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Michel Platini questioned over awarding of World Cup to Qatar

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June 18, 2019

Michel Platini questioned over awarding of World Cup to Qatar

Former Uefa president Michel Platini is being questioned by French anti-corruption investigators over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Platini, 63, was head of European football’s governing body until being banned in 2015 for ethics breaches.

The former France midfielder and three-time Ballon d’Or winner has always denied any wrongdoing.

Qatar beat bids from USA, Australia, South Korea and Japan in 2010.

Platini is in custody and being questioned in Nanterre, a suburb in western Paris.

Officials have been investigating alleged corruption connected to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for the past two years and were reported to have interviewed Sepp Blatter, the former president of world governing body Fifa, in 2017.

In a statement, Platini’s lawyers reiterated he had not been arrested and has “expressed himself serenely and precisely, answering all the questions, including those on the conditions for the awarding of Euro 2016, and has provided useful explanations”.

They added: “He has nothing to do with this event which doesn’t concern him at all. He is absolutely confident about what’s next.”

Platini was banned over a 2m Swiss francs (£1.3m) “disloyal payment” from Blatter, who was also banned from football for his part in the matter. Blatter has also always denied any wrongdoing.

Platini’s eight-year ban was later reduced to four on appeal and will expire in October 2019.

Qatar’s bid team has been previously accused of corruption, but was cleared following a two-year Fifa inquiry.

Global Anti-terrorism Conference honours Buratai with multiple awards in London

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June 17, 2019

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Global Anti-terrorism Conference honours Buratai with multiple awards in London

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai has
been honoured with two Special Awards at the first ever Global Anti-terrorism and Counter-terrorism Conference and Workshop at the University Square, Stratford, London, United Kingdom.

The First Award is – The Pave The Way Award For Exceptional Bravery And Peace Building in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region under Multinational Joint Task Force which are Focal Points of DAESH/ISIS.

While the Second Award is – The Certified Master of Anti-Terrorism Specialist Award.

According to the organisers, the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board (ATAB) and Global Risk International United Kingdom. “Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai is the first African to get this award”.

Represented by the Chief of Civil Military Affairs Major General US Mohammed, the Chief of Army Staff delivered a lecture titled: “Nigeria Unique Counter Insurgency – A Working Counterterrorism Model For Replication in Africa”

Lampard to Chelsea ‘is going to happen’ – Harry Redknapp

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June 17, 2019

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Lampard to Chelsea ‘is going to happen’ – Harry Redknapp

Frank Lampard becoming Chelsea manager “looks like it’s going to happen”, says his uncle Harry Redknapp.

Derby boss Lampard, 40, is the favourite to replace Maurizio Sarri after the Italian left Stamford Bridge to take charge of Juventus.

Lampard led the Rams to the Championship play-off final last season – his first year in management.

“If Chelsea come calling, it’s a difficult one for him to turn down,” Redknapp told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“In my personal opinion, he’ll be the manager of Chelsea.

“It looks to me like it’s going to happen.”

Redknapp – who managed teams including Portsmouth, Southampton, West Ham, Tottenham and QPR – revealed he had personally told Derby chairman Mel Morris to hire Lampard, who he says “wasn’t even on the radar”.

If Lampard was to return to Stamford Bridge, where he won three Premier League titles and the Champions League as a player, Redknapp says there would be little pressure on him.

“It’s a no-lose situation unless he finishes outside the top six. Anything in the top six would be ok, but the Champions League would be a good season,” he said.

“No one is expecting him to finish first or second, third maybe. If he makes the Champions League next year, he’s going to be a success.”

Redknapp, 72, added: “He’s a true legend at Chelsea, one of the greatest players in the club’s history.

“It may not come along again, you never know in football, the opportunity is there for him to go back now.

“He has a house around the corner from the training ground, his wife works in London.”

Woman sits final year exams 30 minutes after giving birth

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June 17, 2019

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Woman sits final year exams 30 minutes after giving birth

A woman in Ethiopia took her final year exams in hospital just 30 minutes after giving birth to a baby boy.

Almaz Derese, 21, went into labor overnight Monday and delivered her baby on the day her secondary school exams were due to start.

Derese told CNN she did not want to wait another year to sit the exams.

“Although it was very hard to take an exam after giving birth, I did not want to waste the opportunity that I tirelessly worked for a decade,” she said.

Derese, who lives in the Illu Aba Bora district, in Ethiopia’s southwest, sat for papers in English, Maths and Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language.

Kebede Negesu, the district’s education head, said they assigned an examiner to monitor her while she wrote the exams at the hospital.

