Author: Editor

FIVE people were killed, including two Czech tourists, after a helicopter crashed on Mount Kilimanjaro, the authorities in Tanzania announced on Thursday. All five people on board the aircraft died in Wednesday’s crash, which happened 4,700 metres (15,400 feet) up by Camp Barafu, the country’s aviation authority said. They did not yet know what caused the crash, they added. In June, the European Union put all Tanzanian air transport companies on its at-risk list following a series of accidents. In their statement, they cited “a shortage of qualified personnel, ineffective oversight processes in flight operations and airworthiness, and non-compliance with…

RESIDENTS of Somalia’s capital voted Thursday in a controversial local election that marks the country’s first one-person, one-vote poll since 1969. Analysts say it is a major departure from clan-based power-sharing negotiations. The voting of local council members, to be conducted across Mogadishu’s 16 districts, has been organized by the country’s federal government but rejected by the opposition parties, which have called the election flawed and one-sided. Somalia has for decades selected its local council members and parliamentarians through clan-based negotiations, and it is the leaders who later elect a president. Since 2016, different administrations have promised to reintroduce one-person,…

AT least one Palestinian has been killed and six, including a child, wounded by Israeli attacks across Gaza amid a threat by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Palestinian man, Ayoub Abdel Ayesh Nasr, was killed and two people were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on civilians in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Wednesday. Three people were wounded after being shot east of Khan Younis, medical sources told the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and wounded a child in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli forces have killed more than ‌400…

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hit out at a new nuclear submarine deal between the United States and South Korea, describing it as a threat to the stability of the Korean Peninsula as he toured his country’s submarine production facility, according to North Korean state media. Kim said the deal between Seoul and Washington was an “offensive act severely violating [Pyongyang’s] security and maritime sovereignty and a threat to security that must be countered”, according to state news outlet KCNA. It was now urgent to “further accelerate the radical development of the modernisation and nuclear weaponisation of the…

ALGERIA’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring France’s colonisation of the North African state a crime, and demanding an apology and reparations. The law also criminalises the glorification of colonialism, state-run TV reports. The vote is the latest sign of increasingly strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, with some observers saying they are at their lowest since Algeria gained independence 63 years ago. France’s colonisation of Algeria between 1830 and 1962 was marked by mass killings, large-scale deportations and ended in a bloody war of independence. Algeria says the war killed 1.5 million people, while French historians put…

TURKISH authorities found the cockpit voice recorder and black box from a private jet that crashed Wednesday, killing the head of Libya’s armed forces and his four aides. The Falcon 50 aircraft requested an emergency landing because of an electrical failure minutes after it took off from the Turkish capital Ankara, but contact was lost, Turkish officials said. The plane was returning to Tripoli. The wreckage was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the crash site that the plane’s voice recorder and the flight data recorder (black box)…

KEPA Arrizabalaga was the hero as he saved the decisive penalty from Maxence Lacroix to help Arsenal beat Crystal Palace in a shootout and progress to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup in a game packed with late drama. The Gunners thought they had won the match when the unfortunate Lacroix scored an own goal in the 80th minute, bundling the ball into his own net when trying to clear after an Arsenal corner. However, Palace got a dramatic leveller in the fifth minute of stoppage time when Adam Wharton floated in a free-kick and Marc Guehi was the quickest…

GAZA’s health system is on the brink of an unprecedented collapse, with thousands of patients facing death or disability amid a harsh Israeli siege on the enclave, a top health official has warned. Munir al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the situation inside the territory’s hospitals was “tragic and horrific”, as Israeli authorities continued to block the flow of much-needed medical supplies, directly impacting the ability of doctors to respond to critical cases. Al-Barsh said the health system was suffering from widespread shortages of medicines and medical supplies, particularly surgical consumables needed to…

POPE Leo XIV on Tuesday called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing “great sadness” that “apparently Russia rejected a request” for one. “I am renewing my request to all people of good will to respect a day of peace — at least on the feast of the birth of our Saviour,” Leo told reporters at his residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire saying it would only give a military advantage to Ukraine. “Among the things that cause me great sadness is the fact that…

THE Libyan army chief has been killed in an air crash in Turkey, Libya’s prime minister has said. Gen Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad and four others were on board a Falcon 50 aircraft flying out of the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Tuesday evening. In a post on X, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said signal with the business jet was lost at 20:52 local time (17:52 GMT) – about 42 minutes after it took off from Ankara’s airport. The Tripoli-bound jet had issued an emergency landing request before contact was lost. The aircraft’s wreckage was later found south-west of Ankara,…

