Author: Editor

BAYER Leverkusen tightened their grip at the top of the Bundesliga with a 2-0 victory over 10-man Cologne to pull 10 points clear of Bayern Munich. Xabi Alonso’s side were handed the opportunity to stretch their lead over Bayern after the serial champions faltered again, only managing a 2-2 draw at Freiburg on Friday night. “Ten points are a lot,” said Leverkusen’s Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka. “But it’s not over yet. There are still many, many more points to play for and as long as it’s not decided mathematically, we cannot say that it’s done. We have to keep working…

US Vice-President Kamala Harris says people in Gaza “are starving” and has urged Israel to “significantly increase the flow of aid” there. She said “there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks”, which would “get the [Israeli] hostages out”. Earlier, Israel did not attend truce talks in Egypt, saying Hamas was not giving a list of hostages still alive. Hamas told the BBC it was unable to do so because of the Israeli bombing. “Practically it is impossible to know who is still alive,” said Dr Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official. Hamas’s team and…

HAITI has declared a 72-hour state of emergency and night curfew in and around the capital because of two jailbreaks and spiralling insecurity. At the weekend, armed gangs stormed a major Port-au-Prince prison, leading to the killing of at least 12 people and release of around 4,000 inmates. Gang leaders say they want to force the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is outside the country. The groups aiming to oust him control around 80% of Port-au-Prince. A government statement said two prisons – one in the capital and the other in nearby Croix des Bouquets – were stormed…

SOME 170 people including women and children have been “executed” in attacks on three villages in Burkina Faso, a public prosecutor has said. Aly Benjamin Coulibaly appealed for witnesses to help find those who attacked Komsilga, Nordin and Soro. Separately, the army warned of the increased risk of attacks by Islamists, “including attacks on urban centres”. The country’s army seized power in 2022, but more than a third of Burkina Faso is controlled by insurgents. Mr Coulibaly said he had launched an investigation into the village attacks in Yatenga province on 25 February. The AFP news agency reported that dozens…

HUNDREDS of protesters in the Senegalese capital Dakar have called for elections to be held before the end of President Macky Sall’s term on 2 April. Mr Sall sparked huge protests when he postponed last month’s elections and failed to announce a new date. On Saturday, protesters from opposition parties and campaigning groups called the president a dictator and demanded the release from prison of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Delegates taking part in political crisis talks last week, which were organised by the president but boycotted by the opposition, recommended holding elections in June.

AUTHORITIES at the Kano Municipal Local Government Council of Kano State have confirmed an outbreak of measles in some parts of the local government area. The Primary Health Care Coordinator of the area, Alhaji Aliyu Jinjiri Kiru, disclosed this during a meeting of the Emergency Preparedness Response Committee at the local government secretariat. The coordinator said the suspected affected areas with cases are Sharada, Madatai, and Gandun Albasa. In a statement, the information officer of the area, Fatima Abdullahi, quoted the coordinator, saying they received reports of several cases of measles and other infectious diseases from various health centres in…

AFTER suffering a 3-2 defeat to Katsina United Kano Pillars will host Abia Warriors on Sunday (today) in a Nigeria Premier League Football fixture at the Sani Abacha Stadium and will be banking on Mustapha Yuga and Umar to deliver the goals just like they did against Sunshine Stars and Katsina United. Enugu Rangers will aim to record their fifth straight win under coach Fidelis Ikechukwu when they travel to Kaduna to face Niger Tornadoes at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium. The Flying Antelopes made it four wins on the bounce after a hard-fought win over title rivals Remo Stars last…

JUDE Bellingham was sent off for complaining after the final whistle denied him a winning goal for Real Madrid in a dramatic game at Valencia. Vinicius Jr scored twice at the Mestalla, where he was the victim of racist abuse last season, as Real came from 2-0 behind to salvage a point and move seven points clear at the top of La Liga. Bellingham thought he had won the game six minutes into stoppage time when he headed in from close range, but referee Gil Manzano had blown the whistle to end the game before the cross had been delivered.…

AFRICAN Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat on Saturday accused Israel of “the mass killing of Palestinians” and urged an international probe after dozens died following a rush on an aid convoy in war-torn Gaza. “Mahamat strongly condemns an attack by Israeli forces, that killed and wounded more than 100 Palestinians seeking life-saving humanitarian aid,” the bloc said in a statement dated Friday but posted on X on Saturday. “The Chairperson calls for an international investigation into the incident to bring the perpetrators to account,” the statement said, urging “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire”. Israeli troops opened fire as Palestinian civilians…

THE German defence ministry said Saturday it was checking whether a confidential videoconference on the Ukraine war had been wiretapped after a recording was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin. The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted a 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed were German army officers discussing striking Crimea. “We are investigating whether communications in the air force sector were intercepted,” a spokeswoman for the German defence ministry told AFP. In the recording, discussions can be heard on the possible use by Ukrainian forces of German-made…

