Author: Editor

MAKESHIFT striker Mikel Merino scored a crucial equaliser against 10-man Chelsea as leaders Arsenal moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League. The game’s big moment came in the 38th minute, when Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo was sent off following a video assistant referee (VAR) review for a late tackle that connected with Merino’s shin – his side’s sixth red card of the season. But 10-man Chelsea took the lead shortly after half-time when Trevoh Chalobah’s flicked header from a corner looped over David Raya and into the bottom corner. Arsenal levelled 11 minutes later when Spain…

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused in long-running corruption cases, has submitted a formal pardon request to President Isaac Herzog. “The Office of the President is aware that this is an extraordinary request which carries with it significant implications. After receiving all of the relevant opinions, the president will responsibly and sincerely consider the request,” Herzog’s office said in a statement on Sunday. Netanyahu is up against three separate cases of corruption filed in 2019, which include allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty. Netanyahu’s request came as United States…

POPE Leo XIV arrived in Lebanon on Sunday with a message of peace for the crisis-hit nation, still reeling from a war between Israel and Hezbollah and the conflict’s lingering aftereffects. The pope had previously visited Turkey, where he kicked off his maiden overseas tour after being elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May. Leo arrived in Beirut shortly before 3:45 pm (13:45 GMT) and was met by officials, including President Joseph Aoun, the Arab world’s only Christian head of state. The two-nation tour is a test for the first American pope, whose understated style contrasts with…

SOUTH African police have arrested four Russia-bound men at Johannesburg’s airport suspected of having signed up to fight for the Russian army, the force said on Saturday. The announcement comes in the wake of revelations that police were investigating a daughter of ex-president Jacob Zuma over claims she was involved in recruiting men to join Russian mercenaries in the Ukraine war. The four, arrested at OR Tambo airport on Thursday and Friday following a tip-off, were to be brought before a court near Johannesburg on Monday. Police suspect them of having breached South Africa’s law against citizens fighting for a…

SENEGAL’s prime minister and Nigeria’s former president have both said they believe the ousting of Guinea-Bissau’s president this week was staged. Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s apparent removal by the military on Wednesday came a day before authorities were due to announce election results. The military has since suspended the electoral process and blocked the release of the results, insisting it thwarted a plot to destabilise the politically unstable country. Senegal’s PM Ousmane Sonko and Nigeria’s ex-leader Goodluck Jonathan did not provide evidence to support their claim that the coup was fabricated. Embaló has previously faced accusations of using crises to quash…

PHIL Foden spared Manchester City’s blushes with the last-gasp winner after the Premier League title challengers blew a two-goal lead in a dramatic 3-2 win over lowly Leeds on Saturday. Pep Guardiola’s side were in danger of losing more ground in the title race following a second half collapse at the Etihad Stadium. Foden and Josko Gvardiol put City two up before the interval, but third-bottom Leeds hit back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha. Foden clinched a nerve-jangling victory that lifted City into second place, four points behind leaders Arsenal, who travel to third-placed Chelsea on Sunday. It was…

THE death toll from Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza has surpassed 70,000, the Health Ministry in the enclave says, as Israeli military attacks continue. The ministry said on Saturday that at least 70,100 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip since Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza began on October 7, 2023. More than 170,900 others have been wounded. The grim milestone comes as Israel has continued to launch attacks on Gaza despite a United States-brokered ceasefire with Hamas that came into effect last month. Medics reported earlier on Saturday that two…

A RUSSIAN attack on Ukraine has killed six people and wounded dozens of others, officials said, while emergency crews restored power to more than 400,000 households in Kyiv after strikes on the grid, as the US attempts to broker peace talks. “While everyone is discussing points of peace plans, Russia continues to pursue its ‘war plan’ of two points: to kill and destroy,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Saturday. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched about 36 missiles and nearly 600 drones in the attack. The Kyiv City Military Administration said two people…

GUINEA-BISSAU’s former president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, has travelled to the Republic of Congo, the AFP and Associated Press news agencies are reporting, days after he was deposed in a military coup. Califa Soares Cassama, Embalo’s chief of staff, confirmed to AP that the former president was in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville. Unnamed Congolese government sources also told AFP that Embalo was in Brazzaville. Embalo had initially sought refuge in neighbouring Senegal after a group of military officers on Wednesday announced that they had taken “full control” of Guinea-Bissau ahead of the release of provisional presidential election results. The true motives…

