KENYAN Lawmakers have voted overwhelming in favour of removing the country’s deputy president over accusations of corruption. Lawmakers also accuse Rigathi Gachagua of practising ethnically divisive politics and undermining the government. Gachagua denies any wrongdoing in a row that follows his recent fallout with President William Ruto. On Tuesday evening, Speaker Moses Wetangula announced that 281 MPs had adopted an 11-charge impeachment motion with 44 MPs voting against and one abstaining. It means Gachagua has become the first Kenyan deputy president to be impeached by the National Assembly – the country’s Senate will decide if he gets ousted. He is…
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THE UK has offered dozens of stranded African migrants, held for years in a camp on a secretive UK-US military island in the Indian Ocean, a temporary move to Romania. After six months, they could be moved to the UK. Others in the group are being offered financial incentives to go to Sri Lanka where they say they face persecution, the BBC has learned. In 2021, dozens of Tamils became the first people ever to claim asylum on Diego Garcia after their boat ran into trouble. The territory’s unusual status led to a long legal dispute, with the UK government…
VICTOR Osimhen says he is enjoying life in his new home in Istanbul, where he is playing for Galatasaray on a season-long loan from Napoli, The PUNCH reports. The former Sporting Charleroi player was met with thousands of enthusiastic Galatasaray fans who thronged the Istanbul Airport, Turkey, to welcome him as he arrived in the country at 3:30 am to complete his loan move. Osimhen reciprocated the fans’ love by changing his bio while immediately deleting all traces of his parent club, Napoli, from his social media page and flaunted pictures and colours of Galatasaray. Osimhen’s updated bio now reads,…
ISRAEL’s military said that Lebanese armed group Hezbollah had fired some 135 projectiles missiles into Israel on Monday, as the country marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack. “As of 17:00 (14:00 GMT Monday), approximately 135 projectiles fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement, as air raid sirens sounded frequently across northern Israel. This is as Israel began its commemorations Monday of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack, with an outpouring of emotion at vigils at massacre sites and rallies calling for the…
A US judge on Monday ordered Google to open its Android smartphone operating system to rival app stores, in a fresh legal setback for the tech giant. The order is the result of Google’s defeat in an antitrust case brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, where a California jury decided that Google wields illegal monopoly power through its Android Play store. The San Francisco jury in December took just a few hours to decide against Google, finding that the company had embarked on various illegal strategies to maintain its app store monopoly on Android phones. The order, which Google is appealing,…
ETHIOPIA’s parliament has approved the appointment of a new president to replace the country’s first female head of state, Sahle-Work Zewde. Taye Astike Selassie, foreign minister since February, has taken up the largely ceremonial role. In Ethiopia, political power lies with the prime minister – currently Abiy Ahmed. Sahle-Work had reportedly fallen out with Abiy in recent years. The prime minister’s backing of her initial appointment in 2018 was hailed as a breakthrough for gender equality in Ethiopian politics. On Saturday, Sahle-Work posted a brief and somewhat cryptic message on X, implying she was unhappy as a result of staying…
RWANDA has said it will begin vaccine trials for the fatal Marburg virus, which has already killed at least 12 people in the country – most of them health workers. The east African country has received 700 doses of the vaccine from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a US-based non-profit organisation. Those most at risk, like doctors, and those who have come in contact with Marburg patients, will be the initial target for the vaccine, according to Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana The highly-infectious disease is similar to Ebola, with symptoms including fever, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in some cases, death…
MANCHESTER United’s winless run stretched to five games in a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa on Sunday, which did little to ease the pressure on Erik ten Hag. Bruno Fernandes hit the crossbar with the best effort from either side with a second-half free-kick but United have now failed to score in their last three Premier League games. A point leaves Ten Hag’s men still down in 14th, having won just two of their opening seven league games of the season. Fifth-placed Villa missed the chance to move into the top four as they were unable to repeat their heroics…
FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel which has been bombing Gaza for a year now, and recently launched a military operation against Lebanon. “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter on Saturday. “France is not delivering any [weapon],” he added during the interview recorded early this week. While France is not a leading weapons provider for Israel, its voice as a key player in the European Union and as a permanent…
ISRAELI forces have killed Palestinian journalist Hassan Hamad in an air strike on his home in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, days after the slain journalist said he was warned by an Israeli officer to stop filming in Gaza. With the killing of the 19-year-old journalist, whose work appeared on Al Jazeera and other networks, the number of Palestinian journalists killed since the war began has risen to 175, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says at least 128 journalists and media workers are among the more than 41,000 people killed since Israel launched…
