Day: February 11, 2018

Police shoot man during sword attack on church

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Indonesian police have shot a sword-wielding man who attacked church congregation during Sunday Mass, injuring four people including a priest. Around 100 people were attending the mass at the church in Sleman town, Yogyakarta province when a man barged in wielding a one-metre-long sword and began attacking people seemingly indiscriminately. “Four people have been injured in the incident — quite seriously — but we still cannot determine the perpetrator’s motive,” Yogyakarta police spokesman Yulianto told AFP. A congregation member Andhi Cahyo said a few minutes after the mass started, a…

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Saudi women may soon drop long robes

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Saudi women need not wear the abaya – the loose-fitting, full-length robes symbolic of religious faith – a top muslim cleric said, another indication of the Kingdom’s efforts towards modernisation. On his television program, Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said Muslim women should dress modestly, but this did not necessitate wearing the abaya. “More than 90 percent of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas,” Sheikh Mutlaq said on Friday. “So we should not force people to wear abayas.” While…

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Ayobami Adebayo’s novel long-listed for Wellcome Book Prize

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Ayobami Adebayo, author of the novel Stay with Me, has been long-listed for the £30,000 Wellcome Book Prize, the organisers announced. Stay with Me is the Nigerian author’s debut novel, which the New York Times described as a “stunning debut novel”. The 30-year-old Adebayo is the only African author to have made the 12-title long-list for the British literary award. The 2018 Wellcome Book Prize long-list celebrates the many ways in which literature can illuminate the breadth and depth of mankind’s relationship with health, medicine and illness. The selected 12…

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What to eat to beat diabetes

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STUDIES have shown that dietary changes can enable those who have had Type 2 diabetes for decades to get off all their insulin injections in as little as two weeks. An estimated 4.5 million people are living with diabetes in the UK today. Some 700 are newly diagnosed each day — it’s a modern plague and a horribly common cause of early death. But in many cases, diabetes can be eased, and even reversed, through changes in diet. In fact, by switching to a healthy diet, you can start improving…

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Wenger fears Arsenal’s top four chances are in peril

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Arsene Wenger conceded Arsenal’s hopes of ending their Champions League exile are in severe danger after Harry Kane condemned them to a damaging 1-0 defeat against bitter rivals Tottenham. Kane’s second half header at Wembley on Saturday left Wenger’s sixth placed side languishing six points adrift of the Premier League’s top four. Worryingly for Wenger, that gap could grow even bigger on Sunday when fourth placed Liverpool play their game in hand at Southampton. Failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League via a top four finish would be another…

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Britain to add Nigeria’s naira to list of accepted trade currencies

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The naira will become one of three West African currencies that UK Export Finance has pre-approved for its programme of funding transactions that promote trade with Britain, it said. Britain voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, which has forced London to rethink its trade ties with the rest of the world. The United Kingdom and the EU struck an agreement in December that opened the way for talks on future trade ties. “This is a clear indication of how much value the UK places on its relationship with…

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Guardiola hails ‘legend’ Aguero after four-goal show

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Pep Guardiola hailed Sergio Aguero as an “authentic legend” of Manchester City after his four second-half goals continued the club’s emphatic march towards the Premier League title with a 5-1 thrashing of Leicester. Raheem Sterling had given City an early lead on Saturday but Leicester went into the break on level terms thanks to Jamie Vardy’s equaliser. However, Aguero took centre stage with a finishing masterclass to take his tally in City’s last seven home games to 14 goals as Guardiola’s side moved 16 points clear. “An authentic legend of…

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Boko Haram releases university lecturers, policewomen

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The Department of State Services, DSS, on Saturday told President Muhammadu Buhari that three University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID, lecturers abducted by Boko Haram terrorists in Magumeri, Borno State, have been released. Also released are 10 women, kidnapped in a raid by the militant group on a military/police convoy on Damboa road, near Maiduguri. The university lecturers were abducted by the group while conducting oil prospective in the Lake Chad area on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Some of their colleagues were killed during the abduction in 2017.…

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Banji Akintoye: Beware of growing Fulani settlements in Southwest, Southeast

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Second Republic Senator, Professor Banji Akintoye and Major-General Collins Ihekire (retd), who is a former chairman of the National Task Force to combat illegal importation and smuggling of goods, small arms, ammunition and light weapons (NATFORCE), have raised the alarm that between 175 and 250 Hausa/Fulani settlements are currently scattered in the South-West and South-East regions. The duo, who spoke on Saturday in Lagos during a National Colloquium entitled: Herdsmen as a threat to National Security, organised by The Ife 12, said this was aside from the persistent demand by…

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Governance as a relay race

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I first met Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode early May 2014 somewhere in Victoria Island, Lagos. We had just launched TheCable online newspaper. We ran a story — “The man who would be next Lagos governor” — which surprised him, for it was not yet public knowledge that he was going to throw his hat in the ring. I saw him briefly. We chatted, exchanged numbers and I wished him all the best. Ironically, nearly four years after, I have not met him again. We’ve spoken only once on the phone. That…

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