TODAY, Muslim faithful in Nigeria will join two billion other Muslims throughout the world to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha, known as Eid-Al-Kabir. The festival is rooted in scriptural accounts of both the Islamic and Judeo-Christian theology as evinced in Al Qur’an Kareem and the Old Testament respectively. The scriptural accounts (Qur’an Chapter 37 – Suratul As-Saffaat) highlight how, in a singular act of obedience to divine command, Prophet Ibrahim AS took Prophet Ismail AS, his son who he begot in his old age, to a location and prepared him for ritual of immolation as piety to Allah. As…
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WEST Ham have rejected a bid of £90m from Treble winners Manchester City for captain Declan Rice. City’s offer was thought to have included an £80m initial payment but is short of the £100m the Hammers want. Arsenal are expected to make a third bid for the 24-year-old England midfielder. The Gunners’ second proposal of an initial £75m in four payments, plus £15m in add-ons, was turned down by West Ham last week. Rice’s contract with the Hammers expires in 2024, although it has the option for a one-year extension until the summer of 2025. Following the club’s Europa Conference…
BRAZIL forward Marta is set to play in a sixth World Cup after being named in her country’s squad for the women’s tournament this summer. The 37-year-old is a six-time winner of the Fifa World Player of the Year award. She also holds the record for the most goals in World Cup tournaments – men’s or women’s – with 17. “Marta is the queen, she is an icon. Just being around her is contagious,” said Brazil manager Pia Sundhage. “If she will be in the starting line-up I don’t know, not yet. She will play the role I will give…
PROTEST and unrest erupted in the Paris region overnight after police shot dead a 17-year-old who failed to stop when ordered to by traffic police. Video circulating on social media shows a police officer pointing a gun at the driver of a car, before a gunshot is heard. The car then crashes to a stop. The teenager, named as Naël M, died of bullet wounds in the chest despite help from emergency services. The officer accused of shooting him has been detained on homicide charges. The shooting triggered a series of protests on Tuesday night in Nanterre, the area just…
ATTENTION in the Ukrainian capital has been fixed squarely on the mutiny of the Wagner Group, its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its consequences for Vladimir Putin and the conduct of the war in Ukraine. The drama over the border in Russia has hardened the view in Kyiv that Mr Putin’s time as Russia’s president is coming to an end. “I think the countdown has started,” said Andriy Yermak, President Zelensky’s closest adviser. At a briefing in Kyiv, he looked back to the year that Russia first invaded Ukraine, annexing the Crimean Peninsula. “What Ukraine has seen since 2014 has become…
KENYA’s opposition leader Raila Odinga called for nationwide civil disobedience in an effort to reverse recent tax increases agreed by parliament while addressing his supporters in the capital, Nairobi. Mr Odinga, who was runner-up in last year’s presidential election, also called for a revival of mass protests against President William Ruto’s government. “We must punish the traitors. We must repeal the finance bill,” he told thousands of his supporters. This comes a few days after President Ruto signed the controversial tax measures into law after it was passed by MPs last week. The new law raises the value-added tax on…
SECURITY sources in Burkina Faso say unidentified assailants have killed 31 soldiers and three members of the Homeland Defence Volunteers – a group of civilians given basic military training. The army said more than 40 assailants were killed. The volunteers work alongside the army, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties. The attack, on a supply convoy, took place on Monday in the northern province of Bam in the Central-North region. At least 10,000 have been killed and more than two million displaced in the prolonged jihadist insurgency Burkina Faso has been facing from neighbouring Mali.
