Trump: Countries against Jerusalem move are enemies

US President Donald Trump used his first State of the Union address on Tuesday to describe countries which voted against his move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as "enemies of America". Trump's announcement on December 6, which included a decision to move the US embassy to the Holy City from Tel Aviv, was internationally-condemned. SOTU transcript: Migrants, minorities, foreign policy Shortly after, the UN's General Assembly (UNGA) voted the declaration as "null and void". According to a copy of Trump's planned address on Tuesday, the US president was expected to say: "Dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America's sovereign right to make this recognition. American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year. That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America's friends." When the moment came, however, Trump added: "Not enemies of America". The seemingly impromptu remark essentially labelled 128 countries as enemies. The US typically limits its definition of an "enemy" or adversary to state sponsors of "terror". The State Department lists countries including Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as enemies. "I am not going to characterise the president’s words," a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera. The UNGA vote is "a non-binding resolution that does nothing to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or advance the cause of peace." While 128 countries voted for the resolution, 35 member states abstained and seven voted against.

The Trump administration has held receptions in Washington, DC, celebrating those seven countries, including including Palau, Nauru and Israel. The United Kingdom, most of the European Union and Washington's military partners such as Iraq and Afghanistan, were among those which voted in favour of the resolution. The EU's High Representative Federica Mogherini said the bloc expressed "serious concern" about the move and said Europe remained committed to a two-state solution. Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has also sparked protests across the world. Unrest over the issue continues in the occupied Palestinian territories today. The EU and Norway convened on Wednesday an extraordinary session of the International Donor Group for Palestine to "discuss measures to speed up efforts that can underpin a negotiated" solution. No country currently has its embassy in Jerusalem.

Bashirfuntua: Eight-month-old baby raped in Delhi India

Bashirfuntua: Eight-month-old baby raped in Delhi India: The rape of an eight-month-old baby girl, allegedly by her cousin, has renewed widespread outrage in India over sexual assault. The girl ...

Eight-month-old baby raped in Delhi India

The rape of an eight-month-old baby girl, allegedly by her cousin, has renewed widespread outrage in India over sexual assault. The girl is in a critical but stable condition in a local hospital in Delhi, local media reported. Police said her 28-year-old cousin had been arrested. Swati Maliwal, chair of the Delhi Commission for Women, who visited the girl in hospital on Monday, said she had suffered "inhuman injuries" to her internal organs. She said the infant had to undergo a three-hour operation. In a tweet in Hindi, Ms Maliwal asked: "Who is responsible? The entire system has been neutered. Nobody makes a difference. When will [it] change?" In a direct message to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, she said "stricter laws and more police resources" were needed to protect girls in the country. She added: "What to do? How can Delhi sleep today when 8 month baby has been brutally raped in Capital? "Have we become so insensitive or we have simply accepted this as our fate?" Fury over sexual assault in India has been mounting after the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in Delhi in 2012. Widespread demonstrations led the government to introduce tougher punishments for rape, including the death penalty. In 2016, police received nearly 39,000 rape complaints, up 12.4 per cent from the previous year. In the same year, 19,765 cases of child rape were registered in India, an increase of 82 per cent from the year before, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Bashirfuntua: Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business sc...

Bashirfuntua: Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business sc...: The President, Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, has announced the donation of a N1.2bn structure for the running of the business school of...

Bashirfuntua: Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business sc...

Bashirfuntua: Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business sc...: The President, Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, has announced the donation of a N1.2bn structure for the running of the business school of...

Bashirfuntua: Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business sc...

Bashirfuntua: Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business sc...: The President, Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, has announced the donation of a N1.2bn structure for the running of the business school of...

Dangote donates N1.2bn building to BUK business school

The President, Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, has announced the donation of a N1.2bn structure for the running of the business school of the Bayero University, Kano.

The building, which will be handed over to the university management next month, according to a statement on Sunday, is a state-of-the-art edifice and will mark the commencement of the business school in the institution and the first in the northern part of the country. Dangote is also building a similar business school in the University of Ibadan, which will be inaugurated soon. The business schools being undertaken by the Aliko Dangote Foundation, according to Dangote, are parts of efforts to build entrepreneurship in the sub-consciousness of Nigerians through education at the highest level. He explained that the situation Nigeria had found itself necessitated revisiting school curricula to reflect the new consciousness of entrepreneurship and manufacturing, and efforts made to encourage the study of business, especially at the second level in the universities. The BUK business school comprises of auditoriums, lecture theatres, offices, classes, library, and complete electrical fittings and cooling system, among others. Speaking on the gesture of Africa’s richest man, the Dean of Faculty, Dangote Business School, BUK, Prof. Murtala Sagagi, said there was no business school in the institution until Dangote started the project. “We have an ambition to have a business school and we could not go ahead with the project, because there was no befitting structure to accommodate the kind of dream we had; but with Dangote coming in about five years ago, that was when the university decided to say this is the time to have the business school,” he stated.

Bashirfuntua: Fears over US-Turkey military confrontation in Syr...

Bashirfuntua: Fears over US-Turkey military confrontation in Syr...: A US-backed Kurdish militia has deployed fighters to the frontline of Syria's Manbij to battle Turkey's military after President Re...

Fears over US-Turkey military confrontation in Syria

A US-backed Kurdish militia has deployed fighters to the frontline of Syria's Manbij to battle Turkey's military after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it would be next after launching the cross-border Afrin operation. Manbij is about 100km east of Afrin where the United States has military personnel deployed in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), meaning troops from the NATO allies could come face to face on the battlefield. The US military coalition operating in Manbij said soldiers there have the right defend themselves against any attack, and wouldn't hesitate to do so. "Clearly we are very alert to what is happening, specifically in the area of Manbij because that is where our ... coalition forces are," spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon told Reuters news agency. "The coalition forces that are in that area have an inherent right to defend themselves and will do so if necessary." Sharfan Darwish of the Manbij Military Council - a unit of the YPG Syrian-Kurd militia currently under attack by Turkey in Afrin - said his forces were preparing to confront Turkish soldiers. "We are in full readiness to respond to any attack. Of course our coordination with the international coalition continues with regards to the protection of Manbij," said Darwish. The intensifying situation in northern Syria led to a phone call between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Trump expressed concern about Turkey's "destructive and false rhetoric" over the situation and urged caution so US and Turkish troops don't engage in battle. "He urged Turkey to de-escalate, limit its military actions, and avoid civilian casualties and increases to displaced persons and refugees," a White House statement said.

"He urged Turkey to exercise caution and to avoid any actions that might risk conflict between Turkish and American forces." Erdogan threatened earlier Wednesday to extend the Afrin offensive to Manbij to "clean our region from this trouble completely". Decades-long insurgency Turkey sees the YPG - trained, armed and supported by the US to fight against ISIL - as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a bloody decades-long insurgency in the country. Erdogan indicated one aim of the anti-YPG operation was to create a safe zone where some of the more than three million Syrians who fled to Turkey in the civil war could return. "First we will exterminate the terrorists, then we will make the area liveable. For who? For the 3.5 million Syrian guests in our land," Erdogan said. Turkey's government has hit out at "propaganda" against its cross-border action. Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin has urged the media and public to be aware of "fake, distortive and provocative news". Meanwhile, rockets fired from northern Syria slammed into a mosque and a house on Wednesday inside Turkey, killing two people and wounding 11 others. The projectiles were fired in the early evening into the border province of Kilis. One Syrian and one Turk were killed, the Kilis governor's office said, in attacks it blamed on the YPG militia in Syria. The Turkish military said 260 Kurdish and ISIL fighters were killed so far in the five-day Afrin incursion - a claim refuted by a Kurdish commander who said the number was "greatly exaggerated". Redur Xelil, an official from Syria Democratic Forces led by the YPG, denied the claim that ISIL fighters were involved in the fight for Afrin.

Bashirfuntua: BREAKING: EFCC arrests former SGF, Babachir Lawal

Bashirfuntua: BREAKING: EFCC arrests former SGF, Babachir Lawal: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, says it has arrested the former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawa...

