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A BRIDGE collapsed at a cobalt mine in southeast Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 32 wildcat miners, a regional government official said Sunday. The bridge came down Saturday onto a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for. The DRC produces more than 70 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt, which is essential for batteries used in electric cars, many laptop computers, and mobile phones. More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in…

SOMALIA’s Immigration and Citizenship Agency has confirmed that hackers breached its electronic visa platform, exposing sensitive personal data of travellers who used the system. The admission on Sunday marks the first official acknowledgement by Somali authorities after the United States and United Kingdom issued warnings earlier in the week. At least 35,000 people, including thousands of American citizens, may have had their data compromised when “unidentified hackers” penetrated the system, according to a US Embassy statement issued on November 13. Somalia’s Defence Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi had praised the electronic visa system this week, claiming it had successfully prevented ISIL…

BRAZIL beat fellow World Cup qualifiers Senegal 2-0 at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on Saturday thanks to goals from teenager Estevao and veteran Casemiro. Carlo Ancelotti’s team, featuring a mouthwatering attacking combination of Estevao, Matheus Cunha, Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr, dominated the first half of the friendly in London. Manchester United’s Cunha headed against the bar as Brazil took a firm grip on the game but Chelsea’s Estevao gave the South Americans the lead they deserved in the 28th minute. The 18-year-old was fortunate that the ball fell to his feet on the right side of Brazil’s attack but he produced…

DOZENS of Palestinian prisoners are being held indefinitely in an underground Israeli detention facility, deprived of sunlight and subjected to extreme violence, Palestinian lawyers say, as more reports of abuse emerge from the devastation of Israel’s war on Gaza. Lawyers for Palestinians held at Rakevet, an underground wing of the Ramla (Nitzan) prison complex in central Israel, said their clients have been assaulted, starved, and denied medical care despite serious injuries. “When the prisoners arrive for the interview [with their lawyer], their faces show what they’ve endured,” lawyer Nadia Daqqa told Al Jazeera. “Particularly in this prison, prisoners are afraid…

NINE people were killed and 31 injured when confiscated explosives accidentally blew up at a police station in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said Saturday, just days after a car blast in Delhi killed a dozen people. The incident happened in Nowgam, and the explosives at the police station were recovered from Faridabad in the northern state of Haryana earlier this week, just hours before the powerful blast in Delhi that killed 12 people. Samples from the recovered material were being sent for further forensic examination since Thursday, the region’s director general of police Nalin Prabhat said, and the procedure was being…

RWANDAN-BACKED M23 rebels and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a framework for peace in the east of the country. The ceremony was held in Qatar, which along with the US and the African Union, has been trying to mediate an end to decades of conflict in the resource-rich region. Earlier this year, the M23 captured the eastern region’s main cities of Goma and Bukavu. Previous attempts to secure peace have failed. The US’s Africa envoy Massad Boulos said the document covered eight protocols and that most still required work. He also acknowledged that prisoner exchanges…

AT least four people have been killed when two boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off Libya’s coast, according to the Libyan Red Crescent. In a statement on Saturday, the organisation said the incident occurred off the coastal city of al-Khums on Thursday night. It said the first boat was carrying 26 people from Bangladesh, four of whom died. The second boat carried 69 people, including two Egyptians and dozens of Sudanese, the Red Crescent added, without specifying their fate. Eight of them were children, it said. Al-Khums is a coastal city, some 118km (73 miles) east of the…

THE Confederation of African Football and the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025 Local Organising Committee has announced that fans travelling to the tournament will be eligible for free electronic visas. The African football body disclosed this in a statement on its website on Friday. Citizens of countries that normally require a visa to enter Morocco are expected to benefit from the policy. However, CAF said, “Electronic visas to enter Morocco obtained through the YALLA app are now free of charge for supporters attending the competition, which runs from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026”. The announcement came…

THE United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has accused Israel of deliberately crippling its operations and blocking the entry of vital aid to Gaza amid its more than two-year genocidal war, as Palestinians face the onset of heavy rains and winter with sparse shelter or relief. “Safeguarding UNRWA’s mandate and operations is required under international law; it is vital to the survival of millions of Palestinians; and it is essential for a political solution,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the UN General Assembly Fourth Committee on Thursday, citing recent findings by the UN Commission of Inquiry and rulings by…

US President Donald Trump said Friday he wants the Justice Department and FBI to investigate links between the late alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and former Democratic president Bill Clinton. Seeking to turn the tables after a new trove of Epstein emails reignited questions over his own ties to the disgraced financier, Trump also demanded a probe into US bank JPMorgan Chase, ex-Harvard president Larry Summers and others. Republican Trump accused rival Democrats of “using the Epstein Hoax” to distract from the party’s recent compromise to end a record US government shutdown, and said the scandal involved “Democrats, not Republicans.”…

SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa says there will be an investigation into the “mysterious” arrival of a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from Gaza into the country. The group arrived at OR Tambo International Airport but were initially refused entry and were stuck in the plane for more than 10 hours as they “did not have the customary departure stamps in their passports”, local authorities said. Most were eventually allowed in after intervention from a local charity and because of the government’s “empathy [and] compassion”, Ramaphosa said. The circumstances of their departure from Gaza and travel to South Africa remain…

TANZANIAN President Samia Suluhu Hassan says her government will launch an inquiry into the deadly unrest that erupted following her controversial re-election last month, as claims of an undemocratic vote process prompted mass protests. Speaking during the opening session of Tanzania’s new parliament on Friday, Hassan said she was “deeply saddened by the incident” and offered condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the crackdown. “The government has taken the step of forming an inquiry commission to investigate what happened,” she added. Her comments mark the first conciliatory message since Tanzanian authorities violently cracked down on widespread demonstrations…

Address By His Excellency, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya CON (Dan Majen Gombe), Governor Of Gombe State, On The Occassion Of The Presentation Of The 2026 Budget Proposal To The Gombe State House Of Assembly, Held On Thrusday, 13th November, 2025. Protocol It is with gratitude to God and profound sense of duty that I address this Honourable House today on the formal presentation of the 2026 Budget proposal for your valued consideration and eventual passage into law, as stipulated in Section 121(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). 2. The 2026 Budget is strategically aligned…

CHANCEL Mbemba struck a dramatic stoppage-time winner as the Democratic Republic of Congo edged past Cameroon 1-0 to book a date with Nigeria in the final of the African play-offs for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Leopards’ captain slipped free of his marker to meet Brian Cipenga’s deep corner in the first minute of added time, stunning the five-time African champions and sending DR Congo into Sunday’s decisive clash in Rabat. The defeat ended Cameroon’s hopes of reaching a ninth World Cup. The Indomitable Lions, Africa’s most frequent participants at the tournament, will miss out on next year’s expanded…

CRISTIANO Ronaldo was sent off for the first time in international football as Portugal missed the chance to secure World Cup qualification with a surprise 2-0 defeat by the Republic of Ireland at Aviva Stadium. After Troy Parrott’s first-half double for the home side, Ronaldo was initially shown a yellow card for swinging his elbow into Irish defender Dara O’Shea’s back on the hour mark. However, the Portugal captain’s card was upgraded after the video assistant referee (VAR) advised referee Glenn Nyberg to review the incident on the pitchside monitor. An ignominious end to the five-time Ballon d’Or’s night, it…

AN Israeli settler arson attack on a mosque in the occupied West Bank has drawn international condemnation, as a wave of intensified violence against Palestinians continues unabated across the area. Israeli settlers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, near Salfit in the north of the West Bank, around dawn on Thursday, local residents told Al Jazeera. Photographs taken at the scene showed racist, anti-Palestinian slogans sprayed on the walls of the mosque, which was damaged in the blaze. Copies of the Quran – the Islamic holy book – were also burned. The…

THE approval rating for United States President Donald Trump remains at its lowest level since he began his second term in January, according to a new poll. But Thursday’s survey, conducted by the news agency Reuters and the research firm Ipsos, found a jump in the share of respondents who said they disapproved of his performance. His disapproval rating increased from 52 percent in mid-May to 58 percent in November. His approval rating, meanwhile, stayed at approximately 40 percent, roughly the same as it was in May. The online poll, conducted over six days this month, surveyed 1,200 US adults…

SOME 200 Kenyans are fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine and more could be recruited into the conflict, authorities say. Among them are former members of Kenya’s security forces, according to Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi. Some of those who have been rescued said they were forced to assemble drones and handle chemicals without proper training or protective gear, the minister added. Kenyan President William Ruto last week requested the Ukrainian government to secure the release of Kenyans currently held in the conflict zone. About 1,400 citizens from across Africa are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine,…

SOUTH Sudan’s leader Salva Kiir has in a shock move dismissed one of his vice-presidents, Benjamin Bol Mel, who had been tipped as his possible successor. Kiir stripped Bol Mel of his military rank of general and dismissed him from the national security service. He also sacked the central bank governor and the head of the revenue authority, both considered close allies of Bol Mel. No explanation was given for the dismissals, which were announced in a decree broadcast on state television. It comes when there are growing fears of political instability and a possible return to civil war, after…

HULL City academy winger Joao Mendes has said he does not feel extra pressure because he is the son of Brazil legend Ronaldinho. The 20-year-old joined the Tigers on a one-year deal in September after spending last season in Burnley’s youth set-up. His father won the 2002 World Cup, Champions League and Ballon d’Or in a career that saw him play for Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and AC Milan. “I don’t feel any pressure. I’ve always had it clear in my mind that I’m me and he’s him,” he told BBC Radio Humberside. “It’s normal that you’re going to see me…