profile/5683FB_IMG_16533107021641748.jpg

News_Naija

Police Rescue Kidnapped Victim In Anambra

The Anambra State Police Command on Wednesday rescued a kidnapped victim at Umuege Village, Amawbia, in Awka South Local Government Area of the state. A statement released by the spokesperson of the Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the rescue followed a hot chase and strategic positioning of police operatives attached to the Central Police Station, Awka. Ikenga said the operatives engaged the assailants after receiving information about the abduction of the victim at about 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday. He said, “The Anambra State Police Command today, April 23, confirmed the rescue and safe return of a kidnapped victim at Umuege Village, Amawbia, Awka, and has debriefed the victim for necessary action. “This followed a hot chase and strategic positioning by police operatives attached to the Central Police Station, Awka, after receiving information about the abduction of the victim at 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday. “This forced the criminals, who were operating in an unmarked Sienna vehicle, to abandon the victim at Umunya along the Enugu–Onitsha Expressway and flee the scene.” He added that the Commissioner of Police has ordered a comprehensive investigation into the incident and that further updates would be provided as necessary.

dataDp/1032.jpeg

Worldnews

Have Scientists Solved The Mystery Of Golds Origin In The Universe?

A study gives clues to cosmic origin of gold and heavy elements, and they were created earlier than we thought. The origins of heavy elements such as gold have been one of the biggest mysteries of astrophysics. A study has now provided a clue about the precious metal’s cosmic origins. Scientists have found that explosions in highly magnetised neutron stars, called magnetars, could have created gold in the universe. Here is more about the study: Analysis of archival data from space missions shows that a large amount of heavy metals, including gold, come from giant flares from magnetars, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on April 29. Anirudh Patel, a doctoral student at the Department of Physics at Columbia University in New York, led the study, which used 20-year-old archival telescope data from NASA and European Space Agency telescopes to investigate how heavy elements such as iron and gold were created and distributed throughout the universe. “It’s a pretty fundamental question in terms of the origin of complex matter in the universe,” Patel was quoted as saying in an article on the NASA website. “It’s a fun puzzle that hasn’t actually been solved.” The authors estimated that magnetar giant flares could contribute up to 10 percent of the overall abundance of elements in the galaxy that are heavier than iron. Co-authors of the study are affiliated with Columbia University, Charles University in the Czech Republic, Louisiana State University, the Flatiron Institute in New York and Ohio State University. A magnetar is a type of neutron star that is highly magnetised, which means its magnetic field is extremely powerful. When a massive star explodes, it leaves a very dense, collapsed core behind, which is called a neutron star. Astronomers theorise that the first magnetars were formed after the first stars about 13.6 billion years ago, according to study coauthor Eric Burns, assistant professor and astrophysicist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The Big Bang created the universe 13.8 billion years ago. On rare occasions, magnetars can release high-energy radiation by undergoing a “starquake”. Like an earthquake, a starquake can fracture the magnetar’s crust. Sometimes, magnetar starquakes bring with them a magnetar giant flare, a rare explosive event that releases gamma rays. The researchers found that magnetars release material during giant flares. However, they do not yet have a physical explanation for this. The researchers speculated about whether magnetar giant flares formed gold through the rapid process of neutrons forging lighter atomic nuclei into heavier ones. An element’s identity is defined by the number of protons it has. However, if an atom acquires an extra neutron, it can undergo nuclear decay, which can turn a neutron into a proton. A changed number of protons can change the element’s identity. Neutron stars have an extremely high density of neutrons. If a neutron star is disrupted, singular atoms can quickly capture a number of neutrons and undergo multiple decays. This leads to the formation of much heavier elements like uranium. Before this study, the creation of gold was attributed only to neutron star collisions, or kilonovas. When astronomers observed a neutron star collision in 2017 through telescopes, they found the collision could create heavy elements such as gold, platinum and lead. However, these collisions are believed to have happened relatively later in the history of the universe, in the past several billion years. However, the archival telescopic data, which was previously indecipherable, showed that magnetar giant flares formed much earlier. Hence, the study indicates that the first gold could have been made from magnetar giant flares. NASA has an upcoming mission that can follow up on these results. The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a gamma-ray telescope that is expected to launch in 2027. COSI will study energetic phenomena in the Milky Way and beyond, such as magnetar giant flares. According to the NASA website, COSI could identify individual elements created in the giant flares, helping to form a better understanding of the origin of the elements. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

