NORWAY on Thursday announced it was closing its embassy in Mali, citing the “security situation” that developed after the ruling junta ordered out foreign troops helping it fight terrorists. “The decision to close the embassy in Bamako was taken following an assessment of whether it is possible to safeguard Norwegian interests in Mali given the security situation in the country,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Since the two military coups in 2020 and 2021, the political situation in Mali has been volatile. “The military-led transitional government has terminated its security cooperation with France and the UN. When the…
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MANCHESTER United will play Bayern Munich in Group A, while holders Manchester City are in the same group as RB Leipzig in the 2023/24 Champions League season. Arsenal have been paired with Sevilla and Celtic face Atletico Madrid. Newcastle United will play European giants Paris St-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan. The third team in the group is FC Copenhagen of Denmark and they will be joined by Galatasaray in the group. The draw for the group stage of this season’s UEFA Champions League, made at a ceremony in Monaco on Thursday: Group A: Bayern Munich (GER), Manchester United (ENG),…
THE social media platform X will begin offering video and audio calling with no phone number required, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday, a step towards turning the former Twitter into an “everything app.” “Video & audio calls coming to X,” Musk wrote in a post on the platform, without specifying when the new features would be available. The calling features would work on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC systems, and no phone number would be needed, he said. “X is the effective global address book,” the billionaire added. “That set of factors is unique.” Last month, Musk and his…
THE leaders of the coup in Gabon on Wednesday named Republican Guard chief General Brice Oligui Nguema transitional president, according to a TV statement, after the military seized control in the wake of elections. “General Oligui Nguema Brice was unanimously appointed chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, chairman of the transition,” declared an officer in the presence of dozens of senior officers, according to the press release read out on Gabon 24.
NIGERIA has always been about influence peddling, nepotism and favourotism, with an insignificant mix of tokenism, which the authorities brandish to prove the point that merit matters. However, in the last eight years of the Buhari presidency, even that infinitesimal proportion (of tokenism) was supplanted by the influence of more money to buy jobs. Hence all available jobs at MDAs and even key political appointments were offered and bought at the highest bidders. It was an open secret. It became a topic for discussion at elite gatherings and relaxation spots. It was public knowledge that those close to power were…
RAPHAEL Varane has been ruled out for “a few weeks” as Manchester United’s injury issues pile up ahead of their Premier League trip to Arsenal. Erik ten Hag’s side head to north London on Sunday without several players for their final match before the international break. Luke Shaw and Mason Mount are currently out of action, while new signing Rasmus Hojlund has yet to make his debut due to a back complaint. Tyrell Malacia, Amad Diallo, Kobbie Mainoo and Tom Heaton have missed the start of the campaign and now experienced French defender Varane faces a spell on the sidelines.…
CNN announced Wednesday that British media veteran Mark Thompson would assume the role of its next CEO, as the news outlet struggles to reverse a ratings decline. Thompson — the former director-general of the BBC as well as the former president and CEO of The New York Times Company — will begin the position on October 9, CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. He takes over after the embattled former head Chris Licht stepped down in June, having faced controversy for editorial decisions including a town hall meeting with former president Donald Trump that was dominated…
BEEKEEPERS Michael Barber woke up on Wednesday morning to several calls from police looking for help after five million bees fell off a truck in Canada. The hives were being transported when the straps holding them in place came loose, allowing them to slip free. Mr Barber said he arrived to “a pretty crazy cloud of bees” who were “very angry, confused and homeless”. Drivers were told to keep their windows up and pedestrians to stay away. The scene in Burlington, Ontario was unlike anything Mr Barber has experienced in his 11-year career. “It was something else,” he told the…
THE United States is closely watching the situation in Gabon following a military coup, the latest in a series of undemocratic power seizures in Africa, the White House said Wednesday. “It’s deeply concerning. We were going to watch this closely, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to support the idea of democratic ideals that are expressed by the African people,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. “It’s too soon to call this a trend,” Kirby said of the several coups in the past year. However, he said, “It’s obviously deeply concerning here, yet another…
THE UN and a host of humanitarian agencies are calling on the West African regional bloc, Ecowas, to grant exemptions to the sanctions imposed on Niger in the wake of the coup as they are threatening the health of some of the people. “There is no way to bring humanitarian aid into the country,” Emmanuel Gignac, the UN refugee agency representative for Niger, is quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. “The immediate goods (affected) is going to be food and then it’s going to be access to medicine, to drugs.” He painted a picture of a possible worsening…
