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THE Palestinian armed group Hamas has said it was investigating Israel’s claim that one of the bodies it handed over to Israel on Thursday as part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal was not that of female captive Shiri Bibas. In a statement released on Friday, Hamas said there might have been “the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies” as it promised to “clearly” announce the findings of its probe. The group added the mix-up may have been the result of Israeli forces bombing “the place where the family was with other Palestinians”. “We have received the…

THE US national security advisor warned Ukraine’s leader to stop hurling “insults” at Donald Trump, as pressure built Friday on Volodymyr Zelensky to sign away precious mineral rights in exchange for Washington’s help defending against Russia. Tensions between Trump and Zelensky over the proposed mineral deal — which Kyiv has rejected — and Washington’s outreach to Moscow have exploded this week in a series of barbs traded at press conferences and on social media. Zelensky has warned that Trump has succumbed to Russian “disinformation”, while the US leader has accused his counterpart of starting the war and branded him a…

THE Rwandan government has condemned the US decision to sanction a government minister for his alleged role in the conflict in the east of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Announcing the financial sanctions on Thursday, the US Treasury Department said Rwanda’s Minister of State for Regional Integration James Kabarebe, a former army chief, was central to his country’s support for the M23 rebel group. Also sanctioned was Lawrence Kanyuka, the M23’s spokesman, as well as two companies he controls in Britain and France, the US Treasury said. On Friday, the UK said there would be “consequences” for Rwanda over its…

VETERAN Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has been charged with treason in a civilian court after his controversial case was transferred from a military tribunal. Treason is a capital offence in Uganda and if found guilty the 68-year-old cold be sentenced to death. He was charged alongside two other suspects, but they did not enter a plea on the grounds that the charges against them could only be heard in a higher court. Besigye, who has run for president against long-serving leader Yoweri Museveni four times, has been in detention since he was dramatically abducted in Kenya in November and…

PEP Guardiola conceded Manchester City need a rebuild after being swept aside by a Kylian Mbappe hat-trick as Real Madrid progressed to the last 16 of the Champions League 6-3 on aggregate. Mbappe fired the 15-time winners to a 3-1 second leg win on Wednesday, but much of the damage had already been done for City by conceding two late goals to lose the home leg 3-2 last week. It is the third time in four seasons that City have been knocked out by the Spanish giants, but the first time since Guardiola joined in 2016 that the English champions…

AN Israeli media report says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made new demands in negotiations on the second phase of the ongoing ceasefire deal signed with Hamas. According to Israel’s Channel 13, Netanyahu is demanding Hamas leadership to be exiled abroad, Gaza to be demilitarised and Israel to maintain security control over the enclave. These were not included in the deal signed in mid-January. As per that accord, Hamas would have released all the remaining captives and Israeli troops were to withdraw from the Strip. Meanwhile, Mamayan Jabateh, a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago, was working on…

THE Senate voted on Thursday to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, installing a staunch loyalist of President Donald Trump and conservative firebrand at the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency. The nomination faced intense scrutiny from Democrats on Capitol Hill who have warned that Patel is poised to use the position to seek retribution against Trump’s perceived political enemies. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Patel said there will be “no politicization” at the FBI and “no retributive actions” and accused Democrats of cherry-picking excerpts of old comments. “Snippets of information are often misleading,” Patel said at one…

EGYPTOLOGISTS have discovered the first tomb of a pharaoh since Tutankhamun’s was uncovered over a century ago. King Thutmose II’s tomb was the last undiscovered royal tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty. A British-Egyptian team has located it in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis near the city of Luxor. Researchers had thought the burial chambers of the 18th dynasty pharaohs were more than 2km away, closer to the Valley of the Kings. The crew found it in an area associated with the resting places of royal women, but when they got into the burial chamber they found it…

THE Netherlands says it will return more than 100 Benin Bronzes that British troops looted from Nigeria in the late 19th Century and which ended up in a Dutch museum. Thousands of these culturally significant sculptures and carvings were stolen during the violent destruction of Benin City, in modern-day Nigeria’s Edo state, in 1897. The treasures were sold, some to private collectors and others to museums like the Wereldmuseum in The Netherlands, which has displayed these artefacts for decades. The return of the 119 artefacts is the “largest repatriation of Benin antiquities”, said Olugbile Holloway, director-general of Nigeria’s National Commission…

ADEMOLA Lookman has received backing from Nigeria’s senior men’s national team following public criticism by his coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, for missing a penalty in Atalanta’s Champions League loss to Club Brugge on Tuesday. The Super Eagles’ X handle quoted Lookman’s statement on the controversy with a message “we are with you, Ade,” showing solidarity with the Nigerian forward. The national team’s handle also posted graphics showing Lookman’s statics so far in the 2024/2025 season which shows 17 goals and 7 assists. The page also posted videos of him scoring goals with the caption “Ademola The King”. Lookman scored a…

