Months
Zinedine Zidane leaves Real Madrid for second time in three years
Zinedine Zidane has left Real Madrid after the club failed to win a trophy in 2020/21. The Frenchman departed as Madrid boss back in 2018, only to return 10 months later. He led the club to the 2019/20 LaLiga title in his second spell but has decided to leave the club after they missed out on retaining the title on the final day of the season. Zidane won the Champions League in three consecutive seasons in his first spell but could only lead the club to the last 16 in 2020 and the semi-finals in 2021. Get more stories like this on Twitter 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 photo...
‘Patriots rule Hong Kong’ as sweeping pro-Beijing electoral rules passed
Hong Kong’s legislature approved the biggest overhaul of its political system in the quarter century since British rule on Thursday, in a decisive step to assert Beijing’s authority over the autonomous city. The changes will reduce the proportion of seats in the legislature that are filled by direct elections from half to less than a quarter. A new body will be empowered to vet candidates and bar those deemed insufficiently patriotic towards China from standing. “These 600-or-so pages of the legislation come down to just a few words: patriots ruling Hong Kong,” said Peter Shiu, a pro-Beijing lawmaker. Most of the changes were announced by China in March, though Hong Kong authorities later contributed further details, such as redrawing constituency boundaries and criminalising calls for bal...
Nigeria, France, others condemn Mali coup
As world leaders condemn the latest coup in Mali, the military has said that both interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane have been stripped of their positions. The junta accused both of “sabotage” in the transition quest of the country. It added that it would “proceed as normally, and the scheduled elections will be held in 2022.” This came a day after the military seized both men alongside defence minister Souleymane Doucouré in an apparent coup in the unstable West African nation. This is Mali’s second coup in nine months. Ndaw and Ouane had been tasked with overseeing an 18-month transition back to civilian rule which was billed to end with an election next year March. But the leader of the latest coup, Assimi Goïta, a colonel, in a televised statement on Tuesday, ac...
Tyson Fury: I will still fight Anthony Joshua this year
Tyson Fury has insisted that he still intends to fight Anthony Joshua this year despite committing to a trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder in July. Only last weekend, Fury announced that his much-anticipated heavyweight showdown with Joshua would take place in Saudi Arabia in August. Soon afterwards, however, Wilder won an arbitration hearing which ruled that Fury was contractually obliged to fight him for a third time. Fury’s first bout against Wilder came in December 2018 and ended in a controversial draw. In the rematch last year, the self-styled Gypsy King stopped his opponent in round seven to win the WBC heavyweight and Ring magazine titles. A planned trilogy fight was initially postponed by the coronavirus pandemic, before disputes over the rescheduling saw Fury declare that he’d ...
House mourns army chief, others
Members of the House of Representatives have expressed sadness over the death of Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru and his entourage in an air crash in Kaduna. Attahiru, along with six senior officers and four crew members were onboard Nigerian Air Force Kingair 350 from Abuja to Kaduna, ahead of today’s passing out parade of soldiers from the Nigerian Army Depot in Zaria, when the crash happened amid torrential rainfall, on Friday evening. The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, in a statement issued on Saturday described as shocking and sad the death Attahiru and others involved in the plane crash. Gbajabiamila said the death of the Army Chief was unfortunate coming at a time that the Nigerian military was finding solutions to the security challenges in the country...
Ebonyi governor: Some people in South-east think 2023 elections won’t hold
David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi state, says some people in the south-east region are convinced that the 2023 elections will not hold. Umahi said those with such a mindset believe that if elections do not take place, the national assembly will declare a state of emergency in the region. In recent times, the south-east has witnessed a spate of attacks on police stations and government facilities including offices belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Speaking at the presidential ministerial press briefing on Thursday, Umahi said the country will remain together under the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended), noting that “until it is changed, nobody can do anything about it”. “A lot of people have been brainwashed in the south-east about Biafra. The Biafra I des...
