WORLD

Ed Sheeran was the most-played artiste in the UK last year, according to new data from music licensing body PPL. The star also had the most-played song of the year with Bad Habits. It’s the fourth time in five years that Sheeran has been named the UK’s most-played artist, calculated by plays on radio, TV, pubs, clubs and shops. The ...

Long queues have been witnessed at petrol stations in most parts of Lagos state in south-west Nigeria after a decision by some fuel marketers to shut their operations. The queues that surfaced on Monday continued on Tuesday morning causing panic buying of fuel and black market sales. It comes as some members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria ...

The African Development Bank has appointed Mr. Simon Mizrahi as Acting Vice President, Technology and Corporate Services Complex, effective 20 June 2022. Mizrahi, a British national, is currently the Director for Delivery, Performance Management and Results at the African Development Bank Group and Acting Director for the Operations Committee Secretariat and Quality Assurance. In these capacities, he oversees results delivery ...

Mohamed Salah has achieved nothing with Egypt and must give more to his national team’s cause, according to ex-Pharaohs coach Hassan Shehata. Shehata, who took charge of Egypt between 2004-11 and led them to three successive AFCON titles between 2006 and 2010, did not mince his words when considering Salah’s contribution to his country in recent years. Salah most recently ...

Ryan Giggs has stepped down as Wales manager with immediate effect. Giggs has been on leave from his post since November 2020 and faces a domestic violence trial in Manchester on August 8. The 48-year-old former Manchester United player is accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against his former girlfriend Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020. Giggs is ...

European football is in “danger” unless “state-owned” clubs such as Manchester City and Paris St-Germain can be controlled, the president of Spain’s top league says. La Liga has filed a complaint to Uefa about what it believes to be Financial Fair Play breaches by the two clubs. It believes they are effectively run by wealthy countries and circumvent rules designed ...

North Korea says it is dealing with an outbreak of an unidentified intestinal sickness, adding to the strain caused by the spread of Covid-19. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has ordered quarantine measures be implemented, the official KCNA news agency reports. It said he sent medicine to Haeju city on Wednesday to help patients suffering from the “acute enteric epidemic”. ...

Shell has said it will work to keep gas flowing to its customers in Europe after Russian energy firm Gazprom said it would cut supplies from tomorrow. Gazprom said it would halt gas to Denmark’s Orsted and to Shell for its contract to supply gas to Germany, after both refused to make payments in roubles, Reuters reported. Shell told the ...

Environmental campaigner Liz O’Neill doesn’t mince her words about gene drives – the next generation of genetic modification (GM) technology. “It is extremely worrying,” says the director of UK anti-GM pressure group, GM Freeze. “To release something that has been specifically created in a laboratory in order to outfight nature, and spread without exception within wild populations, is extraordinary arrogant. ...

North Korea is grappling with the spread of Covid in an unvaccinated population, without access to effective anti-viral drugs. In early 2020, the country sealed its borders to try to insulate itself from the pandemic. Its leadership has so far rejected outside medical support. And state media has recommended traditional treatments to deal with what is referred to as “fever”. ...