Author: Editor

JAPAN says it is committed to more ‘sustainable development’ with Africa as it pursues to make itself a relevant and different partner from other world powers seeking a slice of the continent. Last week, Japan hosted foreign ministers from around the continent for the 9th ministerial meeting under the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad-9). The meeting in Tokyo, as is tradition, was held in predation for the Ninth summit to be held in August 2025 in Yokohama. Ticad was began 31 years ago to help built a forum for discussions on African development. Since then, however, more world…

ITALIAN Serie A side Napoli have reached an agreement with Saudi club side Al Ahli for African Footballer of the year Victor Osimhen. According to a tweet from sports journalist, Fabrizio Romano, on his official X handle, the deal is worth €75/80m. Osimhen would be signed onto the club side for four years and would be earning €25/30m per season. The club side also included an affordable and easy release clause for Victor Osimhen as part of their proposal and it is lower than reported €100m. Medicals have beeen scheduled for later today. Chelsea F.C were favorites to sign 25…

AN Israeli missile hit a convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Strip, killing several people from a local transport company, the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) group has said. Israel claimed without immediate evidence that it opened fire after gunmen seized the convoy. The strike killed several people employed by a transportation company that the aid group was using to bring supplies to the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s director for the Palestinian territory, said on Friday. The strike happened Thursday on Salah al-Din Street in the Gaza…

A SINGAPOREAN man has been sentenced to nearly four years behind bars after attempting to frame his estranged wife by placing cannabis in her car, knowing she could get the death penalty. Tan Xianglong, 37, was sentenced at a district court on Thursday to three years and 10 months in jail, court documents showed. The couple had been estranged for less than two years, after having sought a divorce but failing to get one immediately because of the short duration of their union, the documents said. Tan had been angry at his wife because he thought she did not contribute…

RUSSIA is withdrawing 100 of its paramilitary officers from Burkina Faso to help in the war in Ukraine. They are part of about 300 soldiers from the Bear Brigade – a Russian private military company – who arrived in the West African nation in May to support the country’s military junta. On its Telegram channel, the group said its forces would return home to support Russia’s defence against Ukraine’s recent offensive in the Kursk region. There are fears the pull-out could embolden Islamist insurgents in Burkina Faso, who recently killed up to 300 people in one of the biggest attacks…

A MILITARY alliance between Somalia and Egypt is ruffling feathers in the fragile Horn of Africa, upsetting Ethiopia in particular – and there are worries the fallout could become more than a war of words. The tensions ratcheted up this week with the arrival of two Egyptian C-130 military aeroplanes in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, signalling the beginning of the deal signed earlier in August during a state visit by the Somali president to Cairo. The plan is for up to 5,000 Egyptian soldiers to join a new-look African Union force at the end of the year, with another 5,000 reportedly…

AS the nation groans under hunger, hardship and inflation, the governor of the Central Bank, CBN, Yemi Cardoso, and his four deputies are lavishing in abundance, purchasing ulta-modern armored vehicles and smiling home with jumbo allowances. The CBN governor and his deputies were nominated and confirmed by the Senate in September 2023. This newspaper gathered that Mr Cardoso recently procured six armored Lexus LX 600 2023 models for himself and four deputies at the cost of over N10 billion. Insiders said each of the apex bank’s deputy governors — Emem Usoro, Philip Ikeazor, Bala Bello and Sani Abdullahi — has…

UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin on Thursday honoured Cristiano Ronaldo with a special award in recognition of his remarkable legacy in the world’s most prestigious competition. Cristiano Ronaldo the all-time leading goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League. Ronaldo’s achievements in Europe’s premier club competition – over the course of more than 18 years – were recognised during the inaugural 2024/25 UEFA Champions League 36-team league phase draw ceremony on Thursday 29 August at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The former Sporting Clube de Portugal, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus forward has scored 140 Champions League goals in 183 appearances. He…

ISRAEL’s military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday. The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. (0300-1200 GMT), said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s senior official for the Palestinian territories. He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would…

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has defended a decision to grant fast-track citizenship to indicted Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Serbia, Macron said that granting nationality to high-profile figures who learn French and contribute to the nation is “good for our country”. “It’s part of a strategy to allow women and men, whether artists, athletes or entrepreneurs, when they make the effort to learn the French language and that they develop wealth, innovation … to be given French nationality,” Macron said. Macron said he had no prior knowledge that Durov was travelling to…

