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http://ift.tt/2bgPr7s Kingston – Usain Bolt has cautioned Canadian young gun, Andre De Grasse to temper his expectations of dethroning him at the world championships in London in August. The 30-year-old Jamaican will run his final race on home soil at the Racers Grand Prix this weekend before hanging up his spikes after the London meet. De Grasse, who chased Bolt home for silver in the 200 metres and bronze in the 100m at the Rio Olympics last year, is widely tipped to be one of the athletes bidding to fill the void left by the sprint king’s retirement. “Over the years I’ve always tried to be diplomatic about how I answered a lot of questions. “But what bothers me the most when athletes are coming up through the ranks and they get to a certain level, they always want to beat me. I don’t know why?” Bolt told reporters in Kingston on Thursday. De Grasse, 22, said this week he intends to beat Bolt before the world record holder in both 100 and 200m brings down the curtain on his gl...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Former Governor of Katsina state looted N50.5 billion from the treasury, a commission of inquiry set up by his successor has revealed. The looting came to light when  the chairman of the commission,  Ado Muhammed submitted its report to Gov. Aminu Masari, who  has vowed to use all legal means to recover the money. “Now that the commission of inquiry has established that over N50.5 billion is looted, we shall use all legal means to recover the money”, Masari said. “The looted funds belong to the people of Katsina state and we are ready to follow due process in the courts to retrieve the money from the officials of the past administration. “The people of Katsina state need the money back so that it can be used to provide social amnesties to them. “We are determined to retrieve the funds from those that looted same and no amount of legal huddles will prevent us from collecting the state money. “The commission of inquiry has used legal procedu...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Danish lawmakers on Friday abolished the crime of blasphemy, an offence that has rarely been prosecuted in the Scandinavian country. Parliament voted 75 to 27 to abolish the almost 100-year-old law. However, only members of the opposition Social Democrats voted against the move. Blasphemy violations could be punished with a four-month prison sentence or a fine. “This means that we can have a freer and less prejudiced discussion about religions,’’ Bruno Jerup of the opposition Red-Green Alliance party, which launched the proposal, said. Meanwhile, prosecutors have gone to trial three times over the blasphemy paragraph since 1938, most recently in 1971. A case is pending against a 42-year-old man who in December 2015, posted a clip on Facebook showing him burning the Quran in his garden. The video was shared on the group “Yes to Freedom – No to Islam.” It was not clear if prosecutors would proceed with the case. The Justice Ministry said that statements or ...

http://ift.tt/2pOxVjU Chelsea's Brazilian-born Spanish striker Diego Costa celebrates after scoring their fourth goal during the English Premier League football match. / AFP PHOTO / Ian KINGTON / Diego Costa claims he will only leave Chelsea to return to Atletico Madrid this summer, turning his back on long-term speculation of a blockbuster move to China. Costa scored 22 goals this season in firing Chelsea to the Premier League title for the second time in three seasons at the club. Yet, the Brazilian-born striker has struggled to settle in London and had a training ground bust-up with Chelsea boss Antonio Conte in January fuelling rumours he could be the latest star of European football to be snapped up by China’s football boom. However, after losing out to Arsenal in Saturday’s FA Cup final, Costa said only a return to Atletico, where he won La Liga in 2013/14, would tempt him away from Stamford Bridge. “If the club really want to sell me and there is an offer from a...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Friday, announced the appointment of Mr Olusegun Adekunle as the Alternate Chairman of the Economic Commission Board. OPEC made the announcement in a statement released in Abuja on Friday by Mr Idang Alibi, Director Press Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Alibi said: “In a welcome development, OPEC announced the appointment of Nigeria’s Mr Olusegun Adekunle as the Alternate Chairman of the 127th OPEC Economic Commission Board. “Dr Ibe Kachikwu expressed delight at the development while congratulating Adekunle and urging him to continue to work hard to justify the appointment and make Nigeria proud.’’ Adekunle was before this appointment Nigeria’s representative to the organisation. The Commission is saddled with the responsibility of writing reports and making recommendations to the Conference of OPEC Oil Ministers on oil prices and other economic issues. It also assists OPEC in promoting stability i...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has said that the Ekiti state Governor, Ayodele Fayose will not be allowed by the courts to contest again for Governorship position in 2018 ‎to serve his first term which was truncated in 2006 as a recent statement credited to him claimed. Fayose was impeached about seven months to the end of his first term in 2006, but the Supreme Court in 2014 reinstated him as the Governor of the state. As the Governorship elections in the state perches round the corner, Mr. Fayose has been reported to have said that he would seek a re-election bid to complete his first tenure which was truncated in 2006. He reportedly made the statement on Monday. ‎However, the Human Rights lawyer, Falana, while reacting to Fayose’s claims said that the Governor’s bid to seek re-election was illegal and unconstitutional. According to him, “Tenure extension by a governor under any disguise is anomalous. No court can prolong the tenure of a sitting gove...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The death toll from a head-on crash between a truck and a minibus packed with people going to a wedding in Guinea has risen to 23, hospital authorities said Monday. The deadly crash took place on Saturday just north of the capital Conakry, when a minibus was crushed by a truck loaded with sand. “Following the tragedy… that resulted in 18 deaths at the scene and three others while the wounded were being transferred, two other cases were recorded (Sunday),” Abdoulaye Sako, a doctor at a hospital in Conakry said on national radio. Many of the victims were women, and Sako said one of those who died on Sunday was a six-month-old baby. Road police official Babacar Sarr told AFP that the minibus was packed with passengers heading to a wedding. The driver was overtaking in a dangerous manner when the minibus came head-to-head with a truck carrying sand, he said. Deadly road accidents happen often in the west African country where rundown vehicles travel on rough roa...

