The Common Transformation President Jonathan inaugurates Development Bank of Nigeria on March 23, 2015 /in News 7:38 pm

 

Abuja – President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday in Abuja inaugurated the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) in furtherance of his administration’s desire to revolutionise small businesses in the country.

Speaking at the event, Jonathan expressed optimism that the bank would eliminate all obstacles hindering the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and their ability to generate the much needed jobs for the country.
According to him, the DBN, which is a private sector driven financial institution, is meant alleviate the financial constraints being experienced by operators of small businesses for rapid and

sustainable national development.

“This launch of a brand new financial institution, the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), represents a defining milestone in our administration’s efforts to empower more micro, small and medium enterprises across our land‎.
“MSMEs form the backbone of the Nigerian economy; the men and women who own and operate them are true reflections of the strong Nigerian spirit

What a wickid world Hong Kong man who salted and cooked parents jailed for life on March 23, 2015 / in News 1:09 pm

A Hong Kong man who killed, dismembered, salted and cooked his parents was sent to prison for life on Monday after being found guilty of double murder. The conviction of Henry Chau, 31, on Friday concluded a gruesome case that shocked the city in 2013 when the severed heads of Chau’s elderly parents were found stuffed into two refrigerators.

During the 20-day trial at the city’s high court, the jury heard how Chau had dismembered his elderly parents before salting, cooking and packing their body parts into lunchboxes “like barbecued pork”.
“Your sentence on Count 1 and Count 2 is that you go to prison for life,” judge Michael Stuart-Moore told Chau, referring to the double murder charges. Sitting in the defendant’s dock, Chau, who wore a loose-fitting grey suit, looked impassive

Tunisian president says security failures helped museum killers

 Tunisian police stand guard at Carthage international airport in Tunis, after security was stepped up. Photograph:

The Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi, said security “failures” facilitated the deadly attack claimed by Isis on the country’s national museum, which killed 20 foreign tourists.

“There were failures” which meant that “the police and intelligence were not systematic enough to ensure the safety of the museum”, Essebsi told the Paris Match weekly in an interview published on Saturday.
Twenty-one people, all but one of them foreign tourists, were killed when two gunmen stormed the National Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis on Wednesday.

Afghan woman killed by mob in Kabul was innocent, says investigator

Women’s rights activists carry Farkhunda’s coffin. Photograph:

A woman killed by an angry mob in front of police in the Afghan capital last week for allegedly burning a copy of Islam’s holy book was wrongly accused, Afghanistan’s top criminal investigator has said.

Mobile phone footage circulating on social media shows police at the scene did not save the 27-year-old woman, Farkhunda, who was beaten

Buhari certificate saga: Tension in APC camp over court case on March 22, 2015 / in News 10:48 am

There is tension in the opposition All Progressives Congress as a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Abdu Kafarati, has given an order for accelerated hearing in a suit brought by a non-governmental organisation, Global Center for Conscious Living Against Corruption, asking for an order of mandamus to compel the Inspector General of Police to investigate allegations of forgery and perjury against the party’s presidential candidate, Gen Muhammadu Buhari.

In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/172/2015, filed by Professor Andrew Chukwuemerie, SAN, the plaintiffs are seeking the order of the court to order police investigation into the “alleged acquisition and possession

Wonderful thing Amaechi’s deputy dumps APC on March 22, 2015 / in News 6:44 pm

The deputy to Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Mr Tele Ikuru, Sunday, dumped his All Progressives Congress, APC, for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, describing the APC “As a party of rebels, insurgents and anarchists, clothed in robes

‘World’s worst team’ Bhutan aim to make history against Sri Lanka

Bhutan have won only four games in 33 years and once lost a match 20–0 – but the tiny Himalayan country now stand on the brink of an unimaginable success against Sri Lanka in the 2018 World Cup qualifers

 
Bhutanese football player Tshering Dorji, far left, celebrates after scoring the winner in the first leg against Sri Lanka. Photograph:

Nick Ames

Monday 16 March 2015 15.16 GMT.
Thimphu is hard to reach and, as the world’s third-highest capital city at 2,648m, even tougher for the unacclimatised to play a potential 120 minutes of football in. But it is safe to say that Sri Lanka’s footballers were not expecting a task of the gravity they will face on Tuesday, when they must overturn a 1-0 deficit in Bhutan against a team that sit bottom – at 209 – of Fifa’s world rankings and are inevitable dubbed the world’s worst as a consequence.
Nobody gave the tiny Himalayan country a chance in their first-ever World Cup qualifier last Thursday but a late winner from Tshering Dorji gave them a hitherto-unthinkable lead that they feel optimistic of retaining in the rarefied air of Changlimithang Stadium.

