Author: Editor

KENYAN President William Ruto named Wednesday his foreign minister as “acting cabinet secretary” for all ministries, nearly a week after dismissing almost his entire cabinet in an attempt to defuse deadly anti-government rallies. The East African nation was left reeling after peaceful rallies last month over steep tax increases spiralled into violence that left dozens killed, and Ruto facing the most serious crisis of his presidency. Scrambling to contain the fallout, he has embarked on a series of measures, including scrapping the finance bill containing the tax hikes, announcing government cuts, and last week dismissing almost all of his cabinet.…

FRENCH superstar Kylian Mbappe was officially unveiled as a Real Madrid player on Tuesday, telling 80,000 fans “my dream has come true”. The striker, who had completed his medical earlier on Tuesday morning, signed a five-year contract and was handed a No. 9 shirt by club president Florentino Perez. “Wow,” Mbappe said in Spanish to roars from a packed Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. “For years I’ve dreamed of playing for Real Madrid and today my dream has come true,” said the 25-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain player. “I’m a happy boy. I’m going to give my life for this club,” said Mbappe.…

ISRAEL’s military has bombed another United Nations-run school as well as an Israeli-designed “safe-zone” in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 42 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others, according to Palestinian officials. The Israeli attacks on Tuesday hit the UN’s al-Razi school in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and a main street lined with market stalls in the southern al-Mawasi area, where thousands of displaced Palestinians had sought shelter. At least 25 people were killed in al-Razi while 17 were killed in al-Mawasi, Gaza’s Government Media Office said. More than 70 people were wounded in the attacks. A third Israeli…

PROTECTION for Donald Trump was boosted several weeks ago after US authorities learned of an Iranian plot to kill him, according to national security officials. Officials say there is no known connection between the alleged Iranian plot and the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday in Pennsylvania. However, the disclosure that security had been tightened raises further questions over how Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to climb a building and get close enough to fire at Trump. The US Secret Service and the Trump campaign were notified of the Iranian threat, and security was increased as a…

THE body of Burundi’s former president Pierre Buyoya was repatriated to his home country on Tuesday, more than three years after he was buried thousands of kilometres (miles) away in Mali. Buyoya, who was credited with helping push democracy in the small African nation but accused of involvement in his successor’s assassination, died in Paris in December 2020 after contracting Covid-19. Later that month Buyoya, who died aged 71, was interred in the Malian capital Bamako, his base for eight years as the African Union’s special envoy to Mali and the Sahel. At the time, a senior Burundian government official…

RWANDAN President Paul Kagame is on course to extend his 24-year rule by another five years in a landslide victory, with most of the votes counted from Monday’s election. He has 99.15% of the vote so far, with about 79% of ballots counted, partial results announced by the electoral commission show. The 66-year-old again faced no meaningful opposition, with leading figures banned. His two opponents shared less than 1% of the vote. Mr Kagame thanked Rwandans for their trust in an address at his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party headquarters. “These are not just figures, even if it was 100%,…

GARETH Southgate said he was resigning as England manager on Tuesday two days after they lost to Spain in the Euro 2024 final. “It’s time for change, and for a new chapter. Sunday’s final in Berlin against Spain was my final game as England manager,” he said in a statement. Southgate took over in 2016 when England’s fortunes were at a low ebb. In the last four tournaments he led England to three semi-finals and two finals. Prior to Southgate’s appointment, the Three Lions had reached just three major tournament semi-finals and one final in their history, when they won…

SPAIN sensation Nico Williams has declared that ‘no one can handle us’ after the national team stormed to a record-breaking fourth European Championship title. The Athletico Bilbao starlet, born to Ghanaian parents but representing his country of birth, played a starring role as La Roja defeated England 2-1 in a tense EURO 2024 final. Williams, 21, opened the scoring early in the second half before Mikel Oyazarbal grabbed a late winner after England had briefly levelled through substitute Cole Palmer. In the aftermath of Spain’s triumph, the match-winner lifted the lid on the jubilant celebrations within the Spanish camp. I’m…

ISRAELI forces have attacked five separate schools in Gaza in just eight days, killing dozens of people sheltering in them, according to Palestinian officials, medics and rescuers. The latest attack on Sunday struck the United Nations-run Abu Oreiban school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 80. Most of the victims were women and children, said Palestinian Civil Defence. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where some of those injured were brought, said he encountered severely burned women and children “crying out in pain and agony” on the floor.…

DONALD Trump on Monday named right-wing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate in the US presidential election, rewarding a one-time harsh critic who became one of his most loyal supporters in Congress. Trump, 78, announced his pick on the first day of the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, an extravaganza turbocharged by the attempted assassination of the former president. Seen as the standard-bearer for a new kind of populism that has come to the fore under Trump, 39-year-old Vance embraces the ex-president’s isolationist, anti-immigration America First movement. One of the least experienced VP picks in modern history, the…

