IT was all excitement and joy as Arsenal were crowned as champions of the English Premier League at Selhurst Park on Sunday. Arsenal lifted the Premier League trophy after celebrating their first game as champions with a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace. Mikel Arteta’s side clinched their first English title for 22 years on Tuesday when second-placed Manchester City drew at Bournemouth. In action for the first time since the celebrations of their long-awaited triumph, the Gunners took the lead through Gabriel Jesus late in the first half at Selhurst Park. Noni Madueke scored Arsenal’s second goal after the interval…
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A SUICIDE car bomb attack on a train carrying soldiers in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, has killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 50 others. The Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist group, has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack. Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said several houses and buildings adjacent to the railway line were severely damaged. The blast caused some train carriages to overturn and catch fire. According to local media reports, a state of emergency was declared at public hospitals in Quetta, with doctors and other medical staff…
RUSSIA pounded Kyiv with a massive bombardment that killed four people, authorities said Sunday, with Moscow unleashing its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in one of the largest barrages in the more than four-year-long war. Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, as residents took shelter in underground stations. Daytime scenes across the capital showed rescue workers extinguishing fires and sifting through debris of heavily damaged buildings houses, shopping centres, museums, theatres, schools and universities. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier threatened retaliation for Ukrainian strikes in Russian-occupied…
THE former finance minister of Benin, Romuald Wadagni, officially became the country’s president on Sunday, taking over from his predecessor — and ex-boss — Patrice Talon. Wadagni, an economist with a reputation as a technocrat who embodies continuity with Talon’s two mandates, was elected April 12 with 94 percent of the ballots. His sole token opponent, Paul Hounkpe, was easily beaten, and Hounkpe’s party quickly joined forces with Wadagni’s party in the parliament. The main opposition party, the Democrats, was not able to participate in the elections because insufficient endorsements and internal rifts. “I will serve Benin with integrity, courage…
THREE Red Cross volunteers died in the Democratic Republic of Congo from suspected Ebola likely caught while managing dead bodies, the organisation has said. They are believed to have contracted Ebola on 27 March while working in the eastern region of Ituri on a project unrelated to the virus, before the outbreak was identified. The volunteers are among the first known victims of DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak, which has resulted in more than 200 suspected deaths and more than 850 suspected cases. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said they had died after serving their…
MOROCCO’s King Mohammed VI has pardoned the Senegalese football supporters jailed after violence at the 2025 AFCON final in Rabat for “humanitarian reasons”, a royal court statement said on Saturday. It said that in view “of the age-old fraternal ties” between the two countries “and on the occasion of the advent of Eid al-Adha”, the king has “granted, on humanitarian grounds, his royal pardon to the Senegalese supporters”. The Muslim holiday will be celebrated on Wednesday in Morocco. Senegal won the chaotic January 18 AFCON final 1-0, but the match was later awarded on appeal to hosts Morocco. After a…
MANCHESTER United captain Bruno Fernandes has been named Premier League player of the season. The Portugal midfielder was also named Football Writers’ Association men’s Player of the Year this month. Fernandes equalled the record for assists in a Premier League season when setting up his 20th goal against Nottingham Forest last weekend. He has also scored eight goals in 37 games to help United secure third place and qualification for the Champions League. Fernandes has created more chances – 132 – than any other player in the Premier League this season. He has 43 more than the second best, Liverpool’s…
ISRAELI forces have launched a new wave of air attacks in Lebanon, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens of others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state media. Israeli air raids on the Al-Baqbouq area, north of the city of Tyre, killed at least five people and wounded two others on Saturday, reported Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). Rescue teams recovered four bodies but one woman’s body remained trapped under the rubble, as ongoing Israeli strikes hampered the work of emergency crews. At least nine people were killed and six others injured in a separate Israeli air strike…
A MAN has been shot dead by US Secret Service officers after opening fire on a security checkpoint near the White House, with a bystander wounded in the gunfire. Shortly after 6pm on Saturday (22:00 GMT), the suspect approached a Secret Service checkpoint at the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, pulled a weapon from his bag, and began shooting at officers posted there. The Secret Service, the federal agency responsible for protecting the president, confirmed the sequence of events in an official statement, saying a preliminary investigation indicated that the suspect had concealed his weapon…
SENEGALESE President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the nation’s government after months of tensions between the two men. A shock decree, read out on TV by a presidential aide, said Faye had “ended the duties” of his one-time political ally Sonko and “consequently those of the ministers and secretaries of state who are members of the government”. Sonko, a popular figure among Senegal’s youth, said on social media that he would “sleep with a light heart”. The split comes as the country faces mounting economic pressure, with its public debt having reached the equivalent…
