PRESIDENT-ELECT Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sent a message of sympathy and condolences to the family of Hajiya Hawau Odee, who died on Sunday. The late businesswoman and community leader, who died at 89, was the mother of a veteran journalist, the Managing Editor (Northern Operations) of The Nation newspaper, Alhaji Yusuf Alli. Alli is also President of the Rotary Club of Abuja Maitama. In a condolence message released by his office on Monday, the President-elect described the death of Hajiya Hawau Odee as painful not only to her immediate family but to all who encountered her and felt her warmth…
Author: Editor
Read More
MANCHESTER United set up a first FA Cup final against Manchester City after beating Brighton in a tense penalty shootout at a rain-lashed Wembley Stadium. In a match that finished goalless after extra time it fell to United defender Victor Lindelof to score the decisive spot-kick after Solly March sent his effort high over the bar. The result means Erik ten Hag’s side have reached their second domestic final of the season, having won the Carabao Cup in February. In a scrappy semi-final that fell short of expectations, both goalkeepers excelled with David de Gea making several fine saves and…
VINCENT Kompany has been been named Championship manager of the season after guiding Burnley to promotion to the Premier League. The 37-year-old Belgian guided the Clarets to an immediate top-flight return in his first season in charge. Middlesbrough’s Chuba Akpom won the Championship player of the season award after scoring a division-high 28 goals. Bristol Rovers’ Aaron Collins won the League One award and Northampton’s Sam Hoskins the accolade for League Two. Collins, with 16 goals and 11 assists the only player in the division to hit double figures in both categories, collected the award despite being in a Rovers…
FOREIGN Secretary James Cleverly has warned that UK help for Britons stuck in Sudan will remain “severely limited” until a ceasefire is reached. British diplomats and their families had been evacuated from Sudan in a “complex and rapid” operation. However, some Britons still in the country said they feel abandoned by the UK government. Violence in Sudan between two opposing forces has seen deadly shooting and shelling in the capital, Khartoum. Mr Cleverly said there were “specific threats and violence directed towards diplomats” which led to the decision to evacuate staff. He said the UK government remained “absolutely committed to…
AUSTRALIA will speed up efforts to buy longer range missiles to counter the growing threat from China, a major defence review says. It warns the country can no longer be protected by its geographic isolation in the “missile age”. The government will spend some A$19 billion ($12bn, £10bn) to deliver the immediate recommendations. The 110-page report is described as the biggest overhaul of Australian defence since World War Two. The Defence Strategic Review comes amid increasing military tension in the region over China’s stance towards Taiwan, which it has repeatedly vowed to take by force if necessary. The Chinese navy…
BURUNDI’s justice ministry has confirmed that the country’s former prime minister, Alain Guillaume Bunyoni, is in police custody following reports of his arrest on Friday. Burundi’s General Prosecutor Sylvestre Nyandwi did not say what charges Mr Bunyoni was facing or where he was being detained. The arrest comes seven months after he was sacked following a warning by President Evariste Ndayishimiye that unnamed people were plotting a coup. The human rights commission said it visited Mr Bunyoni on Saturday to check on his wellbeing. Mr Bunyoni was prime minister for two years until 2022.
KENYAN police said Sunday they had found the bodies of another 26 suspected cult members in the east of the country, bringing to 47 the number of corpses linked to the movement. Search teams wearing white overalls and equipped with masks were continuing to dig at the site in search of other bodies, an AFP photographer near the coastal town of Malindi saw. A number of bodies had already been wrapped in white plastic sheeting. “Today we have exhumed 26 more bodies and this brings the total number of bodies from that place to 47,” said the head of criminal…
THE Kano State Fire Service on Sunday confirmed the death of five people while six others survived a boat mishap at the Kanwa Dam in the Madobi Local Government Area of the state. The service Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Saminu Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone conversation that one Umar Faruk-Dalada, reported the incident, situation reports and where it occurred. He said the incident occurred on April 22, at 05:40 p.m. “There were 11 persons on the boat, six were rescued alive, while five were rescued in an unconscious state. Names of those that lost…
VICE President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN will today depart Nigeria for the United States of America where he is scheduled to deliver a Special Lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, UPenn in Philadelphia. UPenn which is one of the eight private universities known as the Ivy League in the United States was initially established in 1740 as a charity school. It was later transformed into an academy in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin, a future founding father of the United States, who also served as the first president of the Board of Trustees of the University. According to a press statement by…
RIYAD Mahrez fired Manchester City into the FA Cup final as the Algerian’s hat-trick sealed a 3-0 win against Sheffield United at Wembley on Saturday. Mahrez’s superb display dispatched the Championship underdogs, ensuring City ended their run of three successive FA Cup semi-final defeats. The 32-year-old shattered United’s resistance with a penalty late in the first half and completed his treble with two clinical finishes after the interval. City’s opponents in the Wembley final on June 3 will be the winners of Sunday’s semi-final between Manchester United and Brighton. Pep Guardiola’s side are back in the final for the first…
