8, August 2024
Football: Portugal defender Pepe announces retirement at 41 0
Portugal veteran Pepe announced on Thursday in a video on social media he was retiring from football aged 41.
“I would like to thank you all,” said the centre-back as he cited the clubs he represented, as well as the Portuguese national team and his family.
“Everyone gave me the support I needed to leave with my mind at ease.”
Pepe joined Portuguese side Maritimo at the age of 18 and went on to play for Porto, Spanish giants Real Madrid and Turkish club Besiktas.
He spent a trophy-laden 10 years with Madrid, where he won three Champions Leagues, two Club World Cups and three Spanish league titles.
He also enjoyed two stints at Porto, between 2004-2007 and 2019-2024, winning a total of four Portuguese championships and five Portuguese Cups.
Although born in Brazil, the centre-back made his international debut for his adopted country of Portugal in 2007 and went on to earn 141 caps, winning the their first piece of major silverware at Euro 2016, as well as the Nations League three years later.
Pepe set a new record as the oldest player to ever play at a European Championship when he started Portugal’s opening game at Euro 2024, aged 41.
Portugal’s elimination on penalties at the quarter-final stage of the tournament against France turned out to be the final game of Pepe’s 22-year career at the top level of the game.
Portuguese football federation president Fernando Gomes labelled the defender “one of the greatest players of all time” and thanked him for his “extraordinary professionalism, dedication… and passion for football”.
Source: AFP



















8, August 2024
Yaoundé: UN rights chief calls for access to Southern Cameroons 0
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights requested on Wednesday better access to Cameroon’s restive separatist regions and called for revisions to an anti-terror law that rights groups say has been used to silent dissent.
Factions of secessionist militias have been battling government troops in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions since 2017, leading to thousands of deaths and displacing nearly 800,000 people.
“I have called on the government to facilitate humanitarian access to areas affected by conflict,” Volker Turk said after a two-day visit to the Central African country.
“I have also urged the government to revise the 2014 anti-terrorism law in this regard,” he said.
Amnesty International has described that law, which mandates the death penalty, as repressive and says it curtails rights, opens new tab protected in Cameroon’s constitution.
In a 2022 report, Amnesty found that the majority of people jailed from the Anglophone regions had been sentenced under the law.
In 2017 a journalist was sentenced to 10 years in prison on terrorism charges under the legislation.
Source: Reuters