Author: Editor

ALGERIA’s decision to expel 12 French consular staff members appears to have put paid to hopes of any imminent rapprochement between the two countries. The order was in response to charges filed in France on Friday against an Algerian consular official, accused with two other Algerians of taking part in the kidnap of an opposition dissident in the Paris suburbs a year ago. Algiers chose to see the arrest of the official as “a flagrant contravention of the immunities and privileges that attach to his (diplomatic) functions”. According to the official Algerian state-run news agency APS: “This unprecedented judicial incident……

IT was the last thing Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim needed. After taking goalkeeper Andre Onana out of the firing line for Sunday’s trip to Newcastle, the Portuguese watched forlorn as replacement Altay Bayindir conceded four goals in a chastening defeat at St James’ Park. To makes matters worse, the Turkey international was to blame for Newcastle’s fourth after a poor pass. “We did a lot of mistakes that made it harder to win a game – that’s all,” said Amorim. “It’s a little bit of everything, it’s hard to point to one thing.” With a crucial Europa League quarter-final…

A PREDAWN Israeli strike on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, the last major hospital providing critical healthcare in northern Gaza, has sparked condemnation in Palestine and across the world as Israel continues to attack healthcare facilities. Israel on Sunday claimed it struck a Hamas command and control centre at the hospital, without providing evidence, while Hamas denied the allegations. The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs al-Ahli Hospital, condemned the attack, saying it occurred on “Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year.” It said the twin strikes demolished the hospital’s two-storey…

AT least 34 people have been killed and 117 injured, including 15 children, after a Russian attack on the centre of Sumy, according to Ukrainian authorities. Two Iskander-variant ballistic missiles struck at around 10:15 local time (08:15 BST), both hitting the area around Sumy State University and its congress centre. Images and videos of the aftermath show bloodied bodies scattered in the streets around the impact of the missiles. At least two children were killed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said among the injured was a girl born this year, adding that medics were doing “everything they can” to save as…

SUDAN’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced that it took control of famine-hit Zamzam camp in the western Darfur region, after two days of heavy shelling and gunfire there and in nearby areas that killed at least 100 people, including children and aid workers. The RSF said in a statement on Sunday that it deployed “military units to secure civilians and humanitarian medical workers in Zamzam … after successfully liberating the camp entirely from the grip of” the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The paramilitary group on Friday launched ground and aerial assaults on North Darfur’s besieged capital of el-Fasher…

GABON’s military leader Gen Brice Oligui Nguema – who in 2023 led a coup that ended a near-60-year dynasty – has won Saturday’s presidential election with more than 90% of the vote, provisional results show. Ahead of the vote, critics argued that the new constitution and electoral code were designed to give Oligui Nguema a comfortable pathway to the top job. Some opposition heavyweights who could have posed a serious political challenge were excluded from the race. His election victory consolidates his grip on power, nearly two years after he masterminded the demise of President Ali Bongo, whose family had…

LA LIGA leaders Barcelona extended their unbeaten run to 24 games but were far from their best in a narrow victory at relegation-threatened Leganes. They needed an own goal by Jorge Saenz to get over the line – the home defender forced into the error from Raphinha’s tantalising cross, with Robert Lewandowski lurking ominously behind him for a tap-in. Leganes, who are two points from safety but won the return fixture between the sides in December, had the better chances in the first half – Adria Altimira forcing a good save from Wojciech Szczesny, and Dani Raba twice going close.…

THE Israeli military has said it completed the construction of what it calls the Morag Corridor, which cuts off the city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, as it expanded its attacks on the southern part of the Strip. The Israeli army’s Arabic language spokesperson on Saturday issued new forced displacement orders for several neighbourhoods in Khan Younis, warning of an imminent attack “with great force” in response to alleged Hamas rockets fired at Israel from this area. Residents in Qizan an-Najjar, Qizan Abu Rashwan, al-Salam, al-Manara, al-Qurain, Maen, al-Batn al-Sameen, Jurt al-Lot, al-Fakhari and the southern neighbourhoods of…

STRONG winds wreaked havoc in Beijing and parts of northern China on Saturday, causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled, attractions to close and rail lines to be suspended, state media said. The powerful winds stemmed mainly from a cold vortex system formed over Mongolia that was moving east and south, sweeping across northern China from Friday through the weekend, the China Meteorological Administration said. “The strongest winds are expected during the daytime of April 12, with wind speeds at some observation stations approaching or even surpassing historical records for the same period since 1951,” the CMA said in a…

THE Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has carried out a two-day attack on famine-hit camps for displaced people in the Darfur region that killed more than 100 people, including 20 children and nine aid workers, according to the United Nations. Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, on Saturday said the RSF and allied militias launched an offensive on the Zamzam and Abu Shorouk camps and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province. The camps were attacked on Friday and again on Saturday, Nkweta-Salami said in a statement, and nine aid…

