A MAN has died and two others have been injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris. France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said an attacker had targeted tourists around the Quai de Grenelle, which is close to the Eiffel Tower. He added that a 26-year-old French national known to security services had been arrested. The suspect approached a tourist couple and fatally stabbed a German national, he said. The man was then pursued by police and attacked two other people with a hammer before being stopped with a Taser and arrested. The injured were treated…
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GUINEA-BISSAU’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on Saturday said this week’s deadly violence involving members of the National Guard was an “attempted coup” as the army ordered them back to barracks. The unrest between members of the National Guard and special forces of the presidential guard on Thursday night in the capital Bissau left at least two people dead. Embalo, who was in Dubai attending the COP28 climate conference, arrived in Bissau on Saturday and said an “attempted coup d’etat” had prevented him from returning. “I must tell you this act will have serious consequences,” he added. Embalo said the coup…
AS many as half a million people have descended on Ethiopia’s sacred city of Aksum, according to its mayor, for a religious festival taking place for the first time since the civil war in the northern region of Tigray ended. Aksum is a holy site for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians who say it is home to the Ark of the Covenant, believed to contain the 10 commandments handed down to Moses by God – and later brought to the city from Jerusalem. It is constantly under guard at the city’s Our Lady Mary of Zion Church and no-one is allowed to…
NIGERIA will continue to engage with the government of Niger Republic to ensure the release of the country’s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar has said. Bazoum has not been released since the junta struck in the West African country earlier in the year. But Tuggar said Nigeria, which plays a critical role in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, won’t relent on pressing for Bazoum’s freedom. Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Conference in Dubai, the Minister said Nigeria is not under any pressure to act against…
THE Nigeria Immigration Service on Friday said that barring unforeseen technical issues, Nigerians would get their passports three weeks after the day of submission of the application. The Comptroller General, Mrs Caroline Adepoju, disclosed this on Friday while speaking to newsmen at the unveiling of the Igbogbo Passport Front Office in the Igbogbo-Baiyeku Local Council Development Area of Ikorodu, Lagos State. Adepoju, who said the opening of the Igbogbo office was her first assignment after her confirmation as the substantive Comptroller General of the NIS earlier on Friday, said, “I can tell you, barring all technical problems, you should be…
ERIK ten Hag rode to the defence of under-fire goalkeeper Andre Onana on Friday as he claimed the Cameroonian’s stats prove he is among the Premier League’s best. Onana’s start to his United career has been riddled with high-profile errors in the Champions League that have put the Red Devils on the brink of a group stage exit. He was at fault as two Hakim Ziyech free-kicks kickstarted a Galatasaray fightback in a 3-3 draw in Istanbul on Wednesday. That took United’s tally of conceded goals in their five Champions League games to 14. But it has been a different…
GERMANY and France are set to clash Saturday in the Under-17 World Cup football final in Indonesia, a rematch of this year’s Euro final in the category the Germans won on penalties. The young Germans, who also beat France 3-1 in the group stage of the Euros last June, are bidding for their first world title. Borussia Dortmund forward Paris Brunner, 17, will lead the German attack having scored a brace in the semi-final against Argentina. Jean-Luc Vannuchi’s France beat Mali 2-1 in their semi-final and boast a defence which has so far only conceded one goal. “Germany are a…
ISRAELI shelling has killed three people in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s state news agency reports after the end of a truce between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas prompted a resumption of hostilities at the Israel-Lebanon border. The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said one of its fighters was among those killed on Friday. It said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where a weeklong pause in the fighting ended early in the day. The Israeli army said its artillery struck sources of fire from…
ELON Musk’s verbal assault on advertisers who have shunned X (formerly Twitter) threatens to sink the social network further, with the tycoon warning of the platform’s demise, just one year after taking control. “If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, go fuck yourself,” a visibly furious Musk told an interviewer in New York in front of an audience of the US business elite this week. Musk was lashing out at the advertisers who had abandoned his platform after Media Matters, a left-wing media watchdog group, warned big companies that their ads were running aside posts by neo-Nazis. Walmart…
MORE than 30 people were feared trapped Friday in a mine collapse in a Zambian region known for illegal open-cast digging for copper, a minister said. “May I just inform the nation that we have a tragedy brewing in Chingola,” Home Affairs Minister Jack Mwiimbu told parliament. “We have more than 30 people under the rubble” in a makeshift mine, he added, without giving further details. The mines ministry made no comment saying it would make an inspection first at the site in the Chingola region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital Lusaka. Zambia is one of…
