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BILL Richardson, a veteran Democratic politician and former US ambassador to the United Nations who later spent decades negotiating the release of Americans detained around the world, has died at age 75, his associates said Saturday. Richardson, who also served as governor of New Mexico and the US energy secretary, “passed away peacefully in his sleep” on Friday night, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement said in a statement. Richardson was one of the highest-profile Latinos in the US political world. He made his name as the Indiana Jones of US diplomacy and was famed for daring head-to-head encounters with…

A UTAH woman who once provided parenting advice to more than two million YouTube followers remained in custody Saturday, charged with child abuse after her “emaciated” son escaped to look for food, officials said. Both Ruby Franke and her business partner and collaborator Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested, according to a statement from the public safety department of Ivins, a small town in southwestern Utah. Franke’s now defunct “8 Passengers” YouTube site, in which she and husband Kevin shared experiences raising their six children, offered lessons in strict discipline — so strict that many viewers had complained previously. The statement from…

GABON’s army said on Saturday that it would reopen the country’s borders, closed in the wake of the military coup that ousted ex-president Ali Bongo. A spokesman for Gabon’s military rulers said on state TV that they had “decided with immediate effect to reopen the land, sea and air borders as of this Saturday”. A group of 12 Gabonese soldiers had announced on Wednesday that the country’s borders were closed until further notice, in a statement broadcast on the Gabon 24 television channel. General Brice Oligui Nguema, the head of the elite Republican Guard, on Wednesday led officers in a…

DETAINED Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, an aspiring presidential candidate and head of state Macky Sall’s fiercest critic, on Saturday, ended a hunger strike he began on July 30. Sonko has faced a string of legal woes since 2021 he claims are aimed at keeping him out of politics. Sonko was arrested in late July and charged with crimes including fomenting insurrection, criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise and undermining state security over incidents dating back to 2021. In a separate affair, he was on June 1 sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for morally corrupting…

KANO State Governor, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, popularly known as Abba Gida-Gida has approved the appointment of additional 57 senior special assistants in the state. The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Bature Dawakin Tofa, disclosed this in a statement early Saturday. Governor Yusuf had earlier appointed 15 special assistants, thus the latest appointments brought the total number of aides in the government to 72. The Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, has approved the appointment of additional 57 senior special assistants in the state. The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Bature Dawakin Tofa, disclosed this in a statement on Friday…

ANOTHER record-breaking transfer window closed on Friday after a busy summer that saw Premier League clubs splash out £2.36bn on new players The combined outlay of the 20 clubs during the window smashes the previous spending record of £1.92bn set last summer by £440m, according to financial services firm Deloitte. Premier League clubs spent £255m on deadline day alone, which is more than double the £120m spent on deadline day during last summer’s window. That already makes the 2023-24 season have the second-highest transfer spend ever after last season’s record £2.73bn, with the January window still to come. Tim Bridge,…

MANCHESTER United secured the loan signing of Moroccan midfielder Sofyan Amrabat, while Turkish goalkeeper Altay Bayindir and left-back Sergio Reguilon also arrived at Old Trafford on Friday. Amrabat, who starred in Morocco’s run to the World Cup semi-finals last year, joins from Fiorentina for a reported 10 million euro ($11 million, £8.6 million) loan fee. United then have an option to buy the 27-year-old for a further 25 million euros next year. “I’ve had to be patient for this moment but I’m someone who always listens to my heart and now I am representing the club of my dreams,” said…

TYCOON Mohamed Al-Fayed, a controversial billionaire and the father of Dodi who was killed along with Princess Diana in 1997, has died aged 94 his family said in a statement Friday. “Mrs Mohamed Al-Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age on Wednesday August 30, 2023,” his family said in a statement released by the football club he once owned, Fulham FC. “He enjoyed a long and fulfilled retirement surrounded by his loved ones. The family have asked for their privacy to be…

FORMER Singapore deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected president Friday, according to official results, in the city-state’s first contested vote for the largely ceremonial position in more than a decade. The Elections Department declared the 66-year-old economist as the winner over two rival candidates after securing 70.4 percent of ballots cast. “I declare Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the candidate duly elected as the president of Singapore,” said election returning officer Tan Meng Dui. Shanmugaratnam replaces incumbent Halimah Yacob who ran unopposed for her six-year term in 2017. “I believe that it’s a vote of confidence in Singapore. It’s a…

POLICE killed eighteen people in a shootout in South Africa’s northeast on Friday, saying they had targeted suspects who were planning to rob a cash truck. “As soon as police approached the address, the group of suspects began shooting, police retaliated,” the South African Police Service (SAPS) said in a statement. “Sixteen males and two females were declared dead at the scene.” A police officer was “injured very seriously” and taken for medical care, SAPS National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola told reporters in Makhado, Limpopo province, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Johannesburg. The shootout lasted for about 90…

