By AFP Published on: March 18, 2026 07:14 (EAT)

• Facebook
•  X

Athletes including (From L) Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay, Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye, Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet and Kenya’s athlete Agnes Jebet Ngetich compete in the women’s 10000m final during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 13, 2025. (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP)

China has suspended a marathon race official for one year after he mistakenly blocked the eventual winner from crossing the finish line at an event in Chongqing.

The incident, captured in a widely shared video, occurred during Sunday’s Chongqing Wanzhou Marathon and sparked anger online, prompting local athletics authorities to discipline the official and call for “deep self‑reflection”.

Footage shows leading runner Sheng Xueli sprinting alone towards the line at around 2hr 23min 52sec when a raincoat-clad referee suddenly steps forward, stretches out his arms and stops him.

The official then pushes Sheng into a separate lane used by half-marathon runners.

Sheng was allowed to cross the finish seconds later, dropping to his knees in celebration after securing victory.

The Chongqing Athletics Association said Monday it had suspended the referee, identified only by the surname Zhu, from officiating marathon events for a year as he “incorrectly identified an athlete’s category and obstructed an athlete who was running normally as they approached the finish line”.

“This behaviour affected the normal progress of the race and caused a negative social impact,” the association said, urging Zhu to “conduct a serious self-reflection and to recognise the seriousness of officiating work”.

Sheng said in a video posted on what appears to be his Douyin account that he was “completely bewildered” when he was abruptly stopped but said he did not wish to blame anyone.

“I understand that the on-site staff may have lacked professional training or a clear grasp of the rules,” he said, adding that he hoped all athletes could be treated with respect.

A hashtag about the official’s suspension was widely shared on Chinese social media outlets, and viewed over 8.6 million times on Weibo.

Senegal stripped of AFCON title, Morocco champions – CAF

By AFP Published on: March 18, 2026 01:35 (EAT)

Senegal players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) final football match against Morocco at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

Audio By Vocalize

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Tuesday stripped Senegal of the Africa Cup of Nations title they won in January and declared Morocco champions.

Several Senegalese players had temporarily left the pitch late in the match in protest at a refereeing decision.

CAF said “the Senegal national team is declared to have forfeited the match,” a 1-0 victory in the final, “with the result being officially recorded as 3-0” in favour of Morocco.

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) said in a statement “its action was never intended to contest the sporting performance of the teams participating in this competition, but solely to request the application of the competition regulations”.

Minutes before the end of the match, some Senegalese supporters attempted a pitch invasion, while Senegal’s players halted the game for nearly 20 minutes to protest a late penalty awarded to Morocco.

The decision to award Morocco the spot-kick came right at the end of normal time with the game goalless, and sparked a walk-off from the eventual winners, leading to a 20-minute delay.

When Senegal came back Brahim Diaz fluffed his penalty, and Pape Gueye went on to score the winner in extra time.

Kenyans who joined Russia war without gov’t approval broke the law – Mudavadi

Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi shakes hands with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, in Moscow on March 16, 2026. Photo/Mudavadi

Audio By Vocalize

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has clarified that Kenyans who travelled to Russia to participate in the ongoing war against Ukraine will not receive compensation from the government, citing the legal and contractual circumstances surrounding their involvement.

Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV’s The Explainer via livestream from Moscow, Mudavadi explained that many of the affected individuals voluntarily signed contracts, hence complicating the repatriation process. 

He noted that Kenyans seeking to fight for a foreign country must first obtain approval from the Kenyan government before participating.

“One of the things we have to emphasize here is that these Kenyans signed contracts, but we are alive to the fact that we are here to stop the enlistment of Kenyans into the special military operations,” Mudavadi stated. 

“Some Kenyans are facing either possible charges or they have had to write statements with some of our investigative agencies in Kenya for having been part of a process and the details are going to emerge as they face the law in Kenya. What has been happening is illegal. We are dealing with a situation where there has been a breach of law.”

He, however, added that the government would explore options, including amnesty, after repatriating the Kenyans, noting that the State is not indifferent to their plight.

On how the Kenyans managed to travel to Russia undetected, the CS acknowledged lapses in the law and systems that provide an opportunity for third-party companies to exploit. 

“The Constitution of Kenya allows freedom of movement. Kenyans are not restricted when they want to travel; it is their right. There are those who were lured or found their way out through fraudulent agencies, and there are those who knowingly went out there with a very clear intention to enlist in this conflict,” he added. 

“There are lapses both in law and in processes that we have to address as a country. Lapses in law in the sense that we need to have tighter immigration laws for those who wish to migrate when it comes to moving out of Kenya and going to seek jobs outside.”

The CS further disclosed that Kenya has already facilitated the return of dozens of its citizens, with more seeking assistance through official channels.

