Author: Editor

RUUD van Nistelrooy has returned to Manchester United to become an assistant to manager Erik ten Hag as part of a coaching reshuffle. Van Nistelrooy enjoyed five prolific seasons as a striker at the club after joining in 2001. The Dutchman scored 150 goals, putting him 11th on the club’s all-time list but left in controversial circumstances after falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson. He has been out of work since quitting as PSV Eindhoven manager just before the end of the 2022-23 season after he had won the Dutch Cup, with players unhappy with his coaching methods. The 48-year-old…

THE United States has announced new sanctions on several Israeli settlers and affiliated groups, accusing them of involvement in violence or threats of violence targeting civilians, seizure of property or other actions that threaten security in the occupied West Bank. The sanctions announced by the US Department of State and the Department of the Treasury on Thursday target Israeli individuals Isachar Manne, Reut Ben Haim, and Aviad Shlomo Sarid, and four illegal Israeli settlement outposts; Manne Farm, Meitarim Farm, Hamahoch Farm, and Neriya’s Farm. The US also blacklisted Lehava, an umbrella group for Israeli settlers, which it described as the…

AUSTRALIAN authorities have charged a soldier and her husband with spying on behalf of Russia. The couple, a 40-year-old army private and 62-year-old self-employed labourer, are accused of obtaining Australian Defence Force material to share with Russian authorities, Australian police said on Friday. The pair, both of whom are Russian-born Australian citizens, are due to appear in court on Friday to face one count each of preparing for an espionage offence after being arrested at their home in Brisbane the previous day, police said. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment under legislation introduced in 2018. Australian…

KENYAN President William Ruto announced Thursday the dismissal of almost his entire cabinet and consultations to form a “broad-based government”, as he scrambled to contain the fallout of deadly protests against his administration. The East African nation was left reeling after peaceful rallies last month over steep tax increases escalated into violence with police firing at crowds who stormed parliament, leaving it partly ablaze. Organised online and led largely by young, Gen-Z Kenyans, the protests plunged Ruto’s administration into the most serious crisis of his presidency, forcing him to abandon the finance bill containing the tax hikes. In the latest…

SENEGALESE customs said in a statement Thursday that they had intercepted more than 360 kilogrammes of cocaine worth $48.3 million in the southeast of the country. The authorities have made an increasing number of cocaine seizures in recent months from neighbouring countries — notably Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali — which are reputed to be transit zones for drugs produced in Latin America on their way to Europe. In a statement, customs police said they seized 365.4 kilogrammes of cocaine in the town of Koupentoum from a lorry travelling from an unspecified “neighbouring” country. The drugs, worth 29.2 billion CFA…

ENGLAND will face Spain in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin on Sunday after a last-minute strike from substitute Ollie Watkins sealed victory over the Netherlands. Gareth Southgate’s side looked to be going into extra time for the third successive game after Harry Kane’s contentious first-half penalty equalised a thunderous early strike from Xavi Simons until Watkins struck. England dominated the first half, with Phil Foden outstanding, hitting the post with one long-range effort and drawing a fine save from Dutch keeper Bart Verbruggen. The Netherlands, who saw Denzel Dumfries’ header hit the bar before the break, took control after…

THE Israeli military has ordered all Palestinians to leave Gaza City and head south, as it presses ahead with a fresh offensive across the north, south and central area of the Gaza Strip that has killed dozens of people over the past 48 hours. Leaflets dropped from the air on Wednesday urged “everyone in Gaza City” to leave and to take “safe routes” south towards Deir el-Balah and az-Zawayda. Gaza’s Interior Ministry has called on residents in Gaza City to refrain from following Israeli evacuation orders, saying the instructions are a part of the Israeli army’s psychological warfare against Palestinians.…

ELON Musk has won dismissal of a lawsuit claiming he refused to pay at least $500m of severance to thousands of Twitter employees he fired in mass layoffs after buying the social media company now known as X. United States District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco, California ruled on Tuesday that the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) governing benefit plans did not cover the former employees’ claims, and therefore she lacked jurisdiction. The case is one of many accusing Musk of reneging on promises to former Twitter employees, including former Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, and vendors after…

THE man who masterminded a $130m (£100m) banking scandal that caused national outrage in South Africa has been jailed for 15 years, the country’s police service has said. Tshifhiwa Matodzi was the chairperson of VBS Mutual Bank, which collapsed in 2018 after being looted for years. The scam stretched from impoverished rural villages all the way to government circles, and defrauded ordinary South Africans. In court on Wednesday, Matodzi pleaded guilty to 33 counts, including corruption, theft, fraud, money laundering, and racketeering. The former bank boss’s combined sentence amounts to 495 years as he was handed 15 years for each…

