Author: Editor

THE mother of Liverpool’s Colombian winger Luis Diaz was rescued from kidnappers on Saturday but a search remains on for his father, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Saturday. Petro posted on X, formerly known as twitter, that Diaz’s mother was rescued in Barrancas in the northern part of the country. “We continue in the search for the father,” added Petro. Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office said they had been working intensely on the case. “From the moment the Attorney General’s Office learned of the kidnapping of the parents of the Colombian player Luis Díaz, in the Barrancas sector of La…

FORMER Vice President Mike Pence announced Saturday that he is withdrawing from the US presidential race, saying, “this is not my time.” Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Pence — the first major 2024 candidate to suspend his campaign, said: “It’s become clear to me: this is not my time.” “After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president.” Pence, along with most of his rivals seeking to be the Republican Party’s nominee for next year’s White House race, never gained momentum in a contest overwhelmingly dominated by…

BATTLES raged in Gaza on Saturday as Israel’s army said it expanded ground operations after intensifying its bombardment of the Palestinian territory three weeks after the deadliest attack in the country’s history. The United Nations warned of a looming “unprecedented avalanche of human suffering” inside the Gaza Strip, after weeks of relentless Israeli bombing, while the General Assembly called for an “immediate humanitarian truce”. “We are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and east Bureij (in the centre) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground,” Hamas’s armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam…

THE editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful OBE, has been named the UK’s most influential black person by the Powerlist 2024. Powerful Media’s annual list celebrates people of African, African Caribbean and African American heritage. Now in its 18th year, it highlights black role models to young people. Other names to make the list for 2024 include Afua Kyei, Bank of England chief financial officer, and Dragon’s Den star and podcaster Steven Bartlett. Enninful is the first black man to hold the top job at the British fashion magazine but earlier this year he announced he would be stepping down…

AT least 32 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a crash involving multiple vehicles in Egypt, the health ministry has said. The collision occurred on Saturday morning in Egypt’s Beheira governorate on the Cairo-Alexandria road, 131km (82 miles) north of the capital Cairo. At least 63 people have been injured, the health ministry said. State newspaper Al-Ahram said the crash involved a passenger bus and several cars, some of which caught fire. It said many of those killed were burnt to death. At least 20 ambulances were sent to the crash site, the health ministry said in…

TOTTENHAM Hotspur moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League table and continued their superb start to the season with a win at Crystal Palace. The visitors took control after the break and benefitted from a huge slice of fortune with the opener when Palace defender Joel Ward turned James Maddison’s cross into his own net. Maddison was key to the second too as his interplay with Brennan Johnson ended with Son Heung-min firing home his eighth goal of the season. Jordan Ayew thumped in a stunning strike after taking the ball down on his chest in…

HAMAS is “ready” for an Israeli invasion of Gaza over the October 7 attacks, a top official of the Palestinian Islamist group said late Friday after Israel announced it would extend its ground operation. “Following the series of strikes of the last days, the ground forces are extending the ground operation tonight,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters after two straight nights of tank incursions into the Gaza Strip. A top Hamas official said it was “ready” for an Israeli ground invasion. “If (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu decides to enter Gaza tonight, the resistance is ready,” said Ezzat al-Rishaq, a…

DONALD Trump and three of his children will soon take the stand in a New York business fraud case. A judge ruled on Friday that Mr Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, must testify in the case against her brothers and father. She was dismissed as a defendant in the case earlier this year – but her brothers Eric and Donald Jr were not. The New York Attorney General’s Office said the former president will testify on 6 November and his three children will take the stand before him. Their testimony is expected over three days from Wednesday next week, starting with Donald…

KING Charles III embarks Tuesday on a four-day trip to Kenya, his first visit as monarch to a Commonwealth nation, where any comments he makes on Britain’s colonial past will be closely scrutinised. Charles is expected to tackle “the more painful aspects” of the UK’s historic relationship with Kenya — namely the period of British rule, which ended in 1963, Buckingham Palace has said. This will include the “Emergency” of 1952-1960, when colonial authorities imposed a state of emergency in response to the Mau Mau guerrilla campaign against European settlers. “His Majesty will take time during the visit to deepen…

MANY parts of Ghana were plunged into darkness due to a lack of gas to power machinery used to generate electricity in the country. Power distribution firm Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) says the situation has caused “a supply gap of 550MW at peak time” at Tema power plant, near the capital, Accra. This is about 10% of the country’s total capacity. The massive outage started on Thursday evening. Power has now been restored in some areas but GRIDCo spokesperson Dzifa Bampoh told the BBC there would be more outages on Friday evening, during peak hours. Ghana is currently going…

