Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 September 2013

ASUU Strike: Female Students In Kaduna Forced Into Prostitution


While it can be agreed that the seemingly unending Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike is beginning to take a toll on students, the fact that female students in Kaduna are now resorting to prostitution is becoming a source of worry.

Alaska town roots for feline mayor attacked by dog

The honorary mayor of a tiny Alaska town is noticeably absent this week, when he should be hanging out at the general store or sipping his water-catnip concoctions from a wine glass at the pub next door.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

Nokia partners with ONE to fight extreme poverty

LONDON, Jun 11, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- Leveraging the power of mobile technology, Nokia has partnered with The ONE Campaign to support their mission of ending extreme poverty around the world. ONE's new music-based campaign, agit8, launches today to showcase the incredible progress that has been made in the fight and to amplify the call for action. 

Extreme poverty has been cut in half in the last 20 years, and the facts show that it can be virtually eliminated by 2030 - but only if we act now. 

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

UNILAG Authorities Force Down, Fix Commodity Prices on Campus

UNILAG students have been protesting the hike in prices of commodities in the school since Monday.

The authorities of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, have forced down the price of Indomie and also fixed other commodity prices on the campus, following days of students’ protest.

The school authorities stepped in after students protested hike in commodity prices on campus, forcing all shops within the school premises to shut down.

Indomie [Hungry Man pack] which sold for N120 is now to sell at N90. Pencils which sold for N30 before the protest will now sell for N10.

Saturday, 1 June 2013

The Blue return of the ‘Special One’

Jose Mourinho is leaving Real Madrid after a three-year spell and turns Blue again. Five years since his departure from London, the Portuguese manager also known as the ‘Special One’ returns to Stamford Bridge to take charge of Chelsea Football Club.

The new episode of the love and hate relationship between Mourinho and the owner of the club, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is probably one of the most anticipated events for football fans all around the world.

Reports say that Mourinho’s salary for agreeing to return to London on a four-year deal will be far from humble. For every year of his contract, the ‘Special One’ will receive more or less 14 million euros.

Transfer moves

Mourinho’s annual earnings though is probably just a tiny shred of the amount Abramovich will spend to satisfy the Portuguese manager’s transfer appetite.

Italian media suggest that Chelsea has already targeted Napoli’s Edinson Cavani, offering 30 million euros plus Spanish forward Fernando Torres in exchange for the Uruguayan international striker.

Meanwhile, Spanish media say that Real Madrid’s full-back Fabio Coentrao is ready to follow in Mourinho’s footsteps and travel from the Spanish capital to London. The Blues will have to spend 25 to 30 million euros to lure the 22 year-old Portuguese international.

Chelsea’s moves on the transfer chessboard keep coming. Bayer Leverkusen’s talented winger André Schürrle is set to join the Europa League winners in a reported 23.4 million euro deal that will see the Belgium international Kevin de Bruyne move in the opposite direction on loan.

John Terry is heading towards the sunset of his career and Mourinho knows that he needs to sign a top defender during the summer transfer-window. Porto’s Eliaquim Mangala seems to be quite suitable for the job. According to reports, the cost for his arrival at Stamford Bridge will be 35 million euros.

The divorce

Mourinho took charge of Chelsea in June 2004 and left in September 2007. During this period he won the Premier League title twice (2004-2005 and 2005-2006), one FA Cup (2006-2007), two League Cups (2004-2005 and 2006-2007) as well as one FA Community Shield in 2005.

Although Mourinho turned Chelsea into an undisputed ‘boss’ in England, the Blues’ plan to conquer Europe proved too difficult to complete, even for the ‘Special One’.

Mourinho failed to lead his team to a Champions League final and eventually his relations with Roman Abramovich, the man who fulfilled almost all of the manager’s requests regarding transfers never minding the cost, reached an edge.

The divorce “by mutual consent” was announced on the 20th of September 2007. Ten months later, on 2 June 2008, Mourinho was appointed the successor of Roberto Mancini at Internazionale.

Friday, 31 May 2013

Ten Found Dead After Boat Sinks at Chevron Nigeria Facility


Ten bodies have been found during a rescue operation off the coast of Nigeria after a tugboat contracted by Chevron sank on Sunday in rough seas, the vessel's owner said on Friday.

The Jascon-4 capsized early on Sunday at a mooring point around 30 km (20 miles) off oil-producing Delta state. Of 12 people who had been on board, one was rescued alive and another is still missing.

U.S. warns Russia against sending missiles to Syria

The Obama administration strongly warned Russia on Friday not to undermine peace efforts for Syria or upend the balance of power between Israel and its neighbors by supplying the Syrian regime with advanced antiaircraft weaponry.

Sending the S-300 missile to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would prolong the civil war and perhaps widen it by imperiling Israel, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said amid conflicting reports about whether Russia has sent the missiles.


Thursday, 30 May 2013

Baby Trapped in Chinese Sewer was as a Result of an Accident, Mother Faces no Charge: Official



BEIJING — Authorities have concluded that a newborn rescued from a sewer pipe in eastern China became trapped because of an accident, and that the mother faces no charges even though she didn't claim the baby until confronted by police two days later, a local official said Thursday.

