Author: Editor

GUNMEN shot a policeman to death on Friday in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, police confirmed on Monday. It was further gathered that the assailants escaped with the rifle of the slain policeman. The police spokesman in Lagos State, SP Benjamin Hundeyin told our source that three other police operatives were seriously injured in the attack. Operatives of the Imota Police Division in the Ikorodu area were on patrol duty when they came under the assailants’ attack at Emuren Junction, on Itokin Road in the area. Local sources said the assailants, suspected errand boys of land grabbers, ambushed the…

REFEREEING body PGMOL will investigate after Liverpool’s Andy Robertson appeared to be elbowed in the chin by assistant referee Constantine Hatzidakis. Robertson approached the official angrily at the end of the first half against Arsenal and appeared to shove him as he passed, with Hatzidakis raising an elbow which hit Robertson. The Scot reacted furiously and, along with several team-mates, approached referee Paul Tierney, who booked 29-year-old Robertson. The Anfield game ended 2-2 with Liverpool coming from 2-0 down to draw with the league leaders. Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton was watching the game for BBC Radio 5 Live…

BARCELONA coach Xavi Hernandez believes if Real Madrid have given up on La Liga, it is because of his side’s superb season, he told a news conference Sunday. “Tomorrow it’s important to increase the gap to 15 points. It won’t mean anything is sealed, but it would be a spectacular distance. “It doesn’t interest me if Madrid do something or don’t, what interests me is what we do.” Madrid are in the Copa del Rey final and face Chelsea on Wednesday in a Champions League quarter-final first leg clash. Xavi said he thinks Barcelona winning the top flight for the…

TWO bodies have been found after an explosion flattened a four-storey apartment building in the southern French city of Marseille. Local authorities said six people remained unaccounted for and that rescue efforts were ongoing. The blast occurred in the La Plaine neighbourhood at 00:49 local time on Sunday (23:49 BST on Saturday). The cause remains unclear, but investigators are looking into the possibility of a gas leak. Five people from neighbouring buildings sustained minor injuries in the explosion and around 200 people had to be evacuated from their homes. Two nearby blocks partially collapsed a few hours later without causing…

SAUDI and Omani delegations have held talks with Houthi officials in the Yemeni capital Sanaa as part of international efforts to find a settlement to Yemen’s nine-year conflict, Houthi-run media reported. The visit indicates progress in the Oman-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa, which run parallel to United Nations peace efforts. Negotiations also gained momentum since archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to re-establish ties in a deal brokered by China. The envoys, who landed late on Saturday, met with the head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, for talks on ending hostilities and lifting a Saudi-led “blockade”…

SOME 44 people have been killed after two deadly attacks in northern Burkina Faso on Thursday, officials have said. The twin attacks happened in the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in the Sahel region, near the Niger border. No group has admitted to carrying out the attacks, but jihadist violence is common in the area and officials have blamed “armed terrorist groups”. Militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) are known to operate in the region. The Lieutenant-Governor of the Sahel region, Rodolphe Sorgho, said the assailants behind the “despicable and barbaric attack” had been “put out…

AROUND 20 people have been killed in an attack in eastern DR Congo, with sources blaming rebels affiliated with the Islamic State jihadist group. “The enemy ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) ambushed farmers at around 4 pm (1400 GMT) on Friday near the village of Enebula,” local civil society leader Patrick Mukohe told AFP by phone. Mukohe said he had counted 21 bodies of men and women at the site of the killing, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of the town of Oicha, in North Kivu province. Jules Kambale, who works in the Oicha hospital morgue, said it had received…

REAL Madrid suffered a 3-2 defeat by Villarreal in La Liga in a thrilling clash ahead of their Champions League showdown against Chelsea next week. The champions remain 12 points behind leaders Barcelona, who face Girona on Monday, with Villarreal winger Samuel Chukwueze scoring twice in a sensational individual display. Pau Torres’s own goal sent Madrid in front but Chukwueze levelled before the break. Vinicius Junior netted a superb solo goal before Jose Luis Morales levelled and Chukwueze curled home a superb winner, which reduced Madrid’s hopes of retaining the title to virtually nothing. Carlo Ancelotti made six changes from…

IT is no secret Erling Haaland scores lots of goals – but his stunning bicycle kick in Manchester City’s victory over Southampton will undoubtedly rank among his best. There was uncertainty over whether the prolific 22-year-old would start on Saturday after a groin injury, but he announced his return in style by connecting with Jack Grealish’s cross in acrobatic fashion. That was his second goal of the game as title-chasing City recorded a 4-1 win at St Mary’s to extend their winning run to eight matches in all competitions and maintain pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal. “We have lived…

IRANIAN authorities have begun installing cameras in public places to identify unveiled women, the police have announced. Women seen not covering their hair would receive a “warning text messages as to the consequences”, police said. This would help prevent “resistance against the hijab law”, police said. Protests were sparked last year by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman arrested for allegedly violating the hijab rule. Since Ms Amini’s death a growing number of women have been discarding their veils, particularly in larger cities, despite the risk of arrest. A police statement published by the…

