A SOUTH African woman convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life in prison, along with her two accomplices. The jail terms for Racquel “Kelly” Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn come more than a year after Joshlin Smith mysteriously disappeared outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town. Despite a highly publicised search for the girl, who vanished in February 2024, she is yet to be found. South African prosecutors say she was sold into slavery however this was not definitively proven during the trial. It is believed…
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UKRAINE and Russia exchanged 1,000 prisoners of war each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, their largest exchange in the three-year war, following a Russian proposal made during talks in Istanbul on May 16. But any confidence built by that gesture may have been dissipated by Russia’s launching of its largest long-range aerial attacks against Ukrainian civilians during the same three days. Russia launched more than 900 kamikaze drones and 92 missiles, killing at least 16 civilians. Those attacks followed days of Ukrainian strikes on Russian military infrastructure in Russia’s Tula, Alabuga and Tatarstan regions, in which it used at least…
DUBBED “Germany’s forgotten genocide”, and described by historians as the first genocide of the 20th Century, the systematic murder of more than 70,000 Africans is being marked with a national day of remembrance for the first time in Namibia. Almost 40 years before their use in the Holocaust, concentration camps and pseudoscientific experiments were used by German officials to torture and kill people in what was then called South West Africa. The victims, primarily from the Ovaherero and Nama communities, were targeted because they refused to let the colonisers take their land and cattle. Genocide Remembrance Day in Namibia on…
CHELSEA roared back to beat Real Betis 4-1 in the UEFA Conference League final in Wroclaw on Wednesday, becoming the first club to claim all four major European trophies. Manuel Pellegrini’s enterprising Betis caught the favourites cold in Poland through an early goal from Abde Ezzalzouli but Enzo Maresca’s team were a changed side in the second half. Two goals in five minutes changed the complexion of the game, with man-of-the-match Cole Palmer creating both openings for Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson. Substitute Jadon Sancho made the game safe in the 83rd minute, finishing from an tight angle and Moises…
ISRAEL has killed at least 10 people trying to get aid in the past two days in a “heinous crime” committed in southern Gaza, according to the enclave’s Government Media Office. It says soldiers “opened direct fire at hungry Palestinian civilians” at an aid distribution centre run by the newly formed, Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. At least 43 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza today, including eight killed in an attack on the home of journalist Osama al-Arbid in the northern Strip. Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump has said that he told Israeli Prime…
A FRENCH court on Wednesday gave the maximum 20-year jail term to a surgeon who admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most of them children, during more than two decades. The three-month trial of Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, has brought to light the extent of his crimes and the suffering of his victims but also raised questions of why more was not done sooner to stop him. Le Scouarnec, one of the most prolific convicted sex predators in France’s history, was already in prison after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including…
AID workers and activists are fearful that new regulations announced by Sudan’s army-backed government will lead to a crackdown on local relief volunteers, exacerbating the catastrophic hunger crisis affecting 25 million people across the country. A directive announced by Khartoum state on its official Facebook page this month said all relief initiatives in the state must register with the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), a government body that oversees humanitarian operations in Sudan. The HAC was given expanded powers to register, monitor and – critics argue – crack down on local and Western aid groups by former leader Omar al-Bashir in…
KENYA’s President William Ruto has publicly apologised to Tanzania following days of tension between the neighbouring countries. Some Kenyans on social media have been targeting Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan following the recent detention and deportation of prominent East African activists. Angry Tanzanian MPs on Monday accused Kenyans of cyberbullying and disrespecting Tanzanian sovereignty and “meddling in domestic affairs”. Speaking at a national prayer breakfast on Wednesday, Ruto appeared to extend an olive branch to Tanzania. “To our neighbours from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us,” he said. “If there is anything that Kenyans have…
LAMINE Yamal is set to take over Lionel Messi’s legendary No. 10 shirt at Barcelona after signing a groundbreaking new contract this summer. The 17-year-old is reportedly poised to sign a long-term deal when he turns 18 in July, with Barcelona triggering a historic clause that includes a staggering €1 billion release clause, reflecting the club’s belief in his priceless value and potential. According to Memorabilia1899.co, the new contract will also see Yamal don the iconic No. 10 jersey starting in the 2025/26 season, taking over from current holder Ansu Fati, whose future at the club remains uncertain. Yamal, who…
WARD Khalil stares at the camera, her eyes barely focusing as she recalls the horrors of what she experienced. “When I woke up, I found a huge fire, and I saw my mom was dead,” she says, recounting the Israeli air attack early on Monday that she survived but that killed her mother, two of her siblings and 33 other people. Video footage of six-year-old Ward, her small body silhouetted against the flames after the attack on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, has shocked people around the world, highlighting the ferocity of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Ward’s father…
