Inside the politics of JAMB's cut-off marks

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-74649" height="240" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Prof.-Oloyede-Registrar-of-JAMB..jpg" width="400" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">By Reuben Abati</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I have followed with keen interest the controversy over the announcement of cut-off marks for Nigeria’s admission processes for the 2017/2018 session, with many commentators and the general public insisting that it is unwise, insensitive and retrogressive, to reduce the cut off mark for admissions into our tertiary institutions: 120 for universities, 100 for polytechnics and monotechnics, and a tentative 110 for Innovative Enterprise Institutions (IEIs). Whereas the complaint has been that there is a dumbing down and lowering of standards, which is of course an obvious reaction, I argue that there is need for a better understanding of the context in which the decision was taken in the hope that this would shed some light on this controversial matter.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I write as a reporter and as a stakeholder who attended the 2017/2018 Policy Meeting on plans and modalities for the conduct of admissions into tertiary institutions in Nigeria at the Andrews Otutu Obaseki Auditorium, National Judicial Institute in Abuja, on August 22. The meeting started on Sunday, August 20, 2017. On Monday, August 21, there was a special session for admissions officers of all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. There are 524 tertiary institutions in Nigeria (minus the IEIs) and every institution was represented on Monday and again on Tuesday, when a special policy session was held and decisions were taken at a combined session of Registrars and Vice Chancellors, Provosts and Rectors. The Obaseki Auditorium was filled up at this meeting, which was attended by over 1, 600 stakeholders in the education sector. In other words, it was a meeting of stakeholders and the decisions were decisions taken by all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It is therefore wrong to accuse JAMB or report that it is JAMB that is fixing cut-off marks for university admissions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I recall that at the meeting, when we were about to go into the policy making session, the Minister of Education had to excuse himself on the ground that he had other commitments; all JAMB officials were also asked to leave the hall. The JAMB Registrar explained that he wanted the heads of tertiary institutions to be the ones to take the decisions, not JAMB, not the Minister, and he didn’t want either the Minister or his own staff in attendance so nobody would turn around to accuse JAMB or the Ministry of Education of imposing decisions on the tertiary institutions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There were other stakeholders in attendance, the heads of the National University Commission (NUC), TETFUND, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), NECO, NYSC and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) – all as observers. The heads of IEIs stayed away from this particular meeting because they had earlier informed JAMB that the heads of other tertiary institutions are in the habit of out-voting and outnumbering them at policy meetings and they would rather have their own separate meeting to serve their own interests. I concluded, there and then, that students’ admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria has become big business and politics, with stiff competition between public and private institutions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This clarification is necessary because as I see it, some of the participants in that meeting have since gone on a holier-than-thou expedition to distance themselves from it. At the meeting, the JAMB Registrar repeatedly pointed out that the University of Ibadan had made it clear that its cut-off mark would never go below 200. There are other universities like that, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of Ilorin. I am surprised however that there has been so much uncomfortable hypocrisy from some universities that attended the meeting. The Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti were both in attendance and the former spoke enthusiastically in support of the decisions. Yes, the ABUAD VC was there, but curiously, his employer, the proprietor and founder of the Afe Babalola University was the first person to denounce the decisions. We should take special notice however, of the intervention of the Vice Chancellor of the Tai Solarin University of Education, Professor Oluyemisi Obilade, and Professor Femi Mimiko. Out of over 1, 600 participants at a policy meeting, only two persons are standing up to report the truth?</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The objectives of that policy meeting were inter alia, to brief the Degree, National Certificate in Education and National Diploma-awarding institutions on the plans and modalities for the conduct of the 2017/2018 admissions exercise, introduce the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), seek the cooperation and understanding of stakeholders, discuss and agree on submissions of estimated intakes and compliance with the current prescribed quota from the NUC, NCCE, and NBTE, adherence to institutional/programmes cut off marks, compliance with entry requirements, procedure for selection of candidates who may not be admitted at their first choice institutions, adherence to admissions schedule as approved at the Policy meeting and implementation of the science-arts ratio. These issues were tabled, discussed, voted upon and decisions were taken. The states and private tertiary institutions were exempted from the last criteria, to be determined by their proprietors.</span></span><br /> <blockquote class="blockquote-style-1 position-center text-center width-100" data-align="center" data-position="center" data-style="style-1" data-width="100"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I am surprised however that there has been so much uncomfortable hypocrisy from some universities that attended the meeting. The Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti were both in attendance and the former spoke enthusiastically in support of the decisions. Yes, the ABUAD VC was there, but curiously, his employer, the proprietor and founder of the Afe Babalola University was the first person to denounce the decisions.</span></span></blockquote> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is important to understand the three main backgrounds to this policy meeting. At a similar policy meeting held on June 2, 2016, the various stakeholders at this same 2017 meeting, had adopted 180 as the minimum cut-off mark for admissions to all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The regulator’s subsequent discovery is that most of the tertiary institutions did not respect this decision. They admitted students who scored below 180 and never reported same to JAMB; they introduced all kinds of back-door schemes and programmes under which admissions were offered.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In effect, the admissions process into Nigerian tertiary institutions was compromised; standards were violated. JAMB therefore decided that every institution must declare a lowest cut off point for its programmes and that every admission must be properly reported and documented, and brought to the notice of the regulator in order to enforce standards and have accurate statistics for educational planning. I got the impression for example, that some higher institutions must have been admitting all kinds of persons who did not have basic qualifications and never passed through the central admissions body. It is curious, isn’t it, that the same schools that voted for 180 in 2016, are now asking for 120, 110 and 100?</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Secondly, the evidence was provided to the effect that many tertiary institutions do not respect the admission quota in line with the Federal Character prescribed by the Constitution. Most universities simply admit students from their catchment areas and ignore students from other parts of the country. Bayero University, to cite a notable example, admits over 50% of its students from Kano state, and yet it is a Federal University. Even when students from other parts of the country who apply to such universities have high, qualifying scores, they are ignored.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Thus, every year, many qualified students from different parts of the country are left stranded. They miss the opportunity to go to university not because they are not qualified, but because they have been shut out by the politicization of education in Nigeria. To correct this mischief, JAMB has now created a second tier admissions platform called the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS). It is an admissions-market where students who have been rejected by their first choices can seek alternatives, where JAMB can help rejected candidates seek other offers, and every institution can go in search of qualified candidates who may have been rejected elsewhere. This is to help increase the admissions ratio in the country, reduce the politicization of admissions, check the exodus of Nigerian students to foreign universities, create more opportunities and ensure greater equity. The only ouster clause in this arrangement is that at the end of the day, the candidate is free to reject any offer that he or she does not find acceptable, and that has no limit whatsoever.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">JAMB in its explanation further recognized that ordinarily, a school certificate result should be enough requirement for admission to tertiary institutions as is the case in many countries of the world. In order to raise standards, Nigeria has a system whereby secondary school graduates still have to sit for UTME conducted by JAMB and Post-UTME, further testing conducted by the tertiary institutions, and confront other unwritten hurdles. The higher education seeker in Nigeria is thus taken through greater rigour than similar applicants elsewhere. In 2016, the Policy Meeting on Admissions had banned further conduct of the Post-UTME to reduce the burden faced by Nigerian students. At the 2017 meeting however, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu lifted the ban, noting that the tertiary institutions deserve the independence they have always asked for over their admissions process.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Indeed, this was the main point of the August 22 meeting. Tertiary institutions in Nigeria are the ones to determine their own admissions process. Cut off marks are to be fixed by the Senate of each institution, not JAMB. What JAMB has created through the CAPS is an open market that empowers admission-seekers, promotes healthy competition and provides an avenue for students to raise queries when they feel they may have been short-changed. The insistence on reporting is to aid transparency and data collection, we were told.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If this works, in no time, every tertiary institution will establish its own brand equity. As is the case elsewhere, the labour market in Nigeria will soon begin to differentiate between the students who graduated from a school that admits with 100 over 400 marks and another school whose cut off mark is as high as 250, in the same manner in which there is a marked difference in the UK between a graduate of Metropolitan University and a graduate of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This differentiation in quality and standards is perhaps long-needed in the Nigerian education market.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><blockquote class="blockquote-style-1 position-center text-center width-100" data-align="center" data-position="center" data-style="style-1" data-width="100"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Indeed, this was the main point of the August 22 meeting. Tertiary institutions in Nigeria are the ones to determine their own admissions process. Cut off marks are to be fixed by the Senate of each institution, not JAMB. What JAMB has created through the CAPS is an open market that empowers admission-seekers, promotes healthy competition and provides an avenue for students to raise queries when they feel they may have been short-changed. The insistence on reporting is to aid transparency and data collection, we were told.</span></span></blockquote> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That is as far as the meeting went, and the report of what I saw and heard. My real concern, and a probable justification for the outcry over the reduction of cut–off marks below the average score is, however, traceable to the fact that Nigeria’s education system is now terribly commercialized and unequal. The law of supply and demand is probably at the root of the politics of cut-off marks. We have more than 524 institutions looking not for students but customers! Ordinarily, most students want to attend elite schools and the Federal institutions, which charge subsidized fees. For instance, Federal Universities charge as low as N35, 000, the state universities about N150, 000-N200, 000, and the private universities as much as N750, 000.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The competition for space in the schools with lower fees is much higher, often leaving the ones with expensive school fees with fewer applicants. While the more economically attractive schools can afford to have high cut off marks, it is not impossible that lower cut-off marks would attract more students to the less patronized schools! The implication is not far to seek. Beyond the policy meeting of August 22, and all expressed good intentions, and regardless of the choice of the stakeholders, therefore, JAMB’s next and biggest challenge, in my view, is to ensure that market forces do not ultimately subvert quality and standards in the tertiary education sector. It is also up to parents to determine the kind of school that they want their children to attend, and for every institution to choose between mediocrity and excellence.</span></span><br /> <br /> </div>