NIGERIAN striker, Victor Osimhen, has claimed the Best African Player award ahead of Treble winner Riyadh Mahrez and Mohammed Salah at the Ghana Football Awards. The 24-year-old registered 31 goals in all competitions last season to help Napoli win the Serie A title for the first time in over three decades. The Super Eagles forward’s best season as a professional player has seen him scoop awards and break records, with his latest coming from the award ceremony in Ghana. Osimhen, in a video online, thanked the organisers for the award and promised to make Africa proud. The video was posted…
MANCHESTER City are working to sign RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol – but the German club want at least 100m euros (£85.77m) for the Croatia defender. City boss Pep Guardiola is a big admirer of the 21-year-old centre-back, who starred at the World Cup last year. BBC Sport has been told contact has been made between City and Gvardiol’s camp. Gvardiol has a release clause in excess of 110m euros (£94.35m), which can be triggered next summer. It means Leipzig are not willing to let him leave 12 months early for a significantly smaller amount. Gvardiol made 41 appearances for Leipzig…
AN audio recording in which Donald Trump appears to acknowledge keeping a classified document after leaving the White House has been obtained by US media. In the recording, the former president is heard riffling through papers and saying: “This is highly confidential”. It has not been independently verified by the BBC. Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of mishandling sensitive files. CNN was the first to publish the roughly two-minute clip, and said it comes from a July 2021 interview that Mr Trump gave with people working on the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark…
ON a bright Sunday morning the wildlife-lovers gather in Miramar, a scenic peninsula. They are on an exterminating mission. Predator-Free Miramar aims to protect birds in this area of Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, by ridding it of rats – every last one of them. After donning hi-vis jackets, the volunteers are handed peanut butter – ideal bait for rodents – and poison. Each is assigned a patch where they will check coil traps and toxin-laced bait boxes. “Good luck fellows,” says Dan Coup, who leads the group. A GPS app guides Coup through the bush to devices on his route.…
MORE than 10,000 people have registered as refugees in South Sudan after fleeing the conflict in Sudan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), has said. While, overall, 130,000 people have fled into South Sudan since the fighting started in April, most of them were South Sudanese returning home. Ocha said the latest influx continues to compound a dire situation as the arrival numbers are projected to continue to increase as fighting continues. Among those arriving include unaccompanied or separated children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, those with urgent medical needs, single- or female-headed households and pregnant…
THE head of Ethiopia’s electoral board, Birtukan Mideksa, has announced her resignation. In a Facebook post on Monday, Ms Birtukan cited health as her reason to leave her post. Parliament still has to accept the resignation. She is a former judge and political prisoner, and her appointment more than four years ago was seen as part of reform measures introduced by a new government. In 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office pledging to end decades of authoritarian rule. When he recommended Ms Birtukan to the all-important post of chairperson of the electoral board, he described her as someone who…
ARSENAL boss Mikel Arteta accepts his side must strengthen in the transfer market if they are to become Premier League champions next season. Arteta’s side were beaten to the 2022-23 title by Manchester City. The Gunners have been linked with a move for West Ham midfielder Declan Rice and are also closing in on forward Kai Havertz from Chelsea. “Next season is going to be the toughest league in Premier League history,” said Arteta. “Why? It already was last year. I’ve been here [England] for 22 years and I’ve never seen a competitive level like that. So much quality, so…
KALIDOU Koulibaly has become the latest Chelsea player to move to Saudi Arabia after the defender completed a transfer to Al-Hilal for an undisclosed fee. The centre-back, 32, joins Ruben Neves at the Saudi Pro League side following the Wolves midfielder’s £47m switch. Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has also agreed to sign for Saudi champions Al-Ittihad, while team-mate Edouard Mendy is close to joining Al-Ahli. Koulibaly signed for Chelsea from Napoli last July on a four-year deal. He arrived at Stamford Bridge with European and international experience, after helping Napoli win the Italian Cup in 2020 and Senegal claim the…
PRINCE William is launching a major five-year campaign to end homelessness, which he says should not exist in a “modern and progressive society”. The Prince of Wales’s charitable foundation is putting in £3m of start-up funding to help make homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated”. Six locations across the UK will be used to test ideas to cut homelessness. “Everyone should have a safe and secure home and be treated with dignity,” says Prince William. This “Homewards” initiative is likely to be one of the defining projects for the Prince of Wales – a commitment which he will be aware comes…
THE president of Honduras has declared an immediate curfew in a town where 13 people were shot dead on Saturday. Xiomara Castro described the killings in a pool hall in Choloma as a “brutal and ruthless terrorist attack”. The victims, who were at a birthday party, were 12 men and one woman. Separate murders in the northern Sula Valley region brought Saturday’s death toll to at least 20, authorities said, and are thought to be linked to drug-trafficking gangs. The curfew comes in from 21:00 local time (04:00 BST) to 04:00 from Sunday and will run for at least 15…
MALI’s military-led government on Thursday seized the diplomatic passport of influential and outspoken Muslim cleric Mahmoud Dicko, who is a vocal critic of the ruling junta. Community-based station Radio Nostalgie reported that the authorities seized Mr Dicko’s passport at an airport in the capital, Bamako, upon his return from neighbouring Mauritania. Mr Dicko was issued with the passport by the government of the late President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. “Less than a week after vehemently criticising the transitional government, Dicko is more than ever in the crosshairs of the authorities,” privately-owned channel Renouveau TV reported. In May, Mr Dicko and several…
ZAMBIA’s President Hakainde Hichilema can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the outlines of a deal aimed at lifting his country out of its debt crisis have been unveiled. In 2020, the copper-rich country became the first African nation to default on its debt payments during the Covid pandemic. It was burdened by loans and high interest rates that severely restricted the government’s ability to invest in critical social programmes and infrastructure development, both crucial for economic growth. Following months of talks, Zambia has now successfully agreed new repayment terms with its state creditors on up to $6.3bn (£5bn)…
THE Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has stated that electricity tariff across its franchise states will increase from July 1 2023. In a terse statement on Sunday night, AEDC stated that the review was due to the fluctuation of the maira in the exchange rate market. The statement read: “Effective July 1st 2023, please be informed that there will be an upward review to the electricity tariff influenced by the fluctuating exchange rate.” “Under the MYTO 2022 guidelines, the previously set exchange rate of N441/$1 may now be revised to approximately N750/$1 which will have an impact on the tariffs…