SWISS prosecutors announced Thursday they have dropped their three-year criminal proceedings against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over suspected collusion with officials concerning the corruption scandal that engulfed world football’s governing body. Infantino declared a “full and clear victory” in the case and demanded an apology from what he called the “envious and corrupt” people out to tarnish his reputation. A probe was opened in July 2020 to investigate suspicions of collusion between Infantino and Switzerland’s then-attorney general Michael Lauber, the country’s top prosecutor. Lauber was in charge of Switzerland’s probe into the towering corruption scandal that exploded at the heart…

CHINA will send its youngest-ever crew of astronauts to the Tiangong space station this week, officials said Wednesday, as Beijing pursues plans for a manned mission to the Moon by the end of the decade. Tiangong is the crown jewel of Beijing’s space programme, which has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon and made China the third country to put humans in orbit. The station is constantly crewed by teams of three astronauts, who are rotated out every six months. The Shenzhou-17 module carrying the trio to the station is scheduled to blast off at 11:14 am…

UN aid agencies say they have begun to significantly reduce their operations in the Gaza Strip because they have almost exhausted their fuel reserves. Small quantities of fuel retrieved from existing reserves are being used to maintain the water supply in the south, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering from Israeli strikes. However, they will run out on Thursday. The agencies say they have reduced their support for overwhelmed hospitals and bakeries feeding the displaced. “What we are seeing in the Gaza Strip is unprecedented,” Juliette Touma of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, told the BBC.…

THE paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seized control of Sudan’s second largest city, Nyala, from the army after months of fighting, several sources have told the BBC. One eyewitness said residents were celebrating because they hoped it meant an end to the violence. The fighting has forced more than 670,000 people to flee their homes. The city’s hospitals have been destroyed, and bodies are said to be lining the streets. This major advance for the RSF comes as the two warring sides were set to resume peace talks in Saudi Arabia. The army has not commented on its defeat…

PRIME Minister Abiy Ahmed says Ethiopia will not invade any neighbouring nation after his recent comments on a need for his country to own a sea outlet created disquiet in the region. Addressing the nation at a square in the capital, Addis Ababa, to mark Army Day on Thursday, Mr Abiy said Ethiopia would “never invade” any country. “Our army has never initiated an attack and now we will not attack anyone,” he said. “Fears have been voiced that there could be an invasion when Ethiopia recently stressed the need to discuss some issues… there is nothing whatsoever Ethiopia intends…

THE Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has deployed 370 collation officers and supervisors from the 185 local government areas in the nine Niger Delta states for the registration of youths to benefit from its Holistic Opportunity Projects of Engagement, HOPE, project. Speaking during the deployment ceremony at the Rivers State Information, Communication and Technology, ICT, Centre in Port Harcourt, the NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, charged the collation officers and supervisors to register the youths, following the transparent process already established by the Commission. Ogbuku said that the youth development and empowerment scheme was designed to create a comprehensive…

EVERTON face a 12-point deduction after an investigation into alleged breaches of financial rules by the Premier League club, according to a report on Wednesday. The Daily Telegraph said Premier League chiefs have asked an independent commission to impose the severe sanction, which would be the largest points penalty in the history of the competition. Losing 12 points would leave Everton on minus-five points at the bottom of this season’s table. Sean Dyche’s side are currently in 16th place with seven points after losing six of their first nine games. The Premier League referred Everton to the commission in March…

POLCE in the US city of Lewiston, Maine have warned a gunman is on the loose, with reports that at least 16 people have been killed. Residents of the city, as well as the nearby town of Lisbon, have been told to shelter in place. Police named Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest and said he should be considered “armed and dangerous”. The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation and would continue to receive updates. There were also multiple but unconfirmed reports of at least 50 people injured. Billie Jayne Cooke, who…

THREE separate armed attacks in Mexico on Monday left at least 24 people dead, including a dozen police officers, authorities said about the latest violence to hit regions plagued by drug trafficking. In the deadliest incident, unidentified attackers targeted a security patrol in Guerrero state’s municipality of Coyuca de Benitez, prosecutor Alejandro Hernandez said. At least 13 people were killed and two others wounded in that attack, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement, with Hernandez earlier having confirmed that at least 11 of those killed were members of the municipal police force. A senior state security official was…

DETAINED Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, who eight days ago resumed a hunger strike, is “very weak” and in an intensive care unit, one of his lawyers told AFP on Wednesday. Sonko briefly fell into a coma on October 23, Cire Cledor Ly said, adding that he had been able to speak with the politician a day earlier. He said Sonko regained consciousness the same day but remained frail. “The situation is alarming — the doctors are giving him treatment that he is unable to refuse,” Cledor Ly said. “I launch a solemn appeal to the head of state because…