Author: Editor

“I DON’T think I’ve ever been in a stadium where I’ve seen an overhead kick that good… and I was there for Wayne Rooney’s against Manchester City.” High praise indeed from Gary Neville, but deservedly so as Alejandro Garnacho scored one of the great Premier League goals in Manchester United’s 3-0 win at Everton. The 19-year-old Argentina winger met Diogo Dalot’s cross in the third minute at Goodison Park from about 15 yards out and unleashed a stunning overhead kick into the top corner. “I can’t believe it to be honest,” he said afterwards. “I didn’t see how I scored,…

THE military wing of Hamas said Sunday that the commander of its northern brigade and four other senior leaders had been killed during Israel’s offensive against the movement. In a statement, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said Ahmed al-Ghandour was a member of its military council, and named three of the others, among them Ayman Siyyam, head of its rocket division, while its West Bank branch confirmed another leader’s death. “We pledge to Allah we will continue their path and that their blood will be a light for the mujahedeen and a fire for the occupiers,” the statement said, without saying…

A MAN in France on Sunday confessed to killing his three children and turned himself in, said prosecutors and a police source. “A man presented himself to the police in Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) to report that he had killed his three children,” the public prosecutor said, referring to the town in the northern French region of Normandy. The bodies of two children were then found in the town of Alfortville, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, where the father lives. “Two deaths have been confirmed,” said the public prosecutor. The children were stabbed to death, said a police source, without providing…

SOMALIA has joined the East African Community (EAC) in a move intended to boost economic growth in the country following three decades of war. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said joining the regional trade bloc was a “beacon of hope” for Somalia. He said it offered “hope for a future of opportunities and prosperity”. Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991 and many parts of the country are controlled by jihadist group al-Shabab. Some of its neighbours have sent troops to help fight the Islamist group, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda. The decision to admit Somalia was made after a…

SIERRA Leone has been placed under a nationwide curfew after armed men broke into prisons, setting inmates free. Detainees from a number of “major” facilities were released on Sunday morning, said the West African nation’s information minister. President Julius Maada Bio later said most of the leaders behind the attack had been arrested. In a televised address, he described the events as a “breach of security” and an attack on democracy. He carefully avoided calling them an attempted coup. He said calm had been restored but gave no details about who the perpetrators were or what they wanted. The political…

FORMER England manager Terry Venables has died at the age of 80 after a long illness. Venables managed England from 1994 to 1996, most notably leading them to the semi-finals of Euro 96 on home soil. He also had spells in charge of Barcelona, Tottenham and Australia. “We are totally devastated by the loss of a wonderful husband and father who passed away peacefully yesterday after a long illness,” read a family statement. “We would ask that privacy be given at this incredibly sad time to allow us to mourn the loss of this lovely man who we were so…

KAI Havertz sent Arsenal to the top of the Premier League as the German’s last-gasp goal clinched a hard-fought 1-0 win at Brentford on Saturday. Havertz was a Champions League final hero for Chelsea in 2021, but he has endured a torrid time since crossing London to join Arsenal in the close-season. The 24-year-old midfielder finally gave a glimpse of why Mikel Arteta splashed out £65 million ($80 million) to sign him when he headed home in the closing minutes. Havertz’s second goal for Arsenal was his first in his last 10 appearances, moving his team one point clear of…

A SECOND group of Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity on Saturday, after hours of delay had increased the anxiety of desperate families. The Israeli military said 13 Israelis were released in Gaza and in exchange 39 more Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel in the West Bank. Hamas also released four Thai hostages. The first releases took place smoothly on Friday, under a temporary four-day truce deal brokered by Qatar. Urgent talks saved Saturday’s handover. The Israelis had been expected to be handed over to the Red Cross on Gaza’s border with Egypt at 16:00 (14:00 GMT). The Hamas armed…

DEREK Chauvin, the US police officer whose murder of George Floyd sparked massive racial justice protests in 2020, was stabbed in prison on Friday, the New York Times reported citing unnamed sources. Chauvin knelt on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes on a Minneapolis street despite the dying man’s pleas. Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe” were a rallying call for demonstrators domestically and abroad who took to the streets in the killing’s aftermath. The US Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed an assault to AFP without naming the person wounded. “An incarcerated individual was assaulted at…

CHAD’s military-led government has issued an amnesty to security forces responsible for killing at least 50 opposition protestors. In 2022 people took to the streets to oppose interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno extending his rule. The authorities responded with a brutal crackdown which officials say left 50 people dead on what has been called “Black Thursday”. Human rights groups put the number of dead much higher, at more than 300. Over 600 people were arrested, including 83 minors and sentenced in mass trials. The amnesty is part of a deal signed with opposition leader Succès Masra to foster national…