dataDp/3575.jpeg

Futbol

Ups, Downs And The Race For Europe

BBC Sport outlines the promotion and relegation issues - and the race for European qualification - in England and Scotland for 2024-25. 13 April - Liverpool secure Champions League place 12 April - BIrmingham clinch League One title 12 April - Arbroath promoted to Scottish Championship 8 April - BIrmingham promoted to Championship 6 April - Southampton relegated to Championship 22 March - Ebbsfleet relegated to National League South 22 March - Dumbarton relegated to Scottish League Two The top five teams are guaranteed qualification for the league phase of the Champions League - with Arsenal's win over Real Madrid on 8 April making certain that England will be one of the two associations with the highest Uefa coefficients for 2024-25, and clinching a fifth place in addition to the usual four. Leaders Liverpool have now made certain of their Champions League place, and require a maximum of six points from their last six games to clinch the title. There are also places in the league phase reserved for the winners of this season's Champions League and Europa League, regardless of their domestic league positions. The sixth-placed Premier League team will qualify for the league phase of the Europa League, along with the FA Cup winners. If the FA Cup winners have already qualified for the Champions League, that Europa place reverts to the league. Newcastle United's victory in the Carabao Cup final means that at worst they will qualify for the Conference League play-off round. But if they qualify for Europe by their league position, that Conference League spot will revert to the league. If Chelsea win the Conference League but fail to reach the Champions League, they will qualify for the league phase of the Europa League. The bottom three teams will be relegated to the Championship. Southampton became the earliest team to be relegated (in terms of games) in Premier League history when they lost 3-1 at Tottenham on 6 April. The WSL champions will enter the league phase of the Champions League, with the runners-up entering at the second round and the third-placed side in the first round. Leaders Chelsea are already assured of their Champions League place, with Arsenal and Manchester United close to joining them. The bottom side will be relegated to the Women's Championship. The top two teams will be automatically promoted to the Premier League. This will be two from Leeds, Burnley, Sheffield United and Sunderland. The two teams from those four who are not automatically promoted will contest the play-offs with two other sides. The bottom three teams will be relegated to League One. The top two teams will be automatically promoted to the Championship, with the next four entering a play-off. Birmingham City became the first team in England's top five divisions to be promoted when they won 2-1 at Peterborough on 8 April, and clinched the title without kicking a ball four days later as Wrexham drew 0-0 at Wigan. Wrexham and Wycombe are assured of at least a play-off place. The bottom four teams will be relegated to League Two. Shrewsbury are not quite mathematically down, but are 12 points from safety with four games left. The top three teams will be automatically promoted to League One, with the next four entering a play-off. The bottom two teams will be relegated to the National League. The title, and the sole automatic promotion place, is between Barnet and York - with the Bees needing a maximum of seven points from their last four games to clinch it. Whoever does not win the title will contest the play-offs with Forest Green Rovers and four other teams. The bottom four teams will be relegated to National League North or South, and will be replaced with the champions and play-off winners of those two divisions. Ebbsfleet United became the first team in England's top five tiers to be relegated after drawing 3-3 with Aldershot on 22 March. Celtic will win the Premiership title unless they lose their last five games and Rangers win all of theirs while making up a 42-goal swing in goal difference. The champions will enter the Champions League play-off round, with the runners-up entering in the second qualifying round. The Premiership now splits in half after 33 games - with each club playing the others in their 'half' for a fourth and final time. Celtic, Rangers, Hibernian, Dundee United, Aberdeen and St Mirren will all be in the top half, with St Johnstone, Dundee, Ross County, Kilmarnock, Motherwell and Hearts in the bottom half. The Scottish Cup winners will enter the Europa League at the play-off round. If the cup winners finish in the top two, that Europa place reverts to the league. The third-placed Premiership team will enter the Europa League at the second qualifying round, with the fourth-placed team entering the Conference League at the second qualifying round. The Premiership's bottom club will be relegated to the Scottish Championship, while the 11th-placed team will enter a play-off with three Championship sides. The champions - Falkirk or Livingston - will be promoted to the Scottish Premiership. Falkirk need a maximum of four points from their last three games to clinch the title. Whoever does not win the division will enter a play-off with Ayr United, one other Championship side and the 11th-placed Premiership team. The bottom club will be relegated to Scottish League One, while the ninth-placed team will enter a play-off with three League One sides. Arbroath were promoted to the Scottish Championship after beating Stranraer 4-0 on 12 April to clinch the title. The next three teams will enter a play-off with the ninth-placed Championship side. Bottom club Dumbarton are relegated to Scottish League Two. They became the first SPFL team to be relegated after drawing 0-0 with Queen of the South on 22 March. The ninth-placed team will enter a play-off with three League Two teams. The champions will be automatically promoted to Scottish League One, with the next three teams entering a play-off with the ninth-placed League One side. Peterhead and East Fife are assured of at least a play-off place. The bottom side will enter a play-off against the winners of a play-off between Highland League champions Brora Rangers and Lowland League winners East Kilbride. The overall winners will take the final place in League Two for 2025-26.