MANCHESTER City’s Champions League campaign came to a tame conclusion at the Bernabeu as Kylian Mbappe’s brilliant hat-trick inspired holders Real Madrid to a comfortable victory to reach the last 16. Pep Guardiola’s side were attempting to reverse a 3-2 deficit from the play-off first leg, but this contest was effectively over after four minutes when Mbappe’s precise lob from Raul Asencio’s pass increased their advantage. City, with Erling Haaland only fit enough to be on the bench, saw their plight worsen moments after Mbappe’s opener when they lost defender John Stones to injury. And City’s earliest Champions League exit…

THE Israeli army has continued with its large-scale military raid in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp, forcing thousands to flee their homes. Wednesday marks 30 days since Israeli forces began their assault on Jenin which then spread to other parts of the northern West Bank, including Tulkarem and its Nur Shams refugee camp. At least 26 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin since January 21. The army has also deployed hundreds of soldiers and bulldozers that demolished houses and tore up vital infrastructure in the overcrowded camp, forcing almost all of its residents…

A MAN was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for attempting to kill Japan’s then prime minister Fumio Kishida with a pipe bomb in 2023, a local court said. Kishida was unharmed in the attack with a homemade device at a campaign event where assailant Ryuji Kimura, now 25, was arrested at the scene. The incident in western Japan came less than a year after former premier Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July 2022 on the campaign trail. A Wakayama District Court spokeswoman confirmed the 10-year jail sentence to AFP. “The sense of anxiety caused to society by targeting…

SOUTH Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has been forced to postpone the unveiling of the national budget following sharp disagreements within the coalition government. Coalition partners derailed his budget after opposing his plan to raise value-added-tax (VAT), which would have seen the prices of goods go up at a time when South Africans are hard-hit by the cost-of-living crisis. Godongwana is a member of the African National Congress (ANC), which was forced to enter into a coalition after losing its parliamentary majority in elections last year. His failure to table the budget sent shockwaves in South Africa, as it has…

MORE than 200 unarmed civilians have been killed in a cluster of villages in Sudan over three days by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is involved in a brutal conflict with the military, a local rights group has said. The Emergency Lawyers network said the attacks happened in al-Kadaris and al-Khelwat towards the north of White Nile state – areas where the military had no presence. RSF fighters were guilty of “executions, kidnappings, enforced disappearances and property looting”, the network added. The RSF, which was allied to the military before the civil war broke out in April 2023,…

PEP Guardiola strode into the Bernabeu Stadium’s palatial surroundings knowing Manchester City must overturn the odds – and logic – in a special place that usually reserves its miracles for Real Madrid. He has known every emotion in this legendary arena on a Champions League journey that has brought him here with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. And on Wednesday, Guardiola will once more appear alongside his friend and great adversary, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, beneath those towering stands knowing victory will rank among his finest achievements. Guardiola rates City’s chances of overturning a 3-2 deficit from the…

HAMAS will release six Israeli captives and hand over the bodies of four others this week as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, the group’s leader in the enclave said. Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Palestinian group in Gaza said the handover of the bodies will take place in Gaza on Thursday and that six living Israeli captives will be released on Saturday. “Hamas has proven, along with the resistance, its seriousness in implementing the agreement with full responsibility,” he said on Tuesday. “We stress the need to oblige the occupation to implement all provisions of the agreement without procrastination.…

PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed a demand that Kyiv be included in any talks on how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine after the United States and Russia agreed to create a team to negotiate a halt to the fighting. Ukraine was not represented at the talks between the US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Tuesday. “We want no one to decide anything behind our backs … No decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Turkiye, where he held talks with President…

CHAD’s army said that it had killed nearly 300 Boko Haram militants and lost 27 army employees in a four-month campaign against the jihadist group that ended on Tuesday. President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno ordered the campaign in October after Boko Haram a attack on a base in the Lake Chad region killed 40 troops, according to an official toll released at the time. Chad is one of four countries around Lake Chad battling Boko Haram and its allies over the past decade after the group’s insurgency in Nigeria spilt over. The conflict has left 40,000 dead across the four…

THE United Nations on Tuesday reported deadly clashes in northern South Sudan which killed civilians and left a peacekeeper wounded. The oil-rich but impoverished nation, which only achieved independence in 2011, is plagued by instability with frequent clashes and political infighting. Fighting broke out between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and “armed youth” in Nassir in Upper Nile state — which borders Sudan — on February 14 and 15, the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement. It did not identify the armed groups clashing with the SSPDF, a national military force led by President…