Author: Editor

THE Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has failed in his latest bid to get elected Speaker in a paralysis of US government not seen since the pre-Civil War era. A cohort of right-wingers in his party derailed an 11th attempt to elect him on the third day of voting. Republicans took over the House in November’s midterm elections, but the impasse has left the chamber unable to swear in members or pass bills. The House has adjourned until Friday. Not since 1860, when the United States’ union was fraying over the issue of slavery, has the…

MANCHESTER City closed the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal to five points with victory over injury-ravaged Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The reigning champions struggled in the first half before two of manager Pep Guardiola’s substitutes combined to break the deadlock after 63 minutes, Riyad Mahrez turning in Jack Grealish’s low cross at the far post to make it 1-0 and the game finished just that. Chelsea enjoyed the better of the first half despite adding both former City forward Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic to a lengthening injury list, substitute Carney Chukwuemeka hitting the post from the edge of…

MONACO’s Badiashile, 21, has spent five seasons in Ligue 1 and made 135 league appearances for Monaco. The central defender made his senior international debut in September against Austria and has two caps. “I’m very happy to be here at Chelsea. I can’t wait to see the fans and start playing in the best league in the world,” said Badiashile. Badiashile joined Monaco in 2016 and made his Ligue 1 debut against Paris St-Germain in November 2018 when Thierry Henry was manager. He has featured in the Champions League and Europa League for the French club and has scored six…

FORMER Ajax defender Daley Blind has signed for Bayern Munich until the end of the season on a free transfer. The Netherlands left-back, 32, agreed in December to cancel his contract with Ajax six months early. Blind joined Ajax’s academy aged eight and played 333 times for the Dutch club during two spells in Amsterdam. He has 99 caps for his country and played in every match of the Netherlands’ run to the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar. Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said: “We are very happy that Daley is joining our team. Daley is a flexible defender who…

LAZIO have been ordered to close part of their stadium for their next match after their fans directed racist abuse at two Lecce players on Wednesday. The Curva Nord section of Stadio Olimpico in Rome will close for Sunday’s Serie A game against Empoli. Defender Samuel Umtiti and winger Lameck Banda were subjected to racist chants from Lazio supporters during Wednesday’s game, which Lecce won 2-1. Lazio condemned the chants as “despicable and shameful”. “Lazio fans are not racist and cannot be associated with a few individuals who seriously harm the club’s image,” the club said. “Lazio has always opposed…

By Abbas Badmus THE National Assembly Joint Committee on ICT and Cyber Security recently put on hold a public hearing on the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Bill 2021, when it couldn’t form a quorum. Since the postponement of the hearing, several industry stakeholders and critical onlookers have described the development as an attempt to frustrate the bill knowing the imperatives of the digital economy on national growth and development. Surprisingly, it was immediately followed by a series of deliberately orchestrated, biased and uninformed criticisms not only of the NITDA Bill but also of Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami,…

OPERATIVES of the Ogun Police Command have arrested one Taiwo Olutufese Ajalorun for allegedly killing and dismembering his 26-year-old lover, Oyindamola Adeyemi, in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. Taiwo was arrested alongside his wife, Salawa Oyenusi Ajalorun and six others: Lukman Oladele, Kayode Ibrahim, Bello Akeem, Alebiosu Adebayo, Fatai Rasheed and Fatai Jimoh. The police spokesman in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi told newsmen in Abeokuta on Thursday that the suspects were arrested on Wednesday for kidnapping, killing and dismembering the victim. According to him, the suspects were apprehended following a report lodged at Obalende divisional headquarters in Ijebu-Ode by one Ojo Omolara. He…

THE Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development has awarded the Hosting Rights for the 7th National Youth Games to Delta State. The choice of Delta State was reached at a meeting of Stakeholders for the Games, which held on the sidelines of the recently concluded 21st National Sports Festival. The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, Alhaji Ismaila Abubakar, stated that the National Youth Games has since inception become a veritable ground for harvesting the huge talents that abound within the country. According to him, “many of the discovered athletes have been nurtured to elite level…

MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola says his side will have to be “almost perfect” to catch Premier League leaders Arsenal in the title race. City can reduce the gap to five points with victory over Chelsea on Thursday after Arsenal were held by Newcastle. Guardiola said: “The way to reduce the gap is playing good and winning games. “They (Arsenal) are going to do 100 or more points the way they have gone so far. If they continue this way, we will not catch them.” City are second in the table, eight points behind Arsenal with a game in hand.…

BARCELONA survived a scare in the Copa del Rey as Ansu Fati scored in extra-time to secure victory against Spanish third-tier side Intercity. Oriol Soldevila, released by Birmingham City last summer, threatened to upset the La Liga giants with a hat-trick. He first cancelled out Ronald Araujo’s early opener before equalising again after Ousmane Dembele restored Barcelona’s lead. Raphinha struck in the 77th minute but Soldevila scored again soon after. That took the game to extra time, where Fati’s deflected finish sent Barcelona into the last 16.