GABONESE voters began casting ballots on Saturday in a presidential election with eight candidates that is widely expected to make junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema the oil-rich central African country’s first elected leader since his 2023 coup. Oligui, the general who led the August 30, 2023, putsch that ended 55 years of iron-fisted dynastic rule by the Bongo family, who were accused of looting Gabon’s wealth, has been leading in opinion polls. Snaking queues were seen outside polling stations in Libreville, the seaside capital. Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, voted for the first time ever after finishing his shift as a…

EGYPTIAN forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract extension with Liverpool, ending long-running speculation about a potential switch to the Saudi Pro League. While the club did not disclose the contract’s exact duration, it is understood the new deal will keep Salah at Anfield until 2027. His previous agreement was due to expire this summer, raising concerns about his future following ambiguous statements and interest from Saudi clubs. A decade of excellence at Anfield With this extension, Salah is poised to complete a decade with the Reds, having joined from AS Roma in 2017. Over eight years, the…

THE United Nations says Palestinian women and children were the only fatalities in at least three dozen Israeli air strikes on Gaza since mid-March, as it warned that Israel’s military offensive threatens Palestinians’ “continued existence as a group”. Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday that the office had documented 224 Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for displaced people in the Gaza Strip between March 18 and April 9. “In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and…

UKRAINE’s European allies vowed Friday to step up weapons deliveries as support from the United States dries up under President Donald Trump. The US leader has switched Washington’s focus from backing Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion to trying to negotiate a peace deal with President Vladimir Putin to halt the war. Britain and Germany took the reins of a meeting of Ukraine’s backers at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels — that used to be chaired by the United States under president Joe Biden. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dialled into the talks via video call. “In the weeks to come, we…

EVERY DAY, 40-year-old Landry Obame-Mezui drives a taxi in Gabon’s capital Libreville. But it’s not just any taxi. It’s a sparkling, brand-new white car with the inscription “Taxi Gab+”. For Mr Obame-Mezui, it is a shining symbol of a promise to Gabon’s youth from coup mastermind-turned-transitional leader Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, who has ruled since August 2023. With 40% of young people out of work, Oligui Nguema has offered more than 800 new vehicles to young people through a hire purchase scheme. Mr Obame-Mezui used to drive a taxi owned by someone else. He says, thanks to the interim leader,…

AN American pastor has been kidnapped by armed men after they stormed his church service in South Africa, local authorities say. Josh Sullivan had been conducting a service at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township in Gqeberra in the Eastern Cape, on Thursday evening when “four armed and masked male suspects entered”, police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge told the BBC. The men stole two phones before fleeing the church in the 45-year-old pastor’s silver Toyota Fortuner. Police later found the vehicle abandoned, but there was no trace of Mr Sullivan. A spokesperson from the US State Department told the…

MANCHESTER United goalkeeper Andre Onana was at fault for two goals as a last-gasp Lyon equaliser put Manchester United’s Europa League quarter-final tie in the balance at the halfway stage. United went behind after 25 minutes when under-pressure Onana failed to get a strong enough hand to Thiago Almada’s wide free-kick. In the final seconds of the first half Leny Yoro equalised with his first goal for United by reacting quickly to Manuel Ugarte’s volley and diverting the ball into the bottom corner. The visitors thought they had won late on when substitute Joshua Zirkzee headed home Bruno Fernandes’ looping…

RESCUERS continue to search for 80 missing people after multiple Israeli air strikes on Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza City killed at least 35 Palestinians on Wednesday. At least 21 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn with the majority in Gaza City where Israel continues its relentless bombardment. Our sources on the ground report that the Israeli army has fired more than five artillery shells targeting the eastern area of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Salah al-Din Street. Salah al-Din Street is the main north-south thoroughfare in the Gaza Strip. Earlier, 10 Palestinians detained from Gaza…

MICHELLE Obama has spoken out against rumours that her marriage to Barack Obama might be in trouble. The former first lady has not accompanied her husband to several high-profile events – including Donald Trump’s inauguration and the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter – fuelling speculation that they might be separating. Without explicitly mentioning these occasions, Mrs Obama told the Work in Progress podcast hosted by actress Sophia Bush that she was now in a position to control her own calendar as a “grown woman”. She said that people were not able to believe that she was “making a decision”…

A ZIMBABWEAN court denied bail Thursday for nearly 100 people arrested 10 days ago for allegedly protesting against the rule of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Police rounded up the 95 men and women on March 31 at a small protest in central Harare mobilised by a veteran of the ruling ZANU-PF party who has called for the president to leave office. They were charged with breaching the peace and participating in gatherings with intent to promote public violence, offences that carry sentence of up to five years in jail. Magistrate Isheunesu Matova said he denied bail on the grounds of public…