Author: Editor

THE suspected killer of a Democratic lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota is due to appear in court Monday on felony charges, after a two-day manhunt. The suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, allegedly disguised himself as a police officer, then shot and killed Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at their home early Saturday. Boelter was captured in Sibley County, a rural area about an hour southwest of the Minneapolis suburbs where the killings occurred, police and state officials said. “After (a) two-day manhunt, two sleepless nights, law enforcement have apprehended Vance Boelter,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told…

UGANDAN President, Yoweri Museveni, on Monday, signed a new law allowing civilians to be tried in military courts that critics said could be used against opposition leaders ahead of next year’s election. The new law comes despite a ruling by the Supreme Court in late January that it was unconstitutional for civilians to be tried in military courts as was the case for opposition leader, Kizza Besigye. Besigye, 69, was abducted by armed men in Nairobi in November and re-emerged a few days later at a military court in Uganda, where he was charged with treason, which carries a potential…

KENYA’s deputy police chief Eliud Lagat has stepped aside pending the outcome of investigations into the death in detention of blogger Albert Ojwang. Mr Lagat had been under pressure to resign from the opposition and human rights activists as Mr Ojwang was arrested after he filed a complaint, accusing the blogger of defaming him on social media. Police initially said that Mr Ojwang died of self-inflicted wounds, but were forced to retract the statement after an autopsy found that he was likely to have died from assault wounds. Mr Lagat denied any wrongdoing, but said in a statement that he…

BUNDESLIGA champions Bayern Munich hit double figures against Auckland City in Cincinnati to record the biggest win in the history of the Club World Cup. Vincent Kompany’s side outclassed the New Zealand part-timers, with Jamal Musiala scoring a hat-trick and Thomas Muller grabbing two goals as his long farewell to the club continued. Bayern took the lead through Kingsley Coman’s sixth-minute header as the floodgates opened early. Sacha Boey lashed home Coman’s knockdown on the half-volley to double Bayern’s advantage 12 minutes later, and former Crystal Palace man Michael Olise turned in Muller’s cross at the far post to make…

IRGC’s intelligence chief, two other generals were killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday. Renewed Israeli attacks hit Tehran and other Iranian cities for a third straight day, as Iran launches retaliatory strikes on Israel. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the Iranian response will stop when Israel halts its attacks on Iran. Iran says at least 224 people killed since Israel launched attacks. In Israel, at least 13 people have been killed. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have argued that the ongoing military operation against Iran was necessary as the country was months away from producing a nuclear weapon. Al Jazeera’s senior political…

RUSSIA has returned the bodies of 1,200 more Ukrainians killed in the war, according to Ukrainian authorities, bringing the total number of bodies repatriated to over 4,800, while the push for a ceasefire and an end to the conflict now in its fourth year remain elusive. Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Ukrainian government body that oversees affairs regarding prisoners of war (POW), announced the news on Telegram, saying the handover was part of an agreement struck in talks in Istanbul earlier this month. “I am grateful to everyone involved in this humanitarian mission,” said Ukrainian Defence…

THOUSANDS of protesters gathered in Ivory Coast ‘s capital Abidjan on Saturday to demand the reinstatement on the electoral list of main opposition leader Tidjane Thiam, a former CEO of Credit Suisse, who was barred from running in the presidential election set for October. Despite heavy rain, protesters peacefully gathered near the independent electoral commission, the body responsible for organizing the vote, in Abidjan. On June 4, the electoral commission had excluded Thiam from the final list of presidential candidates along with three other prominent opposition candidates. Earlier this year, a court ruled that Thiam was not eligible to run…

CONSTRUCTION is booming in Somalia’s capital city and as Mogadishu literally rises from the ashes of its violent past it is also giving unexpected opportunities to women like Fathi Mohamed Abdi and Saadia Ahmed Omar. The two young female engineers have been overseeing the construction of a 10-floor apartment complex in Taleh in the city’s Hodan District. Wearing hard hats they navigate their way through construction material, issuing instructions to a team of workers – all of whom are men. “When I started, people doubted me,” 24-year-old Ms Abdi, the chief operating officer of Arkan Engineering Services, a Somali-owned construction…

THE arena was packed on Friday night in the upscale Lekki neighbourhood of Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital, Lagos. Eighteen fighters from eight African countries were slugging it out before thousands of cheering mixed martial arts (MMA) fans. It was the ninth instalment of the African Knockout Championship, an MMA fight league that started off in 2020 as a reality television show in Lagos as the Covid-19 lockdown waned in Nigeria. The formal championship started in May 2023 and has since hosted fighters from 18 countries, the chief operating officer of African Knockout, Ryan Fayad, told AFP. While football remains king…

