Stories
Brazilian potential presidential candidate announces he is gay
Brazilian governor and potential major party presidential candidate Eduardo Leite, a prominent critic of President Jair Bolsonaro, came out as gay in a TV interview. Leite, governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, would be the first openly gay presidential candidate in Brazil. Anti-gay rhetoric has been a staple of speeches by Bolsonaro, who once declared that if he had a gay son, he would rather the child died in an accident. “I have never spoken about a subject related to my private life,” Leite told Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial in a TV interview on Thursday evening. “But during this moment of low integrity in Brazil, I have nothing to hide, I am gay. I am a governor who is gay, not a gay governor, as former President Obama in the US was a president who was Black, not a Bl...
APC group commends President Buhari, security agents for ‘decimating’ IPOB
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Legacy Awareness and Campaign has commended President Muhammadu Buhari and federal security agents for decimating separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The group, in a statement issued by the quartet of Barr Ismail Ahmed, Lanre Issa-Onilu, Tolu Ogunlesi and Salihu Moh Lukman, claimed that the country will in the next few months witness even more progress on all fronts. ‘On security, the fear that has gripped the nation in recent times is receding while confidence is being renewed as the security agencies are chasing down the criminals, taking the battle to the bandits, unknown gunmen, kidnappers, and other criminal elements who have been holding the country by the jugular and turning Nigeria to a killing field,’ the group stated. ‘From the...
Euro 2020: Gareth Southgate invites Bukayo Saka, 24 others
Gareth Southgate hit back at the critics after selecting Trent Alexander-Arnold for England’s Euro 2020 squad as the Three Lions boss admitted Harry Maguire is a doubt for the opener against Croatia. Alexander-Arnold had to endure a nervous wait before learning he had made the cut after spending much of the season out of favour with Southgate. The 22-year-old was left out of Southgate’s England squad for their World Cup qualifiers in March. But Alexander-Arnold’s strong end to the season with Liverpool convinced Southgate to restore the right-back to his squad. Alexander-Arnold responded to his selection by tweeting: “Always believe in yourself. Silence the doubters.” Irritated by the inaccurate pre-announcement reports that he would drop Alexander-Arnold, Southgate insisted he never lost ...
CP: Hoodlums in military uniform killed police officer in Imo
The Imo state police command yesterday confirmed that hoodlums in military uniform killed one of its officers, Sergent Loveday Obilonu, at Ukwu Uratta road in Owerri, Imo state. The state Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, stated this to newsmen in Owerri, through the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Bala Elkana. Abutu said that Sergent Loveday was among the officers deployed to protect the citizens of the state against criminal elements. In their preliminary investigation, he added that the officer was killed by the hoodlums after they (hoodlums) had identified him as a police officer and was armed with his gun. However, the Imo police command has said that it has commenced investigations to apprehend the perpetrators. He said: “Attention of Imo State Police Command is drawn ...
NTDC explores Lagos creative communities on Google Arts & Culture
The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) has concluded plans to explore Lagos creative communities on Google Arts & Culture in five different ways. The project tagged; ‘Eko for Show’, is in partnership with Google Arts & Culture towards celebrating Lagos and its creative communities. The Director-General of NTDC, Mr Folorunsho Coker, who made the revelation in an interaction with the media, said that Lagos is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities and that its creative scene is taking the world by storm. Coker noted that with over 25 million people, the city’s creative scene is fueled by a young generation of talented individuals and communities spanning music, art, photography, fashion, theatre, literature and food. The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, he said ...
Red Cross condemns ‘horrific’ sexual violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray
The Red Cross voiced alarm Thursday over “horrific” accounts of sexual violence in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region, amid fears that rape was being used as a weapon of war. Robert Mardini, director-general of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, said the organisation’s staff in hospitals and clinics in the region were hearing first-hand of extreme sexual violence. “Those reports are extremely horrific, very shocking,” he told AFP in an interview, adding that this was a “matter of grave concern”. “I haven’t heard such terrible accounts for more than two decades in the humanitarian sector,” said Mardini, who among other things closely followed the civil wars in Syria and Yemen when he headed ICRC’s Near and Middle East division from 2012 to 2018. “Many of my humani...
