Former Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan must pay compensation to his ex-wife after a court ruled on their divorce case and determined he is the biological father of their three children.

A court in Ghana ordered the 37-year-old to give Gifty Gyan a house in the UK, a house in Accra, a petrol station and two cars.

Gyan and his ex-wife have been embroiled in a legal battle for three years, with the couple’s divorce case dragged out following the footballer’s allegation of infidelity against Gifty Gyan and his claim that their three children may not be his.

A DNA test disproved his claims that he was not the children’s biological father.

On Tuesday, the court determined that the former Udinese, Rennes and Sunderland forward must also pay 25,000 Ghanaian cedis ($2,100, £1,729) per month for the children’s upkeep.

Although the couple had already split up, the court formally annulled the marriage following a petition filled by Asamoah Gyan.

The court ruled that Gifty Gyan had made a non-cash contribution to the purchase of the properties because she was the only one caring for their kids while Gyan plied his trade.

The four-bedroom house in Accra had been bought for her prior to their 2013 marriage.

Before formally tying the knot 10 years ago, the couple had two children.

Gyan announced his retirement from football in June, having scored a national record 51 goals in 109 games for his country.

He is also Africa’s record goalscorer at the World Cup – with six goals across the 2006, 2010 and 2014 editions – and played in seven Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, helping the Black Stars finish third in 2008 and as runners-up in 2010 and 2015.

A US couple has been fined ($28,000; £23,000) by a Ugandan court after they pleaded guilty to child cruelty and “inhumane treatment” of their 10-year-old foster child.

Nicholas and Mackenzie Spencer accepted the charges under a deal which saw far more serious charges dropped.

They had been charged with child trafficking and torture, for which they could have faced life in prison.

The pair made the boy sleep on a wooden platform and fed him cold food.

Their nanny reported the “repeated unbecoming inhumane treatment” of the boy, who has special needs, to local police last December.

The boy had lived with the couple, originally from South Carolina, for two years before they were arrested last year.

They also pleaded guilty to degrading treatment, working illegally and unlawfully staying in Uganda without permits.

For this charge they were sentenced to two months in prison, which they have served after they were arrested last year.

High Court judge Alice Kyomuhangi also ordered them to pay the victim compensation of 100 million Ugandan shillings ($26,000: £22,000).

“The child was in need of help and support, having lost his father and having been abandoned by his own mother. Unfortunately the accused persons failed to manage his peculiar behaviours,” the judge said while delivering her ruling.

David Mpanga, the couple’s lawyer, told the Reuters news agency the boy had psychiatric issues and that the pair failed to look after him properly because they had no parenting experience.

The couple fostered three children in Uganda, where they moved in 2017 to work as volunteers.

This case has sparked outrage among some Uganda child rights activists, who called it a mockery of justice.

Activist Proscovia Najjumba asked how the couple were allowed to “walk away” after accepting they “mistreated a child”, reports AFP.

Darren Namatovou, founder of Children Phoenix Foundation, told the BBC that due diligence and background checks needed to be done thoroughly during the adoption process in order to prevent cases of child abuse.

International adoptions are controversial in Uganda.

The law was tightened earlier this year, to remove what the government said was a loophole used for child-trafficking.

American actor Tyler Christopher, best-known for his role in the TV drama General Hospital, has died at the age of 50.

His death was confirmed by both his manager, Chi Muoi Lo, and former co-star Maurice Bernard on Instagram.

Christopher died after a “cardiac event” on Tuesday morning in his San Francisco apartment, Mr Bernard said.

Friends and colleagues paid tribute to the Emmy Award winner, saying he was a gifted actor.

“This news was incredibly shocking, and I am devastated by his loss,” Mr Lo said in a statement.

In his Instagram post, Mr Bernard wrote that Christopher “was a truly talented individual that lit up the screen in every scene he performed”.

He also remembered him as a “sweet soul and wonderful friend to all who knew him.

