MORE than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a Gaza school sheltering displaced people, according to Palestinians officials in Gaza. “The Israeli strikes targeted the displaced people while performing Fajr (dawn) prayers, [which] led to a rapid increase in the number of casualties,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement following the attack on Saturday morning. Gaza’s civil defence agency said three Israeli rockets hit the school, describing the incident as a “horrific massacre”, with some bodies catching fire. Al Jazeera’s Hamda Salhout, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said that the bodies…
Author: Editor
Read More
AN airplane carrying 58 passengers and four crew crashed Friday in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, killing everyone on board, local officials said. The aircraft, a French-made ATR 72-500 operated by the airline Voepass, was traveling from Cascavel in southern Parana state to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport when it crashed in the city of Vinhedo. Images broadcast on local media showed a large plane nosediving at high speed, while others showed a large column of smoke rising from the crash site in what appeared to be a residential area. “There were no survivors,” the city government in Valinhos — which…
A BRITISH terror suspect has been deported to the UK after completing a lengthy prison sentence in Kenya. Jermaine Grant, 41, was arrested in London on Thursday after arriving on a flight from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. He was jailed in 2011 after bomb-making equipment was discovered in his flat in Mombasa, a Kenyan coastal city. Grant is thought to have shared the flat with Samantha Lewthwaite, who is dubbed the “White Widow” and is wanted in connection with London’s 7/7 bombings. After he was arrested in 2011, Kenyan police accused Grant of plotting to bomb tourist hotels on the country’s…
THE family of an 11-year-old girl allegedly killed by a US diplomat in Zimbabwe in a road accident in June have told the BBC they want him to return to the country and apologise to them in person. Ruvarashe Takamhanya is believed to have been run over by a vehicle driven by the diplomat as she was on her way to school in Dema, a town 40km (24 miles) south-east of the capital, Harare. Her parents say they realise the US diplomat has diplomatic immunity but an apology might help them recover from the pain and give them a sense…
THE Kano State Government has filed a fresh fraud charge against the immediate past governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, his Commissioner for Local Government, Murtala Garo, and two others. News Point Nigeria reports that the charges, documented and submitted by the Kano State Ministry of Justice, accuse the defendants of conspiring to divert over ₦57.43 billion meant for the 44 local government areas of Kano State. This colossal sum, intended for developmental projects and public services, was allegedly funnelled into personal accounts and used to acquire luxurious properties both locally and internationally. The charge sheet names Garo, Lamin Sani, and Muhammad…
THE Senate has raised concern over 1.5bn dollars approved in 2021 for the turn-around maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery with little or no result. Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Chairman, Senate Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Alleged Economic Sabotage in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, raised the concern during an interactive session with stakeholders on Wednesday, in Abuja. Mr Bamidele, who is also the Senate Leader, said it was unfair and wrong to treat public companies shabbily while private businesses were flourishing and thriving. He recalled that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, had approved the plan by the Ministry of Petroleum…
THE prolific Soufiane Rahimi scored twice and captain Achraf Hakimi netted a stunning free-kick as Morocco hammered Egypt 6-0 on Thursday to take Olympic men’s football bronze. Rahimi’s brace took him to eight goals at the Olympics, cementing his status as the tournament’s top scorer, while Abde Ezzalzouli, Bilal El Khannouss and Akram Nakach also scored in a comprehensive win at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes. Hakimi’s late strike put the icing on the cake as Morocco claimed a first Olympic football medal and a first for North Africa. Morocco, who beat Argentina in their opening group game…
QATAR, Egypt and the United States have called on Israel and Hamas to resume talks to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as Israel’s continued bombardment of the territory has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and raised fears of further regional escalation. In a joint statement on Thursday, the three countries urged Israel and Hamas “to resume urgent discussion” on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay”. “It is the time to conclude a ceasefire agreement and release hostages and prisoners,” they said. “We have worked for…
THE UK government and police breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after further anticipated far-right riots failed to materialise overnight and thousands of anti-racism protesters massed on the streets instead. The anti-racism demonstrations on Wednesday evening passed off almost entirely peacefully after police flooded the streets of numerous English towns and cities and reiterated violence by suspected far-right agitators would not be tolerated. It follows a week of near-nightly riots — during which mosques and migrant-related facilities have been attacked — nationwide and in Northern Ireland. The violence was fuelled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected…
ZAMBIAN police said Thursday they had arrested opposition politician Fred M’membe over a post alleging the DR Congo leader claimed to have paid his Zambian counterpart millions of dollars to buy off criticism. M’membe, leader of the small Socialist Party, was arrested for “the offence of seditious practices,” police said in a statement. A journalist and lawyer, M’membe, 65, has regularly clashed with authorities for his outspoken criticism of Zambia’s government. The police said they acted after M’membe posted on social media on July 16. An article entitled President Felix “Tshisekedi tells DRC Catholic Bishops about the USD 20 million…
