Author: Editor

A COUNTER sniper flagged a suspicious man using a rangefinder to the US Secret Service some 20 minutes before a gunman opened fire at a Donald Trump rally, according to members of Congress briefed by law enforcement. A clearer timeline of the events leading up to the assassination attempt has begun to emerge after closed briefings to lawmakers on Wednesday. Local police had initially spotted the gunman, who was acting strangely, at Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally about an hour before the shooting, according to the briefings. They lost him in the crowd before he was spotted again by the counter sniper.…

A KENYAN court has suspended a police ban on protests in the capital, stating that citizens have a right to demonstrate peacefully. Before the High Court’s decision on Thursday, police had barred protests in Nairobi indefinitely, saying they lacked leadership that would ensure peaceful demonstrations. The judge issued a “conservatory order” to prevent the ban from being enforced, pending a final ruling on the case. The court said it will hold another hearing on July 29. The suspension came before a planned protest, in which demonstrators were expected to march to the president’s office calling for his resignation over poor…

RWANDA’s President Paul Kagame has smashed his own record by winning Monday’s elections with more than 99% of the vote, full provisional results show. The 66-year-old won the 2017 election with 98.63% of the vote, higher than the 93% he got in 2010 and the 95% in 2003. His critics say Mr Kagame’s thundering majorities come as no surprise as he rules with an iron hand. However, his supporters say they point to his huge popularity, with Rwanda having achieved stability and economic growth under his rule. Mr Kagame is a former rebel commander whose forces swept to power in…

UMARA, son of the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, on Thursday, denied allegation of killing someone in India. The state government had earlier debunked report of the governor’s son’s arrest over the alleged murder. According to social media reports, Umara, a student at a university in New Delhi, reportedly smashed a bottle of alcoholic drink on a Chinese national who showed interest in the same lady with him at a nightclub. Debunking the reports, Abdurrahman Ahmed Bundi, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Zulum on New Media, in a statement on Wednesday, said none of the governor’s sons “was either arrested…

EURO 2024 winners Spain have six players, including 17-year-old star Lamine Yamal, in the team of the tournament unveiled by UEFA on Tuesday. The lineup, presented in a 4-3-3 formation, features players from various nations who excelled throughout the competition, but however, dominated by winners Spain. In goal, France’s Mike Maignan gets the nod after a series of impressive performances. The defence comprises England’s Kyle Walker, Switzerland’s Manuel Akanji, France’s William Saliba, and Spain’s Marc Cucurella. The midfield trio consists of Spain’s Rodri, Fabián Ruiz and Dani Olmo. The forward line is particularly exciting, featuring Germany’s Jamal Musiala as the…

ISRAEL’s policy toward the occupied West Bank is dooming any prospect of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said. Through administrative and legal steps, Israel is changing the geography of the West Bank, Guterres said in a statement read by his chief of staff, Courtenay Rattray, during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday. Settlement expansion is expected to speed up due to big land seizures in strategic areas and changes to planning, land management and governance, Guterres added. “Recent developments are driving a stake through the heart of any prospect…

A FLORIDA man has been arrested for making death threats against US President Joe Biden, just days after an assassination attempt on his Republican rival Donald Trump. Jason Patrick Alday, 39, was arrested on Monday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida said. Alday, of Quincy, Florida, allegedly “engaged in sending threatening communications, making threats against President Joe Biden and other federal officials,” the office said in an announcement Wednesday. According to the criminal complaint, Alday made threatening statements about Biden while being checked into a mental health facility in Tallahassee, Florida, last month. He allegedly made…

FLOODING caused by heavy rains lashing Niger since June has killed 53 people and impacted 18,000, as the west African country grapples with the effects of climate change, a UN agency announced on Wednesday. An earlier interior ministry toll published on June 20 recorded 21 deaths and nearly 6,000 people affected nationwide. As of July 15, the floods had claimed 53 lives, impacting 2,501 households and a total of 18,098 people, according to a United Nations OCHA report sent to AFP on Wednesday. Floodwaters also destroyed 1,636 homes, 29 classrooms, and killed 10,930 livestock, the agency said, citing the Niger…

KENYAN President William Ruto named Wednesday his foreign minister as “acting cabinet secretary” for all ministries, nearly a week after dismissing almost his entire cabinet in an attempt to defuse deadly anti-government rallies. The East African nation was left reeling after peaceful rallies last month over steep tax increases spiralled into violence that left dozens killed, and Ruto facing the most serious crisis of his presidency. Scrambling to contain the fallout, he has embarked on a series of measures, including scrapping the finance bill containing the tax hikes, announcing government cuts, and last week dismissing almost all of his cabinet.…

FRENCH superstar Kylian Mbappe was officially unveiled as a Real Madrid player on Tuesday, telling 80,000 fans “my dream has come true”. The striker, who had completed his medical earlier on Tuesday morning, signed a five-year contract and was handed a No. 9 shirt by club president Florentino Perez. “Wow,” Mbappe said in Spanish to roars from a packed Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. “For years I’ve dreamed of playing for Real Madrid and today my dream has come true,” said the 25-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain player. “I’m a happy boy. I’m going to give my life for this club,” said Mbappe.…