“Christopher is well known for playing Nikolas Cassadine on the TV soap opera General Hospital from 1996 to 2016, a role that earned him multiple Daytime Emmy awards.

On Days of our Lives, another soap opera, he played Stefan DiMera, which earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination for lead actor in a drama series in 2019.

Christopher was also remembered for his mental health advocacy, and as someone “who openly spoke about his struggles with bipolar depression and alcohol”, said Mr Bernard in his post.

The actor had been open about his mental health struggles, writing in a Reader’s Digest piece that he regularly saw a psychiatrist and a therapist, and took medication for treatment.

In a social media post celebrating his 50th birthday last year, Christopher reflected on his life.

“In the decade since then my daughter was born, I won an Emmy, was the lead actor in four television shows, completed a dozen movies, lived in a half dozen states,” he wrote.

He also reflected on his mental health struggles, saying he has relapsed and recovered, survived a traumatic brain injury and learned to be content with “living a quieter life”.

Christopher leaves behind two children.

Ambulances carrying seriously injured Palestinians have crossed from Gaza into Egypt for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

A first group of 110 foreign passport holders have also been allowed to leave the territory via the Rafah crossing.Gaza’s borders have been closed since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October.

Western officials say Rafah is expected to continue opening for limited time periods to allow foreign passport holders and injured civilians to leave.

The lists of those allowed to cross will be agreed between Egypt and Israel, with embassies from the relevant countries being informed in advance to ensure they can prepare to receive their citizens, according to the officials.

The BBC understands there are about 7,000 dual nationals in Gaza.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said British consular officials were ready to assist the estimated 200 Britons as soon as they were able to leave.

Israel has been bombarding Gaza for more three weeks and has recently sent in ground forces in response to an unprecedented cross-border assault by Hamas gunmen in which 1,400 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 8,700 people have been killed in the territory since then, while the UN says supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine are dangerously low because of a siege imposed by Israel.

Ambulances were seen rushing to Rafah on Wednesday morning. At least two children were among the wounded – one with a bandaged stomach. After medical checks, they were carried away on stretchers.

The BBC’s Rushdi Abu Alouf, who is at the crossing, was told by Palestinian passport control officers that 88 patients requiring advanced medical treatment were expected to be transferred to Egypt.

At least 20 people had arrived in Egypt by the early afternoon.

“Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are treating large numbers of injured people while suffering from a lack of medical supplies.

Therefore [they] cannot operate on such cases,” Nassem Hasan, a medic working with Gaza’s health ministry, told Reuters news agency.

“Now they are being transported to the Egyptian side, and will then be evaluated and might be relocated to another hospital.

“Most of the patients will be taken to a field hospital built by Egyptian authorities in Sheikh Zuweid, 15km (9 miles) from Rafah. Others will go to permanent hospitals in the nearby town of El-Arish or the city of Ismailia.

The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed Egypt’s decision to accept medical evacuations.

But he warned: “Attention must not be diverted from the far greater needs of thousands of patients in Gaza, many of them extremely fragile who cannot be moved.

“We need an immediate acceleration in the flow of medical aid permitted into Gaza. Hospitals must be protected from bombardment and military use.

“The WHO says more than a third of Gaza’s hospitals are not functioning, while the rest are only partly working and are overwhelmed by casualties.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 20,000 people have been injured.

Our correspondent said about 500 foreign and dual nationals were also expected to be allowed to cross into Egypt on Wednesday.

In the afternoon, Egyptian state-run Al-Qahera News TV broadcast footage showing what it said was the first group getting off a coach, which included many women and young children.

Mohammed Ghalayini, a British scientist from Manchester who had been in Gaza visiting family when the war began, accompanied his uncle to the crossing after he was named by Gaza authorities on the list of potential evacuees.

“People are really afraid of what’s going on and so if they have a chance to leave, they’re trying to leave,” he told the BBC.”But getting to the border is a struggle as well, because fuel supplies are short,” he added.

“So you know, I saw people arriving on a donkey cart with their luggage at the border.

