LIBERIA’s Defence Minister Prince Charles Johnson III has resigned following protests by wives of the country’s soldiers, who accuse him of low wages and poor living conditions in the military barracks. The women set up roadblocks near the capital, Monrovia and elsewhere in the country, forcing President Joseph Boakai to cancel National Army Day celebrations on Monday. They demanded the defence minister’s resignation, blaming him for a reduction in the salaries of Liberian soldiers returning from peace missions in Mali. The officers’ spouses also decried a lack of social security, electricity shortages and corruption within the armed forces. Mr Johnson,…
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FOR those closely connected to His Excellency, the former Governor of Jigawa State, Dr. Sule Lamido (CON), it is not surprising news that a high-powered delegation from the Jigawa State government, led by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Alhaji Bala Ibrahim (Mamser), visited Sule Lamido. Their purpose was to express appreciation and gratitude for Lamido’s generous donation of his magnificent mansion in his hometown of Bamaina, in the Birnin-Kudu area of Jigawa State, to the state university named after him: Sule Lamido University, Kafin-Hausa. the mansion will serve as the Islamic Research Centre, after his demise. Allahu Akbar…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has praised the Super Eagles for their display in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final in Ivory Coast. Despite their loss to the host nation, Tinubu said the Eagles demonstrated resilience and talent at the tournament. This was contained in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, late Sunday. The Elephants of Ivory Coast emerged victorious in the 2023 CAF African Cup of Nations (AFCON) final after beating Super Eagles 2-1. Tinubu added that Nigeria has won a great victory in the heart of Africa and the…
ISRAEL says two male Israeli hostages have been rescued in a raid in Rafah, amid reports of heavy Israeli air strikes on the southern Gazan city. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says the freed hostages are in “good medical condition”, and they have been taken to an Israeli hospital for medical tests. Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Rafah was under attack, with a number of deaths reported. Israel said it had conducted strikes in southern Gaza, providing no details. Local residents told the BBC that helicopters and boats were also involved in the attack. There are conflicting reports…
UKRAINE said it destroyed most of the 45 attack drones launched by Russia overnight, with little damage reported on Sunday morning. The announcement comes a day after authorities announced seven were killed in a Russian attack that set a petrol station ablaze in Ukraine’s second biggest city, Kharkiv. “Overnight the occupiers launched 45 attack drones… As a result of combat work, 40 enemy Shahed (UAV) were destroyed,” the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. Falling debris lightly wounded a 39-year-old man in the southern region of Dnipro, governor Sergiy Lysak said. Authorities from the capital Kyiv and the central Cherkasy…
THOUSANDS of Moroccans have taken to the streets of Rabat calling for an end to ties with Israel, over its actions in Gaza. Some waved placards saying “stop the massacre” and “normalisation is treason” during the Sunday march. Politicians from across the spectrum are reported to have been among the crowds. Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords. As part of the deal, Rabat received Washington’s recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Opposition to the agreement has grown sharply since the start of the war in Gaza.
A KENYAN court has found a man guilty of murdering a businesswoman, while his ex-fiancé, a popular news anchor, has been acquitted. Joseph Irungu, also known as “Jowie”, slit Monica Kimani’s throat at her home in Nairobi in September 2018, in a case which shocked the nation. Justice Grace Nzioka told the court he did not “give her even one minute to survive” and intended “instant death”. Mr Irungu’s ex-partner, TV presenter Jacque Maribe, was acquitted. But the judge said she should instead be prosecuted for giving the police false information. Following the murder of Ms Kamini, authorities accused Ms…
THE host, Elephants Of Ivory Coast beat Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-1 to win the Africa Cup of Nations 2023. It’s was all Ivory Coast but they weren’t able to make their possession count and Nigeria strike with their first serious attempt in the 38th minute. A corner is only half cleared to William Troost-Ekong who powers a header into the net. The centre-back and captain Troost-Ekong has scored three goals at this year’s Afcon. That’s one more than he managed during his whole 68 appearances in three seasons at Watford. Ivory Coast got a deserved equaliser in the 62nd…
HOSTS Qatar retained the Asian Cup with a 3-1 win on Saturday against surprise packages Jordan with Akram Afif the home hero with a hat-trick of penalties. It was a fitting final act to a month of football that began with 24 teams and witnessed a series of dramatic games. It will also help dispel the memories of Qatar’s World Cup, when they lost all three games, the worst record of any host in the competition’s history. Playing in front of 86,492 spectators at Lusail Stadium, which staged the World Cup final 14 months ago, Jordan were in their first…
ISRAEL is facing growing international warnings over its planned offensive in Rafah – the city in southern Gaza crammed with Palestinian refugees. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said “over half of Gaza’s population are sheltering in the area”, while Dutch FM Hanke Bruins Slot said there could be “many civilian casualties”. Saudi Arabia warned of “very serious repercussions” if Rafah was stormed. Gaza’s Hamas rulers said there could “tens of thousands” of casualties. More than 27,900 people have been killed and at least 67,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Many Gazans have ended up…