Taiwo Awoniyi gets UK work permit, set to leave Liverpool permanently
Fulham and West Brom are interested in signing Taiwo Awoniyi after he was granted a UK work permit for the 2021/22 campaign. Awoniyi linked up with Liverpool in 2015 but is yet to feature in an official game for the Reds. The Nigeria international has spent the past six years on loan at different clubs across in Europe and is currently with Bundesliga club Union Berlin. According to Goal the 23-year-old and his family were finally granted UK permits this week, following a lengthy application process. Aside from Fulham and West Brom, Stoke City have also registered interest in the forward, while Union Berlin are also keen on signing him on permanent deal. German clubs Stuttgart and Wolfsburg are also keen on signing him this summer. Liverpool are open to selling Awoniyi but will only accept...
Former Nigerian soldier who trains ESN militants arrested in Abuja
The police have arrested a dismissed army lance corporal allegedly responsible for training and recruiting people into the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the militant arm of the outlawed pro-Biafra group, IPOB, according to a report. He was arrested a few days after a top commander of the terror group, Awurum Eze, was arrested in Aba, Abia State. The group is alleged to have been responsible for killings of security agents and destruction of public properties in the South-east and South-south zones. They have, however, denied the allegations. According to sources, the 32 years old dismissed soldier, whose name was given as Livinus Owalum-Barnabas, was arrested on Sunday, at Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT by men of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT). The e...
SAN faults Southern governors’ call for constitutional conference
A human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has faulted the call by 17 Southern governors for a constitutional conference. The governors had said such a conference would straighten knotty problems confronting the country. But Ozekhome who spoke in Anambra State on Thursday, as a keynote speaker at the 25th Law week of the Awka branch of Nigerian Bar Association, described the governors’ suggestion as unnecessary. Speaking on the topic ‘Legal profession in a lawless society,’ Ozekhome said the call for a new conference was not necessary, especially considering that the recommendations of the one held in 2014 had not been implemented. He said, “I was at the 2014 national conference headed by late Justice Idris Kutigi. The over 200 recommendation we made at that conference was yet to be touche...
President Buhari lauds NDLEA’s performance, pledges to enhance operational capabilities
President Muhammadu Buhari has hailed the performance of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) especially the recent overhaul of its operations leading to the arrest of drug peddlers at the airports and other parts of the country. He has therefore pledged his administration’s readiness to further enhance the capabilities and potentials of the Agency whose Chairman, Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) was appointed in January. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd), told newsmen that the President applauded the activities of the NDLEA at the Tuesday’s security meeting which he presided over. Monguno stated that he was able to brief the National Council of Security (NSC) meeting on the enablers of crime one of which is drug and the need t...
African Union mission urges return to ‘constitutional order’ in Chad
An African Union mission recommended on Wednesday that Chad’s military share power with a civilian president, as one of three options towards restoring constitutional order following last month’s killing of president Idriss Deby. A military council led by Deby’s son Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power in April after his father was killed while visiting troops opposing a rebel insurgency. The African Union, which could suspend Chad over the military takeover, sent a fact-finding mission to develop strategies for a return to constitutional order and democratic governance. In a report, the mission recommended the AU’s security council could support the military transition as it stands, while appointing a special envoy to ensure the military keep their promise to organise elections with 18 months...
Taiwan says request to drop word ‘country’ preceded BioNTech vaccine deal collapse
Germany’s BioNTech asked Taiwan to remove the word “country” from an announcement they planned to make on a COVID-19 vaccine sale to the island, its health minister said on Thursday, giving details of the deal whose axing was blamed on China by Taipei. Taiwan and China are engaged in an escalating war of words after Beijing offered the shots to the Chinese-claimed island via Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd, which has a contract to sell them in Greater China. Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told a daily news briefing the government had signed and sent back a “final contract” agreed with BioNTech after months of negotiations, and the two sides were on the verge of issuing a press release on Jan. 8. But four hours later “BioNTech suddenly sent a letter, saying they strongly ...