Author: Editor

ISRAEL will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, has told Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to state media. Salami made the statement on Thursday after unprecedented attacks in the previous two days on Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, which killed 37 people and wounded more than 2,900 when hundreds of devices were detonated almost simultaneously. The “axis of resistance” refers to Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces. Lebanon and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the attacks on…

CANADA announced Wednesday it was slashing international student permits next year, and tightening foreign worker rules to further bring down the number of temporary residents in the country. The move comes after several recent rounds of restrictions aimed at taming record immigration levels that pushed Canada’s population past 41 million earlier this year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has pointed to the high immigration as straining the country’s housing sector, jobs market and social services. “It is a privilege to come to Canada. It is not a right,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a news conference. In 2025, Ottawa plans…

GABON’s deposed President Ali Bongo has announced he will quit politics a year after he was toppled from power by a military coup. “I wish to reaffirm my withdrawal from political life and the definitive renunciation of any national ambition,” Mr Bongo said in a letter addressed to the Gabonese people. The 65-year-old also called for the release of his wife and son who are in detention awaiting trial on corruption allegations. It is not clear whether his statement follows any negotiations with the military rulers, or if he is hoping that by agreeing to quit politics, he will secure…

GUINEA’s most wanted fugitive – a former senior military officer who escaped from prison last November – has been extradited from neighbouring Liberia, along with his son. Ex-Col Claude Pivi will now serve his life sentence after being convicted in absentia for his role in a massacre of opposition supporters at a stadium in the capital Conakry in 2009, Guinea’s military prosecutor said. He and his son, Verny Pivi, were arrested on the border of the two states during a routine security check on Tuesday. Photos circulating online showed Pivi looking frail and handcuffed alongside his son, who is accused…

SPARTA Prague marked their return to the Champions League after almost 19 years with a thumping win over Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg. The Czech champions’ last appearance in the competition proper came in December 2005 when they finished last in a group containing Arsenal, Ajax and FC Thun. After such a long wait Sparta needed just 107 seconds to take the lead at home to Salzburg through Kaan Kairinen’s effort on the rebound. Victor Olatunji doubled Sparta’s advantage shortly before half-time with a fine volleyed effort. Qazim Laci rounded off the win in the 58th minute with a simple…

AT least 20 people have been killed and more than 450 wounded by a second wave of explosions from wireless communication devices in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry says. Walkie-talkies used by the armed group Hezbollah blew up in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon – areas seen as its strongholds. Some of the blasts took place during funerals for some of the 12 people who the ministry said were killed when Hezbollah members’ pagers exploded on Tuesday. Hezbollah blamed Israel for that attack. Israel has not commented. The attacks came as Israel’s…

HAITI’s government has set up a provisional electoral council to prepare the troubled Caribbean country for its first general elections since 2016. The electoral council represents groups including farmers, journalists, human rights activists and the Vodou community and is tasked with setting up a legal framework for elections and organising the poll, which is due to be held by 2026. The council created on Wednesday has seven members, the prime minister’s office said on social media platform X. Two other seats, one for human rights groups and another for women’s rights organisations, still lack a delegate, the office added. Smith…

THOUSANDS of supporters of Ghana’s main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have been protesting nationwide to demand an independent forensic audit of the country’s voter register. Party officials say they have identified errors in the electoral roll for December’s nationwide poll that require correction. The election authority says errors that were previously identified have been corrected. Ghana, which has held a series of peaceful but hotly contested votes over the past three decades, is heading for another knife-edge presidential election. In the capital, Accra, demonstrators clad in red and white T-shirts, carried placards with inscriptions such as “we…

MILITANTS insurgents in Burkina Faso have stepped up attacks on civilians, carrying out door-to-door killings, slitting throats and targeting Christian worshippers, a report by campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. It quoted data showing that more than 6,000 deaths, including around 1,000 civilians killed by militants, have been recorded in the West African state in the first eight months of the year. Burkina Faso has been battling militant groups, including those linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), since 2016. When Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in a coup two years ago, he pledged to improve the dire…

MANCHESTER United enjoyed the ‘perfect night’ as their biggest victory under Erik ten Hag to cruise into the EFL Cup last-16 at the expense of hapless League One outfit Barnsley. Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and veteran midfielder Christian Eriksen all scored twice, while Brazilian winger Antony converted a first-half spot-kick in what turned into a rout by the end. It was United’s biggest win since they hammered Southampton 9-0 in February 2021 when the stands were still empty due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was certainly a night to remember as far as Ten Hag’s tenure is concerned. United had…