CHINA’s military is rehearsing the encirclement of Taiwan during three days of military drills. Beijing – which views Taiwan as a breakaway province of China – called the operation a “stern warning” to the island’s government. The exercises began hours after President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a trip to the United States. The Taiwanese Defence Ministry said 71 Chinese military planes and nine ships crossed the Taiwan Strait median line. The line is an unofficial dividing line between Chinese and Taiwanese territory. One of the ships fired a round from its deck as it sailed near Pingtan island, China’s closest…

A RAPIST and murderer who escaped a South African prison by faking his own death has been arrested in Tanzania. Thabo Bester was at large for a year after it was thought he died by setting himself on fire in his prison cell. A manhunt was launched last month after a new post-mortem investigation revealed the body wasn’t actually his. Bester was caught on Friday with his girlfriend and a third suspect and will be extradited to South Africa. Police said they believe the trio were intending to flee into neighbouring Kenya. Bester is known as the “Facebook rapist” for…

TWENTY-SEVEN people are dead or missing after two migrant boats sank off the east coast of Tunisia. The first boat left Tunisia for Italy on Friday, with 37 on board. Twenty are missing while 17 have been rescued, a court spokesperson in the city of Sfax said. On Saturday, four bodies were recovered from a beach after a second boat sank. Thirty-six people who were on the second boat were rescued and three are missing, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson, Faouzi Masmoudi, said the boats were made of iron sheets. Since the start of March, there have been at least…

THE Inspector General of Police, Baba Alkali has approved the posting of former Force Public Relations Officer and recently promoted Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, Frank Mbah to the Force Criminal Investigations Department, Alagbon, Lagos while former Commissioner of Police, Delta state, Ari Muhammed goes to Zone two command comprising of Lagos and Ogun states. Also posted to head the Maritime department in Lagos is AIG Yekini Ayoku. AIG Frank Emeka Mba is an alumnus of the University of Lagos, Akoka, where he obtained his first degree in Law. He attended the Nigerian Law School, Abuja and was subsequently…

VINCENT Kompany’s Burnley secured promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt with victory over fourth-placed Middlesbrough. The Clarets, unbeaten in the league since November, took an early lead when Ashley Barnes redirected Josh Brownhill’s low shot into the back of the net. The home side equalised just after half-time when Championship top scorer Chuba Akpom scored from the spot after Josh Cullen felled Cameron Archer in the penalty area. Connor Roberts steered in the winner from Nathan Tella’s near-post cross and Kompany’s men saw out the rest of the game in comfort to spark wild celebrations on…

NAPOLI are close to winning the Serie A title for the first time since 1990 with nine games left to play Napoli are one step closer to claiming their first Serie A title in 33 years after a 2-1 win over Lecce gave them a 19-point lead over second-placed Lazio. A Giovanni di Lorenzo header opened the scoring for Napoli before Federico di Francesco equalised after the break. But Napoli found an own-goal winner when defender Antonino Gallo chested the ball and saw it slip through goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone’s hands. The visitors held on to bounce back from Sunday’s 4-0…

AN Italian tourist has been killed and seven other people wounded in a suspected car ramming attack near a beach in Tel Aviv, Israeli medics say. Italy’s foreign minister said Israel had identified the man killed as Italian citizen Alessandro Parini. Footage from the scene showed an overturned car near a promenade and an Israeli police officer opening fire. Local police said the suspected attacker had been shot dead by officers. The attack comes after two British-Israeli sisters were killed and their mother injured in a shooting in the occupied West Bank earlier on Friday. Police in Tel Aviv said…

NORTH Korea has conducted another test of a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, according to state media. The country tested the so-called Haeil-2 more than a week after it disclosed a new underwater drone system dubbed Haeil-1, which translates to “tsunami” in Korean, and is designed to undertake sneak attacks in enemy waters. Analysts are sceptical about whether the underwater vehicle is ready for deployment but say North Korea is eager to display its diverse weaponry against the United States and South Korea, which have been conducting large-scale military exercises in recent weeks. The latest test took place from April 4…

A MILITARY tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced six men to life in prison for murdering Italy’s ambassador in February 2021. Luca Attanasio was among three people shot dead after a UN convoy that he was travelling with was ambushed. His driver was killed first then he and his bodyguard were kidnapped, dying after a rescue operation went wrong. It happened in the troubled east of country, where many armed groups operate. They were travelling on a road through the Virunga National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site south of the city of Goma, to visit a…

SOUTH Africa’s bid to have two brothers from the wealthy Gupta family extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has failed. Atul and Rajesh Gupta are accused in South Africa of profiting from their close links with former President Jacob Zuma and exerting unfair influence. The justice ministry said it had learnt with “shock and dismay” about the move. The brothers, who deny any wrongdoing, fled after a judicial commission began probing a major corruption scandal. The Indian-born Guptas were arrested in the UAE last June and extradition talks with South Africa began. But the UAE said that it turned…