SOUTH African police have arrested three people in connection with the massacre of 18 relatives that took place in a remote town last week following a manhunt, the police say. Police Minister Senzo Mchunu confirmed the arrests during the memorial service for the 18 victims on Sunday, in the town of Lusikisiki, in the Eastern Cape, where the killings happened. He added that the arrest of a fourth suspect would be announced soon. Shockwaves erupted across South Africa when gunmen opened fire on two homes, killing fifteen women and three men. Several were shot in the head. The victims were…
POLLS closed Sunday night in Tunisia after voting in a presidential election expected to see incumbent Kais Saied secure another five years in office while his main critics — including one contender — are behind bars. Three years after Saied staged a sweeping power grab, rights group fear re-election will only further entrench his rule in the country which became the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings. With the ouster of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia prided itself on being the birthplace of those regional revolts against authoritarianism. But the north African…
THOUSANDS of Kano Pillars football club fans are excited as the club officially confirmed reaching an agreement with Super Eagle duo Ahmed Musa and Shehu Abdullahi to play for them for the remainder of the Nigeria Premier League season. Sharing this information on their X handle on Saturday, the management of the former Nigerian champions also revealed that both players have been included in their squad for Sunday’s game against Sunshine Stars at their adopted home ground, Muhammadu Dikko Stadium, Katsina. “We can confirm that an agreement in principle has been reached with Super Eagles players, captain Ahmed Musa MON,…
ISRAEL has issued a new warning to thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering in central Gaza, saying its military is preparing to use “great force” against Hamas in the area as it continues to pummel the besieged strip with attacks that have killed at least 22 people since Saturday morning. The evacuation call issued on Saturday is the first in weeks for Gaza, signalling another possible humanitarian crisis with a new wave of mass displacement as Israel’s war approaches its one-year mark, having killed at least 41,825 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded at least 96,910. At least 37 people…
CHINA said Saturday that it has evacuated 215 of its nationals from Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out intense bombardments since last month, resulting in over 1,100 deaths. This week, Israel said its troops launched “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah, following days of heavy strikes on areas across the country where the group holds sway. Israel has recently shifted its focus to securing its northern border with Lebanon, where there have been near-daily clashes since Hezbollah launched strikes in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, after that group’s October 7 attack. Several…
TUNISIA’s President Kais Saied, seen as a saviour by supporters and an autocrat by critics, is running for re-election on Sunday in a vote that he is all but certain to win. More than a dozen politicians had hoped to challenge him, but the electoral commission approved only two additional names for the ballot paper. And one of those, Ayachi Zammel, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for falsifying documents just five days before the poll. Tunisia was where the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against autocratic rulers in North Africa and the Middle East, began in late…
CHAD, a decades-old ally of France, is now cleverly playing off Russia and its traditional Western partners, deepening relations with Moscow in a ploy that irritates and pressures Paris and Washington. President Mahamat Déby visited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin in January, while Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, in June to continue the dialogue. Some Chadian officials have floated the idea of a new military partnership, though the current focus has been on strengthening cultural and media ties. Last month saw the opening of an official Russian cultural centre in N’Djamena. There…
FRENCH international footballer Paul Pogba’s four-year ban for doping has been reduced to 18 months, a spokesperson from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday. “I can confirm the decision: an 18-month suspension with effect from 11 September 2023. The reasons for the decision will follow later,” the CAS spokesperson told AFP. Pogba, who is under contract with Juventus until 2026, will be able to return to competitive football from March 11 next year, four days before his 32nd birthday. Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2023 after a match between Juventus and Udinese. He was…
THE United Nations on Friday condemned what it called an “unlawful air strike” by Israel on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian health ministry said killed 18 children the previous day. “The strike is part of a highly concerning pattern of unlawful use of force by ISF (Israeli security forces) during military-like operations in the West Bank that have caused widespread harm to Palestinians children and significant damage to buildings and infrastructure,” the United Nations rights office said in a statement. “This incident is another clear example of ISF’s systematic resort to lethal force in…
ELON Musk has said he is going to join Donald Trump for an election rally at the site of a July assassination attempt on the former president’s life. Musk, 53, announced on Friday that he will appear at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, the following day. Trump, who served as the United States president from 2017 to 2021, is in the midst of a tight race for a second term in November, and Pennsylvania is a key swing state. Also due to attend on Saturday are Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, and his son, Eric Trump. “I will be…