BREAKING: EFCC arrests former SGF, Babachir Lawal

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, says it has arrested the former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal. Mr. Lawal was arrested Wednesday, Channels Television reported. Mr. Lawal was recently sacked after he was indicted by a presidential panel that investigated misuse of funds meant for people displaced by Boko Haram. He had earlier been indicted by the Senate. His arrest is coming a day after former President Olusegun Obasanjo accused Mr. Buhari of condoning corruption where persons close to him are involved. Mr. Obasanjo said in a statement that the president had failed woefully, and urged him not to seek re-election.

Bashirfuntua: Far-right politician converts to Islam, quits AfD ...

Bashirfuntua: Far-right politician converts to Islam, quits AfD ...: A leading politician from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has converted to Islam and resigned from his position with the anti-Muslim party...

Far-right politician converts to Islam, quits AfD party

A leading politician from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has converted to Islam and resigned from his position with the anti-Muslim party, the party has confirmed. Arthur Wagner, a leading member of the far-right party in Germany's eastern German state of Brandenburg, stepped down for "personal reasons", a party spokesperson confirmed, according to state broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Wagner, who has been a member of the party since 2015, refused to comment to Tagesspiegel, the daily newspaper that first broke the news of his conversion. "That's my private business," he told the daily. On the party's Brandenburg state committee, Wagner's work focused on churches and faith communities, according to Deutsche Welle. The AfD has campaigned against refugees and migrants and made history when it won 12.6 percent of the vote in federal elections in September 2017, entering the Bundestag for the first time. The party became the third largest party in the Bundestag. The news sparked derision on social media, with many Twitter users pointing to the irony of Wagner converting to Islam after being a high-ranking member of a party that has railed against the presence of Muslims in Germany. Emily Dische-Becker said: "Creeping Sharia picks up speed as politician from Germany's islamophobic AfD converts to Islam." Mark Berry said: "I really don't understand Nazis." 'Islam is a foreign entity' The AfD has long denied accusations that it is Islamophobic. Originally founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party, the AfD took the lead as the most aggressive anti-refugee voice in the country while nearly a million asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2015. In the party's first bill since its electoral success in September, the AfD proposed amending Germany's Residence Act by barring refugees from bringing their relatives from the war-ravaged countries they fled. Earlier this month, Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD's parliamentary group, was blocked from Facebook and Twitter after publishing Islamophobic posts criticising police for posting Arabic-language updates on New Year's Eve. She had written: "What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?" The party has also sought to ban the construction of mosques in Germany. In March 2016, the party's Bavaria branch published a policy statement calling for an end to the "construction and operation" of mosques in the region, Deutsche Welle reported at the time. In February of that year, then party leader Petry Frauke sparked outrage when she proclaimed that German border guards should "use fire arms if necessary" in order to prevent "illegal border crossings" by refugees and migrants. In April 2016, the AfD's Alexander Gauland proclaimed that Germany must remain "a Christian country" and "Islam is a foreign entity". The rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric has also coincided with a spike in violence against asylum seekers. The German interior ministry documented 3,533 attacks on refugees and their accommodations - nearly 10 a day - in 2016.

