RAP artist Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of rape and sex trafficking by a female singer. In a lawsuit seen by the BBC, ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura said she was trapped for a decade in a cycle of abuse and violence. Mr Combs – who has also gone by the stage name Puff Daddy – denies the allegations, accusing the singer of trying to extort him. His lawyer said the claims were “offensive and outrageous”. Ms Ventura – an R&B singer and dancer who performs under the stage name Cassie – alleges that the rap producer raped and beat her…
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US-BASED Ethiopian Julie Mehretu has once again broken the record for the highest sale price of any work by an African-born artist at auction. Her abstract painting Walkers With the Dawn and Morning fetched $10.7m (£8.6m) at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday. The piece features ink and acrylic on canvas and takes its name from a 1920s Langston Hughes poem. Mehretu, 52, was born in Ethiopia and moved with her family to the US in 1977 at a time of political strife. She has since become one of the most prominent names in the fast-growing contemporary African art world.…
MALAWI’s President Lazarus Chakwera has suspended with immediate effect all international travel for himself and his government in a bid to save money. The measure follows a huge devaluation of the currency as Malawi secures a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost its ailing economy. Mr Chakwera has also ordered all ministers currently abroad to return home. Fuel allowances for senior government officials have been cut by 50%. Malawi’s economy has been undergoing turbulent times, characterised by an acute shortage of petrol and diesel, as well as high inflation. In a televised address, Mr Chakwera said the…
THE Department of State Services (DSS) on Wednesday in Abuja re-arraigned Husseni Ismaila (aka Maitangaran), the alleged mastermind of the 2014 multiple bomb attacks in Kano at the Federal High Court. When the matter was called, the prosecuting counsel, Mr E.A. Aduda, told the court that the DSS had filed an amended charge of four counts against the defendant and prayed the court to read the charge to the defendant to take his plea. The defendant pleaded not guilty to all four count charges, which read in part: “That you Husseni Ismaila, alias Maitangaran, 34-year-old male, professed to be a…
MANCHESTER City announced record-breaking revenue of £712.8 million ($888 million) for their treble-winning season on Wednesday — far outstripping the previous mark reported by Manchester United just last month. The Premier League and European champions reported an increase of nearly £100 million in revenue for the 2022/23 financial year compared with the previous year as profits nearly doubled to £80.4 million. United, who have been in City’s shadow for a decade, announced a Premier League revenue record figure of £648.4 million in late October. Pep Guardiola’s men last season became the second English club after United in 1999 to win…
ISRAELI forces have raided al-Shifa Hospital, where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering, following days of heavy attacks in the area surrounding the complex in Gaza City. Israel’s military said early on Wednesday morning that it was carrying out an “operation against Hamas in a specified area” at al-Shifa. Calling the assault a “targeted operation” on Gaza’s largest medical facility, it said the raid was based on Israeli and United States intelligence. Israel accuses Hamas, the group that governs Gaza, of using the hospital as a base. Hamas rejects the claim. Israel has not produced evidence to back up its assertion.…
THE US and China have agreed to resume military-to-military communications in an effort to ease rising tensions, President Joe Biden says. “We’re back to direct, open, clear communications,” he said following a rare meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in California on Wednesday. It was the first time the pair had spoken in person in more than a year. Mr Biden also said both leaders had agreed to establish a direct line of communication with one another. At a news conference following the summit, which took place at a historic country estate near San Francisco, Mr Biden said a lack…
MADAGASCAR is holding presidential elections despite an opposition boycott following weeks of protests. A curfew was declared overnight to prevent any trouble. Political tensions have been running high, with the opposition saying that the incumbent, Andry Rajoelina, should be disqualified. There have been six weeks of demonstrations, which have seen opposition supporters clash with police. Angelo Ravelonarivo, a police prefect in the capital of Antananarivo, said the curfew was imposed following “various acts of sabotage” including the “burning of a polling station”. Opposition leaders have complained of an “institutional coup” in favour of Mr Rajoelina. They say he should be…
INITIAL results from the presidential run-off election in Liberia point to an extremely tight race. With almost a quarter of the results in, President George Weah has 49% of the votes, just behind the opposition’s Joseph Boakai who has over 50%. In the first round, both men were also neck and neck – with the third placed candidate securing just two per cent of the votes. Neither President Weah nor Boakai achieved more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the election, triggering the run-off. The same two candidates also faced each other in the 2017 election,…
ONE of the correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) assigned to cover the Presidential Villa in Abuja has narrated how he was abducted by gunmen. The correspondent had mistakenly boarded a wrong vehicle at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, on the way home after an assignment. The fear-stricken Reporter, who is yet to recover from the trauma and has become generally afraid of everyone around her, tells his story below: On the said day, I covered an assignment at the Presidential Villa. After the assignment, I filed my story and decided to go home. One of the Directors in…
