AN 80-year-old US woman has been killed by an “aggressive” elephant, after it charged at a vehicle during a safari drive in Zambia, local officials said. The attack occurred on Saturday at Kafue National Park in the west of the country. In a video circulating online the large elephant could be seen flipping the car carrying six people over several times. Keith Vincent, CEO of the safari group, said the vehicle was “blocked” by the terrain and couldn’t move out. The 80-year-old woman, who has not been named, died of her injuries. Officials said her remains will be repatriated to…
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Q – A person owns a piece of land and one year has passed since he acquired it. Zakaah is due because it comes under the heading of trade goods (i.e., he bought it in order to sell it). How should he pay zakaah on it? Please note that he only has a little cash, very little? Shaheed Ahmad, Borno A – Zakkaah is due on trade goods according to the Qur’aan and Sunnah. In the Qur’aan this is indicated by the general meaning of the verse in which Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “O you who believe! Spend…
RANGERS maintained top position on the Nigeria Premier Football League table courtesy of a 2-0 home win over Sunshine Stars at the Nnamdi Azikwe Stadium, Enugu on Wednesday. Kalu Nweke and Emmanuel Onyebuchi were the goal scorers for the Flying Antelopes. Title holders Enyimba were in devastating form as they pulverised Kano Pillars 5-0 in Aba. Joseph Atule bagged a brace, with Chijioke Mbaoma, Eze Ekwutoziam and Alade Balogun scoring the other goals. At the Mobolaji Johnson Arena Stadium, Onikan, Lobi Stars held Sporting Lagos to a 1-1 draw. Junior Lokosa opened scoring for Sporting Lagos in the 33rd minute,…
PHIL Foden struck a stunning hat-trick as Manchester City continued to apply pressure to Premier League title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool with a commanding win over Aston Villa at Etihad Stadium. Manager Pep Guardiola left key men Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne on the bench after Sunday’s drab draw with Arsenal, but the reigning champions still had too much for injury-hit Villa, who also lost goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to illness just before kick-off. In their absence, Foden produced a masterclass to take his tally to 21 goals this season. But it was Rodri who struck first for City after…
MULTIPLE aid organisations, including the UN in recent hours, have said that they will be pausing operations in Gaza after an attack on a charity convoy killed seven aid workers. This includes the World Central Kitchen, which had 68 kitchens across the enclave, along with the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) and Project Hope, which provides healthcare aid. These announcements have sparked increasing concern about the disruption of aid in Gaza, which is on the brink of a famine. This is coming after the World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres accused Israeli forces in Gaza of targeting the aid…
HAITI’s National Library was looted Wednesday by armed gangs terrorizing the Caribbean nation’s capital Port-au-Prince amid extended political paralysis, its director told AFP. Dangelo Neard said the history of Haiti — the Western Hemisphere’s second-oldest republic — was being threatened. “I was told that the thugs are taking away the institution’s furniture. They also ransacked the building’s generator,” Neard said. “Our documentary collections are in danger. We have rare documents over 200 years old, with importance to our heritage, which risk being burned or damaged by bandits,” he added. Armed groups control most of Port-au-Prince and swaths of the countryside…
LEFT-WING pan-Africanist Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Tuesday became Senegal’s youngest president, pledging systemic change after years of deadly turmoil and announcing his mentor, opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister. Faye, 44, has never previously held an elected office. He swept to a first-round victory on a promise of radical reform just 10 days after being released from prison. He took the presidential oath in front of hundreds of officials and several African heads of state at an exhibition centre in the new town of Diamniadio, near Dakar. He then returned to the capital, with his motorcade greeted by hundreds…
ZIMBABWE declared drought a national disaster on Wednesday, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying the country needs $2 billion in aid to help millions of people who are going hungry. A severe dry spell induced by the El Nino weather pattern is wreaking havoc across southern Africa. “No Zimbabwean must succumb or die from hunger,” Mnangagwa told a press conference. “To that end, I do hereby declare a nationwide State of Disaster, due to the El Nino-induced drought.” Due to poor rains, more than 2.7 million people will not have enough food to put on the table this year, he warned.…
Q – What is the food that is permissible to give for Zakatul-Fitr? Nura Jamilu, Hadejia A – It is reported in the hadith that it is to be given from five things. They are wheat, barley, dried dates , raisins and cottage cheese. However, some of the research scholars have mentioned that specifying these five things was done because they were used at that time. Therefore, they permit giving it from whatever is the common food of the land like rice for example, and corn in the land where it is used as food and so forth. Q -…
MANCHESTER United defenders Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof have both picked up muscle injuries and will be ruled out for at least a month. Martinez has sustained a calf strain in training, having only returned from a seven-week absence with a knee injury in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Brentford. Lindelof suffered a hamstring injury in that game and was replaced by Martinez. Erik ten Hag’s side are already without left-backs Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia through injury. Both Martinez and Lindelof are hoping to return this season but a month-long absence would see them miss five Premier League, starting with…
