Why Army detained female soldier who accepted corps member’s proposal in Kwara – Spokesman (Punch)
The Nigerian Army on Sunday confirmed the detention of an unnamed female soldier who got romantically entangled with a male corps member at the National Youth Service Corps orientation camp in Yikpata, Kwara State.
The Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, in an exclusive chat with The PUNCH on Sunday, said the female officer violated military laws by getting involved in a public display of amorous relationship with a paramilitary trainee – a corps member.
Video clips showing a male corps member proposing to a female soldier at the Kwara NYSC camp hit the internet days ago eliciting pleasant reactions from many social media users.
One of the video clips apparently recorded on the camp’s parade ground showed the yet-to-be-identified corps member holding a ring as he courtseyed to ask the female soldier to marry him.
The visibly excited spinster, in military uniform, accepted the young graduate’s proposal and the latter went on to insert the ring in his love interest’s finger. Read more
One Week To Christmas, Traders Decry Low Patronage (Tribune)
Traders in Lagos are yet to feel the effect of the yuletide season as patronage, so far, is quite low.
As against expectations that residents would start stocking up for the celebration well ahead of time, traders at Oja Oba market, Abule Egba, who spoke to Sunday Tribune noted that despite the fact that they had envisaged low patronage due to the economy, they still believe that the situation could still change.
“It is just some days to Christmas, yet there I have not felt the vibe of the season,” Mrs Yemi Oluleye, a trader at Oja Oba said.
She noted that she had stocked up her store, although not as much as she would have wanted to, in anticipation of having big sales but things have not really improved.
She added that most people in the market were not there to buy goods but to make enquires on the prices of foodstuffs. Read more
Yuletide: Delta CP deploys strategies to check crime (Sun)
Delta State Police Command has adopted various strategies to maintain peace and security before, during and after the festive period in the state.
In one of the measures, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muhammed Ali, ordered massive deployment of personnel across the state with special attention to flashpoints and places of public gathering.
In a statement on Saturday by the Public Relations Officer of the command, DSP Bright Edafe, the CP directed all Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers and Tactical Commanders to deploy men to all venues of celebrations and other resorts centres to nip any criminal move in the bud.
According to Edafe, all special patrol teams have been activated with men deployed to major roads across the state for regular patrol. Read more
Untreated anaemia before pregnancy can lead to low-weight babies – Experts(Punch)
Nutrition and diet experts have urged women to build their nutritional status for at least six months before becoming pregnant to avoid giving birth to babies with low birth weight.
The nutrition experts stressed that women need good nutritional status before pregnancy, noting that women with poor nutritional status are usually anaemic.
They warned that women who are anaemic before pregnancy have higher chances of giving birth to babies with low birth weight.
They also noted that having good nutritional status is crucial in reducing malnutrition in children, stressing that malnutrition in babies starts from pregnancy.
The World Health Organisation defined low birthweight as weight less than 2500 g at birth, warning that it contributes to a variety of pitiable health outcomes. Read more
PPP will grow Nigeria’s tech infrastructure – Presidency (Vanguard)
Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation, says Public-Private Partnership (PPP) will grow Nigeria’s technology infrastructure.
Afolabi said this while fielding questions from newsmen at a youth empowerment programme, tagged, “The Surge Entrepreneurship Summit”, on Saturday in Abuja.
The theme of the summit is “Discovering Your Potential.’’
He said that the government would continue to provide an enabling environment for businesses and innovations to thrive. Read more
Issues As NUC Releases 2021 Ranking (DailyTrust)
The National Universities Commission (NUC), in collaboration of the League of Directors of Academic Planning, has released the 2021 ranking of various universities in Nigeria. The ranking system is to, among other things, determine the performance of universities in the country and identify areas where funds could be preferentially allocated and applied.