SUPER Falcons’ Asisat Oshoala and goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie make the cut as Nigeria dominated the shortlist for the 2023 CAF Women’s Awards. The continent’s governing body released the shortlist of nominees on Tuesday afternoon with the Super Falcons, and their coach Wandy Waldrum also making the cut. Oshoala, who plays for Barcelona Femeni, won the treble including the Champions League with the Spanish giants, and is on the cusp of winning a record-extending sixth CAF Women’s Player of the Year Award. She is the current holder – her fifth gong to surpass compatriot Perpetua Nkwocha’s record. She was also a…
A RESOUNDING Under-17s World Cup victory and a return to winning ways, yet still a sense of underachievement from Brazil after an all-time record of 81 efforts on goal. The reigning champions averaged a chance every 75 seconds in their 9-0 win over tournament minnows New Caledonia seeting a new global record in football at all levels. But they could not get close to Spain’s record 13-0 success over New Zealand in the 1997 edition of the competition. Nor was it as impressive as England’s 10 goals without reply against the same opponents in their opening Group C game in…
WITH eyes wide open and his tiny fists clenched tightly, Mohammed Kullab is just a few days old, having started life in Gaza amid the chaos of the Israel-Hamas war. “Nobody should be born in such circumstances,” sighed his mother Fadwa Kullab, who has sought shelter at a UN school building in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. Kullab now has seven children but said Mohammed’s “birth was the most difficult experience of my life”. Like other mothers of newborns AFP spoke to in Gaza, she said her baby son had been refusing her breast milk. “I’m not eating well,” Kullab…
A CANADIAN jury has heard closing arguments in the case of a man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family with his vehicle. Nathaniel Veltman, 22, faces four first-degree murder charges and one count of attempted murder. Mr Veltman also faces terrorism counts, with prosecutors arguing that he targeted the Afzaal family because of their faith. Both the defence and prosecutors agree that Mr Veltman was behind the wheel. But Mr Veltman has pleaded not guilty, arguing that he was in a “dreamlike state” on 6 June, 2021, the day he allegedly ran over three generations of the…
MALI’s army has seized Kidal, a key town in the country’s north that the ethnic Tuareg rebels have held for nearly a decade. Kidal has been a bastion for the Tuareg, one of the rebel groups at the centre of the country’s long-running political and security crises. The army, reportedly backed by Wagner group mercenaries, has battled for Kidal for the past three days. The head of the country’s junta said the mission “is not complete”, however. Col Assimi Goita, Mali’s interim president, said in a post on X his objective was to ensure the country’s territorial integrity. The army…
THE wife of an abducted Zimbabwe opposition activist has identified her husband’s dead body. Tapfumaneyi Masaya, from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), was reported to have been bundled into a car by armed men. A police spokesperson said that the other abductee was released for unknown reasons. Masaya’s abduction is the latest in a series of kidnappings involving opposition and rights activists. His wife said a body found on the outskirts of the capital, Harare, from where he was snatched, was that of her husband. The CCC said Masaya, a cleric, along with a fellow activist, was campaigning for…
THE Court of Appeal in Lagos has fixed tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 15 to deliver judgment in the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran challenging the re-election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. A notice sent out by the court to parties in the appeal indicated the judgment will be delivered tomorrow at 3 pm. Exactly a week ago, on Nov 7th, the Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Yargata Nimpar had reserved judgment in the two appeals after listening to the…
THOUSANDS of people lined the streets of Manchester on Monday to pay their final respects to Manchester United and England great Bobby Charlton, who died last month at the age of 86. The 1966 World Cup winner, widely regarded as one of England’s greatest players, died after an accidental fall at his care home on October 21. Crowds clapped warmly and held banners as the funeral cortege drove past United’s Old Trafford ground on its way to a private funeral service at Manchester Cathedral to celebrate Charlton’s life. The hearse passed the famous “United Trinity” statue immortalising Charlton, Denis Law…
THOUSANDS could be trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital due to nearby fighting, while officials have warned of rotting bodies piling up there. Al-Shifa Hospital, which is also tackling power cuts and a lack of fuel, is “nearly a cemetery”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. The hospital’s manager said it was under a “blockade”, and that dogs had started eating corpses. The area around the hospital has seen intense fighting in recent days. US President Joe Biden said he hoped to see “less intrusive action” at the hospital, which he said “must be protected”. Gaza City has seen an…
MARYANNE Trump Barry, the eldest sister of ex-President Donald Trump, has died at the age of 86, US media reports. She was found dead at about 04:00 EST (09:00 GMT) on Monday morning in her New York City apartment, according to ABC News. Her cause of death has not yet been revealed. Mrs Barry served as a federal judge in New Jersey from 1983 until her retirement in 2019. She is the third of Mr Trump’s four siblings to have passed away. A spokesman for the former president did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment. Sources told…