EDIN Dzeko’s thumping header helped Inter Milan edge past Napoli and hand the Serie A leaders their first league defeat of the season. Dzeko met Federico Dimarco’s cross to head Inter in front in the 56th minute. Inter keeper Andre Onana denied Giacomo Raspadori late on as Napoli’s 11-match winning run in Serie A came to an end. Napoli would have gone eight points clear of second-placed AC Milan with a win, while Inter, eight points off the top, moved fourth with their victory.

Crystal Palace 0 vs Tottenham 4 HARRY Kane scored two of Tottenham’s four second-half goals after they eventually cruised to a Premier League win over Crystal Palace. Kane’s towering close-range header from Ivan Perisic’s cross was the first time Spurs had led 1-0 in a game since 15 October. They had conceded the first goal in all 10 games in between. He then drilled a low second into the bottom corner from Bryan Gil’s pass. The England captain has now scored 264 goals for Spurs, only two behind Jimmy Greaves’ club record. Kane, making his 300th Premier League appearance, had…

FOOTBALL star Cristiano Ronaldo got the name of his new host country wrong while speaking at his first press conference in Saudi Arabia following his multi-million dollar move to Al Nassr. “It’s not the end of my career to come to South Africa,” he said, in an earnest voice against a backdrop proudly proclaiming “Saudi welcome to Arabia”. While they can’t have been happy, the Saudi officials at Tuesday’s press conference didn’t seek to correct Ronaldo and it didn’t seem to bother his new Saudi fans, who gave him a thunderous welcome as he appeared in Al Nassr’s yellow and…

A FAMILY of nine have died in a double car bombing in central Hiraan province, Somalia, an eyewitness has told the BBC. A further 26 people were also killed, the local deputy policy commissioner told the Reuters news agency. The al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabab has said it was behind the attack. The district commissioner of Mahas town said his home and that of a local MP were the targets. Meanwhile the second explosion targeted the market, the mayor of Mahas, Mumin Mohamed Halane, told the BBC. The blasts were so powerful that witnesses said people far away from the explosion…

ZAMBIA’s power utility – Zesco Ltd – has announced crippling 12-hour electricity blackouts until further notice. Power rationing officially started on Tuesday with some areas being hit by up to eight hours of power cuts, but the extended 12-hour blackouts take immediate effect. A statement from Zesco’s corporate affairs department says the measure is needed because of a lack of water in the Kariba dam, which is used for hydropower. “At present, the power station’s generating capacity has been reduced from its installed 1080MegaWatts (MW) to below 400MW,” the statement reads. It adds that the removal of a 150MW generator…

THE World Health Organization has warned that China is under-representing the true impact of Covid in the country – in particular deaths. The removal of most restrictions last month has led to a surge in cases. But China has stopped publishing daily cases data, and has announced only 22 Covid deaths since December, using its own strict criteria. “We believe that definition [of a Covid death] is too narrow,” WHO emergencies director Dr Michael Ryan said. Dr Ryan said China’s figures “under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly…

AUTHORITIES in Iran have released a top actress who was arrested last month after expressing solidarity with anti-government protesters. Taraneh Alidoosti was pictured being greeted by friends outside Tehran’s Evin prison, her hair uncovered. The 38-year-old star was freed on bail after being accused of “posting inflammatory content”. She had posted a picture on social media without a headscarf and condemned the first execution of a protester. Many Iranian actors, musicians and other celebrities have publicly backed the protests against the clerical establishment. They erupted almost four months ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman…

AFTER evading several onslaughts of the Nigerian military, a notorious Boko Haram warlord, Abou Hurairah, has met his waterloo. Our source gathered that Abou Hurairah, was eliminated alongside some other Boko Haram Commanders. It was during an aggressive bombardment’s operation by the Air Task Force, ATF, of Operation Hadin Kai, using two alpha jets of the Nigerian Air Force, NAF. Abou Hurairah, and the other eliminated Boko Haram kingpins, were behind the series of attacks in Monguno Axis of Borno State, recently. A defence intelligence source told our soruce that Abou Hurairah, and other terrorist commanders have been the ones…

MORE than 20 farmers were feared dead as a boat carrying about 100 farmers capsized in Koko/Besse Local Government Area of Kebbi State on Tuesday. Police spokesman in Kebbi, DSP Nafiu Abubakar, confirmed the accident and promised to release details later. Speaking on Wednesday, Chairman of Koko/Besse Local Government, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, also confirmed the accident. He said it occurred on Tuesday night when a rickety boat carried more than 100 rice farmers to Samanaji, a riverine community in the area. He said 80 of the boat passengers had been rescued, while 10 were found dead and others still missing. He…

THE Board of the Nigeria Customs Service has approved the appointment of three Assistant Comptrollers General (ACGs) as well as the promotion of 1, 490 senior officers of General Duty and Support Staff to various ranks with effect from 1st January 2022. A breakdown of the appointments includes: ACG Greg Itotoh ACG Festus Okun ACG Shuaibu Ibrahim Some of the newly promoted Comptrollers are the Customs National PRO Timi Bomodi, Musa Omale, Zanna Chiroma, Stanley Nwankwo, Ajibola Odusanya, Paul Ekpenyong, Abubakar Umar, Maureen Ajuzieogu, MO Bewaji, among others. The full statistics of the board’s approval are as follows: Assistant Comptrollers…