Inside the politics of JAMB's cut-off marks

  By Reuben Abati I have followed with keen interest the controversy over the announcement of cut-off marks for Nigeria’s admission pr...

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Buhari working with US to recover looted funds- VP Osibanjo

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-77513" height="309" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1.-VP-receives-the-US-Congress-HMITI-and-HM-of-Agric.1-e1503958784366.jpg" width="400" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125023"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125022">The Buhari administration has urged the US government to step up its assistance in ensuring that corrupt officials don’t get a safe haven abroad for their loot, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125029"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125028">The Vice President, who made the call yesterday during the visit of a US Congressional Delegation to the Presidential Villa, said both countries were working on a prompt repatriation of the funds.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225gmail-m_466636660656072201gmail-msobodytext3" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125038"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125037">According to Prof. Osinbajo:  “We have reached out to the US government with respect with helping with repatriation of proceeds of crime and proceeds of corruption.’’</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225gmail-m_466636660656072201gmail-MsoBodyText3" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125041"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125040">Prof. Osinbajo, who was appreciative of the support given by the US so far said the Buhari administration regarded “corruption is an existential threat’’ that must be dealt with at its root.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125046"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125045">“We have worked quite closely with the US government on repatriation of funds, we have seen some results’’, adding that the Federal Government is hoping for more improvement in the process.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“We think that this is very important because what tends to happen with corrupt public officials is that if they are able to find a safe haven for the proceeds of their criminality, not only are they encouraged as individuals but there is the general feeling that if I am able to get the proceeds out of the country I might just get away with it,’’ the Vice President said.</span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to him, “this is one of the reasons why we have taken several actions to ensure that we are able to deal with it because some of the major  dislocations in the economy are on account of the problems that we have seen with corruption.’’</span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125102"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125101">He said the Buhari presidency’s strategy which is one of “the most effective ways of fighting corruption is ensuring that these proceeds are unsafe and for people to know that they would be found out and they would be punished for it and we would seize whatever profit they had gain.’’   </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125099"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125098">On the return of the Chibok girls, the Vice President said, “it is a front burner issue for us all the time. There is no question of not continuing to negotiate and looking for the girls.’’</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125090"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125092">He expressed gratitude to God for the hope that the girls are still alive and would be released, noting that “negotiations were continuing and government would keep looking for the opportunity to bring them back.’’</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125088"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125087">The Vice President thanked the US government for its recent decision to sell Super Tucano aircraft to Nigeria to aid its fight against insurgency in the North-East.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125083"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125094">Sen. Christopher Coons who led the delegation said the visit was to reaffirm the relationship between Nigeria and the United States, noting that the US has “an enduring enthusiasm and partnership with Nigeria.’’</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125079"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125081">Other members of the Congressional delegation include, Sen. Gary Peters, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Rep. Terri Sewell, Rep. Charlie Dent, Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Frederica Wilson. They were accompanied by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, </span><em>Stuart</em> Symington.</span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="yiv5736889225MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125072"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1503865358361_125071">Also in attendance were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffery Onyeama, Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno, and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.</span></span></span></div> </div>

Buhari working with US to recover looted funds- VP Osibanjo

  The Buhari administration has urged the US government to step up its assistance in ensuring that corrupt officials don’t get a safe ...