“Other British nationals hoping to cross in the coming days include the parents-in-law of Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf.

He welcomed news that the border was opening up, but said his in-laws were trapped without clean drinking water and with rapidly diminishing supplies.

A 28-year-old man from Lanarkshire has been convicted after having up to £1.2m worth of cryptocurrency in his account following a violent robbery.

John Ross D’Alfonso was described as the “technical” brains behind the crime – thought to be the first robbery in Scotland involving stolen cryptocurrency.

He had denied being part of the raid itself but was found guilty of reset, meaning he knowingly had something that was stolen and intended to keep it.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that three men went into a home in Blantyre in Lanarkshire and forced the homeowner to transfer his Bitcoin, a form of digital cash, to D’Alfonso’s account.

The court was told that one of the men in the house was armed with a machete, and another repeatedly struck a woman on the head with a personalised Toblerone bar until it was covered in blood.

The three men then escaped in an expensive Audi car belonging to the homeowner after the cash was transferred.

The court heard that because of the unstable nature of the value of Bitcoin, it could have been worth anywhere between £100,000 and £1.2m when stolen on 18 March 2020.

D’Alfonso, who was a delivery driver from Cambuslang, had been described as the technical mind behind the robbery and denied being involved on the day.

He insisted a “scary” relative had forced him to put the money into his account.

Jurors were told there was “no dispute” the digital cash had been stolen and that it ended up in D’Alfonso’s account and was transferred elsewhere.

Prosecutors said D’Alfonso had not been at the robbery that night and instead gave “technical expertise” to help steal the money.

D’Alfonso was cleared of robbery and assault charges and will be sentenced later this month in Edinburgh.Det Insp Craig Potter, of Police Scotland’s Cyber Investigations unit called the case a complex investigation.

“This is a complex and constantly evolving technology,” he said.

“Specialist cybercrime officers were able to follow the movement of funds to show he had been responsible for the bitcoin wallet which received the stolen funds.

“This conviction demonstrates Police Scotland capability and commitment to tackling criminality involving the digital space and bringing criminals operating in this world to justice.”

AFederal High Court in Abuja has given ex-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, until January 25 to appear in court to explain circumstances surrounding the 53 million dollar-judgment debt arising from the Paris Club refund.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a short ruling on Tuesday, gave Emefiele another opportunity to appear in court in person or risk an arrest warrant against him.

The development followed a plea by Emefiele and CBN’s counsel, Audu Anuga, SAN, that efforts to ensure that his client appeared in person on the order of the court were unsuccessful as he was still in custody.

Mr Anuga informed the court that an affidavit to show why an arrest warrant should not be issued against Emefiele was filed on October 30.

Justice Ekwo then asked I.A. Nnana, the lawyer who represented Mr Joe Agi, SAN, the judgment creditor/applicant in the suit, if he had been served with the affidavit.

Nnana responded that they were served on Monday, almost at the close of work and that they would like to react. The judge, who cautioned Anuga against late filing of processes, reminded that the matter came up on July 19.

The senior lawyer, however, explained that efforts were made until Friday (October 27) to ensure that Emefiele was released on order of the court but the order was not complied with, which necessitated the filing of the affidavit.

Anuga, however, told the court that since parties had been exploring settlement before and the CBN had a new governor, they should be allowed to explore settlement options.

But Justice Ekwo insisted that Emefiele must appear in the next adjourned day.

“As for the 4th respondent (Emefiele), I have always said, contempt proceedings follow a person whether the person is still there or not.

“In this case, I have given this particular person so much liberty, so much leniency and the situation does not seem to change. I will adjourn the matter because the other side says they want to react to the process so there is not much talk.Order of court must be complied with and even if no one complies with the order of the court, the court must comply with its order. I will give you sufficient time,” he said.

The judge, consequently, adjourned the matter until January 25 for Emefiele to show why an arrest warrant should not be issued against him.

