Author: Editor

NAMIBIA says it is sending in helicopters and hundreds of soldiers to battle a fire that has ravaged a third of a key nature reserve. Etosha National Park is one of southern Africa’s top tourist attractions, known for its vast salt pan that can be seen from space. It is also home to critically endangered black rhinos. The country’s environment ministry believes the fire broke out on Monday at a charcoal production outside the park’s borders. Almost a week on, it has spread into the park killing at least nine antelope and destroying wildlife habitats, as well as grazing pasture…

JAPAN’s foreign aid agency said it is cancelling an exchange programme with African nations following protests and a political backlash. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) initiative aimed to foster cultural and social exchanges between the four countries and as many Japanese cities. But inaccurate media reports and posts on social media platforms about the “Africa Hometown” programme suggested the scheme would lead to a “flood of migrants”. Officials say this resulted in an avalanche of complaints from residents in the Japanese towns paired with Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. Some critics seemed to believe that “hometown” status meant that…

MANCHESTER United head coach Ruben Amorim said he is not concerned about his job at the end of another day when a previous step forward was followed by another one back. The optimism generated by the victory over Chelsea seven days ago was lost in a 3-1 defeat at Brentford that keeps United firmly in the bottom half of the Premier League. United have collected 34 points from Amorim’s 33 league games in charge and have still to win successive matches. The promised improvement after last season’s woeful 15th-place finish is yet to materialise, and afterwards Amorim was forced to…

AT least 91 Palestinian people were killed on Saturday in relentless Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, including at least 45 in Gaza City, as the military intensified its widely criticised ground invasion. Gaza’s Government Media Office slammed Israel for misleading the Palestinian people with threats to evacuate to the central and southern governorates by portraying them as “safe humanitarian zones”, while continuing to strike those same areas. According to a statement issued on Saturday, 1,903 people have been killed in 133 attacks on central and southern Gaza since the forced displacement from Gaza City began on August 11, some…

THE US State Department said Saturday it would revoke the visa of Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro for his “incendiary actions” during a pro-Palestinian street protest in New York. “Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” the State Department said in a post on X. “We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions,” it said. On his social media account, Petro shared a video of himself speaking Spanish to a large crowd through a megaphone Friday, with his translator then relaying his comments…

MORE than 20 people have been rescued in Kenya from a suspected human trafficking ring that lured them with job offers in Russia but intended to send them to fight in Ukraine, police said. It follows an intelligence-led raid on a residential apartment on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, where officers seized recruitment materials, travel documents, and job offer letters. One suspect, accused of coordinating the victims’ travel to Russia in September and October, has been arrested. He was taken to court, which allowed him to be detained for 10 days while the police complete their investigations. There have…

THE BBC understands the boss of a degrading sex-trade ring that exploited vulnerable women in Dubai’s most glamorous neighbourhoods has been detained in the United Arab Emirates. Charles “Abbey” Mwesigwa, who was identified in a recent BBC investigation as running the network, was filmed telling an undercover reporter he could provide women for a sex party at a starting price of $1,000 (£750). He also said the women could do “pretty much everything” clients wanted them to and said he was a former London bus driver. It is not clear what charges – if any – Mwesigwa is facing in…

MANCHESTER United manager Ruben Amorim has confirmed Amad Diallo will miss Saturday’s trip to Brentford following the death of a family member. Amad has split his time between attacking midfield and a wing back role this season, starting five of United’s six matches across all competitions and establishing himself as an integral part of Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 setup. The 23-year-old will miss his first match of the campaign on Saturday after being granted compassionate leave by United. “Amad is not here because someone in his family passed away,” Amorim revealed. “We are giving all the support to Amad and understood he…

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delivered a defiant speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), attempting to justify his country’s genocide in Gaza and denouncing Western allies as global criticism over the nearly two-year war mounts. Speaking at UNGA in New York on Friday, the increasingly isolated Israeli leader railed against the “disgraceful decision” by some Western countries in recent days to recognise a Palestinian state. “It will be a mark of shame on all of you,” he said. “Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews, and against innocent people everywhere.” Netanyahu, who is facing an International…

A JUDGE on Friday jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous” and “sadistic” attacks on babies. In one incident, Londoner Roksana Lecka, 22, kicked a little boy in the face several times. Lecka, who blamed cannabis for her crimes, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted after a trial of another 14 counts. Sentencing her for attacks on 21 babies, Judge Sarah Plaschkes said she had committed “multiple acts of gratuitous violence” at two London nurseries where she worked. “You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked…

