TALKS to reach a Gaza truce resumed Sunday, a Hamas source said, but public disagreement between the movement and Israel intensified over demands to end their seven-month war. The Hamas delegation had begun meeting with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, the source said. At around the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a government decision to shut down operations in his country of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera, which has intensely covered the Gaza war. The broadcaster called the decision a “criminal act”. Netanyahu again rejected Hamas’s demand to end the war and said “surrendering” to this would amount…
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AFGHANISTAN’s top diplomat in India resigned days after she was reportedly caught by airport authorities smuggling nearly $2 million worth of gold into the country. Zakia Wardak, the Afghan Consul-General in India’s financial capital Mumbai, posted a statement on social media platform X announcing her resignation. Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi shut down in November, more than two years after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul following the collapse of the Western-backed government, leaving Wardak as the country’s most senior representative in India. “It is with great regret that I announce my decision to step away from my role…
NEW Russian military advisors and military equipment have arrived in Niger, according to state television in the African country that wants US forces to leave. A first set of about 100 Russian advisors had arrived in Niger on April 10 along with air defence systems. Two military transporters arrived Saturday, according to Tele Sahel that said Russia has now sent three cargo planes of military material and instructors in the past month. The Africa Corps, seen as the successors of the Wagner paramilitary group in Africa, confirmed the instructors’ arrival in a posting on the group’s Telegram account. On Saturday,…
THE Rwandan government won’t guarantee how many migrants it can take from the UK if flights start to depart. Rishi Sunak has promised that migrants arriving in the UK without permission will be sent to Rwanda rather than allowed to claim asylum in the UK. Around 52,000 have come to the UK since the law was changed in 2023 and are in line for deportation. Rwanda has signed a five-year deal with the UK, with costs estimated to be at least £300 million already. Last month the prime minister’s plans for the UK to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda…
REAL Madrid were crowned champions of La Liga for the 36th time after Barcelona suffered a 4-2 defeat by Girona. Carlo Ancelotti’s side eased to a 3-0 win over Cadiz earlier on Saturday, which meant the Catalan club had to win at the Estadi Montilivi. Barcelona led 2-1 at half-time, but three second-half goals from Girona left Real with an unassailable lead at the summit with four matches of the season remaining. England midfielder Jude Bellingham has been a key figure in Real’s success, having scored 18 goals in 26 La Liga games in his first season with the club.…
A SENIOR Hamas official insisted late Saturday that the group would “not agree under any circumstances” to a truce in Gaza that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war. The official, who asked not to be named, decried Israeli efforts to obtain a deal on releasing hostages “without linking it to ending the aggression on Gaza”. “Hamas will not agree under any circumstances to an agreement that does not explicitly include a cessation of the war on Gaza,” the official said. “There will be no agreement without a complete cessation of the war and the withdrawal of…
THE social media chief of India’s opposition Congress party has been arrested over accusations he misleadingly doctored a widely shared video during an ongoing national election, police said Saturday. Arun Reddy was detained late Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister Amit Shah vowing in a campaign speech to end affirmative action policies for millions of poor and low-caste Indians. Shah is often referred to as the second-most powerful man in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the pair have been close political allies dating back decades. Reddy “was arrested yesterday on…
THE US has blamed the Rwandan army and M23 rebel group for the deadly bombing of a displacement camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least nine people, including seven children, were killed in the strike on the Mugunga camp in the eastern city of Goma on Friday. The Congolese army and M23 blamed each other for the attack. Rwanda, which borders DR Congo, is widely accused of backing the rebel group and called the US accusation “ridiculous”. Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makalo said the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) was a professional army that would never attack a camp…
TWISTED scraps of metal, large splinters of wood and misplaced mattresses are all that remains of what were once people’s homes in Mukuru Wa Reuben slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Across the wider Nairobi County, hundreds of people have also seen their homes knocked down. The demolitions follow a government order for anyone living near rivers to leave their homes and move to higher ground in the wake of heavy rains and flooding, which have ravaged East Africa over numerous weeks. Slums make up the majority of neighbourhoods built on marginal land along river valleys. The government has said…
THE Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, says Nigeria is ready to commence local automobile manufacturing before the end of the year. At the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers and the Nigerian Automative Manufacturers Association’s meeting in Abuja, Uzoka-Anite said funds to grow the nation’s automotive industry have been made available to local manufacturers. According to her, it was vital to source made-in-Nigeria vehicle materials locally. She seized the occasion to inform all stakeholders, including manufacturers, dealers, regulatory bodies, and other players in the automobile ecosystem, to key into the Nigerian Automotive Development Policy, and start making the…
