Nigeria clashes between Fulani herdsmen and vigilantes kill 72

af.reuters Clashes in northwest Nigeria between suspected Fulani cattle rustlers mounted on motorbikes and local youth vigilantes from the rival Hausa ethnic group left at least 72 people dead, police said on Monday.

Dozens of gunmen raided a meeting of youth vigilantes and local hunters who had gathered from different areas at the remote village of Yar Galadima, in northwest Zamfara state, on Saturday.

Oscar Pistorius begins giving evidence

 Oscar Pistorius has started giving evidence in his murder trial in South Africa.

He apologised to the family of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, who he killed, saying he wanted to protect her.

The defence opened its case earlier today, calling a pathologist in an effort to cast doubt on the prosecution's assertion that Ms Steenkamp ate no more than two hours before the double-amputee runner killed her.

The evidence from Professor Jan Botha is critical to the defence because Pistorius has claimed the couple were in his bedroom by 10pm on February 13 2013, and any indication that they were awake much later could undermine the Olympian's account of the sequence of events.

Pistorius fatally shot Ms Steenkamp after 3am the next morning, saying he mistook her for an intruder in his home. The prosecution has argued that he intentionally killed her after an argument.

Abba Moro Begs Nigerians For forgiveness over NIS Recruitment

Interior Minister, Abba Moro, has taken full responsibility for the recent ill-fated recruitment into Nigeria Immigration Service which claimed 16 lives and begged for forgiveness from Nigerians, especially affected families.  

Abba Moro, who made the appeal at a media briefing, weekend, said his intention was genuine but lamented that the exercise turned tragic.

“I think that I will ordinarily ask Nigerians for understanding in this matter, understanding the intention, understanding the motive behind the whole thing of an open, transparent recruitment exercise.

“That is the first of its kind into the services of Interior Ministry that was intended primarily to give employment to Nigerians, irrespective of their backgrounds, connections, contacts in government or the business circle,” he said.

Increase in LASU fees violates right to education — SERAP

vanguard

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has described the increase in tuition fees for students of Lagos State University, LASU, as unfair and retrogressive.

It called on the government to “urgently reverse the increase as we consider this to be manifestly unfair, unjust, discriminatory and retrogressive.”

In a letter dated April 4, 2014 and signed by its Executive Director, Mr. Tokunbo Mumuni, SERAP urged the state governor to use his position to reverse the fees, saying,”by reversing the tuition fees, your government will be demonstrating its sacred duty to promote equality in the society, and showing respect for international law requiring states to move towards free higher education when setting fees policy.”

God will Deliver Lagos People from Tinubu’s Charms in 2015

An aspirant for governorship on a Peoples Democratic Party ticket in Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Gbadamosi, has said the residents of the state will free themselves from the grasp of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in 2015.

He said there was no chance the former legislative head of the state would keep on determining what’s to come for the people of the state, including that the decision party in the state, the All Progressives Congress, will not win the coming governorship race.

2015: ‘Emperor’ Patience Jonathan Plot’s To Install 3 Govs EXPOSED

LEADERSHIP Excerpts- First lady Patience Jonathan is set to play the godmother of governors in at least three states: Bauchi, Bayelsa and Rivers. Sources confided in LEADERSHIP at the weekend that the wife of the president has positioned her favourites to clinch the tickets of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the states ahead of the 2015 election. That of Bayelsa, however, is scheduled for 2016.

In Rivers State, Mrs Jonathan is said to be working to ensure that the governorship candidate of the PDP emerged from one of the riverine local government areas of the state, possibly Okrika.

By implication, the supervising minister for education, Nyesom Wike, who had had a running battle with Governor Rotimi Amaechi, apparently in the hope of getting the party’s ticket for 2015, may well consider himself out of the race.

A highly placed source in the know of the calculations told LEADERSHIP that the president’s wife has not hidden her desire to have a riverine person govern the state for the first time.

Pedestrian killed as Luas and car crash

A woman in her 30s has been killed in a Dublin city centre collision involving a Luas tram and a car.

The pedestrian was struck by a car during the incident at the junction of Jervis Street and Abbey Street Upper at 8.45am, a Garda spokesman said.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The road is closed and the Luas red line is closed between Smithfield and Connolly.

Gardaí are investigating and forensic collision specialists are due to carry out an examination of the area.  (irishtimes)

Wenger’s £100m Warchest: Arsenal Eye Three Outstanding Attacking Talents

Arsenal are set to target three key players with their £100 million summer transfer budget, according to the Metro.

The club chairman Stan Kroenke is set to hand his manager Arsene Wenger a huge summer transfer budget to strengthen the club and aim for trophies and a full and proper title challenge.

The Gunners have led the Premier League for the majority of the season but find themselves fighting for their top four place after a run of poor results and Everton’s resurgence below them.

A striker will be top of Wenger’s shopping list – at least fans would hope so – as it is painfully clear the club is lacking a forward this season with just Nicklas Bendtner and Yaya Sanogo back-up to Olivier Giroud.

Pulis hopes Cardiff can avoid relegation

Crystal Palace's Welsh manager Tony Pulis would like Cardiff City to avoid relegation from the Premier League even though his side meet them in a crucial battle to avoid the drop in South Wales on Saturday.

