SENEGAL’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has introduced legislation that could double the maximum penalty for same-sex relations, making them punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The proposal was sent to parliament on Tuesday after cabinet approval last week, after a wave of arrests over alleged same-sex relationships, already banned under Senegal law. Addressing lawmakers, Sonko said the bill would punish what it describes as “acts against nature” with prison sentences ranging from five to 10 years, compared with the current one- to five-year terms. “If an act is committed with a minor, it will attract the maximum penalty,”…
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ZIMBABWE has rejected a US health deal that would have provided $367m (£272m) in funding over five years because of Washington’s demand for sensitive data. The decision has come to light after a government memo from December was leaked, revealing that President Emmerson Mnangagwa felt the deal was “lopsided”. A government spokesman has since explained the US was demanding access to biological samples for research and commercial gain but said it was not willing to share the benefits for future vaccines and treatments. “We will now turn to the difficult and regrettable task of winding down our health assistance in…
QUESTION: Salaamu Alaikum, Ya sheikh. I was wondering what a woman can do on laylat al-qadr if she is menstruating at that time. Can she earn extra rewards for engaging herself in worship? if so, what is permissible for her to do so that night? Halima Sabo Ibrahim, Abuja – ANSWER: Amin Alaikum Salaam Wa Rahamatullah. A woman who is menstruating may do all acts of worship apart from praying, fasting, circumambulating the Ka’bah and doing i’tikaaf in the mosque. It was narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to stay up at night…
PARIS Saint-Germain footballer Achraf Hakimi, a key player in their Champions League-winning side last season, is to stand trial charged with raping a young woman, his lawyer and a French prosecutor told AFP Tuesday. In February 2023, a woman then aged 24 told police in Val-De-Marne southeast of Paris that Hakimi had raped her. The 27-year-old Moroccan international, who played a pivotal role in Morocco becoming the first African and Arab side to reach the World Cup semi-finals when they made the last four in 2022, denies any wrongdoing. “Today, a rape accusation is enough to justify a trial, even…
ISRAELI soldiers fired more than 900 bullets at a convoy of clearly marked Palestinian emergency vehicles in Gaza before advancing to kill the surviving aid workers, some of whom were shot “execution-style” at close range, last March, a new joint investigation has revealed. The report released on Monday by independent research agency Forensic Architecture and audio investigation group Earshot offers the most detailed reconstruction to date of the massacre in Tal as-Sultan, a neighbourhood west of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2025. Fifteen aid workers were killed in the attack, including paramedics from the Palestine Red…
UNITED States President Donald Trump has lashed out at media reports stating that General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned him of potential risks of attacking Iran, including becoming entangled in a prolonged conflict and the possibility of US casualties. Trump responded to the reports in a social media post on Monday, stating that Caine believes a war with Iran, which the president has threatened with a military attack if it does not accept a series of demands, could be “easily won”. The Washington Post newspaper reported earlier in the day that Caine had told Trump…
SOUTH Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for helping to secure the return of 17 South Africans allegedly tricked into joining the Russia-Ukraine war. Last November, the South African government said it had received distress calls from the group of men who had joined mercenary forces in the conflict. The men believed they were going to Russia for bodyguard training but instead ended up on the front line of the war in Ukraine. Ramaphosa’s office confirmed that four of them had returned last Friday, 11 others would be “on their way home soon” and another…
GHANA’s government has removed the name of a coup leader, who helped overthrow founding father Kwame Nkrumah exactly 60 years ago, from the country’s main airport. Kotoka International Airport will now be known as Accra International Airport, its original name. But the move has not been without controversy. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka was among a group of officers who deposed Nkrumah in 1966. He himself was killed at the airport the following year during a failed counter-coup attempt. The military government then renamed it in 1969 in his honour, portraying him as a “liberator” from what they saw as Nkrumah’s authoritarian…
QUESTION: Salaamu Alaikum Ya Sheikh. If a calamity befalls a Muslim, how can we know whether it is a punishment for his sins or a test to raise him in status? Nasiba Ahmed Koki, Kano – ANSWER: According to the Qur’an and Sunnah, there are two direct causes for calamities and trials, in addition to the wisdom of Allah, may He be exalted, in what He wills and decrees. Sins and acts of disobedience that the person has committed, whether they constitute kufr or are no more than regular sins or are major sins. Allah, may He be glorified and…
BENJAMIN Sesko was Manchester United’s super-sub for the second match running as the Slovenian scored the only goal against Everton to send Michael Carrick’s men clear in fourth spot. Thirteen days after Sesko struck deep in injury time to rescue a point at West Ham, the £73.7m forward applied a clinical first-time finish to a 71st-minute counter-attack that he had started deep in his own half. Sesko kept motoring after laying a pass off to Matheus Cunha. By the time Cunha had delivered a long pass to Bryan Mbeumo, the eager Sesko had outrun Everton’s defence and was on hand…
