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PORTUGAL defender Pepe became the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history as his late header helped Porto beat Royal Antwerp in Group H. Pepe, 40 years and 254 days old, scored his side’s second with a thumping 91st-minute finish, becoming the first player over 40 to score in European football’s showpiece competition. Francesco Totti had held the oldest scorer record at 38 years and 59 days. Pepe is also the oldest outfield player in the competition’s history. He broke that record when he started against the same opponents on October 25. Goalkeeper Marco Ballotta is the Champions League’s oldest appearance…

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that the bombarded Gaza Strip was becoming a “graveyard for children,” as he urged an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. “The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. “The parties to the conflict — and, indeed, the international community — face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said. “The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a…

A WHITE police officer was found not guilty Monday in the death of a Black man who was put in a chokehold and injected with ketamine during his arrest. A jury in the western state of Colorado cleared Aurora police officer Nathan Woodyard of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Elijah McClain, whose August 2019 death sparked public outrage. The not guilty verdict came less than a month after a jury convicted fellow officer Randy Roedema of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault and acquitted Jason Rosenblatt. Roedema is due to be sentenced in January. McClain…

SOUTH African police are on a manhunt for suspects who robbed a government minister at gunpoint and disarmed her two bodyguards of their pistols on a busy Johannesburg highway, police said Tuesday. The robbery took place while Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga’s bodyguards were changing a punctured tire in the early hours of Monday morning. Three gunmen allegedly appeared from bushes, ordered the bodyguards to lie on the ground before taking their firearms, and then pointed a gun at Chikunga and robbed her of some personal items. “A manhunt has since been launched following this unprecedented incident,” police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe…

THERE has been a significant increase in the number of people fleeing fresh violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur, a medical charity says. Witnesses have accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militias of carrying out ethnic killings against non-Arabs in West Darfur. The RSF did not immediately comment on the claims but it had earlier said it was not involved in what it described as a “tribal conflict”. Seven thousand people have crossed over the Sudanese border into Chad in three days, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says. Among them are dozens of wounded people. MSF says the…

PORTUGUESE Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced his resignation on Tuesday after he was embroiled in a corruption investigation into the awarding of energy-related contracts. “The duties of prime minister are not compatible with any suspicion of my integrity,” Costa told a press conference after briefly speaking with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa earlier on Tuesday. “In these circumstances, I have presented my resignation to the president of the Republic,” he added. Earlier Tuesday, Portuguese media reported that investigators had searched several ministries as well as Costa’s offices. Public prosecutors later said they had indicted Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba and issued…

MAURICIO Pochettino made a winning return to Tottenham with Chelsea as his former club were reduced to nine men on a night of chaos and controversy. The Argentine’s comeback was reduced to a minor sub-plot by an epic game which brought five goals, a further five which were disallowed, two red cards, and a slew of VAR decisions in one of the Premier League’s most frenetic ever encounters. Spurs started brilliantly and deservedly went ahead when Dejan Kulusevski’s sixth minute shot deflected in off Chelsea defender Levi Colwill, before Son Heung-min had an effort narrowly ruled out for offside as…

A COMBATIVE Donald Trump clashed repeatedly with the judge on Monday as he took the stand in the New York civil fraud case threatening to cripple his real estate empire. One year out from an election he hopes will return him to the White House, Trump became the first former US president to testify as a defendant in a court case in more than a century. During his testimony, the 77-year-old Trump accused Judge Arthur Engoron of issuing “fraudulent” rulings, and denounced New York state attorney general Letitia James, who brought the case against him, as a “political hack.” “He…

A SENIOR Hamas leader has refused to acknowledge that his group killed civilians in Israel, claiming only conscripts were targeted. Moussa Abu Marzouk told the BBC that “women, children and civilians were exempt” from Hamas’s attacks. His claims are in stark contrast to the wealth of video evidence of Hamas men shooting unarmed adults and children. Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed by Hamas in the 7 October attacks, most of them civilians. Mr Marzouk, the group’s deputy political leader, who is subject to an asset freeze in the UK under counter-terrorism regulations, was interviewed on Saturday in…

SEPARATIST rebels on Monday killed around 20 people, including women and children, in an attack on a village in one of Cameroon’s restive anglophone regions, the government said. The overnight assault occurred at Egbekaw village, western Cameroon, the scene of deadly clashes between rebels and government forces for seven years. “There were men, women, and children, more than 20 killed,” minister at the presidency Mengot Victor Arrey-Nkongho told public radio. “It’s intolerable.” Cameroon’s primarily English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions have been gripped by conflict since separatists declared independence in 2017. That followed decades of grievances over perceived discrimination by the…

