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http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Eight members of the Abu Dhabi royal household who have been accused of treating 20 domestic workers like “slaves,” are being tried in absentia in Brussels on Thursday. Princess Hamda Alnehayan, the widow of the sheikh of Abu Dhabi, and her seven daughters are accused of treating their domestic workers in an “inhumane and degrading” way. They are also accused of confiscating the passports of their employees, and refusing to pay their salaries. Lawyers said that the domestic workers, who had been hired as nannies, cooks and domestic helpers, had to be at the princesses’ disposal day and night, and were never allowed to leave the property. The lawyers also said the princesses had insulted their workers, by calling them “cows, dogs and whores.” The case dates back to 2008. Following a tip-off, Belgian police had raided a luxury hotel, where the princesses occupied an entire floor for a whole year. The Belgian Federal Centre for Migration is a co-plaintiff ...

http://ift.tt/2pq6lX7 Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari (C) sitting among the 82 rescued Chibok girls during a reception ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on May 7, 2017. PHOTO: TWITTER/BASHIR AHMAD Some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped from their school’s hostel on April 14, 2014, by Boko Haram insurgents refused to leave their abductors Saturday when 82 of them were freed, a negotiator told Thomson Reuters Foundation . “Some girls refused to return…I have never talked to one of the girls about their reasons,” said lawyer and mediator Zannah Mustapha who was part of the team that facilitated the release of the 82. “As a mediator, it is not part of my mandate to force them [to return home].” Eighty-two girls, who were part of the 276 kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School, in Chibok, Borno State, were freed last Saturday in a prisoner swap deal after spending more than three years with their abductors. Fifty-seven of the original 276 kidna...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Arsene Wenger has ruled out working alongside a director of football if he stays at Arsenal, saying he must have full control of the Premier League club. The Frenchman’s hardline stance puts him on a potential collision course with members of the Arsenal hierarchy who reportedly want to bring in a director of football this summer to work with Wenger. Wenger has called the shots at the north London club since he joined in 1996 and said he had no interest in having his authority diminished, even as his future remains mired in uncertainty and with the fans restless. “I’m the manager of Arsenal Football Club and as long as I’m manager of Arsenal Football Club, I will decide what happens on the technical front, that’s it,” Wenger, 67, said on the eve of Wednesday’s league match at Southampton. “I don’t know what director of football means. Is it somebody who stands in the road and directs play right and left? I don’t understand and I never did understand what ...

http://ift.tt/2qDe2Nw (FILES) This file photo taken on August 27, 2014 shows Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniya (C) waving to the crowd during a rally in Gaza City following a deal hailed by Israel and the Islamist movement as 'victory' in the 50-day war. Ismail Haniya was elected as the new head of Hamas on May 6, 2017, the Hamas news agency announced.<br />MOHAMMED ABED / AFP Hamas said its former chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, was elected overall head of the Palestinian Islamist group on Saturday, succeeding Khaled Meshaal. Haniya, seen as a pragmatist within the movement, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007, unlike Meshaal who lives in exile in Doha and has completed the maximum two terms in office. “The Hamas Shura Council on Saturday elected Ismail Haniya as head of the movement’s political bureau,” the group’s official website announced. He beat contenders Mussa Abu Marzuk and Mohamed Nazzal ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By CALEB AYANSINA ABUJA – NIGERIAN Citizens, Thursday, berated the Federal Government over its claim that the country had come out of economic recession, saying such claim is contrary to reality on ground in the country. Last week, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed said that the country in a week time would be out of recession based on a statistical data emanating from the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS). But a source from the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS), who claimed not to be speaking for the bureau made it clear that Nigeria is still in the recession based on what is currently going on in the country. The source faulted the source of the data claiming that the country is out of its economic hardship, saying the data did not emanate from them. Reacting to this, a member, Board of Trustee of the Youth Leaders Association of Nigeria (YLAN), Abayomi Fagbenro , told vanguard in an interview that the claim by the government is far fr...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Kano – A Magistrates’ Court in Kano on Wednesday remanded a 25-year-old man, Suleiman Bala, in prison for allegedly defiling a five-year-old boy. According to the prosecution, Bala of Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area of the state is facing a count charge of “unnatural offence”. The Prosecutor, Mr Rufa’i Inusa, told court that the father of the boy, one Abdullahi of Kofar Arewa Village reported the matter to the Dawakin Kudu Police Station on March 22. He said that on March 10 at about 2 p.m., the boy, who was on his way from a mosque, was allegedly lured by Bala into a nearby shop, where he had an unnatural act with him. Inusa said that the victim was rushed to Dawakin Kudu Hospital for treatment. The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 284 of the Penal Code. Bala, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. Chief Magistrate Muhammad Jibril adjourned the case until May 15 for mention. The post Kano man docked for allegedly defiling boy, 5 app...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) has urged the Inspector General of Police, Idris Abubakar, to ensure the arrest and prosecution of the killers of Mr Famou Giobaro, a broadcast journalist in Bayelsa. The union made the request in a communiqué issued Sunday at the end of the NUJ National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held in Gombe. The communiqué was signed by the NUJ National Secretary, Malam Shuaibu Leman. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that on April 16, some unidentified gunmen had killed Giobaro, a staff of Bayelsa-owned Glory FM 97.1, in his residence at INEC Road, Kpasia in Yenagoa, the state capital. The attackers neither stole anything, nor attacked other occupants of the house, triggering speculations the killing could have been premeditated. The union is also demanding that the case files of all slain journalists be re-opened, including those of late Dele Giwa and Bagauda Kaltho. The communiqué further condemned in strong terms, the wi...