“Kenya has already supported 44 Kenyans to get back home. Our mission here, led by Ambassador Mathuki, they have been receiving messages from the families in Kenya, sending messages and requests. They have put out a website for Kenyans to indicate where they are. Some of the Kenyans on the frontline have also been sending signals that they are in distress, and they are guided as to how to get to the mission and supported,” he noted. 

Mudavadi added that an agreement has now been reached to halt any further recruitment of Kenyans into the conflict, even as efforts to evacuate those already involved continue.

“It was agreed that there shall be no further enlisting of Kenyans into the special military operations. We are putting closure to any more Kenyans finding their way into this hostility. However, the process of getting them back is not an instant process; they are in a war zone,” he remarked. 

Rubio denies US seeking to oust Cuba president

By AFP Published on: March 18, 2026 08:02 (EAT)

Audio By Vocalize

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday denied a report that US officials have urged Cuba to oust its president, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

In a late-night post on X, Rubio said that the article by The New York Times was “fake” and was among media reports that relied on “charlatans and liars claiming to be in the know” as sources.

The newspaper reported Monday that officials under President Donald Trump have asked Cuba to remove the president but have not pushed for a complete toppling of the communist government.

Rubio did not say if he was denying the whole article or particular parts of it.

The newspaper said that US officials saw Diaz-Canel as a hardliner who would not institute change but that the United States had not gone so far as to issue an ultimatum for his removal.

Rubio, a Cuban-American former senator from Miami, has for years pushed for the end to the communist system in Cuba launched by Fidel Castro in a 1959 revolution.

Rubio earlier Tuesday told reporters that Cuba needed to take more “dramatic” action than new measures to allow overseas Cubans to invest and own businesses in the island, which a day earlier suffered a nationwide blackout.

Trump has piled pressure on Cuba, which has been suffering an economic crisis. Trump forced Venezuela to stop sending oil, which made up half of Cuba’s needs, after US forces raided Caracas in January and deposed and snatched the leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

Trump has said that he is interested in an unspecified “deal” with Cuba but also has boasted that he can take over the country, saying that it is weak.

In Venezuela and now in Iran, which he attacked with Israel on February 28, Trump has pursued a strategy not of seeking to overthrow governments but of forcing compliance.

Trump has voiced happiness with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, after threatening her with violence if she does not meet his demands, including preferential treatment for US oil companies.

Unlike Venezuela and Iran, Cuba does not have oil wealth, but it carries importance in domestic US politics.

Cuban-American lawmakers, mostly part of Trump’s Republican Party, have long pushed for pressure on Havana.

Colombia, Ecuador leaders clash over bomb dropped near border

By AFP Published on: March 18, 2026 08:04 (EAT)

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro (L) and Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa.

Audio By Vocalize

The leaders of Colombia and Ecuador sparred Tuesday over allegations that the Ecuadoran bombing of suspected criminal hideouts near their shared border had spilled into Colombian territory.

Months of tension between Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro and his right-wing Ecuadoran counterpart, Daniel Noboa, an ally of US President Donald Trump, spiked Monday when Petro alleged that an explosive was dropped from a plane near the border.

On Tuesday, Petro posted on X a photo of an unexploded “bomb” that he said had fallen on the Colombian-Ecuadoran frontier. He called for a thorough investigation, saying: “It fell 100 meters from the home of a poor family.”

“It’s a bomb that can only be — I don’t want to say fired, but maybe dropped without intending to fire it — from a plane,” Petro said during a speech Tuesday, adding that it “was not from a small plane, much less a drone.”

Experts said the munition is believed to be a “freefall bomb” that is not guided, falling by the force of gravity.

A Colombian armed forces spokesperson told AFP bomb disposal teams successfully deactivated the device Tuesday night.

Local farmers speaking with AFP corroborated Petro’s account.

“We were all terrified — you know, scared — and worried that those devices might suddenly explode and take our lives,” farmer Julian Imbacuan told AFP by phone.

Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez implored residents to avoid the area, announcing later Tuesday that troops had been deployed there.

Noboa took to X Tuesday to retort that Ecuador is “currently bombing locations that served as hideouts” for criminal groups that are “largely Colombian, and which your government allowed to infiltrate our country due to negligence regarding your border.”

“President Petro, your statements are false,” Noboa said. “We are operating within our own territory, not yours.”

– ’27 charred bodies’ –

Petro, however, insisted “there are 27 charred bodies and Noboa’s explanation is not credible,” without specifying if he was referring to recent casualties.

AFP contacted the army, which was unable to clarify Petro’s comment.

Colombia and Ecuador share a 586-kilometer (364-mile) border where Colombian guerrilla groups and criminal organizations from both countries operate. They engage in the trafficking of drugs, weapons and people, and illegal mining.

