THE Nigeria Immigration Service on Friday said that barring unforeseen technical issues, Nigerians would get their passports three weeks after the day of submission of the application. The Comptroller General, Mrs Caroline Adepoju, disclosed this on Friday while speaking to newsmen at the unveiling of the Igbogbo Passport Front Office in the Igbogbo-Baiyeku Local Council Development Area of Ikorodu, Lagos State. Adepoju, who said the opening of the Igbogbo office was her first assignment after her confirmation as the substantive Comptroller General of the NIS earlier on Friday, said, “I can tell you, barring all technical problems, you should be…
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ERIK ten Hag rode to the defence of under-fire goalkeeper Andre Onana on Friday as he claimed the Cameroonian’s stats prove he is among the Premier League’s best. Onana’s start to his United career has been riddled with high-profile errors in the Champions League that have put the Red Devils on the brink of a group stage exit. He was at fault as two Hakim Ziyech free-kicks kickstarted a Galatasaray fightback in a 3-3 draw in Istanbul on Wednesday. That took United’s tally of conceded goals in their five Champions League games to 14. But it has been a different…
GERMANY and France are set to clash Saturday in the Under-17 World Cup football final in Indonesia, a rematch of this year’s Euro final in the category the Germans won on penalties. The young Germans, who also beat France 3-1 in the group stage of the Euros last June, are bidding for their first world title. Borussia Dortmund forward Paris Brunner, 17, will lead the German attack having scored a brace in the semi-final against Argentina. Jean-Luc Vannuchi’s France beat Mali 2-1 in their semi-final and boast a defence which has so far only conceded one goal. “Germany are a…
ISRAELI shelling has killed three people in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s state news agency reports after the end of a truce between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas prompted a resumption of hostilities at the Israel-Lebanon border. The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said one of its fighters was among those killed on Friday. It said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where a weeklong pause in the fighting ended early in the day. The Israeli army said its artillery struck sources of fire from…
ELON Musk’s verbal assault on advertisers who have shunned X (formerly Twitter) threatens to sink the social network further, with the tycoon warning of the platform’s demise, just one year after taking control. “If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, go fuck yourself,” a visibly furious Musk told an interviewer in New York in front of an audience of the US business elite this week. Musk was lashing out at the advertisers who had abandoned his platform after Media Matters, a left-wing media watchdog group, warned big companies that their ads were running aside posts by neo-Nazis. Walmart…
MORE than 30 people were feared trapped Friday in a mine collapse in a Zambian region known for illegal open-cast digging for copper, a minister said. “May I just inform the nation that we have a tragedy brewing in Chingola,” Home Affairs Minister Jack Mwiimbu told parliament. “We have more than 30 people under the rubble” in a makeshift mine, he added, without giving further details. The mines ministry made no comment saying it would make an inspection first at the site in the Chingola region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital Lusaka. Zambia is one of…
A MAN described as the leader of a group of soldiers who tried to free a detained minister and a senior state official in Guinea-Bissau has been caught, the military says. Heavy gunfire was reported in the capital on Friday morning. Members of the National Guard had taken the officials before seeking refuge in barracks south of the city. Special forces then intervened after attempts to negotiate failed, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. Calm is said to have been restored later. The “situation is completely under control”, the AFP news agency quotes an army spokesman as saying. Finance Minister…
THE House of Representatives has accused the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) of hiding billions of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) thereby depriving the nation of its financial responsibility. The House of Reps Committee on Finance subsequently threatened to remove the Director General, Capt. Musa Shuaibu Nuhu and other top officials from the authority to allow for more transparent leaders. Rep. James Falake (APC-Lagos) said this at the resumed interactive session with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Friday. He said the NCAA was hiding revenue generated, and that was why it had refused to give the committee the requested data on…
BRIGHTON booked their place in the Europa League knockout stage with a 1-0 win at AEK Athens, while West Ham also advanced after a late Tomas Soucek goal against Backa Topola on Thursday. Roberto De Zerbi’s side are competing in Europe for the first time in their history and the Seagulls’ adventure will continue into the new year thanks to Joao Pedro’s winner in Greece. Brighton sit two points above Marseille at the top of Group B, with the French club able to regain pole position if they beat Ajax later on Thursday. Europa League group winners go through to…
PALESTINIAN prisoners released from Israeli jails say that guards carried out abuse and collective punishment in the weeks after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October. They have described being hit with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and their clothes, food and blankets taken away. One female prisoner has said she was threatened with rape, and that guards twice tear-gassed inmates inside the cells. The BBC spoke to six people in total, all of whom said they were beaten before leaving jail. The Palestinian Prisoners Society says some guards are alleged to have urinated on handcuffed prisoners.…