The baby's stunning, two-hour rescue from a pipe underneath a squat toilet in Pujiang county prompted both horror and an outpouring of charity on behalf of the boy, who has since been taken away from a hospital by the unwed mother and a man believed to be the father.


Nigeria lawmakers pass anti-gay marriage bill

— Nigeria's House of Representatives voted Thursday to ban gay marriage and outlaw any groups actively supporting gay rights, endorsing a measure that also calls for 10-year prison sentences for any "public show" of affection by a same-sex couple.

Representatives appeared to unanimously approve the proposal in a voice vote, sending it immediately to President Goodluck Jonathan for him to potentially sign into law in Africa's most populous nation.


Monday, 27 May 2013

PDP Suspends Amaechi

THE National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP on Monday suspended Gov. Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers from the party for dissolving elected party executives in his state.

Falcao set to snub Premier League duo for Monaco move

Atletico Madrid star Radamel Falcao is set to snub interest from Chelsea and Man City in favour of a money spinning move to Monaco.

The 27-year-old Colombian has an incredible scoring record with the La Liga side which has drawn interest from all of Europe's top clubs.

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Archbishop of Canterbury Eulogise Achebe at Service of Songs

Achebe1
• Academy of Letters, college old boys, others  pay tributes
FRESH tributes came for the late Nigerian novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe, as the Archbishop of Canterbury – the leader of the Anglican Church Communion worldwide – the Most Rev. Justin Welby, led a full Anglican service of songs for him in London.
The Bishop of Woolich, Rt. Revd. Michael Ipgrave and his Southwark counterpart, Rt. Revd. Christopher Chessun, also eulogised him, so also was the Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Mrs. Aloun Ndombet-Assamba.
Also, the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) and old boys of Government College, Umuahia, Sunday paid tributes to the late literary icon.
 
In a one-page eulogy read by his representative at the service held  at All Saints Cathedral in New Cross on Saturday evening, Welby said “it is a great privilege to be able to send this tribute to Chinua Achebe as you gather for a service at All Saints in his memory. Chinua Achebe was a wonderful poet and novelist, and one of the most important and influential writers in the history of Literature in English.

“He was a world figure, and played a significant role in shaping my own understanding of Nigeria and of the post-colonial era. In offering my condolences, I would also like to express my admiration for his courage in pursuing justice and integrity. ”

Welby also described Achebe as “a tremendous human being, and also a family man.”
In his own eulogy, Chessun described him as a “novelist of great stature.” The cleric also echoed what Nelson Mandela famously said of Achebe, that he, through his writings, “brought Africa to the world” while remaining rooted as an African.

Continuing, Chessun noted: “Certainly his role in the formation of national identity and consciousness in post-independence Nigeria cannot be under-estimated.”

Eulogising Achebe, Ipgrave said he  was not just “a great teller of stories,” but “a notable academic” who “lived between the worlds of scholarships and of popular culture,  and at times, also of politics and religion.” According to him, that place in-between often proved to be a hard and costly place to be.

The bishop told the congregation of about 200 not to be gloomy, noting that: “What we mark tonight for Chinua Achebe is his journey into a place which is no longer at the centre where things fall apart.”

On her part, Ndombet-Assamba commended Achebe for not only having a “great impact” on her personally and others who read his books in the Caribbean, but that he “gave them dignity as people of colour.” The diplomat thanked Achebe for giving her and millions of others the “wonderful gift of words from an African perspective.”

There were also eulogies from the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom (CANUK), Chief Bimbo Afoloyan and from the service organiser, Alex Achebe, who was Achebe’s nephew. Alex also read from his uncle’s last work, There was a country.

At the colloquium and night of tributes organised by old boys of Government College, Umuahia, elder statesman, Dr. Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo, regretted that the societal ills, which made Achebe reject national honours on two occasions, still thrive in the country.

He particularly lamented the state of infrastructure, especially the deplorable Enugu-Onitsha highway, where Achebe sustained the road mishap that condemned him to a wheelchair until his death, stressing that it was unfortunate that Achebe’s remains would be taken through the same road in its poor state.

He said: “He had hoped that in his lifetime, he would see a Nigeria that is truly federal in character and practice; he had hoped that Nigerians would have come to a roundtable to discuss the basis of their continued existence; he had hoped that the leadership would have by now improved infrastructure in the country; repaired the many damaged roads in the country, which, in the first instance, condemned him to a wheelchair till death; rehabilitated our collapsing institutions and given hope to the ordinary Nigerian.

That he died without seeing these expectations come to fulfilment is an indictment on Nigeria and her leaders and an indication that all is not well with Nigeria. More than anything else, we should while paying deserved tribute to this literary icon and avatar, give serious thought to the tragedy that Nigeria has turned into if there is going to be a tomorrow for all of us.”