MADAGASCAR President Andry Rajoelina has won re-election in the first round of a ballot boycotted by nearly all opposition candidates in the Indian Ocean island nation, the election commission said Saturday. Rajoelina won 58.95 percent of the votes cast in the November 16 presidential election, according to the results presented by the poll body which need to be validated by the Constitutional Court. Turnout was just over 46 percent, down on the previous presidential election in 2018, which the election commission blamed on “ambient political climate” and “manipulation of opinion”. “The Malagasy people have chosen the path of continuity and…

FRENCH police on Friday detained Algerian international Youcef Atal, who plays for Ligue 1 football side Nice, in a probe into suspected “justification of terrorism” after he published a social media pro-palestine post on the Israel-Hamas war, prosecutors said. Last month the 27-year-old defender was banned for seven matches over the post, which he quickly deleted and subsequently issued an apology. The public prosecutor in Nice opened a probe following a request from the local prefect and mayor of Nice. Prosecutors later said that Atal will face trial for incitement to religious hatred on December 18 at the Nice criminal…

PEP Guardiola says he would stay at Manchester City even if the club are found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules and relegated to third-tier League One as a punishment. City’s fate has been brought back into sharp focus following Everton’s 10-point deduction last week, which plunged them into the relegation zone. The Toffees were docked 10 points for breaking rules over a three-year period, while City are awaiting a ruling after being charged in February with 115 breaches of financial rules. The club denies all the charges. City were banned for two years from UEFA competitions in February…

THE families of at least 50 civilians held hostage in Gaza are awaiting the return of loved ones under a truce deal which will see Israel release 150 Palestinian prisoners. Israel is typically forced to release large numbers of prisoners in order to obtain the release of its nationals. Here are the five previous biggest prisoner swaps between Israel and Palestinian or Lebanese freedom-fighting groups. 1983: Pact with PLO On November 23, 1983, Israel freed around 4,500 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, in return for six Israeli soldiers captured by the Palestine Liberation Organization during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon the previous year.…

FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday “vigorously” denied any wrongdoing as he appealed a one-year jail sentence for illegal campaign financing. Sarkozy has faced a litany of legal problems since his sole term in office from 2007 until 2012 and has been charged separately with corruption, bribery, influence-peddling as well as breaking campaign financing laws. “I vigorously deny any criminal responsibility,” the 68-year-old said at the Paris Court of Appeal. “I deny, and I hope to demonstrate, that I ever had any knowledge of fraud, that I ever asked for fraud or even benefited from fraud,” he said at…

FORMER Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius is to be freed from jail on parole, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He shot her multiple times through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013, later claiming he mistook her for a burglar at their Pretoria home. Pistorius, now 37, was sentenced by a South African court in 2016 to serve 13 years and five months in prison. The parole board has set his release for 5 January 2024. Once released, Pistorius will be monitored by the authorities until his sentence officially expires “just like all other parolees”, the…

AN elephant in Kenya has given birth to a set of twins, a conservation group said on Friday, a rare event for the planet’s largest land mammals. Save the Elephants said that the twins, both female, were born in the Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya to a mother named Alto, describing it as “double joy”. Twins make up only about one percent of elephant births, although another pair — one male and one female — were born in the same reserve in early 2022. A video posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Save the Elephants, showed the baby elephants…

SPANISH prosecutors are seeking a nine-year jail term for former Brazil star Dani Alves who is accused of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. Prosecutors have also demanded the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain full-back, who has been in jail in Spain since his arrest in January, pay his alleged victim 150,000 euros ($163,500) in compensation, according to a copy of his indictment seen by AFP on Thursday. A date for his trial had not yet been set. The 40-year-old has maintained that he had consensual sex with his accuser. “I have a really clear…

A FOUR-DAY pause in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza will begin this morning and an exchange of hostages will follow hours later, the mediator, Qatar, has confirmed. The ceasefire deal, facilitated by Qatar with help of Egypt and the United States, was due to take effect Thursday, but was delayed after a last-minute hitch. The ceasefire deal followed weeks of war in the Gaza Strip after Hamas fighters broke through the militarised Gaza border with Israel on October 7 in an attack. Israeli airstrikes and ground invasions had since then reportedly killed over 14,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and…

RAP mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is being sued by a woman who says he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1991. In a lawsuit seen by the BBC, the plaintiff says the assault took place during a date with the rapper. Mr Combs recently settled a sexual assault suit brought by R&B singer and former partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. A representative for the rapper called the latest allegations “made up and not credible”. “This is purely a money grab and nothing more,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC on Thursday. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff, Joi Dickerson-Neal,…