South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma on Friday mounted a last-ditch legal bid to avoid prison after the country’s top court ordered him jailed for failing to appear before graft investigators. In a landmark ruling, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday handed Zuma a 15-month term for contempt after he snubbed a probe into the theft of state assets under his tenure. If the 79-year-old fails to turn himself in by Sunday, police will be given a further three days to arrest him and take him to jail to start the sentence. As the deadline loomed, Zuma pleaded on Friday that the order be “reconsidered and rescinded.” “It will not be futile,” Zuma said in papers filed to the court, “to make one last attempt to invite the Constitutional Court to relook its decision and to merely reassess whether it...
A makeshift bomb exploded inside a Catholic church in the city of Beni in the DR Congo’s conflict-plagued east on Sunday, injuring two just an hour before a children’s Confirmation ceremony was due to be held. The head of police in Beni’s town hall Narcisse Muteba Kashale told AFP that the explosion occurred at 06:00 and that experts from the UN’s mission to DR Congo had told “us it is a home-made bomb, a bomb that was set up for an ambush”. Beni’s vicar general Laurent Sondirya said two people were injured in the blast, which went off before crowds would have gathered to attend the Confirmation ceremony. “They were targeting a large crowd because the ceremony would bring together children, their parents and the faithful,” he told AFP, adding that “mass would not be postponed”. Traces of b...
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...
File Photo The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, Akwa Ibom State has demanded inclusion in the incentives approved by the Federal government for teachers in primary and secondary Schools in the country. They made the demand on Wednesday when they marched from the entrance of the Indongesit Nkanga Secretariat to the State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) Secretariat to end their 3-day nationwide protest. Speaking at the SUBEB Secretariat, State Chairman of NASU, Comrade Aniefiok Simons, stressed that the exclusion of non teaching staff from the Federal government recent reforms in public primary and secondary Schools in the country was discriminatory and wrong. Simons called on all stakeholders in the Education sector to look into their plight, and ...
The House of Representatives Committee on Youths Development on Tuesday allayed the fear of the possible spread of COVID-19 in the orientation camps of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) currently in progress across the country. The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Yemi Adaramodu, while speaking with newsmen shortly after the oversight visit of the committee to the Nasarawa State NYSC camp at Keffi declared that there was no cause for concern as being envisaged in some quarters. The member representing Ekiti South Federal Constituency 1, Ekiti State under the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) stated that the committee was convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that there was no need to entertain any fear of the possible spread of COVID-19 at the orientation camps based on th...
In a bid time curtail the spread of the second wave of Covid-19 in Ekiti, the state Government on Sunday imposed a curfew from 8.00 pm to 6.00 am. The Government also banned all gatherings of more than twenty people in the state until further notice. The Commissioner for Information and Values Orientation, Hon Akinbowale Omole, who announced these new guidelines in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, said the restrictions take effect Monday at 6 am January 11, 2021. Omole cited the alarming rate at which the deadly pandemic is spreading in Nigeria and elsewhere as the reason for these drastic steps. He said there is a need for the government to be proactive and take decisive steps to secure the citizens from falling prey to the second wave of the pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives all over the ...
The official residence of the Commandant of the Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA, Major General Sarham Jamil, was on Sunday night gutted by fire. Eye witness say it is not certain which part of the official residence, situated near Sultan Bello Mosque in Unguwar Sarki GRA, the fire started from but flames were sighted around 8pm. He said fierce looking soldiers prevented civilians around Unguwar Sarki from gaining entrance to render assistance. Newsmen reports that for decades, the house has been the official residence of the commandants of the military institution. It shares a fence with the prestigious Arewa House and the Guest House of Emir of Katsina in Kaduna and the residence of former Minister of state, Defense, Alhaji Batagarawa. Another witness said the men of the Nigeria Fire Service...
Near the wreckage of Beirut’s port, a charity is bringing Christmas cheer to a city hammered by a devastating explosion, rising coronavirus infections and the worst economic crisis since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. The Solidarity Christmas Village, decked out with flashing fairy lights and glittering trees, has been offering visitors free entry to watch concerts and pick up drinks and snacks, lifting the mood of families who can’t afford seasonal luxuries. People dressed in giant polar bear costumes and others in Santa Claus outfits offer some festive spirit to a country that is a patchwork of Christian and Muslim sects. “We need to make our children happy …. even if we are tired,” said Toni Hossainy, who had brought her son. The Christmas village has been set up in a temporary warehous...