Author: Editor

SOS Children’s Village said its staff visited its facility, which serves children without parental care, in the southern city of Rafah, only to discover it had been completely destroyed. “The former residential homes have been reduced to rubble,” said Reem Alreqeb, the acting director of SOS Children’s Villages in Rafah, who was among those on the site visit. “No one anticipated such a scale of destruction,” she said. “The children’s representative kept asking, ‘Where is my home? Where are my children’s memories?’… They had hoped to find even a small part of their memories and their children’s memories, but unfortunately,…

US President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine Wednesday, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a Truth Social post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various…

SOUTH Sudan on Wednesday ordered internet providers to block social media platforms, including Facebook and TikTok, following violent protests over the deaths of its citizens last week. Demonstrations erupted in the capital Juba last week over reports that clashes in neighbouring Sudan had killed 29 South Sudanese, but turned violent with people looting Sudanese-owned businesses. Anger spread across the impoverished nation, with officers opening fire to disperse crowds and later detaining hundreds of looters. In a letter addressed to the country’s internet providers, the National Communication Authority’s (NCA) director general ordered them “to block access to all social media accounts…

POLICE in Kenya have arrested a man carrying a mutilated corpse in his backpack, which he reportedly said belonged to his 19-year-old wife. Officers came across 29-year-old John Kiama Wambua while patrolling Huruma, a district east of Nairobi, just before dawn. Suspecting Wambua was carrying something illegal, they searched his backpack and “to their shock” found the body parts, said a statement from Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). This is far from an isolated case – Kenya has one of the highest rates of femicide, or killings with a gender-related motivation, in Africa. After police officers interrogated Mr Wambua,…

MOHAMMED Salah scored his 50th European goal for Liverpool as the Reds booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with victory over 10-man Lille at Anfield. Salah’s goal came when he latched onto a brilliant Curtis Jones through ball and slotted over the advancing Lucas Chevalier in the 34th minute. Lille, who were unbeaten in 21 games in all competitions, had restricted Liverpool until then but Arne Slot’s side controlled the game after the goal. Salah sent another one-on-one wide, before curling just past the far post in the second half. The visitors were reduced to…

AT least nine Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The Israeli army said earlier on Tuesday that soldiers, police and intelligence services launched a “counterterrorism action”, but gave no further details. The identity of those killed was not immediately clear. The Health Ministry said that more than 35 people have been wounded. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces said in a statement that Israeli forces “opened fire on civilians and security forces, resulting in injuries to several civilians and a…

NETFLIX announced Tuesday it will raise prices on most of its subscription tiers in the US and Canada after the streaming giant reported 19 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2024. The jump in subscribers, Netflix’s biggest-ever, puts the streaming giant at 302 million globally, solidifying the company’s hold on the top spot in the industry. Netflix attributed the service’s latest success to the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing match in November, which it said drew 108 million viewers worldwide, making it the most-streamed sporting event ever. Netflix later hosted two Christmas Day NFL games, which averaged…

THE head of Libya’s judicial police has been arrested after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant over war crimes allegations, media reports say. Osama Najim, who directs Tripoli’s Mitiga detention centre, was reportedly arrested on Sunday in the Italian city of Turin. Former detainees from various centres have described abuses, such as routine torture and rape. In 2022, the UN said it had uncovered evidence of “serious rights violations”. Mr Najim was arrested in a hotel following a tip from international police body Interpol, Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported. Italian migrant rescue charity Mediterranea Saving Humans said the…

RWANDA-BACKED M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken over the key eastern trading town of Minova, according to various sources. The fall of the city puts the rebels within 40km (25 miles) of provincial capital, Goma, which lies close to the border with Rwanda. It comes two weeks after the M23 captured Masisi, with the Congolese army launching a counteroffensive to retake the town. There has been intense fighting in recent months between the rebels and the government forces in the mineral-rich region, with over 200,000 people being forced from their homes. The Reuters news agency quotes…

ON the first day of his new term, President Donald Trump signed orders ranging from climate to immigration, along with sweeping pardons for many of those who stormed the capital on January 6, 2021. Some of his orders delivered on promises he made during the 2024 campaign. Others, like a withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), had not been expected. Here is a summary of the orders Trump signed at a Washington arena packed with supporters, and later at the White House, after he was sworn in as president. Immigration: Trump signed various orders aimed at reshaping how the…

