Author: Editor

NIGERIAN Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) says it will close the 2023/2024 student loan application cycle on Feb. 21. Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, who disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja, said the 2024/2025 application cycle would commence on Feb. 22. Sawyerr said that the transition to the 2024/2025 cycle was a demonstration of the organisation’s commitment to efficiency, transparency and continuous improvement of the scheme. “NELFUND remains dedicated to providing financial support to students, ensuring that no deserving individual is denied education due to financial constraints. “In just 220 days, we have received an impressive 364,042 applications…

NEYMAR says Santos are helping him to “rediscover joy” after returning to his boyhood club on a short-term contract. The 33-year-old ended a 16-month goal drought when coolly converting from the penalty spot in Santos’ 3-1 win against Agua Santa on Sunday. “I’m happy to be playing again. I feel I’m improving,” said Neymar, who completed a return to Santos after Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal agreed to terminate his contract by mutual consent following an injury-hit spell with the club. He added: “Obviously I’m not going to be 100% physically, it’s only my fourth game but I’m getting better…

THE Israeli army says it will leave soldiers in five locations in southern Lebanon past a deadline to withdraw from the country after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had raised concerns that a complete withdrawal would not be achieved. Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said on Monday that the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel. “We need to remain at those points at the moment to defend Israeli citizens, to make sure this process is complete and eventually hand it over to the Lebanese armed forces,” Shoshani told reporters. He said…

THE United States and Russia have confirmed that their top delegates will meet in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, in a move that has sparked concern among European leaders left out of the US-led effort. Senior US and Russian officials will hold talks in Riyadh on Tuesday in an effort to lay the groundwork for peace talks, the US Department of State and the Kremlin confirmed on Monday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, were due to travel to the Saudi capital, Kremlin spokesman…

UGANDA has reversed a controversial plan to hold a military trial for a prominent opposition leader due to his failing health. Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi announced late on Sunday that Kizza Besigye would have his case transferred to a civilian court. The announcement came amid reports that Besigye, who is on hunger strike, had been temporarily moved to a medical clinic. Baryomunsi had earlier visited Besigye in prison to urge him to end his hunger strike while his case is moved. The veteran opposition leader is charged with illegal firearm possession and threatening state security. Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, called…

MAURITIUS’ former Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth has been released on bail following his dramatic arrest on Saturday on money laundering charges. He had been detained along with three others after the anti-corruption agency said it had seized suitcases of cash and luxury watches in raids on 10 locations, including Jugnauth’s home. The former prime minister’s lawyer said he denied the charges against him. Jugnauth’s arrest came 100 days after his landslide defeat in elections, with his successor Navin Ramgoolam vowing to root out corruption. But few Mauritians expected the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) to move so quickly, or to arrest…

MANCHESTER United loannee Antony scored for a third consecutive match as his brilliant volley helped Real Betis beat Real Sociedad in La Liga. Antony met a looping clearance with a crisp first-time shot from just inside the box that nestled into the bottom corner in the 51st minute. The 24-year-old Brazilian also assisted Marc Roca, who struck Betis’ third with a drilled finish after 69 minutes. Roca had scored Betis’ second five minutes earlier as Manuel Pellegrini’s side rose to eighth in the La Liga table. Antony has scored three goals in his last three games, as many as he…

THE Israeli military forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to act as a human shield in Gaza by tying an explosive cord around his neck and threatening to have his head blown off, an investigation by the Israeli outlet The Hottest Place in Hell has found. A senior officer from the army’s Nahal Brigade tied the explosive cord around the man’s neck before he was ordered to scout houses. After eight hours, soldiers ordered the man to flee with his wife from their home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood in May, said +972 magazine, which reported the piece in partnership with…

RUSSIAN drone strikes have damaged a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight, leaving 46,000 consumers without heating as temperatures plunge below freezing, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. “This was done deliberately to leave people without heat in sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe,” Shmyhal said on the Telegram messenger app. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack had a much higher impact, leaving 100,000 in the city without heat. “An ordinary Ukrainian city. Ordinary civilian infrastructure. It has nothing to do with hostilities or the frontline situation,” he said in a post on X. “This…

MORE than 40 people, mostly women, were killed after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Mali on Saturday. The collapse took place near Kéniéba, in Mali’s western, gold-rich Kayes region. The victims had climbed into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth around them caved in, a gold miner’s union leader told Reuters. This is Mali’s second deadly mining accident in three weeks, after at least 10 people were killed when a mining tunnel flooded late in January. There are conflicting reports on the number people who died in Saturday’s accident. A…

