Author: Editor

THE arena was packed on Friday night in the upscale Lekki neighbourhood of Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital, Lagos. Eighteen fighters from eight African countries were slugging it out before thousands of cheering mixed martial arts (MMA) fans. It was the ninth instalment of the African Knockout Championship, an MMA fight league that started off in 2020 as a reality television show in Lagos as the Covid-19 lockdown waned in Nigeria. The formal championship started in May 2023 and has since hosted fighters from 18 countries, the chief operating officer of African Knockout, Ryan Fayad, told AFP. While football remains king…

FRESHLY crowned kings of Europe, Paris Saint-Germain arrived this week in the United States for the Club World Cup and are treating FIFA’s lucrative new competition not as a nuisance at the end of an exhausting season but as a serious objective. “I think it is an incredible competition,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said of the Club World Cup in the immediate aftermath of his team’s UEFA Champions League triumph in Munich two weeks ago. “Our aim is to be competitive and try to win a fifth trophy of the season.” The Qatar-backed French giants could be forgiven for wanting…

ISRAEL and Iran have carried out a new wave of attacks on key cities, fuelling fears of an all-out sustained war, with heavy exchanges now entering a third day. Iranian missiles struck northern Israel, killing at least three people and wounding 13 others, late Saturday into Sunday, according to Israeli media. Iranian officials, meanwhile, said the Shahran oil depot, northwest of Tehran, was targeted by Israel. The Tasnim News agency said operational and rescue forces arrived at the scene and are still working to extinguish the fire. More videos posted to social media, and also verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad,…

UKRAINE and Russia conducted another POW swap — the fourth one in a week — the warring sides said on Saturday, under agreements reached in Istanbul earlier this month. “We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media. “In accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements… another group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram. Kyiv also said it had received another batch of 1,200 unidentified bodies from Russia, which it said Russia…

THE head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has held talks with Rwanda-backed rebels about protecting civilians in areas under their control in the east. Bintou Keita, the UN secretary general’s special representative, said the rebels spoke of wanting a peaceful solution to the crisis, which escalated in January with their capture of the major city of Goma. She said she had brought “a spirit of listening and exchange” to the discussions in Goma on Friday. Little more detail has been released about any progress made at the summit. But in a short written statement,…

HUNDREDS of thousands of people are “slowly starving” in Kenyan refugee camps after US funding cuts reduced food rations to their lowest ever levels, a United Nations official has told the BBC. The impact is starkly visible at a hospital in the sprawling Kakuma camp in the north-west of the East African nation. It is home to roughly 300,000 refugees who have fled strife in countries across Africa and the Middle East. Emaciated children fill a 30-bed ward at Kakuma’s Amusait Hospital, staring blankly at visitors as they receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition. One baby, Hellen, barely moves. Parts…

FORMER Manchester United and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba is in advanced talks with Monaco as he seeks a return to football after a doping suspension. The French World Cup winner, 32, is moving towards a return to his homeland with the Ligue 1 side. BBC Sport understands discussions have revolved around the midfielder signing a two-year contract with Monaco, who hope to close the deal in the coming days. Talks have been ongoing for a number of weeks, with Pogba training before pre-season as he plots his return to action. Pogba was provisionally suspended after being randomly tested following Juventus’…

IRAN says it has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles towards Israel in retaliation for a major attack on Tehran’s nuclear and military sites. Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as sirens sounded across Israel on Friday night. This follows an unprecedented attack by Israel in the early hours of Friday, which targeted Iranian nuclear sites, senior military commanders and scientists. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel’s strikes had “initiated a war” and it would not be allowed to do “hit and run” attacks without consequences. “The Zionist regime [Israel] will not remain unscathed from the consequences of…

FOR the Patel family, April was a month of answered prayers. The news arrived in a simple email: their son, Sahil Patel, had won a visa lottery. He was one of 3,000 Indians chosen by a random ballot for a coveted two-year United Kingdom work visa, under the British government’s India Young Professionals Scheme. For the 25-year-old from a middle-class family, it was a pathway from a modest home in Sarod village, 150km (93 miles) from Ahmedabad, the biggest city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, to a new life in London. For his family, the visa was the…

THE head of the main police station in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has been detained over the killing of a young blogger in police custody, independent investigators say. As well as Officer Commanding Station Samson Talam, another policeman, PC James Mukhwan, plus a technician accused of disabling the station’s CCTV, have also been arrested. Albert Ojwang’s death sparked protests after doctors refuted a police claim he had died from self-inflicted injuries caused by hitting his head on a cell wall. Instead they concluded that it was likely the result of an assault. At least 23 people have been questioned and five…