“Everyone was talking about us being at the bottom but we didn’t feel any pressure because you can only go one way from there and that’s upwards,” the Bhutan captain, Karma Shedrup Tshering, tells the Guardian. “All the expectation was on Sri Lanka and they were talking a lot about beating us, but we kept our calm and let our football talk for us.”
The Fifa rankings are not always the most accurate barometer and teams can be blessed or cursed by playing a smaller number of games than others – with some strange-looking changes resulting. Tuesday’s match will only be Bhutan’s 60th official fixture since 1982, and the remarkable win in Colombo was only their fourth. They have not played a game in Thimphu since April 2003.

Such a record gives little scope for a leap in the other direction and what publicity Bhutan’s team have attracted owes entirely to their lowly position. In 2002 they participated in the ‘Other Final’ against Montserrat, winning 4-0 in a game arranged between the two lowest teams in the rankings (Montserrat were bottom) and marketed to provide an alternative to the World Cup final. Less positively, a then-world record 20-0 defeat in Kuwait received inevitable attention in 2000.
“Our coach, Chokey Nima, played in that game but most of our players were hardly old enough to walk or talk when it happened,” says Tshering. “None

Jordan Henderson’s luck brings Liverpool victory at Swansea

Jordan Henderson, right, opens the scoring for Liverpool against Swansea City. Photograph

  Monday 16 March 2015 22.00 GMT Last modified 

Manchester United are back in view as the Liverpool bandwagon rolls on, courtesy of a huge slice of good fortune on what could prove to be a critical night in their quest for a place in the top four. Jordan Henderson knew little about the goal that settled this contest but that will matter little to a Liverpool side who racked up a fifth successive Premier League victory to close the gap to United to two points before Sunday’s pivotal meeting at Anfield.
Steven Gerrard had been thrown into the fray four minutes earlier as he made his comeback from injury from the bench, but it was the man who has taken over the captaincy from him who struck the critical blow. Jordi Amat got to the ball first as Henderson burst through the middle in the 68th minute but the Spaniard, making his first start in the league since September, inadvertently knocked the ball off the England international and Lukasz Fabianski was left stranded as it sailed over his head.

Spanish convents use social media to recruit new nuns

Dwindling numbers of women joining religious orders has prompted convents to modernise their marketing methods

Stephen Burgen in Barcelona

Monday 16 March 2015 15.50 GMT

Visitors to the Spanish website buscoalgomas.com are greeted by a woman asking if they feel their lives are empty and if they’ve ever considered the religious life. “Don’t run away,” she says. “You may have a vocation without even knowing it.”
The woman is Noemí Saiz, and the website, which translates as “I’m looking for something more”, is used by dozens of Spanish convents to try to recruit nuns. Spain’s religious orders, which are also turning to Facebook, WhatsApp and other social networks as recruitment tools, are facing an uphill struggle: their numbers have slumped from 6,695 in 1966 to barely 250 today.
“The website serves as an intermediary between religious orders and young people,” says Saiz, who spent a year as a nun before deciding she didn’t have what it takes. “Religious institutions need to learn about marketing.”
Convents are learning fast and some have even taken advice on search engine optimisation in order to top Google rankings for terms such as “how to become a nun”.
In 2012 Olga María, the prioress of the barefoot Carmelite convent in Valladolid in north-east Spain, went to Rome to ask for two things: permission to let would-be nuns join the convent for a trial period to see if it suited them and also permission to use social networks to recruit young women.

Nurul Izzah Anwar's arrest criticised as attempt to silence Malaysian opposition

People’s Justice party vice president, and daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, detained over parliament speech – where she has immunity.

Malaysian police have arrested the eldest daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for alleged sedition on Monday, in a move slammed by critics as a clampdown on dissent.
Nurul Izzah Anwar was detained to assist police in their investigation of an opposition rally and also for making “contemptuous remarks that those in the judiciary system had sold their souls to the devil,” national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.

A lawmaker and a vice president of her father’s People’s Justice party, Nurul Izzah was detained because of a speech she made last week in parliament, said

Democratic Republic of Congo wants to explore for oil in Virunga national park

A natural stream of running water in the Virunga national park. Oil companies want to explore for oil in the park. Photograph: Brent Stirton/WWF-Canon/Getty Images 

Reported By Melanie Gouby

Monday 16 March 2015 16.51 GMT

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s prime minister has said that his government wants to find a way to explore for oil in the Virunga national park, a Unesco world heritage site , and will engage in negotiations with the UN body to “explore judiciously”.
Virunga, Africa’s oldest and most biodiverse park, has been on the list of ‘world heritage in danger’ since 1994, as two decades of armed conflict and intense poaching by militias has taken its toll on the park’s ecosystem.