ISRAEL’s military has bombed another United Nations-run school as well as an Israeli-designed “safe-zone” in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 42 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others, according to Palestinian officials. The Israeli attacks on Tuesday hit the UN’s al-Razi school in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and a main street lined with market stalls in the southern al-Mawasi area, where thousands of displaced Palestinians had sought shelter. At least 25 people were killed in al-Razi while 17 were killed in al-Mawasi, Gaza’s Government Media Office said. More than 70 people were wounded in the attacks. A third Israeli…

PROTECTION for Donald Trump was boosted several weeks ago after US authorities learned of an Iranian plot to kill him, according to national security officials. Officials say there is no known connection between the alleged Iranian plot and the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday in Pennsylvania. However, the disclosure that security had been tightened raises further questions over how Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to climb a building and get close enough to fire at Trump. The US Secret Service and the Trump campaign were notified of the Iranian threat, and security was increased as a…

THE body of Burundi’s former president Pierre Buyoya was repatriated to his home country on Tuesday, more than three years after he was buried thousands of kilometres (miles) away in Mali. Buyoya, who was credited with helping push democracy in the small African nation but accused of involvement in his successor’s assassination, died in Paris in December 2020 after contracting Covid-19. Later that month Buyoya, who died aged 71, was interred in the Malian capital Bamako, his base for eight years as the African Union’s special envoy to Mali and the Sahel. At the time, a senior Burundian government official…

RWANDAN President Paul Kagame is on course to extend his 24-year rule by another five years in a landslide victory, with most of the votes counted from Monday’s election. He has 99.15% of the vote so far, with about 79% of ballots counted, partial results announced by the electoral commission show. The 66-year-old again faced no meaningful opposition, with leading figures banned. His two opponents shared less than 1% of the vote. Mr Kagame thanked Rwandans for their trust in an address at his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party headquarters. “These are not just figures, even if it was 100%,…

GARETH Southgate said he was resigning as England manager on Tuesday two days after they lost to Spain in the Euro 2024 final. “It’s time for change, and for a new chapter. Sunday’s final in Berlin against Spain was my final game as England manager,” he said in a statement. Southgate took over in 2016 when England’s fortunes were at a low ebb. In the last four tournaments he led England to three semi-finals and two finals. Prior to Southgate’s appointment, the Three Lions had reached just three major tournament semi-finals and one final in their history, when they won…

SPAIN sensation Nico Williams has declared that ‘no one can handle us’ after the national team stormed to a record-breaking fourth European Championship title. The Athletico Bilbao starlet, born to Ghanaian parents but representing his country of birth, played a starring role as La Roja defeated England 2-1 in a tense EURO 2024 final. Williams, 21, opened the scoring early in the second half before Mikel Oyazarbal grabbed a late winner after England had briefly levelled through substitute Cole Palmer. In the aftermath of Spain’s triumph, the match-winner lifted the lid on the jubilant celebrations within the Spanish camp. I’m…

ISRAELI forces have attacked five separate schools in Gaza in just eight days, killing dozens of people sheltering in them, according to Palestinian officials, medics and rescuers. The latest attack on Sunday struck the United Nations-run Abu Oreiban school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 80. Most of the victims were women and children, said Palestinian Civil Defence. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where some of those injured were brought, said he encountered severely burned women and children “crying out in pain and agony” on the floor.…

DONALD Trump on Monday named right-wing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate in the US presidential election, rewarding a one-time harsh critic who became one of his most loyal supporters in Congress. Trump, 78, announced his pick on the first day of the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, an extravaganza turbocharged by the attempted assassination of the former president. Seen as the standard-bearer for a new kind of populism that has come to the fore under Trump, 39-year-old Vance embraces the ex-president’s isolationist, anti-immigration America First movement. One of the least experienced VP picks in modern history, the…

THE death toll from a car bombing at a cafe in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu that was packed with football fans watching the the Euro 2024 final has risen to nine, security sources said Monday. Witnesses described scenes of panic and chaos after the powerful blast late Sunday, with people scrambling for safety and the main entrance to the cafe destroyed by the blaze. Mohamed Yusuf, an official from the national security agency, said nine civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in the explosion, raising the official toll of five given by police late Sunday. The popular Top Coffee restaurant,…

KENYAN police said Monday they had arrested a suspected serial killer who had confessed to murdering 42 women including his wife before dumping their dismembered bodies in a Nairobi rubbish tip. Since Friday, a total of nine butchered bodies trussed up in plastic bags have been pulled from the garbage site in the Mukuru slum area in the south of the capital, a gruesome discovery that has horrified the nation. Acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja said the 33-year-old suspect, named Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, was arrested at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) on Monday near a Nairobi bar where…