In the affidavit deposed to, on Emefiele’s behalf by Jeremiah Utaan, a legal officer in the Legal Department of CBN, he said Emefiele was willing to appear before the court as directed but for his continued detention by the Department of State Services.

He said the information was of public knowledge from June 10 till date that had made it impossible for Emefiele to physically appear before the court on July 19, the last adjourned date.

Utaan, in the affidavit, averred that Emefiele’s absence at the proceedings was not out of disrespect to the court but rather due to circumstances beyond his control.

“I verily believe that the cause of justice will not be served should the honourable court proceed to issue a warrant for the arrest of Godwin Emefiele,” he said.

The judge had, on July 19, threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against Emefiele over his failure to appear in court.

He said he was minded to exercise restraint in the proceeding to give the ex-CBN boss an opportunity to explain himself.

Justice Ekwo had, on October 20, 2022, ordered the CBN governor to appear in court on January 18 over his alleged refusal to obey the order of the court for the payment of the judgment debt in favour of a legal practitioner, Joe Agi, SAN.

Agi had dragged Linas International Ltd, Minister of Finance, CBN and Emefiele to court as 1st to 4th judgment debtors respectively, following an application for garnishee made by him as judgment creditor in the case.

However, on January 18, proceedings could not go on as scheduled when the matter was called, prompting the court to subsequently adjourn the case until March 20, before it was again fixed for June 6.

The judge, on June 6, ordered Emefiele to appear before it on July 19.

But President Bola Tinubu, on June 9, suspended him as CBN governor and he was directed to transfer his responsibilities to the deputy governor, operations directorate.

No sooner had Emefiele been suspended than the DSS, on June 10 announced his arrest and detention.

It was also reported that Emefiele was arrested and detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on October 26 less than an hour after the DSS released him.

The EFCC was said to be probing him over alleged impropriety during his term as the head of the apex bank.

A midnight inferno on Wednesday razed the Ladipo Plank Market Amukoko in Iganmu Road, Orile area of Lagos State, destroying several goods and property worth millions of naira.

The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, Femi Oke-Osanyitolu, who disclosed this in a statement, said that no life was lost to the incident.

Mr Oke-Osanyitolu said, “The agency responded to distress calls and arrived at the above scene of the incident to discover that the plank market was being gutted by fire.

“Fortunately, there is no loss of life. However, goods and property yet to be enumerated have been destroyed due to the inferno.”

Eyewitnesses said the inferno started at 12:30am in the main market, but the cause of the incident had yet to be ascertained as of the time this report was filed.

Officials of LASEMA, Lagos State Fire Service and the Federal Fire Service were at the scene as of 6am trying to put out the fire, while rescue operation was ongoing.

The state fire Service in a tweet on the incident early this morning stated that “it has been able to subdue it.”

A loaded truck fell on its side, spilling some of its content on the road while trying to maneauver from Powerline inward First Bank, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

This was made known on the X page of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority on Wednesday.

Sharing photos from the accident, LASTMA also stated,

“Traffic is still good at the moment even as necessary measures are being taken in preparation for transloading, recovery and evacuation. Men strategically located.”

The Niger State Police Command has arrested a 14-year-old, Joy Afekafez over the murder of Dr Mrs Funmilola Adefolalu, a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, FUT, Minna.

The suspect, Joy, was the housemaid of the slain lecturer.

The deceased was killed at her residence in the Gbaiko Area of Minna on Sunday.

A statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, said the suspect was arrested on Monday at about 9:00 pm at a residence within the Gbeganu area of Minna for culpable homicide.

Abiodun stated that during interrogation, the suspect confessed that she served as the deceased’s housemaid for about three weeks and she was laid off due to her misdeed in the house.

He explained that after she (suspect) was laid off, she met her classmates called Walex and Smart, narrated her ordeal to them and conspired to attack the Lecturer at her residence.

The statement said, “They went to the residence on Saturday at about 4pm with a motorcycle and she surfaced at the gate, while the lecturer opened the gate for her.

