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Serie A: Jubilant Inter finish title-winning season with Udinese rout
Serie A champions Inter Milan ended their triumphant season with a 5-1 thrashing of Udinese on Sunday as thousands of fans gathered outside San Siro to celebrate. Antonio Conte’s side sealed their first league crown in 11 years with four games to spare on May 2, but had to wait until the final day of the season to lift the trophy. Ashley Young and Christian Eriksen were on target before the break and goals from Lautaro Martinez, Ivan Perisic and Romelu Lukaku completed the rout before Roberto Pereyra’s consolation penalty for the 14th-placed visitors. Inter finish the season with 91 points, passing the 90-point mark for the second time after earning 97 in 2006-07, and were able to celebrate the achievement in front of one thousand invited supporters at their home ground. A further 4,500 we...
Thomas Tuchel reacts as ‘unlucky’ Chelsea suffer back-to-back FA Cup final defeats
Chelsea suffered late VAR heartache as they slipped to back-to-back FA Cup final defeats after a 1-0 loss to Leicester City, Youri Tielemans’ second-half strike proving decisive. In front of a reduced, yet undoubtedly noisy, Wembley crowd, it was Chelsea who made the brighter start, Timo Werner showcasing his electric speed to test the Foxes backline early on. Despite controlling the opening exchanges, the first real chance of the match fell to their opponents, Timothy Castagne getting in down the right and teeing up Jamie Vardy inside the area, the veteran striker’s effort well blocked by Reece James. At the other end of the pitch, Thomas Tuchel’s men almost fashioned a chance of their own, Thiago Silva’s dinked cross agonisingly evading the head of Cesar Azpilicueta at the back post, aft...
Novak Djokovic beats Alejandro Fokina to reach Italian Open quarter-finals
World number one Novak Djokovic swept into the Italian Open quarter-finals on Thursday with a straight sets wins over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in front of spectators who were allowed to watch in the Foro Italico for the first time. The five-time Rome champion won through 6-2, 6-1 in 1hr 10min against the 48th-ranked Spaniard with the venue filled to 25 per cent of capacity. “It was not good, it was great. I missed the crowd,” said the 33-year-old Serb. “It was nice to see them back.” After losing his opening service game, Djokovic powered back with five breaks of serve, outclassing his rival, despite a late fightback, to seal the win on his sixth match point. “He started well, but I managed to break back straight away and establish the control and consistency. “I thought I played at lea...
Akwa Ibom first lady leads women’s protest on raped, murdered job seeker
Wife of Akwa Ibom State’s Governor Udom Emmanuel, Dr. Martha Emmanuel, on Wednesday led over 3,000 women from different walks of life on a solidarity march to protest the gruesome murder of Miss Iniubong Umoren. The women took over Uyo metropolis, singing dirges and carrying placards with different inscriptions like: “We want justice for Iniubong,” “Justice for one is justice for all,” “No more rape, no more gender-based violence.” Other inscriptions said: “#Stand in Solidarity with Akwa Ibom State women and demand justiceforIniubongUmoren,” “#Rape is a crime punishable by law,” among others. The women marched from Ibom Connection down to Nuwana Iba and then moved to Wellington Bassey Way leading to the state’s Government House. Other dignitaries who accompanied the wife of the Governor on...
WTO chief: ‘Safe Schools Initiative’ to stop abduction of students
The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday expressed hope that the ‘Safe Schools Initiative’ will help stop the incessant abduction of students across Nigeria. Nigerian women on Wednesday came out en masse to welcome Okonjo-Iweala in her first homecoming since she became the director-general of WTO, during a visit to the Ministry of Women Affairs in Abuja. Addressing the crowd which included Senators and members of the National Assembly, former Ministers, wives of former governors, women in the Armed Forces, women societies, female political aspirants, Civil Society Organisations, as well as students, Okonjo-Iweala expressed deep concern about the incessant abduction of girls and boys in schools. The WTO boss who noted that it is shamef...
