Author: Editor

A PASSENGER plane crashed on take-off in Kathmandu on Wednesday, with the pilot rescued from the wreckage but all 18 others aboard killed, police in the Nepali capital told AFP. Nepal has a woeful track record on aviation safety and the Himalayan republic has seen a spate of deadly light plane and helicopter crashes over the decades. The Saurya Airlines flight was carrying two crew and 17 of the company’s staff members, Nepali police spokesman Dan Karki said. “The pilot has been rescued and is being treated,” he said. “Eighteen bodies have been recovered, including one foreigner. We are in…

POLICE in South Africa have arrested five suspects, including three Mexicans, after uncovering a multi-million dollar crystal meth lab on a remote farm. Officers raided the lab, in the northern town of Groblersdal, after getting tipped off about “suspicious activities”, a statement from an elite police unit known as the Hawks said. It added that the lab was operating on an industrial scale, producing the highly addictive drug for both local and international markets. South Africa is one of the largest meth markets in the world and a transit location for illicit drugs, according to the United Nations Office on…

KENYA’s President William Ruto has appointed four members of the main opposition party as part of a new cabinet as protests continue to rock the East African nation. Ruto announced the nominees in an address to the nation on Wednesday. The president had promised to appoint a new “broad-based” cabinet in response to continuing nationwide protests that have threatened his hold on power. The announcement came two weeks after Ruto scrapped the previous cabinet as the protests, prompted by planned tax hikes, swelled. A clampdown by the authorities helped raise the number of people killed to more than 50, with…

PALESTINIAN factions have signed a “national unity” agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once Israel’s war on the enclave concludes. The deal, finalised on Tuesday in China after three days of intensive talks, lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The agreement was signed by long-term rivals Hamas and Fatah, as well as 12 other Palestinian groups. “Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity,” said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk at…

NORTH Korea has floated more trash-carrying balloons across the tense inter-Korean border, with at least one dumping refuse on South Korea’s presidential compound for the first time, South Korean authorities have said. The balloon that landed near President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Tuesday did not contain any dangerous material or cause any injuries, the Presidential Security Service said in a statement. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced earlier on Wednesday that North Korea had launched more balloons towards its territory, and Seoul city authorities asked residents to report the objects and avoid touching them. Pyongyang’s…

USING shovels or their bare hands, local residents on Tuesday searched desperately for survivors after a landslide in a remote area of southern Ethiopia killed at least 229 people, the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa nation. Crowds gathered at the site of the tragedy in an isolated and mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state as some people clawed through mounds of red dirt, according to images posted on social media by the local authority. So far, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have lost their lives after the disaster struck on Monday in…

DOZENS of people who joined scattered anti-corruption rallies in the capital Kampala on Tuesday in defiance of an official ban have been charged and held behind bars, their lawyers said. About 60 people, including a prominent TV and radio presenter and three young protest leaders, were hurriedly brought before the courts and remanded in custody on charges including being a “common nuisance”, they said. President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist for almost four decades, had warned at the weekend that the demonstrators were “playing with fire”. Riot police were out in force…

MANCHESTER United had a helping hand from legendary defender Rio Ferdinand in persuading highly rated Leny Yoro to join them. Centre-back Yoro was coveted by many of Europe’s top clubs, including Real Madrid, this summer. In the end, he plumped for United, signing a five-year contract after agreeing a £52m move from French club Lille. Ferdinand sent Yoro a social media message welcoming him to Old Trafford and, speaking to in-house club media, 18-year-old Yoro explained the former England star had already adopted a more direct approach. “Two weeks ago, he called me,” said Yoro. “We spoke for 10 minutes…

DEMOCRATIC politicians and commentators in the United States have heaped praise on President Joe Biden since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday. Representative Maxine Waters, for instance, called Biden a “kind and decent man”. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, extolled his “vision, values and leadership”. But while political leaders showered Biden with compliments, bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, killing dozens and sparking another wave of mass displacement in Khan Younis. For many Palestinian rights advocates, the carnage and abuses in Gaza will define Biden’s place in the history books, as the US remains…

DEMOCRATIC Party donors have poured a record amount into US Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign in the 24 hours since Joe Biden stepped down from the White House race and endorsed his erstwhile running mate. “Team Harris raised $81 million in its first 24 hours, adding to the existing near quarter-of-a-billion dollar war chest already amassed this election cycle,” her campaign said in a statement Monday. It claimed the haul was the “largest 24-hour raise in presidential history.” Harris, 59, swiftly secured the backing of a flood of Democrats after receiving Biden’s endorsement on Sunday — including from California Governor…