Benue killings all you need to know

The Benue State Governor , Samuel Ortom , on Monday insisted that the state did not have land for the establishment of cattle colonies as being proposed by the Federal Government . President Muhamamdu Buhari had on Monday at a meeting in Abuja appealed to the government and people of Benue State to “ in the name of God” accommodate their countrymen . But Ortom said the size of the land required for the proposed cattle colonies was not available in Benue, adding that the Federal Government should arrest and prosecute leaders of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore who he accused of making inciting statements ; and allegedly being the brains behind the January 1 killings in parts of the state . Ortom spoke with State House correspondents after leading some leaders of the state to a closed -door meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa , Abuja . The governor said, “ Like I told you the last time I came here , I did not understand what colonies meant. “ Today , I was privileged to meet the Minister of Agriculture and he did explain to me that a colony is many ranches put in one place, restricted in one place. “ So , for us in Benue State , there is no 10 ,000 hectares ; we have no 10 ,000 hectares for that kind of a thing to take place. “ Other states have the land, but we in Benue State ; we don’ t have and that was what led to us enacting this law ( anti-open grazing law ) . ” Ortom lamented that several people were killed in the recent attacks, while more than 60 , 000 people were displaced . He said leaders of the state thought it was wise for them to meet Buhari on the matter, adding that the meeting was at their instance. He noted that while the current situation in the state was relatively calm , there were still pockets of issues . “ For the past five days , we have witnessed two killings compared to what happened before. “ Other places are relatively calm ; the security men and the Inspector- General of Police and the Benue State Government have been working day and night to ensure that we bring the situation under control and stop the killings . “ There are still security issues from one town to another like a few days ago that we had uproar in the Makurdi Local Government Area , where some hoodlums wanted to take advantage of the situation to create confusion so they can loot ,” he said. Ortom said the delegation renewed their call on the President to ensure the arrest and prosecution of the leaders of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore . “ We made a strong appeal to Mr . President to arrest those people that perpetrated this act , the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore , because they are not above the law . “ They made inciting statements against our people and they perpetrated this act. They are still issuing threats and it is not just anti- grazing law ; the manner with which they came and invaded the towns and took over the land was something else, ” he added . While expressing confidence in the leadership of Buhari, the governor said the President had assured them that there would be no room for impunity. He added , “ We believe in the leadership of Mr. President because he is a disciplined and an upright man and we believe he will sanction these people . “ He assured us that there is no room for impunity, the law of the land must take its course. “ He directed the IG , who was at the meeting, to arrest those who perpetrated this act and prosecute them according to the law . “ He assured us that he would do everything possible to ensure that Benue State is peaceful and there is no further killing. ” When asked to shed more light on the letter he said he wrote to the President on the imminent attacks without getting any response, Ortom said, “ Like I said , the President renewed his directive to the IG in our presence that those who are perpetrating this should be arrested and prosecuted. “ I was told that it (letter ) was being processed and I hope by now it has been processed and that action will be taken now that the entire delegation from Benue State is here and Mr. President has directed the IG that something should be done about this matter because we cannot allow lawlessness and impunity. “ When people violate the law and they are not sanctioned, it becomes a problem . “ I believe that these people will be arrested because there is enough evidence against them. ” Ortom denied reports that he was arming militias , describing the allegation as mere distraction. “ It is not true. I see that as distraction completely from the main issue that we are talking about . These people were not even arrested in Benue State . “ If we are being killed in the magnitude that we saw and we have weapons of what I saw in the media , I know that five AK- 47 s can sack a whole community . “ So if we have such weapons and I as governor, my local government had been attacked and people killed, property destroyed and so on; so will I go and sponsor a militia in Taraba State ? “ Then you should go back to history , from 2015 when I took over I organised an amnesty programme which saw the disarmament of over 800 youths and more than 700 weapons were turned in which were destroyed in the presence of security men and the UN and the committee on small weapons and light arms from the Presidency . “ So it is not true, it is false . It is meant to turn facts away from the reality that is happening on the ground, ” he said. The governor explained that the state’ s anti- open grazing law originated from the people. “ The law is a win- win; it provides security for the herdsmen and the farmers. And as far as we are concerned, the implementation of the law is going on smoothly, he added. ” “ As I talk to you , several people have been arrested and arraigned before the court both from the herdsmen side and also from the natives . “ It may interest you to know that three of our youths, who went and rustled cattle and killed a Fulani man , were arrested by the police . They have been arraigned and are remanded in custody in Makurdi . “ We have also arrested more than 18 herdsmen who violated the law and they were arraigned before a court. “ These killers that came from January 1 ; about eight of them have been arrested and are going to be prosecuted . And Mr. President has said that he is not going to protect any criminal and we are happy about this .” Ortom said the people of the state met Buhari because they needed an assurance from the President since they were part of his constituency . He faulted insinuations that the implementation of the law caused the killings . “ For us , we have seen that even before the law , killings were taking place even more than what we are witnessing today. What we are looking for are ways of getting out of it and we have found a way and that is the law which seeks to protect all. “ We are not sending anyone away from Benue State . The herdsmen ; whether you are Igbo , Fulani, Hausa , Idoma, Tiv , anywhere you come from, you are free to obtain permit and then do the ranch and you are protected. “ Benue State will protect you from cattle rustlers when you do this and a farmer will also go to the farm without being intimidated or harassed by any herdsman . “ So , for us ; we have communicated and the President has given us an assurance that he will protect lives and property and Benue State cannot be an exception , ” Ortom added. The meeting which was meant to find ways of restoring peace to the state was attended by Benue State Deputy Governor, Benson Abounu, a former President of the Senate, David Mark; a former governor George Akume; Tor Tiv, Prof. James Ayatse, Senator Barnabas Gemade , a former Attorney - General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa; Senator Joseph Wayas ; Gen. Lawrence Onoja (retd) , Brig. Gen . John Atom Kpera ( retd) , Sen . J. K. Waku and Speaker of the state House of Assembly , Terkimbir Kyamb . Also in attendance were the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan- Ali; Minister of Agriculture , Audu Ogbeh; Minister of Interior and Abdulrahman Dambazzau. ‘Accommodate your countrymen’ Earlier at the meeting at the Presidential Villa , Abuja , Buhari appealed to the government and people of Benue State to “in the name of God” accommodate their countrymen . He assured them that all the perpetrators of violence in the state would be made to face the wrath of the law . According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity , Mr. Femi Adesina, Buhari was quoted as promising that all those involved in the conflict that culminated in the loss of lives would not escape justice. The President commiserated with the victims of the attacks, and the families who lost loved ones and property . He said relevant agencies had been directed to start catering for their needs . The President said, “ Your Excellency , the governor, and all the leaders here, I am appealing to you to restrain your people. “ I assure you that the police , the Department of State Services and other security agencies had been directed to ensure that all those behind the mayhem are punished. “ I ask you in the name of God to accommodate your countrymen . You can also be assured that I am just as worried, and concerned with the situation . ” The President told the delegation that his administration had already begun a process of finding a lasting solution to the perennial challenge of herdsmen conflict with farmers and communities around the country. He said the Inspector- General of Police , Ibrahim Idris , had been directed to relocate to the state to provide security for lives and property . In his remarks , Ortom said the tension would be reduced with the Federal Government ’s intervention . “ We will leave here to rebuild confidence in our people ,’’ he said. The Tor- Tiv, Prof. Ayatse, said his domain had been thrown into mourning due to the incessant attacks. “ We want you to put an end to the gruesome situation , ’’ he added . Benue killings : You lied , Osinbajo replies Ortom Vice- President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said he was shocked by media reports that quoted the Benue State Governor, Ortom , as saying he ( Osinbajo) was warned ahead of the January 1 killings in the Logo and Guma local government areas of the state . In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity , Mr . Laolu Akande, the Vice -President described as “ a terrible falsehood ” the suggestion that he was informed by the governor or anyone else of the killings . The statement read, “Governor Ortom wrote to the Vice- President, then Acting President , on June 7 , 2017, protesting against a newspaper publication where the leadership of Miyetti Allah was reported to have stated that it was opposed to the open grazing prohibition law of the state and that they would mobilise to resist the law . “ The Miyetti Allah had written to the Vice -President on the 5 th of June 2017 on the same law protesting against several sections of the law . “ The governor went on to say that the leadership of Miyetti Allah should be arrested because they used words such as ‘ wicked, obnoxious and repressive, ’ to describe the law , and because these were ‘ utterances that are capable of undermining the peace …’ “ The Vice -President subsequently met with the governor, discussed the matter and the security situation in the state and then ordered law enforcement agencies to be on the alert to prevent any attack or violence . This was in June 2017. ” The statement noted that in the said letter written by the governor, there was no mention of any threat to any specific one of the 23 local government areas of Benue State. It explained that the best the law enforcement agencies could do was to await information or intelligence of an imminent attack and none of such came. It added that since then , the Vice- President had held meetings with the Benue State governor, including a visit to the state on September 6 , 2017 , at the instance of Buhari during the tragic floods in the state . At all the meetings, according to the statement , the Vice -President discussed the security situation of the state with the governor. It noted that the then Acting President also convened a major national security retreat which was attended by all state governors , service chiefs and heads of security agencies . It added that the retreat featured detailed discussions on the herdsmen / farmers’ clashes . “ To the best of our knowledge, neither Governor Ortom nor the Federal Government was aware of the imminence of the cowardly attack on the Logo and Guma areas on the 1 st of January, and therefore any suggestion that the President or the Vice -President ignored the state governor’s warning is both absolutely false and certainly misleading ,” the statement said. MASSOB hails Abia, Anambra for rejecting cattle colonies The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra has commended Anambra and Abia states for rejecting the Federal Government ’ s proposal for the establishment of cattle colonies. Describing the proposal as anti- people, MASSOB commended the governors of the two states, Willie Obiano (Anambra ) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia ) , for their courage. A statement by the MASSOB leader, Uchenna Madu, said, “ We salute the courageous spirit of the governors for opposing the anti- peoples Federal Government policy , which only favours the Fulani and their cows . ” The group insisted that allowing the establishment of “ colonial village for Fulani herdsmen and their cows simply means allowing a known enemy to dine and sleep with a hated opponent .” The statement partly read, “ It will not be far- fetched to conclude that the Fulani herdsmen and their kinsmen are pawns in an agenda to overrun all towns in Nigeria . “ So that soon, we will have emirs in Owerri, Enugu, Benin , Agatu, Wukari , Abeokuta and other towns where the Federal Government is planning to create grazing colonies for Fulani herdsmen .” Don’t drag Nigeria into civil war – CAN tells FG The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria , Taraba State , on Monday called on Buhari to end herdsmen killings across the country to prevent the country from going into a civil war. At a press conference in Jalingo, CAN Chairman in the state , Rev . Ben Ubeh, said the killings going on across the country with impunity by Fulani herdsmen were capable of pushing the country into an unprecedented civil war. This is even as the body called on the Taraba State Governor , Darius Ishaku , not to be bothered by the blackmail from MACAN over the implementation of the open grazing prohibition law . “ We call on President Buhari , the northern Emirs and the patrons of Miyetti Allah to prevent the country from going into another needless civil war. “ Cattle breeding is a private business and you cannot force your private business on the resources of others. If the Federal Government creates cattle colonies , would they create piggery colonies across states in the north? “ We support ranching as the best solution to the killings going on in the country. Ranching is the way to go and the Federal Government should stop playing politics with the lives of innocent Nigerians to please a particular group in the country, ” he said. While accusing the Federal Government of playing double standard on issues of security in the country, CAN said the government last year declared Independent People of Biafra as a terrorist group and launched the Operation Python Dance, and Operation Crocodile Smile against IPOB and Niger Delta Avengers, but failed to do so on herdsmen “ who have killed more people than Boko Haram . “ We urge the Federal Government to live up to its constitutional responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the people. It will not be in the interest of anybody if the people resort to self - defence because government has failed to protect them, ” the state CAN chairman said.

NIGERIANS ARE YET TO EXPERIENCE CHANGE IN POWER SUPPLY – OBASANJO

Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo, said on Saturday that Nigerians are still expecting the change promised by the Federal Government in the power sector. This is coming as the Nigerian Society of Engineers announced a decline in the general infrastructure in Nigeria. Obasanjo spoke at the investiture of Adekunle Mokuolu as the 31st President of the NSE. He said Nigerians, being the consumers of electricity, were in the best position to assess the power situation and not the figure being released by the government officials. He challenged the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Mr. James Olotu, an award recipient on the occasion, to ensure that Nigerians enjoyed value for their money. Obasanjo, before presenting the award to Olotu, asked him if all the power plants had been completed and the NDPHC boss responded, saying they were over 90 per cent completed. Obviously not convinced by Olotu’s answer, Obasanjo noted that the supply of electricity in various homes would determine if the country had actually experienced the desired change in the power sector or not. Obasanjo said, “Let’s hope that the 100 per cent of the (NIPP projects) will be completed and all of them will be feeding power into our homes. Maybe we will see the change.”

