SECURITY forces in Madagascar fired tear gas on opposition candidates leading a protest in the capital Antananarivo on Monday, amid rising political tensions ahead of presidential elections next month. Eleven of the 13 presidential candidates in the running had called on supporters to demonstrate against what they have described as an “institutional coup” to favour incumbent Andry Rajoelina. Some of them, including former president Marc Ravalomanana, locked arms on Monday morning as they headed a march of a few hundred people towards the central May 13 square. But law enforcement and army officers, who were deployed in the hundreds ahead…
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JURGEN Klopp blasted the “crazy decisions” that led to nine-man Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat against Tottenham as referees’ chiefs admitted the Reds were denied a legitimate goal in Saturday’s dramatic clash. Klopp’s side had Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota sent off in north London, while Liverpool forward Luis Diaz had a goal wrongly disallowed by VAR. Refereeing body PGMOL issued a statement less than an hour after the final whistle conceding Diaz’s first-half goal should have stood. “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool,” the statement read. “The goal by Luis Diaz…
MANCHESTER City’s perfect start to the Premier League season came undone in a shock 2-1 loss to Wolves, as Manchester United slumped to a 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Arsenal closed to within a point of the lead by cruising to a 4-0 win at Bournemouth, while Aston Villa thrashed Brighton 6-1 to move into the top four. City had won the opening six games of their title defence as they aim to become the first side to ever claim four consecutive English top-flight titles. By contrast, Wolves had taken just four points from their first six…
TUAREG-dominated separatist groups said on Saturday that they had inflicted heavy losses on the Malian military in an attack in the troubled country’s centre. The rebels said they had counted 98 dead soldiers. The claim came in a statement from the Permanent Strategic Framework which is dominated by the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), an alliance of predominantly Tuareg separatist groups. The rebels also said they had wounded dozens of soldiers, taken five prisoner, while losing seven of their own fighters. The claims made by rebels, and all sides involved in the fighting, are difficult to verify because of the…
FIVE people died and six others were wounded Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant near the presidential palace in central Somalia, police and witnesses said. The attacker detonated a device inside a tea shop in Bar Bulsho in the capital Mogadishu, Somali police spokesman Sadik Dudishe said. “All the casualties were people spending time to drink tea,” Dudishe said. The cafe is frequented by members of the Somali security forces as well as civilians. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Witnesses said the police had cordoned off the area after the…
LAST-DITCH moves to prevent a US government shutdown took a dramatic step forward Saturday, as Democrats overwhelmingly backed an eleventh-hour Republican measure to keep federal funding going for 45 days, albeit with a freeze on aid to Ukraine. The stopgap proposal adopted by the House of Representatives with a vote of 335-91 was pitched by Speaker Kevin McCarthy just hours before a midnight shutdown deadline that would have seen millions of federal employees and military personnel sent home or required to work without pay. The deal, which was opposed by 90 House Republicans, still has to be approved by the…
A PRO-CHINA candidate has won presidential elections in the Maldives, defeating an incumbent who had strengthened relations with India. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih accepted defeat in the run-off poll, congratulating his rival Mohamed Muizzu who won 54% of the vote. Mr Muizzu, mayor of the capital Male, campaigned with the slogan “India out”. Mr Solih will serve as caretaker president until his successor is inaugurated on 17 November. In power since 2018, the 61 year old from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) strengthened relations with India, with which Male has strong cultural and financial ties. He called it an “India-first”…
NAPOLI said they “never meant to offend or mock” Victor Osimhen in a social media post but stopped short of publicly apologising to him. The club shared a video on their TikTok account of Nigeria’s Osimhen missing a penalty, dubbed with a high-pitched voice saying “gimme penalty please”. The 24-year-old’s agent has threatened legal action against the club. A Napoli statement said it was “never the club’s intent to offend Victor” should he “have perceived it that way”. The social media post has since been deleted. “So as to avoid the topic being manipulated in any way, Napoli points out…
HOUSE Republicans have branded the first day of their impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden a success, saying they justified their case. But expert witnesses called by Republicans cautioned there was not yet enough proof for impeachment. Thursday’s hearing was dominated by the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter, who Republicans allege was selling access to his father. The White House has called the inquiry a “political stunt”. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a formal impeachment inquiry in early September to look into allegations that Hunter Biden engaged in improper business dealings that benefited the president. The formal inquiry granted…
DUTCH police have arrested a gunman who killed at least three people in twin shootings in the city of Rotterdam. They say the male attacker, 32, opened fire in a home before setting it alight, then stormed the city’s Erasmus Medical Center on Thursday. He was a student at Erasmus University, which is affiliated with the hospital. A woman, 39, and her 14-year old daughter were killed in the first shooting. A male lecturer, 43, was shot dead at the hospital. Footage has emerged showing a man in camouflaged clothing being taken from the hospital building in handcuffs. The motives…
