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ZAMBIA’s President Hakainde Hichilema has suspended three top judges over alleged judicial misconduct, prompting accusations of political interference in the judiciary. In 2016, the three Constitutional Court judges dismissed President Hichilema’s petition, in which he challenged the election victory of former President Edgar Lungu. They also took part in a controversial ruling allowing Lungu to stand in the 2021 elections, despite having twice served as Zambia’s president. Political tensions are rising in Zambia ahead of elections in 2026, when Hichilema and Lungu are expected to face each other for a fourth time. The three were due to be part of…

A LONG-DISTANCE bus has come under attack by gunmen in South Sudan on a main road south of the capital, Juba, leaving at least one person dead and several others feared kidnapped, the army has said. The passenger vehicle, heading for the Ugandan capital, Kampala, was targeted on Tuesday morning. Images from the scene show flames engulfing the inside of the bus and black smoke rising up into the sky. Despite a peace deal being in place to end years of civil war in South Sudan, insecurity remains rife in many parts of the country. Army spokesperson Maj Gen Lul…

JIGAWA State Independent Electoral Commission has presided over the inauguration of a judicial panel on electoral malpractices regarding the far approaching October 5, 2024 Local government elections. A statement signed by the Commission’s Public Relation Officer, Malam Habibu Yusuf Yarima, last Friday, showed that, the state Chief Justice,had administered the swearing of 13 judges under the leadership of Justice Musa Ubale, who are to receive complaints from those who felt they were cheated of their victory or any other negativities emerged during the elections across the state. The inauguration was attended by the state’s Attorney General, the chairman of the…

MANCHESTER City and Spain midfielder Rodri could miss the rest of the season due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury, according to reports in Spain on Monday. The 28-year-old limped off during City’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday after going down holding his right knee. ESPN and Spanish sports daily Marca reported that tests on Monday have confirmed an ACL tear. Rodri’s loss would be a huge blow to City’s hopes of winning a fifth consecutive Premier League title and ambitions of reclaiming the Champions League. The former Atletico Madrid player has lost just one…

ISRAEL’s army has said it launched more than 650 attacks on some 1,300 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon over the past 24 hours. According to the Lebanese health ministry, the attacks have killed 492 people, and wounded 1,645 others. Israeli attacks have caused widespread chaos across Lebanon and have forced scores of people to flee parts of southern and eastern Lebanon as concerns over a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah continue to grow. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has expressed “grave concern” for the wellbeing and safety of civilians residing in southern Lebanon, and reiterated its strong…

A SUSPECTED gunman arrested near Donald Trump’s golf-course wrote a note months earlier saying he intended to kill the former president, a court filing shows. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” the note says. Prosecutors included the note in a court filing on Monday, and said they would try to charge 58-year-old Ryan Routh with the attempted assassination of a major political candidate. Routh has been in custody since his arrest on 15 September in Florida. US Federal Judge Ryon McCabe ordered that Routh remain behind bars without bail pending his trial, saying that the “weight of the…

AT least 30 decomposing bodies have been found on a boat off the coast of Senegal, military authorities say. The navy was informed of a vessel that was adrift about 70km (45 miles) from the capital Dakar, according to a military statement on X. They brought the wooden canoe, or pirogue, into port on Monday morning. “Recovery, identification and transfer operations are being made extremely delicate by the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies,” the statement said. There has been a recent increase in migrants setting off from Senegal for Spain’s Canary Islands – a journey of more than…

AN Egyptian ship has delivered a significant consignment of military equipment to Somalia, security officials in the capital, Mogadishu, are quoted as saying. Somali Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur thanked Egypt in a social media post without specifically mentioning the weapons. This is the second such delivery from Egypt in a month as relations deteriorate between Somalia and its neighbour and one-time close ally Ethiopia. Egypt, a long-time rival of Ethiopia, has taken the opportunity to move closer to Somalia, stoking concerns about rising tensions in the Horn of Africa. The military cargo, carried on a warship that arrived on…

MANCHESTER City forward Bernardo Silva said only one team came to play football in their 2-2 Premier League draw with Arsenal, who were accused of employing “dark arts” at Etihad Stadium. But Gunners manager Mikel Arteta claimed it was “a miracle” his side came so close to victory after playing the second half with 10 men. John Stones’ 98th-minute equaliser denied Arsenal what would have been a huge victory over the defending champions. After winger Leandro Trossard was controversially sent off in first-half injury time, the Gunners had just 12.5% of possession in the second half. City had 28 shots…

HEZBOLLAH has announced that it launched dozens of rockets at Israel’s Ramat David Airbase, east of Haifa, in response to a series of Israeli attacks, prompting the UN to war of an “imminent catastrophe” if the tit-for-tat violence continues. Sirens were activated across northern Israel in the early hours of Sunday. If confirmed, the assault would be Hezbollah’s farthest-reaching attack inside Israel since the start of the ongoing cross-border clashes in October last year. The Israeli military said more than 100 projectiles were fired early on Sunday from Lebanon, forcing hundreds of thousands to take cover and prompting school closures…