THE death toll from a car bombing at a cafe in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu that was packed with football fans watching the the Euro 2024 final has risen to nine, security sources said Monday. Witnesses described scenes of panic and chaos after the powerful blast late Sunday, with people scrambling for safety and the main entrance to the cafe destroyed by the blaze. Mohamed Yusuf, an official from the national security agency, said nine civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in the explosion, raising the official toll of five given by police late Sunday. The popular Top Coffee restaurant,…

KENYAN police said Monday they had arrested a suspected serial killer who had confessed to murdering 42 women including his wife before dumping their dismembered bodies in a Nairobi rubbish tip. Since Friday, a total of nine butchered bodies trussed up in plastic bags have been pulled from the garbage site in the Mukuru slum area in the south of the capital, a gruesome discovery that has horrified the nation. Acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja said the 33-year-old suspect, named Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, was arrested at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) on Monday near a Nairobi bar where…

SCORES of people were trapped in an abandoned building which collapsed at Sabo area of Osogbo, Osun state capital, on Sunday. The structure, an unfinished and neglected storey building, had been used by various criminal elements as a hideout before its collapse. A local resident simply identified as Tunde described the building as a notorious spot for cultists and other miscreants,. He said it had been raided several times by security forces prior to the incident. “As I speak, security operatives and rescue teams are on the scene. They have brought a crane to assist in the rescue efforts and…

ENUGU State Governor, Peter Mbah has pledged to provide N50 million and other non-cash rewards to the Rangers International Club of Enugu for winning the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League trophy. Mbah pledged while hosting the club at the Government House, Enugu on Saturday. Rangers won their last league match for the season in Jos where they beat Gombe United 2-1 on Sunday, as the club celebrated the title win in a grand style at the Okpara Square in Enugu amid thousands of ecstatic fans, Mbah said he was doing so as a proud father whose children returned from school…

CARLOS Alcaraz overpowered seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets to retain his Wimbledon title on Sunday in a brutal statement that the new era of men’s tennis has arrived. The Spanish third seed produced a performance combining awesome power with delicate touch to win 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4), collecting the fourth Grand Slam of his young career. Alcaraz equals the Open Era record for most Grand Slams won at the age 21 or under, joining Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander. And he is just the sixth man to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.…

ISRAELI missiles slam into a UN school sheltering hundreds of displaced Gaza people with at least 17 killed and 80 wounded, the media office says, the latest attack inflicting mass civilian casualties in 24 hours. The strike on the UN-run Abu Araban site in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp was the fifth on a school-turned-shelter in eight days. The Abu Araban school was housing “thousands of displaced people,” civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that most of the dead were women and children. Schools in Nuseirat were the target for two of the earlier school strikes as Israel…

DONALD Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a political rally Saturday, leaving the FBI hunting for information about how a gunman could attack a former US president. Here is a blow-by-blow account of the shooting in Pennsylvania, where one Trump supporter was killed. How it unfolded Dressed in a white shirt, dark blazer and bright red MAGA cap, Trump was railing against illegal immigration when shots rang out at 6:08 pm (2208 GMT). “Take a look at what happened…” he said, his words cut off by four shots in quick succession. Trump grabbed his right ear as repeated shouts…

POLICE in Kenya have promised a “transparent” investigation into the discovery of eight mutilated female bodies that were found dumped in an abandoned quarry in Mukuru, a collection of slums south of the capital Nairobi. “The entire national police service and I understand the deep concern and distress the tragedy brings to the families, residents of Kware and fellow Kenyans,” acting Police Chief Douglas Kanja said in an address to journalists on Sunday. “We are committed to conducting transparent, thorough and swift investigations,” Kanja said, adding that transparency would extend to a post-mortem operation, and the media would be involved…

NIGERIEN authorities enforced a curfew Friday as they searched for inmates who escaped from one of the country’s most fortified prisons in the Tillaberi region after it was breached under unclear circumstances. Niger’s Ministry of Interior alerted government agencies to the escape of the inmates from Koutoukale prison on Thursday night. It urged them to redouble vigilance, engage traditional and religious leaders, and look out for suspicious movements within the populations. The interior ministry did not say how many inmates escaped nor how they fled. Considered one of the safest in the country, the prison, located 50 kilometers (31 miles)…

SUBSTITUTE Mikel Oyarzabal scored a dramatic late winner as Spain triumphed in Sunday’s Euro 2024 final, beating England 2-1 to confirm their re-emergence as a force on the international stage and end their opponents’ dreams of winning a first title in almost six decades. Spain lost influential midfielder Rodri to injury at half-time, but shrugged that off to take the lead within two minutes of the restart through Nico Williams, who was set up by his fellow star winger, Lamine Yamal. England came from behind as they have done so often at this Euros, as substitute Cole Palmer drove in…