Author: Editor

A PRESENTER for a London-based Iranian TV news channel has been repeatedly stabbed outside his home in the city, his channel has said. Iran International, which reported extensively in 2022 on anti-government protests in Iran, said Pouria Zeraati, 36, was attacked by a group. The Metropolitan Police said specialist counter-terrorism officers were leading an investigation into the stabbing. The victim was stable in hospital, the force added. Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s counter-terrorism command unit, said officers were keeping an open mind as to any motivation behind the attack. The Met said counter-terrorism officers had been assigned due…

SOUTH Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been involved in a car crash but was unhurt. A drunk driver collided with his “official armoured state vehicle” on Thursday evening, police have said. But a leading member of his uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party alleged that he had been targeted. He has been suspended by the governing African National Congress (ANC) and is campaigning for the MK ahead of May’s general election. Mr Zuma was in the car, along with his official protection team, when it was hit on a road in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal at about 18:40 local…

BRITISH MPs have warned that food aid is being used as a weapon of war in Sudan’s bitter civil conflict. Vicky Ford, the chair of parliament’s all-party group on Sudan, said there was evidence both warring sides – the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces – were restricting humanitarian aid. She was speaking after new research suggested more than 100 villages in western Sudan had been burned. The war in Sudan has been raging for almost year and the fighting is brutal. The Centre for Information Resilience – a government-funded research group – says that 108 villages and settlements…

THE federal government has released a sum of N90 billion to subsidise the 2024 pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this newspaper has learnt. An impeccable source within the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) revealed this to this newspaper on Thursday. The source, who asked not to be named, noted that without this intervention, each of the intending pilgrims would have been requested to add at least N3.5 million to the initial fare which was pegged at N4.9 million. A top official at the Presidency also confirmed that the federal government “actually provided some financial support for the…

THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has extended by one week the second phase of SIM-NIN linkage deadline, top officials of the commission told this newspaper. It would be recalled that the disconnection process was rolled out in stages, with the second phase scheduled for today, March 29. The first phase took place on February 28, 2024, after NCC directed telecom operators to bar millions of subscribers for refusing to link their SIMs with their NINs. The third phase is slated to commence on April 15, 2024, as previously announced by NCC in December, 2023. The first phase took place on…

Multiple questions from our social media pages: Q: Who Must Fast? A: Fasting is compulsory for those who are mentally and physically fit, past the age of puberty, in a settled situation (not travelling), and are sure fasting is unlikely to cause real physical or mental injury. Q. Why do Muslims fast? A: Fasting is common in many religions. The Quran, the reveled text in Islam, says in chapter 2 verse 183, “O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who were before you, in order that you may learn piety and God…

THREE Nigeria Premier League Football teams, Remo Stars, Sporting Lagos, Heartland FC Owerri have suffered early eliminations in their respective state Football Association (FA) Cup competitions. Nigerian National League side, Beyond Limit actually went beyond its limits by defeating their senior side, Remo Stars on 5-4 on penalties after the regulation time ended 1-1.They will play in the Ogun State FA Cup final this weekend against Stormers SC, a side that they’ve already defeated 5-0 in the NNL this season. In Lagos, NPFL debutants Sporting Lagos fell to a 2-0 loss to Inter Lagos who will battle Ikorodu FC in…

LIVERPOOL expect Xabi Alonso to stay at Bayer Leverkusen this summer and are to consider other candidates to replace manager Jurgen Klopp. Spaniard Alonso, 42, has been heavily linked with the role at Anfield since Klopp said he will stand down. Leverkusen are on the brink of a first Bundesliga title and are unbeaten in all competitions this season. Bayern Munich’s honorary president Uli Hoeness said a move for Alonso this summer is “probably impossible”. Alonso was also seen as a candidate to take over at the Bavarian giants, whose manager Thomas Tuchel will depart at the end of the…

THE UN’s top court has unanimously ordered Israel to enable the unhindered flow of aid into Gaza in order to avert a famine. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel must act “without delay” to allow the “provision… of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”. This follows warnings that famine could hit Gaza within weeks. Israel has called allegations it is blocking aid “wholly unfounded”. It has also denied allegations of genocide lodged at the ICJ by South Africa and has blamed the UN for problems with the distribution of aid. The latest ruling by the court in…

A RUSSIAN military plane crashed Thursday into the sea off Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula, the Moscow-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol said. “A military plane has fallen into the sea,” Mikhail Razvozhayev said in a post on Telegram, without giving the cause. Footage on social media showed a plane in flames falling out of the sky. Sevastopol, the historic headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sits on the southern tip of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. The region has come under frequent Ukrainian attack during the two-year conflict. “The pilot ejected. He was picked up…