dataDp/1032.jpeg

Worldnews

How RSF Is Adopting Israels Template For Genocide In Sudan

For years, Israel has used human rights terminology to whitewash killing civilians, now the RSF is doing the same. On April 11, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur, burning huts and shops, executing medics, and firing at fleeing civilians. According to monitors, at least 500 people – men, women, children and the elderly – were killed, and hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced. The attack provoked global outrage, prompting the RSF to double down on propaganda it had been spreading for months about Zamzam – that it was actually a military barracks. “Zamzam was a military zone … so the RSF decided that we should evacuate civilians,” RSF adviser Ali Musabel told Al Jazeera, without providing evidence for his claim. “We didn’t want civilians to get caught in the crossfire.” By labelling Zamzam a military zone, the RSF was trying to apply the same model Israel uses to justify bombing hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip, said Rifaat Makawi, a Sudanese human rights lawyer. “This is not a coincidence: it is a deliberate practice aimed at stripping civilians of their legal protection by labelling them as combatants or instruments of war,” he told Al Jazeera. Throughout Sudan’s civil war, the RSF has used human rights jargon and terms from international humanitarian law (IHL) – the legal framework designed to protect civilians in times of war – to carry out atrocities. For years, Israel employed this practice in an attempt to ward off criticism for killing and oppressing Palestinians, according to legal scholars. Since launching its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has doubled down. It claims hospitals in Gaza are Hamas “control-and-command centres” – trying to justify attacking health facilities, which are protected under IHL. It also claims Hamas hides among civilians to use them as “human shields” to justify disproportionate and intentional attacks against those same civilians. In addition, it has branded its mass expulsions of civilians as “humanitarian” evacuations, giving people hours to pack up their entire lives and get out of the way of Israeli bombs, if they can. Israel stands accused of genocide by rights groups and United Nations experts for its war that has killed at least 52,567 Palestinians. And the RSF is increasingly adopting Israel’s strategy, local monitors and legal experts say. “The fact that the claims made by the RSF in Sudan resemble the claims Israel is making in Gaza … reveals the emergence of a template to commit mass extermination and even genocide,” said Luigi Daniele, a senior lecturer on IHL at Nottingham Law School. The UN accuses both sides in Sudan’s war of committing grave crimes, such as killing and torturing prisoners of war, since a power struggle between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) erupted into an all-out civil war in April 2023. Human rights groups accuse the RSF of perpetrating additional atrocities, including carrying out a possible genocide against the “non-Arab” communities in Darfur. The RSF emerged from the nomadic “Arab” militias in Darfur, which became known as the Janjaweed (devils on horseback in Sudanese Arabic) for the countless atrocities they committed. The army used the Janjaweed to crush a rebellion by sedentary farming “non-Arab” communities that started in 2003. The sedentary communities were protesting against their political and economic marginalisation in Sudan. SAF and RSF were closely aligned until at least 2021, when they came together to overthrow the civilian administration with which they had been sharing power after a popular uprising toppled autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Shortly after the coup, the RSF signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to receive human rights training. Now, the RSF and its political allies are using human rights terminology to try to whitewash their atrocities. On March 8, an RSF-backed political alliance, Tasis (Foundation), tweeted: “We stand in solidarity with Sudanese women in their recent ordeal, where they have faced particularly tragic conditions and been subjected to horrific violations, as a result of the unjust war.” Tasis made no mention of the reports published