Author: Editor

THE US and China have agreed to resume military-to-military communications in an effort to ease rising tensions, President Joe Biden says. “We’re back to direct, open, clear communications,” he said following a rare meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in California on Wednesday. It was the first time the pair had spoken in person in more than a year. Mr Biden also said both leaders had agreed to establish a direct line of communication with one another. At a news conference following the summit, which took place at a historic country estate near San Francisco, Mr Biden said a lack…

MADAGASCAR is holding presidential elections despite an opposition boycott following weeks of protests. A curfew was declared overnight to prevent any trouble. Political tensions have been running high, with the opposition saying that the incumbent, Andry Rajoelina, should be disqualified. There have been six weeks of demonstrations, which have seen opposition supporters clash with police. Angelo Ravelonarivo, a police prefect in the capital of Antananarivo, said the curfew was imposed following “various acts of sabotage” including the “burning of a polling station”. Opposition leaders have complained of an “institutional coup” in favour of Mr Rajoelina. They say he should be…

INITIAL results from the presidential run-off election in Liberia point to an extremely tight race. With almost a quarter of the results in, President George Weah has 49% of the votes, just behind the opposition’s Joseph Boakai who has over 50%. In the first round, both men were also neck and neck – with the third placed candidate securing just two per cent of the votes. Neither President Weah nor Boakai achieved more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the election, triggering the run-off. The same two candidates also faced each other in the 2017 election,…

ONE of the correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) assigned to cover the Presidential Villa in Abuja has narrated how he was abducted by gunmen. The correspondent had mistakenly boarded a wrong vehicle at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, on the way home after an assignment. The fear-stricken Reporter, who is yet to recover from the trauma and has become generally afraid of everyone around her, tells his story below: On the said day, I covered an assignment at the Presidential Villa. After the assignment, I filed my story and decided to go home. One of the Directors in…

SUPER Falcons’ Asisat Oshoala and goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie make the cut as Nigeria dominated the shortlist for the 2023 CAF Women’s Awards. The continent’s governing body released the shortlist of nominees on Tuesday afternoon with the Super Falcons, and their coach Wandy Waldrum also making the cut. Oshoala, who plays for Barcelona Femeni, won the treble including the Champions League with the Spanish giants, and is on the cusp of winning a record-extending sixth CAF Women’s Player of the Year Award. She is the current holder – her fifth gong to surpass compatriot Perpetua Nkwocha’s record. She was also a…

A RESOUNDING Under-17s World Cup victory and a return to winning ways, yet still a sense of underachievement from Brazil after an all-time record of 81 efforts on goal. The reigning champions averaged a chance every 75 seconds in their 9-0 win over tournament minnows New Caledonia seeting a new global record in football at all levels. But they could not get close to Spain’s record 13-0 success over New Zealand in the 1997 edition of the competition. Nor was it as impressive as England’s 10 goals without reply against the same opponents in their opening Group C game in…

WITH eyes wide open and his tiny fists clenched tightly, Mohammed Kullab is just a few days old, having started life in Gaza amid the chaos of the Israel-Hamas war. “Nobody should be born in such circumstances,” sighed his mother Fadwa Kullab, who has sought shelter at a UN school building in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. Kullab now has seven children but said Mohammed’s “birth was the most difficult experience of my life”. Like other mothers of newborns AFP spoke to in Gaza, she said her baby son had been refusing her breast milk. “I’m not eating well,” Kullab…

A CANADIAN jury has heard closing arguments in the case of a man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family with his vehicle. Nathaniel Veltman, 22, faces four first-degree murder charges and one count of attempted murder. Mr Veltman also faces terrorism counts, with prosecutors arguing that he targeted the Afzaal family because of their faith. Both the defence and prosecutors agree that Mr Veltman was behind the wheel. But Mr Veltman has pleaded not guilty, arguing that he was in a “dreamlike state” on 6 June, 2021, the day he allegedly ran over three generations of the…

MALI’s army has seized Kidal, a key town in the country’s north that the ethnic Tuareg rebels have held for nearly a decade. Kidal has been a bastion for the Tuareg, one of the rebel groups at the centre of the country’s long-running political and security crises. The army, reportedly backed by Wagner group mercenaries, has battled for Kidal for the past three days. The head of the country’s junta said the mission “is not complete”, however. Col Assimi Goita, Mali’s interim president, said in a post on X his objective was to ensure the country’s territorial integrity. The army…

THE wife of an abducted Zimbabwe opposition activist has identified her husband’s dead body. Tapfumaneyi Masaya, from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), was reported to have been bundled into a car by armed men. A police spokesperson said that the other abductee was released for unknown reasons. Masaya’s abduction is the latest in a series of kidnappings involving opposition and rights activists. His wife said a body found on the outskirts of the capital, Harare, from where he was snatched, was that of her husband. The CCC said Masaya, a cleric, along with a fellow activist, was campaigning for…

