Author: Editor

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy has lost a court case he brought against his own parents after they moved him from London to Ghana to go to boarding school. The boy, described in court as shy, articulate, a keen cook and footballer, said his parents had tricked him into going to Africa, saying it was to visit a sick relative. He said had he known he was being sent to boarding school “there would have been no way I would have agreed to it”. But the High Court in London also heard his parents were worried he was being “groomed” into criminal…

IVORY Coast football legend Didier Drogba and former Ghanaian international Michael Essien have come to the defence of their former coach Jose Mourinho, who has been accused of making racist remarks by Turkish club Galatasaray. Galatasaray announced that it would pursue legal action against Fenerbahce manager Mourinho following Monday’s drawn league match, during which the 62-year-old allegedly said the home bench was “jumping like monkeys.” Fenerbahce, however, responded by stating that Mourinho’s remarks had been taken out of context and “deliberately distorted.” Drogba, who was Chelsea’s record signing in 2004 and played a key role under Mourinho in winning back-to-back…

THE Israeli military has arrested dozens of Palestinians as part of an expansion of its military operations across the occupied West Bank. At least 50 people were arrested in overnight raids, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, both cited by a report by the Palestinian news agency Wafa on Wednesday. According to Wafa’s report, the military rounded up people for interrogation in the governorates of Hebron, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and Tubas. As part of the campaign, Israeli troops stormed the Majed Abu Sharar School in the city of…

PRESIDENT Donald Trump says the United States will not give Ukraine significant security guarantees as he confirmed that the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would visit Washington, DC to sign a critical minerals deal on Friday. “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump said on Wednesday. “We’re going to have Europe do that.” Zelenskyy had earlier said that a “preliminary” economic agreement between Ukraine and the US was ready but noted that the deal did not yet include any US security guarantees that Kyiv views as vital to ending the war with Russia. A full agreement could…

AT least 46 people have been killed and 10 others injured after a Sudanese military plane crashed in a residential neighbourhood in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital Khartoum, state media says. The Antonov aircraft came down after take-off from the military’s Wadi Seidna air base on Tuesday evening, killing military officers and civilians. The cause of the crash is unclear, but military sources have been quoted as saying that it was likely to have been a technical malfunction. The crash came a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which is at war with the army…

THE UK’s decision to suspend some aid to Rwanda is “punitive”, authorities in the East African country have said. In a statement, the UK said it was against Rwanda’s support for the M23, a rebel group that has captured swathes of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in a deadly uprising. Rwanda used to deny backing the M23, but recently it has adopted a more defensive line, saying fighting near the border between DR Congo and Rwanda is a threat to its security. More than 7,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since the conflict escalated…

FORMER Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand has said the Africa Cup Of Nations(AFCON) needs to be given the same prestige as the likes of the World Cup and other major trophy tournament. ”It should be respected more than it is but what I would say is the lack of resources put into it.. the narrative from the media that comes out is that it is a Mickey Mouse tournament,” Ferdinand said during a podcast on Monday. The 46-year-old’s comments come after fellow Englishman and pundit, Jamie Carragher speaking after Liverpool‘s 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday, felt that Mohamed…

STEPHANE Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, says more temporary housing and other shelters being held up by Israel need to reach the suffering people of Gaza. The comments come after at least six Palestinian infants died from hypothermia during a severe cold spell in the Gaza Strip. “My understanding from our humanitarian colleagues is that there’s been a lot of challenges in getting tents and caravans and tarpaulins in. We continue to push. Some are going in but we need more,” Dujarric told reporters. The deaths of the children come as Israel continues to block the entry of…

SOUTHEAST Asia’s largest bank DBS said that 4,000 jobs could be cut in the next three years and be replaced by artificial intelligence as the technology becomes more advanced. “Over the next three years, we envisage that AI could reduce the need to renew about 4,000 temporary/contract staff across our 19 markets working on specific projects,” a spokesperson from the Singapore bank told AFP on Tuesday, confirming earlier reports. “As such, we expect the reduction in workforce will come from natural attrition as these temporary and contract roles are completed over the next few years.” A Bloomberg Intelligence report last…

EASTERN and southern African regional blocs have appointed former leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria to oversee their peace process for the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting has intensified in the east of the country. The East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) have come together in recent weeks in an attempt to bring peace to eastern DRC, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized large swathes of territory, triggering a humanitarian crisis. The two blocs agreed in a summit on February 8 to merge two separate peace processes — based in Luanda and Nairobi…

