RWANDAN President Paul Kagame has appointed a senior military official as a minister of state for regional cooperation despite the fact he been accused of working closely with a Congolese rebel group. General James Kabarebe, who has for decades been a close ally of Mr Kagame, retired from the military last month. UN experts published a report in June accusing Gen Kabarebe of playing a leading role in coordinating operations by the M23 rebel group in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda has denied that its military has supported the M23. Since the group relaunched a rebellion almost two years ago, hundreds…
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AN employee of Cairo University has been shot to death on campus by a former co-worker, the interior ministry said, in the latest case of femicide in Egypt. “An employee of a faculty of Cairo University… fired gunshots” at a female colleague, “which resulted in her death”, the ministry said in a statement. The suspect was later tracked down in Matrouh governorate, west of the capital, where he “committed suicide by shooting himself with the same weapon” used in the murder. The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said the woman, Nurhan, had rejected a marriage proposal from her colleague, Ahmed, who had…
THE Nigerian Meteorological Agency has notified the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Edo, Kwara, and 22 other states of 48-hour downpour beginning on Thursday. In its weekly heavy rainfall forecast bulletin released on Wednesday, the agency told the residents to also expect flash floods. Other states listed are Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Enugu, Delta, Bayelsa, Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kwara, and Benue. The bulletin reads: “Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected within the forecast period (Thursday 28th and Friday 29th, September 2023) over parts of Katsina, Kano,…
AMID a public spat with his Serie A club, Napoli, Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen has deleted all photos and videos featuring the club’s shirt on his Instagram account. This is coming after a contentious ‘mockery’ video was posted by Napoli’s verified TikTok handle, which openly mocked Osimhen for missing a penalty against Bologna. The video featured a high-pitched voice in the background shouting, “gimme penalty please.” A subsequent video drew comparisons between Osimhen and a coconut. Osimhen has netted three times in six appearance in the opening weeks of the season for misfiring Italian champions Napoli. The 24-year-old has become…
NEWCASTLE boss Eddie Howe says his side are eager to “go one better” than last season’s runners-up finish in the Carabao Cup after his side beat Manchester City to reach this campaign’s fourth round. Alexander Isak scored the winner for a largely second-string Newcastle, who came to life after the break to beat a much-changed City. Newcastle, who lost to Manchester United in last year’s final, made 10 changes from Sunday’s 8-0 win at Sheffield United and barely got a kick in a first half dominated by the visitors. But with Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon sent on at the…
MORE than 56,000 Pakistan schools will shut for the rest of the week in a bid to curb a mass outbreak of a contagious eye virus, officials said Wednesday. Millions of students will stay home from tomorrow after Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, announced blanket closures having recorded 357,000 conjunctivitis cases since the start of the year. The fast-spreading eye infection causes redness, itchiness and discharge from the eyes and contamination can spread through hand contact, as well as coughing and sneezing. “The closure has been announced as a proactive measure to give maximum protection to students against the infection,”…
A BOMB blast in northern Myanmar killed two people and wounded more than a dozen on Wednesday, a military source and a member of a local rescue organisation told AFP. “According to the initial report, two men were killed and 10 others injured by a blast” that happened around 6 pm (1130 GMT) near a petrol station outside the town of Lashio in Shan state, a military source who requested anonymity told AFP. The source said the blast, which hit a nearby passenger bus, was caused by a bomb planted on a motorbike. Local authorities were investigating, they said. The…
BURKINA Faso’s military government says the country’s security and intelligence services foiled a coup attempt on Tuesday. It’s almost a year since the military leader and now interim President, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, himself, seized power. In a statement read on television, the junta said unnamed military officers and others had planned to destabilise Burkina Faso. They had “the dark intention of attacking the institutions of the republic and plunging our country in chaos”, the Reuters news agency quotes the statement as saying. It said some arrests had been made, without giving specifics. There have been recent reports of discontent within…
GABON’s military-installed prime minister on Wednesday outlined plans for a “national dialogue” to be organised next year which would pave the way for drawing up a new constitution. Nearly a month after military leaders ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba after 14 years at the helm of the oil-rich country, Raymond Ndong Sima told a press conference that an appeal for contributions towards the dialogue would go out from next week. Last week, Ndong Sima defended the takeover before the United Nations as a “lesser evil”, saying the intervention prevented bloodshed. Coup leader General Brice Oligui Nguema, who was swiftly sworn…
THE Editor-in-chief of Al-Mizan Newspaper, a weekly news magazine of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) better known as Shi’ites, Malam Ibrahim Musa, has been arrested by the Department of State Service (DSS). Musa was said to have been picked up at the Aminu Kano International Airport on while on his way to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj (Umrah), on Wednesday morning. In a press statement signed by Abdullahi Usman, Musa’s family called for his immediate release. According to the statement, “No reason has been provided by the authorities for his arrest even as he is known for his…
