The beautiful game is often able to unite the world, but when it comes to Algeria and Morocco, even football is failing to bridge the decades-long rivalry between the North African neighbours. The latest controversy occurred this month when Morocco withdrew from the African Nations Championship, held in Algeria. The Moroccans announced hours before the tournament began on January 13 that they would not be going because they had not been given permission to fly directly from Rabat to the Algerian city of Constantine and they refused to travel by an indirect route. Moroccan aircraft have been banned from entering…
Author: National Tone
Canada’s Brooke Henderson is No. 1 on the LPGA Tour standings. She was elevated to the top spot on the Race to CME Globe rankings on Monday after winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Henderson won the season-opening elite 29-player tournament by four strokes. The native of Smiths Falls, Ont., now has 13 professional wins, the most in Canadian golf history. Henderson finished 2022 third in the Race to CME Globe rankings and seventh in the Rolex Rankings. The 25-year-old remains in seventh in the Rolex Rankings, which evaluate a player’s performance over a rolling two-year period weighted…
Italy’s most successful football club is once again mired in scandal. Juventus, the 36-time winners of Serie A, have dropped down to ninth place after being docked 15 points following a probe into the club’s past transfer dealings. The Turin club now sits 27 points adrift of leaders Napoli. They had been in third place, 10 points off the top spot, before the penalty was applied on Friday. The controversy comes less than 20 years after they were embroiled in a match-fixing saga that saw them heavily fined, stripped of titles and relegated from Italian football’s top tier in 2006.…
Gunmen in Eswatini killed a prominent opposition politician and human rights lawyer at his home, hours after the country’s absolute monarch challenged activists opposed to his rule. Thulani Maseko was shot dead on Saturday night by unknown attackers in Luhleko, about 50km (30 miles) from the capital Mbabane, opposition spokesman Sikelela Dlamini told AFP. The spokesman said he was told that “assassins shot him through the window while he was inside [the] house with his family”. “Details are still scant (and), owing to the trauma his family members are undergoing, they are not yet ready to speak,” Dlamini added. The…
The 37-year-old Portuguese forward failed to score but his Riyadh-based club beat Ettifaq 1-0 to go top of the table.Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo has made a winning start to life in the Saudi Pro League as he led Al Nassr to a 1-0 victory over Ettifaq in his first match, despite failing to score. During the match on Sunday, Talisca headed the winner in the 31st minute when Abdulmajeed Al-Sulaiheem’s cross was too high for Ronaldo, who did not seem to mind as he wheeled around to celebrate with the Brazilian midfielder and the rest of his new teammates. Al…
The peaceful and close-knit community of Monterey Park has been left reeling from the mass shooting at a ballroom dancing studio over the Lunar New Year weekend that left 10 people dead and 10 more wounded. The southern Californian city of 60,000, where about 65 percent of residents are of Asian descent, is consistently ranked as one of the best and most peaceful places to live in the United States, but the mass shooting has shaken residents’ faith in the safety of their community. “In my heart, I always felt the United States was the best country in the world,”…
Moscow’s forces are pushing towards two towns in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhia region, where fighting intensified this week after several months of a stagnant front, Russian state media has reported. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in the region, said offensive actions were concentrated around two towns: Orikhiv, around 50km (30 miles) south of Ukrainian-controlled regional capital Zaporizhzhia, and Hulyaipole, further east. “The front is mobile, especially in two directions: Orikhiv and Hulyaipole,” Rogov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency. He said there was active fighting in those areas, according to the agency. “The initiative is in our…
Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Cambodian rapper Kea Sokun was once jailed for his hard-hitting lyrics, but that did not stop him from forging ahead with his latest release, Workers Blood, set to scenes of striking garment workers beaten by military police. At least four workers died in the protests. “They fought for their rights, for freedom, the search for justice full of obstacles,” Sokun raps in Khmer. “I would like to commemorate the heroism of the workers who sacrificed their lives.” Within days of the song’s release on January 3 — the ninth anniversary of the government’s deadly response to…
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany ‘would not stand in the way’ if Poland sends Leopard tanks to Ukraine.Germany is ready to authorise Poland to send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine to help Kyiv fight the Russian invasion if Warsaw makes such a request, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sunday. “If we are asked the question, then we will not stand in the way,” Baerbock told LCI television on Sunday after a Franco-German summit meeting in Paris. “We know how important these tanks are and this is why we are discussing this now with our partners. We need to make…
The two countries’ leaders show a united front after the war in Ukraine exposed diverging approaches on key issues.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, as the two leaders seek to overcome differences laid bare by the Ukraine war. The German leader visited the French capital for a day of ceremonies marking 60 years since a landmark treaty sealed a bond between the longtime enemies that underpins today’s European Union. Germany’s entire Cabinet was in Paris and 300 lawmakers from both countries met at the Sorbonne University. Both leaders will oversee…