AS major countries of the world await with eagerness to celebrate 2024, a few nations have already begun their celebrations. China, New Zealand, Australia and Kiribati were one of the first nations to ring in 2024 as ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza cast a pall over celebrations and heightened tensions across parts of the world. Residents of Auckland welcomed in the new year with a fireworks display over Sky Tower, New Zealand’s tallest structure. Jubilant crowds began bidding farewell to the hottest year on record Sunday, closing a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, climate crises and wrenching…
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LIVERPOOL forward Mohamed Salah is the leading name in Egypt’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations released by the record seven-time titleholder’s Portuguese manager Rui Vitoria on Saturday. Salah will be joined in attack by Al-Ahly forward Mahmoud Kahraba. But out of the running for the January 13-February 11 competition in the Ivory Coast are Abdallah Said, of Egyptian club Pyramids, Mahmoud Hamdy from Zamalek, and Al Ahly duo Hussein El Shahat and Mohamed Magdy. Egypt were beaten by Senegal in the last Cup of Nations final in 2021 and their last triumph dates back to 2010, so Vitoria…
A SEASON to forget so far for Manchester United brought a predictably dismal end to 2023. The 2-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground swept away all the positive energy generated by the thrilling Boxing Day comeback against Aston Villa. Proposed new club director Sir Dave Brailsford sat next to legendary former manager Sir Alex Ferguson for the latest painful staging post in an awful campaign that has already seen United lose an incredible 14 games – the most before the end of the year in a single season since 1930-31, when they finished bottom. Big-money signings are…
MANY displaced Gazans are living “in the open, in the parks,” Juliette Touma of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has told the BBC. According to the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), at least 100,000 people have fled to Rafah – which borders Egypt in Gaza’s south – in recent days. UNRWA’s Ms Touma said the UN was being authorised to bring in “limited assistance”. But Gaza’s humanitarian needs, she said, “have massively grown”. She said UNRWA continued to face “restrictions to access areas in the Gaza Strip where we should access”. Israel has said it is not limiting…
NORTH Korea plans to launch three more spy satellites next year as part of efforts to ramp up its military, the country’s state media has said. Last month Pyongyang put a spy satellite into space – and claims it has since photographed major US and South Korean military sites. Setting out his aims for 2024, Kim Jong Un also said his dealings with South Korea would see “fundamental change”. And he said he had no option but to press ahead with his nuclear ambitions. Speaking at an end-of-year meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, Mr Kim said unification…
UN peacekeepers are finishing their withdrawal from Mali on Sunday, after a long-running mission lasting a decade. Minusma – the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission – began in 2013 after an armed rebellion, but has been asked to leave by the country’s ruling military government. The UN mission’s head said it did a lot but fell below expectations. With some 310 peacekeepers killed, Minusma was the UN’s second deadliest mission worldwide, after Lebanon. In the summer, Mali told the UN that its 12,000 peacemakers needed to leave, and the UN Security Council voted to withdraw the mission UN staff have been…
SOUTH Africa has filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel is engaging in “genocidal acts” in Gaza. The UN court confirmed the application concerning alleged violations of Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly rejected the allegation, calling it “baseless”. “Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel spread by South Africa”, the foreign ministry said. The ICJ, which is based in the Hague in the Netherlands, is the UN’s principal judicial organ. It settles disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues. Following its application to the ICJ, South…
ACCORDING to the Confederation of Africa Football, Nigeria ranks fourth in terms of tickets purchased ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast next year. The 34th edition of the AFCON has been slated to hold January 13 to February 11, 2024, across five cities on the south coast of West Africa and CAF on their official handle on Thursday tweeted ticket purchases. Ticket sales for Nigeria are among the top five on the continent, says CAF. According to the data on the football governing body X handle, a total of 12,544 tickets have been purchased by the…
DEFENDING champions Senegal have to show that having won the Africa Cup of Nations with players playing in the biggest European leagues they can now triumph with those competing in the Saudi championship, said head coach Aliou Cisse. Cisse on Friday selected a quintet of stars who were pivotal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations success in 2022 but who now ply their trade in Saudi Arabia. Previously Cisse had refused to select players playing there due to the low quality of the league in comparison to the European leagues. However, stars of the calibre of talismanic forward Sadio…
THE United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday said that their aid convoy came under fire by the Israeli military while it was entering the Gaza Strip. However, the attack didn’t cause any casualties. “Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army — our international convoy leader and his team were not injured but one vehicle sustained damage,” UNRWA’s director in Gaza, Tom White, wrote on X. According to UNRWA, the incident took place on Thursday afternoon. Responding to the requests for comments by AFP, the…
