World

Fiji’s Wrestling Champion Passes Away at 99

Published

3 years ago

February 28, 2024

RADIO APNA NEW ZEALAND

Fiji’s Wrestling legend 99 years old Haji Mohammed Khan passed away last Sunday at his family home in Sabeto, Nadi and was buried at his family cemetery in Sabeto which was attended by a large crowd of family and friends from overseas and around Fiji.

Mohammed Yakub Khan’s wanderlust, determination and courage can be traced back at least one generation to his father, a citizen of Patiala, a city in south-eastern Punjab, northern India.

From his home in the Punjab Yakub’s father travelled to Calcuttta and sailed for Fiji as part of the indentured labourer scheme. The indentured labour system was introduced in 1833 and lasted until 1920. It was a form of debt bondage which transported more than three million Indians who had volunteered to work in European colonies. The Pacific islands of Fiji began receiving Indian labourers in 1879, mostly working in the sugar plantations, and was to receive 60,000 before the scheme was disbanded in 1916.

Yakub’s father was one of those indentured labourers who came in search of a better life, but it was a hard life and there are many stories of ill treatment of the incomers. The labourers were contracted to remain in Fiji for five years, but the majority chose to stay permanently, many of them developing their own sugar cane fields or farms. Even owning their own farms the Indians were forced to give a contribution from their income to the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company.

This was the background of Mohammed Yakub Khan, born on Viti Levu on 23rd November, 1925. Viti Levu is the largest of the Fijian islands, home to 70% of the island republic’s population and the capital city of Suva.

As a child Yakub lived in Sabeto, a rural settlement in the Sabeto Valley, an area of stunning natural beauty at the base of the Sleeping Giant Mountain range, and close to the hot springs and mud pools which are now a major Fijian tourist attraction.

Life was hard as a child. Fortunate in owning his own small farm Yakub’s father had to make the proceeds feed all his eleven children, of which Yakub was the youngest. Childhood for Yakub involved formal schooling, at the nearby Sabeto school, and helping on the farm. When he was older Yakub went to the larger school in Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest city, where he could learn English.

Mohammed Yakub developed an interest in horse riding, not just riding them to get around near his home, but also racing. By then the youngster had developed a competitive nature, not surprising being the youngest of eleven siblings forever struggling to make his voice heard, and he applied this competitive character to horse racing. He did well and became well known around Fiji as a successful jockey.

Fiji was a British colony at the time World War 2 was declared, and Mohammed Yakub was just fifteen years old. A few miles from his home in Sabeto an airstrip was built and completed in March 1940. The airfield was used by the United States Army Air Forces when the Pacific War began in 1941, with Flying Fortresses flown from Nadi against Japanese targets in the Philippines and Solomon Islands.

The teenager started to help the soldiers break horses. Animals roamed freely around Fiji, and this caused problems for the airmen with wild horses straying onto the airfield. One day an American General was looking for a local to keep roaming animals away from the runway. Yakub was interviewed by the General and the was given a job, keeping the animals away until the area could be fenced off.

Naturally the soldiers at the base organised their own entertainment – concerts, competitions and sports that included wrestling. Now Mohammed Yakub knew Indian style wrestling, which had been brought to Fiji by the indentured labourers. The Indian style wrestling had blended with veibo, the traditional Fijian wrestling. Yakub wrestled to entertain the soldiers, and he loved the attention,

“It was amazing and I felt great. I remember everyone cheering. After I had won a couple of matches I started loving the sport and thought, why not? I can continue doing this not just for a show but for my career”

When the war was over professional wrestling was again promoted in Fiji. There had been a professional tradition in the 1930s with crowds of more than 2,000 Fijian fans enjoying Jaget Singh, Harban Singh and Gabo Stephens. The main centre for the matches was the capital city of Suva on the south east coast of Viti Levu. Mohammed Yakub was approached by John Grant, the leading theatrical and sporting entrepreneur in Fiji, who was at the time reviving the sport. He persuaded Yakub to turn professional wrestler.

Mohammed Yakub went on to win the middleweight championship of Fiji and was to remain undefeated for many years.

