Headline

Pele Fans Search Brazilian Football Legend’s Hometown For Souvenirs

Published

3 years ago

December 29, 2022

The deteriorating health and eventual death of sports legend Pele has rekindled curiosity about the quiet town of Tres Coracoes in southeastern Brazil, where the football prodigy was born 82 years ago.

Fans seeking rare mementos of the Brazilian star are scouring the town of 75,000 inhabitants where Pele was born to a poor family and spent the first years of his life.

A month ago, Pele was admitted to Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, where he had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer since late 2021.

Eight days ago, the hospital announced Pele’s cancer was showing “progression” and he needed “more extensive care to treat kidney and heart failure.”

Tres Coracoes, which means “three hearts” in Portuguese, is located some 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Brazil’s three major metropolises: Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The small town is surrounded by coffee plantations and is famous for just one thing: the birth, in 1940, of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pele.

Pele moved away from Tres Coracoes at a young age before joining his longtime club, Santos FC, as a teenager.

Santos, a port city near Sao Paulo, now hosts the Pele Museum, where most of his trophies and other memorabilia are displayed.

The football star’s declining health has drawn fans to the museum and to Tres Coracoes, where they can visit Pele House — a replica of his first home.

“I had never been to this house, which is already ten years old,” said Neilor Henrique, who lives nearby.

“But the news of his hospitalization made me want to visit it,” the 41-year-old told AFP.

Built based on the memories of Pele’s mother, Celeste Arantes do Nascimento, now 100 years old, the house shows the family’s modest origins, with a few pieces of wooden furniture, straw mattresses, an old radio and a framed portrait of his parents on one wall.

– Immense statue –

A few meters (yards) away, the small museum Terra do Rei (Land of the King) exhibits Santos jerseys signed by Pele, a football he played with and his birth certificate.

But some fans say they wished Tres Coracoes had more mementos of the man dubbed “The King.”

Rafael Antunes took a detour during a family trip to visit the town in search of Pele souvenirs.

“I found few traces of him in the town, almost none,” said the 43-year-old entrepreneur, unimpressed by the huge statue of Pele that stands at the entrance to the town.

“I think it shows a certain lack of respect for the role he played for football and our country,” he said of the only player to ever win the World Cup three times.

But Fernando Ortiz, a family friend, has a different reasoning for why there aren’t more monuments to Pele.

“Many Brazilians can’t stand to see their compatriots succeed. And when it’s a black Brazilian, the dismissal is even stronger,” said the 60-year-old, who spearheaded the construction of Pele House.

“Unfortunately, I think that if Pele had been a white man with light eyes, he would have been accepted by everyone.”

Headline

Court Jails Two For Targeting President With Sorcery

Published

7 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

A Zambian court on Monday sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labour on charges of attempting to use witchcraft to kill the country’s president.

Mozambican national Jasten Mabulesse Candunde and Zambian village chief Leonard Phiri were arrested in December in possession of charms, including a live chameleon.

Police said they planned to use the charms to harm President Hakainde Hichilema, and they were charged with professing knowledge of witchcraft and possession of charms.

“The motive of the crime was to kill the head of state,” magistrate Fine Mayambu ruled in the capital Lusaka on Monday.

“The convicts were not only enemies of the head of state but all Zambians. I therefore sentence them to 24 months imprisonment with hard labour from the date of their arrest,” he said.

The prosecution said the men had been hired by the brother of opposition MP Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda, who is facing trial for robbery, attempted murder and escaping custody.

Headline

Two Nigerians Face Jail Terms In Liberia’s Piracy Trial

Published

7 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

Criminal Court ‘D’ in Monrovia is set to deliver judgment this week in Liberia’s first piracy trial, involving two Nigerian nationals accused of hijacking a cargo vessel in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to court records, the defendants were arrested earlier this year after a Liberia-flagged ship was seized by armed men while transporting goods through international waters. The crew sent a distress signal, prompting international maritime forces to intervene.

The suspects were subsequently transferred to Liberian authorities under global maritime cooperation protocols.

According to Liberia’s news platform, Front Page Africa, the case has attracted attention because Liberia maintains one of the world’s largest open ship registries, yet prosecutions for piracy within its domestic courts have not previously occurred. Under international law, Liberia holds jurisdiction over crimes involving ships registered under its flag.

On Monday, proceedings took a new turn when defense lawyer, Cllr. Bestman Juah, informed the court that the defendants had admitted responsibility for the hijacking and were requesting a plea-bargain arrangement. State prosecutors did not oppose the request, leaving open the possibility of reduced sentences in exchange for full cooperation.

Resident Judge Mameita Jabateh-Sirleaf, who presides over Criminal Court ‘D’, will rule on whether to accept the plea deal and determine the sentencing framework. The ruling could also address deportation measures following imprisonment.

Criminal Court ‘D’ handles cases involving armed robbery, terrorism, hijacking, and other serious crimes, and the piracy trial represents a growing trend of transnational offenses being prosecuted within Liberia’s judicial system.
As of press time, the court has not announced the date for sentencing.

Headline

Spain Cancels $825m Israel Arms Deal Over Gaza

Published

8 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

The Spanish government has cancelled a contract worth nearly 700 million euros ($825 million) for Israeli-designed rocket launchers.

The move comes after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last week that his government would “consolidate in law” a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel over its offensive in Gaza.

The contract, awarded to a consortium of Spanish companies, involved the purchase of 12 SILAM rocket launcher systems derived from the PULS platform made by Israeli firm Elbit Systems, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.

First reported by local media and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the cancellation was formalised on Spain’s official public contracts platform on September 9.

The following day, Sanchez unveiled measures aimed at stopping what his leftist government called “the genocide in Gaza”.

It includes the approval of a decree imposing a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel due to its military offensive in Gaza, launched after the Hamas attacks in October 2023.

Spain applied the ban as Israel stepped up its military onslaught.

Spain has also formalized the cancellation of another contract for 168 anti-tank missile launchers, which were to be manufactured under license from an Israeli company.

That contract, valued at 287 million euros, had been first reported by the press in June.

According to Spanish daily La Vanguardia, the government is undertaking a broader review to phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.

Sanchez has emerged as one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policy.

Relations between the two countries have been tense for months.

Israel has not had an ambassador in Spain since Madrid recognized the state of Palestine in 2024.

Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador to Israel after heated exchanges over Sánchez’s new measures.

The Barcelona-based Delas Centre, a security research institute, estimated in April that since the start of the Gaza war, Spain had awarded 46 contracts worth $1.044 billion to Israeli companies, based on public tender data.