“Goooooooooool” tweeted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama Tirana, ALBANIA | AFP | Thousands of Albanians celebrated wildly in the streets of the capital Tirana on Sunday after the national football team secured its first ever victory in a major international finals. Sheer delight for Albania. Their first-ever win at …
Read More »Egypt’s Morsi sentenced to life in espionage trial
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to life in prison in an espionage trial in which six of his co-defendants were handed death penalties. Morsi, who has been sentenced to death in a separate trial, was Egypt’s first democratically elected …
Read More »Ronaldo ‘sad’ after night to forget at Euro 2016
Portugal 0 Austria 0 Belgium 3 Ireland 0 Paris, France | AFP | Cristiano Ronaldo crashed a penalty against the woodwork, blowing the chance to write his name into European Championship history, as Portugal stumbled to a second draw against Austria. Ronaldo was foiled again in his bid to become …
Read More »Putin condemns “unfair” IAAF ban
President Vladimir Putin on Friday condemned as “unfair” the IAAF decision to extend a ban on the doping-tainted Russian athletics federation, saying he hoped a solution could be found to allow “clean” athletes to compete in the Olympic Games. “Of course it’s unfair,” Putin said during a meeting with journalists. …
Read More »Bashir declares ceasefire
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has declared a four-month ceasefire in two states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where recent fighting between troops and rebels has left scores of casualties, the army said Friday. Bashir’s forces have been battling the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North …
Read More »Canada promotes first female combat general
Ottawa, Canada | AFP | A Canadian woman who fought insurgents in Afghanistan became the country’s first female combat officer to rise to the rank of general. Colonel Jennie Carignan, 47, was promoted to brigadier-general (one star) and put in charge of the Canadian army’s day-to-day operations including training and …
Read More »DOPING: Russian track and field athletes thrown out of Rio
Moscow, Russia | AFP | World athletics’ governing body IAAF has ruled to maintain Russia’s suspension, a top Russian athletics official confirmed Friday, TASS news agency reported. “I can confirm, the suspension is upheld,” Mikhail Butov, general secretary of the Russian athletics federation, told TASS. “I cannot give any more …
Read More »Ramadan-time Euro 2016 fever sweeps Arab world
Kuwait City, Kuwait | AFP | From Dubai to Tunis, Euro 2016 football fever is sweeping the Arab world, filling cafes and restaurants and overshadowing the nightly television soap operas that normally dominate Ramadan viewing. Every year, during the Muslim fasting month, television audiences soar as families gather in front …
Read More »England v Wales – five things we learnt
England 2 Wales 1 Germany 0 Poland 0 Lens, France | AFP | England beat Wales 2-1 in their second Euro 2016 Group B game in Lens on Thursday. Here AFP Sports looks at five things we learnt from the match. Sturridge, Vardy should be starting England did not entirely …
Read More »Pieces of EgyptAir plane found at bottom of Med
A deep-sea robot has located pieces of the missing EgyptAir plane at the bottom of the Mediterranean as investigators race to find the black boxes that could reveal the cause of the crash. While the wreckage discovered may offer clues about why the Airbus A320 went down with 66 people …
Read More »