ARSENAL goalkeeper David Raya has won the Premier League’s Golden Glove after Luton scored against Everton’s Jordan Pickford on Friday. Raya has kept 14 clean sheets in 29 league matches this season having joined the Gunners on loan from Brentford in the summer. Before Everton’s match on Friday, Pickford was the only keeper that could have overtaken Raya in the Golden Glove standings. But Pickford’s hopes of winning the individual accolade outright were ended when Elijah Adebayo equalised for Luton after 31 minutes in his side’s 1-1 draw on Friday. The Everton and England stopper still trails Raya by two…
YEMEN’s Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area within their range, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree has said in a televised speech. “We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach,” Saree said on Friday, adding that the decision will be implemented “immediately, and from the moment this statement is announced”. The Iran-aligned Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November…
PROSECUTORS on Friday charged Italy’s tourism minister with fraud relating to government redundancy funds claimed by her publishing companies during the coronavirus pandemic. Opposition lawmakers immediately requested the resignation of Daniela Santanche, a leading member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party. Santanche, 63, has strongly rejected the allegations, including in a defiant appearance in parliament last year. “The Milan prosecutor’s office today requested the indictment of Minister Santanche and other persons as well as the companies Visibilia Editore and Visibilia Concessionaria,” the office said in a brief statement. They were indicted “for alleged fraud of the…
A MILITARY court in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s war-torn east on Friday handed a death sentence to eight soldiers, including five officers, for desertion and cowardice when fighting M23 rebels. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against 11 soldiers on trial in the same case, but the Goma court acquitted three of them, ruling that the charges against those soldiers were “not established”. The troops were fighting against the mostly Tutsi M23 (March 23 movement) rebels, who took up arms again in late 2021, seizing large swathes of North Kivu province. “They never fled from the enemy nor abandoned…
LIBERIAN President Joseph Boakai has signed an executive order to establish the country’s first war crimes court, more than 20 years after the end of two civil wars which killed 250,000 people. Mr Boakai said Liberia had “endured downpours of agony”. The 1989-2003 conflicts saw atrocities including mass killings, rape and the forced recruitment of child soldiers. Critics in Liberia have opposed the creation of the court, saying it risks reopening old wounds. But Mr Boakai said the court would “help ferret the causes and effects of the violence” and bring about “justice and healing”. Adama K Dempster, one of…
THE Sokoto State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of some of its officers allegedly involved in the kidnapping of minors in the state. The spokesman for the command, ASP Ahmad Rufai, who confirmed the arrest of the officers simply identified as ASP Kulu and one other named Elizabeth, said the command has commenced investigations into the alleged abduction of five children from the state. Recall that an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP Kulu, alongside her accomplice, Elizabeth, were arrested by the FCT police command for allegedly abducting five children, including a less than two-week-old baby girl in the state.…
NIGERIAN Guild of Editors (NGE) has reaffirmed that media freedom, freedom of expression and access to public information are crucial to democracy and must be at the heart of Nigerian government’s values and actions. The professional body of editors and media executives in Nigeria also said that it recognizes the crucial role played by journalists, media workers and free/ independent media in protecting the country democracy and advised them not to give up, in spite of the prevailing economic challenges. In a press statement issued on Thursday to mark this year World Press Freedom Day and signed by its President,…
MANCHESTER United are considered front-runners to sign Michael Olise should the winger leave Crystal Palace this summer, sources told ESPN. Olise, 22, is understood to have a release clause in his contract that becomes active after the end of the season, and United’s new leadership group under minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe have identified Olise as key target in their summer rebuild. It is unclear exactly how much a deal to sign Olise would cost but the figure is significantly higher than the £35 million ($43.7m) clause in his previous contract. One source put the amount between £50m and £60m.…
THE world hasn’t seen anything like the unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza since World War II, and it would take at least until 2040 to restore the homes devastated in Israel’s bombing and ground offensive if the conflict ended today, the United Nations reported Thursday. The UN assessment said the social and economic impact of the war launched after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7 has been increasing in an exponential manner. It called the level of casualties 5 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population – unprecedented in such a short time. By mid-April, it…
SCHOOLS and many offices were closed across the United Arab Emirates on Thursday as heavy rains returned to the desert country just two weeks after record downpours that experts linked to climate change. A lightning storm with high winds swept across the oil-rich monarchy overnight, with more than 50 millimetres (two inches) of rain falling before 8:00 am in some areas, the National Center of Meteorology said. Flooding was seen in some parts of financial hub Dubai, and the city’s airport, the world’s busiest by international passenger traffic, cancelled 13 flights and diverted five, a spokesperson said. State-owned, Dubai-based Emirates…