The countries faced a similar rise in tensions in 2008 when Colombia’s then-president Alvaro Uribe ordered a strike on Ecuadoran soil to take out a FARC commander.

Ecuador recently began anti-drug operations with US support and also joined the “Shield of the Americas,” a 17-nation coalition set up by Trump this month to combat drug trafficking in the region.

Colombia, like other left-wing governments in Latin America, was not invited to join the group even as Bogota and Washington agreed recently to coordinate their efforts against Colombian cartels and guerrilla groups.

The exclusion drew a complaint from Petro.

About 70 percent of the cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru — the world’s largest producers of the drug — transits through Ecuador to be exported via its Pacific ports.

afghanistan, africa, albania, algeria, America, american-samoa, andorra, angola, anguilla, antarctica, antigua-and-barbuda, argentina, armenia, aruba, arusha, australia, austria, azerbaijan, bahamas, bahrain, bangladesh, barbados, belarus, Belgium, belize, benin, bermuda, bhutan, bolivia, bosnia-and-herzegovina, botswana, Boukinafaso, brazil, brunei-darussalam, bulgaria, burkina-faso, burma, burundi, california, cambodia, cameroon, canada, cape-verde, cayman-islands, central-african-republic, Chad, chicago, chile, china, christmas-island, cocos-keeling-islands, colombia, comoros, congo, cook-islands, costa-rica, cote-divoire-ivory-coast, Croatia, cuba, cyprus, czech-republic, darsalaam, democratic-peoples-rep-north-korea, democratic-republic-of-the-congo-kinshasa, denmark, djibouti, dodoma, dominica, dominican-republic, dr-congo, dubai, east-timor-timor-leste, ecuador, egypt, egypty, el-salvador, england, equatorial-guinea, equitorial-guinea, eritrea, estonia, eswatini, ethiopia, falkland-islands, faroe-islands, federal-states-of-moldova, fiji, finland, Florida, france, french-guiana, french-polynesia, french-southern-territories, gabon, gaza, georgia, germany, ghana, gibraltar, goma, Greece, greenland, grenada, guadeloupe, guam, guatemala, guinea, guinea-bissau, guyana, habari, haiti, holy-see, honduras, hong-kong, houston, hungary, iceland, india, indonesia, Iowa, iran, iran-islamic-republic-of, iraq, ireland, israel, italia, italy, ivory-coast, jamaica, japan, jordan, karatu, kazakhstan, kilimanjaro, kinshasa, kiribati, kiswahili, korea, kosovo, kuwait, kyrgyzstan, lao, latvia-lebanon-lesotho-liberia-libya-liechtenstein-lithuania-luxembourg, Lebanon, liberia, macau, madagascar, malawi, malaysia-maldives, Mali, malta, marshall-islands-martinique-mauritania-mauritius, massechutes, mayotte, mazingira, mbeya, meru, mexico, miami, micronesia, monaco-mongolia-montenegro, montserrat, morocco, mozambique-myanmar, mtwara, mwanza, namibia, nauru, nepal, netherlands, netherlands-antilles, nevada, new-caledonia, new-zealand, newyork, nicaragua, niger, nigeria, niue, north-macedonia, northern-mariana-islands, norway, oman, pakistan, palau, palestine, palestinian-territories, panama, papua-new-guinea, paraguay, peoples-democratic-republic, peru, philadhephia, philipians, Philippines, pitcairn-island, poland, politics, Portugal, puerto-rico, qatar,  Norrbottens lan, republic-of-brazzaville, republic-of-south-korea, reunion-island, romania, Russia, russian-federation, rwanda, sahara-occidental, saint-kitts-and-nevis, saint-lucia, saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines, samoa, san-marino, sao-tome-and-principe, saudi-arabia, saudiarabia, scotland, Senegal, serbia, seychelles, sierra-leone, Singapore, singida, slovakia-slovak-republic, slovenia, solomon-islands, somalia, southafrica, spain, sri-lanka, sudan, suriname, swaziland-eswatini, sweden, switzerland, syria, syrian-arab-republic, tabora, taiwan-republic-of-china, tajikistan, tanzania, texas, thailand, the-gambia, tibet, timor-leste-east-timor, togo, tokelau, tonga, toronto, trinidad-and-tobago, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, turks-and-caicos-islands, tuvalu, uganda, united-arabs-emirates, united-kingdom, united-states, uruguay, uzbekistan, vancover, vanuatu, vatican-city-state-holy-see, venezuela, vietnam, virgin-islands-british, virgin-islands-u-s, wallis-and-futuna-islands

All Rights Reserved © The Cantona Group PLC||2026