ONE of the sons of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has been arrested for “treason”. The ousted president has also been placed under house arrest alongside some of his family members. “President Ali Bongo is under house arrest, surrounded by his family and doctors,” they said in a statement read out on state TV. The coupists struck in the early hours of Wednesday, annulling Saturday’s election, which Bongo was declared to have won. More details later…
NIGERIA’s duo David Ojih and Prestige Archibong emerged champions of the U-19 and U-15 categories of the Winifred Awosika African Youth Scrabble Championship, which featured players from Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, Uganda and host, Nigeria. David clinched the U-19 championship after four days of 24 rounds of intensive mind games, in which he won 19 and lost five games with a cumulative score spread of plus 2022 at Chrislands School in Lekki, Lagos. Another Nigerian Joy Ola came second with 28 wins and a cumulative score of plus 1097 ahead of compatriot Lateef Musa, who recorded 17 victories and cumulative points…
MANCHESTER City’s Erling Haaland has won the PFA men’s players’ player of the year award, with Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka named young player of the year. Norway forward Haaland, 23, scored 52 goals in all competitions in his debut season with Pep Guardiola’s side. Haaland beat team-mates Kevin de Bruyne and John Stones, Arsenal’s Saka and Martin Odegaard and Tottenham’s Harry Kane, now at Bayern Munich. City won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League Treble last season. “It’s an honour to win this prestigious award,” said Haaland. “To be recognised by your competitors is a great feeling and I…
RUSSIAN mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash two months after staging a short-lived mutiny, was on Tuesday laid to rest in a secret ceremony in his native Saint Petersburg. He was believed to have been buried at the Porokhovskoye cemetery amid heightened security after his firm said a private ceremony had been held for the warlord “in a closed setting”. The cemetery was cordoned off and access was restricted, but an AFP photographer saw the back of what appeared to be Prigozhin’s fresh grave, which was marked by a wooden cross. At the burial site,…
PAUL Whelan, an American convicted of espionage in Russia who has always called himself a political hostage, has been seen in video footage for the first time in three years. Arrested in 2018 in Moscow, where he had travelled for a friend’s wedding, the former US marine was handed a 16-year sentence after a closed trial. The US government designates Mr Whelan as “wrongfully detained”. The video was filmed at a labour camp by Kremlin-backed channel RT. However, Mr Whelan refused to give an interview. For his family, in the US and Canada, it’s a first glimpse of him since…
AT least 183 people have been killed since July in clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, the United Nations said Tuesday as it appealed for the killings, violence and rights abuses to end. Tension in the northern region ratcheted up this year after the end of a devastating war in the neighbouring region of Tigray that also drew in fighters from Amhara. “We are very concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation in some regions of Ethiopia,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva. “In Amhara region, following a flare-up in clashes between the Ethiopian military and…
ZIMBABWE’s main opposition on Tuesday called for fresh elections after its presidential candidate lost to incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa in a vote it lashed as flawed and illegal. The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) urged the African Union (AU) and southern Africa’s regional bloc to help mediate a solution to the crisis that followed last Wednesday’s vote. “Zimbabwe needs a fresh and broad and proper election to exit the current crisis,” the CCC’s deputy spokesman Ostallos Siziba told a press conference in Harare. Mnangagwa, 80, won a second term with 52.6 percent against 44 percent for the CCC’s Nelson Chamisa, 45,…
ROBERTO Mancini said he hoped to lead Saudi Arabia to Asian Cup victory within months as he signed a multi-million dollar deal on Monday, just a fortnight after quitting as Italy coach. The former Inter Milan and Manchester City boss held up a green shirt that read “Mancini 2027” after inking a contract to stay with the Green Falcons beyond the next World Cup. Mancini, who has denied that he made his shock Italy exit was in order to move to the oil-rich Gulf monarchy, is reported to have been offered more than $25 million to join the big-spending Saudis.…
IRAQ has hanged three people convicted of involvement in a vehicle bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds in 2016. It was the deadliest single bombing in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. The Islamic State group (IS) said it had carried out the attack. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s office did not name those executed or say when they had been sentenced. The executions were carried out on Sunday and Monday, it said. A government source told AFP news agency that Ghazwan al-Zawbaee, held to be the IS mastermind behind the attack, was…
A MONSTER forest fire that has raged for nine days in the Dadia National Park in northeast Greece, a major European sanctuary for birds of prey, is still spreading, firefighters said Monday. “The fire is still out of control,” a spokesman for the fire service told AFP, adding that “nearly 500 firefighters backed by 100 vehicles, seven planes and three helicopters are fighting the flames.” The fire is burning across a nearly 10-kilometre (six-mile) front, according to firefighters. The blaze, which erupted on August 19, is devastating the Evros region near the port city of Alexandroupoli and the border with…