“Walex and Smart later entered, beat the deceased, hit her head with a stool and stabbed her with a knife brought by Walex while Smart took another knife from the kitchen, and stabbed her severally.

“She said the deceased phone and laptop were taken away, while they also removed the battery of the vehicle parked in the compound and fled the scene.”

The PPRO further explained that on Sunday some friends and Church members visited the deceased’s residence in Gbaiko Area of Minna due to inability to get her on the phone.

Meanwhile, the Voice of Mercy Ministry, the church where the deceased was a Pastor, has expressed sadness and shock over the development.

In a statement signed by Pastor Bolaji Olanipekun, Head of Media and Communications, the church said, “This heinous act has left a profound impact on our congregation, and we are united in our resolve to seek justice for our dear pastor.”

The church called on the security agencies involved in the case to leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice.

“We urge them to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation, ensuring that all evidence is diligently examined and all leads are followed.

“The loss of Pastor Dr Mrs Fumilola Adefolalu has left an indelible void within our church. Her unwavering faith, compassion and dedication to serving others will always be remembered.”

The Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has expressed sadness over the death of a 13-year-old girl in a building collapse at Igede- Ekiti, headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area.

The governor described the incident as devastating and agonising, calling on occupants of dilapidated buildings across the state to relocate to safeguard their lives.

Oyebanji spoke on Tuesday during his visit to the site of the building collapse.

The governor, represented by his Deputy, Chief (Mrs) Monisade Afuye, also visited Adeyinka Adebayo General Hospital, where some of the victims are receiving treatment.

Commenting on the incident, Oyebanji revealed that the government will foot the medical bills of the victims. He equally directed the Ekiti State Emergency Management Agency(EKSEMA) to arrange for another habitable residence for members of the family affected by the building collapse.

To forestall such occurrence in the state, Oyebanji said the Ministry of Physical and Urban Planning would begin aggressive enforcement of laws that would dislodge those living in dangerously unhabitable buildings across the state.

Oyebanji said the government has existing laws that govern building habitation, and assured that the laws would be stringently enforced henceforth.

Grammy-winning Nigerian musician, Damini Ogulu, aka Burna Boy, has revealed that he recently turned down a $5 million offer to perform in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, UAE.

According to him, he turned down the offer because he wouldn’t be allowed to smoke weed while in Dubai.

Emirati law prohibits smoking in parks, beaches and all public recreational areas in Dubai.

“Just now I turned down dubai money, 5million dollar na small thing cos me I no dey like to dey go where dem no go gree allow me smoke igbo,” Burna Boy freestyled while rehearsing with his band, Outsiders, in a video making the rounds on social media platform, X.

Nigerian celebrity chef, Hilda Bassey popularly known as Hilda Baci, has narrated how she was disowned by her biological father, Effiong Bassey Edem.

The Guinness World Record holder disclosed this during her latest interview with Taymesan on the ‘Tea with Tay’ podcast.

While speaking of her relationship with her father, she explained that he had been present in their lives since they were kids but things changed when a huge argument between him and her mother had an impact on the children.

Hilda said: “For me, I will say one of the biggest issues was when he abandoned me. He didn’t abandon me from on set. He was present for us to some extent.

“But when it dawned on me, was when my dad and mom had issues, and I was in 300 level second semester in University.

“I pretty much remember my conversation with my father on one matriculation day. I called him, I was like, you didn’t bring food for me and his response was like, ‘Who’s your dad?’.

“It later dawned on me years after that he was not actually joking.”

French counter-terrorism police have shot and wounded an unarmed woman in a full veil after she threatened train passengers, Paris authorities say.

Officers opened fire eight times when the woman refused to comply with police orders, a source told the BBC.

The alarm was raised by passengers on an RER suburban train in the 13th district in southern Paris.

The Paris prefect said police then intervened at the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand train station.

The woman was reportedly heard shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is greatest”.

“Police feared for their safety,” the source added.

