Karim Benzema netted twice and Gareth Bale scored a trademark goal as Real Madrid overcame an early scare at Girona to win 4-1 on Sunday. Seeking their second win of the new La Liga season, the European champions went behind after Borja Garcia opened the scoring for Girona with a superb goal after 17 minutes. Real briefly looked rattled as Girona probed and Marcelo was continually exposed in the Real defence. But the inevitable comeback started when Marco Asensio was sent tumbling to the turf by a clumsy challenge and captain Sergio Ramos scored with an audacious ‘panenka’ penalty on 39 minutes. Asensio won his side’s second spot kick as Pere Pons lunged at the Real forward. This time it was Karim Benzema who stepped up to stroke home the penalty for his first goal of the season. Bale produced a typical finish for Real’s third goal, sprinting away from the Girona defence after being released by a wonderful pass from Isco and calmly steering the ball home. Benzema scored ...

Five children left at home alone and locked in by their parents were killed in a fire in a slum at a district of the Philippine capital on Monday, firefighters said. The victims, four boys and one girl, aged between 1 and 12 years old suffered burns and suffocation, said fire marshall Jones Silvano. An initial investigation showed that the fire began in the victims’ three-storey house in the Tondo district of Manila. Two of the children were reportedly playing with a lighter and ignited some clothes. Their father was at work, while their mother had gone out to buy food and locked the door from the outside, trapping the siblings inside when the fire struck. One of the siblings, a nine-year-old boy, survived by jumping from a window on the second floor, Silvano said. “The boy called out to his elder brother to also jump, but his brother opted to stay with the younger siblings,” he said. The fire quickly spread and damaged a total of 40 houses, leaving about 500 people ...

An outbreak of Ebola in eastern DR Congo has killed 67 people this month, authorities said Saturday, as they roll out a battery of new drugs to tackle the virus amid concerns it has spread to a rebel-encircled area. A total of 105 cases have been reported since the flare-up of Ebola began on August 1 in Mangina in North Kivu province, according to the health ministry, out of which 77 have been confirmed by laboratory tests. It said 11 people have recovered from the virus and 67 had died. Health minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga travelled to Mangina on Thursday and saw two patients being discharged after they were treated with a new prototype treatment called mAb114. “These two people are among the first 10 patients to have received the therapeutic molecule mAb114,” the ministry said in a statement. Developed in the United States, it is the first therapeutic drug to be used in an active Ebola epidemic in the DRC. Earlier this week, the health ministry said four other experimental...

US president, Donald Trump, called his Nigeria counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, lifeless after their April meeting,  claimed global business publication, Financial Times in a recent publication. Buhari and Trump met at the White House on April 30. Both leaders discussed issues bordering on fighting terrorism and economic growth. However, as Trump is set to welcome President  Uhuru Kenyatta  of Kenya, Financial Times in an article titled  Africa looks for something new out of Trump claimed that the US leader described his April meeting with Buhari as ‘so lifeless’. The paper added that Trump warned his aides that he never wanted to meet someone so lifeless again. “The first meeting, with Nigeria’s ailing 75-year-old Muhammadu Buhari in April, ended with the US president telling aides he never wanted to meet someone so lifeless again, according to three people familiar with the matter,” the newspaper claimed.

Barcelona view Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah as a €250 million (£226m/$291m) successor to Lionel Messi, claims  Don Balon . Salah has established himself as one of the most devastating attackers in world football over the past couple of years and is being lined up by Barca to take over the mantle from Messi, and also to provide support due to concerns over the long-term form of Luis Suarez. Kylian Mbappe is also a player of interest, but Barca are planning to make a move to bring in Egypt star Salah in the summer of 2019.

New York – U.S. President Donald Trump and his predecessors, former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter, have paid tributes in memory of Sen. John McCain who died on Saturday. McCain McCain, 81, a Republican Senator representing Arizona at the congress since 1982, died after failing to battle brain cancer . Eulogies from liberal and conservative figures alike, have been pouring in. The family announced in a statement: “Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28 p.m. on August 25, 2018. With the Senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family. At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years”. Trump, in a tweet on Saturday evening said: “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” The late Arizona Republican, had organised his funeral, and close associates had told the White House in May that he did not want Trump to be invited. In...

Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken the oath as Zimbabwe’s president in front of a stadium crowd after  a divisive election , as US observers of the vote questioned the country’s democratic credentials. The constitutional court confirmed Mnangagwa as president in a ruling released on Friday,  dismissing a challenge by the  opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa , who he defeated in the 30 July ballot. Thousands of people, some bussed in from outside the capital, joined foreign leaders at Harare’s national stadium on Sunday for the inauguration of Mnangagwa, who narrowly secured the 50% of the vote he needed to avoid a runoff against Chamisa. He took the oath before the country’s chief justice, Luke Malaba, whotogether with eight other constitutional court judges had dismissed Chamisa’s petition. The election was seen as a significant step toward shedding the reputation  Zimbabwe  gained under Mnangagwa’s predecessor Robert Mugabe, and securing international donor...