LONDON – Louis van Gaal is understood to be deeply impressed by Juan Mata’s football intelligence and technical ability and has made him his first choice No 10 for Manchester United. Suggestions that the prospects of an Angel Di Maria move to United have improved are wide of the mark, with the club having no…
LONDON – Jan Vertonghen has insisted there is no truth in rumours he wants to leave Tottenham to join Barcelona and says he has been offered a new five-year deal to stay at White Hart Lane. Vertonghen, who moved to Spurs from Ajax in July 2012, has become a regular feature in Tottenham’s back four,…
LONDON – Liverpool must reconsider their forward options in the summer transfer market after Loïc Rémy’s proposed £8m move from Queens Park Rangers collapsed on medical grounds, although the club strengthened their defence on Sunday night by signing Dejan Lovren from Southampton. Rémy was expected to complete his switch from Loftus Road during Liverpool’s pre-season…
NEW YORK – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged an immediate halt to violence in Gaza, saying the Palestinian territory is in a “critical condition”. “In the name of humanity, the violence must stop,” he said in New York after returning from a visit to the region. Israel launched an offensive against Palestinian Hamas…
ABUJA – The use of vehicles in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state has been banned during Eid, the three-day festival that ends Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. Eid started on Sunday in Nigeria, and authorities say they have intelligence that Islamist group Boko Haram is planning to carry out car bomb attacks. Meanwhile, police say a…
HARARE – Next week, United States President Barack Obama hosts a landmark US/Africa Investment summit in Washington. The summit brings together 47 heads of states from Africa and business leaders in a bid to widen US trade, development and security ties with Africa. The summit will be held on August 5 and 6. However, there…
HARARE – Former Economic Planning minister Tapiwa Mashakada has called for the establishment of an all-stakeholder National Economic Council (Nec) in order to arrest Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. Mashakada said the council will “sit down and work out modalities of recovering the economy…and reversing the economic decline”, which he alleged, “cannot just be done by Zanu…
HARARE – Zimbabwe is seeking the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s technical assistance in bolstering its Treasury management as the country reengages the central bank as its banker. The government is moving its exchequer account from CBZ Bank (CBZ) to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). “With this reform in mind, RBZ staff has for some…
HARARE – South-Africa-based miner DRDGold Limited (DRDGold), with operations in Zimbabwe, expects a 13 percent increase in gold production in the quarter ended June 2014. In a trading update released this week, the group said cash operating costs are expected to be down by about six percent while cash and cash equivalents have surged from…
HARARE – Founders of the all-female gig, Kumabhebhi, are unfazed by the amount of criticism aimed at the name of their initiative. The Kumabhebhi concerts, founded two years ago by musicians Cindy Munyavi and Clare Nyakujara to create performing opportunities for women, have drawn the ire of some female artistes who believe the name of…
