World News Delight

The United Kingdom has asked the Federal Government to clarify the status and whereabouts of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu. The British government said it had asked the government if the British national was alive or dead. However, it could not be immediately ascertained if the Federal Government had responded to the inquiries or not. The Press Officer, UK high commission in Nigeria, Joe Abuku, stated that the inquiry followed reports that Kanu had been missing since September 14, 2017 when armed soldiers stormed his residence in Abia State. Abuku said this in response to questions from  Saturday PUNCH  seeking to know UK’s concern on the missing IPOB leader. “We are seeking urgent clarification from the Nigerian authorities about the status and whereabouts of Mr. Kanu, a British-Nigerian man, who has been reported missing since September 14,” Abuku stated in an email on Thursday. Asked if the UK would strip Kanu of citizenship on account of t

President Donald Trump’s embattled health minister was forced to leave the US administration Friday, amid a scandal over his use of costly private jets for government travel. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price at a press conference about influenza prevention for the upcoming flu season at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on September 28, 2017. SAUL LOEB / AFP “Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his resignation earlier today and the President accepted,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. Trump had earlier in the day said he would decide Price’s fate later on Friday, amid a scandal over his use of costly private jets for government travel. “We’ll be announcing something today,” Trump said, “I don’t like the optics.” He added: “I’m not happy, I can tell you I’m not happy.” In all, Tom Price has flown on 26 separate trips this year on private aircraft, totaling some $400,000, according to

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has sacked a Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Youth and Special Duties, Osayuware Idahosa and three other civil servants. Idahosa, who served as Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Education allegedly committed fraud by padding the budget for the conduct of primary school examination to the tune of N283 million. Other officers involved in the alleged fraud include Barrister Erhunmwunse Edokpayi, Mrs. E.I. Ero-Ugiagbe and Mr Lucky Adagbonyin. They were ordered to proceed on indefinite suspension without pay and their case forwarded to the State Civil Service Commission. The decision to punish the Permanent Secretary and the other officers were the outcome of a session of the State Executive Committee meeting, headed by the Obaskei, in Government House, Benin City. It will be recalled that Governor Obaseki vowed to unmask the people that sent a N283 million request for the conduct of primary school examination in the sta

Perhaps in reaction to United States of America’s stand that it did not regard the secessionist agitator group, Indigenous People of Biafra, as a terrorist orgnisation, members of Stand Up for Peace Movement have gone on a protest in Abuja on Thursday. Some of the posters they carried read, “No to IPOB,” No to IPOB and affiliate organisations,” etc. They took their grievances to the American Embassy in Abuja, as captured in these photographs by  Olatunji Obasa: Source: Punchng. 

Brazilian President Michel Temer Brazilian President, Michel Temer, who is embroiled in a massive corruption scandal, has seen his popularity drop to an abysmal three percent, a poll showed Thursday. In July, five percent of people surveyed by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics said the government was “good” or “very good.” The number of people who see Temer’s management “bad” or “very bad” has jumped to 77 percent from 70 percent, while 16 percent deem it “acceptable.” When asked whether they trust Temer, 92 percent said no. A total of 2,000 residents of 126 Brazilian cities were surveyed September 15-20. A separate poll by CNT/MDA from September 19 found 3.4 percent support for Temer, the most unpopular Brazilian leader since the 1964-1985 dictatorship. The latest charges involve Temer’s alleged agreement to pay hush money to keep a jailed politician from testifying and his leadership of a group in Congress that took millions of dollars in brib

Ben Stokes Ben Stokes will not be considered for England selection ‘until further notice,’ the England and Wales Cricket Board says. He will not be considered for England international matches “until further notice” after a video emerged apparently showing him fighting outside a nightclub, the ECB said Thursday. Test vice-captain Stokes was included in England’s Ashes squad announced Wednesday, despite injuring his hand in the incident that led to his arrest on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm. The 26-year-old Durham all-rounder was released without charge on Monday, but remains under investigation. The Sun  newspaper published the footage from outside a nightclub in the southwest city of Bristol late on Wednesday. Opening batsman Alex Hales, who was with Stokes late on Sunday after playing alongside him during England’s win over West Indies in the third one-day international in Bristol, has also been suspended from international selection. “Ben Stokes and Al