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North Korea fires missile over Japan

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img alt="North Korea talks tough on latest UN sanctions" class="size-full wp-image-76170" height="180" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/North-Korea-talks-tough-on-latest-UN-sanctions.jpg" width="320" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">North Korea, looking to create crisis in the Korean Peninsula  fired a missile early on Tuesday that flew over Japan.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The missile landed in the Pacific waters off the northern region of Hokkaido, South Korea and Japan said.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The last North Korean projectile to fly over Japan was in 2009. The United States, Japan and South Korea considered that launch to have been a ballistic missile test while North Korea said it was a rocket carrying a communications satellite into orbit.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">South Korea’s military said the latest missile was launched from the Sunan region near the North Korean capital Pyongyang just before 6 a.m. (2100 GMT Monday) and flew 2,700 km (1,678 miles), reaching the altitude of about 550 km.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the North Korean missile fell into the sea 1,180 km (733 miles) east of the Cape of Erimo on Hokkaido.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“It is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to our nation,” Suga told a briefing, adding the government had protested the move in the strongest terms.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Suga said the launch was a clear violation of United Nations resolutions and Japan will work closely with the United States, South Korea and other concerned nations on a response, he said.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported the missile broke into three pieces and fell into the waters off Hokkaido.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Japanese government’s J-Alert warning system advised people in the area to take precautions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Japanese military did not attempt to shoot down the missile, which passed over Japanese territory around 6:06 a.m. time (2106 GMT).</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Pentagon confirmed the missile flew over Japan but did not pose a threat to North America and said it was gathering further information.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The launch marks a sharp escalation in tensions over Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. sanctions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month threatened to fire missiles into the sea near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and U.S. President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” if it threatened the United States.</span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">NAN </span></span></div>

North Korea fires missile over Japan

  North Korea, looking to create crisis in the Korean Peninsula  fired a missile early on Tuesday that flew over Japan. The missile lan...

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More U.S. states, cities in danger over Harvey

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img alt="Harvey devastates Houston " class="size-full wp-image-77516" height="265" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Harvey-devastates-Houston.jpg" width="400" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">More states and cities in the United States (U.S.) are ready for the worse as rescue crews raced to rush people and families to safety Monday night in the Houston area as Louisiana braced for flooding of its own from the mega storm, Harvey.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned people in his state that “the worst is likely to come.”</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes in Houston and people could be heard pleading for help from inside.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The nation’s fourth-largest city remained largely paralyzed by one of the largest downpours in U.S. history and there was no relief in sight from the storm that spun into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, then parked itself over the Gulf Coast.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nearly 2 more feet of rain is expected on top of the 30-plus inches in some areas of the state.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Harvey “does remain a tropical storm and it’s going to drop an awful lot of rain” on Louisiana, Edwards said at a news conference Monday. “We do have a long way to go with this particular storm.”</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Harvey’s circulation is crawling eastward and the center of the storm is forecast to track through the state of Louisiana later this week,” said Fox News Meteorologist Janice Dean.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“The steady flow of winds over the Gulf will put Louisiana in line for a steady stream of heavy rain, including cities like Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and New Orleans.”</span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Southwestern Louisiana could get 15-20 inches of rain from Harvey. Flash floods warnings went into effect through Thursday as areas along the coast faced tropical storm warnings.</span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Read more: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/28/harvey-flood-fears-expand-to-louisiana-as-texas-braces-for-more-feet-rain.html">Fox News</a></span></span><br /> </div>

More U.S. states, cities in danger over Harvey

  More states and cities in the United States (U.S.) are ready for the worse as rescue crews raced to rush people and families to safety...

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S/Korea replies N/Korea with bombs

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img alt="Missile launch over Japan: South Korea kicks" class="size-full wp-image-71879" height="266" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/North-Korea-bluffs-every-threat-of-attack-by-U.S.-fires-multiple-missiles-Photo-KCNA.jpg" width="400" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">South Korea’s air force effectively fired back at North Korea’s missile launch over Japan by conducting a live-fire drill involving powerful bombs, officials said early Tuesday.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Four F-15 fighters dropped eight MK-84 bombs that accurately hit targets at a military field near South Korea’s eastern coast, Seoul’s presidential spokesman Park Su-hyun said.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Each bomb has an explosive yield of a ton, according to the country’s air force.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Park also said South Korean national security director Chung Eui-yong called President Donald Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster to discuss the North’s launch.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">North Korea typically reacts with anger to U.S.-South Korean military drills, which are happening now, often testing weapons and threatening Seoul and Washington in its state-controlled media.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But animosity is higher than usual following threats by Trump to unleash “fire and fury” on the North, and Pyongyang’s stated plan to consider firing some of its missiles near Guam.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Pentagon told reporters it was investigating the launch over Japan, adding: “North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.” The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said the Japanese military did not attempt to intercept the missile.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile travelled around 1,677 miles and reached a maximum height of 341 miles as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The launch appeared to be the first to cross over Japan since 2009.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The South Korean military said it was analysing the launch with the United States and strengthened its monitoring and preparation in case of further actions from North Korea.</span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Read more: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/08/28/south-korea-tests-bombs-in-response-to-north-korea-missile-launch.html">Fox News</a></span></span><br /> </div>

S/Korea replies N/Korea with bombs

  South Korea’s air force effectively fired back at North Korea’s missile launch over Japan by conducting a live-fire drill involving p...