In 2007, the Congolese ministry of hydrocarbons awarded two oil concessions straddling Virunga’s boundaries to the French major Total, as well as Soco International, a British oil company registered on the London Stock Exchange.
While Total quickly agreed to never explore within the current limits of the park – even in the event of a boundaries change – Soco has carried out exploratory activities in Virunga, concluding a seismic study

UTME: Two Arrested for malpractices on March 16, 2015 / in News 1:17 pm

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE, OSOGBO.

Two candidates that sat, weekend, for the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME computer base test have been arrested by the security agents for alleged malpractices during the test.
The candidates were arrested at Esa-Oke, in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State. The candidates were alleged to have conspired with one Mr. Adebayo a.k.a Awolowo, the owner of Awolism Educational Consultant to perpetrate the unlawful act.

It was learnt that the candidates committed the offense during the computer based test at Osun




State College of Technology, Esa-Oke.
Speaking with journalists on the incident, the Coordinator of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Osun state, Mr. Johnson Adebiyi decried the attitude of the candidates, saying the board would continue to do everything within its limit to eradicate examination

Burnley’s George Boyd deals blow to Manchester City’s title hopes

  Burnley's George Boyd celebrates after scoring the only goal of the game against Manchester CIty. Photograph:

Saturday 14 March 2015 19.40 GMT

Burnley have Sunderland in their sights after this deserved win, and quite possibly Hull City and Everton too. Sean Dyche’s side were unable to climb out of the bottom three with victory over Manchester City, but they are now just a point behind the side in 17th place and in no danger of changing their manager.
City will now be officially concentrating on making progress in Europe, where they must overcome a 2-1 deficit from the first leg against Barcelona to survive at Camp Nou on Wednesday. In truth this was such a lethargic, uninspired display

Elderly nun gang-raped by robbers in eastern India:

The alleged gang-rape is the latest incident to focus attention on the scourge of sexual violence in India. Photograph

Saturday 14 March 2015 12.54 GMT Last modified on Saturday 14 March 2015 17.30 GMT

A nun in her 70s has been gang-raped by a group of robbers when she tried to prevent them from robbing a Christian missionary school in

John Terry: putting pressure on referee does not look good … but PSG make it

John Terry, third from right, is part of a group of Chelsea players remonstrating with the referee, Bjorn Kuipers, middle, just before he showed a red card to PSG's Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Photograph

Thursday 12 March 2015 12.00 GMT Last modified on Thursday 12 March 2015
John Terry has admitted Chelsea’s willingness to surround referees “does not look good at all” but he and his team-mates will continue to support each other in that way if they feel opponents, such as Paris Saint-Germain, are attempting to exert their own influence on the officials.

Nine of the London club’s outfield players had crowded around the Dutch referee, Bjorn Kuipers, following Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s challenge on Oscar just after the half-hour mark in the second leg of the teams’ Champions League knockout tie on Wednesday with the Brazilian prone on the turf. That reaction was branded “disgraceful” at the time by the former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher in his capacity as a pundit for Sky.

Ibrahimovic suggested the Chelsea players had reacted “like babies” yet Terry argued that PSG, who prevailed on away goals after extra time despite having

At least four dead and many trapped in Bangladesh factory collapse

  A man wipes the face of one of the workers injured in the cement factory collapse at Khulna hospital, Bangladesh. Photograph

At least four people have been killed and more than 100 are feared trapped after the roof of a cement factory under construction in Bangladesh collapsed.
Rescuers pulled about 40 survivors from the debris of the factory, run by a subsidiary of the Bangladesh army, in the port town of Mongla, 335km (210 miles) south-west of the

Ivory Coast court sentences wife of ex-president to 20 years in prison

Laurent and Simone Gbagbo pictured in 2009. Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters 

Reuters in Abidjan

Tuesday 10 March 2015 09.46 GMT

A court in Ivory Coast has sentenced Simone Gbagbo, the wife of the former president, to 20 years in prison for her role in a 2011 post-election crisis in which around 3,000 people were killed, her lawyer said.
Gbagbo, who is also wanted by the international criminal court,

Children killed in attack on UN Mali base

Two children from nomadic Arab Kunta tribe killed along with peacekeeper in shelling of base by militants



UN peacekeeper police officers in Bamako. Two civilians and a UN peacekeeper were killed as militants attacked a barracks used by the UN Minusma force in northern Mali. Photograph: HABIBOU KOUYATE/AFP/Getty Images

A peacekeeper and two children were killed

Tanzania police arrest 32 witch-doctors over ritual albino killings

Friday 9 March 2015 20.53 GMT Last modified on Friday 6 March 2015 21.36 GMT

Police in Tanzania said on Friday they had arrested 32 witch-doctors this week as part of a campaign against ritual killings of albinos.