FRANCE’s lower house of parliament has approved a right-to-die bill in the first reading, taking an initial step in the lengthy process to pass legislation. A total of 305 lawmakers in the National Assembly approved the legislation on Tuesday while 199 deputies voted against the bill to grant patients medical assistance to end their lives in defined circumstances. The text has the backing of President Emmanuel Macron but is opposed by some conservative groups. In a statement on X, Macron praised the approval of the bill as “an important step” on “the path of fraternity”. “The National Assembly’s vote on…
A CHANT that US leader Donald Trump used to back claims of white genocide in South Africa is an apartheid-era slogan that did not really mean for farmers to be killed, the president said Tuesday. Trump showed clips of an opposition politician chanting “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” at tense talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa last week where he repeated unfounded claims of an orchestrated campaign of violence against white farmers. He also asked why the opposition politician seen making the chant, opposition firebrand Julius Malema — whom Trump mistakenly said was in government — had not been arrested.…
WAR-TORN Sudan is now “on the brink” of a public health disaster as cholera and other deadly diseases spread, aid group, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned. In just one week, Sudan’s Health Ministry recorded that 172 people have died due to a cholera outbreak, posting on Facebook that most of the new cases are in Khartoum state. According to local doctors, cited by Sudanese media, drone attacks have caused power outages at water purification stations, which has left people with no choice but to use unclean water. IRC country director for Sudan Eatizaz Yousif said the civil war…
BETWEEN 2018 and 2024, state governments and parents spent over N122 billion on the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), but the candidates’ pass rate has been poor. The absence of facilities/instructional materials, dearth of qualified teachers, and poor foundation (at the primary school level), among others, contribute to the larger problem of education decline, IYABO LAWAL reports. Last April, to the chagrin of millions of Nigerians, the Lagos State government announced that 31,596 out of 56,134 students from public secondary schools failed the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The failure rate made a mockery of…
A MANCHESTER United squad including Alejandro Garnacho were due to arrive in Malaysia on Monday for a friendly, less than 24 hours after finishing the club’s worst season since 1974. United beat 10-man Aston Villa 2-0 on Sunday at Old Trafford but manager Ruben Amorim has a huge rebuilding task over the summer to revive the fortunes of one of the world’s biggest football clubs. Amorim afterwards apologised to fans for the “disaster” of a campaign, which saw them finish 15th in the Premier League and beaten 1-0 by Spurs in last week’s Europa League final. Hours after beating Villa,…
A TOP World Health Organization official deplored Monday that none of the agency’s trucks with medical aid had been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip since Israel ended its blockade. Humanitarian aid has begun trickling back into the Palestinian territory in recent days after more than two months of blocked access. For more than 11 weeks, “there has been no WHO trucks entering into Gaza for medical care support”, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director Hanan Balkhy told a press conference in Geneva. “The situation is devastating. We are not only worried about the immediate work that we are supporting,…
US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “crazy” on Sunday after Moscow launched a deadly barrage of drones against Ukraine, even as the warring countries completed a large-scale prisoner exchange. At least 13 people were killed when Russia launched a record number of drones against Ukraine overnight to Sunday. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it,…
SOUTH Africa’s firebrand opposition leader, Julius Malema on Saturday vowed to keep using controversial chants that featured in a contentious White House meeting between the US and South African presidents. During talks in Washington on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump ambushed his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa by showing a four-minute-long video in support of his claims of a “white genocide” in the country that overcame decades of apartheid. Malema, a 44-year-old opposition politician, was the main character in the video, seen in several clips wearing the red beret of his populist, Marxist-inspired Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party and chanting…
GHANA’s Foreign Affairs Minister has announced that the country has temporarily closed its embassy in the US capital amid an investigation into an alleged visa scam. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the embassy will be shut following the “damning findings” of an audit team he put together to investigate alleged corruption at the Washington diplomatic mission. The statement added that the closure would last “a few days” until a “restructuring and systems overhaul” is finalised. According to Ablakwa, a locally recruited staff member and “collaborators” were allegedly involved in a “fraudulent” scheme whereby they extracted money from visa and passport applicants.…
MANCHESTER City, Chelsea and Newcastle secured places in next season’s Champions League as Liverpool lifted the Premier League trophy after a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace on a dramatic final day of the season on Sunday. A record-equalling 20th league title for Liverpool and relegation for Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton had long since been decided, leaving the focus of attention on the battle for European places. Liverpool and Arsenal had already secured their place in the Champions League by finishing in the top two, while Tottenham will join them after winning the Europa League on Wednesday. City ensured a disappointing…