MANCHESTER City have signed Lens centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov on a four-and-a-half-year contract until 2029. Club sources say the fee for the 20-year-old is £33.6m plus add-ons. French side Lens only paid £84,000 for Khusanov from Belarusian club Energetik-BGU 18 months ago. However, he has developed rapidly and made 16 appearances for the Ligue 1 side this season, scoring his first goal for the club in a French Cup tie with Paris St-Germain in December. Khusanov has 18 caps for Uzbekistan and will become the first player from the country to play in the Premier League. “This squad is full of…

PALESTINIAN farmer Abd al-Sattari owned two houses in Gaza’s Rafah. For the nine months since Israeli forces invaded the southern city, he has been forced into displacement. The 53-year-old had lived with the hope that if one house got hit in one of the Israeli attacks, which have flattened more than 70 percent of the territory, the other one would stay standing to take his family back in when the war finally ended. On Sunday, even before the ceasefire came into effect, Abd took his eldest son Mohammed and left the rest of their family in their displacement tent in…

TECH billionaire Elon Musk has come under fire after making back-to-back hand gestures resembling the Nazi salute during a speech celebrating the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. Addressing Trump supporters hours after the Republican was inaugurated as the 47th US president on Monday, Musk hailed the outcome of the US presidential election on November 4 as “no ordinary victory”. “This was a fork in the road of human civilization,” Musk said at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. “This one really mattered. Thank you for making it happen! Thank you.” Musk then thumped his right hand into his chest…

TANZANIA’s president has announced an outbreak of Marburg virus, an Ebola-like virus, just a week after her health minister denied that there were any cases in the country. President Samia Suluhu Hassan said at a press conference on Monday that health authorities had confirmed one case of Marburg in the north-western region of Kagera. “We are confident that we will overcome this challenge once again,” Samia said, referring to a previous outbreak in Tanzania two years ago. On 14 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a suspected Marburg outbreak in the country, having recorded nine suspected cases and eight…

AT least seven people have been killed in a clash with soldiers on duty at a mine in the central Ashanti region, according to the army. The Ghana Armed Forces said about 60 illegal miners, armed with among others things “pump action guns”, had forced their way into the mine run by global giant AngloGold Ashanti and fired at the soldiers when they were intercepted. This prompted the soldiers “to retaliate in self-defence”, leading to the deaths and injuries, it said in a statement. A representative of the miners denied that they had been armed. Following news of the deaths,…

DONALD Trump was sworn in for a historic second term as president on Monday, pledging a blitz of immediate orders on immigration and the US culture wars as he caps his extraordinary comeback. With one hand raised in the air and the other on a Bible given to him by his mother, the 47th US president solemnly took the oath of office beneath the huge Rotunda of the US Capitol. Republican Trump and outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden had earlier traveled by motorcade together to the Capitol, where the ceremony was being held indoors — and with a much smaller…

RUBEN Amorim made the astonishing admission that his Manchester United flops are the worst team in the club’s history after Sunday’s dismal 3-1 defeat against Brighton. United crumbled to a sixth loss in 11 Premier League games since Amorim arrived from Sporting Lisbon to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag. “We are the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United,” Amorim said after his side’s wretched display at Old Trafford. “I know you want headlines but I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. Here you go: your headlines. “Imagine what this…

ISRAELI authorities have confirmed that Hamas handed over the first three female captives as a ceasefire deal for the war-ravaged Gaza Strip took effect. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Sunday evening that 24-year-old Romi Gonen, 28-year-old Emily Damari, and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher were handed over to the Red Cross and are “in safe hands” in Israel. The Red Cross vehicles took off from Gaza City in the heavily besieged northern part of the enclave after Hamas brought the captives to as-Saraya Square as a crowd gathered. A Red Cross delegation was verifying the identities of 90 Palestinian prisoners…

TIK TOK restored service in the United States Sunday after briefly going dark, as a law banning the wildly popular app on national security grounds came into effect. TikTok credited President-elect Donald Trump, who retakes power on Monday, for making the reversal possible — though the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden had earlier said that it would not enforce any ban. The video-sharing app had shut down in the United States late Saturday as a deadline for its Chinese owners ByteDance to sell its US subsidiary to non-Chinese buyers loomed. Earlier Sunday, as millions of dismayed users found themselves…

THE Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 50-year-old Nigerian man, Jeremiah Okoye, while in police custody in Limpopo, South Africa. The commission’s spokesperson, Abdulrahman Balogun, revealed this newspaper on Saturday, following reports of Okoye’s death on Friday. Okoye, who lived at 71 Magazyn Street, Polokwane, Limpopo Province, had been residing in South Africa for 22 years before his death. The victim, a native of Eziniffite Nnewi in Anambra, reportedly died while in police custody in Limpopo Province on January 13. The President of the Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa,…