“Her husband told us [Almaz] was unable to sit for the exam in a classroom, and we asked her whether she would be able to take the exam or not. She said ‘yes,'” Negesu said.

Almaz got married at the age of 17, but says her husband always encouraged her to continue her education.

“My husband was so supportive, and he always encouraged me to be strong in my education. When I say that I must take the exam right after giving birth, he did not hesitate to help me,” she said.

Almaz returned to the exam center on Tuesday to take more tests.

It is not unusual for pregnant girls to continue their education in secondary schools in Ethiopia, where more than 40 percent of young girls are married before the age of 18.

According to a 2018 UNICEF report, the country is home to 15 million child brides, and more than a third of them were married before they were 15 years.

More than 11 students, who gave birth since the start of the National Examinations on Monday have also sat for their tests, a spokeswoman for Ethiopia’s education said.

“We have seen more students giving birth. The number has more than tripled since last year,” Haregua Mamo said.

About 1.2 million students are taking the national examination, of which half are women, according to Haregua.

Ebola outbreak in Congo still not a international health emergency, W.H.O says

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June 17, 2019

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Ebola outbreak in Congo still not a international health emergency, W.H.O says

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization said Friday.

WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.”

In announcing the decision by the committee, Dr. Preben Aavitsland, the acting chair of the emergency committee, said “possible unintended consequences” and risks of an emergency declaration had been “extensively debated” by the committee members. Possible risks include border closures and restrictions on travel and trade that could “severely harm the economy” in Congo, he said. “This is not a global emergency. This is an emergency for [Congo] and it may affect neighboring countries.”

Ultimately, the committee decided there was “potentially a lot to lose” by declaring a public health emergency, said Aavitsland, who emphasized that funding is needed to continue efforts to contain the outbreak.

The international community must “step up funding and strengthen support” for preparedness in Congo and neighboring countries, he said.

KFC is launching a vegan chicken burger

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June 17, 2019

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KFC is jumping on the meat-free bandwagon, launching a vegan version of its signature crispy chicken burger in the United Kingdom.

The fast food chain is calling its first plant-based offering “The Imposter.” The burger, which uses a Quorn fillet and vegan mayo, will be sold at select restaurants for four weeks starting June 17.

Quorn is a meat substitute that gets its protein content from a fermented fungus. KFC describes the burger as “a triumph of deception.”

KFC is the latest in a series of restaurant chains and food producers to attempt to capitalize on the public’s growing appetite for meat alternatives.

FINLAND IS THE WORLD’S HAPPIEST COUNTRY

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June 17, 2019

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Finland has a lot to celebrate. Not only does it have a capital city bursting with gastronomic creativity, the spectacular Northern Lights and Santa Claus’s year-round home (plus the reindeer support staff) in Lapland. It’s also the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row, according to the latest World Happiness Report.

It’s followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland and The Netherlands.

The world's happiest country likes ice swimming.

The World Happiness Report was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations on March 20, the date that the United Nations has declared to be the International Day of Happiness.

The report ranks countries on six key variables that support well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

“The top 10 countries tend to rank high in all six variables, as well as emotional measures of well-being,” says report co-editor John Helliwell, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia.

And that’s not just about the native-born residents of those countries.

“It’s true that last year all Finns were happier than rest of the countries’ residents, but their immigrants were also happiest immigrants in the world,” says Helliwell.

“It’s not about Finnish DNA. It’s the way life is lived in those countries.”

They pay high taxes for a social safety net, they trust their government, they live in freedom and they are generous with each other. “They do care about each other,” he says. “That’s the kind of place people want to live.”

HUAWEI: US ban will cost us $30 billion in two years

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June 17, 2019

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Huawei will miss sales forecasts by about $30 billion over the next couple of years because of a US campaign against its business, the founder and CEO of the Chinese tech company said Monday.

“In the next two years, I think we will reduce our capacity, our revenue will be down by about $30 billion compared to the forecast, so our sales revenue this year and next year will be about $100 billion,” Ren Zhengfei said during a panel discussion at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen.

Sales last year grew by about 20% to 721 billion yuan ($104 billion).

The embattled Chinese tech firm has since become a flashpoint in the US-China trade war. The Trump administration delivered a huge blow on May 16, when it added Huawei to a blacklist that bars US companies from selling it technology without first obtaining a US government license.

Washington fears that Beijing could use its equipment to spy on other nations and it’s been pressuring allies to shut the company out of next generation super-fast 5G wireless networks. Huawei has repeatedly denied that any of its products pose a risk to national security.