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US send troops, aircraft to flood-hit Texas

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-77525" height="251" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Houston-flood-e1503991398193.jpg" width="400" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The U.S. Department of Defence is pre-positioning troops, search and rescue units, aircraft, vehicles, equipment and supplies to staging areas near  places worst hit by  flooding in southeastern Texas,  in anticipation of a possible request for assistance.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Pentagon spokesman, Col. Robert Manning gave the response efforts to Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath, and summarized activities of the Texas National Guard and the National Guard Bureau.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“Continuing rainfall from the hurricane is expected to cause devastating and life-threatening flooding throughout this week,” Manning said, adding, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.”</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a memorandum of agreement approving a dual-status command, Manning said, which authorized one commander to direct active-duty and National Guard forces.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Abbott on Monday activated his state’s entire National Guard force in response to Hurricane Harvey, bringing the total number of deployed Texas Guard members to roughly 12,000.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Texas National Guard currently has 16 aircraft and personnel conducting day and night wide-area search and rescue missions along the Texas coast from Corpus Christi to Houston.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“That effort includes 10 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, four UH-72 Lakota multi-mission helicopters, and two CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopters,” Manning said.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Manning explained that the New York Air National Guard had provided one C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, three HH-60 Pave Hawk search and rescue helicopters and two C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“And six rotary-wing aircraft from the Utah, Nebraska and North Carolina Army National Guard are en route to the area.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“Seven fixed-wing aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard and Air National Guard are in support, he added, and the Texas National Guard is using about 200 Humvees, 218 high-water vehicles, 15 wreckers and 19 fuelers.”</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Manning said the U.S. Northern Command is poised to provide the Department’s support to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal lead. State and local response agencies are in the lead for their own response efforts.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“Department of Defense has provided Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Seguin Auxiliary Airfield as a forward staging area to support distribution of supplies and equipment to the affected areas.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“And Department of Defense has prepositioned a search and rescue unit that includes two search and rescue planners, nine search and rescue rotary-wing aircraft, two fixed-wing aircraft, pararescue teams and associated command-and-control … elements,” Mann added.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The search and rescue assets were deploying to Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas, he said, and the Defense Logistics Agency has pre-positioned logistics management and resource support, including 11 generators, 50,000 gallons of gasoline and 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“Safety is the number one priority. We urge residents in the affected areas to continue to follow the instructions of state, local and tribal officials and to stay away from evacuated areas until they are told the areas are safe,” Manning said.</span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">NAN </span></span></div>

US send troops, aircraft to flood-hit Texas

  The U.S. Department of Defence is pre-positioning troops, search and rescue units, aircraft, vehicles, equipment and supplies to stagi...

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Simi set to drop her new Album as she release art cover

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img src="http://tooxclusive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Simisola-Album-Cover.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to tooxclusive.com, the Quintessential songbird and diamond of X3M Music, Simi, has unveiled the album art cover for her much anticipated album already scheduled for a September 2017 release.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Prior to this unveiling, Simi had revealed that the album would be eponymously titled after her beloved self, also dropping the date of expected release to be the 8th of September 2017.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While fans are still reeling in the sonorous melodies and nightingale-ish chords from her latest music release, <em>Joromi</em>, accompanied by a poppy and colourful video directed by Ani James for Aje Films, the news of her album cover which first debuted on her social media, is nothing short of a welcome excitement to her legion of followers – the #SimiArmy – who have since declared their state of no-chill for the album drop.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As it stands now, TooXclusive has confirmed that we’re only a few more days away to when #SIMISOLAtheALBUM will hit digital stores and music shelves across the globe.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Stay anticipating!</span></div> </div>

Simi set to drop her new Album as she release art cover

According to tooxclusive.com, the Quintessential songbird and diamond of X3M Music, Simi, has unveiled the album art cover for her much...

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Sen. Misau calls police bluffing over his resignation from the Nigeria police

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Senator Isah Hamma Misau" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/5th-Senator-Isah-Hamma-Misau.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, Sen. Isah Misau, has said that he followed the provisions of the Police Act and regulations in resigning from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Misau stated this on Monday in Abuja, in reaction to a statement by the Police that he did not follow due process in exiting the force, and was therefore, a deserter.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He said in a statement that rather than concentrate on the issue of corruption in the force, the police decided to embark on a “voyage of discovery’’.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He said that the allegation of the police against him was a “propaganda’’ aimed at distracting Nigerians from the real issue.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Not wanting to join issues with the incoherence of the Force Public Relations Officer, the police have always known my whereabouts since my resignation.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Moreover, I have been in the Senate for about two and half years without any mention of my desertion until my innocuous caution against practices capable of destroying the Police Force.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“It is beyond curiosity that the Police will be looking for someone clearly in the plain sight for these past years.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Little wonder the proliferation of crime in the country and the Police apparent cluelessness, especially under its current leadership,’’ he said.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the statement on Sunday against Misau’s claim of corruption in the promotion process in the police, the authorities said that the allegations against the Inspector General of Police and the force were unfounded.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It said “Sen. Isah Hamman Misau dubiously absconded and deserted the Nigeria Police Force on September 24, 2010 when he was redeployed to Niger State Command.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“He refused to report, consequent upon which he was queried in line with the Public Service Rules Sections 030301(b)(g)(m)&(o) and  030402(a)(b)(c)(e)&(w).</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“This is in addition to the previous queries and disciplinary process he was facing when he refused to proceed on Junior Command Course (JCC) 49/2008 at Staff College, Jos, between January 5, 2009 and June 19, 2009.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The retirement letter presented to journalists by DSP Mohammed Isa Hamman is suspiciously forged and dubiously obtained.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The Force base postings, transfers and deployment of Commissioners of Police, Police Mobile Force Commanders, SPU Commanders and other Commanding Officers on merit and competence. Not on monetary, ethnic or religious consideration.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Postings and transfers are routine administrative tools to ensure the best performance of Police Officers toward optimum service delivery for the benefit of the public.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The Inspector-General of Police cannot compromise his integrity by receiving money before officers are posted. This allegation is also baseless, unfounded and so should be disregarded and discountenance by the public.”</span></div> </div>

Sen. Misau calls police bluffing over his resignation from the Nigeria police

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, Sen. Isah Misau, has said that he followed the provisions of the Police Act and regulations in r...