THE Court of Appeal in Lagos has fixed tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 15 to deliver judgment in the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran challenging the re-election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. A notice sent out by the court to parties in the appeal indicated the judgment will be delivered tomorrow at 3 pm. Exactly a week ago, on Nov 7th, the Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Yargata Nimpar had reserved judgment in the two appeals after listening to the…

THOUSANDS of people lined the streets of Manchester on Monday to pay their final respects to Manchester United and England great Bobby Charlton, who died last month at the age of 86. The 1966 World Cup winner, widely regarded as one of England’s greatest players, died after an accidental fall at his care home on October 21. Crowds clapped warmly and held banners as the funeral cortege drove past United’s Old Trafford ground on its way to a private funeral service at Manchester Cathedral to celebrate Charlton’s life. The hearse passed the famous “United Trinity” statue immortalising Charlton, Denis Law…

THOUSANDS could be trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital due to nearby fighting, while officials have warned of rotting bodies piling up there. Al-Shifa Hospital, which is also tackling power cuts and a lack of fuel, is “nearly a cemetery”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. The hospital’s manager said it was under a “blockade”, and that dogs had started eating corpses. The area around the hospital has seen intense fighting in recent days. US President Joe Biden said he hoped to see “less intrusive action” at the hospital, which he said “must be protected”. Gaza City has seen an…

MARYANNE Trump Barry, the eldest sister of ex-President Donald Trump, has died at the age of 86, US media reports. She was found dead at about 04:00 EST (09:00 GMT) on Monday morning in her New York City apartment, according to ABC News. Her cause of death has not yet been revealed. Mrs Barry served as a federal judge in New Jersey from 1983 until her retirement in 2019. She is the third of Mr Trump’s four siblings to have passed away. A spokesman for the former president did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment. Sources told…

GABON’s military leaders say they plan to hold a general election in August 2025. This follows pressure from the international community to announce a timetable for the return to civilian rule. Gen Brice Oligui Nguema seized power in August from his cousin, Ali Bongo, vowing to rescue the country from a “severe institutional” crisis. The central African nation had been ruled by the Bongo family for 55 years. Although members of the interim government cannot stand in the upcoming elections, the transitional charter does not bar Gen Oligui Nguema from doing so. It is not yet clear whether he intends…

AT least 11 civilians have been killed in conflict-torn eastern DR Congo, the army said on Monday, in an attack blamed on militants linked to the Islamic State group. Captain Antony Mualushayi, an army spokesman, stated that “jihadists” attacked the village of Kitsanga in the Watalinga area of North Kivu province on Sunday night. Eleven civilians were killed, he said, before soldiers intervened and “neutralised” six militants. The death toll is provisional. AFP was unable to independently confirm the details of the attack. Odette Zawadi, a civil society leader in Watalinga, said that 22 people had been killed. “At the…

COLE Palmer’s stoppage-time penalty denied former club Manchester City victory in a thriller against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. In a game of the highest quality in treacherous conditions, fortunes swung both ways. City thought they had the three points when Rodri’s shot from the edge of the area touched off Thiago Silva past Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez with four minutes left. Chelsea, showing superb resilience, were not to be denied and Palmer – a £40m summer signing from Pep Guardiola’s side – stayed cool amid the mayhem to beat Ederson from the spot to leave City just a point clear…

TWO premature babies have died at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital after the neonatal intensive care unit stopped working due to a lack of electricity, the facility’s director has said. Thirty-seven other babies, also in the neonatal intensive care unit, are at risk of losing their lives as the hospital runs out of fuel to power their incubators, Director Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Saturday. “Unfortunately, we’ve lost two out of 39 babies because of the power outage,” Abu Salmiya, the head of the largest medical complex in Gaza, said. “We are talking about premature babies who require very intensive…

FIVE American service members were killed when a helicopter crashed into the Mediterranean during a training exercise, the US military said Sunday. Military officials did not specify where the helicopter was flying from, but the United States has deployed a carrier strike group to the Mediterranean as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a regional conflict. “During a routine air refueling mission as part of military training, a US military aircraft carrying five service members suffered a mishap and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. All five of the service members onboard the aircraft were killed,”…

THE European Union has called for an investigation into the reported killing of around 100 people in Burkina Faso earlier this week. “Around 100 civilians, including women and children, were believed killed in a massacre,” said foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a statement. The United States has also condemned the attack. It is not clear who was behind the 6 November attack in the village of Zaongo. Mr Borrell called on Burkina Faso’s military junta to shed light on the circumstances of the deaths. It has not yet responded. Burkina Faso is trying to contain a jihadist insurgency that…