Usain Bolt turns to soccer, on trial at Dortmund

Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man may have retired from sprints, he is turning his passion elsewhere: professional soccer. The eight-time Olympic gold medalist, says he has a trial set with Borussia Dortmund in March. But the possibility of playing for the German club, despite it being one of the most popular is Europe, is not what’s drawing the Jamaican sprinter to the sport. “One of my biggest dreams is to sign for Manchester United,” Bolt said in an interview with The Express. “If Dortmund say I’m good enough, I’ll crack on and train hard. I’ve spoken to (Man United coaching legend) Alex Ferguson and I told him he needs to put in a good word. He told me if I get fit and ready, he will see what he can do.” Dortmund and Bolt share a sponsor in Puma, which makes the tryout an easy match. Bolt, 31, a longtime Man United fan, retired from the track after damaging his hamstring at the World Championships in London in August. However, he told The Express that the injury is “now fine and I’m back to fully fit.” Still, Bolt admitted that the swagger he showed throughout his four Olympic Games and record-breaking runs has yet to transfer on the soccer field. “It makes me nervous,” Bolt said of the upcoming trial. “I don’t get nervous but this is different, this is football now. It’ll take time to adjust but once I play a few times I’ll get used to it. It was the same when I started track and field. I was nervous for a while until I started getting used to the crowd, people and everyone around and it falls into place.” Bolt has for years shared his goal of crossing over into soccer, but no matter how far he takes it, he’ll always be remembered first and foremost as the greatest sprinter of all time.

Senator Waku reveals those behind herdsmen killings

Senator Joseph Waku, Pro-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to go after leaders of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association (MACBAN). He insisted that they were the persons behind herdsmen killings nationwide. Waku accused MACBAN of making “provocative statements” before the January 1 attack. He accused the cattle breeders of vowing to disobey the Benue anti-open grazing law “even before it was promulgated.” Waku lamented that MACBAN leaders have already stated that “killings in the state were in response to the theft of their cattle by Benue villagers”. He urged the President to order security agencies to also go after those encouraging the violence, to demonstrate a commitment to securing Nigerians from violence attacks. The Federal Government must act swiftly to restore law and order. Clearly, the situation is beyond the state government,” he told NAN. Gunmen, last week, invaded villages in Guma and Logo Local Governments, killing scores and burning several houses. Malam Yusuf Ardo, MACBAN National Publicity Secretary, had told newsmen recently that the anti-open grazing law passed by the Benue Government was targeted at herdsmen. Ardo had argued that the restriction of open grazing was not healthy for the specie of cattle reared in Nigeria, explaining that the cows “consume a lot”.

CAF Awards: Drogba’s phone stolen in Ghana’s State House

Former Ivory Coast striker, Didier Drogba, lost his phone while hosting the 2017 CAF Awards on Wednesday. Drogba co-hosted the gala night with South African broadcaster, Carol Tshabalala, at the State House Banquet Hall in Accra, Ghana. According to abidjantv.net, the former Chelsea player was focused on the event, when he realized his “mobile phone had disappeared”. “Sadly, the icon had to return to his base without his phone,” the report added. Recall that Gabon forward, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, also lost his luggage in transit to Abuja for the 2016 CAF Awards. He wrote this on his Instagram page afterwards: “When you arrive for the ceremony…. and they lost our baggage!! So that’s how we dress tonight. Thanks Lufthansa.”

Improving Your Relationship With Money In 2018

The turning of the calendar year is traditionally a time when you feel inspired by the possibilities of a new start, a new beginning, and the onset of positive change. It can be a time that is empowering, energetic and life supporting; it can forever alter the trajectory towards a more successful money life. But like any change, you want to consider the good, the bad, the ugly, and importantly, the challenges that transitions can bring.

You can conquer your transition by distilling it down to key essential components: 1. As Simon Sinek says, “Start with Why”. Understand not only why change is beneficial to your life but also that the outcomes are so powerful and important that no other choice remains. Begin with a declaration. For example: I must become debt-free within the next 12 months; or I must accumulate X dollars to go towards a down payment on a home, or We must open and fund a college savings program for my child by February 1. You get the drill; it’s about why, in your heart and mind, something must occur. These are known as your “Money Musts”. 2. The second step is to get a handle on where you are right now. If your “must” is to pay off your credit cards, then you have to know exactly how much money you owe, to whom, and how much money you have to reduce the debt. Using credit card debt as the example, you might need to tighten your belt and alter some of your spending decisions to a greater or lesser degree. If paying off the cards is so important, ask yourself what you’re willing to do to make that happen! The same question applies for savings and investment goals. If you cannot make more money, the cash flow needs to come out of your current spending and shifts need to be made in your spending habits. 3. Look back to look forward. Your money beliefs, habits and behavior typically stems from your childhood. What you heard, synthesized, and adopted from your early life becomes your “normal” in adulthood. However, just because this is what you grew up believing doesn’t make it necessarily appropriate or beneficial for you today. Consider that those beliefs, habits and behaviors might not support your adult values—or your partner’s, if you have one. If that’s true for you, it’s time to rethink your beliefs, rewire your habits and realign your behavior to actuate your life today and your future goals. 4. Anchor past successes. Can you remember a time when you made a successful change? It doesn’t matter how small it might seem, but if you can recall what you did and how your mindset impacted the outcome, it can be a powerful tool in working towards success on your New Year’s resolution. Remember the feeling you had when you accomplished your goal; and use that sentiment to commit and motivate you to make future positive changes and money habits. 5. Consider the roadblocks. If you’ve ever been on a diet, you know that somewhere between the first day of eating sensibly and you reaching your goal, there will be a piece of chocolate cake, dish of ice cream, candy bar or bagel that looks you right in the eye and demands you to eat it—tempting you to veer off your track to success. Your ability to get past that “demand” is the difference between success and failure. These transition periods can be hard to overcome, but if you know it’s coming and manage your expectations so as not to be surprised or off put, they are less difficult to conquer. This is where you need a support system, so that when that part of your brain is telling you to dig into some retail therapy or that delicious looking cookie, you need to be armed with the strength to resist. This is where having friends and professionals around you to help support you is so vital. Surround yourself with those who have the expertise and the willingness to help support and guide you through the process of getting yourself to where YOU want to go. 6. Small steps rule! Setting up small steps leads to successes and lowers the pain threshold. Small steps are less intimidating and tend to be easier to envision; and thus take action on. If you are currently paying the minimum on the credit card each month, consider the following: pay your bill every time you get paid, not when the bill is due. Taking this small advanced action step can make a big difference. Find places in your spending that hold less value to you than getting out of debt. Start with the areas of the least pain. For example, set a smaller entertainment budget by, say, $100 per month and adding that $100 to your payment. Think of the things you can change that won’t kill you, but that will help decrease your debt each pay period. 7. Missteps are common. It’s not uncommon to make mistakes. If you’re changing your eating habits, and one day you fall to the desire for a piece of cake, there is nothing preventing you from starting the next day anew with the understanding that a misstep is not fatal. The same applies to changing your money behaviors. You decide your goals and the road to get there. 8. Appreciate the journey. Celebrate each success Each step forward deserves acknowledgment. The act of focusing on what you did right sets up the next victory. Each dollar you pay off, or dollar that you accumulate, brings you closer to your ultimate goal. Don’t wait to celebrate! Build one victory on top of the other. You deserve it. Your New Year’s resolution can be the beginning of a new, richer and a more purposeful money life. It requires awareness, action and support to take it from thought to action. I know you can do it!

Herdsmen crisis: Buhari orders IGP Idris move to Benue

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idristo move immediately to Benue State to restore law and order and forestall the escalation of herdsmen-farmers crisis.

