Authorities
Peace summit suggests ways to end Southern Kaduna crisis
The Southern Kaduna Peace Summit has stressed the urgent need for leaders at all levels of government to avoid taking sides and be impartial judges on any issue that has to do with the crisis in the Southern part of the state. The peace summit noted that pronouncements and conducts by some government officials and reports by the media escalate tensions within the social space. In a communique issued at the end of the 3-day peace summit held in Kafanchan by the co-chairmen, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa and Rev. Prof. Sunday Bobai Agang, lamented the incessant occupation of communities, villages, and farmland following conflicts with no right of return. The meeting also observed that incessant killings, kidnapping, cattle rustling and shielding of criminals is a major challenge. It said that there...
Virus-hit club loses CAS appeal against UCL ouster
Slovan Bratislava lost its appeal Friday against exclusion from the Champions League by UEFA after players tested positive for COVID-19 in pre-game checks. The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld UEFA’s ruling last week that ordered the Slovakian champion to forfeit a first qualifying round game in the Faeroe Islands without playing. Public authorities in the Faeroe Islands put two different squads of Slovan’s players into quarantine when a virus infection in each group was reported in tests required by UEFA. The game was postponed twice, then UEFA’s appeal panel awarded Faeroes champion KI Klaksvik a 3-0 win to advance to the next round. Slovan later said all 35 players tested negative on returning to Slovakia. Friday’s urgent ruling from a CAS judge – without yet specifying reasons – w...
California fires force thousands to flee as governor asks for help
Some of California’s largest ever fires raged across the state Saturday, forcing tens of thousands from their homes as the governor called for international help to fight the blazes. About 12,000 lightning strikes hit across the state in 72 hours, officials said, sparking the fires that left thick smoke blanketing large areas of central and northern California. “We simply haven’t seen anything like this in many, many years,” California governor Gavin Newsom said on Friday. The two largest blazes — dubbed the SCU Lightening Complex and the LNU Lightening Complex — had burned a total of just under 600,000 acres (240,000 hectares) and nearly 500 structures. Wineries in the famed Napa and Sonoma regions, which are still reeling from blazes in recent years, are under threat by the SCU Complex —...
England defender says suffering racism is ‘everyday life’
England defender Danny Rose has detailed his experiences of being racially profiled, stating: “I just laugh because I know what’s coming”. The post England defender says suffering racism is ‘everyday life’ appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
China takes over closed US consulate in Chengdu
The American flag was lowered at the US consulate in China’s Chengdu city on Monday and Chinese authorities entered the building, as Beijing carried out a Cold War-style retaliatory closure of the mission. Earlier in the morning state broadcaster, CCTV showed footage of the flag being lowered, after diplomatic tensions soared between the two powers with both alleging the other had endangered national security. Beijing later confirmed the consulate had closed at 10am (0200 GMT). “Afterwards, Chinese authorities entered through the front entrance and took it over,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Relations have deteriorated in recent weeks in an intensifying standoff, with the Chengdu mission Friday ordered to shut in retaliation for the forced closure of Beijing’s consulate in Hou...
US judge orders release of Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen from prison
Agence France-Presse A United States (US) judge ordered the release from prison of President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Thursday, saying he believes the government retaliated against him for planning to release a book about Trump before November’s election. Michael Cohen’s First Amendment rights were violated when he was ordered back to prison on July 9 after probation authorities said he refused to sign a form banning him from publishing the book or communicating publicly in other manners, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said during a telephone conference. Hellerstein ordered Michael Cohen released from prison by 2 p.m. on Friday. “How can I take any other inference than that it’s retaliatory?” Hellerstein asked prosecutors, who insisted in court pap...
Zamfara offers cows for guns to halt bandit attacks
Authorities in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state have offered two cows for each gun surrendered to halt bloody attacks by criminal gangs, including cattle rustlers. Remote communities across the region have for years been hit hard by deadly raids from armed groups of motorcycle-riding cattle rustlers and kidnappers. Military operations have failed to end the killings and local officials have tried repeated negotiations to broker peace. Zamfara governor Bello Matawalle said on Thursday that under the new initiative “for every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there would be compensation of two cows”. Matawalle said the offer of livestock was meant to convince the gangs, known as “bandits”, to disarm without cash payments that could be used to buy more arms. There was no indication i...
FBI: Hushpuppi attempted to dupe Premier League club of £100 million
Alleged international fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Ray Hushpuppi, on Friday made his first court appearance in an American court where the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged that he attempted to dupe an English Premier League football club of £100m (N48.4bn). The allegation is contained in an affidavit deposed to by FBI Special Agent, Andre Innocenti, who is assigned to the Los Angeles Filed Office High-tech Organise Crime Squad. According to the FBI, the suspect is facing charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering among others. The affidavit read in part, “Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100 million (approximately $124 million) from an English Premie...
South Korea’s unification minister visits estuary to renew commitment to inter-Korean cooperation
Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul is to visit an estuary of the Han River near the border with North Korea on Wednesday in an effort to renew South Korea’s commitment to jointly using the waterway with the communist nation. Under a military agreement signed at a 2018 summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the two sides agreed on the joint use of the Han River estuary along their western border and conducted joint waterway research. But the project has stalled since the no-deal summit between the North and the United States in February last year. The unification minister’s visit to the estuary is seen as aimed at sending a message to the North that it remains committed to the project. “The visit has been arranged so that (the minister) can see for himself...
NAF deploys special forces, additional platforms to boost ongoing operations in Katsina
Authorities of the Nigerian Airforce on Friday said that following President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on the launch of a major crackdown against bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements in Katsina and other States in the North West of the Country, the NAF on 22 May 2020, injected Special Forces (SF) operatives and deployed additional platforms to Kastina State. NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said, “The arrangement is to consolidate on the already existing security architecture in the State to ensure the success of the ongoing renewed offensive against the armed bandits under the auspices of the Defence Headquarters (DHQ)-led Operation Hadarin Daji. Speaking during the deployment, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sa...
Egypt editor detained outside Cairo jail
Egyptian security services on Sunday detained the editor-in-chief of prominent independent news outlet Mada Masr, its lawyer said, the latest in a crackdown against journalists. Lina Attallah was arrested outside Cairo’s Tora prison as she was interviewing rights activist Laila Soueif, mother of jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah who recently began a hunger strike. “The prison security guards asked Attallah to show her identification card and later called her in for an investigation that lasted three hours,” lawyer Hassan al-Azhari told AFP. He said she was later taken a police station and was expected to appear before the prosecution Monday morning, adding the reason for her arrest and charges remained unclear. Later on Sunday, Mada Masr tweeted that the prosecution ordered Attallah’s rele...
Iran’s OPEC governor dies of brain haemorrhage
Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour-Ardebili has died of a brain haemorrhage two weeks after falling into a coma, the oil ministry said on Saturday. “Kazempour-Ardebili, who had gone into a coma over a brain haemorrhage two weeks ago in a hospital in Tehran, has passed away,” a ministry statement said, without giving further details. He died on Saturday morning aged 68, according to state news agency IRNA. The veteran politician was appointed governor to the OPEC oil cartel in 1985. He had also served as Iran’s ambassador to Japan from 1990 to 1995. Ardebili was a survivor of the 1981 bombing of the Islamic Republic Party headquarters in Tehran which killed 73 top Iranian officials. He was serving as trade minister at the time, appointed the year before. The bombing was blamed on the Pe...
