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…
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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,…
NIGER’s military ruler General Abdourahamane Tiani on Thursday arrived in Mali to meet his counterpart Colonel Assimi Goita in his first international visit since seizing power in July, an AFP journalist noted. Niger’s neighbours, Mali and Burkina Faso — which are ruled by military leaders who seized power in 2020 and 2022, respectively — have pledged solidarity to Niger’s coup leaders. The three Sahel countries in September signed a pact that includes provisions for mutual defence in the event of an attack on the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of any of the countries. They also plan to strengthen economic ties.…
KENYA’s President William Ruto said Thursday that his government was ready to privatise 35 state companies “trapped in government bureaucracy” in a bid to boost productivity following a change to laws. His government last month signed a revised privatisation bill into law that makes it easier to sell state enterprises to private companies. The revised law aims to push up the private sector’s participation in the economy, the presidency said at the time of the signing. “We have identified the first 35 companies that we are going to offer to the private sector,” Ruto told a gathering of African stock…
NIGER United stretched their lead at the top of the men’s table to 5 points as the 2023 Ardova Premier Handball League reached its title-deciding stage in Lagos. Niger United survived a late fightback from the Safety Shooters to secure a 26-23 win and stayed at the summit with 51 points. Niger United coach Yekini Adebayo commended his team for the victory, stating that it is a pointer that the Minna-based outfit is ready to emerge as champions for the second time at the end of the season. He said, “It was a win that came at the end of…
A GHANAIAN Lawmaker Isaac Adongo has apologised to Manchester United defender Harry Maguire after mocking him last year. Adongo, while addressing the country’s national assembly, on the budget, described Ghana’s vice-president Mahamudu Bawumia as enjoying scoring – political “own goals” in much the same manner as the 30-year-old player. The criticism had come after a torrid season for Maguire, who has fallen down the pecking order during Erik ten Hag’s start as the Red Devils head coach. The England manager Gareth Southgate had come to the defence of Maguire insisting the criticism was a joke He said, “I’ve never known…
ACTRESS Melissa Barrera has been fired from the next Scream film sequel after its makers said her pro-Palestinian social media posts were antisemitic. The star has posted regularly about the Israel-Gaza conflict, including resharing one post that accused Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing”. Production company Spyglass said it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism”. Meanwhile, Susan Sarandon has been dropped by her Hollywood agency after speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally. Neither Sarandon, who starred in Thelma & Louise, nor Mexican actress Barrera have commented on their situations. However, before her departure was announced, Barrera reshared a quote from another account…
AT least one person was killed and tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes after heavy downpours triggered flooding across the central Philippines, authorities said Wednesday. Rescuers used inflatable boats and ropes to reach people stranded in their houses in Northern Samar, one of the hardest hit provinces, where villages and towns have been inundated after a week of rain. The provincial capital Catarman received more than a month’s rainfall in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, with muddy water turning streets into rivers and flooding shopping malls, houses and commercial buildings. “The monthly rainfall in Catarman is…
CAMEROON has received more than 330,000 doses of a new malaria vaccine – the first to be approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). Health Minister Manaouda Malachie described it as a historic moment. Kenya, Ghana and Malawi have already started distributing the RTS,S vaccine, which has to be administered in four doses. Over the next few weeks, deliveries are expected in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone. Africa accounts for the vast majority of malaria cases worldwide. The disease kills more than 600,000 people globally each year, most of them children.
A ZIMBABWEAN mother saved her son from the grips of a baboon’s mouth after the animal tried to snatch him away, she told VOA (Voice of America). Petronella Moyo said her 18-month-old child was playing in their Matabeleland home when the incident occurred last week. She said she heard her son screaming and when she looked up, the baboon was dragging him away. The baboon jumped on top of the house with her son hanging from its mouth and she said: “I feared the worst. I thought he was dead”. But she chased the baboon and managed to get her…
LIONEL Messi’s Inter Miami will face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr next February in the Riyadh Season Cup for what could be the final showdown of the global football icons. Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi, who joined the US squad in July and sparked a championship run in the Leagues Cup against US and Mexican clubs, is expected to meet Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner. Messi, 36, led Argentina to last year’s World Cup crown and has long been a rival of Portugal captain Ronaldo, 38. Inter Miami was named the guest international side and will join Saudi Pro League…
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have approved a deal for the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas, the Israeli government said in a statement. The decision, early Wednesday local time, came after Netanyahu convened his war cabinet to discuss the deal following recent progress in the negotiations. “The Government of Israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages. Tonight, the Government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages — women and children — will be released over four days, during…
US President Joe Biden on Monday joined Threads, Meta’s social media rival to Elon Musk’s X, just days after the White House blasted the tech baron for pushing anti-Semitism. “Folks, it’s President Biden,” said his first post, which he made on his 81st birthday. “You’re hearing from me today from a new platform but my message to you hasn’t changed.” “I don’t see a dark, dismal, divided future for America,” Biden added. “I see an America about to take off.” Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the home of Facebook and Instagram, launched Threads in July in a bid to depose Musk’s X,…
THIRTY-SEVEN youths were killed in a stampede overnight during an army recruitment drive in a stadium in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, officials said on Tuesday. Last week, the army in the central African nation also known as Congo-Brazzaville, announced it was recruiting 1,500 people aged between 18 and 25. Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso said 37 people had been killed in the “tragedy,” with an unspecified number of other people injured. “A crisis unit has been set up under the authority of the prime minister,” a statement added. Would-be recruits had been directed to go to…