Falana: man giving Igbo quit notice lives in Lagos

Rights activist and constitutional lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said yesterday that the leader of the northern youth group that issued a three months ultimatum to the Igbo to vacate the North does not live in the North, but in Lagos.

Falana however said the restructuring and true federalism must be resolved now for Nigeria to make progress. He spoke at a news conference organised by organised labour in Abuja.

To Falana, it is laughable that certain individuals will sit down in the comfort of their homes to issue ultimatum to others to vacate their land.

He said: “The founding fathers of our country opted for federalism. Ours is not the only federation in the world. The United States that we copy almost recklessly is a federation of over 50 states. If you look at the motto of the United States, it is out of many, one nation has emerged.

Turkish schools to stop teaching evolution, official says

Board of education chairman says subject is debatable, controversial and too complicated for students

Evolution will no longer be taught in Turkish schools, a senior education official has said, in a move likely to raise the ire of the country’s secular opposition.

Alpaslan Durmuş, who chairs the board of education, said evolution was debatable, controversial and too complicated for students. 

To remain one of us, close Al Jazeera TV, Arab states tell Qatar

The Arab States have counselled Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera Televison for good if it wants to remain a part of the influential Middle East body.

This is one of the 13-point agenda handed down to Qatar, which is currently facing diplomatic row with many countries, including its brother Arab states.

The Saudi Arabia-led alliance regards Al Jazeera, the most widely watched broadcaster in the Arab world, as a propaganda tool for Islamists, which they believe also undermines support for their governments.

Boys told not to wear shorts to school, so they showed up in skirts

These schoolboys are fighting their school's dress code, one skirt at a time.

Around 50 boys at Isca Academy in Exeter, UK, protested their school's no shorts policy by turning up in skirts on Thursday, reported by Devon Live. 

The students reportedly got the idea from the school's head teacher, who jokingly suggested they could wear skirts if they like. 

'Why is she here?': the Nigerian herder’s daughter who became UN deputy chief

Mother of six Amina Mohammed rose from a humble upbringing in the Lake Chad region to become a government minister and the UN’s second in command

In a Twitter aside during his election campaign, Donald Trump dismissed the UN as “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time”. For Amina Mohammed, the organisation’s new deputy secretary general, it is anything but.

Attempting to meet some of the world’s most intractable crises and developmental challenges head on is what drives the focused Mohammed, for whom battling against the odds has been a lifelong theme.

Continue reading...

VISIT WEBSITE

Create Simple Animations With ParaPara Animation

By Richard Byrne

Parapara Animation is a free animation creation tool developed and hosted by Mozilla. The tool is easy to use and it does not require registration in order to use it. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to create an animation with ParaPara Animation. 

Visit website for details

 

VISIT WEBSITE

Psychiatric test for traffic lawbreakers begins July 1 –FRSC

The Federal Road Safety Corps has said that it will commence the enforcement of psychiatric test on traffic law offenders in the country with effect from July 1, 2017.

The Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, stated this at the opening of a five-day training programme for 22 FRSC officials on traffic safety for non-motorised transportation in Abuja on Monday.

According to a statement by Bisi Kazeem, the FRSC Corps Public Education Officer, Oyeyemi said the test would focus on four areas of violations including use of phone while driving, beating traffic light and route violations as well as dangerous driving.

The move, according to him, is necessitated by continued violations in the identified four areas despite efforts by the corps to change the behaviour of motorists through education and enforcement.

Oyeyemi said, “We are worried about the continuous use of phone while driving, traffic light violations, route violations and dangerous driving.

“We have invited the commanding officers for a strategic session on Friday. We will give them full directives to resume the referral of all these classes of offenders to various government hospitals for check of their mental state.

Osun revenue agency seals private varsity over tax evasion

The Osun State Internal Revenue Service has closed down the Joseph Ayo Babalola University at Ikeji Arakeji in Oriade Local Government Area of the state over an alleged non-payment of taxes.

Our correspondent gathered   that officials of the revenue agency swooped on the university and sealed the Senate building, the administrative block  and the bursary, but the lecture rooms and hostels were said to have been left untouched by the tax collectors.

The agency has, since three weeks ago, been closing down private primary and secondary schools whose owners are yet to pay taxes and registration fees to the state government.

Apart from the university, which is owned by the Christ Apostolic Church, IRS officials also closed down Wema Bank and Unity Bank in the state over the same issue.

'I was rejected at birth by my father': The island of albinos

(CNN) - "I was rejected at birth by my father," says Christina Wagulu. "My uncles have threatened to kill me because of my condition. Men stigmatize me and don't like me."

Wagulu has albinism, a genetic condition which in her home country Tanzania brings with it a host of dangers.

Some are medical. Albinos have a skin pigment deficiency, resulting in poor eyesight and an increased likelihood of developing skin cancer. One startling figure from non-governmental organization Standing Voice claims that 98% of Tanzanian albinos die from skin cancer before the age of 40.

The greater fear, however, comes from humans, both strangers and family alike.

Superstitions

Across sub-Saharan Africa, living with albinism carries great stigma.

In parts of the Great Lakes region, albinos are regularly killed for their bones and organs, which are sold to witch doctors for "charms and magical potions", according to Amnesty International. The group labels it a "macabre trade ... also fueled by a belief that the bones of people with albinism contain gold."

Why Qatar is the focus of terrorism claims

By Tom Keatinge 

Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies

The dispute that has seen Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies isolate Qatar stems from allegations that the tiny gas-rich nation is sponsoring extremist groups which are destabilising the Middle East.

This is not the first time Qatar's neighbours have expressed their displeasure over its individualist foreign policy - diplomatic relations were severed for nine months in 2014.

Tensions have arisen from Qatar's support for the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood; its close relationship with groups such as the Taliban and certain al-Qaeda affiliates; and its relationship with Iran, which has most recently led to allegations from Saudi Arabia that the state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera is supporting Houthi rebelsin Yemen fighting government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Doha has strongly denied Riyadh's accusations, and said it has taken more robust counter-terrorism measures than some of its neighbours.

Yet this latest row is shining a particular light on the role Qatar plays with its immense wealth.

In April, it reportedly paid a ransom of as much as $1bn (£790m) to a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and to Iranian security officials as part of a deal that resulted in the release of 26 royal family members reportedly kidnapped by Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militiamen and of dozens of Shia fighters captured by jihadists in Syria.

Thus it is Qatar's alleged continued funding of radical ideology and extremism that is seemingly the cause of concern this time.

'Way to go'

Since 9/11, the United States-led global effort to disrupt terrorist financing has been relentless. Domestic laws and United Nations Security Council Resolutions have been passed; entities and individuals have been subject to national and UN sanctions; and suspected conduits for terrorist funding, such as remittance companies and charities, have been shut down.

But despite all this, the commitment of some key nations, including Qatar, has been repeatedly questioned.