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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…

DOZENS of supporters of Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina queued to collect their party cards on Tuesday, believing it entitled them to cash days after a presidential election boycotted by most opposition candidates, AFP journalists saw. Rajoelina’s party has denied allegations it has promised money in exchange for votes ahead of last week’s disputed elections, where the President was seeking another term. But since the beginning of the week, many in what is one of the world’s poorest countries have lined up outside the President’s party offices in Antananarivo, seeking a pay-out. “If the President was in front of me, I…

THE National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje on Tuesday said the demise of ace Kannywood Movie Director, Aminu Surajo Bono is a big blow to the entertainment industry. Dr Ganduje who expressed shock over the passage of the popular actor said it came at a time when the industry needed him most. A statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Edwin Olofu made available to newsmen on Tuesday stated that, “Bono stands tall ahead of others in the entertainment industry in terms of commitment to preserve, and promote the socio-cultural values of the…

SIX of the shirts worn by Lionel Messi during Argentina’s World Cup-winning campaign are to be sold at auction. Captain Messi, 36, lifted the trophy after his side beat France on penalties in last December’s final in Qatar. His shirt from the final is included in the set, which are expected to fetch more than £8m in the auction hosted by Sotheby’s in New York. The record for a game-worn football shirt is Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ jersey, which sold for £7.1m in 2022. Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, said the sale of Messi’s six shirts “stands…

TWENTY-NINE premature babies were evacuated from war-torn Gaza to Egypt on Monday as Israel launched a deadly strike on the territory’s Indonesian Hospital. The Gaza health ministry charged that Israel’s army killed at least 12 people in the strike on the Indonesian Hospital in the Palestinian territory’s north, a war zone where entire city blocks have been reduced to rubble. Those killed included patients, said Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman of the ministry which has reported a death toll of more than 13,000 as the Gaza war rages on into its seventh week. Dozens more were wounded and around 700 people…

IRAQI Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Monday refused to accept the resignation of three cabinet ministers who stepped down over the dismissal of the parliament speaker. The Supreme Court last week said it was dismissing speaker Mohamed al-Halbussi, an influential Sunni Muslim politician, after a lawmaker accused him of forging a document. Halbussi’s Taqadom party hit back by announcing that the government ministers of culture, industry and planning — all three members of the party — were stepping down in protest. But on Monday Sudani’s office released a statement saying the prime minister “has rejected the resignations of the…

POLITICAL veteran Joseph Boakai was on Monday declared winner of Liberia’s presidential election, beating incumbent George Weah, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) said after completing the ballot count. Boakai won with 50.64 percent of the vote, against 49.36 percent of the vote for former international football star Weah, Davidetta Browne Lansanah, president of the commission, told reporters. Boakai won with only a 20,567-vote margin. Weah had already conceded defeat on Friday evening, based on the results of more than 99.98 percent of the polling stations. The outgoing president and former football star won praise from abroad on Monday for conceding…

THE South African government has called on the International Crime Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by mid-December. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said if the ICC did not do this, it would signal a “total failure” of global governance. “The world cannot simply stand by and watch,” she said. Israel says it is defending itself following the 7 October attack by Hamas which saw 1,200 people killed and more than 200 taken hostage. It says it is trying to minimise civilian casualties but Ms Ntshavheni said the Israeli government was trying to…

NOVAK Djokovic won a record-breaking seventh ATP Finals title on Sunday after beating local hero Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-3 in Turin. World number one Djokovic moves clear of retired great Roger Federer in victories at the season-ending tournament after denying Italian Sinner a triumph on home soil. Djokovic came into the Finals at the end of a year which has brought three Grand Slams, taking his total to an all-time best of 24, and a 40th Masters 1000 title. And he has crowned an incredible season — in which he also reached the Wimbledon final — with yet another record,…

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were “too many civilian losses” in Israel’s war in Gaza, as Paris readied more humanitarian aid for the besieged enclave. Israel has said it wants to destroy the Palestinian armed group after it killed about 1,200 people and took hundreds more captive in a surprise assault on October 7. More than 13,000 people in Gaza, some 70 percent of them women and children according to the United Nations, have been killed in the air and land offensive. Hospitals, schools and refugee settlements have also come under sustained attack.…

FORMER US first lady Rosalynn Carter, the wife of former president Jimmy Carter, died Sunday at age 96 at the couple’s home in the southern state of Georgia, their nonprofit organization announced. Carter was best known for her work post-White House, as she and her husband championed human rights, democracy and health issues around the world — all while maintaining a notably humble public image. She had joined her husband in at-home hospice care on Friday after being diagnosed with dementia in May. “Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, a passionate champion of mental health, caregiving and women’s rights, passed away…

THE Malian army said at the weekend it discovered a mass grave in Kidal, a northeastern town recently recaptured from Tuareg rebels. “This mass grave recalls the atrocities committed by these terrorists who have neither faith nor law,” the army said in a statement late Saturday. It said the discovery was made Thursday during “operations to secure Kidal”, without providing further details. The armed forces said it was carrying out investigations to “bring those responsible to justice.” On November 14, Mali’s army retook Kidal, a Tuareg separatist stronghold that had not been under central government control since 2014. The town…

AT least 80,000 households across Kenya have been affected by heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides over the last week, the deputy president has said. The emergency services are using helicopters to deliver aid and rescue marooned families, Rigathi Gachagua’s statement says. On Saturday, Kenya Railways said flooding and landslides along the train track between the capital, Nairobi, and the port of Mombasa had forced the operator to close its cargo services. East Africa has experienced intense rains linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon, which have killed dozens of people, including at least 46 in Kenya. Floods have also caused…