CHINA has said it is ready to drop the tariffs it charges on imports from all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations. The move, announced at a China-Africa co-operation meeting, comes as the continent is facing the possibility of increased tariffs on its products entering the US. China is Africa’s largest trading partner – a position it has held for the last 15 years – with Africa exporting goods to the Asian nation worth around $170bn (£125bn) in 2023. A joint ministerial statement criticised “certain countries’ [efforts to] disrupt the existing international economic and trade order” through…

US President Donald Trump told Fox News he was aware Israel was going to conduct strikes on Iran before it happened, and stressed that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear bomb,” according to the US broadcaster. His comments to Fox came after Israel pounded Iran in a series of air raids on Friday, striking 100 targets including nuclear and military sites. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation took aim at the atomic facility in Natanz, while Iranian media said the country’s Revolutionary Guards leader Hossein Salami and armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri were killed. Trump told Fox…

ISRAELI military says it launched a wave of strikes against Iranian military and nuclear sites in a major escalation against Tehran. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Israel that it “must expect severe punishment” following the “crime” of attacking Iran and killing several commanders and top scientists. In a prerecorded video message posted early Friday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were aimed at hurting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and ballistic missile factories. “This operation will take as long as is needed to complete the task of fending off the threat of annihilation against us,” Netanyahu…

MATHEUS Cunha said he had “dreamed of wearing the red shirt” of Manchester United after the club confirmed his signing from Wolves on Thursday. United effectively sealed the deal, which was subject to the completion of a visa and medical, on June 1 after activating a £62.5 million ($85 million) release clause in the 26-year old’s contract. “It is hard to put into words my feelings about becoming a Manchester United player,” said the Brazil international, who has signed a five-year deal with the option of another year. “Ever since I was a child in Brazil watching Premier League games…

ISRAELI attacks have killed at least 52 people across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution urging an unconditional ceasefire in the besieged enclave. Sources told Al Jazeera that at least 26 of the people killed on Thursday died in Israeli drone attacks while waiting for food and basic supplies being distributed by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Gaza civil defence official Mohammed el-Mougher told AFP news agency that al-Awda Hospital received at least 10 bodies and about 200 others who were wounded “after Israeli…

VIDHI Chaudhary, a senior police officer, said the survivor had been in seat 11A. There could be more survivors among the people in hospital, she added. There are more than 50 injured in hospitals. The survivor, named as 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar, has spoken to Indian media. “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,” he told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online. “It all happened so quickly,” he told the paper from his hospital bed. “When I got up, there were bodies all around me.…

THE ruling party in Burundi has won all 100 seats in a parliamentary election that the opposition says has “killed” democracy in the central African state. Giving the provisional results for last week’s poll, electoral commission head Prosper Ntahorwamiye said the CNDD-FDD party secured more than 96% of votes in all provinces. The election had seen only “some minor irregularities”, he added. The opposition Uprona party came second with a little over 1% of the vote. The party denounced the election as rigged, with its leader Olivier Nkurunziza telling the AFP news agency: “We have killed democracy.” The main opposition…

ZAMBIA’s former President Edgar Lungu, who died last week, left instructions that his successor Hakainde Hichilema “should not be anywhere near” his body, a family spokesman has said. This is the latest development in the bitter feud over funeral plans for the late president following his death in South Africa at the age of 68. The government had planned to fly his body back home on Wednesday, but failed to do so because of a dispute with Lungu’s family and his political party, the Patriotic Front (PF), over mourning and funeral arrangements. The two leaders were long-standing political rivals, with…

IN what is now confirmed as the world’s deadliest aviation disaster in over a decade, all 242 people on board an Air India flight bound for the United Kingdom, have died after the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which departed Ahmedabad Airport at 1:39pm local time, crashed into a residential area, slamming into the doctors’ hostel of the B.J. Medical College during the lunch hour. Authorities said the aircraft gave a “Mayday” call before all communication ceased. According to city police chief G.S. Malik, 204 bodies had been recovered by late afternoon.…

THE Club World Cup is back this weekend – and this year’s event will be larger than ever, with a host of the biggest names in football set to feature. Thirty-two teams from around the globe will take part in the tournament across 11 cities in the United States, with the month-long action beginning at 01:00 BST on Sunday and ending on 13 July. You do not have to wait long until the superstars appear, with teams having finalised their squads for the big kick-off. Inter Miami, fortunate to be included as they won the Major League Soccer Supporters’ Shield…