Among the 196 universities in the country, 113 were ranked. Academic directors from 91 institutions participated in drawing the formula for the ranking. To ensure fairness, the 12 parameters for the ranking were agreed upon by all the contributors after a series of preparatory workshops. Thereafter, an online platform for data entry was set up, while the data entered by accredited officials of each university were validated by teams of Directors of Academic Planning and cross-validated with records from the NUC.
The chief analyst and supervisory technical lead of the Nigerian University System Rankings, Professor Peter Okebukola, said the validation and cross-validation of data hiked the credibility of the process and plugged entries of rogue data. He said in the report that the data analysis and internal review of results by the League of Directors of Academic Planning led to the removal of bugs from the output. The revised results were then approved by the League of Directors of Academic Planning before they were approved by the vice chancellors and launched by the executive secretary of the NUC. Read more
FG seeks private sector partnership to accelerate SDGs (Guardian)
The Federal Government has called for private sector partnership for the establishment of innovative technology hubs that would help the country to realise the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, made the call, yesterday, at the United Nation SDGs roundtable dialogue on the establishment of SDGs innovation hubs across the country’s six geopolitical zones, held in Abuja.
The minister said securing private sector commitment in building innovation hubs is key to mitigating the structural challenges faced by sub-national SDGs offices in innovating pathways to accelerated progress.
He said: “Nigeria has a huge implementation context for the year 2030 Agenda – a large population, landmass and ethnic diversity. To achieve the SDGs and propel its effective implementation, it is important to establish the SDGs innovation hubs at the sub-national levels of government. The hubs will serve as a novel approach to tackling some of the most pertinent developmental challenges for each geo-political context.” Read more
30,000 Kano students empowered through literacy programme (DailyTrust)
The British Council has concluded the Kano Literacy and Maths Accelerator (KaLMA) programme by empowering over 30,000 students.
The KaLMA programme, funded through UK Aid, aims to improve literacy and numeracy among primary four to primary six pupils by piloting the Teaching at the Right Level approach in Kano State, Nigeria.
The programme results were made known at a dissemination event held in Abuja.
The dissemination event was a culmination of activities carried out during the course of the pilot and aimed to inform stakeholders of key achievements, deliverables and lessons learnt. Read more
GNG postpones peace summit to Jan 5 (Guardian)
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has announced a shift in its planned security summit earlier fixed for Abuja on December 20 and 21, citing “Ember festivities” as the reason.
CNG’s Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement, yesterday, said the summit would now be held on January 5, 2022.
He said: “The summit will come up with workable suggestions to the security challenges facing the region. The shift has become inevitable as our Christian brothers and sisters, who are equally stakeholders in the affairs of the region, would be occupied during that period.
“Certain issues of great relevance have emerged with the recent tour of CNG officials to Sokoto, and other places that need to be incorporated.” Read more
Learn Africa targets 30m students for digital learning (DailyTrust)
The chairman of Learn Africa Plc, Chief Emeke Iwerebon, has said the company will, in the next six years, focus on digital and technology to provide e-contents as it targets reaching a larger population with contents at a reduced price.
Iwerebon said the transition to Learn Africa came with challenges as new textbooks had to be developed, especially for Mathematics and English, at the secondary level, from JSS 1 to SS 3, to replace the hugely successful New General Mathematics and English Project, which are Pearson’s exclusives.
“We no longer had the right to market the hugely popular Longman dictionaries. We were able to quickly publish new titles and secured the rights to new dictionaries and rigorously promoted them, and today, these books, New Concept Mathematics, New Concept English, Learn Africa English Dictionary and many other titles, are bestsellers in their product category,” he said. Read more
Los Angeles California Awards Nigerian Actress Etinosa Idemudia best Actress in an African TV series (Sun)
Nigerian star actress and movie producer, Etinosa Idemudia, has been named best actress in an African TV series by the Hollywood and African Prestigious Awards (HAPAwards) for her outstanding performance in the ROK original show, “Blood of Enogie.”