He said it would have been a smear on the reputation of Achebe had he accepted on two occasions national honours based on his belief that the government was notorious for its corruption, ineptitude and economic strangulation of the masses.

Nwankwo, who is the Chancellor of Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) and former presidential candidate, described Achebe as a ‘dictionary’, stressing that he lived in the library at Government College, Umuahia, devouring the writings of such writers as Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad.

He insisted that the views expressed by Achebe in his last book, There was a country, represented the minds of the Igbo, stressing that the book was outstanding because it was written with pride and not prejudice.

He said the death of Achebe had brought to an end a glorious career that spanned over six decades, adding that he reshaped the English Language to accommodate Igbo voices and concepts.
The Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) described Achebe’s death as a great tragedy not only to his immediate family, the country but to the whole world.

In a statement made available to The Guardian in Abuja, the President of the Academy, Prof. Munzali Jubril, said the passage of Achebe, who was a foundation fellow of the organisation, would continue to leave a very deep vacuum in the literary world when taken into account the impact his literary works had had on the world.

According to Munzali, a one-time Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), “Achebe is universally remembered as the author of Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, two of the great African novels of the 20th century. Both are stories of the colonial encounters told from the point of view of a post-colonial era. Besides, Achebe had a profound sense of history. For him, the past is the foundation of the present, and that what we do with our past has a consequence for posterity.

“He had always insisted on the need to understand where we are coming from if we are to remain in control of the present and future, and he applied this principle to his creative writing, and he even extended it beyond himself by mentoring the young generation of writers that would succeed an aging generation that includes Profs. Wole Soyinka and J.P. Clark, two other distinguished fellows of the academy.”

The statement continued: “His bequest to the younger generation includes creative writing journal, Okike and the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) that he founded a generation ago.

He was a creative intellectual who was politically engaged with the issues of his country. As a spokesman for races, nations, ethnic groups and small communities, he claimed the privilege of the visionary who would not see his people perish by insisting on the right of every community to tell its own story.”

Lamenting the decadence of infrastructure in the country, Munzali said: “It is an irony that such a culturally engaged writer and a nationalist should die in another country seeking medical care for an accident that he sustained through his country’s neglect of its road and infrastructure.

It should not be that Achebe, who has written so well about the indigenous civilisation of African peoples and in their defence, should now be diminished by being presented champion of one ethnic group.

“In culture-specific, but politically representative fictions, he wrote about the colonised for a global reading public as no one has written before.”

Meanwhile, at a commendation service organised by the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, in Achebe’s honour in Abuja, the Archbishop Metropolitan and Primate of Anglican All Nigeria, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, described the late writer as a great man, pride of Africa, a world-class professor and a gold medallist of African literature.

He noted that Achebe was God’s gift to Africa, Nigeria and Igbo people, adding that he developed African literature and succeeded in spreading the knowledge of African literature to the entire world through his writings.

For the Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Achebe was a man that brought fame and dignity to Nigeria.

Describing Achebe’s literary works as classic, Okonjo-Iweala noted that he encouraged other young Nigerian writers, adding that his departure had created a vacuum in the literary world.

Also speaking, Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, described Achebe as one of the most important Nigerians in the last 100 years.

On behalf of the family, the Chairman of the burial committee, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, noted the family was not mourning but celebrating his transition knowing that Achebe had achieved an immortal place in human civilisation.

I Am Neither CPC Nor ACN, I Only Discharge My Duties To Buhari: Bakare

Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly and former running mate to the presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Muhammadu Buhari, was the one who moved for the dissolution of the CPC to pave way for its merger into the All Progressives Congress (APC). 

Brendan Rodgers: It won’t be easy for Liverpool to Replace Jammie

Brendan Rodgers has admitted that Liverpool will find it tough to replace Jamie Carragher next season.

The 35-year-old defender will now retire from football after playing 737 games for the Reds.
But, after his impressive end to the campaign at Anfield, his boss is now worried about finding an adequate replacement.

We’ll be ‘very Proactive’ over the Summer – Wenger

Arsène Wenger insists Arsenal will tackle the summer transfer window in a “very proactive way” after his side secured Champions League qualification with a 1-0 victory at Newcastle.

Hummels Confident he will be fit for Champions League Final

Borussia Dortmund have received excellent news from the treatment table as Mats Hummels looks set to be fit in time to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League final next Saturday.

Ligue 1 Results: Saint-Etienne end Marseille's unbeaten run as Nancy Sent Packing

NANCY 1-2 BASTIA
Nancy ended an eight-year stay in the top-flight after defeat to Bastia saw them consigned to Ligue 2 football next season.

Wenger proud of Arsenal Character after Champions League Spot


manager Arsene Wenger praised the character shown by his players to qualify for the Champions League after a 1-0 away win at Newcastle secured fourth place ahead of Tottenham on the final day of the Premier League season.

Ferguson retirement on a satisfactory Note

Manchester United's Michael Carrick insists that outgoing manager Sir Alex Ferguson can "retire satisfied", despite the Red Devils drawing 5-5 with West Brom in the veteran's final game in charge.