Activists say attackers have killed at least 75 albinos in the east African country since 2000 to use their limbs and other body parts as charms meant to guarantee success in love, life and business.
President Jakaya Kikwete last week vowed to stamp out the practice he said brought shame on to the east African country, and albino campaigners

It was a bloody weekend in P-Harcourt as gunmen kill 11 on March 09, 2015 / in News 8:34 am

PORT HARCOURT— It was a bloody weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital as 11 persons were shot dead at different locations by unknown gunmen. Six of the victims were killed on Worlu Street in D Line close to Oroworoku community when the assailants stormed a spot near a mechanic workshop at about 7.15 pm demanding to see the owner of a vehicle parked outside.

It could not be confirmed if they saw the person they were looking for but the assailants, numbering about four, suddenly dashed

6 March 2015 Last updated at 03:03 Top US lawmakers urge Obama to send weapons to Ukraine

Leading Republicans and Democrats have urged President Barack Obama to provide lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine in its fight against pro-Russian rebels.

In a letter, House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers said Russia's actions in Ukraine were a "grotesque violation of international law".
They said that a recent truce had only consolidated rebel gains in the east.

Ukraine and the West accuse

6 March 2015 Last updated at 22:36 GMT Syria's al-Nusra Front commander 'killed in strike'

The military chief of Syria's al-Nusra Front militant group has been killed in an air strike, the group has said.

The jihadist group said on social media that three other leaders were killed along with Abu Homam al-Shami.
Syria's state-run news agency said the army had targeted Nusra leaders as they met in northern Idlib province, the Associated Press reported.

Supersand Eagles to play Ghana today on March 06, 2015 / in Sports 12:45 am

Nigeria’s Supersand Eagles will play Ghana’s Beach Soccer National Team on Friday in their first outing at the Power Horse Invitational Tournament in Durban, South Africa.

Things that limit potential on March 05, 2015 / in Business 12:58 am

By John Maxwell

Wilma Rudolph, the Olympic track and field champion of the 1960s, said, “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” We all have potential. God has designed each of us to do something great.
But why do so few people actually realise all of their success potential? If success is a hot-air balloon, then what are the sandbags hanging off the basket, weighing us down and keeping us from rising to the

Ex-militant commanders set up election monitoring groups on March 06, 2015 / in News 12:19 am

By Jimitota Onoyume

PORT HARCOURT— Former militant commanders in the Niger Delta have set up election monitoring groups ahead of the forth coming general polls.

In a statement yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, under the aegis of Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative, president of the forum of ex- militant leaders, Pastor Reuben Wilson, said the various groups would monitor the elections round the country, adding that they will ensure that the electorate were

‘My husband instructed me to hide his corpse’ on March 06, 2015 / in News 12:29 am

By Esther Onyegbula

Mrs Joy Olatunji Shittu, the widow who allegedly hid her husband’s corpse in a house since 2013 has revealed that her husband instructed her to do so, while he was alive.

According to Mrs Shittu, “the decision to hide the corpse was my husband’s dying wish because our family has been under severe attack.
“I got married to my husband in 1973, and before he died in 2013, we had six children. But two of my sons died mysteriously after their university

Male nurse bust for trying to rape patient!

By Rorisang Thale Monday, March 2, 2015 12:11

A MALE nurse has been charged with the attempted rape of a 16-year-old patient.
The 44-year-old nurse, who works at Job Shimankana Tabane Bleskop Hospital, appeared briefly in the Rustenburg Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The patient was asleep on 21 February when the suspect

MAN GETS 45 YEARS FOR RAPING 76-YEAR-OLD He threatened Gogo with a toy gun

By Sapa Sunday, March 1, 2015 07:54

An Mpumalanga man who threatened a 76-year-old woman with a toy gun before repeatedly raping her was sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison yesterday.
Leonard Dumisani Mlimi, 26, from Gutshwa near White River, was sentenced by the Nelspruit Regional Court.

He had pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape and three of armed robbery.
Passing sentencing, Magistrate Andre Geldenhuys said that on July 26, 2011, he attacked an old woman who was on her way to