In the early 1960s he came to Britain, and prior to the 1962 Immigration Act obtained British citizenship. Mohammed Yakub has memories of the British people as welcoming and kind. But he was a long way from home and inevitably lonely in a land that was very different from Fiji. To lift his spirits Yakub began going to wrestling shows which were staged every night somewhere in London. He enjoyed the wrestling immensely, it provided an interest in an unfamiliar land, and he pondered the idea of resuming his wrestling career in Britain.

Enquiries led Yakub to a coffee bar in a four storey building in Old Compton Street, London, and the headquarters of Paul Lincoln Management. The 2I’s was frequented by rock stars and wrestlers. He tentatively made his way inside and asked for the owner, Paul Lincoln. Arrangements were made for Yakub to have a trial, and he was instructed to turn up at the Metropolitan Theatre the following Saturday at 3pm.

Four trial matches took place and the decision made that Mohammed Yakub was good enough to wrestle for Paul Lincoln Management. In the months that followed he was to wrestle all the big names that were working for Paul Lincoln and other opposition promoters at the time.

Amongst his opponents were the blond haired Canadian villain Flash Lee Edwards, World Champion Mike Marino, the London dock yard bad boy Don Stedman, Judo Al Hayes and many others. In total Mohammed Yakub had more than a hundred matches in Britain during his fifteen month stay.

His memories of Britain are fond ones, but it wasn’t home. When he was offered the chance to wrestle in the United States Mohammed Yakub declined and made the decision to return to Fiji.

Towards the end of 1963 he left England for home, where he continued to wrestle on his return. By then he was nearing his fortieth birthday and also felt a desire to pursue other interests. He founded his own company, an earth moving and public transport business, and became one of Fiji’s most successful businessmen.

Six years following his retirement from wrestling Mohammed Yakub was encouraged to return to the ring, again finding championship success when he won the South Sea.

World

Voters deliver historic rebuke to Trump as Democrats win House and Senate

Published

1 week ago

November 5, 2026

News Staff

By Joseph Ax, Brad Heath and Jason Lange

Democrats seized control of both the Senate and House on Tuesday (US time), scoring sweeping victories in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations as tens of millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump.

Voters in conservative bastions who had propelled the president to his second term in office just two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, fueled by deep frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, anxiety over the high cost of living and anger at Trump’s stewardship of the country.

Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression nearly a century ago. In South Carolina, a state that Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024, Democrats turned aside his hand-picked Senate candidate.

And in Texas, the biggest Republican state, Democrats ended a decades-long losing streak in seismic fashion, winning a Senate seat and ousting three-term Governor Greg Abbott.

The results will usher in a new era of divided government in Washington, following two years in which the Republican-controlled Congress rarely exercised its power to rein in Trump.

Once seated in January, Democrats are expected to use their power to investigate Trump’s administration, family and allies and demand concessions on major legislation. The Democratic Senate can block Trump’s nominees, including any US Supreme Court justices should a vacancy arise.

“There is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America,” said Chuck Schumer, the party’s Senate minority leader. “Americans voted for change, and now Democrats must deliver.”

Trump, who is barred by the US Constitution from seeking a third term, has exercised an iron grip on his party for most of the last decade. But the new balance of power in Washington may accelerate his lame-duck status, as attention turns toward the 2028 presidential race and potential successors begin competing for political influence in a post-Trump world.

Despite worries from Democrats that Trump might seek to overturn the election results, as he did in 2020, the president accepted the outcome, congratulating Democrats in an interview with Fox News. He also said he would work with Democrats on issues such as immigration, though he threatened to veto any “insane” bills they passed.

rnz

World

Cold case solved: DNA links serial killer Ted Bundy to 1974 murder of Utah teen

Published

2 weeks ago

October 29, 2026

News Staff

A Utah cold case tied to notorious serial killer Ted Bundy has been solved.

Fifty-two years to the day her body was found, detectives closed the investigation into the murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith. DNA evidence identified Bundy as the killer, investigators revealed Tuesday.

Smith’s body was found by hunters in a wooded area bordering Salt Lake and Summit counties on 27 October, 1974. The investigation into her murder has remained open since that day, until now.

A recent break in a Utah County cold case is being attributed to the resolution. Investigators say the same DNA profile used to identify Bundy as the killer of Laura Ann Aime was used to solve Smith’s murder.