Juliet Ibrahim: I once suffered depression
Popular Ghananian actress Juliet Ibrahim has opened up that she once battled depression. Ibrahim made this known when she spoke to newsmen on Saturday. She said: “Yes, I have once battled with depression. I am a woman of many stories and that is what makes me who I am. I have had a lot of experiences that I felt I had to share with my ever-growing fan base. Writing my memoir was very therapeutic for me. I honestly did not realise how strong I was until I put together all my experiences in the memoir. I have had experiences that would probably break the average person but I survived. I drew inspiration from the fact that many African women share similar stories and have a lot in common but sadly, have no medium to share these stories. It is always a case of women being judged or stigmatised...
Senator Uba denies hijacking APC registration exercise in Anambra
File Photo Former presidential aide and Senator representing Anambra South senatorial zone, Andy Uba, has denied reports that he has hijacked the membership revalidation and registration exercise of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State. Uba said report of him attempting to highjack the registration of party members in the ongoing registration programme in the state was false, and should be discarded as untrue. In a statement issued by his media office yesterday, the former lawmaker said: “As you can see, the APC in Anambra State has been having a seamless registration exercise where citizens of the state, owing to the numerous successes of the federal government in the state, are daily registering in their hundreds with the party. “Part of this success can be attributed to ...
Facebook to test cutting back on political posts in the News Feed
Facebook plans to test how people respond to seeing fewer posts about politics in the News Feed. Starting this week, Facebook will “temporarily reduce” political posts for a “small percentage” of people in Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia, with a test in the US following some weeks later. The tests will continue for the next few months. The experiment comes in response to feedback Facebook has (somehow just now) heard that “people don’t want political content to take over their News Feed,” Aastha Gupta, product management director at Facebook, wrote in a blog post this morning. The goal is to improve the News Feed by “finding a new balance of the content people want to see.” Gupta says that political content only makes up about 6 percent of the typical News Feed right now in the US. Nonethele...
Apple’s App Store hosting multi-million dollar scams – developer
Mobile app developer Kosta Eleftheriou has a new calling that goes beyond software development: taking on what he sees as a rampant scam problem ruining the integrity of Apple’s App Store. Eleftheriou, who created the successful Apple Watch keyboard app FlickType, has for the last two weeks been publicly criticizing Apple for lax enforcement of its App Store rules that have allowed scam apps, as well as apps that clone popular software from other developers, to run rampant. These apps enjoy top billing in the iPhone marketplace, all thanks to glowing reviews and sterling five-star ratings that are largely fabricated, he says. Up to now, I’ve been in the “Apple *wants* to do the right thing” camp. My viewpoint is starting to change. How to spot a $5M/year scam on the @AppS...
Yemisi Edun appointed acting FCMB chief
First City Monument Bank Limited (FCMB) has appointed Yemisi Edun as the acting Chief Executive Officer of the bank. This followed the decision by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Adam Nuru, to proceed on voluntary leave as the board investigates allegation of paternity scandal against him. The bank disclosed this on Wednesday. Edun holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife and a Master’s degree in International Accounting and Finance from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and a CFA Charter holder. She is also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers; an Associate Member of the Institute of Taxation of Nigeria; a Member of Information Systems Audit and Cont...
- 1
- 2
France to tighten legislation on incest – president
France will tighten its laws on incest, President Emmanuel Macron said in a series of tweets on Saturday, after publication of a book accusing a top French political commentator of abusing his stepson sparked outrage across the country. Macron said on his Twitter account that France needs to adapt its laws to better protect children from sexual violence and he had asked the justice minister to chair a consultation aimed at quickly making legislative proposals. “We will go after the aggressors,” Macron said. Macron said France had already increased the statute of limitations on incest to 30 years, counted from the legal age of majority of the victim, and had tightened controls on people working with children, but he said much more needed to be done. He said that as part of current routine m...