LIBERIA’s former justice minister and chief justice Gloria Maya Musu-Scott has been acquitted of the murder of her niece by the country’s Supreme Court. The 70-year-old and three female relatives had been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal killing in February 2023 of 29-year-old Charlotte Musu. The case gripped the nation as Ms Musu-Scott had been one of Liberia’s most famous judges and politicians, a champion of women rights and at the time of her conviction had just won a significant case against the electoral commission as part of the then-opposition party’s legal team. A jubilant crowd greeted…

ONE of the worst droughts in living memory is sweeping across southern Africa, leaving close to 70 million people without enough food and water. In Mudzi district in northern Zimbabwe, a community and their livestock are gathered on a bone-dry riverbed. The Vombozi normally flows throughout the year but right now, it is just beige sand as far as the eye can see. Armed with shovels and buckets, the men are digging into the river floor, desperately trying to extract the last drops of water from it. Rivers and dams have dried up in other parts of the district and…

SOUTHAMPTON have agreed a fee with Arsenal to sign England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale in a deal worth up to £25m. Ramsdale, 26, is expected to make the move before Friday’s transfer deadline, with Saints paying £18m upfront with the potential of £7m in add-ons. Speaking to BBC Radio Solent after Southampton’s 5-3 Carabao Cup second round win at Cardiff, Saints boss Russell Martin said: “If it happens it’s very, very exciting. “But we’ll have to wait and see. I’m sure we’ll talk about it at some point if and when it happens.” Wolverhampton Wanderers had been in talks with Arsenal…

THE United States has imposed sanctions on an Israeli settler group and a civilian security guard in the occupied West Bank amid intensifying violence against Palestinians in the territory. The sanctions on Wednesday targeted Hashomer Yosh, which describes itself as a volunteer organisation that aims to “protect” Israeli farmers in the West Bank, and Yitzhak Levi Filant, the civilian security coordinator of the Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus. “Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” the US Department of State said in…

AN AMERICAN politician has been jailed for life for killing an investigative journalist who wrote critical articles detailing wrongdoing in the department he headed. Robert Telles, a former Democratic public administrator, lay in wait outside the suburban home of 69-year-old reporter Jeff German and then stabbed him to death on September 2, 2022. “Justice has been served,” Clark County prosecutor Steve Wolfson told reporters. “Today’s verdict should send a message, and that message is a clear message that any attempts to silence the media or to silence or intimidate a journalist will not be tolerated.” Telles, 47, bowed his head…

A VESSEL suspected by the Namibian authorities to be carrying military cargo intended for Israeli use in the ongoing war in Gaza has been blocked from docking in the southern African country. Namibian Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab told state media the ship was stopped because it had “explosive material destined for Israel”. The MV Kathrin, which set off from Vietnam, had requested permission to dock in the port of Walvis Bay – before sailing north, on a suspected route towards the Mediterranean via the Strait of Gibraltar. Rights groups had warned that Namibia could have been implicated in potential human…

A UGANDAN man allegedly found with 24 human skulls may have been using them for human sacrifice and could face life in prison, the police have told the BBC. Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said the suspect, Ddamulira Godfrey, would be charged under the Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Act. Animal remains and skins were also found in Mr Godfrey’s shrine in the suburbs of the capital, Kampala. Police are still searching Mr Godfrey’s shrine in the hopes of recovering more human remains. “We are charging him first under the Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Act, which [prohibits] one…

MANCHESTER United have held exploratory talks over a deal to sign Raheem Sterling from Chelsea. The 29-year-old forward has been training away from the first-team squad after being told by Blues manager Enzo Maresca he will struggle for minutes at the club. While it is being stressed there is no guarantee of an agreement being reached, it underlines United sporting director Dan Ashworth’s desire to see if he can use the situation at Stamford Bridge to his club’s advantage. United sources stress any deal will be on their terms, although winger Jadon Sancho is also available and is known to…

AT least nine people have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials and media, after Israel launched a large-scale ground and air attack on the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The director of the ambulance department at the Palestine Red Crescent Society told Al Jazeera that four people were killed in an Israeli attack early on Wednesday on the Far’a refugee camp in Tubas. Several other people were injured, but the Red Crescent said their teams were having trouble reaching them because Israeli forces were preventing ambulances from entering the area. Two people were also killed in an…

POLICE in the Maldives are investigating an alleged attempt to topple President Mohamed Muizzu by stirring anger over the Indian Ocean archipelago’s worsening financial woes. Last week, the main commercial bank in the upmarket tourist destination drastically reduced the foreign exchange spending allowed for Maldivians, sparking widespread anger. Muizzu has slammed the move as an “illegal attempt” to overthrow his government, by making him unpopular and encouraging street protests. “An investigation has been launched into the alleged coup attempt,” the police said in a statement late Monday. There have been no demonstrations in the capital Male, but scathing criticism of…