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A EXPLOSIVE device went off overnight in front of the Greek labour ministry in central Athens without causing any casualties, police said on Saturday. The explosion, which caused material damage, was preceded by an anonymous telephone call to the Greek daily Efimerida ton Syntakton about an impending blast, the police said. The caller warned that an explosive device had been placed in front of the ministry which would be detonated 40 minutes later. According to media reports, the man claimed to be a member of Revolutionary Class Self-Defence, a previously unknown organisation. The area around the building was cordoned off…

NAMIBIAN President Hage Geingob has died at the age of 82, his office has said, less than three weeks after it was announced he would undergo treatment for cancer. Geingob died on Sunday at Lady Pohamba Hospital in the capital Windhoek with his wife and his children at his side, acting president Nangolo Mbumba said in a statement posted on Geingob’s official Facebook page. “The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution and the pillar of the Namibian house,” Mbumba said. “At this moment of deepest sorrow,…

SENEGALESE President Macky Sall on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of the presidential election scheduled for February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start. In an address to the nation, Sall said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date as lawmakers investigate two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned. “I will begin an open national dialogue to bring together the conditions for a free, transparent and inclusive election,” Sall added without giving a new date. It is the first time a Senegalese presidential election has been…

AN INCREASE in prize money has contributed to the success of lower ranked teams at the ongoing 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, according to the president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf). Patrice Motsepe was speaking ahead of the quarter-finals, which got under way in Ivory Coast on Friday. A number of pre-tournament favourites suffered early exits including holders Senegal, the 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and former winners Egypt and Algeria. On the eve of the Nations Cup, Caf announced that the overall winners will pick up $7m (£5.5m) in prize money – a 40% increase on the…

MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola has dismissed claims by Spanish media that Erling Haaland is unhappy at the club. According to Spanish outlet El Desmarque, the Norway striker “can’t stand” the city and the poor weather and would be interested in a move to Real Madrid. Haaland moved to Manchester City in 2022 and hit 36 Premier League goals in his first season as they won the title. “You have to ask the media from Madrid if he is unhappy,” Guardiola said. “Maybe they have more info than we have. “We don’t have that feeling that he’s unhappy. He was…

THE United Nations said on Friday it estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated nearly four months into the war. “Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief,” said Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF in the Palestinian territories. “This figure corresponds to one percent of the overall displaced population — 1.7 million people,” he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Jerusalem. Each one “is a child who is coming to terms with a horrible new reality”. Crickx said that tracing who the…

POLICE in Washington state say an old rusted rocket found in a local man’s garage is an inert nuclear missile. On Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio called police in the city of Bellevue to report an offer of a rather unusual donation. The police then sent a bomb squad to the potential donor’s home. “And we think it’s gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again,” police said referring to Elton John’s iconic song Rocket Man. In a press release, police say the device is “in fact a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation…

THE African Union’s peacekeeping force in Somalia, where Al-Shabaab jihadists are waging an insurgency, said Friday the second phase of a drawdown involving 3,000 troops has been completed after a four-month delay. Following several major reversals against the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, the Mogadishu government had requested a three-month “technical pause” in the drawdown scheduled to be carried out by last September. “The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS)… has completed Phase Two drawdown, which involved reducing the troop count by 3,000 soldiers,” the force said in a statement. ATMIS handed over seven forward operating bases to the internationally-backed government and…

THE World Food Programme (WFP) says it is receiving reports of people dying of starvation in Sudan, where a war has displaced millions of people since last April. Violence is escalating between the army and a rival paramilitary force as they fight for control of the country. Security threats and roadblocks have made the work of humanitarian agencies nearly impossible. Nearly five million people across Sudan now face emergency levels of hunger. This is twice the number since the start of the conflict, according to the WFP. The humanitarian body says it has only been able to deliver vital aid…

Al NASSR crushed Inter Miami 6-0 as injury ruled Cristiano Ronaldo out of a much-hyped showdown with Lionel Messi, who was limited to a late substitute appearance in Thursday’s friendly in Riyadh. Ronaldo’s calf injury prompted Al Nassr to cancel their two-game China tour last week and it denied him what could have potentially been a last match against longtime rival Messi. The pair have won a combined 13 Ballon d’Or awards, with Messi taking home the prize for a record eighth time last year. Their most recent meeting came in January 2023 when Ronaldo played in a Saudi select…

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden has approved sanctions on four Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Mr Biden signed a broad executive order, saying violence in the West Bank had reached “intolerable levels”. The sanctions block the individuals from accessing all US property, assets and the American financial system. Violence in the West Bank has spiked since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October. Some 370 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then, according to the UN. The majority of those have been killed by Israeli forces but at least…