AN Indian great-grandmother aged 92 has learned to read and write after going to school for the first time and inspiring others to join her, media and officials said Wednesday. Salima Khan, born in around 1931 and who was married at the age of 14 — two years before the end of British colonial rule in India — had a lifelong dream of being able to read and write. Khan, from Bulandshahr in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said there were no schools in her village when she was a girl. Six months ago, she began studying alongside pupils…
THE Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A), a public benefit organisation working to unlock Africa’s potential as a global hub for climate action, has announced the immediate past Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, as the new Chair of the Board of Directors. The organisation made the announcement in a statement, Tuesday. CAP-A’s work is informed by the realisation that Africa’s demographics, growth trajectory and natural resource endowments, coupled with its extremely low levels of current carbon emissions, enable the continent to aspire to not just net-zero but a substantial net-negative carbon footprint sooner than any other part of…
ALGERIA has pulled out of the running to stage the Africa Cup of Nations in either 2025 or 2027, the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) said on Tuesday, a day before the announcement of the host nation for each of the two tournaments. While it is guaranteed that Morocco will host the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2025, Nigeria will today know if she will win the right to jointly host the biennial competition with Benin Republic in 2027, News Point Nigeria learnt. According to a statement by the Nigeria Football Federation, Nigeria and Benin are the…
MANCHESTER United kept the critics at bay as they cruised into the League Cup fourth round with a 3-0 win against Crystal Palace on Tuesday. United boss Erik ten Hag and his players have been under fire after a disappointing start to the season. But, following Saturday’s narrow Premier League victory at Burnley, they secured a second successive win to ease the pressure at least a little. Alejandro Garnacho put them ahead in the first half and Casemiro doubled the lead before the interval, with Anthony Martial sealing the victory after the break. When United lifted the League Cup in…
AT least 100 people have died and 150 others injured after a fire broke out at a wedding in northern Iraq. Hundreds of people were celebrating in Al-Hamdaniya in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province when fire tore through the venue late on Tuesday evening. It is not yet known what caused the blaze, but early reports say it broke out after fireworks were lit. Flammable panels in the venue may have fuelled the flames, causing parts of the ceiling to catch fire and fall. “The fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall as a result of the use…
THE UN stressed on Tuesday it was opposed to most dress codes for women, after France barred its Olympic athletes from wearing the Muslim hijab during the 2024 Paris Games. “No-one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not wear,” United Nations rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva. Hurtado’s comment came after the French sports minister said the country’s athletes would be barred from wearing headscarves during the Games, in line with the country’s strict rules on secularism. French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera repeated on Sunday that the government was opposed to any…
UGANDAN police say they have arrested a 17-year-old student on charges of trafficking 170 young people. The police said that they arrested the high school student on 18 September in central Uganda. Police say that the student kept 170 young people at the home of a 28-year-old woman while they awaited transportation to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, where the student had promised them jobs. However, the Uganda Police Force said on Tuesday that the trafficking scheme was a scam. “Upon interrogation he [the student] admitted that he wanted to extort money from the victims using the name of Humble Company in…
KENYA says it’s confident the deployment of hundreds of its police to Haiti by January will end gang warfare there. Last year Haiti’s government appealed for help due to the spiralling gang violence. Gangs have largely overpowered the police and now have more than three-quarters of the capital under control. Initially Kenyan officials spoke of around 1,000 officers going to Haiti to train local police and help protect key installations there. But Kenya’s Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua says it will be an intervention force to disarm what he called the “thugs and the gangs”. In a BBC interview Alfred Mutua…
POLICE have arrested a man accused of helping to distribute drugs found in a New York nursery where a one-year-old died after being exposed to fentanyl. Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, is the third person arrested following the death of Nicholas Dominici this month. Large quantities of narcotics were found in a search of the Bronx nursery. Officials on Monday said they found a stamp during a search of the suspect’s home that was used to mark drug packages. Mr Paredes is charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that Mr Paredes…
NORTH Korea will allow foreign nationals to enter the country from Monday, Chinese state media reported, after over three years of Covid-induced isolation. North Korea has been largely closed off from the outside world since early 2020, when it shut its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with even its own nationals prevented from entering. But it is this month showing signs of re-opening, with leader Kim Jong Un travelling to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin and sending athletes to compete in the Asian Games in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou. Citing a reporter, Beijing’s state broadcaster…