She is said to be critical but stable after being shot in the abdomen. She was reportedly operated on in hospital.

Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez said the woman may be a 38-year-old who in 2021 threatened security forces protecting sensitive sites in France from terror attacks.

Mr Nuñez added that she was interned on mental health grounds after the incident.

The officers who shot her were wearing body cams, government spokesman Olivier Véran said.

Two investigations have been launched by the authorities. One is regarding the woman’s actions, and the other to determine whether the use of a firearm by police was justified.

The incident comes amidst heightened tension in France caused by the Israel-Hamas war.

Earlier this month, a teacher was killed and two people seriously injured at a school in northern France by an attacker who reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar”.

In the wake of the incident, France raised its counter-terrorism security alert to its highest level.

Separately, the Paris region has also been rocked by a spate of antisemitic incidents in recent days. Stars of David have been found daubed on buildings in several areas of Paris and its suburbs.

In Saint-Ouen, a northern suburb, Stars of David were found daubed on the home of a resident. Mayor Karim Bouamrane called for the authors of the “antisemitic and racist” graffiti to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

About 60 more Stars of David were graffitied on several buildings in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on the night of 30-31 October.

Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, said the stars would be removed and an investigation launched.

“Antisemitism continues to kill,” Mr Grégoire said. “We will never give up the fight.”

US President Joe Biden has revealed plans to expel Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic from a special US-Africa trade programme.

The countries were either involved in “gross violations” of human rights or not making progress towards democratic rule, the president said.

The US introduced the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) in 2000.

It gives eligible sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US for more than 1,800 products.

President Biden said that Niger and Gabon – both of which are currently under military rule following coups this year – are ineligible for Agoa because they “have not established, or are not making continual progress toward establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law”.

He also said that the removal of the CAR and Uganda from the programme was due to “gross violations of internationally recognised human rights” by their governments.

In May, the US government said it was considering removing Uganda from Agoa and introducing sanctions on the country after it passed a controversial anti-homosexuality law.

The law, which imposes a death penalty on people found guilty of engaging in certain same-sex acts, has faced global criticism.

“Despite intensive engagement between the United States and the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger, and Uganda, these countries have failed to address United States concerns about their non-compliance with the Agoa eligibility criteria,” President Biden said on Monday, in a letter addressed to the speaker of the US House of Representatives.

The four countries are yet to react to the announcement.

Their expulsion from Agoa is set to take effect from the start of next year and is likely to impact their economies, as Agoa has been credited with promoting exports, economic growth and job creation among participating countries.

The threat to exclude Niger and Gabon from Agoa is the latest US government action against the two junta-led countries.

The US State Department announced last week that it had suspended most foreign aid to Gabon and would only resume assistance if Gabon’s transitional government establishes democratic rule.

In August, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a similar measure against Niger, saying that the US “is pausing certain foreign assistance programs benefitting the government of Niger”.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea have all previously been expelled from Agoa after military coups in those countries.

South Australian police are searching for the body of a man thought to have been killed in a shark attack.

The 55-year-old was surfing near Granites Beach south of Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula on Tuesday morning local time when witnesses reported seeing him being attacked.

The authorities have been scouring the area by air and water with the assistance of local volunteers.

It is the third serious shark attack in the state this year.

Another surfer was killed in May about 120km from Streaky Bay, while a third suffered a non-fatal attack earlier this month.

It is not clear what kind of shark was involved in the attack but witnesses have told local media that it was more than 4m (157ft 4in) in length.

Phil McEvoy, who lives in Streaky Bay, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he had heard sirens sounding in the morning “for quite some time”.

“I knew then there must have been something wrong, and the sirens sort of went away towards the back beach area where the surf is,” he said.

According to 9News, the man was one of six surfers who were in the water at the time but he had paddled out further than the rest.

Mr McEvoy added that the town was currently seeing an influx of surfers and thought that the fishing season might have something to do with a possible increase in sharks in the area.