FRESHLY crowned kings of Europe, Paris Saint-Germain arrived this week in the United States for the Club World Cup and are treating FIFA’s lucrative new competition not as a nuisance at the end of an exhausting season but as a serious objective. “I think it is an incredible competition,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said of the Club World Cup in the immediate aftermath of his team’s UEFA Champions League triumph in Munich two weeks ago. “Our aim is to be competitive and try to win a fifth trophy of the season.” The Qatar-backed French giants could be forgiven for wanting…

ISRAEL and Iran have carried out a new wave of attacks on key cities, fuelling fears of an all-out sustained war, with heavy exchanges now entering a third day. Iranian missiles struck northern Israel, killing at least three people and wounding 13 others, late Saturday into Sunday, according to Israeli media. Iranian officials, meanwhile, said the Shahran oil depot, northwest of Tehran, was targeted by Israel. The Tasnim News agency said operational and rescue forces arrived at the scene and are still working to extinguish the fire. More videos posted to social media, and also verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad,…

UKRAINE and Russia conducted another POW swap — the fourth one in a week — the warring sides said on Saturday, under agreements reached in Istanbul earlier this month. “We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media. “In accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements… another group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram. Kyiv also said it had received another batch of 1,200 unidentified bodies from Russia, which it said Russia…

THE head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has held talks with Rwanda-backed rebels about protecting civilians in areas under their control in the east. Bintou Keita, the UN secretary general’s special representative, said the rebels spoke of wanting a peaceful solution to the crisis, which escalated in January with their capture of the major city of Goma. She said she had brought “a spirit of listening and exchange” to the discussions in Goma on Friday. Little more detail has been released about any progress made at the summit. But in a short written statement,…

HUNDREDS of thousands of people are “slowly starving” in Kenyan refugee camps after US funding cuts reduced food rations to their lowest ever levels, a United Nations official has told the BBC. The impact is starkly visible at a hospital in the sprawling Kakuma camp in the north-west of the East African nation. It is home to roughly 300,000 refugees who have fled strife in countries across Africa and the Middle East. Emaciated children fill a 30-bed ward at Kakuma’s Amusait Hospital, staring blankly at visitors as they receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition. One baby, Hellen, barely moves. Parts…

FORMER Manchester United and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba is in advanced talks with Monaco as he seeks a return to football after a doping suspension. The French World Cup winner, 32, is moving towards a return to his homeland with the Ligue 1 side. BBC Sport understands discussions have revolved around the midfielder signing a two-year contract with Monaco, who hope to close the deal in the coming days. Talks have been ongoing for a number of weeks, with Pogba training before pre-season as he plots his return to action. Pogba was provisionally suspended after being randomly tested following Juventus’…

IRAN says it has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles towards Israel in retaliation for a major attack on Tehran’s nuclear and military sites. Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as sirens sounded across Israel on Friday night. This follows an unprecedented attack by Israel in the early hours of Friday, which targeted Iranian nuclear sites, senior military commanders and scientists. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel’s strikes had “initiated a war” and it would not be allowed to do “hit and run” attacks without consequences. “The Zionist regime [Israel] will not remain unscathed from the consequences of…

FOR the Patel family, April was a month of answered prayers. The news arrived in a simple email: their son, Sahil Patel, had won a visa lottery. He was one of 3,000 Indians chosen by a random ballot for a coveted two-year United Kingdom work visa, under the British government’s India Young Professionals Scheme. For the 25-year-old from a middle-class family, it was a pathway from a modest home in Sarod village, 150km (93 miles) from Ahmedabad, the biggest city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, to a new life in London. For his family, the visa was the…

THE head of the main police station in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has been detained over the killing of a young blogger in police custody, independent investigators say. As well as Officer Commanding Station Samson Talam, another policeman, PC James Mukhwan, plus a technician accused of disabling the station’s CCTV, have also been arrested. Albert Ojwang’s death sparked protests after doctors refuted a police claim he had died from self-inflicted injuries caused by hitting his head on a cell wall. Instead they concluded that it was likely the result of an assault. At least 23 people have been questioned and five…

CHINA has said it is ready to drop the tariffs it charges on imports from all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations. The move, announced at a China-Africa co-operation meeting, comes as the continent is facing the possibility of increased tariffs on its products entering the US. China is Africa’s largest trading partner – a position it has held for the last 15 years – with Africa exporting goods to the Asian nation worth around $170bn (£125bn) in 2023. A joint ministerial statement criticised “certain countries’ [efforts to] disrupt the existing international economic and trade order” through…

US President Donald Trump told Fox News he was aware Israel was going to conduct strikes on Iran before it happened, and stressed that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear bomb,” according to the US broadcaster. His comments to Fox came after Israel pounded Iran in a series of air raids on Friday, striking 100 targets including nuclear and military sites. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation took aim at the atomic facility in Natanz, while Iranian media said the country’s Revolutionary Guards leader Hossein Salami and armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri were killed. Trump told Fox…