AT least 30 people have been killed in what Ukraine says is Russia’s biggest missile bombardment of the war so far. More than 160 people were injured as Russia hit Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Lviv in the early hours of Friday morning. Russia “used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal”, with homes and a maternity hospital hit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukraine’s air force said it had never seen so many missiles launched at once. Kyiv’s air defences have drastically improved in recent months, but on Friday they were overwhelmed. An Air Force spokesperson said Russia…
FULL provisional results of elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be announced Sunday, the electoral commission said on Friday, with a large victory expected for incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi. Some 44 million people were registered to vote on December 20 in chaotic elections to choose a president, national and regional lawmakers and municipal councillors. Out of the 15.9 million votes counted by Friday evening, Tshisekedi was well ahead with about 73 percent of the votes in the central African nation. The election was hit by bureaucratic disarray, as the electoral commission struggled to get voting materials to polling…
THE UN and the World Food Programme on Friday warned that a lack of funding could lead to the imminent suspension of humanitarian flights in coup-hit Niger, where 4.3 million people are in need of aid. The international organisation had in mid-November announced the resumption of its humanitarian flights after they were suspended following a coup on July 26 which saw the military oust elected leader Mohamed Bazoum. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) could be suspended imminently due to a lack of funding, the UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA and the WFP said in a joint statement. It…
THE Board of Directors of the Media Trust Group (MTG) has approved a minor reorganisation in the management team of the company as part of efforts to enhance operational efficiency, thereby accelerating the pace of the conglomerate’s growth. As part of the exercise, Ahmed Ibrahim Shekarau has been mandated to oversee the affairs of the multimedia company as Group Chief Executive Officer in acting capacity. Shekarau, who has been the Group Executive Director in charge of Business Development since December 2021, has equally been given the added role of Editor-in-Chief of the print arm of the company’s newspapers, Daily Trust…
AFRICA Cup of Nations hosts Ivory Coast included a smattering of overseas stars in their 27-man squad for the January 11-February 11 competition released on Thursday. The Ivory Coast’s French manager Jean-Louis Gasset has called up Borussia Dortmund striker Sebastien Haller, Monaco defender Wilfried Singo, and midfielders Ibrahim Sangare of Premier League side Nottingham Forest, Seko Fofana (Al Nassr) and Franck Kesslie (Al Ahli). But missing from Gasset’s list are Galatasary forward Wilfried Zaha and Beskitas defender Eric Bailly. The Ivory Coast are drawn in Group A alongside Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Equitorial Guinea. Ivory Coast Squad: Goalkeepers: Yahia Fofana (Angers/FRA),…
AN estimated 150,000 Palestinians are being forced to flee areas of central Gaza, the UN has said, as Israeli forces advance on refugee camps there. Witnesses and Hamas’s armed wing reported that tanks had reached the eastern outskirts of Bureij camp. Israel’s military recently expanded its ground offensive to target Bureij and nearby Nuseirat and Maghazi camps. Israeli bombardment also killed dozens of people across Gaza on Thursday, the health ministry said. Egypt has confirmed that it has put forward a three-stage proposal to stop the fighting which ends with a ceasefire. A Hamas delegation is said to have arrived…
MAINE’s top election official has ruled that Donald Trump cannot run for president next year in the state, citing a constitutional insurrection clause. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Mr Trump was not eligible because of his actions leading up to the US Capitol riot in 2021. Maine now joins Colorado as the two states to ban Mr Trump from the ballot. The decisions increase pressure on the Supreme Court to weigh in. Colorado votes reliably Democratic, however, Maine is more politically competitive and would be more significant for Mr Trump – the Republican frontrunner – to lose. The 34-page…
RUSSIA on Thursday reopened its embassy in Burkina Faso after a gap of nearly 32 years after the West African nation fell out with former colonial ruler France. The Burkinabe foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that “Russia formally reopened its embassy this Thursday in Ouagadougou.” Russia’s ambassador to Ivory Coast, Alexei Saltykov, said he would head the mission in Burkina Faso until the new ambassador is named and described Burkina Faso as “an old partner with whom we have solid and friendly ties”. “Despite our physical absence here, bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields have never ceased,”…
MORE than 40 people were feared dead when a tanker truck exploded after crashing in central Liberia, the country’s chief medical officer told local media on Thursday. The tanker carrying gasoline crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the capital Monrovia. Dr Francis Kateh told local broadcaster Super Bongese TV it was difficult to determine the number of victims because some had been reduced to ashes but he estimated that more than 40 people were killed in the incident. “We have our team going from home to home to check…
SIR Jim Ratcliffe has said it will take “time and patience” to “bring sporting success” back to Manchester United. The British billionaire has agreed to buy a 25% stake in the Old Trafford club for about $1.3bn (£1.03bn). His Ineos Group will take control of football operations and Ratcliffe will also provide $300m (£236m) for future investment into United’s stadium. Ratcliffe has told supporters “we recognise our responsibility as custodians of the club on your behalf”. In an open letter to fans, he added: “I believe we can bring sporting success on the pitch to complement the undoubted commercial success…