SOUTH Africa has urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to halt its assault on Rafah as part of its case accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians. South Africa, which filed its case in January over Israel’s war on Gaza, is seeking additional emergency measures over its offensive on Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip where more than one million displaced Palestinians had sought shelter from Israeli attacks on other parts of the enclave. It told the court in The Hague on Thursday that the Palestinian people are facing “ongoing annihilation” and the assault…
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RUSSIA has declared The United Kingdom’s defence attache persona non grata and gave the diplomat a week to leave the country in response to London expelling the Russian defence attache earlier this month over spying allegations. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it summoned a representative of the British Embassy in Moscow on Thursday to express its “strong protest in connection with the unfriendly and groundless decision” to expel the Russian attache from London. “We emphasized that we regard this step as a politically motivated action of clearly Russophobic nature, which is causing irreparable damage to…
A MAN has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar after going missing about 26 years ago. Omar bin Omran disappeared from Djelfa, in Algeria, during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, when he was in his late teens. Now aged 45, Mr Bin Omran has been discovered just 200m from where he grew up. Officials confirmed they had arrested a 61-year-old man suspected of keeping him prisoner. Mr Bin Omran’s disappearance came in the middle of a decade-long conflict between Algeria’s government and Islamist groups. His family feared he had been among an estimated 200,000 killed, or as…
TUNISIAN President Kais Saied on Thursday criticised foreign “interference” after an international backlash over recent arrests of journalists, political commentators, and lawyers, which he defended as lawful. Civil society in the North African country condemned the arrests as a crackdown on dissent in the country that saw the onset of the Arab Spring. Saied, who seized sweeping powers in 2021, ordered the foreign ministry to summon ambassadors of several countries and inform them that “Tunisia is an independent state”, in a video released by his office. The European Union expressed concern this week over the arrests, while the United States…
THE Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P) has warned that Israel’s evacuation orders for the people of Gaza may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity for the forcible transfer of a population. The Geneva-based group noted that under international law, people must have adequate time to prepare for an evacuation, as well as a safe route to an area of safety with access to aid, which are “absent from Israel’s successive evacuation orders”. Humanitarian agencies have warned that Israeli-designated safe zones in Gaza are unable to manage an influx of displaced persons and lack basic services,…
SLOVAKIA’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has been shot multiple times and critically injured in a “politically motivated” assassination attempt, according to the interior minister. Fico, 59, was shot by a gunman five times on Wednesday and underwent several hours of emergency surgery. Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC he believed the operation had gone well. “I guess in the end he will survive,” Taraba told the British broadcaster’s Newshour programme. “He’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.” Taraba said one bullet went through Fico’s stomach and a second hit a joint. Earlier on Wednesday, Interior Minister…
SOUTH Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday signed a new law which aims to provide universal healthcare, two weeks before a general election and despite pushback from the opposition and business groups. “The National Health Insurance (NHI) is a commitment to eradicate the stark inequalities that have long determined… who receives adequate healthcare and who suffers from neglect,” Ramaphosa said at a televised signing ceremony in Pretoria. The fund established under the law will provide healthcare for all at rates to be determined by the government, in one of the world’s most unequal nations. However, it could take years to…
GABON’s deposed President Ali Bongo and two of his sons have gone on hunger strike to protest against their alleged subjection to “acts of torture and barbarity”, the family’s lawyers say. Mr Bongo was ousted in a military coup in August last year, shortly after he won a disputed presidential poll. He was then confined to his house in the capital, Libreville, along with two of his sons, Jalil and Bilal. The ruling junta also placed his wife Sylvia Bongo and eldest son Noureddin in prison, awaiting trial on corruption allegations. In a statement on Tuesday, their lawyers alleged that…
LA LIGA president Javier Tebas says Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe will join Real Madrid next season. The 25-year-old France captain announced last week he is leaving PSG at the end of his contract this summer, without specifying his destination, and Madrid are poised to sign him after years of failed attempts.”He’s Madrid’s next season, yes,” Tebas told Argentine daily sports newspaper Ole on Monday. “If they’ve signed a five-year deal, he has five seasons of opportunity (to win the Champions League).”Mbappe is set to join a star-studded Madrid team led by Brazil’s Vinicius Junior and England international Jude Bellingham.…
ISRAELI forces have intensified attacks across Gaza, bombarding a refugee camp in the centre of the Strip as tanks pushed deeper into eastern parts of Rafah city in the south. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Israeli warplanes struck a home on Tuesday, killing at least 14 Palestinians, including children, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The Israeli military ordered more residents to evacuate in parts of the north, where battles between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters have resumed in recent days after Israel sent troops back into the area, months after claiming it had defeated Hamas…
