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http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Troops backed by attack helicopters battled dozens of militants linked to the Islamic State group holed up in a besieged city in the southern Philippines on Thursday after attempts to secure volatile areas met heavy resistance. The army sent about 100 soldiers, including U.S.- trained special forces, to retake buildings and streets in mainly Muslim Marawi City held by militants of the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Thousands fled as rebels seized large parts of the city and torched buildings in running battles with government forces that erupted on Tuesday afternoon after a failed raid by security forces on one of the group’s hideouts. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law on impoverished Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island, to prevent the spread of extremism after the Maute rebels rampaged through the city of 200,000 people. At least 21 people have been killed since then. Religious leaders have also ac...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Troops backed by attack helicopters battled dozens of militants linked to the Islamic State group holed up in a besieged city in the southern Philippines on Thursday after attempts to secure volatile areas met heavy resistance. The army sent about 100 soldiers, including U.S.- trained special forces, to retake buildings and streets in mainly Muslim Marawi City held by militants of the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Thousands fled as rebels seized large parts of the city and torched buildings in running battles with government forces that erupted on Tuesday afternoon after a failed raid by security forces on one of the group’s hideouts. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law on impoverished Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island, to prevent the spread of extremism after the Maute rebels rampaged through the city of 200,000 people. At least 21 people have been killed since then. Religious leaders have also ac...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Lukman Agbiaka, the Secretary-General of Nigeria Deaf Sports Federation (NDSF), has promised Nigerians that the country’s athletes to the Deaflympics in Turkey would make Nigeria proud. Agbabiaka said on Thursday in Abuja that Nigerian Deaf athletes to the Deaflympics in Samsun, Turkey, from July 18 to July 30, would prepare adequately. Agbabiaka disclosed that the federation would start camping for its athletes from June 15 in Lagos. “We have selected athletes that will represent us in Samsun, Turkey. We choose 12 athletes for track and field events and two players for table tennis. “We selected these athletes during our one week trials in Ilorin in April. “They (athletes) have been representing us well whenever we have a competition, I am sure they will not let us down,’’ he said. The secretary added that Nigeria won the 4th West Africa Deaf football championship in Mali this month. “Our Deaf Eagles football team participated in the football championship ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J A financial investor, Mr Tunji Busari, on Wednesday advised civil servants to look beyond the current pension scheme and invest in their future. Busari, a lawyer, told newsmen that a section of the country’s Civil Service Law that prohibited civil servants from engaging in some businesses was not against investment. He gave the advice on the sidelines of a news conference organised by Kosofe Local Government and Enterprenovate Nigeria in partnerships with Leadway Assurance and MOYDAK Construction to sensitise civil servants on investment. NAN reports that the programme, tagged “Life After Retirement and Life as a Self-Employed 2017’’, is expected to hold between June 22 and June 23. It will hold at the Kosofe Local Government Headquarters, Ogudu in Lagos. The programme aims to enlighten civil servants on ways, how and where to invest and also give the civil servants opportunity to meet investors who will give first hand help and advice. On how investment cou...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) will unveil its policy pledges on Thursday, restarting an election campaign which was suspended after a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured dozens more in the northern city of Manchester. Britons are due to vote on June 8, with the latest polls, published before Monday’s attack, showing Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives comfortably ahead of the main opposition Labour Party, albeit with a narrowing lead. The two main parties will restart their national campaigns on Friday but UKIP, which was key to securing Britain’s exit from the European Union, said the best response to the attack was to begin as soon as possible. “We took the decision that the best way to show these people that we will not be beaten, that they will not win, is to get back into the saddle,” UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall said. Opinion polls providing the first insight into whether the bombing has affected voting preferences are due in ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA – Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has asked Nigerians to learn from the history of Nigeria’s civil war rather than beating the drums of a second civil war, saying while the wise learn from history, experience remains the best teacher for a fool. In a keynote address, “Greater Together than Apart” delivered on Thursday at an event to examine Nigeria’s development 50 years after the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, Osinbajo said while it is kinder to learn from history, experience is a harsh teacher. While he said there was no harm in discussing the nation’s existence, he urged Nigerians to use the country’s diversity to make her great “instead of trying to flee into the lazy comfort of homogeneity”. Details later…. The post ‎Biafra: Only fools learn from experience, the wise from history – Osinbajo appeared first on Vanguard News . Vía Vanguard News http://ift.tt/2rTMKjG

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Kpakpando Foundation for Physically Challenged Persons (KFPCP), says it will intensify advocacy for empowering disabled people at the forthcoming 11th Abuja Housing Show. Mr Festus Adebayo, Managing Director, FESADEB Communications Limited, convener of the Abuja Housing Show, made this known in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja. KFPCP is a Non Governmental Organisation established in 2005 by Sen. Osita Izunaso to take care of people with disabilities through empowerment and scholarship programmes and provisions of suitable houses. The foundation advocates for the equal rights of people with disabilities including their accessibility in public places. Adebayo, however, expressed worry on the way most houses were being built in the country without putting into consideration the pace and mobility of the disabled. On this note, the expert called for the designing of Ramps (mobile staircase) in buildings, especially in public places for accessibil...

http://ift.tt/2pVKuK6 Outgoing French president Francois Hollande (C) and French president-elect Emmanuel Macron walk during the ceremony marking the 72nd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany during WWII on May 8, 1945 under the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris on May 8, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN French President Francois Hollande warmly greeted Emmanuel Macron on Monday in their first public meeting since the centrist’s resounding election victory the day before. Hollande smiled and clasped the arms of his one-time economy minister as the two men attended a ceremony at Paris’s Arc de Triomphe to commemorate victory over the Nazis in World War II. The president walked beside the 39-year-old Macron to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the monument, where they laid a wreath. Hollande plucked Macron from obscurity three years ago when he named the former investment banker his economy minister, marking the start of his meteoric rise to Sunday’s el...