ON Sunday, Yemen’s AnsarAllah, commonly known as the Houthis, launched what they said was a hypersonic missile at central Israel. It caused fires, triggered air raid sirens, and sent residents running for shelter in the area around Ben Gurion Airport. The Houthis said Israeli defence systems could not take down their missile. An Israeli official said nine people suffered minor injuries. The Houthis have been attacking ships they see as linked to Israel – in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait – since November, in proclaimed solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel’s continuing war…

INFECTIONS of drug-resistant superbugs are projected to kill nearly 40 million people over the next 25 years, a global analysis predicted on Monday, with the researchers urging action to avoid this grim scenario. Superbugs — strains of bacteria or pathogens that have become resistant to antibiotics, making them much harder to treat — have been recognised as a rising threat to global health. The analysis has been billed as the first research to track the global impact of superbugs over time and to estimate what could happen next. More than a million people died from the superbugs — also called…

GUNMEN attacked a military police base early Tuesday in the Malian capital Bamako where gunfire and explosions were heard and the airport was closed, sources, witnesses and an AFP correspondent said. “This morning armed men attacked at least one military police base in Bamako. They have not been formally identified,” a police source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Volleys of gunfire interspersed with explosions began at around 5:00 am and black smoke could be seen rising from an area near the airport. “Bamako airport is temporarily closed due to events,” an airport official said without saying how long the…

POLICE in Namibia are investigating the death of four children who were playing in an empty old freezer in the north-eastern Zambezi Region. Aged between three and six, the children were found inside the unused deep freezer in the densely populated area of the town of Katima Mulilo on Monday afternoon. The police believe the children were accidentally trapped while playing and suffocated inside but investigations are under way. Of the four children, two suffocated to death in the fridge while two others died in the hospital while receiving treatment, the public broadcaster reported. “When I came in, I saw…

THE hearing into Manchester City’s 115 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules began on Monday. City were charged and referred to an independent commission in February 2023 following a four-year investigation. It is alleged City breached its financial rules between 2009 and 2018. City strongly deny all charges and have said their case is supported by a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”. The Premier League claim City breached rules requiring the club to provide “accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position”. This information covered club revenue, which includes…

THREE Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City, following a day of bombardment that killed at least 35 people across Gaza, the Palestinian Civil Defence says. UN rights experts warn that Israel will become a “pariah” over its “genocide” in Gaza, in a joint news conference in Geneva. At least one Palestinian has been killed and others wounded in an Israeli bombing of a home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent reports. Two other homes were also attacked, AJA reported, citing Palestinian media, with Israeli forces preventing ambulance…

RYAN W Routh, the 58-year-old man suspected of planning to assassinate Donald Trump, has been charged with two gun-related crimes in federal court a day after being spotted with a rifle on the perimeter of the former United States president’s golf course in Florida. Phone records suggest the suspect may have been lying in wait for nearly 12 hours, hiding in the bushes with a loaded SKS semi-automatic rifle, according to court documents filed on Monday. Routh, who appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of…

THE three West African countries run by military juntas will be launching a new biometric passports “in the coming days” as part of their withdrawal from the wider regional bloc Ecowas. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, whose military leaders took over power in series of coups between 2020 and 2023, announced their plan to leave the bloc in January. Following the coups, West African countries sanctioned the juntas, aiming to push them to quickly restore civilian rule. But the three nations that now form the Alliance of Sahel States have so far resisted the calls, opting to cement their alliance.…

RESCUERS in Sierra Leone are continuing to search for more survivors after a seven-storey building collapsed in the capital Freetown, killing at least eight people. The West African country’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) said six people had been rescued from the rubble on Shell New Road so far, but “more people remain trapped”. It added that some of those in the rubble had been “able to communicate their locations” to the rescuers. The building in eastern Freetown collapsed between 11:00 and 12:00 local time (12:00 and 13:00 BST) on Monday, the NDMA said. Two girls and a boy -…

NATIONAL Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has expressed optimism that President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies would in the end elevate Nigerians’ standard of living. Ganduje stated this in a statement which he personally signed on Sunday to felicitate with Muslim Umma on the occasion Eid Maulud. According to him, President Tinubu’s passion for transformative change requires the support of all to succeed. While asking the faithful to reflect on the Prophet’s exemplary life and strive to emulate his noble qualities, the APC national chairman admitted that the country needs the collective prayer and support of…