DESPITE a week of tensions with Israel over its conduct of the Gaza War, Washington is reported to have authorised arms transfers to its ally worth billions of dollars. These include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000lb (900kg) bombs and 500 MK82 500lb bombs, as well as 25 F35A fighter jets, The Washington Post and Reuters news agency have said. The larger bombs have previously been linked to air strikes in Gaza causing mass casualties. Washington gives $3.8bn (£3bn) in annual military assistance to Israel. But the latest package comes as the Biden administration has been raising concerns about rising civilian…
A 7.4 MAGNITUDE earthquake struck off Taiwan’s east coast on Wednesday, setting off tsunami warnings on the island and its neighbouring countries. The epicentre is located about 18km (11 miles) south of Taiwan’s Hualien city, according to the US Geological Survey. Multiple buildings have partially collapsed in Hualien and are shown leaning at precarious angles. It is Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years, said seismology officials. Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC said it has evacuated some of its factories in Hsinchu and southern Taiwan for its staff’s safety, but added that its safety systems are operating normally. TSMC is a major…
SOUTH Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma on Tuesday filed an appeal against a decision by electoral officials barring him from running in elections as tensions mount ahead of the May polls. The electoral commission last week excluded the 81-year-old politician, who is campaigning for a new opposition party, over a 2021 contempt of court conviction. But in court papers seen by AFP, lawyers for Zuma and the party argued that the sentence did not disqualify him for it followed civil rather than criminal proceedings. The electoral commission “had no valid reasons to violate the political rights of President Zuma,” the…
KENYA’s largest referral hospital on Tuesday said it would dispose of more than 500 bodies, most of them children, that lay unclaimed. Families have up to seven days to identify and collect the 541 bodies at the Kenyatta National Hospital mortuary, it said in a notice on its website. “Failure to which the hospital will seek authority from the courts to dispose of them,” it said. More than three-quarters of the bodies are of children who died in the middle of last year. While most of the names and ages of the deceased were published, the identities of more than…
BASSIROU Diomaye Faye, a left-wing pan-Africanist, was sworn in Tuesday as Senegal’s youngest president after sweeping to a first-round victory on a pledge of radical reform 10 days after he was released from prison. The 44-year-old has never before held an elected office but several African leaders attended the ceremony in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital Dakar. “Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of President of the Republic of Senegal,” Faye said before the gathered officials. He also vowed to “scrupulously observe the provisions of the Constitution and the laws”…
Q – Salaamu Alaikum Ya Sheikh, is there a specific prayer recited for Ramadan or the last ten days? Aminu Kabiru, Abuja A: Tirmidhee and others report: `A’ishah asked: “O Messenger of Allaah! If I was to know which night is the night of qadr, what should I say therein?” He answered: “Say: ‘O Allaah! Verily, You are One who Pardons (`Afuww) and You love pardoning (`afw), so pardon (`afw) me!’” Al-`Afuww is a Name of Allaah. It is often translated to mean the One who pardons or forgives. `Afuww comes from `afw. `Afw linguistically means to leave or abandon…
UNITED States of America’s men’s U-19 national team coach of Nigerian descent, Michael Nsien, has declared his interest in the vacant Super Eagles coaching job, as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) continues its search for a substantive coach. While addressing a news conference in Abuja on Monday, Nsien says with his qualifications and experience, he remains the best man to succeed Jose Peseiro as the Super Eagles coach. Nsien is one of the contenders for the Super Eagles job with ex-internationals Emmanuel Amuneke and George Finidi as well as other candidates being mooted. The NFF advertised the Super Eagles coaching…
FORMULA One owners Liberty Media have agreed to buy MotoGP on Monday in a deal valued at around $4.5 billion, the American company said. MotoGP said in a statement that Liberty Media would acquire “approximately 86 percent” stake from Spain-based owners Dorna in a deal valued at 4.2 billion euros ($4.5 billion). The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2024 subject to clearances and approvals by competition and foreign investment law authorities in various jurisdictions. Liberty will not be the first company to own both Formula One and MotoGP. Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners had…
ISRAELI air strikes destroyed the Iranian embassy’s consular annex in Damascus Monday, Syrian and Iranian officials said, with a top Revolutionary Guard commander among seven members the force said were killed, amid worsening regional tensions. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps named Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and another high-ranking officer, Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, as among seven of its members killed. Britain-based war monitors the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people, including several Guards members, were killed when “Israeli missiles… destroyed the building of an annexe to the Iranian embassy”. The toll includes “eight Iranians, two…
FOUR aid workers said to include a Briton, a Pole and an Australian, and their Palestinian driver, have died in what the Hamas-run health ministry says was an Israeli air strike in Gaza. A Palestinian medical source told the BBC the workers had been wearing bullet-proof vests bearing the World Central Kitchen (WCK) logo. The US-based NGO described the reported deaths as a “tragedy”. Israel’s military said it was conducting a “thorough review”. The medical source at al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip told the BBC that the bodies of the four workers had been brought to the hospital…