BRITAIN’s criminal prosecution body said Sunday it had twice received evidence against the now-disgraced ex-Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed, accused by multiple women of sexual assault and rape, but had not brought charges. Numerous women previously employed at the high-class London department store accused Fayed of sexual assault in a BBC documentary released on Thursday, including five alleging rape. Thirty-seven women are being represented by a legal team bringing claims against Harrods, accusing it of enabling the “systematic” abuse of young women and girls over 25 years. Lawyers said they had received over 150 new enquiries since the BBC investigation. A…

KENYA has pledged to send 600 more police officers to Haiti in the coming weeks to help fight gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby areas. This would bring the Kenyan contingent, deployed incrementally since June to help the Caribbean nation’s beleaguered police force, up to 1,000. During a visit to the country, Kenya’s President William Ruto also said he supported turning the current Kenya-led security mission into a full United Nations peacekeeping operation. A handful of other countries have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops. Violence in Haiti is still rife and a UN human rights…

A NUMBER of emerging economies across Africa have the potential to become digital asset hubs. Simultaneously, the cost of compliance for crypto exchanges is increasing as regulatory clarity emerges, according to Ben Caselin, chief marketing officer of VALR, a crypto exchange based in Johannesburg, South Africa. “South Africa is the entryway to the rest of Africa with a good rule of law and independent judiciary. It’s easy to open a company in South Africa,” Caselin told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. Caselin views several emerging economies in the African subcontinent as promising hubs for digital asset adoption. In April, South…

DANIEL Dubois sensationally dismantled fellow Briton Anthony Joshua in five rounds to catapult himself into global sporting stardom in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. The 27-year-old dropped Joshua multiple times to retain the IBF heavyweight title and leave his domestic rival’s career in ruins. Londoner Dubois stopped Joshua, 34, with an incredible counter right hook to secure the biggest win of his 24-fight career. “Are you not entertained?” Dubois shouted post-fight, to huge cheers in the packed-out stadium. “I’m a gladiator. I am a warrior to the bitter end. I want to get to the top level of…

THE sounds of gunfire and teargas continue around the Al Jazeera offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli soldiers raided and shuttered the bureau. Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully entered the building where Al Jazeera’s bureau is and handed the 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari early on Sunday. They did not provide a reason for the decision. Speaking over the phone from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the West Bank raid and closure order “comes as no surprise” after the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.…

KAMALA Harris has challenged Donald Trump to a second debate before the United States presidential election, saying she “will gladly accept” to go head-to-head again against the former president. In a statement on Saturday, Harris’s campaign spokesperson Jen O’Malley said the US vice president had accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on October 23. “We look forward to Vice President Harris again having the opportunity in the CNN debate to show her command of the issues and why it’s time to turn the page on Donald Trump and charge a new way forward for America,” O’Malley said. More than 67…

THE Zimbabwean government has approved the slaughter of 200 elephants to feed hungry citizens. A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority, Tinashe Farawo, confirmed the development to CNN on Monday. “We are targeting to cull 200 elephants,” Farawo said, lamenting rising cases of elephant-human conflict amid lingering food insecurity caused by severe drought in the East African country. He added: “The animals are causing a lot of havoc in communities, killing people. Last week, we lost a woman in the northern part of the country who was killed by an elephant. “The previous week, the same thing happened.…

KENYAN President William Ruto has landed in the Haitian capital to assess a Kenya-led security mission in the Caribbean nation, a day after a United Nations expert warned that Haiti faced deepening violence and insecurity. In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for Ruto said the Kenyan leader would “visit and commend the Kenyan contingent working alongside their Haitian counterparts”. Ruto also planned to meet with Haiti’s transitional presidential council and other officials, Hussein Mohamed said in a social media post. The visit to Port-au-Prince comes about three months after the first Kenyan officers arrived in Haiti as part of…

TOP-LEVEL footballers playing too many games will have a damaging effect on the sport in future, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) president has told the BBC. In recent weeks, a handful of leading figures in the game have spoken out against the increase in games, with Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri saying players are close to going on strike. Fifa’s expanded 2025 Club World Cup has increased the burden, since a competition that lasted around ten days and involved a maximum of two matches for the big teams will now span a month and require seven matches for…

LEBANON’s Ministry of Public Health says at least 14 people have been killed and 66 wounded in an Israeli air attack on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut. The National News Agency (NNA) reported that five children were among the casualties from Friday’s attack on a building in Jamous Street. The agency said an F-35 jet hit the residential area with two attacks. The Israeli military said it has carried out a “targeted strike” in the Lebanese capital targeting top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders of the Radwan special forces unit. Hezbollah later confirmed that Aqil…