Developments in that case brought the Smith investigation back to the surface and helped resolve the decades-old mystery, Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates said.

Tuesday’s announcement was hinted at by Utah County investigators in April, when they announced the closure of the Aime cold case, which was tied to Bundy. At the time, a UCSO detective said the DNA profile used to link Bundy to the murder had been shared with other departments, with the hope that it could lead to closing more cases.

Bundy, who is confirmed to have killed and assaulted women across Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Florida between 1974 and 1978, confessed to 28 murders but is believed to be responsible for hundreds of deaths.

He was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1989.

Source: RNZ & CNN

World

Netanyahu touts Trump endorsement on eve of vote, suggests they may restart war on Iran

Published

3 weeks ago

October 27, 2026

News Staff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of his endorsement from Donald Trump on the eve of Israel’s election, suggesting the two leaders could restart their war against Iran if he wins, after Trump said they should “finish the job”.

“US President Donald Trump has come with a friendship that has never existed before between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. And it is doubtful we will ever have such a friendly president again,” Netanyahu said in a televised appearance late on Sunday night. “He has another two years, and he says he is calling on you to vote for me.”

In his own social media post on Sunday, Trump, who launched the Iran war jointly with Netanyahu in February, said: “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!”

Netanyahu said Trump was willing to take action “that would finally, finally, remove the Iranian threat”, but only as long as Netanyahu himself remains in power.

“And I have already instructed the Mossad and the IDF (military) to bring down this regime, to bring down this regime because that is the only way to put an end to this threat,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel’s main intelligence service and military.

Asked for comment on Netanyahu’s remarks, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said: “As President Trump stated, Iran is in very bad condition, both economically and militarily, and the blockade will remain in full force and effect, with oil flowing in record numbers of barrels through the Hormuz Strait.”

“The United States will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections,” Kelly added via email, referring to the November 3 vote in the US.

Netanyahu’s leading opponent, centrist former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, posted his own comments on social media, praising Trump as “a true friend of Israel”.

“I value his efforts and his commitment to Israel’s security, and I am confident that he will work in full cooperation with any leader chosen by the people.”

Former Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz (2nd-R) and former Israeli army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (R), both members of the current Israeli five-person war cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meet with the visiting US Secretary of State in Tel Aviv on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP) — Former Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz (2nd-R) and former Israeli army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (R).

Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP

Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of fear-mongering

Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s first since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, is the first chance for voters to deliver a verdict on the worst security failure in generations and the wars on multiple fronts that followed.

With Netanyahu already at the helm of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, politics have shifted even further to the right. Nearly all Jewish-led parties, including that of the hawkish Eisenkot, now oppose the “two-state solution” that underpinned decades of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

But many voters say the divisive politics of Israel’s longest-serving leader make the country weaker. Polls suggest Netanyahu’s Likud Party will lose seats, potentially depriving his coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties of its narrow majority.

Eisenkot and an array of opposition parties ranging from the rump of the centre-left to the right, also have no clear path to unseat him.

Netanyahu, 77, is an unrivaled master of political survival: the only time since 2009 that opponents managed to wrest him briefly from the premiership, it took four inconclusive elections within two years to get him out. He was back 18 months later.

Neither side planned major public events for Monday. But both posted on social media, drumming on the election’s major themes: for Netanyahu, that he is the only leader with the mettle to face down Israel’s enemies; for his opponents, that his divisive politics have weakened the country.

Netanyahu shared an AI-generated video on Monday of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father Ali Khamenei was killed on the first night of US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Lying in a hospital bed, the younger Khamenei says his own vote would be “definitely not Bibi. Another term like this and I will be meeting my father sooner than expected.”

On Sunday Netanyahu posted a computer-generated photo of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv, saying Israel was in existential danger from Iran.

Eisenkot responded by accusing him of “relying on a campaign of fear-mongering, lies, and threats – including images of nuclear bombs in the heart of Tel Aviv. This time, it won’t work for him.”

Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu carries its own political risks a week before a legislative election in which his own Republicans are seeking to hold onto power.

The Iran war is deeply unpopular in the United States, blamed for a surge in prices especially for fuel. Major fighting has been suspended for months after ceasefire negotiations held without Israeli participation.

Source: Reuters & RNZ