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In Philippines, `idiots’ who resist arrest can be killed

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Philippine-President-Rodrigo-Duterte.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">President Rodrigo Duterte of Philiphines told police on Monday they could kill “idiots” who violently resist arrest.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Duterte met the parents of the schoolboy, 17-year-old Kian Santos, at the presidential palace in Manila on Monday, to assure them their son’s case would be handled fairly.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Your duty requires you to overcome the resistance of the person you are arresting … (if) he resists, and it is a violent one … you are free to kill the idiots, that is my order to you,” Duterte told the police officer.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Duterte added that “murder and homicide and unlawful killings” were not allowed and that police had to uphold the rule of law while carrying out their duties.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Delos Santos’ mother, Lorenza, said she was confident the president would help quickly resolve the case, while the father, Saldy, said he no longer feared for their lives and felt reassured by the meeting.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“He promised he would not allow those who have committed wrong to go unpunished,” the mother said in an interview posted online by Duterte’s communications office on a Facebook page after the meeting.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Duterte unleashed the anti-drugs war after taking office in June 2016, following an election campaign in which he vowed to use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thousands of people have been killed and the violence has been criticized by much of the international community.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Domestic opposition has been largely muted but the killing of the teenager by anti-drugs officers on Aug. 16 has sparked rare public outrage.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No fewer than 1,000 people, including nuns, priests and hundreds of children, joined his funeral procession on Saturday, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Earlier, Duterte broke off midway through a prepared speech at the Hero’s Cemetery on the outskirts of Manila and addressed impromptu comments to Jovie Espenido, the police chief of a town in the south where the mayor was killed in an anti-drugs raid.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Delos Santos was dragged by plain-clothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley in Manila before he was shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Police say they acted in self defense after delos Santos opened fire on them, and Duterte’s spokesman and the justice minister have described the killing of the teenager as an “isolated” case.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, described the killing of the teenager as “murder” in a tweet on Aug. 25, earning the ire of Duterte who in a separate speech on Monday called her “son of a bitch” and “stupid”.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“She should not threaten me,” Duterte said as he challenged Callamard to visit and see the situation in the Philippines.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A planned visit by Callamard in December was canceled because she refused to accept Duterte’s conditions that she must hold a debate with him.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She turned up in unofficial capacity in May to address an academic conference on human rights.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reuters/NAN</span></div> </div>

In Philippines, `idiots’ who resist arrest can be killed

President Rodrigo Duterte of Philiphines told police on Monday they could kill “idiots” who violently resist arrest. Duterte met the p...

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UN Peacekeepers protect civilians in South Sudan

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/331South-Sudan-Japanese-Troops.jpeg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div data-reactid="35" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan are moving more aggressively to protect civilians caught in the country’s four-year civil war, after years of criticism for failures that led to the sacking of the mission’s military chief last year.</span></div> <div data-reactid="36" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year, the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has rescued aid workers and U.N. staff during attacks, saved civilians from abduction by armed groups, and pushed past roadblocks to a massacre site.</span></div> <div data-reactid="37" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“A lot has been done … to improve UNMISS’ ability to deliver on its protection of civilians mandate,” said Lauren Spink, a South Sudan specialist for the independent U.S.-based advocacy group Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC).</span></div> <div data-reactid="38" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">South Sudan was the world’s youngest country when it became independent from neighboring Sudan in 2011 following decades of conflict.</span></div> <div data-reactid="39" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the new nation dissolved into civil war less than two years later, after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer.</span></div> <div data-reactid="40" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since then tens of thousands have died, and 3.5 million of the country’s 12 million citizens have fled their homes, creating Africa’s largest refugee crisis since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.</span></div> <div data-reactid="42" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the war spread, families flooded into U.N. bases seeking protection. More than 210,000 people now stay in six such bases, too fearful to go home.</span></div> <div data-reactid="43" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Between December 2013 and July 2016, more than 100 civilians and four U.N. peacekeepers were killed in attacks on U.N. bases when peacekeepers didn’t shoot back, fled, or delayed responding, according to data from the U.N. and CIVIC.</span></div> <div data-reactid="44" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But a chastened UNMISS has gradually taken a tougher stance, boosted by the January arrival of new chief David Shearer, a former New Zealand labor party leader.</span></div> <div data-reactid="45" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We are trying to make our peacekeeping more robust,” Shearer told Reuters. “Our peacekeepers are going to stand up to situations and challenge them.”</span></div> <div data-reactid="46" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Several incidents demonstrate the change. In April, peacekeepers deployed to Aburoc, a village on the Nile. After the U.N. arrived, rebels withdrew, and a government offensive that had displaced 20,000 civilians paused. Aid workers then intervened to stop a cholera outbreak.</span></div> <div data-reactid="47" style="backface-visibility: hidden !important; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #181818; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div data-reactid="48" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same month, peacekeepers went to Torit in the southeast to protect an orphanage housing 250 children caught between the front lines.</span></div> <div data-reactid="49" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mongolian peacekeepers in northern Bentiu town have repeatedly rescued civilians from abduction by armed groups this year, including one incident where they fired their weapons. Reuters was unable to find records of such interventions for previous years.</span></div> <div data-reactid="50" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“There is improvement,” said Peter Ruach, who lives in the camp outside the U.N. base in Juba. A year ago government troops raped dozens of women who ventured outside the fence to search for food.</span></div> <div data-reactid="51" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The Ethiopian battalion have cleared a buffer zone and they make sure that when women are going out for collection of firewood they are protected,” he said.</span></div> <div data-reactid="52" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since the buffer zone opened at the end of November, serious crimes like rape and murder reported near the camp had dropped from around 48 per month to between 1 and 5, the U.N. said.</span></div> <div data-reactid="61" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">U.N. peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since before independence, but found themselves frequently criticized after war broke out by aid groups like Doctors Without Borders, who said they were not doing enough to protect civilians.</span></div> <div data-reactid="62" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A year ago, peacekeepers at the U.N.’s main Juba base ignored desperate pleas for help when government troops attacked a hotel a mile away, killing one aid worker and gang-raping others.</span></div> <div data-reactid="63" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In following days, government troops raped dozens of Nuer women outside the same base. Ten aid agencies released a joint statement accusing peacekeepers of failing to adequately patrol the area.</span></div> <div data-reactid="64" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The inability of UNMISS to protect civilians threatens to undermine any attempts at safety and security in the country and makes it impossible for humanitarian agencies to provide the help that is so urgently needed,” Frederick McCray, South Sudan Country Director at charity CARE, said at the time.</span></div> <div data-reactid="65" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The U.N. eventually launched an investigation that led to the firing of UNMISS’ top general, Kenya’s Johnson Ondieki, in November. In response, Kenya pulled its troops from the peacekeeping mission.</span></div> </div>

UN Peacekeepers protect civilians in South Sudan

United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan are moving more aggressively to protect civilians caught in the country’s four-year civil war...

