THE Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Matawalle, has assured residents and electorate in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi of their safety and protection during Saturday’s off-season elections. Matawalle gave the assurance on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Abuja. “Adequate arrangements have been made for security agencies to deal decisively with any noise maker and anyone who wants to foment trouble or crises during the elections. “The military will be available, ’24/7′, for anyone who wants to contact them. “I, particularly, will be in the office within the period of the election so as…
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Al ITTIHAD have sacked former Tottenham Hotspur manager Nuno Espirito Santo, the Saudi champions said, following a poor run of results under the Portuguese coach. Nuno was under pressure because of their struggles in the Saudi Pro League, and the club brought down the axe following a 2-0 defeat to Air Force Club of Iraq in the Asian Champions League on Monday. Nuno, who enjoyed a successful spell as Wolverhampton Wanderers boss from 2017-2021, had been in charge of Jeddah-based Al Ittihad since July last year. The former Porto coach took Al Ittihad to the Saudi title last season, but…
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday, amid reports of negotiations for a temporary truce with Hamas. A source close to Hamas earlier said talks were underway for the release of a dozen hostages held by the group, including six Americans, in return for a three-day ceasefire in Gaza. “I’d like to put to rest all kinds of false rumours we’re hearing from all kinds of directions, and reiterate one clear thing: there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu said. The source close to Hamas had…
REPUBLICANS in Congress aggressively ramped up an impeachment inquiry against US President Joe Biden on Wednesday by issuing subpoenas for testimony from his son Hunter and brother James. The attempt to compel the pair to testify came from the Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives, where the Republican majority has spent months trying to prove the president committed wrongdoing — with a view to potential impeachment. The committee has already poured over bank records and interviewed associates of Hunter Biden, the president’s troubled son, alleging a corrupt influence-peddling scheme with his father at the time he was vice president…
FIGHTING has erupted in the historic Ethiopian town of Lalibela, as government forces and local militia have clashed, residents told the BBC. Lalibela is home to 13th Century churches that are registered as Unesco world heritage sites. Fano, a militia in the surrounding Amhara region, has been battling the army since it was ordered to disband. Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu has disputed reports of violence in the city, according to Reuters news agency. But witnesses told the BBC that fighting was intense and a plane due to land at the airport on Wednesday morning failed to do so. The Amhara…
THE Kenya Red Cross has called for “emergency action” amid intensifying rains and floods that have so far killed at least 15 people and displaced more than 85,000 households in the East African state. The World Meteorological Organisation said that El Niño, the phenomenon behind the heavy rains, is likely to persist at least until April 2024. The Kenya Red Cross said that the counties of Garissa, Tana River and Kilifi were at risk of flooding as the heavy rains push water in the Tana River beyond “critical levels”. In the neighbouring Mandera county, the town of Elwak town has…
PORTUGAL defender Pepe became the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history as his late header helped Porto beat Royal Antwerp in Group H. Pepe, 40 years and 254 days old, scored his side’s second with a thumping 91st-minute finish, becoming the first player over 40 to score in European football’s showpiece competition. Francesco Totti had held the oldest scorer record at 38 years and 59 days. Pepe is also the oldest outfield player in the competition’s history. He broke that record when he started against the same opponents on October 25. Goalkeeper Marco Ballotta is the Champions League’s oldest appearance…
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that the bombarded Gaza Strip was becoming a “graveyard for children,” as he urged an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. “The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. “The parties to the conflict — and, indeed, the international community — face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said. “The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a…
A WHITE police officer was found not guilty Monday in the death of a Black man who was put in a chokehold and injected with ketamine during his arrest. A jury in the western state of Colorado cleared Aurora police officer Nathan Woodyard of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Elijah McClain, whose August 2019 death sparked public outrage. The not guilty verdict came less than a month after a jury convicted fellow officer Randy Roedema of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault and acquitted Jason Rosenblatt. Roedema is due to be sentenced in January. McClain…
SOUTH African police are on a manhunt for suspects who robbed a government minister at gunpoint and disarmed her two bodyguards of their pistols on a busy Johannesburg highway, police said Tuesday. The robbery took place while Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga’s bodyguards were changing a punctured tire in the early hours of Monday morning. Three gunmen allegedly appeared from bushes, ordered the bodyguards to lie on the ground before taking their firearms, and then pointed a gun at Chikunga and robbed her of some personal items. “A manhunt has since been launched following this unprecedented incident,” police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe…