RWANDAN-BACKED M23 rebels have entered Bukavu, the second-largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, seizing the regional governor’s office. Some people lined the streets to clap and cheer the fighters as they marched and drove into the city centre without resistance. It is the second city after Goma to fall to the rebels in the mineral-rich region in the past few weeks. The Congolese government has acknowledged its fall and urged residents to stay at home “to avoid being targeted by the occupying forces”. The UN and European countries have warned that the latest offensive, which has seen…

MANCHESTER United forward Amad Diallo could be sidelined for the rest of the season after suffering ankle ligament damage, according to reports on Saturday. Diallo is believed to have sustained the problem in training, with United yet to confirm the extent of the damage as the 22-year-old awaits further tests. The Ivory Coast international had been one of United’s most dynamic performers in a difficult campaign for the troubled Premier League club, netting crucial goals against Manchester City and Liverpool. Diallo has scored six times in his last 14 games in all competitions and his prolonged absence would be a…

ISRAEL has destroyed dozens of homes aand education and health centres in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, satellite imagery analysis conducted by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, has revealed. The crossing between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah, which has served as a critical lifeline into the enclave for decades, was closed by Israel in May 2024. Since seizing control of the border area, in breach of its 1979 peace agreement with Egypt, Israel has been digging in in the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-km (8.7-mile) strip of land along the boundary between Egypt and Gaza. Israeli…

RUSSIA on Saturday published images of a US man that its customs officers arrested a day earlier at a Moscow airport for allegedly travelling with gummy candy laced with cannabis derivatives. Russian media said a day earlier that a 28-year-old American was detained at Vnukovo airport after flying in from Istanbul. The arrest came after a prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington, and after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone about settling the Ukraine conflict. The press service of the Russian court system published a video on Telegram of a bearded young man in a white shirt behind…

SUDAN’s military captured a major bridge connecting the east of the capital Khartoum to the south, days after it reclaimed control of its northern part from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). As the conflict in Sudan nears the two-year mark, the army has in recent weeks won back large swaths of the capital and its surrounding areas from the paramilitary group. RSF still controls some key positions, including the central market, the presidential palace, and some of the southern and western residential districts. It also holds parts of the central region of Kordofan, most of the western region of Darfur,…

CHAOTIC scenes have been unfolding in Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as the M23 rebel group continues its offensive in the region. On Saturday there were reports of sporadic gunfire and widespread looting in the city, including at a World Food Programme depot, with residents sheltering in their homes. It follows conflicting reports about whether the Rwanda-backed rebels had entered the key city of Bukavu, after advances in the region. On Friday M23 fighters seized Kavumu airport, north of Bukavu. The UN and the European Union have voiced alarm over the worsening conflict. A threat by Uganda’s army…

MANCHESTER United head coach Ruben Amorim says the club will have to sell players if they are to buy anyone this summer. Despite being in the bottom half of the Premier League table, United only spent £25m on 20-year-old full-back Patrick Dorgu in the January transfer window. It has been stressed by club sources that, after losses of over £300m in the past three years, United’s profit and sustainability position is ‘tight’. However, it has now been established that cost-cutting away from the first-team squad will continue, with another round of redundancies imminent and the London office likely to close.…

THREE captives are to be released by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in exchange for 369 Palestinians held in Israeli jails as part of the ceasefire in Gaza. The captives to be released on Saturday were identified as US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, Russian-Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov and Argentinian-Israeli Yair Horn. While the names of the Palestinians to be released have not been announced, Israeli media reported that 333 were arrested in Gaza and will be sent back to the besieged enclave, 10 will be released in the occupied West Bank, one in occupied East Jerusalem and 25 will either be sent…

THE Geneva regional government voted Friday to provide over $11 million in emergency aid to NGOs based in the Swiss city that have been hit by US foreign aid cuts. The Geneva Grand Council passed with 60 votes in favour and 33 opposed a proposal made Wednesday by the cantonal parliament to unlock 10 million Swiss francs ($11.1 million) to help affected NGOs cover mainly salaries for the next three months. The decision comes after US President Donald Trump, on his first day back in office, issued an executive order halting most US foreign aid funding. That decision is already…

M23 rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are closing in on a second major city, Bukavu, as they continue their advance. The militants’ progress comes despite international calls for a ceasefire and a resumption of peace talks. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in recent weeks as a result of the rebel advance. Last month, the Tutsi-led M23, which is backed by neighbouring Rwanda, seized Goma, the main city in the mineral-rich east. The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of sowing chaos in the region in order to benefit from its resources,…