SUDAN is facing a growing humanitarian crisis as relief organisations delivering vital humanitarian aid withdraw. In the last few days, the freezing of United States humanitarian assistance to the country has resulted in the reported closure of up to 80 percent of Sudan’s emergency food kitchens, while the dramatic scaling down of the presence of medical NGO Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has led to some of the worst hit parts of the country having no emergency medical cover as violence levels increase. Sudan’s war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support…

MANCHESTER United will scrap free staff lunches at Old Trafford and reduce bonuses as part of a cost-cutting drive to stabilise the club’s finances following five consecutive years of losses. The Premier League club announced on Monday that up to 200 additional jobs could be cut, adding to the 250 roles eliminated last year, in a bid to return to profitability. Man Utd chief executive, Omar Berrada, said the measures were “unfortunate but necessary” to ensure the club’s financial sustainability and compliance with financial regulations. “We have lost money for five years in a row. This cannot continue,” Berrada stated.…

A HAMAS official has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “intentionally sabotaging” the Gaza ceasefire deal after Israel postponed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. In an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday, Basem Naim said Hamas would not engage in further ceasefire talks until Israel releases the 620 Palestinian prisoners who were meant to be freed on Saturday. “Before going to the next step, we have to be sure that the past step, which was releasing 620 prisoners, are already released,” said Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau. “Netanyahu is clearly sending strong messages that he…

A FORMER French surgeon was to go on trial Monday charged with raping or sexually assaulting almost 300 patients, most of them children and some of them unconscious at the time. Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, is already in jail after being found guilty in 2020 of abusing four children, including two of his nieces. In the latest trial, he faces allegations that he assaulted or raped 299 patients, many while waking up from anaesthetic or during post-op checkups, at a dozen hospitals between 1989 and 2014. Some 256 of the victims were under 15, with the youngest aged one and…

VIOLENCE raging in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed “more than 7,000 compatriots”, many of them civilians, since last month, the Congolese premier said Monday. The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized large swathes of the mineral-rich eastern DRC — including the main cities of Goma and Bukavu — in the face of limited resistance from Congolese forces. “The security situation in eastern DRC has reached alarming levels,” Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, stressing that since January, “the deaths of more than 7,000 compatriots” had been registered. They include “more…

THE Sudanese army says it has broken a near two-year siege imposed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the key southern state capital of el-Obeid. The breakthrough came hours after the RSF signed a political charter in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to establish a breakaway government in areas under its control. The RSF and the army have been in a vicious battle for power since April 2023, with tens of thousands of people killed and millions forced from their homes. The war has split the country, with the army controlling the north and the east while the RSF…

LIVERPOOL took a big step to winning the Premier League, crushing an uninspiring Manchester City in a showdown on Sunday. Mohamed Salah stole the show, scoring one and providing an assist to send Liverpool 11 points clear at the top of the table although they have played a game more. The Egyptian opened the scoring with his 30th goal of the season before setting up Dominik Szoboszlai to double the lead before half-time. Just days after exiting the Champions League to Real Madrid, this was another sobering defeat for the dethroned English champions, who are now 20 points adrift of…

A SENIOR Hamas leader, Mahmoud Mardawi, says the Palestinian group will not engage in further discussions with Israel through mediators until Israel releases the 620 Palestinian prisoners supposed to be freed on Saturday. Israel said it’s delaying the release until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of captives in staged ceremonies. Palestinian family members who waited all day and night were distraught. “What have the prisoners done? We don’t know what happened. They killed our joy,” said one mother, Najah Zaqqot. Meanwhile, Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon paid their last respects to Hezbollah’s…

AN American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was diverted to Rome on Sunday due to bomb threat. It was later determined to be “non-credible,” the airline said, adding the flight landed safely in Rome and will depart for Delhi on Monday. The flight, which departed from the John F. Kennedy International Airport, had been heading to the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. “American Airlines flight 292, with service from New York to Delhi, diverted to Rome due to a possible security concern,” American Airlines said in a statement. Law enforcement in Rome inspected and cleared…

SOUTH Africa is set to host Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on a state visit, President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed on X without giving a specific date. The invite comes at the end of a week which saw Kyiv excluded from US-Russia talks on how to bring an end to the three-year war in Ukraine. In a phone conversation, Ramaphosa and Zelensky “agreed on the urgent need for an inclusive peace process”, according to a statement from the South African president. A sentiment Zelensky echoed by saying “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”. South Africa, which has in the past been accused of…