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Photo of the day

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi49clUJIJmaWYp6UInhyphenhyphenRfCnge8gZPBZ6QoEfvGcaLc8tp5H4L6FJvs3LLSAb2t6fOU_P2qMWdBifYJ5sbamU5eu5F0bWmMnjXy4_fENpn_CcBjCx7-YsW7K4pR-CWk6Gv7iB0WLz87OTy/s1600/FB_IMG_1502636096946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="720" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi49clUJIJmaWYp6UInhyphenhyphenRfCnge8gZPBZ6QoEfvGcaLc8tp5H4L6FJvs3LLSAb2t6fOU_P2qMWdBifYJ5sbamU5eu5F0bWmMnjXy4_fENpn_CcBjCx7-YsW7K4pR-CWk6Gv7iB0WLz87OTy/s320/FB_IMG_1502636096946.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Where is this guy from??? Lolx</div>

Photo of the day

Where is this guy from??? Lolx

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Founder of white supremacist Crew found dead in prison

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="meta" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #9b9b9b; font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; orphans: 2; overflow: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <br /> <summary class="description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"> <img src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a3a4f793621.JPG" /></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Read LIB's report below;</span></div> <blockquote class="tr_bq" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Benjamin Davis, the founder of a white supremacist prison gang known as the “211 Crew” has died in jail and his death is “currently being viewed as a suicide”.</span></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <br /></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Colorado Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Fairbairn declined to explain when or where Davis was found. The 211 Crew captured national headlines after one of its alleged members, Evan Ebel, assassinated Colorado Department of Corrections director Tom Clements on March 19, 2013.  </span></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <br /></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">42 year old Davis established the gang in 1995 in a Colorado prison cell after he was supposedly attacked by a group of black detainees who broke his jaw. “Benjamin’s jaw was so badly broken, he had to hold it up with his hands,” his father, Israel Davis, wrote to a judge in 2007.</span></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <br /></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Late Davis was in jail for a 30-year conviction of a robbery and first-degree assault case.</span></div> </blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"> <br /></blockquote> </summary></div>

Founder of white supremacist Crew found dead in prison

Read LIB's report below; Benjamin Davis, the founder of a white supremacist prison gang known as the “211 Crew” has died in j...

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Annie Idibia looks stunning in new photos

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a3a2f4319bc.png" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow! She nailed it.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <img src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a3a27f9e82f.png" /></div>

Annie Idibia looks stunning in new photos

Wow! She nailed it.

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21 Savage grabs Amber Rose's booty on the red carpet at MTV VMAs

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a3a0ccc1b7c.JPG" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Read LIB's report below</span><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last night, 21 Savage couldn't keep his hands off his girlfriend Amber Rose as they hit the red carpet as a couple, both wearing Yousef Aljasmi at the MTV Video Music Awards.</span></span></blockquote> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a3a0e0a0239.JPG" /> </span></div>

21 Savage grabs Amber Rose's booty on the red carpet at MTV VMAs

Read LIB's report below Last night, 21 Savage couldn't keep his hands off his girlfriend Amber Rose as they hit the red carpet a...

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Missing USS McCain sailors all found

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="USS John S. McCain" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/USS-John-S.-McCain.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The remains of all 10 sailors who went missing after the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided near Singapore last week have been recovered by divers, the U.S. Navy said Monday.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Navy and Marine Corps divers had been searching in flooded compartments of the destroyer for days after the damaged ship docked in Singapore.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cause of the Aug. 21 collision is under investigation.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The crash ripped a gash in the McCain’s hull, flooding crew berths and machinery and communications rooms.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The commander of the Navy’s Japan-based 7th Fleet was fired last week after a series of accidents this year raised questions about its operations. The firing of Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, a three-star admiral, was a rare dismissal of a high-ranking officer for operational reasons.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Navy also ordered an operational pause for its fleets worldwide to make sure all steps are being taken to ensure safe and effective operations.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Pacific Fleet will also carry out a ship-by-ship review of its vessels, looking at navigation, mechanical systems, bridge resource management and training.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The victims ranged in age from 20 to 39 years old and came from eight U.S. states:</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Charles Nathan Findley, 31, Electronics Technician 1st Class, from Amazonia, Missouri</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Abraham Lopez, 39, Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class, from El Paso, Texas</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, Electronics Technician 2nd Class, from Gaithersburg, Maryland</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, Electronics Technician 2nd Class, from Cable, Ohio</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class, from Manchester, Maryland</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Corey George Ingram, 28, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class, from Poughkeepsie, New York</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Suffield, Connecticut</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— John Henry Hoagland III, 20, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Killeen, Texas</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class, from Decatur, Illinois</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, Electronics Technician 3rd Class, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Source: <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/divers-find-remains-missing-uss-mccain-collision-49459736" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1193f6; line-height: inherit; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in-out, color 0.1s ease-in-out;">ABC NEWS</a></span></div> </div>

Missing USS McCain sailors all found

The remains of all 10 sailors who went missing after the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided near Singapore last week have bee...

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Trump renews threat to scrap trade agreement

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Trump" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_5161-e1501705455940.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">President Donald Trump of U.S has renewed his threat to scrap North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and ripped on trading partners Canada and Mexico.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump issued the threat in a tweet early on Sunday, days before the three countries were scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations on rewriting the 23-year-old agreement.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?” he wrote.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump, a Republican, promised during his campaign to overhaul or eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he cast as killing jobs and exacerbating the U.S. deficit, and to adopt a more protectionist stance for trade generally.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first five-day round of talks between the three countries concluded last Sunday, with all sides committing to follow an accelerated process in revamping the agreement.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was originally signed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat whose wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ran against Trump in the2016 election.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Going into the five-day round of negotiations starting Sept. 1 in Mexico, Trump has kept the heat turned up.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both Mexico and Canada have dismissed his musing in a Tuesday speech that “we’ll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point” as a negotiating tactic.</span></div> </div>

Trump renews threat to scrap trade agreement

President Donald Trump of U.S has renewed his threat to scrap North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and ripped on trading partners...