Fire guts goods worth over N35 million in Aba
A late evening fire outbreak on Thursday gutted a three-storey building at No 74 Jubille Road, Aba, Abia, destroying goods worth more than N35 million. The fire also gutted a makeshift warehouse at the back of the three-storey building with Motorcycle spare parts and also burnt the contents of rooms on three floors at the back of the main building. Newsmen visited the scene of the incident and reports that the three-storey building, other adjoining blocks with their wares were not spared by the inferno. Mr Donatus Ezenwaka, a victim and Motorcycle Spare Parts dealer at the building told newsmen on Friday that he was called back at about 11 pm to his shop by a neighbour because the building was on fire. “I came and it was as told me and there was a crowd around here. “They said the fire beg...
Myanmar police fire rubber bullets, wounding three, as hundreds of thousands protest
Supporters of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi clashed with police on Friday as hundreds of thousands joined nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in defiance of the military junta’s call to halt mass gatherings. The United Nations human rights office said more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup, including some who face criminal charges on “dubious grounds”. The U.N. rights investigator for Myanmar told a special session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that there were “growing reports, photographic evidence” that security forces have used live ammunition against protesters, in violation of international law. Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews urged the U.N. Security Council to consider imposing sanctio...
Nigerian government urged to lift restrictions on SIM card registration
A telecommunications expert in Owerri, the Imo capital, Mr Charles Okeke, has advised the Federal Government to remove the restrictions placed on SIM card registration. Okeke gave the advice at a news briefing in Owerri on Tuesday, while speaking on the effects of the federal government’s SIM Card-National Identification Number (NIN) linkage policy. He urged the government to embrace a more robust system that would encourage healthy partnership between the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and service providers to ensure a seamless linkage. He said that the partnership would fast-track the process and alleviate the “unnecessary hardship” faced by Nigerians due to tight deadlines for the exercise. He further said that large crowds of people struggling for attention at NIMC offi...
Thousands of US-bound Honduran migrants cross border into Guatemala
<img width="696" height="391" class="entry-thumb" src="https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205-696×391.jpg" srcset="https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205-696×391.jpg 696w, https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205-300×169.jpg 300w, https://www.today.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16201205.jpg 699w" sizes="(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px" alt="Thousands of Honduran migrants push through the police fence as they attempt to cross the border at El Florido in Guatemala forming the first migrant caravan of the year on it’s way to the United States on January 15, 2021. – Some 3,000 people left Honduras on foot January 15 in the latest migrant caravan hoping to find ...
Woman shot dead in US Capitol was a veteran and Trump supporter
The woman who died Wednesday of a bullet wound during the violent storming of the US Capitol was shot by police, authorities said. The only fatality tied to Wednesday’s unrest was the woman, reportedly a dedicated Donald Trump backer and air force veteran who was among a throng of supporters of the president that invaded the US legislature. Washington police chief Robert Contee said three other people, one woman and two men, had died Wednesday in the area around the Capitol, but did not link those deaths to the violence. Each of the three “appeared to have suffered medical emergencies which resulted in their deaths,” Contee told reporters. Contee said 52 people had been arrested Wednesday, 26 of them on the grounds of the Capitol, for curfew violations, unlawful entry and weapons charges. ...
Christmas celebrated under pandemic’s shadow
Hundreds of millions across the world celebrated pared-down Christmas festivities on Friday due to coronavirus restrictions, as Pope Francis called for vaccines for everyone, describing them as “glimmers of hope in this period of darkness and uncertainty”. The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of mass vaccine campaigns has boosted hopes that 2021 could bring a respite. Like so many across the globe, the pope was forced to break with normal Christmas tradition, holding his annual “Urbi et Orbi” speech by video from the apostolic palace, to prevent a crowd from gathering in St Peter’s Square. “I call on everyone, on leaders of states, on businesses, on international organisations, to promote cooperatio...
Ebonyi governor denies giving cultists N3 million
Governor David Umahi on Monday said he did not give N3 million to placate notorious cult groups allegedly terrorising residents of the state. Umahi said this when the 13 Local Government Area Chairmen, Coordinators of Development Centres, with their Management Committee members, among other political appointees, paid him a solidarity visit at the Government House, Abakiliki. He dismissed the report that he gave the money to the groups through his security aide. According to him, he had ordered a manhunt for members of the groups. “How can a warrior such as me bribe cultists, to do what with the money? The duty of political leaders and the citizens is to give me the names of the cultists because I will give them a bad Christmas celebration. “I am searching for them whether they are in gover...