Buhari gave the order on Monday night, accord to a statement by police spokesman Jimoh Moshood. The order came as more killings of innocent people by herdsmen in Guma and Logo Local Government Areas in Benue State were reported. In compliance with the order, Idris is moving into the troubled state with additional five units of Police Mobile Force (PMF). On Sunday, the police chief deployed, among other security measures, five MOPOL units. There are now ten of them in the crisis areas. More Units of the Police Special Forces, Counter Terrorism Units, and Conventional Policemen were also deployed to the State on Monday. “The Aerial Surveillance by Police Helicopters will continue, while the Police Mobile Force Personnel, Police Special Forces and conventional Police Personnel, the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), Police Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD) and Special Police Joint Intelligence and Investigation Teams already deployed to Benue State will carry on relentlessly with the patrols and crime prevention activities in the affected areas to sustain the normalcy that have been restored in the State”, Moshood said. “The Force will not hesitate to deal decisively with trouble maker(s), any group(s) or individual for conduct likely to instigate the escalation of the crisis. The full weight of the law will be applied on anyone arrested for being responsible for the mayhem in the affected areas in the State. “While once again, the Nigeria Police Force commiserate with Government and the people of Benue State over the loss of innocent lives, the Force implored them to cooperate with the Nigeria Police Force in this latest effort to restore lasting peace in the State. “The commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to ensure Law and order and protection of lives and property of all Nigerians throughout the Country remains unequivocal and unwavering”, Moshood said. At another meeting in Abuja, attended by IGP Idris, governors of Benue, Taraba, Plateau and Nasarawa, Adamawa, Niger and Kaduna States, and the Minister of Interior, Lt. General Abdulrahman Dambazau, a strategy to check the blood spilling between herdsmen and farmers was worked out. Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue said there was now synergy among the security agencies, the federal and state governments to combat the challenge. 
Ortom, who was joined by his Taraba counterpart, Darius Ishaku, declined to give details of the strategies, saying it was a security matter not meant for public consumption.
 “As you can see all the governors of the states where we have the most challenging security problem are here.
 “We have dialogued; we have looked at the problem with the security chiefs and appreciated each other.
 “One thing that is central is that we have agreed that killing in any form is not allowed; security men must apprehend and prosecute those responsible.
 “There is no point politicising these killings; it is the responsibility of all Nigerians to eliminate the criminality that is resulting in the killings,” Ortom said.
 The governor said it was also agreed at the meeting that Nigerians should desist from hate speeches that were fuelling the crisis.

Researchers find cure for gambling addiction

A cure capable of weaning some young and old Nigerians from gambling addiction is being tested by researchers in Finland. Finnish researchers on Monday said they were to launch a study to see if gambling addiction can be treated with a fast-working nasal spray. The spray contains naloxone, an emergency treatment for opiate overdoses (heroin, opium, morphine) that blocks the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to pleasure with a central role in addictions. “The spray goes to the brain in a few minutes so it’s very useful for a gambler… if you crave gambling, just take the spray,” Hannu Alho, professor of addiction medicine at the Helsinki-based National Institute for Health and Welfare, told AFP. Up to 130 volunteers will take part in the experiment, which is “the first of its kind globally to use nasal spray,” Alho said. Half will use the treatment for three months, and the other half will get a placebo. Alho said a previous attempt to beat gambling addiction with a pill containing a substance similar to naloxone had benefits, but wasn’t efficient enough as the pill takes at least one hour before it is absorbed. “Gambling is a very impulsive behaviour…the need to gamble starts right away,” Alho said. “For this reason we are seeking a medication with a quick effect…the nasal spray acts in just a few minutes.” The nasal spray has been used successfully for emergency treatment of overdoses of heroine and other opiates, but the idea to use it as a quick solution to deter people from gambling has not been studied previously, according to a report by a Finnish newspaper. Naloxone was patented back in 1961 and in April 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a hand-held pocket-sized automatic injector naloxone product for use in non-medical settings. Development of a nasal spray containing the medicine instead of an injection was then fast-tracked in the US to reduce rising death tolls from opiate overdoses. THL’s research professor Hannu Alho is quite optimistic about the Finnish study’s potential. A similar study was carried out at THL five years ago that used a naloxone pill, and it seemed to be of benefit. “The urge to gamble is a very impulsive one. The need comes on very quickly. It could take up to an hour for a pill to work… But then we got this idea to dilute the medicine in water and develop a nasal spray. We assume it will work quickly. We studied the response rate at the University of Turku, and yes, it did seem to work in the space of just a few minutes,” he explains. In practice, this could mean that someone who feels compelled to gamble at a slot machine when they enter a shop can use the nasal spray and feel the urge to gamble start to dissipate before they reach the machines. “If you really want to play, you can use the spray and then the urge will go away. This is the hypothesis of our study,” Alho says. “Preventing the urge with medicine might help them not to play or play for just a bit and then stop.” The experiment is to be launched next week and is expected to last for a year.

Nigeria’s external reserves hit $40.4bn

As projected by the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele at the Annual Bankers’ Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) in Lagos last November, the nation’s External Reserves have hit a new level of $40.4 Billion. This is even as the Bank injected a total of $210 million into the interbank Foreign Exchange Market in the first round of trading for the year on Monday, January 8, 2018. Figures obtained from the CBN on Monday, January 8, 2018 indicate that the External Reserves reached the $40.4 Billion mark on Friday, January 5, 2018, indicating an increase of about one billion United States dollars between December 2017 and January 2018. Confirming the figure, the Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor attributed the accretion to the country’s reserves to the Bank’s strategy to effectively manage forex demand by various sectors of the economy. Citing the CBN policy restricting access to forex from the Nigerian forex market by importers of some 41 items as the major turning point, Okorafor said the policy had helped to stop the hemorrhaging of the country’s external reserves, which hitherto witnessed heavy depletion due to huge import bills and other debt obligations. According to him, the CBN policy had ensured a decline in Nigeria’s import bills from over $5 billion monthly in 2015 to about $1.5 billion in 2017. He expressed optimism that with the determination of the Bank and the cooperation of the fiscal authorities, the external reserves will continue to enjoy more accretion in the course of 2018. Meanwhile, the CBN injected a total of $210 million into interbank window of the foreign exchange market on Monday, for requests in the wholesale, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles segments of the market. A breakdown of the figure indicates that the CBN offered $100m to the Wholesale sector while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles windows each received $55 million.

Brexit: Don’t believe people who say Britain will stay in the EU, president Juncker says

The president of the European Commission has warned against believing claims that Brexit will not happen and that Britain will remain in the EU.

Speaking at a discussion of the next EU budget in Brussels Jean-Claude Juncker said the Commission’s “working hypothesis” would be that “our British friends will be leaving us” and that future spending had to be planned accordingly. Mr Juncker said the loss of the UK, a net contributor, from the EU budget, meant other EU countries would have to contribute more. We need more than 1 per cent [increase in spending] if we are to pursue EU policies and fund them adequately,” the Commission President said. “Don’t believe those who say [Brexit] is not going to happen. Our working hypothesis is that our British friends will be leaving us. “Between now and then we need to find the means of reacting to the loss of a significant number of billion of euros when a net contributor goes.” Mr Juncker ruled out “drastic” cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy or EU cohesion funds, which he said were necessary to maintain Europe’s food security and to even out disparities in wealth between different parts of the union. Justifying increased spending, he said EU membership was worth roughly “one cup of coffee a day” for the EU taxpayer, adding: “I think Europe is worth more than one cup of coffee a day.” The current budget round started in 2014 and will end in 2020, and the EU will have to agree a new budget before then. The EU’s current budget is around €105 billion a year, or £92.8 billion. The largest gross contributors ahead of the UK are Germany, France, and Italy, who contribute around 21 per cent, 16 per cent, and 14 per cent respectively. The UK contributes 13 per cent.

The UK had the second highest net contribution, however, behind Germany. Only nine of the 28 member states are net contributors to the redistributive budget. As part of ongoing Brexit negotiations, the European Parliament has called for the UK to make “commensurate” payments to the EU for access to the bloc’s markets – though UK figures, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, have ruled this out. Under the understanding reached by negotiators in December, the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until the end of the current spending round in 2020. Eloise Todd, chief executive of Remain campaigners Best for Britain, said: "President Juncker is completely wrong to say Brexit is a dead certainty. "We have until March 2019; the government wants the date set in stone because every day that goes by exposes their strategy of pretending Brexit is all things to all comers. "The government think the wool can be pulled over the British public’s eyes: Ireland isn’t sorted, the kind of Brexit we will end up with isn’t sorted, and all the public announcements made by Theresa May about pick n' mix Brexit are impossible."

Atiku reacts to Tinubu’s alleged support for him, says Nigeria in trouble under Buhari

Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, has launched a fresh attack on the Federal Government, saying Nigerians are currently “jobless, hopeless.”