A FORMER CIA officer has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for leaking a trove of classified hacking tools to whistle-blowing platform Wikileaks. Joshua Schulte was also found guilty of possessing child abuse images. Prosecutors have accused him of leaking the CIA’s “Vault 7” tools, which allow intelligence officers to hack smartphones and use them as listening devices. They said the leak is one of the most “brazen” in US history. Schulte, 35, shared some 8,761 documents to Wikileaks in 2017, amounting to the largest data breach in the history of the CIA, the US justice department said. He…

A HUGE gas blast in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has killed at least two people and injured at least 222. A lorry carrying gas exploded in Embakasi district around 23:30 (20:30 GMT), “igniting a huge ball of fire”, a government spokesperson said. Housing, businesses and cars were damaged with video showing a huge blaze raging close to blocks of flats. Earlier, the government had said the blast happened at a gas plant. The cause is still being established. Mr Mwaura said the fireball from the blast had “spread widely”, and a flying gas cylinder had hit a garments and textiles…

FRENCH nationals will no longer be allowed to fly into Niger, airline sources said Thursday. “According to the Nigerien authorities, any passenger of French nationality is no longer authorised to enter Nigerien territory,” said an internal Air Burkina note seen by AFP. “As a consequence they will not be accepted aboard our flights” to the capital Niamey, it added. Royal Air Maroc has also decided to follow the new rule, except for “special authorisations”, said a source close to the company. Numerous other airlines who fly to Niamey including Ethiopian Airlines, Air Tunisie and Turkish Airlines did not respond immediately…

WITH nearly 10 million deaths and nearly 20 million new cases in 2022, cancer remains one of the world’s biggest killers, according to a report on Thursday by the World Health Organisation. Here are five key facts about the disease ahead of World Cancer Day on Sunday: One In Five People Cancer — a disease that causes abnormal cells to multiply and spread — affects humans and virtually all other animal species, with traces found in human skeletons dating from prehistoric times. There are more than 100 types of cancer, each with its own diagnosis and treatment. Around one in…

THE napkin on which 13-year-old Lionel Messi’s first Barcelona contract was signed is to be auctioned – with a starting price of £300,000. The napkin, signed in December 2000, carries a commitment from then Barca director Carles Rexach to sign Messi. It was also signed by Josep Minguella, a transfer advisor to the Spanish club, and agent Horacio Gaggioli, who recommended the Argentine. Messi joined Barca a month later and went on to be their record goalscorer. He made his debut aged 16 and scored 672 goals in 778 games for the Catalan club. Now 36, Messi won 10 La…

RED Crescent Society reports Israeli forces “firing heavily” in a raid on al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis; Nasser and al-Amal hospitals under Israeli military siege for days. “We’ve lost a health clinic, major shelters – facilities that were supporting the people of Khan Younis,” says Thomas White, UNRWA’s director of Gaza affairs, as staff join thousands fleeing the city in southern Gaza. Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour tells UN Security Council that for the ICJ’s “provisional measures to be implemented, there must be a ceasefire in Gaza”. At least 26,900 people have been killed and 65,949 wounded in Israeli attacks on…

THE Houthi movement in Yemen says it has struck a US merchant ship in the Red Sea in a fresh attack targeting commercial shipping. It named the ship as the KOI, which it said was US-operated. Maritime security firm Ambrey said a vessel operating south of Yemen’s port of Aden had reported an explosion on board but it did not name the ship. Meanwhile, the US has launched new air strikes in Yemen, targeting 10 drones reportedly being set up to launch. According to Reuters news agency, the KOI is a Liberian-flagged container ship operated by UK-based Oceonix Services. The…

A KENYAN opposition leader has accused President William Ruto of planning to defy a court ruling against the deployment of police to Haiti. Ekuru Aukot, who last week successfully challenged the planned deployment in court, says the president can only deploy the army and not the police. The court said the mission was illegal. Mr Ruto said on Tuesday the mission could go ahead “as soon as next week” if all the paperwork was done to satisfy the demands of the court. Last November, the Kenyan parliament ratified the deployment of 1,000 officers to lead a multinational force in Haiti,…

CAMEROONIAN socialite Hervé Bopda has been arrested after abuse allegations against him prompted national outrage. Earlier this month, Mr Bopda and his acquaintances were accused by a popular activist of committing a number of crimes against roughly 200 victims. Dozens of social media users have subsequently posted fresh allegations of sexual and physical abuse, many using the hashtag #stopbopda. Mr Bopda, known for his jet-setting lifestyle, has denied all wrongdoing. On Wednesday, after Mr Bopda was arrested, his lawyer said the accusations were “scandalous”. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Ojong Ashu acknowledged that the recent slew of abuse allegations prompted…