Both clubs were promoted from the Championship last season and while Palace sit five points above the relegation zone, Cardiff are three points from safety in 18th place.

Palace gave themselves a real chance of surviving the drop when they stunned Chelsea 1-0 last weekend while Cardiff have struggled for points and consistency since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Malky Mackay in January.

"It was wonderful to see Cardiff get promoted last year," Pulis said in Thursday's news conference ahead of the game.

Teenage girl gets stuck in a DRAIN after removing metal cover to try and retrieve her iPhone with her feet

A teenager found herself up to her neck in trouble yesterday when she got stuck while trying to retrieve her iPhone from a drain.

The 16-year-old dropped her iPhone 5 down the drain near her home in Dover, Kent.

Armed with wellies and a towel she went down feet first to retrieve it.

Finding herself jammed into the drain emergency services had to be called but, luckily, it was a quick rescue.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service received the call at 7.17pm and by 7.26pm, Miss Sankey was free.

These photographs, taken by an eye witness, show two firefighters grabbing her arms and hauling her to safety while another watches on.

A firefighter from Dover fire station said: 'She was trying to retrieve her iPhone that she dropped down there. It's very unusual! I hear a few people have taken pictures.'

The drain cover and a pair of red wellies and a towel, understood to belong to the teenager, were next to the drain.

The photos of the incident have been posted on Facebook and Twitter and have since gone viral on the social networking sites. 

The girl was not injured but a friend posted on Facebook that the phone was 'ruined'.

Culled from .dailymail

Profits at Nigeria's Stanbic IBTC more than double

Nigeria's Stanbic IBTC Holdings , a unit of South Africa's Standard Bank, said on Thursday its 2013 pretax profit rose to 24.62 billion naira, an increase of 116 percent from 11.41 billion naira a year earlier.

Gross earnings grew to 111.22 billion naira during the period, compared with 91.86 billion naira in 2012, it said in a filing with the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

Stanbic IBTC proposed a dividend of 0.10 naira per share, the same amount it paid in 2012. (Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Tim Cocks)

Court Order FG to Tender Public Apology To Sanusi

The Court has declared that the seizure of  the suspended CBN governor Lamido Sanusi’s passport was unlawful, and has asked the Federal Government to return the document.

The Court also grant N50m damages in Sanusi’s favour, asking the FG to tender public apology to the offended party.

Also, the court restrained FG, through its agents, from arresting or detaining Sanusi without following due process or law, as well as interfering with his freedom of movement

(channelstv)

Mourinho slams 'ridiculous' Chelsea defending, strikers

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho branded his side's defending as "ridiculous" while revealing he was unhappy with his frontmen following their 3-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

A well-taken Ezequiel Lavezzi strike, a David Luiz own goal and a superb solo effort from Javier Pastore condemned the Blues to a convincing defeat at the Parc des Princes, with Eden Hazard converting a 27th-minute penalty.

The Portuguese boss was disappointed with the way his players defended throughout the match, and believed that a lack of concentration cost them the game. He also issued a scathing assessment of the Blues' strikers.

Barcelona transfer ban: Rebuilding plans under threat, with Dani Alves, Pedro and Alexis Sanchez likely to stay if signings can't be made

With the dust still settlling on a 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid at the Nou Camp on Tuesday that could keep Barcelona out of the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in seven years, the club were told by Fifa on Wednesday that they cannot sign any players for the next two transfer windows. 

Not only will the world governing body’s ban, if upheld, seriously affect the massive rebuilding job Barcelona believe they must carry out this summer, it will also have huge ramifications for many of Europe’s biggest clubs.

Chelsea had hoped to sell David Luiz to Barcelona before the World Cup, Everton wanted to keep loanee Gerard Deulofeu, and a host of Premier League clubs were watching the situation of Dani Alves, Pedro and Alexis Sanchez, aware they could be available at the right price. If  Barça fail to overturn Fifa’s punishment on appeal, not only will they be unable to bring in Luiz but it will also change their attitude towards selling and loaning out players.

BARCELONA BANNED FROM MAKING TRANSFER - BUT IT'S NOT NEYMAR'S FAULT

Super Eagles Can Surprise the World, Says Westerhof

Clemens Westerhof has been dreaming lately. And from far away Holland, his home, the man who turned Nigeria's football around spoke of his dreams yesterday in a telephone chat.

"I sleep and in the middle of the night I wake up. They ask me what is the matter and Isay I have just dreamt of Nigeria doing well in the World Cup in Brazil."

Stephen Keshi, the Eagles coach was captain of Nigeria when Westerhof was the manager. Nigeria placed 5th in the FIFA ranking after USA '94 World Cup which followed the Nations Cup victory in Tunisia. A television house is doing a documentary on what transformed Nigeria's football and has invited Westerhof to Nigeria this April to speak on how he did it. Interestingly, May 3 is Westerhof's birthday and he will be in Nigeria to celebrate it.

"Westerhof could make you play like Pele," Keshi said of the Dutch in his media chat last week.

The Dutch was known for inspiring players and high discipline. And these virtues, he said, Keshi must imbibe in the current team for them to excel in Brazil.