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Nigeria wins Women Afrobasket for 3rd time

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Afrobasket.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nigeria’s senior women basketball team, D’Tigress, on Sunday restored the nation’s lost glory in the Women Afrobasket having defeated defending champions, Senegal to clinch the title for the third time after 12 years.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The News agency of Nigeria reports that in the competition’s final played in Bamako, Mali, the D’Tigress walloped their Senegalese counterparts 65-48 points to beat them a second time in the championship.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to report, the team recorded no loss in all their games to the final in the 2017 edition after they had won it last in 2005. They first won it in in 2003.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the victory, the team has qualified for the 2018 Women FIBA Championship in Spain.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They had earlier in the semi-final defeated hosts, Mali 48-47 to set up the final against Senegal which they had earlier beaten 58-54 points on Thursday in the group stage of the tournament.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the first quarter of the match, Senegal enjoyed the privilege of 18-12 points’ victory but Nigeria powered past with 21-10 points in the second quarter.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Senegal then struggled to reverse their loss in the third quarter only to suffer additional loss of 7-15 points to D’Tigress.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Evelyn Akhator, Dallas Wing forward, in the Women National Basketball Association (WNBA), has earned a reputation as top performer for the umpteenth time in the competition, scoring 13 points and seven rebounds for D’Tigress.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Akhator also made two assists and one steal even as she made no successful block during the final game.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But D’Tigers Captain, Aisha Muhammed, Adaora Elonu and Ezinne Kalu contributed seven rebounds, four assists and two steals respectively during the match.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, Astou Traore, the top performer for Senegal, scored 17 points which was the highest score in the match, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and no block, all in vain to stop D’Tigress.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nigeria’s return to glory in women basketball in the continent began on July 21 immediately Musa Kida-led NBBF was inaugurated by Solomon Dalung, Minister of Youths and Sports.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kida had announced the opening of camp for D’Tigress in Florida U.S, and Lagos for the invited foreign and home-based players respectively.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It will be recalled that Kida said the players and officials’ welfare was prioritised by the management board of the NBBF to get the best of the team.</span></div> </div>

Nigeria wins Women Afrobasket for 3rd time

Nigeria’s senior women basketball team, D’Tigress, on Sunday restored the nation’s lost glory in the Women Afrobasket having defeated de...

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Beauty……. A fairy tale

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Related image" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/e1/fa/f8/e1faf8a73422dadd9cc82a333c3378f8--black-is-beautiful-beautiful-women.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know you know me, that is why I have chosen to write you these heartfelt words from my world. You may call it a letter, but it’s an emotional expression of a true dream that is been cage by nervousness. It hurts me when I can’t look into your eyes and tell you how much I care to hold you in my arms and show you the pureness of what love is all about.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been looking everywhere for someone (a girl) to call my own, but I could not find, until last night when I was opportune to look deep into your eyes. I saw a beauty that is indefinable, unexplainable and miraculously beat my imagination. Not just the beauty of your face that mollified me, but deep inside you, I saw love that needs to be developed and express it meaning for commitment. It reflects and flow in your eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was lost to my sub consciousness that I just have to let you go immediately. Your calmness and your ear of listening is what I cannot explain. So attentive!!! But my dream is not yet a fairytale to tell, rather a wish that is made upon a star.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is dream without achievement? What is life when you can’t choose to be with your dream girl? How can I make you understand that my soul sing a true song of love, just for you? How can I make you realize that my night is meaningless and colorless without the thought of you adding colors to ultra bright m world? How can I make you see that you are a sent glistering angel that my heart loves?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I maybe common, but could my personality be proven worthy of your love? I’m tired of been just a friend, I want to be nigh you. Tell me, do you feel the same way too? Can I be the one you truly love?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">                                                                                With love</span></i></div> </blockquote> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That is one of my numerous love letter that I used to write when I see a beauty that makes me feel nervous. Beauty is extra-ordinary whether you like it or not. It takes the creator a good thought to birth out beautiful ones. Beauty is beyond the eyes and faces of the beautiful one. It is deeply camp in the heart of the owner and reflects its fullness in the eyes, which is the reason why it is call beautiful.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What can be saying of her than she is awesome in look and perfect to behold. The story of beauty can only be told by those who find the true soul mate and they are blessed with it. Emotionally speaking, beauty is when you are in love. You cannot stop telling the tales to everyone who care to listen. Its extraordinary qualities are been camp inside a tales that will last forever. Romeo and Juliet is definition of dying for the beauty of love, so is titanic and missing angel. </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The truth is this; even the blind recognizes beauty when his is in love. They say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but to me, it is simply a fairy-tales that is been told from generation to generation. It is a dream of love when you are not sleeping. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">                                       Solove</span></div>

Beauty……. A fairy tale

I know you know me, that is why I have chosen to write you these heartfelt words from my world. You may call it a letter, but it’s an e...

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My own restructuring is that we have to restructure our mentality..... before restructuring Nigeria- Obasanjo

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a14ddaf2047.png" /></span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a recent interview with Channels TV, former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has disagreed with some members of the political class that has been calling for the restructuring of Nigeria. In disagreement, Obasanjo said what Nigeria needs urgently is the restructuring of our mentality and not the country. According to him, restructuring our mentality on the kind of country we want and working towards it would get us the kind of country we so much desire to have. </span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I have asked six different people who talk about restructuring and six of them gave me different point of views. The other day some people even came to me and what they were talking about doesn't make sense. We have a country that God has endowed. Now the management of that endowment is what we all have to put all our hands on. All hands must be on deck and look at how to deal with it. Some of them are nostalgic about the independence that they are restructuring. Some of them are nostalgic about immediate post independence. Some of them are nostalgic about their tribe. That is their restructuring. I cannot be part of that. My own restructuring is that we have to restructure our mentality. We have to restructure our mind. We have to restructure our understanding of Nigeria. What country do we want? If we decide on what country we want, then how do we get that country. How do we get the inclusiveness? How d we get every Nigerian feeling a sense of having a stake in the country?".</span></div> </div>

My own restructuring is that we have to restructure our mentality..... before restructuring Nigeria- Obasanjo

In a recent interview with Channels TV, former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has disagreed with some members of the political c...