BUCKINGHAM Palace is considering its next move after a British TV host named two royals who allegedly raised concerns about the skin colour of Prince Harry’s son, a royal source said on Thursday. Speculation has swirled since Harry and his mixed-race wife Meghan made the claims in an explosive US television interview in March 2021 about their time in the royal family. Harry’s late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II responded afterwards that “some recollections may vary” about what was said. His older brother Prince William — heir to their father King Charles III — has also insisted the royals were “very…
A 70-YEAR-OLD Ugandan woman, Safina Namukwaya, has delivered a set of twins – a boy and a girl, after becoming pregnant through an In vitro fertilisation treatment, BBC reports Thursday. Namukwaya went through a successful caesarean delivery on Wednesday at the Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The hospital shared the news of the delivery via its Facebook page on Wednesday, stating, “70-year-old, Safina Namukwaya, speaking just before the delivery of her beautiful babies. Yes, she delivered twins, a boy and a girl. A historic achievement indeed. “As we honour this courageous mother and anticipate…
A COURT in Germany has sentenced a Gambian man to life in prison for his role in a paramilitary unit that killed opponents of former ruler Yahya Jammeh. Bai Lowe, 47, was a driver for the unit known as “the Junglers”, and was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder. Among the crimes he was linked to was the killing of newspaper editor Deyda Hydara in his car in 2004. The unit was widely seen as a death squad targeting opponents of Mr Jammeh. He ruled The Gambia with an iron fist from 1996 until he went into…
FOOTBALLER Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a class action lawsuit in the US over his promotion of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. The plaintiffs claim his endorsement led them to make loss-making investments. They are seeking damages of “a sum exceeding” $1bn (£790m). The BBC has contacted both Ronaldo’s management company and Binance for comment. In November 2022, Binance announced its first “CR7” collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in partnership with Ronaldo, which the footballer said would reward fans “for all the years of support”. NFTs are virtual assets that can be bought and sold, but which have…
A SENIOR Hamas official said on Wednesday the freedom movement was ready to release all the Israeli soldiers it is holding captive in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, amid negotiations to extend a truce over Gaza. Hamas official and former Gaza health minister Bassem Naim said the group was going through “hard negotiations” to extend a cessation of hostilities that was scheduled to end early Thursday after a six-day pause in fighting. “We are ready to release all soldiers in exchange for all our prisoners,” Naim told a press conference in Cape Town, during a visit to…
HENRY Kissinger, the former US secretary of state whose unapologetic promotion of raw American power helped shape the post-World War II world, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100. “Dr. Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut,” Kissinger Associates announced in a statement late Wednesday. It said that Kissinger’s family would hold a private funeral, with a memorial service to take place later in New York, where Kissinger grew up after his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany. The statement did not provide a cause of death. Kissinger had remained active…
THE death toll from floods that have devastated many parts of Kenya has almost doubled to 120, a government official said on Tuesday. More than 89,000 households have also been displaced and are being sheltered in over 112 camps, top interior ministry official Raymond Omollo said in a statement. Kenya and its Horn of Africa neighbours Somalia and Ethiopia are battling flash floods caused by torrential rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern. The floods are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region just as it emerges from the worst drought in four decades that left millions of people…
A SOUTH African court has sentenced a former security guard to 12 years in prison for instigating deadly riots in support of ex-President Jacob Zuma. Mdumiseni Zuma is the first person to be convicted for the 2021 unrest triggered by Mr Zuma’s arrest. Zuma, who is not related to the former president, shared a video inciting people to loot and burn a mall. At least 350 people died in the unrest, the worst to hit South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Jacob Zuma in 2018, described the violence as an “attempted insurrection”. Some of…
KYLIAN Mbappe scored a controversial late penalty to deny Newcastle an impressive win at Parc des Princes but the draw keeps the visitors in the fight to reach the Champions League knockout stages. The spot-kick was awarded after review by the video assistant referee, with referee Szymon Marciniak consulting the pitchside monitor before ruling Tino Livramento had handled the ball inside the box when blocking a cross. It was a cruel blow for Eddie Howe’s side, who had looked on course to secure a hugely impressive win after Aleksander Isak struck in the first half when Miguel Almiron’s effort had…
TWELVE more hostages were freed Tuesday from Gaza captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners under an extended truce, as mediators worked for a lasting halt to the seven-week Israel-Hamas war. Ten Israelis and two Thais were released, the Israeli prime minister’s office said, with the army saying they were handed over to the Red Cross and were “inside Israeli territory”. Israel’s prison services later said 30 Palestinian detainees were released under the truce deal. An AFP journalist saw masked and armed fighters, some from Hamas and others from Islamic Jihad, hand over hostages to Red Cross officials in Rafah, near…