city of Bellevue to report an offer of a rather unusual donation. The police then sent a bomb squad to the potential donor’s home. “And we think it’s gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again,” police said referring to Elton John’s iconic song Rocket Man. In a press release, police say the device is “in fact a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation…
THE African Union’s peacekeeping force in Somalia, where Al-Shabaab jihadists are waging an insurgency, said Friday the second phase of a drawdown involving 3,000 troops has been completed after a four-month delay. Following several major reversals against the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, the Mogadishu government had requested a three-month “technical pause” in the drawdown scheduled to be carried out by last September. “The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS)… has completed Phase Two drawdown, which involved reducing the troop count by 3,000 soldiers,” the force said in a statement. ATMIS handed over seven forward operating bases to the internationally-backed government and…
THE World Food Programme (WFP) says it is receiving reports of people dying of starvation in Sudan, where a war has displaced millions of people since last April. Violence is escalating between the army and a rival paramilitary force as they fight for control of the country. Security threats and roadblocks have made the work of humanitarian agencies nearly impossible. Nearly five million people across Sudan now face emergency levels of hunger. This is twice the number since the start of the conflict, according to the WFP. The humanitarian body says it has only been able to deliver vital aid…
Al NASSR crushed Inter Miami 6-0 as injury ruled Cristiano Ronaldo out of a much-hyped showdown with Lionel Messi, who was limited to a late substitute appearance in Thursday’s friendly in Riyadh. Ronaldo’s calf injury prompted Al Nassr to cancel their two-game China tour last week and it denied him what could have potentially been a last match against longtime rival Messi. The pair have won a combined 13 Ballon d’Or awards, with Messi taking home the prize for a record eighth time last year. Their most recent meeting came in January 2023 when Ronaldo played in a Saudi select…
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden has approved sanctions on four Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Mr Biden signed a broad executive order, saying violence in the West Bank had reached “intolerable levels”. The sanctions block the individuals from accessing all US property, assets and the American financial system. Violence in the West Bank has spiked since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October. Some 370 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then, according to the UN. The majority of those have been killed by Israeli forces but at least…