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photo of the day

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img height="400" src="http://alexis.lindaikejisblog.com/photos/shares/59a1e50b00bb7.jpg" width="296" /><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow! This is fabulous.</span></div>

photo of the day

Wow! This is fabulous.

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Police arrest 30 fake delegates at Anambra APC’s primary

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/APC-Logo-e1480826957668.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At least 30 fake delegates were arrested by police at the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship election primary which held in Awka on Saturday.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A senior police officer told NAN on condition of anonymity that more than 30 fake delegates have been arrested from the seven council areas that have participated in the primary.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The source said that the number might likely increase as most of the delegates were ignorant of the screening method adopted by the panel.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The officer said fake delegates caught were moved to another location for further investigation.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alhaji Kashim Shettima, the Chairman of the election committee and Governor of Borno State, told stakeholders before the election that the conduct of the primary would be thorough.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shettima said that delegates must identify themselves with any international passport, INEC permanent voters’ Card, National Identity card or driver’s license before he or she would vote before the person would vote.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He said neither President Muhammadu Buhari nor the APC national leadership has a favoured governorship candidate in Anambra state.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shettima explained that what was upper most in the mind of the party was to conduct free, fair and acceptable governorship primary that would usher in a candidate that every APC member in the state will support for Nov. 18 poll.</span></div> </div>

Police arrest 30 fake delegates at Anambra APC’s primary

At least 30 fake delegates were arrested by police at the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship election primary which held in Aw...

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McGregor blames referee for his loss

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_5267-e1503812187398.jpg" /><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his words:</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I took the early rounds pretty handy, he adjusted. He’s composed – not that fast or powerful, but boy is he composed and he was making me throw.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Fair play to him, what a career he’s had. I thought it was a little early with the stoppage. I would have liked to have hit the floor, he (the referee) should have let me keep going. I was just a little fatigued. He was a lot more composed under the shots – that’s what 50 professional fights will give you.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I’ve been strangled on live TV and came back, so I would have liked him to have let it go. It was some buzz. I thought we were close. It was fatigue. The referee could have let it keep going, let the man put me down.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“No one is taking these kind of risks. I’ll take it on the chin, it’s another day for me.”</span></div> </blockquote> </div>

McGregor blames referee for his loss

In his words: “I took the early rounds pretty handy, he adjusted. He’s composed – not that fast or powerful, but boy is he composed an...

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Mayweather: I have had my last fight

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_5268-e1503812111103.jpg" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Floyd Mayweather said he is not going to fight again after winning his 50th professional bout against Irishman Conor McGregor in Las Vegas Saturday night.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘This was my last fight. I chose the right dance partner’, he said after stopping the Irishman in the 10th round.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“He is a tough competitor and we gave them what the fans wanted to see – I owed them for the Manny Pacquiao fight.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“He [McGregor] was a lot better than I thought. He was a tough competitor, but I was the better man. Our game plan was to take our time, let him shoot his heavy shots and take him out at the end.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“In the MMA, he fights 25 minutes really hard, and after 25 minutes he starts to slow down. I guaranteed everybody this would not go the distance. Boxing’s reputation was on the line.”</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On his record of 50-0, beating Rocky Marciano’s 49-0, Mayweather added: “Rocky Marciano is a legend and I look forward to going into the hall of fame one day.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“This was my last fight tonight, for sure. I chose the right dance partner. Conor McGregor, you are a hell of a champion.”</span></div> </div>

Mayweather: I have had my last fight

Floyd Mayweather said he is not going to fight again after winning his 50th professional bout against Irishman Conor McGregor in Las Veg...

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Kano to empower 6,700 women in skills acquisition

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img alt="Kano State Gov. Dr Abdullahi Ganduje" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ganduje.jpg" /><br /> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> Kano State Government says it will train no fewer than 6, 700 women in various skills under its women empowerment programme.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje made this known while flagging off the training in Kano on Saturday.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> Ganduje said that the participants, selected from 44 local government areas of the state, would receive training on how to prepare local delicacies and other trades to enable them to be self-reliant.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> He said that the training was aimed at empowering women not only to become self-reliant, but to enable them to be employers of labour in their respective communities.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> “We believe that if we our empower women, they will be able to establish small businesses and support their families,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> Ganduje said that the beneficiaries would be given a token amount as a start-up capital to enable them to set up businesses of their choice after the training.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> The governor said that his administration attached great importance to women empowerment, hence, its decision to give priority to girl-child education.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> He urged the participants to make best use of the opportunity to enhance their socio-economic status.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> “I have directed all the 44 local government areas to compile list of associations of businesswomen with a view to supporting them to enhance their businesses,” Ganduje said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> In her remarks, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Yardada Bichi, said that the state government had released N101. 8 million for the training of the women in various skills.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> She said that the training, which would be conducted at the Indoor, State Library and Women Development Centre, Zoo Road, was designed to empower the participants.</div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> Bichi said that in the history of the state, no government had ever trained women close to this number.</div> </div>

Kano to empower 6,700 women in skills acquisition

Kano State Government says it will train no fewer than 6, 700 women in various skills under its women empowerment programme. Gov. Abdu...

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Breaking: Mayweather wins, referee saves McGregor

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_5266.jpg" /><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">Floyd Mayweather has won the fight against loudmouth Conor McGregor in the 10th round, with the referee having to save the Irish challenger from further punishment. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;">The American now has a 50-0 record.</span></span><br /> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boxing pundits never expected the fight to go the distance, but McGregor lived up to his promise to shock the boxing world. But in the end Mayweather was just to good.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The end came early in the 10th round. Mayweather attacked again and referee Robert Byrd dived in to save McGregor from any more punishment.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fight which was delayed because of pay-per-view issues started 5.14 am.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conor McGregor had control of the first three rounds, doing most of the footwork, with his more experienced opponent Mayweather being overly cautious.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He took control in the 4th round as McGregor appeared to have tired himself out.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In round eight McGregor already looked like a man whose energy had been sapped out of him, and his punches did not cause even a flinch of pain from Mayweather, who appeared to be toying with his opponent at that moment.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Floyd Mayweather has won all 50of his professional fights, so far.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conor McGregor has never boxed professionally before today and won 21 of 24 MMA fights.</span></div> </div>

Breaking: Mayweather wins, referee saves McGregor

Floyd Mayweather has won the fight against loudmouth Conor McGregor in the 10th round, with the referee having to save the Irish challenge...

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