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  Barcelona have sacked Eric Abidal as sporting director, a day after dismissing coach Quique Setien following the club's humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals. The club announced Abidal's sacking in a statement on Tuesday, August 18, saying: “FC Barcelona and Éric Abidal have reached an agreement for the ending of the contract that united the two parties. “The Club would publicly like to thank Éric Abidal for his professionalism, commitment, dedication and the close and positive nature of his relationship with all aspects of the Blaugrana family.” Abidal’s departure is Barcelona’s latest change following their hammering by Bayern Munich in the Champions League. The Frenchman, a former player for the Catalan giants, has been in a technical role since 2018 and took on the job of sporting director at the start of the 2019-2020 season.

  An honest woman returned approximately N14m erroneously paid into her account in Enugu state. On Monday, August 3, Mrs Josephine Nchetaka Chukwujama Eze, a mother-of-three, received an alert of N13,946,400 from Sankiya Global Investment Ltd, a company she didn’t know and had no transaction with.  She made up her mind to return the money to her bank. She also told her husband and he agreed that was the right thing to do. The following day being Tuesday, Mrs Chukwujama, in company of her husband visited her bank at Zik Avenue, and informed the bank about the alert she received.  Her husband, Chukwujama Eze, a journalist and lawyer, revealed that a number of people have condemned them for being naive and not "smart" enough. However, he said he's proud of his wife.

  More than 200 students who got a scholarship through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2019 are still stranded as their scholarship funds have still not arrived 12 months later. Back in July, some of the Nigerian scholarship students protested at Nigeria's High Commission's office. They revealed that they've been forced to do odd jobs to survive. CNN interviewed some of the affected students and they narrated how they've been sending emails to the awarding body without receiving a positive response.  Mercy Eyo is one of those affected. Mercy, from Bonny Island, Rivers State, was awarded a foreign postgraduate scholarship in July 2019.     She had just lost her father at the time. A year earlier, her mother had passed away. She was elated about the prospect of starting a master's degree in global health care management at Coventry University, in the United Kingdom, with a scholarship from a Nigerian govern...

  Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has announced his resignation hours after he and the Prime Minister were arrested by mutinous soldiers in a suspected coup. The 75-year-old and his Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were arrested by mutinying soldiers on Tuesday, August 18, at Keita’s house in the capital of Bamako following months of massive protests.  On Tuesday night, Keita announced his immediate resignation and dissolved the country's national assembly and government. Speaking on national broadcaster ORTM, he explained that he had little choice but to stand down to avoid bloodshed   "For seven years I have with great joy and happiness tried to put this country back on its feet," Keita said. "If today some people from the armed forces have decided to end it by their intervention, do I have a choice? I should submit to it because I don't want any blood to be shed." Before his resignation, there was widespread anger over corruption, mismanage...

  Former South African President Jacob Zuma was on Tuesday August 18, represented in court by his advocate Nqabayethu Buthelezi after being sued by his third wife, Tobeka Madiba over maintenance money for her and her schoolgoing daughter. Zuma was dragged to the Durban Magistrate’s Court by Tobeka, who is demanding a monthly maintenance fee of R14 000 for the upkeep of their 14-year-old daughter. Arguing at the Durban Magistrate Court, head of Zuma's legal team Eric Mabuza denied claim of him not paying for the upkeep of his 14-year-old daughter.   Mabuza who countered claim of the former President not supporting his daughter since his split from his wife earlier this year, also pointed out that Tobeka has not worked since the child was born.  The hearing however ended without a final settlement. After the hearing which was held in-camera, Zuma’s legal representatives - Advocate Nqaba Buthelezi and Advocate Rudolph Mbalu...

  Gunfire was heard on Tuesday, August 18, at an army base outside Mali’s capital Bamako in what diplomatic and security sources said was a mutiny. The soldiers on Tuesday fired their guns into the air in the base in Kati while witnesses said armoured tanks and military vehicles could be seen on its streets, according to media reports. This comes amid an ongoing political crisis in the Sahel state. There are unconfirmed rumours that the mutineers had arrested President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, prompting hundreds of anti-government protesters to pour into a central square to celebrate and say it was time for him to resign. However, some reports claim the President had been taken to a safe location. Speaking from Bamako, journalist Mohamed Salah told Al Jazeera that the situation in Kati was "very confusing", with reports of soldiers putting up barricades in the town and detaining officials.   There were also reports of protesters gathering at an indepen...

  An American mother-of-two, who left home in Texas to visit her boyfriend, was found dead with all of her teeth missing in Mexico just a day after she was reported missing by her mother. María Rubio said she last spoke to her daughter Lizbeth Flores on August 9 when she travelled to the Mexican border city of Matamoros and said she would return later that night to her Brownsville, Texas, home. The concerned mother contacted the Brownsville Police Department on August 10 to file a missing person's report after losing contact with her 23-year-old daughter. Flores' body was discovered on August 11. She died from head injuries suffered after she was beaten with a rock that was found at the scene of the tragic incident, Matamoros police said. Law enforcement investigators reported that a part of Flores' scalp had been removed and that her teeth were taken out by force.   Reacting to the murder of her daughter, Rubio said duri...