KENYAN police have fired tear gas to disperse small groups of anti-government protesters in the capital, Nairobi, demanding better governance as a new cabinet was sworn in. Businesses in the city were closed and public transport paralysed as police mounted roadblocks on major roads to bar protesters from accessing the central business district. The demonstrations are a continuation of months-long anti-tax protests that have since morphed into calls for President William Ruto to resign. The youth-led protests have already forced the president to withdraw planned additional taxes and dissolve his cabinet. Mr Ruto has appointed senior opposition officials to his…
THE Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has blamed Israel for the attack that killed Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh last week in Iran, which has vowed to retaliate. A statement issued after an extraordinary meeting of the 57-member bloc on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia said it “holds Israel, the illegal occupying power, fully responsible for this heinous attack”, which it described as “a serious infringement” of Iran’s sovereignty. The Gambia’s Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, whose country chairs OIC, said Haniyeh’s “heinous” assassination and the ongoing war in Gaza could lead to a regional conflict. “The aggression and violation of the…
A PAKISTANI official with ties to Iran has been arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the United States, the department said in a statement. “For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Soleimani, the…
THE West African Defence chiefs have called for the enthronement of civilian rule among member states, insisting it is the best option. The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Christopher Musa, who made the call, urged West African Chiefs of Defence Staff to uphold democratic values. Musa stated this Wednesday at the 42 Committee of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff meeting in Abuja. This newspaper reports that Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso Defence Chiefs shunned the meeting despite being invited. He said the military’s change of government in West African countries has had unintended consequences and threatened their democratic values in…
RUSSIA has accused Ukraine of opening a “second front” in the war between them in Africa after Mali and Niger broke off diplomatic relations with Kyiv, accusing it of supporting “terrorist groups”. The claim by Moscow followed an announcement from Niger’s military government on Tuesday that it has cut ties with Ukraine. Several states in West Africa have recently ditched longstanding ties with the West to turn to Russia. Niamey said on Tuesday that the change in relations with Ukraine would happen “with immediate effect”. The move was in line with that of neighbouring Mali’s military government, which on Sunday…
ATLETICO Madrid have agreed an £81.5m deal to sign Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez. The fee is made up of an initial £64.4m (75m euros) with a further £17.1m (20m euros) in potential add-ons. It would be a record sale for City, surpassing the £50m Chelsea paid for Raheem Sterling in 2022. Alvarez said he would wait until Argentina’s involvement in the 2024 Olympics football ended before making a decision on his future. The team were knocked out by hosts France last Friday. City manager Pep Guardiola had been keen to keep the 24-year-old, and said earlier in August he…
HAMAS says it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza, as the new leader of its political bureau. The selection of Sinwar follows Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran on July 31, the Palestinian group said on Tuesday. “The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the selection of Commander Yahya Sinwar as the head of the political bureau of the movement, succeeding the martyr Commander Ismail Haniyeh, may [God] have mercy on him,” the group said in a brief statement. Sinwar, 61, is seen by Israel as the mastermind behind the October 7 attack by Hamas inside Israeli territory, in…
VICE President Kamala Harris had just 16 days to pick someone she could be linked to forever. She ended up going with one of the options that she — and the rest of the world — knew the least. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was a dark horse from the start, left off early lists of potential running mates. But no one used the 16 days since President Joe Biden stepped aside more effectively than Walz, who charmed Harris and national Democrats alike with a Diet Mountain Dew-fueled media tour that labeled the opposition as “weird” and won him a spot…
TWO years after a global outbreak, fears are rife that a new strain of mpox — previously known as monkeypox — identified in DR Congo and now also in several neighbouring countries could further spread. Deadlier and more transmissible than previous forms, the mpox strain surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since September, known as the Clade Ib subclade, is spread person-to-person. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday it was considering convening an expert committee to advise on whether to declare an international emergency, as it did during the global mpox outbreak in 2022. The Clade…
SOUTH African police said they rescued 90 Ethiopian migrants who were being held against their will at a property in Johannesburg. Police carried out a search at the property on Sunday for a person reported to have been kidnapped and discovered the migrants, they said. Two people were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and human trafficking. The alleged kidnapping victim was also rescued, police said Monday. The Ethiopian migrants are believed to have been illegally trafficked. They were packed into small rooms and kept locked up, police said. They were taken to a hospital for medical care and the two…