The former Vice President said this while reacting to insinuations that national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu was in support of his 2019 presidential ambition. Speaking through his media aide, Paul Ibe, Abubakar stressed that he has become the issue in Nigerian politics because Nigerians have seen him as the best option in the face of the challenges they are facing. The Waziri of Adamawa maintained that the current administration has no solutions to Nigeria’s problems except blame game. In a chat with The Sun, Ibe said: “As such, he will be the subject of falsehoods and accusations. It comes with the territory. These conjectures are baseless and without foundation whatsoever and I will not dignify them with a further response. Nigerians are jobless; poverty and hopelessness is rife. “Our own Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that over 10 million Nigerians have lost their jobs under this administration even as unemployment currently stands at 18.8 percent. Meanwhile, the cost of everything from food, to petrol, to electricity has gone up. Waziri Atiku Abubakar knows how to create jobs and opportunities and his focus is to alleviate the pains of the long suffering Nigerian people who spent their Christmas at fuel stations and from all indications may spend the early part of the New Year also at fuel stations rather than with loved ones.”

Syrian forces recapture military base from rebels

The Syrian army has reclaimed a military site on the outskirts of the country's capital, Damascus, from rebel forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Government troops "managed to open a road" on Sunday to the Military Vehicles administration base in the city of Harasta, in the Eastern Ghouta district, freeing some 200 troops trapped inside the compound, the British-based monitor said. The government forces had been besieged by rebel fighters from the Ahrar al-Sham group and al-Rahman Corps since an offensive on December 31, during which anti-government forces expanded their control over the site. Some 160 pro-government and rebel fighters have been killed in fighting over the base since December 31, according to SOHR. Rebel forces stormed the site in November 2017 in an attempt to prevent government strikes on rebel-held enclaves in Eastern Ghouta. Government assaults on the district have been frequent in recent weeks and are believed to be part of the Syrian government's strategy to retake rebel-held positions. At least 17 civilians were killed in aerial bombardments in the area on January 6, taking the total number of civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta to 103 - including 47 women and children - since December 29, according to the SOHR. Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify the figures. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, an adviser to a coalition of medical charities operating in Syria, told Al Jazeera from the UK city of Salisbury that more than 120 children were in need of urgent medical care in the Eastern Ghouta district, noting that the last week and a half has been "horrific in terms of the amount of attacks". Eastern Ghouta is one of a handful of so-called de-escalation zones in Syria, in which military activity is prohibited under a ceasefire agreement reached last year by Turkey, Russia and Iran. The area is one of the last rebel strongholds in the country and is home to some 400,000 people. A four-year government siege has led to a humanitarian crisis, with severe shortages of food and medicine. Car bomb attack Elsewhere in Syria, at least 23 people, including seven civilians, were killed in a car bomb attack on Sunday in the country's northwestern city of Idlib, according to the SOHR. The blast, for which there has been no claim of responsibility so far, struck the military headquarters of the Ajnad al-Kavkaz armed group, the monitor reported. The monitor, which gathers its information from a network of sources inside Syria, added that it was not clear whether the attack was specifically targeting the group's base. The rebel-held province of Idlib has seen increased violence in recent weeks as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad intensifies his efforts to gain control over the region. Government forces have captured more than 60 villages in Idlib province in the past two weeks, according to the SOHR.

Nigeria flying citizens from Libya amid 'endemic' abuse

Nigeria is flying out thousands of its citizens from Libya who face grave abuses such as rape and slavery as they attempt to reach Europe through the war-torn North African nation.

Large numbers of Nigerians have been trapped in Libya where they were trying to cross to Italy by sea, but were stopped by local armed factions and the Libyan coastguard. Nigerian officials on a fact-finding mission to Libya expressed shock at what they saw and heard from victims. "They talked about various abuse - systematic, endemic, and exploitation of all kinds," said Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. "There were obviously interests that wanted to keep as many of them there as possible because they were commodities." Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Libyan capital Tripoli, said Nigerians there told of abuses such as slavery, rape, imprisonment, and torture. "These happened either in the hands of the authorities or people-smugglers," Idris said. "The journey back home for them is a mixed bag. A lot of them are happy that they are free at last, but disappointed that many lost so much in this country and they are going back with nothing." Thousands to be evacuated Citizens of Nigeria, the most-populated country on the African continent, have been the largest group of migrants travelling to Libya to try and cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Nigeria's government said the rescue flights will continue for as long as necessary, estimating that about 5,500 people would be flown back to their country. "If I'll die, I want to die in my country. I have suffered so much in the last few months after I left my great country of Nigeria," a migrant waiting to fly back home told Al Jazeera, warning others not to make the sa me mistake he made. Another said he wanted to go to Italy when he reached Libya. "But now in this situation, I want to go back to my country." The UN's International Organization for Migration said 171,635 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea during 2017, with nearly 70 percent arriving in Italy. The remainder were divided among Greece, Cyprus and Spain. This compared with 363,504 arrivals during the same period in 2016, according to the agency.

Abuja-Kaduna railway: Shehu Sani reacts, faults El-Rufai’s claims

The Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani , has dropped his comment on the war of words between Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai and Senator Ben Murray Bruce. The war of words started after Senator Bruce in reaction to the commissioning of the coaches for the Abuja-Kaduna train service said Jonathan should be commended for the train ride Buhari enjoyed in Kaduna.” noting that the achievement was entirely the handiwork of the Jonathan’s administration. El-Rufai, however, dismissed Bruce’s claims, stating that former President Olusegun Obasanjo designed and raised the financing and started the “EPC of the Lagos-Kano dual track-standard gauge rail system, and the Abuja Light Rail.” But Senator Shehu Sani in his reaction said the Kaduna rail project was initiated by Goodluck Jonathan not Obasanjo as claimed by El-Rufai. On his Twitter page, he wrote, “I was born in Kaduna, I live in Kaduna, I represent Kaduna. There was never any modern rail project in Kaduna or from Kaduna except the one started ‘to near completion’ under GEJ & now completed by the PMB Government. “If there was any under any other Government perhaps it was invisible.”

Iran bans English being taught in primary schools

This is because the assumption is that, in primary education, the groundwork for the Iranian culture of the students is laid,’ says head of the state-run High Education Council

Iran has banned English from being taught in primary schools after the country’s Supreme Leader said learning the language in the early years paved the way for a Western “cultural invasion”. A senior education official announced the language had been banned because the Iranian culture of students is established during primary level education. In Iran, where Persian is the country’s official national language, primary school starts at the age of six and lasts for six years. While the teaching of English generally starts in middle school in Iran – which students attend around the ages of 12 to 14 – some primary schools below that age also have English classes. Teaching English in government and non-government primary schools in the official curriculum is against laws and regulations,” Mehdi Navid-Adham, head of the state run High Education Council, said on state television late on Saturday. He continued: “This is because the assumption is that, in primary education, the groundwork for the Iranian culture of the students is laid”. He said non-curriculum English classes may also be blocked under the new rules. Iran’s Shia-Islamist leaders have often issued pleas about the risks posed by a “cultural invasion”. In 2016 Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds the final say in all state matters, expressed fury about the “teaching of the English language spreading to nursery schools”. According to the text of that particular speech to teachers posted on a website run by his office, Khamenei said: “That does not mean opposition to learning a foreign language, but [this is the] promotion of a foreign culture in the country and among children, young adults and youths.” Western thinkers have time and again said that instead of colonialist expansionism ... the best and the least costly way would have been inculcation of thought and culture to the younger generation of countries”. It is worth noting that the quality of English education in schools has been deemed not satisfactory by many and most of the students are forced to take English courses privately in order to gain a better grip of the language. Despite the fact there was no specific reference to the announcement coming after more than a week of protests against the clerical establishment and government, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have claimed the turmoil was also fuelled by foreign opponents. Thousands of young and working-class Iranians showed their anger at unemployment and the growing polarisation between the upper echelons of society and those at the bottom living below the poverty line. After six days of demonstrations, the Revolutionary Guard on Wednesday said it had deployed forces to quash unrest in three provinces where most of the trouble had occurred. This was the clearest indication authorities were taking the protests seriously. The Revolutionary Guard was instrumental in suppressing an uprising over alleged election fraud in 2009 in which dozens were killed. Iranian officials said the most recent protests which swept more than 80 cities and rural towns resulted in 22 people being killed and more than 1,000 being arrested.

59 victims of Benue killings get mass burial Thursday

The Benue State Government has concluded arrangement to give a mass burial to the 59 victims of the New Year and Saturday’s attack on some communities by Fulani herdsmen on Thursday.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Terver Akase, disclosed this on Sunday during a telephone conversation with one of our correspondents.