http://ift.tt/2qMbvxz Opuiyo said Ubah was arrested on Friday in connection with the theft of petrol kept by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in his tank farm in Lagos. The product was valued at over N11 billion. Ifeanyi Ubah, the chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Limited has been arrested by the Department of State Services. The agency revealed the arrest today in a statement by spokesman, Tony Opuiyo. Opuiyo said Ubah was arrested on Friday in connection with the theft of petrol kept by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in his tank farm in Lagos. The product was valued at over N11 billion. The agency said Ubah’s action amounted to economic sabotage, with “capacity to negatively impact on national economy”. Opuiyo gave additional reasons for Ubah’s arrest. He said he has further engaged in other activities inimical to national security and public order. “In furtherance of his gimmicks to undermine the government and people of Nigeria, he ...

http://ift.tt/2q72JgI Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika meeting with the French prime minister at his residence during an official visit, in Zeralda, a suburb of the capital Algiers. PHOTO:AFP The party of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and its coalition ally have won a clear majority in parliamentary elections, the interior ministry said Friday. Bouteflika’s National Liberation Front (FLN) won 164 of the national assembly’s 462 seats in a poll marred by low turnout, public disillusionment over a tepid economy and allegations of political corruption. The FLN, which has dominated the North African nation’s politics since its 1962 independence from France, lost a quarter of the seats it won in 2012 polls, according to preliminary results from Thursday’s vote announced by interior minister Nourredine Bedoui. But the FLN preserved its majority thanks to its ally, the Rally for National Democracy (RND), which won 97 seats, up from 68 in the last election. Two opp...

http://ift.tt/2q72UZf This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 5, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting the defence detachment on Jangjae Islet and the Hero Defence Detachment on Mu Islet located in the southernmost part of the waters off the southwest front. / AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS / STR / South Korea OUT / North Korea on Friday accused the CIA of plotting with South Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region. The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services have “hatched a vicious plot” involving unspecified “biochemical substances” to kill the hermit state’s young leader during public ceremonial events in Pyongyang, the Ministry of State Security said. For the CIA “assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results wi...

http://ift.tt/2pI57sI PHOTO: Reuters Hawking and petty trading is largely responsible for the alarming rate of sexual violence against the girl-child, Ms Jamila Eneika, the founder El-meela Heritage Support Foundation, an NGO, has said. Eneika made the remark on Friday in Kaduna during a sensitisation campaign on child right protection with the theme: “Get Involved’’ organised by the NGO. She said that the practice exposed the girl-child to all forms of abuse by unsuspecting neighbours and people in the street, who take advantage of their innocence to sexually abuse them. “The girl-child is most vulnerable to sexual violence because she is usually sent to hawk goods on the streets instead of going to school and she is thus exposed to hooligans.’’ She added that such hooligans could take advantage of the girl-child and rape her. Eneika expressed sadness that several cases of rape of the girl-child were not reported because of fear of being stigmatised by the society. She ...