Despite being locked out of the US market for nearly a decadebecause of those concerns, Huawei grew into the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker and the No. 2 smartphone brand.

But just four weeks on the US trade blacklist is hitting the company hard, hurting its smartphone business and eroding its dominance in 5G equipment.

Overseas smartphone unit sales have “dropped by 40%,” Ren said. A company spokesman said that Ren was referring to a fall in sales between May 17 and June 16, compared to the month to May 16.

Indian Houdini drowns after ‘magic’ act goes wrong

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June 17, 2019

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Indian Houdini drowns after ‘magic’ act goes wrong

Indian police on Monday recovered the body of a magician who drowned while trying to replicate an underwater Houdini-inspired stunt — tying himself up with chains and ropes and being lowered into a river.

Rescue workers found the body of Chanchal Lahiri late Monday in the Hooghly river, the deputy commissioner of the port division of Kolkata police, Syed Waquar Raza, told AFP

The 40-year-old Lahiri, who was known by his stage name “Jadugar Mandrake” (Wizard Mandrake), was lowered by winch into the river in Kolkata on Sunday in a yellow and red costume.

But the 40-year-old — his legs and his arms tightly bound — failed to emerge from the water, to the horror of onlookers including his family and team members.

Authorities had initially believed that the vanishing act could be part of the stunt but immediately mobilised help to rescue him.

Lahiri told AFP before the attempted escape act that he had successfully pulled off a similar stunt 21 years ago at the same venue in the eastern city.

“I was inside a bulletproof glass box tied with chain and locks and dropped down from Howrah bridge. Then I came out within 29 seconds,” he said.

He admitted it would be tough to free himself this time.

“If I can open it up then it will be magic, but if I can’t it will be tragic,” he said.

He also said he was undertaking the death-defying stunt to “revive interest in magic”.

When Lahiri tried another stunt at the river in 2013, he was assaulted by onlookers who saw him escape from a locked cage via a door that was clearly visible.

He was beaten and punched and his long flowing golden-brown wig was pulled off by the crowd.

Almost a decade earlier, he declared he would walk on the river waters but had to beat a hasty retreat when the act went wrong.

Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American stuntman who became a sensation in the early 20th century with daredevil feats including escaping from a crate lowered into the East River in New York in 1912.

CRIME RATE IS DECLINING – IGP CLAIMS

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June 17, 2019

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The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has claimed that the crime rate in the country was declining, despite reports of violent killings and kidnappings across the country.

The Zamfara Police Command on Sunday confirmed that 34 persons were killed by bandits in Tungar Kafau and Gidan Wawa communities in Shinkafi Local Government Area of the state last Friday.

But speaking in Abuja on Monday at a meeting with senior officers at the Force headquarters, the IG stated that the police apprehended 424 suspected kidnappers between May 10 and June 14, 2019, with 101 persons arrested in Kaduna state.

He added that 79 suspects were picked up in Katsina, 54 suspects in Nasarawa and 32 in Taraba state.

Mohammed also explained that 276 armed robbery suspects were arrested within the same period with the highest number of 38 in Edo state, followed by 25 in Nasarawa state and 23 in the Federal Capital Territory.

He stated, “Within this context, it is noted that while there are still isolated cases of internal security breaches which often attract publicity and national attention, the crime rate in recent times has been on the decline. This is in contrast to the crime records over the preceding months.

“The foregoing is consequent upon the enhancement of the institutional capacity of the Nigeria Police to respond to internal security threats and undertake intelligence-led operations. The successes achieved are linked to ‘Operation Puff Adder’ which has been a very potent anti-crime vehicle of the Nigeria Police.”

Mohammed revealed that 10,860 ammunition of various descriptions and calibre were recovered while a total of 301 firearms including a rocket launcher, AK47 assault rifles, pistols, and locally made guns, were similarly recovered from criminal elements across the country.

The IG further explained that a total of 44 murder suspects were arrested during the period under review, including seven in FCT and six in Kano State.

“Furthermore, 176 suspected cultists were arrested across the country while 77 stolen vehicles were recovered by Operation Puff Adder operatives nationwide between 10th May and 14th June 2019, with the highest number of 29 in FCT,” the police boss pointed out.

On the efforts to improve the security architecture, he noted that the move to implement the concept of community policing was part of strategies aimed at changing the security situation in the country.

This, he said, would ensure the effective integration of the citizens into the police internal security framework, guarantee the concept of policing by public consent and build partnerships required to address peculiar communal threats.