OPPOSITION leader Bobi Wine said heavily armed security forces were besieging his party headquarters on Monday and had arrested several leaders, on the eve of a planned anti-corruption march that has been banned by the authorities. The action comes two days after President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly four decades, warned that Ugandans planning to take to the streets on Tuesday were “playing with fire”. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, told AFP that the headquarters of his National Unity Platform (NUP) in Kavule, a suburb of the Ugandan capital Kampala,…

TANZANIA’s information minister Nape Nnauye has been removed from his post following an outcry over comments he made suggesting that elections could be rigged. Mr Nnauye was filmed at a rally on 15 July, saying that he would help a fellow ruling party MP win in the 2025 election. He added that “election results are not necessarily those in the [ballot box], rather they depend on the person counting and making announcements”. Following a public backlash after a video of his controversial remarks went viral, Mr Nnauye said he had made them in jest. President Samia Suluhu Hassan sacked him…

RAFAEL Nadal reached his first final on Saturday since winning the 2022 French Open, defeating Croatian qualifier Duje Ajdukovic in a three-set tussle in Bastad ahead of the Paris Olympics. A day after his four-hour quarter-final victory, the 22-time Grand Slam champion was again tested by Ajdukovic, the world number 130 who had won just two tour-level matches before this week. The Spaniard rebounded from dropping the opening set to prevail 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, returning to the final of a tournament he won as a teenager on his last appearance in 2005. “It was a very tough match. It was…

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to deliver a landmark speech to the US Congress this week as he fights off intense pressure to cut a Gaza war ceasefire deal with Hamas. On Wednesday, Israel’s longest-serving premier will become the first foreign leader to address a joint meeting of the two chambers four times – pulling ahead of Britain’s Winston Churchill on three. But analysts say the Gaza war since the October 7 Hamas attacks has created worrying tensions between Israel and the United States, its main military and diplomatic backer. Netanyahu’s office announced that he would meet US President…

FORMER president Bill Clinton and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton praised Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his White House reelection bid Sunday, and threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to take up the baton. Lauding Biden’s “extraordinary career of service,” the Clintons said in a joint statement that they were “honored” to join him in endorsing Harris as the Democratic nominee “and will do whatever we can to support her.” “Nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one,”…

UGANDA’s President Yoweri Museveni has warned protesters that they will be “playing with fire” if they press ahead with plans to stage an anti-corruption march to parliament on Tuesday. Young Ugandans have been organising the march on social media to demand an end to corruption in government. They have been partly inspired by their counterparts in neighbouring Kenya, who organised mass demonstrations that forced President William Ruto to drop plans to increase taxes. The protests have since morphed into calls for his resignation. In a televised address, Mr Museveni warned the Ugandan organisers that their planned protest would not be…

SUDAN’s de facto leader has received an Iranian ambassador and sent his own to Tehran, cementing a rapprochement after an eight-year rupture. Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Sunday received Hassan Shah Hosseini, the new Iranian ambassador, in Port Sudan and sent Abdelaziz Hassan Saleh as the African country’s ambassador to Tehran. Sudan and Iran agreed last October to resume diplomatic relations, as the army-aligned government scrambled for allies during its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Sudanese government has been loyal to the army in its 15-month fight against the RSF. The Red Sea city…

PRESIDENT Joe Biden of the United States has withdrawn from the November 5 election, citing the interest of the nation as the reason. In a post on X, on Sunday, Biden said he would remain as President and Commander-in-Chief until his term ends in January 2025. “Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.” “Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided…

FRENCH authorities have recalled Olympics-branded water bottles for children containing excessive levels of endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A, a week ahead of the Paris Games’ opening. The reusable bottles made by the Vilac company have “levels of Bisphenol A not in line with regulations” on products designed for contact with foods, government website Rappel Conso (Consumer Recall) said Friday. The white-coloured flasks with beige, blue or red tops are branded with the Olympic rings, the Paris 2024 mascot or the Olympic flame. People who have bought them should return them to the place of purchase, authorities said. The bottles were sold…

THE Israeli military has continued its relentless bombardment of Gaza with strikes hitting the southern, central and northern parts of the territory. The Palestinian Civil Defence said on Saturday that its crews retrieved the bodies of 12 people who were killed in separate Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The Israeli army had bombed a residential tower in the area. The Civil Defence also documented the killing of six Palestinians in the neighbouring Bureij camp, while 10 others were killed in Gaza City and other areas north of the territory. Israel also bombed a commercial building…