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http://ift.tt/2pS7jOC On Monday last week Jornet claimed a new speed record for an ascent without fixed ropes or supplemental oxygen when he summited the north face of Everest in 26 hours from base camp. Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet has reached the summit of Mount Everest for the second time in a week, his team said Sunday. Jornet scaled Everest’s north face, starting from a camp at 6,500 metres on the Tibet side of the mountain, in 17 hours late on Saturday, said a statement from the team. “I’m so happy to have made the summit again! Today I felt good, although it was really windy so it was hard to move fast,” he said in the statement. “I think summiting Everest twice in one week without oxygen opens up a new realm of possibilities in alpinism and I’m really happy to have done it.” On Monday last week Jornet claimed a new speed record for an ascent without fixed ropes or supplemental oxygen when he summited the north face of Everest in 26 hours from base camp. The 2...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The United Labour Congress (ULC) has appealed to the Federal Government to embrace dialogue in resolving the face-off between the management of Capital Oil and Gas and Department of State Services (DSS). The face-off is over alleged illegal sale of petroleum products. Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, the Chairman of Lagos State Council of the union, made the appeal in a statement in Lagos on Friday. Korodo said that the products in question were stored in the company’s tank farm by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He said that attention of the union had been drawn to the impending jobs losses in the company due to the lingering impasse between Federal Government and Capital Oil management. “We are aware of government’s promise of jobs to Nigerians during the electioneering campaigns with the desire to tackle unemployment once and for all. “But what we are witnessing now is a departure from the promise the ruling government made to the good people of thi...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J A 44-year-old insurance company marketer, Adekunle Gboyelade, who allegedly bolted with his employer’s N1.3 million, was on Thursday released on N500,000 bail on the orders of an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court. Gboyelade, who works for Mutual Benefits Life Assurance Ltd, Lagos, and lives at Onaara Street, Gashiru, Sango-Ota, Ogun, is facing a two-count charge of stealing and obtaining money under false pretences. He, however, denied the charge. The Magistrate, Mrs Y.R. Pinheiro, in her ruling, also directed the accused to produce two sureties as part of the bail condition. According to Pinheiro, the sureties should be gainfully employed and also show evidence of two years’ tax payment to the Lagos State Government. Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Mathew Akhaluode told the court that the accused committed the offences between 2013 and 2016 at Mutual Benefit Life Assurance Ltd located at No. 19/21, Town Planning Way, Ilupeju, Lagos. Akhaluode alleged that the accuse...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J WaterAid, an international organisation, on Thursday, said it had initiated Water Easy Toilet (WET) facilities in Enugu, Jigawa and Ekiti States to mitigate open defecation. Miss Blessing Sani, Communication/Advocacy Assistant of the organisation, made this disclosure in an interview with newsmen in Abuja. According to her, the initiative is aimed at reducing the spread of diseases in the states. “WaterAid is implementing the sanitation marketing approach in order to complement the Community Total Sanitation Programme. “This is an emerging initiative with great potential to improve access and use of sanitation products and services. “The organisation’s intervention is to ensure that more communities are quickly adapting to the modern sanitation system”. Sani said that the WET initiative scheme is in three models “the WET products make use of a unique, low-cost squatting pan that function as a water-seal toilet’’. This, according to her, will eliminate odour...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J A Federal High Court on Thursday sentenced a prominent Ethiopian opposition politician to six years and six months for accusing the government of using disproportionate force against demonstrators. Yonathan Tesfaye, a Former Public Relations Head of the Blue Party, one of the East African country’s main opposition parties was charged with stirring unrest and inciting terrorist acts. He regularly posted statements on Facebook that criticised the government’s handling of protests which started in November 2015 in the Oromia region. The Oromo people living in the region, which includes Addis Ababa, feel excluded from political and economic power. The protests then spread elsewhere in the country. Human rights groups said hundreds were killed during clashes and rioting which calmed down after the government imposed a state of emergency in October. “The defendant has acted in a way that threatened the country’s political, economic and social fabric. The sentenci...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Hundreds of Edo returnees from Libya on Wednesday appealed to the State Government to empower them. The  returnees came to the secretariat of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ) in Benin to make their appeal. The leader of the group, Mr Solomon Okoduwa, said that empowering the returnees would facilitate their re-integration into society. “We need help from government. The only way to fight human trafficking and migration is through empowerment of youths. “There is need for the government to create jobs, not only for the returnees but for all youths in Edo State,” he said. One of the returnees, Mr Lucky Igue, who narrated his ordeal while in Libya, said that hundreds f Nigerians were languishing in prisons in the war-ravaged country. Igue said that they were not only denied food while in prison in the North African country but were also tortured and made to face inhuman treatments. “We passed through hell in our bid to get back home. Some of us were kep...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Police in Enugu on Wednesday assured residents of the State of their safety and security before, during and after May 30 sit at home as ordered by pro-Biafran movements. Biafra Independence Movement (BIM), Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and other pro-Biafra groups have issued a sit-at-home order to the residents of the South-East and South-South on May 30. They said the order was to mark the Golden Jubilee of the “defunct Biafra Republic declared in 1967.’’ Police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu told newsmen in Enugu that the police in partnership with sister security agencies had been placed on alert to arrest anybody or group that breached the peace in the state. Amaraizu also said that the command would arrest and prosecute any groups involved in violent protests in the state. “The police wish to inform members of the public particularly good people of the state that its attention has been drawn to an a...