IN NDIAGANIAO, a remote village in Senegal’s agricultural region, men from around the country flock to congratulate the father of president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Speaking from the hallway of the pastel-coloured family home and dressed in a silk blue boubou, 84-year-old Samba Faye says he is “happy and proud” of his son. “He came to see me before the election, crouched at my feet and asked that I pray for this success,” Faye said as men come up to greet him while others hand him buzzing telephones. “We could never have imagined that he would one day become president of…

FORTY-FIVE people have died in South Africa after the bus they were in plunged some 50m (165ft) off a bridge into a ravine, authorities say. An eight-year-old girl, the only survivor, was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The bus crashed through a barrier and caught fire when it hit the ground in the north-eastern Limpopo province. The passengers were pilgrims travelling from Botswana’s capital Gaborone to an Easter service in the town of Moria. The vehicle lost control and went off a bridge on the Mmamatlakala mountain pass between Mokopane and Marken, around 300km (190 miles) north of Johannesburg,…

THE senator representing Bauchi Central in the Senate, Ahmed Ningi, has written the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, demanding that the suspension placed on him be lifted. Ningi, who wrote Akpabio through his lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), noted that if his suspension was not lifted in the next seven days he would drag the Senate before the Federal High Court. The Senate, on March 12, sent Ningi on three months suspension over his claim that the 2024 budget was padded to the tune of N3.7tn. Ningi, in a media interview, claimed that while the budget passed by the National Assembly for…

Q – As Fasting draws to an end, what is your message for us all? Mustapha Noor, Abuja A – Many people misunderstand the true nature of fasting, and they make it an occasion for eating and drinking, making special sweets and staying up late at night and watching shows on satellite TV. They make such preparations long before Ramadaan, lest they miss out on some food bargains before food prices go up. They prepare by buying food, preparing drinks and looking at the satellite TV guide so they can choose which shows to follow and which to ignore. They…

FORMER world heptathlon champion Eunice Barber suffered minor injuries after being punched in the face by a passenger on a Paris suburban train, a police source said Tuesday. Barber, 49, was attacked after asking “a drunken passenger” to speak less loudly on his phone during the journey from Franconville, 17km north-west of Paris, into the city. The Sierra Leonean-born French athlete received “two blows to the face”, resulting in a slight injury to the “right cheekbone”, the police source said. A 43-year-old man was arrested when the train reached its destination at the Gare du Nord station in central Paris.…

THE southern Gaza Strip came under intense Israeli bombardment overnight, despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory where famine is looming. Besieged Gaza is in desperate need of aid and the United States said it would continue airdrops, despite pleas from Hamas to stop the practice after the Islamist group said 18 people had died trying to reach food packages. A fireball lit up the night sky in the southern city of Rafah, the last remaining urban centre in Gaza not to have been attacked by Israeli ground forces. About 1.5 million people are crammed in…

FIVE Chinese nationals working on a major dam construction site were killed along with their driver on Tuesday when a suicide bomber targeted their vehicle in northwest Pakistan, officials said. Their vehicle plunged into a deep ravine off the mountainous Karakoram Highway after the bomber rammed his car into them and detonated his explosives, police said. Beijing has poured billions of dollars into Pakistan in recent years, but Chinese-funded projects have sparked resentment and their citizens have frequently come under attack. Images shared with AFP show smoke rising from the valley, near Besham city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “Five Chinese…

THE son of a former president of Guinea-Bissau was sentenced to more than six and a half years in prison for involvement in a transnational heroin trafficking conspiracy, the US Justice Department announced Tuesday. Malam Bacai Sanha Jr, 52, planned to use the proceeds to finance a coup in the West African country that would lead to his eventual presidency and establishment of a “drugs regime,” according to the statement released by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “Malam Bacai Sanha Jr. wasn’t any ordinary international drug trafficker,” said Douglas Williams, special agent in charge of the…

FOUR people were sentenced to death and two given life imprisonment over the assassination of Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid in 2013, the deputy public prosecutor of the anti-terrorist judicial division said Wednesday. A total of 23 people had been charged in connection with the murder of leftist Belaid. Sentences ranging from two to 120 years were handed down to other defendants, while five were acquitted. Belaid, a fierce critic of the then-ruling Islamist party Ennahdha, was killed on February 6, 2013, in his car outside his home. Tunisia still hands down death sentences, often in terrorism cases, despite a…

FOLLOWING the conclusion of collation of votes, Mr Diomaye Faye has officially been declared winner of the presidential election in Senegal, winning 54.28% of votes in the first round, the 44-YEAR-OLD Senegalese politician is elected the youngest leader on the African continent. This newspaper had earlier reported how Faye, who was in prison 10 days before the election, was leading in the race. The vote followed months of political turmoil in one of Africa’s most stable democracies, after outgoing President Macky Sall tried to postpone the election until December. Several of the other 15 candidates had already conceded. President Sall…