BUYERS trudged through a muddy market in Abidjan, looking for the best-priced sheep to be sacrificed for Eid al-Adha, with traders driving hard bargains in the run-up to the Muslim festival. Prices have shot up this year, and animals are harder to come by as the Ivory Coast’s usual supply from neighbouring Sahel countries has been hit by export bans and conflict. Ivory Coast depends heavily on imports to meet demand. Around 75 percent of the sheep and cattle needed for Tabaski, the name for Eid in West Africa, come from countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali. That amounts…
COLE Palmer and Phil Foden were among a number of high-profile players left out of Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad announced on Friday. Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander Arnold was also omitted, with Saudi-based Al-Ahli striker Ivan Toney the surprise inclusion. Tuchel, a Champions League winner during his time at Chelsea, has been hired to end England’s 60-year wait to win a major international tournament. The German former Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich boss has made a series of bold calls that will be harshly judged if the Three Lions fall short of glory in the coming weeks. Palmer and Foden…
PAKISTAN’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is in Iran as part of ongoing mediation efforts to end Israel and the United States’s war that began on February 28. Munir arrived in Tehran on Friday, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported, citing the Pakistan Army. “On arrival, he was received and warmly welcomed by Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni,” IRNA said, adding that “Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was also present at the reception.” It is the second such trip to Tehran by Munir amid Pakistani mediation efforts to end the war. Islamabad helped secure a temporary ceasefire between the…
TULSI Gabbard is resigning from her job as United States President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, according to her resignation letter posted on her X account. In her resignation letter, Gabbard told Trump she was “deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half”. She cited her husband’s recent diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer as the reason for her resignation. Trump also confirmed the resignation in a post on his Truth Social account, saying, “Unfortunately,…
THE US has sanctioned a senior Tanzanian police official over allegations linked to the “torture and sexual assault” of East African rights activists Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire last year. In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had designated Faustine Jackson Mafwele based on “credible information that he was involved in gross violations of human rights”. Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo told the BBC that the government was yet to receive the formal designation, which bars Mafwele from entering the US. The sanctions come amid growing scrutiny of Tanzania’s human rights record,…
THE risk from the deadly Ebola outbreak has been raised to the highest level for the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organisation said Friday, as the toll continues to rise. The WHO upgraded its risk assessment level from high to very high for the DR Congo, while keeping the regional risk level at high and the global risk level at low. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation was “deeply worrisome”. He said there were now nearly 750 suspected cases in the DR Congo and 177 suspected deaths, as health workers scramble to track down contacts of…
WHEN referee Anthony Taylor blew the final whistle at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday, he not only ended the match between Bournemouth and Manchester City. That moment ushered in Arsenal as the new English Premier League winners, ending the Gunners’ 22-year wait for the domestic title. While the celebrations erupted in North London and across the world, at the heart of this historic coronation were four stars of Nigerian heritage whose flair, goals, and resilience helped Arsenal break the two-decade deadlock. For millions of Nigerians, Arsenal’s victory felt more personal because of Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, and Ethan…
CRISTIANO Ronaldo scored twice as Al Nassr clinched the Saudi Pro League title with a 4-1 win over Damac on Thursday, ending his long wait for domestic silverware. A trademark free-kick and a close-range finish, both in the final half-hour, sealed the win Al Nassr needed on the last night of the season, with Al Hilal finishing just two points behind. Ronaldo, 41, who was without a major club trophy since winning Serie A with Juventus in 2020, arrived in the oil-rich desert kingdom to great acclaim in 2023, wept as he watched the final minutes from the bench. He…
IN a week that began with Donald Trump revealing he was just an hour away from “making the decision” to resume attacks on Iran, the United States president has oscillated between expressing hope for a lasting ceasefire and threatening military escalation. Trump’s mixed messaging has also coincided with a renewed flurry of diplomacy, with Iran as of Thursday saying it had received and was reviewing Washington’s response to Tehran’s latest ceasefire proposal. Trump, meanwhile, appeared to indicate an appetite for a third option: a prolonged, grinding conflict. On Thursday, he reposted a New York Post op-ed by Richard Goldberg, a…
ISRAEL has deported hundreds of foreign activists abducted by Israeli forces who stormed a Gaza aid flotilla earlier this week, following global outcry over their treatment in custody. In Turkiye, dozens of flotilla participants arrived at the Istanbul airport throughout Thursday, some wearing keffiyehs and holding up their fingers in a peace sign. Crowds of supporters brandishing Palestinian flags welcomed them. Ankara has evacuated 422 people on chartered flights, including 85 of its own citizens, and deployed doctors and ambulances to treat participants. The French Foreign Ministry said the group included 37 French nationals. Some Spanish activists arrived in Madrid…