GABON’s new military leader has pledged to return the country to democracy, but has refused to provide a timelines for fresh elections. Gen Brice Oligui Nguema said the country’s state institutions would be made more democratic and their suspension was only “temporary”. But Gabon’s opposition coalition says the military shows no signs of handing power back to a civilian government. The deposed president, Ali Bongo, was placed under house arrest this week. Army officers appeared on state TV in the early hours of Wednesday to say they had seized control, ending the Bongo family’s 55-year hold on power in the…

AS part of his ongoing efforts to assess the state of major sports facilities in the country, Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh inspected the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos on Thursday. Senator Enoh started his inspection from the stadium complex, where he visited the National Institute of Sports, the boxing complex, main bowl of the stadium, sports medical centre, indoor sports hall and other facilities. He also inspected the Games Village hostels, Legacy Pitch, Power House, as well as the courts for different sports. During his briefing at the stadium, John Enoh said “this facility built around the 1960’s,…

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate has included Jordan Henderson and Harry Maguire in his squad for September’s games against Ukraine and Scotland. Midfielder Henderson, 33, has been picked after leaving Liverpool to join Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq in July. Centre-back Maguire makes the squad despite not having played for Manchester United so far this season. England play Ukraine in a Euro 2024 qualifier on 9 September in Poland, and Scotland in a friendly on 12 September. The game against Scotland at Hampden Park is to mark the 150th anniversary of that fixture. Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah and Chelsea centre-back Levi Colwill…

FORMER US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he led a criminal conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia. The Republican presidential frontrunner, who faces 13 felony counts including racketeering, entered his plea in a court filing waiving his right to appear at an arraignment next Wednesday. Trump, 77, surrendered to the Fulton County jail in the state capital Atlanta last week and was the first former US president pictured in a police mug shot. Released on a $200,000 bond and given the inmate number “PO1135809,” Trump was accused of…

RUSSIA and Belarus have been invited back to Stockholm’s Nobel Prize banquet after being left out last year because of the Ukraine war, the Nobel Foundation says. Iran has also been invited back to the event in Sweden’s capital after not being allowed to attend last year. The foundation said it sought to include even those who did not share the values of the Nobel Prize. One Swedish MEP called this year’s invites “extremely inappropriate”. The leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, Jimmie Akesson, was also invited for the first time this year but said he was too busy…

A SUDANESE hacking group called Anonymous Sudan took X, formerly known as Twitter, offline in more than a dozen countries on Tuesday morning in an attempt to pressurise Elon Musk into launching his Starlink service in their country. X was down for more than two hours in about 15 African countries, with hundreds of thousands of users affected. “Make our message reach to Elon Musk: ‘Open Starlink in Sudan’,” the hackers posted on Telegram. X is the latest victim of the gang hacking to “benefit Sudan and Islam”. Over several weeks of private conversations with the group on the chat…

NORWAY on Thursday announced it was closing its embassy in Mali, citing the “security situation” that developed after the ruling junta ordered out foreign troops helping it fight terrorists. “The decision to close the embassy in Bamako was taken following an assessment of whether it is possible to safeguard Norwegian interests in Mali given the security situation in the country,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Since the two military coups in 2020 and 2021, the political situation in Mali has been volatile. “The military-led transitional government has terminated its security cooperation with France and the UN. When the…

MANCHESTER United will play Bayern Munich in Group A, while holders Manchester City are in the same group as RB Leipzig in the 2023/24 Champions League season. Arsenal have been paired with Sevilla and Celtic face Atletico Madrid. Newcastle United will play European giants Paris St-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan. The third team in the group is FC Copenhagen of Denmark and they will be joined by Galatasaray in the group. The draw for the group stage of this season’s UEFA Champions League, made at a ceremony in Monaco on Thursday: Group A: Bayern Munich (GER), Manchester United (ENG),…

THE social media platform X will begin offering video and audio calling with no phone number required, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday, a step towards turning the former Twitter into an “everything app.” “Video & audio calls coming to X,” Musk wrote in a post on the platform, without specifying when the new features would be available. The calling features would work on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC systems, and no phone number would be needed, he said. “X is the effective global address book,” the billionaire added. “That set of factors is unique.” Last month, Musk and his…

THE leaders of the coup in Gabon on Wednesday named Republican Guard chief General Brice Oligui Nguema transitional president, according to a TV statement, after the military seized control in the wake of elections. “General Oligui Nguema Brice was unanimously appointed chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, chairman of the transition,” declared an officer in the presence of dozens of senior officers, according to the press release read out on Gabon 24.