He explained that there would be a memorial service for them by 10am on Thursday at the IBB Square, Makurdi.

Akase said that the 10 persons killed on Saturday would be buried along with the 49 victims deposited at various mortuaries in the state.

The chief press secretary added that the dead would be buried in their localities after the memorial service, meaning that 39 bodies would be buried at Guma while 20 others would be interred in Logo, all in Benue State.

“We have concluded arrangements to organise a befitting burial for the victims of the senseless killings on Thursday. His Excellency Governor Samuel Ortom has directed that the bodies of the 10 persons killed on Saturday be buried together with the 49 killed on New Year Day,” Akase said.

 He added that the state government considered the deceased as heroes of the state who died for the safety of Benue.

Ortom had declared at the stakeholders’ meeting held on Friday that three days mourning would be declared in preparatory for the mass burial.

He added that the governor had given orders that those bodies  that were  currently found and already decomposed  be buried immediately.

Meanwhile, the state Police Command spokesman, ASP Moses Yamu, said that more policemen had been deployed in the troubled areas, particularly, Logo, where more attack was recorded on Saturday.

“As I am talking to you now, more detachment of policemen have been deployed in the flash points, particularly, Logo Local Government Area which witnessed another attack on Saturday.”

Yamu said with the presence of policemen, normalcy had returned to the area. He expressed confidence that peace would fully return to the troubled communities.

Meanwhile, the Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, on Sunday said some individuals were benefitting politically from the violence and killings in Benue, Adamawa and Plateau states.

He noted that their aim was to foist an ethno-religious crisis on the country.

Osinbajo, who noted that the individuals also “politicised for years the war against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East,” urged Nigerians to resist the politicisation of the tragedies in these states.

The Vice-President made these remarks at an inter-denominational church service for the 2018 Armed Forces Remembrance Day in Abuja.

The programme was attended by senior military officers including the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas, who represented the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin.

Osinbajo said the Presidency in “daily security sessions” was working to find a solution to the crises in those states.

He said, “We must recognise that as dangerous, deadly and heartless as these killings are, there is also the danger of allowing politics to pour petrol into an already burning fire. We must not allow the politicisation of these tragedies. One of the reasons why for years, the Boko Haram thrived was because of the politicisation of the insurgency. There were those who were planning to benefit politically from the tragedy and painted the opposition as the perpetrator.

“Again today, we see some who want to benefit politically from the killings of women and children in Benue, Adamawa, and Plateau states, and several other places.  They want to, by their hate speeches, blame the criminal acts of individuals on whole ethnic groups.

“They would want to create a religious crisis, if allowed. Our obligation is to stop them from playing dangerous politics that can threaten our unity and stability, just as we continue to enforce peace in the troubled areas.

“Our first obligation as a government and people is to vigorously pursue the unity and territorial integrity of our country by words and action. We must rebuke firmly those who threaten to break the bonds of our nationhood. Secondly, we must defend faithfully our freedom and rights which include the right to life, liberty, freedom of worship and others.”

Breaking: Army, DSS gun down notorious kidnapper , Don Wani

A notorious kidnapper allegedly behind brutal murder of about 23 persons in Omoku, Rivers state in the early hours of January 1st this year has been shot dead in a combined operation by the DSS and the Army at a border town between Rivers and Enugu state.

A top security source confirmed development to . When contacted on the development the Rivers state Director of the Department of State Service, DSS, Mr Tosin Ajayi declined comment. ” No comment for now. “, he said.

Saudi arrests 11 princes over economic protest: report

Saudi officials have arrested 11 princes for staging a protest against the kingdom's austerity measures, according to a report from the Saudi news website Sabq. The princes, who gathered in the historical Palace of Government area in the capital Riyadh on Saturday, were demonstrating against a government decision to suspend payment of their utility bills, Sabq said. Upon arrest, they were reportedly sent to Ha'ir prison, a maximum-security facility south of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia recently introduced a raft of economic reforms, including a value-added tax (VAT) and a halt to state payments of water and electricity bills for royal family members. On Saturday, King Salman decreed a series of financial payouts to ease the cost of living. Each government employee will receive a monthly bonus of 1,000 riyals ($267) for the next year, while military personnel serving in Yemen will be paid a one-off fee of 5,000 riyals ($1,330). Students will have their allowances increased by 10 percent for the next year, while retirees and social security recipients will get a monthly stipend of 500 riyals ($133). Economic diversification The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia surpassed 12 percent last year as the economy grappled with the fallout from low oil prices. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has been spearheading attempts to diversify the country's oil-dependent economy. The VAT, implemented as of January 1, applies to a wide range of commodities, including food, clothes, entertainment, electronics, and telephone, water and electricity bills. Its imposition is part of a region-wide measure agreed upon by the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states in Riyadh in 2016. The International Monetary Fund has estimated it will raise additional revenues of 1.5 to three percent of non-oil gross domestic product, depending on the country. According to Saturday's decree, the Saudi government will absorb the cost of the tax for citizens purchasing private healthcare and education, and for first-time homebuyers of properties valued at up to 850,000 riyals ($226,660).

Transgender inmate seeks transfer to female prison

A 26-year-old transgender woman serving a 10-year sentence in Illinois for burglary is seeking a rarely granted transfer to a female prison where she says she'll be less vulnerable to the kinds of sexual assault, taunting and beatings she's been subjected to in male prisons. In a lawsuit filed last year asking for the transfer, Deon 'Strawberry' Hampton describes how guards and fellow inmates would regularly single her out for brutal treatment at the high-security prison in southern Illinois, Menard Correctional Center, and earlier at Pinckneyville Correctional Center. A US magistrate judge began a first-of-its-kind evidentiary hearing in Hampton's case Friday in Benton, southeast of St. Louis, to help the court decide whether to order the transfer. The hearing, which will last several days, is focused on Hampton's gender identity and on whether she could pose a risk to female inmates if moved. While at the Pinckneyville prison, she alleges that guards made her and another transgender inmate perform sex acts on each other as the guards hurled slurs and laughed. When she was transferred to the higher security Menard, she says guards there warned they would retaliate for complaints she made about Pinckneyville guards. Unable to comfortably represent herself as female in the male prison — where she can't wear her hair or nails long — has also been devastating psychologically, said one filing from her lawyers at the Chicago-based MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People's Law Center. "I feel inhuman," Hampton was quoted as saying. While prison officials do have the option of assigning such male-to-female transgender inmates to women's prisons — it happens infrequently. Federal data from 2016 indicates there were no transgender prisoners in Illinois' two female prisons; there were 28 in the state's 24 male prisons. Surveys support claims that transgender inmates are at greater risk of abuse. The latest available Justice Department data estimates there were over 3,200 transgender inmates in state and federal prisons as of 2012. And nearly 40 per cent reported being victims of sexual misconduct by other inmates and guards — compared to around 4 per cent of the general prison reporting such abuse. Some prisons and jails nationwide have faced similar legal challenges. Jennifer Picknelly, a transgender woman who in Massachusetts, sued a sheriff alleging she was mocked with anti-transgender slurs, extorted and raped while an inmate at a Hampden County jail for men in 2016. She recently agreed to drop the suit in exchange for a slightly earlier release. Having a court decide where to send Hampton and other transgender inmates "would directly interfere with the operations of the (department) in a situation where Plaintiff is merely attempting to manipulate the system," Illinois Department of Corrections lawyers argued in a filing. The same state filing casts doubt, not only on Hampton's accounts of abuse by guards, but on her gender identity — alleging that Hampton in initial sessions with prison health workers never claimed to be transgender and, in the words of the filing, "was ok with being male." But a key witness for Hampton, clinical psychiatrist George Brown, said in a declaration to the court before Friday's hearing that Hampton shows all the features of someone convinced of their identity as a female, saying Hampton has identified as female since the age of five. He also challenged the department's contention that Hampton is a greater risk to women because she hasn't had sex reassignment surgery, saying such a view "conflicts with all reliable medical literature." He added Hampton's low testosterone levels due to previous hormone treatments meant she was "functionally chemically castrated." A decision on the transfer request isn't expected for several weeks.

