ARDA Guler scored the only goal as Real Madrid defeated Getafe to cut Barcelona’s lead at the top of La Liga to four points. After suffering elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Arsenal last week, Carlo Ancelotti and his players were under growing pressure to make something of this season. A composed – if unspectacular – performance on a night when nothing but a win would do eased anxieties somewhat. Jude Bellingham started on the bench as Ancelotti made six changes to his team with an eye on Saturday’s Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, while Kylian…
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FAR-RIGHT Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has claimed that top US Republican lawmakers support bombing “food and aid depots” in Gaza. The statement, made in a social media post on Wednesday, came after the Israeli national security minister said he had met with “senior Republican Party officials at [US President Donald] Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate” in Florida in the United States. “They expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely,” Ben-Gvir posted on…
LITHUANIA’s capital Vilnius presented Wednesday an evacuation plan in case of war, as the Baltic nation worries Russia could target the former Soviet republic next after its invasion of Ukraine. Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, and has since ramped up defence spending and training. The three main evacuation routes run west, “as the enemy has historically come from the east”, Vilnius’s Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said at a press conference. “We do not want to cause panic,” he said. “Our goal is clear: to have a plan, to have…
OPPOSITION Lawmakers in Ghana have fiercely condemned the suspension of the country’s chief justice, accusing President John Mahama of trying to “pack the courts” with justices who are sympathetic to the governing party, the NDC. Gertrude Torkornoo was removed from her post on Wednesday – the first time a chief justice has been suspended in the country’s history. The action was taken after three petitions, which made allegations against Ms Torkornoo, were filed. The content of the petitions has not been made public and Ms Torkornoo is yet to comment openly on the matter. Mahama’s supporters have backed the move…
IVORY Coast’s main opposition leader has been removed from the electoral roll by the judiciary which says he is ineligible to run in October’s presidential election. Tidjane Thiam renounced his French citizenship in order to run for president, but a court argued on Thursday that the former Credit Suisse boss forfeited his Ivory Coast nationality when he acquired French citizenship in 1987. Thiam said the court’s decision was an “act of democratic vandalism, which will disenfranchise millions of voters”. His disqualification comes just a week after he was confirmed as the presidential candidate of the centre-right Democratic Party – the…
MANCHESTER United are interested in signing Wolves forward Matheus Cunha this summer. The Brazilian, who has a £62.5m release clause in his Wolves contract, is expected to leave Molineux at the end of the season. Multiple club sources have told BBC Sport the 25-year-old is one of a number of attacking options on United’s shortlist, with Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap, 22, also of interest. Improving United’s scoring record is a priority for head coach Ruben Amorim. Only Southampton, Leicester City, Ipswich, Everton and West Ham have scored fewer than the 38 goals United have managed in 33 Premier League…
ISRAELI forces have killed at least 32 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn, including 11 people who burned to death inside their home in Khan Younis, and carried out air strikes that destroyed equipment used to retrieve the dead from under rubble. Seven members of a family were also killed on Tuesday by an air raid on the home where they were sheltering in western Gaza City. Three civilians, including two girls, were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted a group of people in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned…
TURKEY’s opposition has called on supporters to rally outside the parliament in Ankara on Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on gatherings on a symbolic day for the republic. A month after the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival — the president of Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) said he would speak outside parliament as the country marks National Sovereignty Day. Ozgur Ozel, who was recently named as leader of the CHP, which was established by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ozel reiterated a call to stage…
GHANA’s president on Tuesday announced the suspension of the country’s top judge while she is investigated for misconduct. The action against Supreme Court Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo came after three separate petitions called for her removal. Allegations against her include tampering with court records and misuse of public funds. A spokesman for President John Mahama said in a statement he had, “in consultation with the Council of State, determined that a prima facie case has been established” and that Torkornoo would be suspended while she is investigated. Specific details of the allegations that the five-member investigative committee will…
SOUTH Sudan’s opposition accused government forces of attacking one of its military positions near the capital on Tuesday as a fragile power-sharing agreement unravelled further. The southern state of Central Equatoria, which includes the capital Juba, was split into areas controlled by government and opposition forces under a 2018 deal that ended South Sudan’s five-year civil war, in which an estimated 400,000 people died. The agreement brought President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Vice-President Riek Machar, together in a unity government. But the deal has become threatened in recent months as Kiir moves to sideline Machar, who was placed…