UGANDA has imposed restrictions on the importation of Starlink equipment and similar devices barely a month before national elections on January 15, raising fears of an internet shutdown. President Yoweri Museveni is seeking to extend his 40-year rule but is opposed by Bobi Wine, a singer turned politician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi. Museveni has been accused of growing authoritarianism despite rising to power after overthrowing a dictatorship in the 1980s. The opposition has been facing repression, including repeated attacks on Wine’s campaign during the current election period. In a letter dated Tuesday, the country’s communications commission warned against…

A CAR bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow on Monday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces”. The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Lieutenant General Fanil…

ISRAELI forces have killed at least two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as Israel continues to violate a ceasefire agreement and block desperately needed humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged coastal enclave. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Monday that two people were killed after Israeli troops opened fire in the Shujayea neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City. Their deaths bring the total number of Palestinians reported killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours to at least 12, including eight whose bodies were recovered from the rubble in the territory. The Gaza City attack is the latest in hundreds of…

DETTY December, a popular term for Ghana and Nigeria’s end-of-year party season, can have “negative connotations”, Ghana’s official for diaspora affairs has said, adding that he does not want the label linked with his country. “On a personal level I don’t want the word ‘detty’ to be associated with anything Ghana… that’s something I’m not very comfortable with,” Kofi Okyere-Darko said. “Detty”, West African Pidgin for “dirty”, is used to express unrestricted fun when it comes to seeing the year out. The celebrations are thought to be a huge boost to Ghana’s economy. Last December more than 125,000 international visitors,…

HE has traded in his military fatigues for civilian clothes but still rules Guinea with an iron fist: Junta leader Mamady Doumbouya intends to legitimise his rule of the west African country in presidential elections on Sunday. Seated behind a desk wearing a white cap and T-shirt emblazoned with his name and “Building Together” campaign slogan, the 41-year-old promised “peace and stability” in a video released in early December. It was the only public statement made by the coup leader during his campaign. Despite his initial promise to return power to civilians when he took over in 2021, Doumbouya is…

MORGAN Rogers struck twice as Aston Villa extended their winning run to 10 matches in all competitions, their best run as a top-flight club since 1914, by beating Manchester United at Villa Park. On a day when Unai Emery’s side were not at their best, in-form Rogers put them ahead with a curling shot into the corner a minute before the break. After Matheus Cunha had capitalised on a Matty Cash error to level, Rogers stepped inside United defender Leny Yoro a second time before curling a replica effort over Senne Lammens for his sixth goal in as many league…

ALLEGATIONS of a fresh cover-up over the Jeffrey Epstein files grew Sunday, as Democrats accused President Donald Trump of trying to protect himself by defying an order to release all files on the convicted sex offender. Victims of Epstein have expressed anger after a cache of records from cases against the late financier, who amassed a fortune and circulated among rich and famous people, were released Friday with many pages blacked out and photos censored. Several images were removed from the trove after being published on Friday evening — including one of Trump. “It’s all about covering up things that,…

AT an airforce base in Bamako, Mali’s army ruler General Assimi Goita presided over a ceremony marking the creation of a unified force for the Sahel countries. The force is the latest in a series of measures by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to achieve closer integration. The three countries are all led by juntas and are beset by an Islamist insurgency. In January, Niger’s defence minister said that the 5000-strong force would ‘intervene together’ to counter security threats in the region. Burkinabe General Daouda Traoré was appointed to head the force which will maintain a command base in Niamey,…

EGYPT’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday reiterated calls for structural changes in the U.N Security Council to grant Africa a larger role in shaping global decisions. El-Sissi made the plea for a “more pluralistic” world order at a conference of the Russia-Africa partnership held in Cairo, which was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and ministers from more than 50 African countries along with representatives from several African and regional organizations. “The voice of Africa should be present and influential in making global decisions given the continent’s human, economic, political and demographic weight,” el-Sissi said in a statement read…

ISRAELI forces have shot dead two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, during separate raids in the Jenin governorate in the occupied West Bank, officials say, with security camera footage showing soldiers shooting the victim at a “point-blank” range. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced late on Saturday that Rayyan Abdel Qader, 16, had been fatally shot by Israeli forces after storming the town of Qabatiya, while the second victim, 22-year-old Ahmad Zayoud, was killed in Silat al-Harithiya, west of Jenin. Witnesses said Israeli troops had opened fire directly at Abdel Qader, the Wafa news agency reported on Sunday, blocking emergency…