TUNISIAN police have arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday, lawyers said. The protest came after an appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied. Issa was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial. “They will arrest me shortly,” Issa had told the Reuters news agency moments before her arrest. “I say to the Tunisians, continue to protest and reject tyranny. We are sacrificing our freedom for you”. She described the charges as…

HAVE Liverpool reached rock bottom or do they have further to fall as they prepare for a tricky-looking match at West Ham this weekend? The Premier League champions have suffered six defeats in their past seven league games, with few signs that Arne Slot is getting a grip on the situation. In stark contrast, buoyant leaders Arsenal take on second-placed Chelsea showing clear signs that they are finally equipped to end their two-decade title drought. Liverpool have lost nine of their past 12 matches in all competitions — a full-blown crisis by the standards of one of the world’s biggest…

HEZBOLLAH’s leader Naim Qassem says the group has the right to respond to Israel’s assassination of its top military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last week. In a televised speech on Friday, Qassem called the killing of Haytham Ali Tabtabai “a blatant aggression and a heinous crime”, adding that the Lebanese armed group has “the right to respond, and we will determine the timing for that.” “Do you expect a war later? It’s possible, sometime. Yes, this possibility is there, and the possibility of no war is also there,” Qassem said. Qassem did not explicitly say what…

RUSSIA said Friday it was considering banning popular messaging service WhatsApp, accusing it of failing to prevent crime, and urged its tens of millions of users to switch to domestic alternatives. US technology giant Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said Russia was trying to ban the application because it “defies government attempts to violate people’s right to secure communication”. Russia blocked users from making calls on the platform in August, part of a broader crackdown on Western-owned social media that critics say is designed to tighten government control over the internet. In a statement on Friday, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said…

THE African Union (AU) has suspended Guinea-Bissau following the coup in the West African country that overthrew President Umaro Embalo. The AU decided “to suspend Guinea-Bissau from its bodies with immediate effect,” chairman Mahamoud Youssouf told AFP on Friday. The regional body’s decision came hours after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended the West African nation from its decision-making bodies over the coup. ECOWAS’ Mediation and Security Council (MSC) took the decision after an emergency meeting late Thursday. “The MSC decides, in accordance with the provisions of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance 2001 (A/SP/12/01),…

THE daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP following allegations that she tricked 17 men to fight for Russia as mercenaries in Ukraine. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, who became a member of parliament for the main opposition party uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) last year, has said in an affidavit that she thought the men were going to Russia for “lawful” training. MK says it was her decision to resign as she wants to focus her efforts on ensuring the return of those trapped in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region. The brother of one of the men, who has…

ROBIN van Persie says his decision to hand son Shaqueel a senior debut in Feyenoord’s Europa League defeat by Celtic was made “as a coach” and not out of sentiment. The 19-year-old forward spent two seasons at Manchester City’s academy, before following in his father’s footsteps with a move to Feyenoord in 2017 and signing a first professional contract with the Dutch club in 2022. Fast forward to 2025 and Shaqueel was named in Feyenoord’s first-team squad for the first time in Sunday’s Eredivisie defeat by NEC Nijmegen. Four days later he made his senior debut, coming on in the…

ISRAELI authorities have freed Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim after more than nine months of detention, in a case that advocates say embodies Israeli abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Mohammed’s release on Thursday came after a months-long pressure campaign from United States lawmakers and civil rights groups. The teenager from Florida was 15 years old in February when he was arrested and taken from his family home in the town of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, near Ramallah. He turned 16 while being held in Israeli jail, where he drastically lost weight and contracted a skin infection. “Words can’t describe…

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he would end his Ukraine offensive if Kyiv withdrew from territory Moscow claims at its own — otherwise his army would take it by force. The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces. Washington has meanwhile renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan that it hopes to finalise through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv. “If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” Putin said during a…

GUINEA-BISSAU’s deposed president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, has arrived in Senegal, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed, a day after a group of military officers in Guinea-Bissau seized power in a coup. Senegal’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday night that Embalo had arrived in Senegal after authorities engaged with actors in Guinea-Bissau to try to secure his release. Embalo reached Senegal on board an aircraft chartered by the Senegalese government, it said. “The government of the Republic of Senegal reaffirms its readiness to work alongside ECOWAS, the African Union and all relevant partners, with a view…

SOUTH Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as “regrettable” the announcement by US President Donald Trump that South Africa would not be invited to take part in next year’s G20 summit in Florida. In a social media post, Trump said South Africa had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a US embassy representative at last week’s summit in Johannesburg. “Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year.” Members of the G20 – a gathering of the world’s…