http://ift.tt/2pwo1iR View of destroyed buildings after a blast occurred at a fireworks warehouse in San Isidro, Chilchotla, Puebla state, Mexico on May 9, 2017.<br />An explosion at a fireworks warehouse in Mexico has killed at least 14 people and wounded 22 in the second such tragedy in a matter of months. / AFP PHOTO / JOSE CASTAÑARES An explosion at a fireworks warehouse killed 14 people, all but three of them children, in a poor Mexican village as it celebrated a religious festival. The blast struck Monday night in San Isidro, a remote farming village of some 40 houses in central Puebla state, the regional government said. It came just five months after a similar tragedy killed 42 people in explosions at a fireworks market near Mexico City, in a country where fireworks are often used to mark saints’ days. Villagers in San Isidro were setting off fireworks as part of preliminary festivities ahead of the feast of the village’s patron saint on March 15. One of the ...

http://ift.tt/2qG1vsr Djokovic parted with long-time coach Marian Vajda on Friday, having also ended a three-year relationship with six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker at the end of last season, in a bid to get back to his brilliant best./ AFP PHOTO / ALFREDO ESTRELLA Novak Djokovic hinted on Sunday that he will follow the trend of hiring a highly successful former player as his new coach, but says he will take his time to make the right decision. Djokovic parted with long-time coach Marian Vajda on Friday, having also ended a three-year relationship with six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker at the end of last season, in a bid to get back to his brilliant best. “It’s going to be someone that has been through similar experiences like I have,” said the world number two. “Not too many people in the past of tennis have managed to get to that stage and play at that level, so I’ll see. “I’m thinking slowly and thoroughly about it. I don’t want to take things with a ru...

http://ift.tt/2p1v1p5 IDPs camp The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that the planned closure of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Borno by May 29 was no longer feasible. Mr Muhammad Kanar, the NEMA North East Coordinator stated on this Sunday while speaking with newsmen in Maiduguri. Kanar said that IDPs whose communities had been liberated were, however, free to return home voluntarily. “Actually, Gov. Kashim Shettima arrived at the May 29 date for closure of all IDP camps based on his conviction that things will go on as they started from last year. “It was Shettima’s hope and the hope of every disaster management expert for the camps to close early so people can return to their normal life,” he said. Kanar said that the governor was motivated by the gallant efforts of the military in liberating many communities in a short period. “Stakeholders were amazed by the speed our gallant soldiers achieved a lot within a few weeks in the fight again...