NAMIBIA’s authorities have warned people not to hold parties at cemeteries after a social gathering at a gravesite in the capital, Windhoek, sparked outrage last weekend. According to City of Windhoek officials, the event at Gammams cemetery “showed seating arrangements, cooler boxes and alcohol” on full display. One Windhoek resident who witnessed the party said it was “nothing short of disgraceful”. In a Facebook post, she described the scene that met mourners entering the gravesite, saying “from the entrance all the way inside, car boots were open, people were drinking, and the cemetery resembled a shebeen rather than a place…

SOME 260 suspected cyber scammers have been arrested in a sting operation carried out across 14 African countries. The operation, co-ordinated by Interpol and funded by the UK, targeted criminal networks using social media and digital platforms to extract money from victims in romance scams, and in so-called “sextortion”, in which victims are blackmailed using explicit imagery. “It doesn’t take long before you develop a connection with somebody… and very quickly this trust is shattered,” Interpol’s director of cybercrime Neal Jetton told the BBC’s Newsday programme, describing the perpetrators’ tactics. More than 1,400 victims across Ghana, Kenya, Angola and elsewhere…

PALESTINIAN Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has decried Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon, calling out “the extremist Israeli government” for its continued settlement projects that make a future Palestinian state virtually impossible. The 89-year-old addressed world leaders gathered for the United Nations General Assembly via videolink on Thursday after being refused a visa by the United States to travel to New York. “I speak to you today after almost two years in which our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been facing a war of genocide, destruction, starvation and displacement,” Abbas said. The Palestinian leader began his speech…

DEFENSE Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned senior United States military officers from their posts around the world to a meeting next week in Virginia, for what is expected to be a rare gathering. The summons was reported in US media on Thursday and confirmed later in the day by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. It was not immediately clear why Hegseth ordered the generals and admirals to meet in Virginia on such short notice or what the meeting’s agenda will look like. There are approximately 800 generals and admirals in the US military, and such senior officials can, in some cases,…

FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in jail after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi. The Paris criminal court acquitted him of all other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing. The ruling means he will spend time in jail even if he launches an appeal, which Sarkozy says he intends to do. Speaking after Thursday’s hearing, the 70-year-old, who was president from 2007-12, said the verdict was “extremely serious for rule of law”. Sarkozy,…

THE French navy has seized nearly 10 tonnes of cocaine, worth $610m (£540m) off the coast of West Africa, French authorities have said. Two French naval vessels operating as part of Operation Corymbe intercepted the enormous cocaine haul from an unflagged fishing vessel on Monday, acting on a tip-off from maritime intelligence, anti-drug authorities and the British National Crime Agency. The Corymbe naval mission has been deployed by France in the Gulf of Guinea since 1990 to ensure security in an area where piracy is fairly common. The French navy said that 54 tonnes of drugs had been intercepted in…

AT least 12 Palestinians, among them seven women and two children, have been killed in a strike on a stadium sheltering displaced families in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, as Israel pressed ahead with its relentless attacks despite calls for a ceasefire from world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. The al-Ahli Stadium, which has been converted into a makeshift refuge for Palestinians fleeing the Israeli onslaught, became the site of another massacre on Wednesday. “I only had what I had in my hand. I left with nothing,” Najwa, a displaced woman from Gaza City, told Al Jazeera.…

SHEIKH Dr Saleh bin Humaid has been appointed Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to Inside the Haramain. He will also serve as Head of the Senior Council of Scholars by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The Royal Court is expected to make an announcement shortly, Inside the Harmain said on its Facebook page Wednesday (September 24). His predecessor, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who served the kingdom’s top religious figure over a quarter century, died Tuesday. He was in his 82. Sheikh Abdulaziz’s role as grand mufti put him as one of the top…

MALAWI’s former President Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of last week’s elections, in a huge comeback for the 85-year-old. Official results show that he won 57% of the vote, compared to the 33% of President Lazarus Chakwera, 70. Chakwera, a pastor before entering politics, conceded defeat ahead of the final result being declared, phoning Mutharika to congratulate him on his “historic win”. Mutharika, a former professor of law, served as president from 2014 to 2020, when he lost to Chakwera by a wide margin. He inherits an economy that is in deep crisis, with a severe shortage of…

AT least six of the 11 West Africans deported to Ghana as part of the US crackdown on immigration have been transferred to Togo, their lawyers have said. The group was in the process of suing Ghana’s government to prevent their further deportation, amid concerns over their safety. “We can confirm that six were sent to Togo, the others have been sent to countries which I can’t disclose at this point,” lead lawyer Oliver Barker-Vormawor told the BBC. Only three of those sent to Togo are Togolese. The nationalities of the others has not been disclosed. Neither Togo nor Ghana…