The waters of South Australia’s west coast are well known for the presence of sharks and scientists have cautioned that an increase in sightings of sharks doesn’t necessarily mean there is an increase in numbers.

Granites Beach is about 700km (434 miles) from Adelaide, the state’s capital.

Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 World Cup after Australia decided against bidding to stage the tournament.

Football Australia confirmed its decision only hours before Fifa’s deadline for declarations of interest on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia is the only other nation to bid.”We have reached the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition,” read a statement from Football Australia.

The 2026 World Cup will take place in the US, Mexico and Canada.

Morocco, Portugal and Spain will host the 2030 tournament, with matches also in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Saudi Arabia has hosted several major sporting events since 2018, involving football, Formula 1, golf and boxing.

The Gulf kingdom has been accused of investing in sport and using high-profile events to improve its international reputation – a process known as sportswashing.

Last month Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said: “If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing.”

Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, on Monday, inaugurated 17 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) mass transit buses in Abeokuta.

Speaking during the event, Mr Abiodun said introducing CNG mass transit buses in Nigeria would revolutionise the entire transport sector of the nation.

The governor noted that the development would reduce the hardship being experienced by Nigerians due to the recent removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government.

Mr Abiodun, while unveiling the first set of the CNG mass transit buses, pledged to extend the operation across the state.

He stated that the initiative was conceived before the fuel subsidy removal, adding that his administration was desirous of a cost-effective transportation system to mitigate the effect of climate change.

“As your governor, I am extremely delighted that we are able to commence the implementation of this laudable initiative, and I am bold to say that we have come tops again as the first state in the country to record this feat,” the governor said.

Mr Abiodun further explained that the initiative would reduce the cost of transporting goods and services and provide training and job opportunities for thousands of technicians and mechanics around the state.

He stated that some of the buses would be deployed on campuses to assist students while some would be assigned to transport the civil servants.

“Some will ply Kuto to Wole Soyinka train station in Laderin, some from Onikolobo to Idi-Aba corridor, while others will serve the Ita-Oshin-Adatan route.

“As we expand our fleet, we will also deploy buses to major towns and cities, starting with Sango-Ota, Sagamu, Ijebu-Ode, and this will provide mass transportation for our citizens, particularly our young students in the towns and cities,” he said.

Mr Abiodun appreciated President Bola Tinubu for the initiative, noting that the state government was following the direction of the federal government as a sub-national in executing the project.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah has reiterated Kuwait’s refusal to normalise relations with Israel “unless a future Palestinian state is established in line with international resolutions.”

He made the remarks at a news conference held at the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry on Monday.

The minister added he is responsible for Kuwait’s security and interests abroad by maintaining relations with friendly, brotherly and allied countries.

“The Palestinian issue is our first issue, without any ambiguity, Kuwait has never deviated from the path,” he said, adding that the war Israel waged against Gaza is retaliatory, not defensive.

The Kuwaiti top diplomat had called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza, providing assistance to the besieged enclave.

He also urged ultimately resolving the Palestinian issue through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

Bayern Munich’s German Cup game at third division Saarbrücken may not go as planned on Wednesday because of a water-logged pitch after heavy rain.

The Saarbrücken club said an inspection by the city and the regional football association took place on Monday along with draining measures. However, a final decision would not be made until after another inspection on Tuesday.

Saarbrücken’s league match against Dynamo Dresden on Sunday was abandoned at half-time because of the condition of the pitch. The rain continued overnight, and more is forecast for Tuesday.

Saarbrücken said the sold-out second-round match could not be moved to other stadiums in the area because those in question are also being used for midweek Cup games.

Moreover, in the parallel market, it exchanged for N1200/$1 on Monday from 1113/1$ on Friday.

The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, last week had disclosed that the country would soon receive an inflow of $10 billion in foreign currency to mitigate the forex crisis.

“Erling deserved it very much too, he has won Premier League, Champions League while being the top scorer of everything.

“This award could have been yours today too. I’m sure in the next years you will win it,” Messi said.