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A CASH boost of hundreds of millions of dollars and more control of land in the occupied West Bank are among Palestinian demands in the event of a three-way deal involving the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel, the BBC has learned. Officials from the Palestinian Authority (PA) held talks in Riyadh with Saudi counterparts on Wednesday. They were also due to see US officials. The Americans are long thought to have been pushing for a landmark pact to normalise Israel-Saudi ties. It would be underwritten by Washington and would include a major security deal the Saudis want to achieve with…

SIX soldiers have gone on trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo in connection with the killing of more than 40 anti-UN protesters last week. Amongst them are two senior officers alleged to have instructed soldiers to open fire on the banned demonstration. The protest took place in the eastern city of Goma to demand the withdrawal of UN and regional peacekeepers. Protesters accuse them of failing to protect civilians against decades of attacks by rebels in the east. The case is being held at a military tribunal in Goma, the capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province where many rebel…

THE United States has targeted a top Sudanese paramilitary official in the highest-profile use of sanctions since the current conflict began in Sudan. Washington has sanctioned Abdelrahim Dagalo, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) deputy leader, over human rights abuses during the group’s clash with Sudan’s army. The move, announced on Wednesday, is an apparent response to the deadly violence seen recently in West Darfur, which the RSF is accused of perpetrating along with allied militias. Mr Dagalo has been accused by the US of being connected to abuses such as “conflict-related sexual violence and killings based on ethnicity”. The RSF has…

GABON’s former president Ali Bongo, who was ousted in a putsch, is free to leave the country and travel abroad the leader of the coup that toppled him said on Wednesday. “He has freedom of movement and can travel abroad if he wishes,” general Brice Oligui Nguema said in a statement read on state television. Bongo, in power for 14 years, had been under house arrest since the military coup of August 30, carried out without bloodshed less than an hour after his party proclaimed his re-election in a vote described as fraudulent by the putschists. “Given his state of…

THE Presidential Election Petitions Court has dismissed the ground of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, alleging dual citizenship and drug conviction against President Bola Tinubu. In a judgment on the objections of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Tinubu grounds that the issues bordering on his non-qualification to contest the February 25 presidential election, Justice Moses Ugo held that the grounds were new issues. He upheld the objections of the APC and Tinubu that the Atiku and PDP could not smuggle new issues not pleaded in their petition on the grounds of non-qualification. Atiku…

BUKAYO Saka has been named England men’s player of the year for the second season running. The Arsenal winger, who turned 22 on Tuesday, came top of the supporter vote to retain the award he won in 2021-22. Midfielder Jude Bellingham was second in the ballot with England captain and all-time top scorer Harry Kane third. Saka has scored seven England goals in 10 caps over the past year, including a first career hat-trick in a 7-0 win over North Macedonia at Old Trafford. He netted three times for the Three Lions at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, scoring twice…

THE number of migrants lodging asylum applications in the EU has jumped 28 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, official figures released Tuesday showed. Between January and the end of June this year, there were 519,000 such requests made in the 27-nation bloc and associated countries Switzerland and Norway, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said. That puts the EU on track to receive more than one million asylum-seekers this year — the biggest number since 2015-2016 when it saw a huge influx, mainly Syrians fleeing the war in their…

THE United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday $4.5 billion in clean energy investments in Africa during a landmark climate summit hosted by Kenya that is aimed at attracting funding for efforts to combat global warming. “We will deploy $4.5 billion… to jumpstart a pipeline of bankable clean energy projects in this very important continent,” said Sultan Al Jaber, who heads the government-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC and the COP28 climate talks. Heads of state, and government and industry leaders, are among thousands of attendees at the Nairobi summit where Africa is promoting its potential as…

THE leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said his troops “have a strong presence in the capital” and “will fight on to the last soldier” as the brutal power struggle between the paramilitary group and the army is about to enter its fifth month. In an audio message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo repeated his accusation that the military had instigated the war to enable allies of ousted President Omar al-Bashir to regain power. The message is a shift from his statement on 27 August when the RSF commander, who is more…

IRANIAN President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday lauded African countries for resisting “colonialism” during a visit by Burkina Faso’s foreign minister. Burkina Faso, as well as Mali, are currently ruled by military juntas that severed military ties with France, a former colonial power, and bolstered relations with Russia. Niger, where a military junta seized power in July, has been the scene of mass protests calling for troops of former colonial ruler France to leave. On Monday, Raisi “praised the resistance of African countries in the face of colonialism and terrorism” during a meeting with Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Olivia Rouamba, without…