Re-election: Arewa youths, Ohanaeze, Afenifere, CACOL, others lash out at Buhari, ministers

Organisations, including the Arewa Youth Forum, comprising of northern youths; the Campaign for Democracy; and the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, have kicked against President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term re-election bid. The groups, in separate interviews with Saturday PUNCH, hinged their rejection of Buhari’s second term bid on the incessant killings in the country, particularly by Fulani herdsmen. They said that the clamour for second term, amidst attacks by herdsmen and fuel scarcity in the country, was a demonstration of the insensitivity of the President and his aides. Several chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, including Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, have expressed their support for the President’s re-election. On Wednesday, Buhari was reported to have appointed the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as the Director-General of his 2019 election campaign. Also, the Minister of Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu, after a meeting with the President on Wednesday said Buhari must seek re-election in 2019. Buhari himself, twice last year, hinted that he would seek re-election in 2019. He gave the hint in Cote d’Ivoire during a summit on counter-terrorism and also during his recent visit to Kano State. But the Arewa Youth Forum, in a statement on Friday, insisted that those clamouring for Buhari’s re-election were being hasty and insensitive to the plight of Nigerians. The AYF’s statement was signed by its National President, Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu, in Katsina, Katsina State. It stated, “The umbrella organisation of all youths in the north, Arewa Youth Forum, after a cursory look at the polity and events of the recent past, has decided to react to some of the issues with a view to putting our imprint and thoughts on national discuss. “Arewa Youth Forum is worried about the mindless killings all over the country, especially those in Benue, Kaduna, Kwara and Rivers states; also that this carnage is taking place in the New Year. Our thoughts are with those affected. We are even more amazed that this is coming shortly after the tenure extension of the service chiefs. As such, it calls for serious concern. Is this the good work that the President extended their tenure for? It is time for them to justify their continuous stay in office or give way for those who can bring out a security architecture that can protect Nigerians. “We are also worried that Nigerians had to go through the Yuletide with agony and pains because of fuel scarcity, which still persists in the New Year, with the Federal Government not having a definite road map to end the malaise.” It said that Nigerians were going through the hardship because of the actions and inaction of politicians and the elite who had not done enough to assuage the plight of the ordinary Nigerians. The AYF stated, “If you add these challenges to the corruption allegations that have plagued some top ranking officers of this administration, the inability of Mr. President to address same leaves a sour taste in the mouth of many Nigerians. Consequently, we are appalled to hear that in the midst of all these, the President and his men have already put in place measures to start his re-election bid for 2019. “As the apex body of youths in the 19 northern states and Abuja, with affiliates across the country, we see the re-election bid of Mr. President at this point in time as inhuman, uncalled for and an insult to the sensibilities of the suffering Nigerian masses. “On the magnitude of the killings, we expect the President to visit some of the states and when he came to Kaduna, he should have condoled with the people or even visited the area. “It was disheartening that when the President visited Kaduna State, black marketeers were having a field day as many of the stations were closed and the people were buying fuel at over N350 per litre. This we believe is not good enough. “Nigerians expect a more purposeful leadership from the champion of change than this anarchy in the land and the time to act is now, Mr. President.” 2019 will be disastrous for APC —Afenifere The pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, on its part, warned that the killings across the country by Fulani herdsmen and other armed groups could affect the electoral chances of the ruling APC in the 2019 polls. It admonished the President to address the nation on the issue and take decisive measures to stop the wanton killings and violent attacks across the country. Afenifere spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin, insisted that the President could not pretend that all was well with the country while murderous attacks were carried out by criminal elements daily. “Definitely, they (herdsmen killings) will have grave implications for the APC in 2019 if the killings continue,” he stated on Friday. “The President should address the nation on this matter and for a man that is seeking a second term in office, he cannot pretend that nothing is happening. “It would be disastrous for the APC as a party if the killings are not stopped, if murderers are not brought to book. “Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, once said that he had to pay money to Fulani herdsmen to stop killings in Kaduna. “About two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Government paid €3m to Boko Haram and they have not denied it. We want categorical actions taken against the killings going on across the country. It’s becoming unbearable.” Buhari has betrayed confidence reposed in him —CAN Also, the Christian Association of Nigeria called on the Federal Government to stop the “continuous inhuman and wicked activities of the Fulani herdsmen all over the federation.” The association stated that the wanton killings by the murderous group could lead to a civil war, noting that the patience of the people was approaching the breaking point. “They (Fulani herdsmen) have killed more people than the Boko Haram sect and almost displaced more people than them. We are now reaching a breaking point in our patience and toleration of this wicked impunity before degenerating to a civil war,” a statement by CAN President, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, stated. He noted that the government had not shown willingness to check the rampaging herdsmen, describing this as a betrayal of the confidence Nigerians had in the Buhari administration. By failing to protect Nigerians from Fulani herdsmen attacks, the CAN leader said the government had failed to uphold the constitution which it swore to uphold. Ayokunle said, “While the government has taken the battle to Boko Haram terrorists, the Indigenous People of Biafra, the Badoo boys, the Niger Delta Avengers and other groups, the government has not shown any serious willingness to check the murderous Fulani herdsmen. This to us is a betrayal of the confidence reposed in this government by Nigerians when they voted it into power.” CAN demanded to know why the intelligence and security apparatus had failed to discover the sources of firearms used by the herdsmen, noting that the Nigeria Customs Service and the Immigration Service had a case to answer. “Who are the suppliers of these weapons? If the murderous herdsmen are foreigners, as it is being claimed in some quarters, why did we allow dangerous foreigners into our country to come and kill us? Our government has a case to answer too,” the group insisted. It urged the government and the security agencies to rise up to their responsibilities by addressing the senseless attacks. The religious body appealed to the international community for assistance and urged all churches to set aside time on Sunday, January 7, to pray for Nigeria and “for victory over the wicked killings by Fulani herdsmen.” Don’t expect re-election in 2019, YOWICAN tells Buhari Also, the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said that the President should not waste his time and “his already exhausted energy” to seek re-election in 2019. The YOWICAN National President, Daniel Kadzai, said that Buhari had “no moral right to contest again, considering the fact that he has proven to Nigerians that he is a religious leader of the Muslim faith and not the President of the country.” Kadzai in a statement pointed out that Buhari’s New Year’s Day’s broadcast clearly proved to Christians in Nigeria that they were not safe under his administration. He said, “When 18 Muslims were killed in a reprisal in Taraba State, the Presidency was relocated to the state, with the military and police headquarters hunting for the attackers, but when over 40 Christians were killed in Plateau State, the President travelled out of the country, three days after the attack.” No sane person will vote for a govt that can’t secure lives —Ohanaeze Also, the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prince Uche Achi-Okpaga, said the President’s failure to check the menace of the herdsmen would affect his chances for re-election in 2019. Achi-Okpaga, who spoke to one of our correspondents in Enugu, said that “no sane person would vote for a government that was not able to secure the lives of its citizens.” The Ohanaeze spokesperson noted that it was strange that the country’s security agencies, which he described the “best in Africa”, had not been able to deal with the herdsmen. Achi-Okpaga said, “The spate of blatant and inconceivable killings of helpless Nigerians by the Fulani herdsmen have been so alarming and uncontrollable. I have no doubt that the studied silence of the Federal Government is deliberate. No sane person will risk to vote for a government that has conspicuously displayed irresponsibility to the security of her citizens. “Apart from the killings at Nsukka and Awgu (Enugu State), the people of Benue, in general, have been severally and severely killed in tens and hundreds without the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, making a national broadcast or giving a specific instruction on the matter even when the treasury of Nigeria was depleted to give him adequate medical attention to save his own life.” Buhari’s second term bid despite killings unfortunate —CSOs Two civil society organisations, CD and CACOL, said the Buhari-led Federal Government did not deserve to continue in office unless it addressed the “incessant killings by herdsmen” in Benue State. The CD President, Usman Abdul, said it was unfortunate that the President would start clamouring for a second term when some states were still experiencing gross insecurity. Abdul said, “On the issue of the President’s second term bid, it is rather unfortunate when good governance has not been enjoyed by the citizens of this country and one is thinking of a second term. The President is even said to have appointed a director for his campaign organisation; this is unfortunate at this period.” Also, the CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, said, “The Benue incident is a case requiring a lot of intelligence gathering. What it means is that both the federal and state governments must be held accountable. The people are the ones suffering this jeopardy.”