TWO children, a 13-year-old boy identified as Imam and a six-year-old girl Nasrin, have been reportedly killed in an explosion at Abakpa area of Kaduna State. Three residents also reportedly sustained injuries in the explosion which occurred on Tuesday, two kilometers away from the old site of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna. Our correspondent reports that the cause of the explosion has not been established, but security agencies are at the scene of the incident to investigate the incident. A resident of the area, who did not want to be mentioned, told our correspondent that he was taking his…
POPE Francis’s funeral will be held on Saturday, the Vatican announced Tuesday, as world leaders from US President Donald Trump to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said they would attend to honour the Catholic leader. The Argentine pontiff, 88, died on Monday from a stroke, less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia. His funeral, which is expected to draw huge crowds, will take place at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Saturday in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Francis’s coffin — which he previously ordered should be of wood…
LEEDS United and Burnley won promotion to the Premier League on Monday as faltering Sheffield United were forced to settle for a place in the Championship play-offs. Leeds, who last played in the top division in the 2022/23 season, humbled Stoke 6-0 at Elland Road, with Joel Piroe scoring four goals. Daniel Farke’s men knew that if Sheffield United failed to beat Burnley in the later kick-off, they would be back in the Premier League. Captain Josh Brownhill scored twice for Scott Parker’s Burnley, who have made an immediate return to the top flight. Leeds and Burnley both have 94…
THE Israeli military has killed at least 29 Palestinians across Gaza since dawn on Monday, with many fatalities in attacks on tent camps for displaced people. Also the Palestinian Civil Defence and the Palestine Red Crescent Society call for an independent investigation into the deaths of 14 Palestinian emergency workers and a United Nations employee, rejecting an Israeli investigation into last month’s brutal killings. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have attacked a Bedouin family on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Sinjil, near Ramallah, and torched their property. A video shared by local media showed several agricultural shacks gutted by the…
POPE Francis died of a cerebral stroke and irreversible heart failure, Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli says in a death certificate. The certificate released on Monday for the 88-year-old pontiff said the pope had fallen into a coma before his death on Monday morning. Francis died of “cerebral stroke, coma, irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse”, the death certificate said. It added that the first Latin American pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church died at 7:35am (05:35 GMT) in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. Just a day earlier, the pontiff made what would be his final…
THE paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have again attacked el-Fasher city in the western Darfur region of Sudan, killing more than 30 people, an activist group has said. The attack by the RSF and allied militias is the latest deadly offensive on the area, the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the war-torn region. The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher said dozens of other people were wounded in the Sunday attack, which involved “heavy artillery shelling”. The RSF renewed the assault on Monday, shelling residential buildings and open markets, according to the activist group, which tracks the war.…
A TOP official in one of South Africa’s biggest political parties has been condemned for visiting a self-proclaimed pastor who fled to Malawi after he was accused of rape and fraud. Floyd Shivambu, secretary-general of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party of former President Jacob Zuma, retweeted footage on X of him attending an Easter service at Shepherd Bushiri’s church. Mr Bushiri, from Malawi, was one of southern Africa’s best known preachers when he was arrested and charged with fraud in 2020. After being released on bail, he managed to flee to his home country in unclear circumstances. South Africa has…
THE death of Pope Francis on Monday sets in motion centuries-old traditions which will culminate in the election by cardinals of a new pontiff — but with a few changes. Here is how the process unfolds: Sede Vacante The Catholic Church enters a period known as “Sede Vacante” (Vacant See) during which a senior cardinal takes over day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected. The cardinal, referred to as the “camerlengo” (“chamberlain”), in this case will be Irish-American Kevin Farrell, appointed to the role by Francis in February 2019. He is the only top official in the Church hierarchy…
CATHOLIC Pontiff, Pope Francis, has died aged 88.He died on Monday at 7:35 am, a day after making a much-hoped-for appearance at Saint Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, the Vatican said in a statement. “Dearest brothers and sisters, it is with deep sorrow that I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell said in the statement published by the Vatican on its Telegram channel.” “This morning at 7:35 am (0535 GMT) the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father.” His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and…
BUKAYO Saka’s ankle injury is “nothing serious” after he was forced off during Arsenal’s 4-0 Premier League win at Ipswich on Sunday, manager Mikel Arteta said. The winger was injured by a high challenge on the back of his ankle in the 32nd minute by Leif Davis, who was sent off. England international Saka was substituted early in the second half and was pictured with strapping on his ankle. Arteta said the winger was “sore” – but added that the decision to take him off was just a precaution, with Arsenal facing the first leg of their Champions League semi-final…