A MILITARY court in Somalia has sentenced six Islamic State fighters from Morocco to death. The men will be executed by a firing squad if their appeal, which they have one month to file, is unsuccessful. “They came to Somalia to support Isis [IS} and destroy and shed blood,” the court’s deputy chairman, Col Ali Ibrahim Osman, told VOA Somali. The men’s lawyer said they had been misled into joining IS and were seeking to be deported to Morocco. It is the first time authorities in the semi-autonomous Puntland region have charged or sentenced foreigners for joining IS. The military…

MBOLE-POP star Mr Leo’s next musical mission is to break through to English-speaking audiences – and he hopes his new album will do the trick. The singer-songwriter from Cameroon has been wooing French-speaking West Africa and the diaspora with his melodious love songs and infectious dance tunes since 2015. Born Fonyuy Leonard Nsohburinka, Mr Leo shot to fame with E Go Betta. That first single was one of the biggest tunes on radio and TV in 2015 – in and out of Cameroon. He fuses Afrobeats with the country’s home-grown mbolé music, a blend of the rhythms and sounds of…

PEP Guardiola says he is expecting the “best” from Manchester United even though Manchester City will start Sunday’s derby as red-hot favourites to extend their dominance over their rivals. City have won five of their past six matches against United in all competitions and are 15 points ahead of their opponents in the Premier League. But Guardiola, whose team are chasing a second consecutive trophy treble, said he would not be taking United lightly. “I expect the best from United, but I don’t talk about what they do, about opponents that I respect too much,” he said on Friday. “I…

THE military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas says seven more captives held in the Gaza Strip have died as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave. Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, made the statement on the Telegram app on Friday. The group said it confirmed the news following investigations conducted over the past few weeks after it had lost contact with the fighters who had been holding the captives. Hamas seized about 250 Israelis and foreigners during its October 7 attacks on southern Israel, of whom about 130 are believed to still be held…

FOUR soldiers were killed and nine injured when their military patrol came under attack with explosives while tracking down a criminal group in western Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday. The ambush took place Thursday in a rural area of the Aguililla municipality in Michoacan province, the president said at his daily press conference. The soldiers had stumbled upon a “trap, an explosive” that killed one soldier on the spot and fatally wounded three more, said Lopez Obrador. Nine others were injured. “This is what the Army, the Marine Corps and the National Guard have to face,” said…

THE state-run Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on Thursday cut power supplies to the parliament over a debt of 23m Ghanaian cedi ($1.8m; £1.4m). The outage interrupted a debate on the president’s State of the Nation speech. A video shared by local media showed MPs in the dimly lit chamber chanting: “Dumsor, dumsor”, which means power outage in the local Akan language. Local media reported that a back-up power generator restored power to the chamber a few minutes later. But other parts of the parliament building remained without power for most of the day before supplies were restored. MPs and…

THE headquarters of the main opposition party in Chad, is being demolished, two days after its leader Yaya Dillo was killed. A large excavator was seen demolishing the three-story building and heavily armed soldiers cordoned off the area with armoured vehicles. Earlier, the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) said Dillo was executed by soldiers who shot him a point blank range. The military junta said he was killed during an exchange of gunfire after staging an attack on the country’s security agency. He denied any links to the alleged attack. Dillo was buried by his family on Thursday. There remains…

SHEIKH Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa has announced his resignation as the Commander General of Kano’s Hisbah Board, citing “discouragement” from Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano. Daurawa said he was discouraged by the governor’s comments despite his efforts to promote societal morality during his tenure at Hisbah. In a video shared on his social media handle, Daurawa said, “Currently, I’m in Kaduna State, meeting with lawmakers led by the Speaker to discuss implementing a mandatory pre-marital health check in Kano, similar to other Nigerian states. “However, I’ve encountered discouraging comments from Kano, despite my efforts at Hisbah to promote societal morality.…

PAUL Pogba’s career could be over after his four-year ban for doping with the feeling that the 30-year-old Juventus midfielder never fulfilled his potential. The former Manchester United player, who won the World Cup with France, was supremely talented and in bursts looked an absolute world-beater – but he never really showed it on a consistent basis. He has already said he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but if that fails, by the time he will be eligible to play again – August 2027 – he will be 34 and be without a club. So it…

SAUDI Arabia’s football governing body on Thursday suspended Cristiano Ronaldo for one game over a gesture he made on the pitch last weekend that was judged a “provocation”. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation said the Al-Nassr captain and former Sporting Lisbon star was also fined a total of 30,000 riyals ($8,000) for the move, which broke rules against provoking the public during a match. The decision cannot be appealed. Video emerged after his side’s 3-2 win against Al-Shabab showing Ronaldo making a repeated thrusting gesture towards his groin in response to crowds taunting him by chanting the name of his…