RWANDAN President Paul Kagame has appointed a senior military official as a minister of state for regional cooperation despite the fact he been accused of working closely with a Congolese rebel group. General James Kabarebe, who has for decades been a close ally of Mr Kagame, retired from the military last month. UN experts published a report in June accusing Gen Kabarebe of playing a leading role in coordinating operations by the M23 rebel group in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda has denied that its military has supported the M23. Since the group relaunched a rebellion almost two years ago, hundreds…
AN employee of Cairo University has been shot to death on campus by a former co-worker, the interior ministry said, in the latest case of femicide in Egypt. “An employee of a faculty of Cairo University… fired gunshots” at a female colleague, “which resulted in her death”, the ministry said in a statement. The suspect was later tracked down in Matrouh governorate, west of the capital, where he “committed suicide by shooting himself with the same weapon” used in the murder. The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said the woman, Nurhan, had rejected a marriage proposal from her colleague, Ahmed, who had…
THE Nigerian Meteorological Agency has notified the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Edo, Kwara, and 22 other states of 48-hour downpour beginning on Thursday. In its weekly heavy rainfall forecast bulletin released on Wednesday, the agency told the residents to also expect flash floods. Other states listed are Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Enugu, Delta, Bayelsa, Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kwara, and Benue. The bulletin reads: “Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected within the forecast period (Thursday 28th and Friday 29th, September 2023) over parts of Katsina, Kano,…
AMID a public spat with his Serie A club, Napoli, Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen has deleted all photos and videos featuring the club’s shirt on his Instagram account. This is coming after a contentious ‘mockery’ video was posted by Napoli’s verified TikTok handle, which openly mocked Osimhen for missing a penalty against Bologna. The video featured a high-pitched voice in the background shouting, “gimme penalty please.” A subsequent video drew comparisons between Osimhen and a coconut. Osimhen has netted three times in six appearance in the opening weeks of the season for misfiring Italian champions Napoli. The 24-year-old has become…
NEWCASTLE boss Eddie Howe says his side are eager to “go one better” than last season’s runners-up finish in the Carabao Cup after his side beat Manchester City to reach this campaign’s fourth round. Alexander Isak scored the winner for a largely second-string Newcastle, who came to life after the break to beat a much-changed City. Newcastle, who lost to Manchester United in last year’s final, made 10 changes from Sunday’s 8-0 win at Sheffield United and barely got a kick in a first half dominated by the visitors. But with Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon sent on at the…
MORE than 56,000 Pakistan schools will shut for the rest of the week in a bid to curb a mass outbreak of a contagious eye virus, officials said Wednesday. Millions of students will stay home from tomorrow after Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, announced blanket closures having recorded 357,000 conjunctivitis cases since the start of the year. The fast-spreading eye infection causes redness, itchiness and discharge from the eyes and contamination can spread through hand contact, as well as coughing and sneezing. “The closure has been announced as a proactive measure to give maximum protection to students against the infection,”…
A BOMB blast in northern Myanmar killed two people and wounded more than a dozen on Wednesday, a military source and a member of a local rescue organisation told AFP. “According to the initial report, two men were killed and 10 others injured by a blast” that happened around 6 pm (1130 GMT) near a petrol station outside the town of Lashio in Shan state, a military source who requested anonymity told AFP. The source said the blast, which hit a nearby passenger bus, was caused by a bomb planted on a motorbike. Local authorities were investigating, they said. The…
BURKINA Faso’s military government says the country’s security and intelligence services foiled a coup attempt on Tuesday. It’s almost a year since the military leader and now interim President, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, himself, seized power. In a statement read on television, the junta said unnamed military officers and others had planned to destabilise Burkina Faso. They had “the dark intention of attacking the institutions of the republic and plunging our country in chaos”, the Reuters news agency quotes the statement as saying. It said some arrests had been made, without giving specifics. There have been recent reports of discontent within…
GABON’s military-installed prime minister on Wednesday outlined plans for a “national dialogue” to be organised next year which would pave the way for drawing up a new constitution. Nearly a month after military leaders ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba after 14 years at the helm of the oil-rich country, Raymond Ndong Sima told a press conference that an appeal for contributions towards the dialogue would go out from next week. Last week, Ndong Sima defended the takeover before the United Nations as a “lesser evil”, saying the intervention prevented bloodshed. Coup leader General Brice Oligui Nguema, who was swiftly sworn…
THE Editor-in-chief of Al-Mizan Newspaper, a weekly news magazine of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) better known as Shi’ites, Malam Ibrahim Musa, has been arrested by the Department of State Service (DSS). Musa was said to have been picked up at the Aminu Kano International Airport on while on his way to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj (Umrah), on Wednesday morning. In a press statement signed by Abdullahi Usman, Musa’s family called for his immediate release. According to the statement, “No reason has been provided by the authorities for his arrest even as he is known for his…