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a ringing endorsement to a popular Ukrainian pizzeria founded by a war veteran during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday. Alongside his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, the top American diplomat grabbed a slice from “Veterano Pizza”, a military-themed establishment that features a glass tabletop with empty bullet casings. “As somewhat of a knowledgeable person about pizza — as most Americans are — the pizza here is superb. I highly, highly recommend it,” Blinken said. The pair split a meat pizza — called “Ukrainian pizza” by the restaurant — and a vegetarian one.…
THE US Embassy in Tanzania has closed for two days because of an internet outage affecting several East African countries. “Due to degraded network service nationwide, the embassy will remain closed to the public,” the embassy said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. It cancelled all consular appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday and rescheduled them to a later date. The embassy will, however, remain accessible for visa collections and for handling emergency cases involving American citizens. The internet outage has persisted since Sunday morning, causing poor connectivity in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Metrics shared by internet…
ZIMBABWE citizens will continue paying passport fees in US dollars, despite the introduction of a new currency last month, the deputy finance minister has said. David Kuda Mnangagwa said on Monday that there was a pre-existing agreement between the government and the Lithuanian passport printing company, Garsu Pasaulis, for the passport fees to be charged in dollars. Zimbabwe introduced a new gold-backed currency called Zig – the name stands for “Zimbabwe Gold” – in an attempt to stabilise its ailing economy. It replaced the Zimbabwean dollar, the RTGS, that had lost three-quarters of its value so far this year. The…
KYLIAN Mbappe was named France’s player of the year on Monday at an awards ceremony in Paris, as he comes to the end of his seven-season stay with Paris Saint-Germain. Mbappe, 25, picked up the prize for the best player in Ligue 1 at the UNFP (French players’ union) Trophies gala for the fifth time in a row after a season in which he has scored 44 goals in all competitions for PSG. The France captain last week confirmed he will leave PSG at the end of the campaign when his contract expires, with Real Madrid expected to be his…
ISRAEL warplanes have bombed a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing 14 Palestinians including children, Gaza medical sources say. A UNICEF official calls for an end to the “indiscriminate killing of civilians, especially children” in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing again. Around half of Gaza’s population took sanctuary there after Israel ordered evacuations from northern Gaza in October. Gaza’s health authority appealed for international pressure to reopen access via the southern border to allow in aid, medical supplies and fuel to power generators and ambulances. “The wounded and sick suffer a slow death…
MELINDA French Gates announced Monday she was leaving the philanthropy mega foundation she established with her ex-husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The resignation, which becomes effective on June 7, will leave Bill Gates as the sole chair of one of the world’s most influential and powerful non-governmental organizations. “After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” Melinda French Gates wrote in a statement posted on social media. The statement gave no reason for her departure, but noted that “under the terms of my agreement with Bill,…
A KENYAN man due to be executed in Saudi Arabia has had a last-minute reprieve following a large-scale social media campaign. Stephen Munyakho, son of veteran journalist Dorothy Kweyu, received the death penalty in 2011 following a fatal fight with a colleague in the Gulf nation. According to the Bring Back Stevo campaign, run by Munyakho’s supporters, both workers “sustained stab wounds” but only Munyakho survived. Consequently Munyakho was handed the death sentence. Under Saudi law, a death sentence can be lifted if the family agrees to get compensation instead. His family back home in Kenya have been attempting to…
RWANDA’s government has denied accusations that it armed a rebel group alleged to have carried out a grenade attack in Burundi’s economic hub, Bujumbura. At least 38 people were injured in Friday’s attack, Pierre Nkurikiye, the spokesperson for Burundi’s interior ministry said. “These terrorists were recruited, trained and even equipped with weapons in Rwanda and by Rwanda,” Mr Nkurikiye added. Rwanda’s government dismissed the allegations on Sunday, saying it “has absolutely no connection” with the attack and had “no reason to be involved” in it. “We call on Burundi to solve its own internal problems and not associate Rwanda with…
PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau, and some members of the NFF Executive Committee on Sunday paid a condolence visit to former Nigeria international and President of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria, Tijani Babangida, who was involved in a ghastly accident along Kaduna–Zaria Road last Thursday, The PUNCH reports. Babangida, his wife and his maid are still recovering from various degrees of injuries sustained in the crash which claimed the lives of his brother and 1993 U-17 World Cup winner, Ibrahim Babangida. The ex-international and his wife were also hit by the death of their one-year-old son,…
BAYER Leverkusen stretched their season-long unbeaten run to 50 games with a 5-0 win at 10-man Bochum on Sunday. Bochum defeated a 10-man Leverkusen in May 2023, the last side to beat Xabi Alonso’s side in any competition, but the tables turned on Sunday with Leverkusen’s goals coming from five different scorers. Alonso’s league champions are just one game away from the first unbeaten Bundesliga season and three games from a remarkable treble. Bochum lost a man early when Felix Passlack saw red for a last-man foul on Nathan Tella. With attacking midfield maestro Florian Wirtz missing through injury, Alonso…