TUNISIAN police have arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday, lawyers said. The protest came after an appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied. Issa was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial. “They will arrest me shortly,” Issa had told the Reuters news agency moments before her arrest. “I say to the Tunisians, continue to protest and reject tyranny. We are sacrificing our freedom for you”. She described the charges as…
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HAVE Liverpool reached rock bottom or do they have further to fall as they prepare for a tricky-looking match at West Ham this weekend? The Premier League champions have suffered six defeats in their past seven league games, with few signs that Arne Slot is getting a grip on the situation. In stark contrast, buoyant leaders Arsenal take on second-placed Chelsea showing clear signs that they are finally equipped to end their two-decade title drought. Liverpool have lost nine of their past 12 matches in all competitions — a full-blown crisis by the standards of one of the world’s biggest…
HEZBOLLAH’s leader Naim Qassem says the group has the right to respond to Israel’s assassination of its top military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last week. In a televised speech on Friday, Qassem called the killing of Haytham Ali Tabtabai “a blatant aggression and a heinous crime”, adding that the Lebanese armed group has “the right to respond, and we will determine the timing for that.” “Do you expect a war later? It’s possible, sometime. Yes, this possibility is there, and the possibility of no war is also there,” Qassem said. Qassem did not explicitly say what…
RUSSIA said Friday it was considering banning popular messaging service WhatsApp, accusing it of failing to prevent crime, and urged its tens of millions of users to switch to domestic alternatives. US technology giant Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said Russia was trying to ban the application because it “defies government attempts to violate people’s right to secure communication”. Russia blocked users from making calls on the platform in August, part of a broader crackdown on Western-owned social media that critics say is designed to tighten government control over the internet. In a statement on Friday, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said…
THE African Union (AU) has suspended Guinea-Bissau following the coup in the West African country that overthrew President Umaro Embalo. The AU decided “to suspend Guinea-Bissau from its bodies with immediate effect,” chairman Mahamoud Youssouf told AFP on Friday. The regional body’s decision came hours after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended the West African nation from its decision-making bodies over the coup. ECOWAS’ Mediation and Security Council (MSC) took the decision after an emergency meeting late Thursday. “The MSC decides, in accordance with the provisions of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance 2001 (A/SP/12/01),…
THE daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP following allegations that she tricked 17 men to fight for Russia as mercenaries in Ukraine. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who became a member of parliament for the main opposition party uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) last year, has said in an affidavit that she thought the men were going to Russia for “lawful” training. MK says it was her decision to resign as she wants to focus her efforts on ensuring the return of those trapped in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region. The brother of one of the men, who has…
ROBIN van Persie says his decision to hand son Shaqueel a senior debut in Feyenoord’s Europa League defeat by Celtic was made “as a coach” and not out of sentiment. The 19-year-old forward spent two seasons at Manchester City’s academy, before following in his father’s footsteps with a move to Feyenoord in 2017 and signing a first professional contract with the Dutch club in 2022. Fast forward to 2025 and Shaqueel was named in Feyenoord’s first-team squad for the first time in Sunday’s Eredivisie defeat by NEC Nijmegen. Four days later he made his senior debut, coming on in the…
ISRAELI authorities have freed Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim after more than nine months of detention, in a case that advocates say embodies Israeli abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Mohammed’s release on Thursday came after a months-long pressure campaign from United States lawmakers and civil rights groups. The teenager from Florida was 15 years old in February when he was arrested and taken from his family home in the town of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, near Ramallah. He turned 16 while being held in Israeli jail, where he drastically lost weight and contracted a skin infection. “Words can’t describe…
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he would end his Ukraine offensive if Kyiv withdrew from territory Moscow claims at its own — otherwise his army would take it by force. The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces. Washington has meanwhile renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan that it hopes to finalise through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv. “If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” Putin said during a…
GUINEA-BISSAU’s deposed president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, has arrived in Senegal, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed, a day after a group of military officers in Guinea-Bissau seized power in a coup. Senegal’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday night that Embalo had arrived in Senegal after authorities engaged with actors in Guinea-Bissau to try to secure his release. Embalo reached Senegal on board an aircraft chartered by the Senegalese government, it said. “The government of the Republic of Senegal reaffirms its readiness to work alongside ECOWAS, the African Union and all relevant partners, with a view…