MYANMAR’s junta is enforcing a law allowing the military to summon all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years, it said on Saturday, as it struggles to crush opposition to its 2021 coup. The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the military takeover in February of that year, which ended a ten-year experiment with democracy and sparked mass protests and a crackdown on dissent. Three years on, the junta is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule and recently suffered a series of stunning losses to an alliance of…
SENEGAL’s political crisis deepened as a second person died on Saturday in increasingly violent protests against President Macky Sall’s decision to postpone upcoming presidential elections. A 23-year-old man died on Saturday after being shot during clashes in the capital Dakar, two of his relatives told AFP, while a 22-year-old student died Friday in the northern town of Saint-Louis in still uncertain circumstances. “The international and regional community must bear witness to the excesses of this dying regime,” said presidential candidate Khalifa Sall (no relation). Modou Gueye, a market vendor, took “a live round to the stomach” on Friday in the…
EMILE Bolingo is not sure how long he and other residents of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, can hold out. This major city in the region, with about two million people, has been cut off from the farms that feed it for several days. It is the latest episode in a resurgence of fighting that has seen tens of thousands added to the nearly seven million who have been forced from their homes in the country because of multiple conflicts. Rebels from the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 movement are blocking the two main roads into Goma…
LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp and Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou led a chorus of disapproval on Friday over a controversial proposal to introduce blue cards and sin bins. It has been reported that blue cards will be shown to players, who would be sent to a ‘sin-bin’ for 10 minutes, as part of a new trial aimed at improving on-pitch behaviour. At present, players shown a red card or two yellow cards are expelled for the rest of the game. Sin bins have been used at grassroots level in England for dissent, but the trial could also include cynical fouls. Reports…
VIDEOS of Gazan detainees stripped, bound and blindfolded that were filmed and uploaded online by Israeli soldiers breached human and international law, legal experts say. International law says detainees must not be exposed to unnecessary humiliation or public curiosity. BBC Verify looked at hundreds of videos openly shared by Israeli soldiers in Gaza since November 2023. We verified eight showing detainees. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has terminated the service of one of the reservists we identified, and videos like these do not represent its values. It did not respond to any further request for comment. Dr Mark…
BRITISH Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a former banker, paid more than 500,000 pounds ($630,000) in taxes in 2023, his office revealed on Friday. The 43-year-old, who has been prime minister since October 2022, had revenues of 2.2 million pounds in the 2022-23 tax year, a 13-percent increase on the previous year, according to documents released by Downing Street. About 140,000 pounds was earned as prime minister and a member of parliament. Another 2.1 million pounds came from capital gains, share dividends and interest. The figures indicate that Sunak paid an overall rate of 23 percent in tax, with capital gains…
MADAGASCAR’s justice minister defended a new bill Friday to castrate child rapists, with the measure deemed “cruel, inhuman and degrading” by Amnesty International. The upper house Senate approved the measure permitting chemical and surgical castration Wednesday after it had been voted through by the National Assembly earlier this month. Amnesty International urged Antananarivo to drop the proposed law, saying it would not resolve the problem of paedophilia. But Justice Minister Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa told AFP that the large Indian ocean island “is a sovereign country that has every right to amend its laws”. “Faced with the resurgence of rape, we…
SENEGALESE security forces on Friday used tear gas to disperse people attempting to gather in the capital after being urged to mobilise against a last-minute delay of presidential elections. Anti-riot police kept back groups of people trying to get to the large Place de la Nation in central Dakar, where a rally had been planned. Some demonstrators responded by throwing stones and all access points to the square were closed off, AFP journalists saw. “The situation is deplorable. We came to pray and we got gassed. It’s intolerable,” Thierno Alassane Sall, one of the 20 candidates who had been due…
US PRESIDENT Biden late Thursday offered one of his sharpest rebukes to date of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza, saying the operation to go after Hamas had been “over the top.” He also voiced optimism that a deal currently being brokered pairing the release of hostages with a prolonged pause in the fighting could eventually lead to a more sustained change in the war. And he painted a stark portrait of the suffering in Gaza, insisting more must be done to stem the humanitarian crisis there. Delivered at the very end of a fiery evening news conference, Biden’s remarks offered…
QUEEN Camilla, wife of Britain’s King Charles III, said Thursday that her husband who has been diagnosed with cancer is “doing extremely well” under the circumstances. King Charles has been “very touched by all the letters and the messages the public have been sending from everywhere”, she said during a trip in southern England. “Well he’s doing extremely well under the circumstances,” Camilla said, adding that all the kind messages the king had received were “very cheering”. The Queen left King Charles at the royal country residence of Sandringham, in the East of England, where the couple moved on Tuesday.…