THE South African government said on Monday it would recall all its diplomats from Israel to “signal” its concern over the situation in Gaza. Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a minister in the president’s office, told a press briefing that all diplomatic staff in Tel Aviv would be asked back to Pretoria for consultations, without providing further details. “We are… extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians in the Palestinian territories and we believe the nature of response by Israel has become one of collective punishment,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told a later press conference. “We felt it important…

LUIS Diaz came off the bench to salvage a point for Liverpool with a stoppage-time goal at Luton in his first match since his parents were kidnapped in Colombia. Diaz’s father remains missing, and the forward lifted his shirt to show a message of “freedom for papa” after heading in Harvey Elliott’s cross five minutes into added time. He later issued a statement calling for those holding his father to release him “immediately”. The 26-year-old former Porto player had last featured in a Liverpool squad 10 days ago, but manager Jurgen Klopp said before this match that Diaz “wanted to…

AN Israeli minister was suspended from government meetings “until further notice” on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, after suggesting in an interview dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu’s ruling coalition, told Israel’s Kol Barama radio he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel’s retaliation in the Palestinian territory after Hamas fighters carried out a deadly attack on October 7 inside southern Israel. The attacks killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israeli officials say. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since October 7 has killed 9,488 people, most of…

A RADIO broadcaster was fatally shot inside his studio in the Philippines on Sunday, police said, the latest in a long list of journalists killed in the country. Juan Jumalon, 57, was in his home-based studio on the southern island of Mindanao when a gunman shot him in the head, said Captain Deore Ragonio, police chief in Calamba municipality. Jumalon is the fourth journalist to be slain since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in June of 2022, the National Union of Journalists said, condemning “the brazen killing”. The archipelago nation is one of the most dangerous places in the world…

GHANA’s governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has chosen Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia as its presidential candidate in next year’s election. He will be the first northerner and Muslim to contest the presidency under the NPP’s banner since multi-party democracy was restored in 1992. In his victory speech, Mr Bawumia promised to lead a “united and energised” NPP into the election. He won the primaries by a convincing margin, getting 61.47% of the vote. Mr Bawumia’s nearest rival Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who got 37.4% of the vote, accepted defeat. President Nana Akufo-Addo, a member of the NPP, will step down after…

THOUSANDS of people are trapped in flooded areas following heavy rains in Somalia’s Jubbaland state, the UN’s humanitarian agency says. The heavy rains that started last month have elevated the water levels on Juba river, causing flooding in riverine areas of the state, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said in a statement. “In Luuq district, 2,400 people have been trapped in an area surrounded by water,” the statement added. Efforts by authorities and rescue partners are underway to evacuate the stranded locals. At least 14 people have died and 47,000 displaced in the flash floods across…

HARRY Kane scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich thrashed Borussia Dortmund 4-0 away on Saturday, closing the gap with leaders Bayer Leverkusen to two points. Bayern captain Manuel Neuer lauded his striker, telling German TV “that’s his experience, he brought it with him to the Bundesliga from England and he shows us it week after week.” “We’ve got some quick guys up front and with them, we really hurt Dortmund.” Stung by a midweek German Cup elimination by third-division Saarbruecken, Leverkusen’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim on Saturday meant injury-hit Bayern were five points behind Xabi Alonso’s side at kickoff. Bayern…

LAYAN al-Baz cries in agony when the effect fades of the painkillers she receives after her legs were amputated — the result of a strike on Gaza as Israel fights Hamas. “I don’t want a false leg,” the 13-year-old Palestinian tells AFP in Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, where getting artificial limbs was nearly impossible anyway. The impoverished Palestinian territory, under a crippling Israeli-led blockade for years and besieged since war erupted on October 7, suffers severe shortages of food, water and fuel, and medical supplies are scarce. “I want them to put my legs back,…

MORE than 150 people have been killed after an earthquake struck remote western Nepal on Friday. Security forces have been deployed to help rescue efforts in the rugged districts of Jajarkot and West Rukum, 500km (310 miles) west of Kathmandu. Strong tremors were felt far away in the Nepalese capital and in cities in neighbouring India, including Delhi. The government said about 375 people had been injured. Jajarkot’s hospital is packed with the wounded. Some people have had to be airlifted as far as Kathmandu, but officials are worried about getting others out after nightfall. One survivor, Geethakumari Bista, told…

GUINEA’s former military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara, is back in jail after being taken from prison by armed men, according to his lawyer. The group stormed a jail in the capital, Conakry, early on Saturday morning – taking Capt Camara and three others. Those taken are currently on trial for their alleged roles in deaths of more than 150 people in a 2009 protest. Besides Capt Camara, two other prisoners have also been found. It is unclear if they were kidnapped or freed by their supporters. Capt Camara’s lawyer earlier told the BBC the former leader was taken against his…