Two toddlers were hospitalised in critical condition after a playmate accidentally shot them with a loaded gun at a daycare in the US state of Michigan. Police in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn said the child managed to get a hold of a loaded gun on Wednesday inside a private home that functioned as a daycare. The toddler fired either one or two shots that struck two children — both three years old, according to US media which also reported that there were multiple guns inside the home. “I’m not going to guess on what occurred in there, but obviously there were weapons in proximity to where kids are, and that’s totally unacceptable to me,” Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad told reporters. As many as 1.7 million American children live in homes with an unlocked, loaded gun, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun violence, and the incident was the latest case of children being injured by unsecured firearms. Nearly 1,300 children die and 5,790 are treated for guns

At least seven people were killed and several others wounded after a car bomb exploded near a marketplace in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Thursday, a city official said. The blast occurred alongside a densely populated road near Hamarweyne market, an area where bombings claimed by the Islamist Shabaab insurgency have previously occurred. “The blast was caused by a luxurious car loaded with explosives, which was detonated at a civilian, densely-populated area, and seven people were killed and several others wounded,” city administration spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane told reporters. A witness to the blast, Ismail Ali, described the explosive-laden car detonating in the middle of the road as it was moving. “There were eight people killed and most of them died in a civilian minibus which was passing by the area where the vehicle went off,” said Abdinasir Mohamed, another witness who gave a slightly higher death toll that authorities did not confirm. The Al-Qaeda affiliate

Newly elected Syrian parliament speaker Hammudeh Sabbagh, the first Christian to hold the post in decades, delivers a speech A Christian legislator was Thursday elected speaker of parliament in predominantly Muslim Syria for the first time in decades. Hammudeh Sabbagh, a 58-year-old Syriac Orthodox Christian graduate in law and member of President Bashar al-Assad’s Baath party from Hasakeh province in northeast Syria, won 193 votes out of 252 cast, state media reported. He became the first Christian to hold the post since Fares el-Khoury who served multiple terms before and after the French mandate of 1920-1946. Before the 2011 outbreak of war in Syria, Christians of 11 different denominations made up about five percent of the population. Around half of Syria’s 1.5 million Christians have since fled, according to Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo. Christians have tried largely to keep their distance from the conflict, in which they have been targeted by Islamist r

The River Nun, a tributary of the River Niger, has overflown, causing massive flooding in Tombia community in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Residents of the community in Ekpetiama Kingdom were shocked to see their homes and vast farmlands devastated by the floods. Some of the residents in the area who narrated their ordeal to a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent said some houses, as well as farmlands and fishing gear, have been destroyed by the disaster. Bayelsa State was listed by the Nigerian Meteorological Services Agency as one of the most flood-prone states in its 2017 rain forecast. President of the Ekpetiama Youth Association, Peter Otobotekere, said the community has been experiencing perennial flood challenges since the 1950s. He appealed to the government to come to their aid. Community members said only shoreline protection infrastructure would protect the area from perennial flooding. When contacted, Bayelsa State Commissioner of Environment Williams Alam

Mr. Olatoye, in a press statement, said the APC needs to be quickly rescued if an electoral disaster in the 2019 general elections is to be averted. A former Majority Leader of the Osun State House of Assembly, Wahab Olatoye, has described the recent verbal war between Professor Itse Sagay, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), and the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as sign that the party is seriously ill. Mr. Olatoye, in a press statement, said the APC needs to be quickly rescued if an electoral disaster in the 2019 general elections is to be averted. “The scathing statements against the leadership of the party by Professor Itse Sagay, to a large extent reflects the view of many Nigerians. The assertion by Professor Sagay that the APC leadership is made up of unprincipled characters and ‘rogue elephants that go about destroying what they should otherwise protect’ is on point,” said Mr. Olatoye. Given that the pa