THERE has been a significant increase in the number of people fleeing fresh violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur, a medical charity says. Witnesses have accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militias of carrying out ethnic killings against non-Arabs in West Darfur. The RSF did not immediately comment on the claims but it had earlier said it was not involved in what it described as a “tribal conflict”. Seven thousand people have crossed over the Sudanese border into Chad in three days, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says. Among them are dozens of wounded people. MSF says the…
PORTUGUESE Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced his resignation on Tuesday after he was embroiled in a corruption investigation into the awarding of energy-related contracts. “The duties of prime minister are not compatible with any suspicion of my integrity,” Costa told a press conference after briefly speaking with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa earlier on Tuesday. “In these circumstances, I have presented my resignation to the president of the Republic,” he added. Earlier Tuesday, Portuguese media reported that investigators had searched several ministries as well as Costa’s offices. Public prosecutors later said they had indicted Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba and issued…
MAURICIO Pochettino made a winning return to Tottenham with Chelsea as his former club were reduced to nine men on a night of chaos and controversy. The Argentine’s comeback was reduced to a minor sub-plot by an epic game which brought five goals, a further five which were disallowed, two red cards, and a slew of VAR decisions in one of the Premier League’s most frenetic ever encounters. Spurs started brilliantly and deservedly went ahead when Dejan Kulusevski’s sixth minute shot deflected in off Chelsea defender Levi Colwill, before Son Heung-min had an effort narrowly ruled out for offside as…
A COMBATIVE Donald Trump clashed repeatedly with the judge on Monday as he took the stand in the New York civil fraud case threatening to cripple his real estate empire. One year out from an election he hopes will return him to the White House, Trump became the first former US president to testify as a defendant in a court case in more than a century. During his testimony, the 77-year-old Trump accused Judge Arthur Engoron of issuing “fraudulent” rulings, and denounced New York state attorney general Letitia James, who brought the case against him, as a “political hack.” “He…
A SENIOR Hamas leader has refused to acknowledge that his group killed civilians in Israel, claiming only conscripts were targeted. Moussa Abu Marzouk told the BBC that “women, children and civilians were exempt” from Hamas’s attacks. His claims are in stark contrast to the wealth of video evidence of Hamas men shooting unarmed adults and children. Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed by Hamas in the 7 October attacks, most of them civilians. Mr Marzouk, the group’s deputy political leader, who is subject to an asset freeze in the UK under counter-terrorism regulations, was interviewed on Saturday in…
SEPARATIST rebels on Monday killed around 20 people, including women and children, in an attack on a village in one of Cameroon’s restive anglophone regions, the government said. The overnight assault occurred at Egbekaw village, western Cameroon, the scene of deadly clashes between rebels and government forces for seven years. “There were men, women, and children, more than 20 killed,” minister at the presidency Mengot Victor Arrey-Nkongho told public radio. “It’s intolerable.” Cameroon’s primarily English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions have been gripped by conflict since separatists declared independence in 2017. That followed decades of grievances over perceived discrimination by the…
THE South African government said on Monday it would recall all its diplomats from Israel to “signal” its concern over the situation in Gaza. Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a minister in the president’s office, told a press briefing that all diplomatic staff in Tel Aviv would be asked back to Pretoria for consultations, without providing further details. “We are… extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians in the Palestinian territories and we believe the nature of response by Israel has become one of collective punishment,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told a later press conference. “We felt it important…
LUIS Diaz came off the bench to salvage a point for Liverpool with a stoppage-time goal at Luton in his first match since his parents were kidnapped in Colombia. Diaz’s father remains missing, and the forward lifted his shirt to show a message of “freedom for papa” after heading in Harvey Elliott’s cross five minutes into added time. He later issued a statement calling for those holding his father to release him “immediately”. The 26-year-old former Porto player had last featured in a Liverpool squad 10 days ago, but manager Jurgen Klopp said before this match that Diaz “wanted to…
AN Israeli minister was suspended from government meetings “until further notice” on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, after suggesting in an interview dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu’s ruling coalition, told Israel’s Kol Barama radio he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel’s retaliation in the Palestinian territory after Hamas fighters carried out a deadly attack on October 7 inside southern Israel. The attacks killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israeli officials say. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since October 7 has killed 9,488 people, most of…
A RADIO broadcaster was fatally shot inside his studio in the Philippines on Sunday, police said, the latest in a long list of journalists killed in the country. Juan Jumalon, 57, was in his home-based studio on the southern island of Mindanao when a gunman shot him in the head, said Captain Deore Ragonio, police chief in Calamba municipality. Jumalon is the fourth journalist to be slain since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in June of 2022, the National Union of Journalists said, condemning “the brazen killing”. The archipelago nation is one of the most dangerous places in the world…