SOUTH Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as “regrettable” the announcement by US President Donald Trump that South Africa would not be invited to take part in next year’s G20 summit in Florida. In a social media post, Trump said South Africa had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a US embassy representative at last week’s summit in Johannesburg. “Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year.” Members of the G20 – a gathering of the world’s…
ARSENAL thumped Bayern Munich 3-1 in a clash of the English and German league leaders on Wednesday to maintain their perfect record in the Champions League this season. The Gunners dominated the second half after 17-year-old Lennart Karl pulled the Bundesliga team level, with Noni Madueke restoring Arsenal’s lead and fellow substitute Gabriel Martinelli taking advantage of a huge blunder from goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Bayern started the match at the Emirates top of the Champions League table, just above the Gunners, with both teams having won four games out of four. The game took time to come alive but the…
ISRAEL has sealed off large parts of the Tubas governorate after sending heavy reinforcements into the northern Jordan Valley, shutting the region off from the rest of the occupied West Bank and imposing a sweeping siege. Residents told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that military bulldozers piled earth across every approach road before dawn, while Israeli Apache helicopters fired rounds over empty fields around Tubas in a bid to threaten Palestinian residents. Troops then began house-to-house searches in the city of Tubas as well as the four nearby towns, including Tammun and Aqqaba, as the army announced a new military operation…
WHITE House, America’s seat of Power, has been locked down alongside multiple government buildings, as a result of a shooting incident near the presidential residence. Two member of the National Guard were shot in the incident and the suspect is in custody. An AFP reporter near the scene said she heard several loud pops that sounded like gunshots, and then saw people running away from Farragut Square, a popular and busy outdoor area near the White House and a subway station. Trump, who is in Florida, was quickly briefed on the “tragic” situation, a spokeswoman said. “The animal that shot…
A GERMAN woman of Congolese origin was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo for an attempted bank robbery in broad daylight. Honorine Porsche, 37, appeared in the military court in the Congolese capital Kinshasa looking haggard as she was found guilty of armed robbery. On October 17, around midday, a RawBank branch in downtown Kinshasa was surrounded by security forces after it was targeted in an attack. A chaotic standoff ensued lasting several hours, before five people, including Porsche, were eventually arrested inside the building. No one was injured. According to the bank,…
TANZANIAN President Samia Suluhu Hassan is facing increasing international pressure as a coalition of regional and global civil society groups and legal bodies has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed during and after the disputed October 29 presidential election. The 82-page petition, submitted by organisations including the Madrid Bar Association and World Jurists Association, details accusations of state-sponsored murder, torture, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and mass displacement of civilians. These alleged atrocities reportedly took place under Suluhu’s watch as commander-in-chief, with a lawyer representing victims stating she bears ultimate responsibility for authorising violence…
MILITARY officers in Guinea-Bissau announced Wednesday they were taking “total control” of the country while suspending its electoral process and closing its borders, three days after the poverty-stricken West African nation’s legislative and presidential elections. Earlier in the day gunfire was heard near the coup-prone country’s presidential palace as men in military uniform took over the main road leading to the building. Military personnel made the announcement by reading a statement at army headquarters in the capital, Bissau, AFP journalists observed on the scene. In the early afternoon, General Denis N’Canha, head of the presidential military office, told members of…
ESTEVAO scored a breathtaking solo Champions League goal to win the battle of the teenage prodigies against Lamine Yamal on Tuesday as Chelsea humbled 10-man Barcelona 3-0. The two 18-year-olds were the focus of attention in the build-up to the game at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca urging his player to ignore the comparisons. Estevao’s moment of magic came 10 minutes after half time when he received the ball on the right before beating two defenders and lashing it into the roof of Joan Garcia’s net. It was the 10th goal of the season for club and country…
IN the occupied West Bank, much like in the Gaza Strip, Israeli policy is forcing thousands of Palestinians from their homes, in stark defiance of international law. A report published last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted the expulsion of 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in just three refugee camps this year. HRW said that the Israeli operation in the Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps, which began in January, led to the biggest mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967. The displacements come as Israeli violence spirals in the West Bank, where more than…
A NEW United Nations report has found that Indonesia’s capital Jakarta is the world’s largest city with 41.9 million people living there, followed by Dhaka in Bangladesh, which is home to 36.6 million. A low-lying coastal city located in the west of the densely populated island of Java, Jakarta rose from second place to replace Tokyo, which had been named the world’s largest city in the UN’s most recent assessment published back in 2000. The Japanese capital’s relatively steady population of 33.4 million saw it fall to third place behind Bangladesh’s densely populated capital, Dhaka, which jumped to second place…