A MAN described as the leader of a group of soldiers who tried to free a detained minister and a senior state official in Guinea-Bissau has been caught, the military says. Heavy gunfire was reported in the capital on Friday morning. Members of the National Guard had taken the officials before seeking refuge in barracks south of the city. Special forces then intervened after attempts to negotiate failed, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. Calm is said to have been restored later. The “situation is completely under control”, the AFP news agency quotes an army spokesman as saying. Finance Minister…
THE House of Representatives has accused the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) of hiding billions of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) thereby depriving the nation of its financial responsibility. The House of Reps Committee on Finance subsequently threatened to remove the Director General, Capt. Musa Shuaibu Nuhu and other top officials from the authority to allow for more transparent leaders. Rep. James Falake (APC-Lagos) said this at the resumed interactive session with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Friday. He said the NCAA was hiding revenue generated, and that was why it had refused to give the committee the requested data on…
BRIGHTON booked their place in the Europa League knockout stage with a 1-0 win at AEK Athens, while West Ham also advanced after a late Tomas Soucek goal against Backa Topola on Thursday. Roberto De Zerbi’s side are competing in Europe for the first time in their history and the Seagulls’ adventure will continue into the new year thanks to Joao Pedro’s winner in Greece. Brighton sit two points above Marseille at the top of Group B, with the French club able to regain pole position if they beat Ajax later on Thursday. Europa League group winners go through to…
PALESTINIAN prisoners released from Israeli jails say that guards carried out abuse and collective punishment in the weeks after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October. They have described being hit with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and their clothes, food and blankets taken away. One female prisoner has said she was threatened with rape, and that guards twice tear-gassed inmates inside the cells. The BBC spoke to six people in total, all of whom said they were beaten before leaving jail. The Palestinian Prisoners Society says some guards are alleged to have urinated on handcuffed prisoners.…
BUCKINGHAM Palace is considering its next move after a British TV host named two royals who allegedly raised concerns about the skin colour of Prince Harry’s son, a royal source said on Thursday. Speculation has swirled since Harry and his mixed-race wife Meghan made the claims in an explosive US television interview in March 2021 about their time in the royal family. Harry’s late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II responded afterwards that “some recollections may vary” about what was said. His older brother Prince William — heir to their father King Charles III — has also insisted the royals were “very…
A 70-YEAR-OLD Ugandan woman, Safina Namukwaya, has delivered a set of twins – a boy and a girl, after becoming pregnant through an In vitro fertilisation treatment, BBC reports Thursday. Namukwaya went through a successful caesarean delivery on Wednesday at the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The hospital shared the news of the delivery via its Facebook page on Wednesday, stating, “70-year-old, Safina Namukwaya, speaking just before the delivery of her beautiful babies. Yes, she delivered twins, a boy and a girl. A historic achievement indeed. “As we honour this courageous mother and anticipate…
A COURT in Germany has sentenced a Gambian man to life in prison for his role in a paramilitary unit that killed opponents of former ruler Yahya Jammeh. Bai Lowe, 47, was a driver for the unit known as “the Junglers”, and was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder. Among the crimes he was linked to was the killing of newspaper editor Deyda Hydara in his car in 2004. The unit was widely seen as a death squad targeting opponents of Mr Jammeh. He ruled The Gambia with an iron fist from 1996 until he went into…
FOOTBALLER Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a class action lawsuit in the US over his promotion of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. The plaintiffs claim his endorsement led them to make loss-making investments. They are seeking damages of “a sum exceeding” $1bn (£790m). The BBC has contacted both Ronaldo’s management company and Binance for comment. In November 2022, Binance announced its first “CR7” collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in partnership with Ronaldo, which the footballer said would reward fans “for all the years of support”. NFTs are virtual assets that can be bought and sold, but which have…
A SENIOR Hamas official said on Wednesday the freedom movement was ready to release all the Israeli soldiers it is holding captive in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, amid negotiations to extend a truce over Gaza. Hamas official and former Gaza health minister Bassem Naim said the group was going through “hard negotiations” to extend a cessation of hostilities that was scheduled to end early Thursday after a six-day pause in fighting. “We are ready to release all soldiers in exchange for all our prisoners,” Naim told a press conference in Cape Town, during a visit to…
HENRY Kissinger, the former US secretary of state whose unapologetic promotion of raw American power helped shape the post-World War II world, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100. “Dr. Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut,” Kissinger Associates announced in a statement late Wednesday. It said that Kissinger’s family would hold a private funeral, with a memorial service to take place later in New York, where Kissinger grew up after his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany. The statement did not provide a cause of death. Kissinger had remained active…