LIVERPOOL kept their outside shot at Champions League football next season alive as Diogo Jota scored twice in a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Liverpool thrashed Leeds 6-1 on Monday to rekindle their hopes of a late challenge for a top-four finish but made heavy work of overcoming a Forest side that had scored just five away goals all season prior to their visit to Anfield. Jota had not scored for a year prior to netting twice at Elland Road earlier in the week, but now has four goals in a week. All of Liverpool’s goals came from…
THE US military has evacuated American diplomats and their families from Khartoum, Sudan’s paramilitary army Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said. Six aircraft were used in Sunday’s early morning mission, the RSF tweeted, adding that it had worked with the US to co-ordinate the evacuation. It is not clear how many people were airlifted. The US has not commented. It is the second evacuation of foreign citizens since violence erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum last week. In its tweet, the RSF said it supervised the arrangements and provided protection to those being evacuated. Details of the mission remain unclear. Arabic…
ARGENTINA is battling a record outbreak of dengue fever, which has killed more than 40 people and infected more than 60,000, mainly in the north-west. The infection is spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and the last big outbreak to hit Argentina was in 2020. The health ministry says dengue cases are starting to plateau, however. Biologists are irradiating thousands of male mosquitoes in labs, to be released later, in the hope that their offspring will be unviable because of DNA damage. “This mosquito, due to the rise in temperature in our country and the world… is able to spread more.…
MORE than 150 people from various nations reached the safety of Saudi Arabia Saturday in the first announced evacuation of civilians from Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitaries entered a second week following a brief lull. Foreign nations have said they are preparing for the potential evacuation of thousands more of their nationals, even though Sudan’s main airport remains closed. Fighting has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded while survivors cope with shortages of electricity and food. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry announced the “safe arrival” of 91 of its citizens along with nationals from Kuwait, Qatar, the United…
TWENTY-ONE bodies have been exhumed in Kenya in a probe into a cult whose followers are believed to have starved themselves to death, police sources said Saturday, warning the toll could rise. Officials had earlier reported seven deaths in connection with the investigation in eastern Kenya following the arrest of Makenzie Nthenge, who reportedly told followers to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”. “In total since yesterday, we have 21 bodies,” a police source told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to exhumations in the Shakahola forest outside the coastal town of Malindi. “We have not even scratched the…
NO fewer than 11 people have been killed in the Tatara Mada community in Kokona Local Government of Nasarawa State, following a misunderstanding between a young man from the community and some Fulani herdsmen in the area. Some of the displaced residents who said they managed to get back to their community on Saturday, said the community that had been a beehive of activities is now desolate, leaving only security operatives on the ground to patrol its nooks and crannies to forestall any more crises. Some of the people said they escaped death by the whiskers. They said they are…
PREMIER League leaders Arsenal scored two late goals as they fought back to draw a thriller at home to struggling Southampton. It was a third draw in a row for the Gunners and Manchester City are now five points behind but with two games in hand – and host the Gunners at Etihad Stadium next Wednesday. Saints led after just 28 seconds, when Carlos Alcaraz capitalised on an Aaron Ramsdale error to score. Arsenal have now conceded the two fastest goals at home in the Premier League this season, the other being Philip Billing’s strike after 9.11 seconds for Bournemouth.…
VINCENT Kompany is one of the managers on Chelsea’s shortlist for their new permanent head coach. Burnley manager Kompany, Mauricio Pochettino and one other unnamed manager are being considered by the Premier League club. However, ex-Bayern Munich boss Julian Naglesmann is no longer in the running to take over at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley are leading the recruitment process. The Blues sacked manager Graham Potter at the start of April after less than seven months in charge, following a 2-0 home defeat by Aston Villa that left the club 11th in the Premier League…
MORE than 42 years after the deadly bombing of a Paris synagogue, a court in Paris has convicted a Lebanese-Canadian university professor of carrying out the attack. The judges decided that Hassan Diab, 69, was the young man who planted the motorcycle bomb in the Rue Copernic on 3 October 1980. Four people were killed and 38 others wounded in the bombing. Diab called his situation “Kafkaesque”, Canadian media reported. He refused to attend the trial but the judges gave him a life sentence. Prosecutors had argued it was “beyond possible doubt” that he was behind the bombing. His supporters…
ARGENTINE President Alberto Fernandez announced Friday he will not stand for reelection in October’s vote — a surprise move that deepened uncertainty in the crisis-wracked country. The news comes as Latin America’s third-largest economy has seen inflation soar to almost 22 percent in the last three months and more than 100 percent over the last year. Not only does Argentina have one of the highest inflation rates in the world, but the Argentine peso also suffers constant depreciation against the US dollar. Fernandez’s center-left Frente de Todos (Everyone’s Front) coalition has yet to put forward a candidate for August’s primaries,…