ISRAELI settlers have defaced and set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, marking the latest incident in a wave of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the territory. The Wafa news agency reported on Monday that settlers graffitied racist slogans on the walls of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq Mosque, located between the towns of Sarra and Tal, near Nablus in the north of the West Bank. Worshippers arriving for the day’s first prayers found the damage and a smouldering fire that spewed black smoke across the mosque’s entrance and stained the ornate…
VENEZUELA’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil has demanded the immediate release of the country’s President Nicolas Maduro, who was abducted last month in a violent raid orchestrated by the United States. Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Gil demanded Maduro’s “immediate release” by the US government, alongside his wife, Cilia Flores. Maduro and Flores have been in prison in New York since the January 3 operation, awaiting trial on drug trafficking and so-called conspiracy to commit “narcoterrorism” charges. Despite the whirlwind operation, relative calm has prevailed in Venezuela since, while faultlines in the country’s leadership remain…
CHAD closed its eastern border with Sudan “until further notice” on Monday saying the move was needed to stop repeated incursions by Sudanese armed groups. A government spokesperson said the decision aimed to protect citizens but added that “exceptional exemptions, strictly justified by humanitarian reasons”, may be granted with prior authorisation from the relevant authorities. The closure was announced after heavy fighting erupted in the border town of al‑Tina between Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and local fighters aligned to the Sudanese army. Almost a million Sudanese have crossed the border into Chad since the civil war broke out in…
THE youngest son of Zimbabwe’s late former President Robert Mugabe has been formally charged with attempted murder at a brief appearance in a South African court. Bellarmine Mugabe, 28, was arrested last week after a 23-year-old man was shot and injured at a property in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg last Thursday. He was then taken into custody alongside his bodyguard – neither man has commented on the charges. Appearing in court, dressed in black, Mugabe looked calm during the proceedings. Bellarmine is the youngest son of Robert and his second wife Grace Mugabe. Robert Mugabe, who died in 2019,…
QUESTION: Salaamu Alaikum Ya Sheikh. I was going to travel on a particular day, so I broke the fast in my house then I had intercourse with my two-week old new bride. What do I have to do? Please note that I thought that the expiation was to make up that day only, I did not know that it is fasting for two consecutive months or feeding ten poor persons. Ali Abba Inuwa, Kaduna – ANSWER: Amin Alaikum Salaam Wa Rahamatullah. The evidence from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and scholarly consensus, indicates that the traveller may break the fast of…
EBERECHI Eze was Tottenham Hotspur’s tormentor again as Arsenal made a title statement of intent by restoring their lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points with victory in the north London derby. The pressure was on the Gunners after they lost a two-goal lead at relegation certainties Wolverhampton Wanderers in midweek, while Manchester City closed the gap with victory over Newcastle United on Saturday evening. Spurs had high hopes of turning up the heat further in interim manager Igor Tudor’s first game in charge, but Arsenal simply possessed too much class and threat for their…
AS soon as the “ceasefire” in Gaza began in October, Palestinian farmer Mohammed al-Slakhy and his family headed straight for their farms in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City. After more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza – and despite ongoing Israeli attacks – it was finally safe enough to return, and attempt to rebuild and restore. Mohammed and his family spent months clearing rubble from the ground and whatever was left of their greenhouses, which were flattened during the fighting, like many of the buildings in Gaza. With very limited resources, they prepared the soil and…
US Secret Service agents fatally shot a man armed with a shotgun who breached the security perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in the early hours of Sunday morning. Trump was in Washington at the time of the incident, which officials said happened around 1:30 am (0630 GMT). The suspect, a man in his early 20s, was spotted by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property, carrying a shotgun and a fuel can, the Secret Service said. Agents confronted the man and told him to disarm but he raised his gun. “The only words that we said…
SUDAN’s government has denounced Uganda for hosting the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), calling the meeting an “affront to humanity”. Sudan’s foreign ministry, aligned with the nation’s armed forces, said Uganda had flouted international law by welcoming RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose fighters are accused of committing widespread atrocities throughout the continuing civil war. On Friday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he met with Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, at his presidential home in the city of Entebbe. Museveni, appointed by the African Union to mediate between Sudan’s military and the RSF, said he emphasised “a…
POLICE in Libya have recovered the bodies of five asylum seekers that washed ashore near the capital, Tripoli, as authorities in Greece announced the deaths of three others in a separate incident off the coast of Crete. The bodies in Libya were found on Saturday by residents of the coastal town of Qasr al-Akhyar, according to a police officer. Hassan al-Ghawil, head of investigations at the Qasr al-Akhyar police station, told the Reuters news agency that the bodies were all of “dark-skinned people”. Two of them were women. He said people in the area had reported seeing a child’s body…