by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which accuse the RSF of widespread sexual violence and rape throughout the war. During the raid on Zamzam, the RSF reportedly abducted 25 women and girls and raped others, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a local monitor documenting sexual violence in the region. “What I see today in Darfur, and specifically in Zamzam, is not merely a violation of the IHL, but evidence of its distortion and transformation into a cover under which the gravest crimes are committed,” human rights lawyer Makawi told Al Jazeera. The Zamzam camp sprang up in 2003, 15km (9.3 miles) from North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, to shelter “non-Arab” Zaghawa and Fur communities, which fled Popular Defence Forces’ violence during the first Darfur war. Both communities suffered genocidal levels of violence and were expelled from their lands by the state-backed Janjaweed. Zamzam soon became a symbol of the atrocities they endured. Some 350,000 people settled in the camp, swelling to more than half a million as the RSF and the army went to war and the paramilitary group captured South, East, West and Central Darfur states in late 2023. In April 2024, the RSF besieged el-Fasher and surrounding towns after the Joint Forces – a coalition of “non-Arab” armed groups formed to fight the government in the past – shed their neutrality and sided with the army. Given the RSF’s track record of enmity towards “non-Arab” ethnic groups, the Joint Forces feared widespread ethnic killings if the RSF captured the entire state. The RSF blocked aid from anyone not aligned with them, leading to famine in Zamzam. As civilians withered away from hunger, the RSF began claiming that Zamzam was a “military base”, revealing its intention to attack. “This claim that there was a military base in Zamzam was never correct … we had some people who acted as a police force, but there were no military leaders in the camp,” said Mosab, a middle-aged man who survived the killing in Zamzam and now languishes in the nearby town of Tawila. Musabel, the RSF adviser, told Al Jazeera that the high civilian death toll was due to the Joint Forces using “human shields”, without providing evidence. The RSF has also mimicked the Israeli tactic of carrying out mass expulsions under a humanitarian guise. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has pushed 2.3 million Palestinians into smaller and smaller pockets of land, which it describes as “safe zones” in Gaza. Israel bombs or invades those areas, claiming they “became military targets” due to the ostensible presence of someone from Hamas there. “What Israel has done in Gaza, in reality, has been issuing mass expulsion orders under threats of extermination, which is a declaration of intent to commit international crimes,” Nottingham Law School’s Daniele said. On April 11, Tasis posted on Facebook, calling for civilians to flee Zamzam through what it called “humanitarian corridors” leading to nearby towns such as Tawila and Korma. Yet on April 27, an RSF commander was seen announcing the detention of a group of unarmed men who fled Zamzam through a supposed humanitarian corridor to Tawila, in a video verified by Al Jazeera’s authentication unit, Sanad. He said the men had sided against their Darfuri brethren and with the traditional elite, represented in the “Arab” Jalaba tribes who live in central and northern Sudan and comprise much of Sudan’s military and political elite. He added that they might kill the detained men to serve as an example to others. The RSF has framed its war against the army as a fight on behalf of peripheral tribes against the central elite, while at the same time committing egregious abuses against the most marginalised tribes in Darfur. The detainees were relief workers, according to local monitors, who fear they were killed. Al Jazeera was unable to confirm their fate. Survivors told Al Jazeera that the RSF had carried out ethnic cleansing, possibly amounting to several war crimes. “Some of us were executed [by the RSF] along [the road out of Zamzam] and others were violently displaced,” said Mohamed Idriss*, who walked for 13 hours before arriving in el-Fasher. “We were exposed to so many violations, [the RSF] committed massacres and ethnic cleansing,” he told Al Jazeera. Follow Al Jazeera English:...