OPERATIVES of the Department of State Services (DSS), on Tuesday, nabbed some officials of State Emergency Management Agency diverting palliatives meant for the citizens to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. Some of the suspects arrested at a popular market in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital where the items were being resold included officials of Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA) and their accomplices Spokesman of the secret police, Peter Afunanya, who disclosed the development to journalists in Abuja, explained that some of the diverted items were recovered from the suspects Afunanya called on members of the public who may…

US First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday and is experiencing mild symptoms, the White House says. The 72-year-old, who is vaccinated and has received boosters, will stay at home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where she and President Joe Biden spent part of the weekend. The president tested negative for the virus after her diagnosis. He then travelled back to Washington DC on his own on Tuesday morning. Mr Biden, 80, “will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms”, a spokeswoman said. His wife’s positive test comes ahead of a busy week for…

FORMER Spain defender Sergio Ramos has joined his boyhood club Sevilla, 18 years after leaving for Real Madrid. Having left Paris St-Germain on a free transfer, the 37-year-old has signed a one-year deal. “It’s a very special day, returning home is always a tremendous joy,” said Ramos, who returns to Sevilla with the club bottom of La Liga. “I am happy to return and try to contribute as soon as possible, which is the important thing.” Ramos won a World Cup and two European Championships with Spain, earning a record 180 caps over 16 years, while also lifting four Champions…

FRENCH authorities are watching over 500 schools for signs pupils could be violating a newly announced ban on the abaya Muslim dress for women, as children across the country return to class, the education minister said on Monday. The government announced last month it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already seen Muslim headscarves banned. The move gladdened the political right but the left argued it represented an affront to civil liberties. “There are 513 establishments that we have identified as potentially concerned by this question at the start…

NORTH Korea’s Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin, a US official has told the BBC’s US partner CBS. The two leaders will discuss the possibility of North Korea providing Moscow with weapons to support its war in Ukraine, the official said. The exact location of the planned meeting is not clear. There was no immediate comment on the report, also carried by other US media, from North Korea or Russia. Sources told the New York Times that Mr Kim was most likely to travel by armoured train. The possible meeting comes…

GENERAL Brice Oligui Nguema, who led a coup last week that toppled Gabon’s 55-year-old ruling dynasty, took the oath of office as interim president on Monday, promising “free, transparent and credible elections” to restore civilian rule but without giving a timeframe. He also vowed to amnesty political prisoners, in a speech in which he insisted the coup had saved Gabon from bloodshed after elections that were “obviously loaded.” Oligui, head of the elite Republican Guard, last Wednesday led officers to detain President Ali Bongo Ondimba, scion of a family that had ruled the oil-rich central African nation since 1967. The…

NIGER’s military-appointed prime minister on Monday said he saw hopes of a deal with the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has threatened to use force to restore civilian rule after a coup in July. “We have not stopped contacts with ECOWAS, we are continuing contacts. We have good hopes of reaching an agreement in the coming days,” Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine told a press conference in Niamey. ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — has imposed hefty sanctions against Niger after rebel soldiers on July 26 overthrew Mohamed Bazoum, the country’s democratically-elected president. It has…

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday announced he was replacing Kyiv’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, calling for “new approaches” in the ministry, a year and a half into Russia’s invasion. Reznikov, appointed three months before Moscow’s invasion, has led Kyiv’s negotiations to equip its forces with modern weaponry from allies. His removal — announced in a video late in the evening — comes in the midst of Kyiv’s counteroffensive and during Ukraine’s general push against corruption in response EU requests. It also paves the way for a major change in Ukraine’s defence circles. “Oleksiy Reznikov has been through more than…

ISRAEL is considering tough steps including the immediate deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers involved in riots in Tel Aviv on Saturday. Some 170 people were injured in violent clashes with police and in-fighting between groups of supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “a red line” had been crossed. He also ordered a new plan to remove all African migrants that he described as “illegal infiltrators”. Saturday’s unprecedented disorder began after activists opposed to the Eritrean government said that they had asked Israeli authorities to cancel an event organised by their country’s embassy. They broke…

AN army air strike on the Sudanese capital has killed at least 20 people, including two children, activists say. Many of the victims of the attack, in the Kalakla al-Qubba neighbourhood of south-west Khartoum, have been buried in the rubble, they said. Artillery and rocket fire have been reported in several areas on Sunday. The army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting for control of Khartoum since April. Hundreds have been killed. The country’s health ministry says more than 1,100 people have died across the country, but the real numbers are likely to be much higher.…