RWANDA has said it is not required to refund the UK after a multi-million pound migrant deal between the two countries was scrapped. New UK Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer announced at the weekend that the plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda was “dead and buried”. The scheme was forged by the previous Conservative government, which since revealing the plan in 2022 has paid Rwanda £240m ($310m). Legal challenges meant the scheme never took off and the UK expressed hope on Monday that some money from the deal could be recouped. The following day, a…

THE family of Nura Alhaji Tijjani from Kabuga Tudun Yola, Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State, have lamented the prolonged detention of their breadwinner, who was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) three years ago. They are seeking the release of Tijjani or, at the very least, for him to be taken to court to begin his trial, as they remain unaware of the charges against him. This newspaper reported that Tijjani, a POS operator along BUK Road, was arrested alongside his shop attendant, Nasiru Abdullahi Abdulhamid, on July 13, 2021, around 6 PM, and…

LAMINE Yamal, 16, became the tournament’s youngest-ever goalscorer as Spain came back to beat France 2-1 in Munich on Tuesday and reach the Euro 2024 final. Trailing after Randal Kolo Muani headed in a Kylian Mbappe cross in the ninth minute, Spain turned the match around in four minutes, scoring twice against a side that had only conceded once in five previous games in this tournament. Yamal, who turns 17 a day before Sunday’s final against either the Netherlands or England in Berlin, equalised with a superb strike from outside the box, curling a long-range effort into the top corner…

UNITED Nations human rights experts have accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has resulted in the deaths of children in Gaza. “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent UN experts said in a statement on Tuesday. Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva dismissed the statement and accused the experts of “spreading misinformation” and “supporting Hamas propaganda”. Gaza health authorities have said at least 33 children have died of malnutrition, mostly in northern Gaza, which…

A TAIWANESE sergeant has been indicted for allegedly photographing and leaking confidential defence information to China, prosecutors said Tuesday. Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and has ramped up military and political pressures on the island in recent years. The sergeant, surnamed Chen, worked at a navy training centre and was recruited by an unspecified number of people who “collected intelligence for mainland China” via messaging apps in 2022, said Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office. “Between April 2022 and February 2023, he photographed secret national defence information in (the counties of) Pingtung, Yilan and other places with his mobile phone,”…

A SPANISH tourist has been trampled to death by elephants after climbing out of his car to take photos of the herd at a game reserve in South Africa. The unnamed 43-year-old man was visiting Pilanesberg National Park on Sunday morning with his fiancee and two other people when the attack happened, according to police. The group had been driving around in their own vehicle before spotting three elephants with three calves, officers said. Once the man got out of the car and walked towards the herd, the matriarch became “agitated” and charged at him, said Pieter Nel, a spokesman…

A YOUNG Tanzanian portrait artist who was convicted last week of cybercrimes has been released from prison after social media users raised more than $2,000 (£1,600) to pay his fine. Shadrack Chaula was ordered by a court to pay the fine or face two years in prison after he admitted recording a video that went viral on social media, showing him burning a picture of President Samia Suluhu Hassan while insulting her. “Thank you very much fellow Tanzanians for coming to my rescue,” Mr Chaula told journalists shortly after his release on Monday. The case sparked an uproar in the…

ABOUT 72 hours after two journalists and their family members were abducted in the Danhonu community of Kaduna Millennium City; their whereabouts have remained unknown while their relatives continued to stay closer to their telephone hoping someone would call. This came as the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, and the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, joined the growing list of groups and individuals condemning the abductions of the journalists and members of their families, describing their kidnap as heinous and unacceptable. In their separate statements, NEF and AYCF, called on security agencies to ensure their unconditional and immediate release. Recall that…

HAMAS says escalating Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip are not helping negotiations to end the war and has accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of creating obstacles to the talks. In a statement on Monday, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh warned that the “catastrophic consequences of what is happening in Gaza” could “reset the negotiation process to square one”. Netanyahu and his army will bear “full responsibility for the collapse of this path”, Hamas quoted Haniyeh as saying. The statement said Haniyeh made “urgent contact” with mediators Qatar and Egypt over the expanding actions of the Israeli military, which issued…

RUSSIA struck cities across Ukraine on Monday with a missile barrage that killed 31 people and heavily damaged a Kyiv children’s hospital in an assault condemned as a ruthless attack on civilians. Dozens of volunteers, doctors and rescue workers were digging through debris of a part of Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw. The first responders ran for cover when sirens and a explosion sounded after the initial strikes — a repeat attack that left four dead at a maternity hospital in a separate district of…

SENEGALESE President and West Africa’s ECOWAS “facilitator” Bassirou Diomaye Faye called Monday for dialogue and peaceful reconciliation with three countries that recently split from the bloc. The military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso broke away from the Economic Community of West African States earlier this year and formed a confederation of their own on Saturday. ECOWAS heads of state met in Abuja on Sunday and deplored the “lack of progress in interactions” with Burkinabe, Malian and Nigerien authorities, who came to power in a series of recent coups. “We cannot stand idly by”, Senegal’s President Faye said in…