The HAPAwards is a US-based award judged on artistic and technical merit by a team of scholars in the United States, which recognizes outstanding individuals whose lives have been marked by extraordinary personal and professional accomplishments.
A few months ago, the American HAPAwards released its list of nominations in the Hollywood and African categories, which saw Edo State-born actress, Etinosa Idemudia, bagging multiple nominations, one of which she would later win over other notable nominees across Hollywood and Africa.
In response to how she felt receiving the award, the actress said, “This is a big deal for me. You know it’s not a majority vote award, it’s a professional award based on merit.
“Asides from getting multiple nominations among Hollywood and African giants, I also won in one of my nominated categories. I feel honoured. Read more
“Big Bang Theory” star’s new movie adds “Scandal” and “Scream” actors (DigitalSpy)
The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar’s new movie The Storied Life of AJ Fikry has added two more big names to its cast, with Scream’s David Arquette and Scandal actor Scott Foley both joining.
Deadline reports that the pair will join the previously announced Nayyar, as well as Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale and Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks, in the drama, which is based on the 2015 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name.
The plot follows the title character, AJ Fikry (Nayyar), whose life is beginning to turn out rather differently to how he expected. Following the sad loss of his wife, Fikry also finds himself struggling with the worst sales in his bookstore’s history – and the situation gets even worse when his most prized possession, a rare edition of a book of Edgar Allan Poe poems, is stolen.
Fikry has begun to give up on the world, feeling that it is changing too rapidly for him – but when a mysterious package arrives at his bookstore, Fikry is given the chance to change his life and begin to see things anew. Read more
Strictly’s Oti Mabuse set to be new Dancing On Ice judge replacing John Barrowman (DailyStar)
Strictly’s Oti Mabuse is joining ITV’s Dancing on Ice as a judge replacing John Barrowman.
The Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer has landed the judging role after starring on the BBC prime-time TV show for six years.
The 31-year-old is replacing John, 54, after he was axed following allegations he exposed himself on the sets of BBC’s Doctor Who and spin-off show Torchwood.
The pro dancer will sit alongside Olympic ice-skating legends Jayne Torvill, 64 and Christopher Dean, 63, and Diversity’s Ashley Banjo, 33 on next month’s series. Read more
Jailed for the killing of Haiti’s president, 5 suspected assassins say they’re innocent(CNN)
The smell of raw sewage and food waste permeates the air in the entrance to Haiti’s National Penitentiary in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Its source is the exposed pipe that visitors must walk over as a liquid mix slides through to the street.
A pat-down of even our heads from quiet security guards follows and then a large metal door swings open, revealing a courtyard on the other side.
In this world exclusive, CNN came to the prison hoping to speak to a certain group of inmates whom the government has refused to make available until now: Some of the 26 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans that investigators say entered Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s bedroom in the early morning hours of July 7 and killed him in a hail of gunfire. Read more
‘Covington teen’ settles with another US outlet over bogus hate crime story (RT)
Nicholas Sandmann has reached a settlement with US TV network NBC after suing the corporation for $275 million, charging the outlet had concocted a phony narrative that made him look like the aggressor in a viral video.
Sandmann announced the settlement via Twitter on Friday, noting that the terms were confidential. He has previously reached settlements with the Washington Post and CNN, whom he sued for $250 million and $275 million, respectively. Lawsuits against the New York Times, CBS, ABC, Rolling Stone, and Gannett are ongoing.
The student was thrust into the spotlight when he was filmed demonstrating with several of his classmates from Covington Catholic High School as part of the March for Life event at the Lincoln Memorial in January 2019.
Footage of him sporting a brand-new MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat and facing off with Native American elder Nathan Phillips went viral immediately after it was published. Read more
Richard Rogers: Millennium Dome architect dies aged 88 (BBC)
Millennium Dome architect Richard Rogers has died at the age of 88.
A spokesman said he had “passed away quietly” on Saturday evening.
He first came to prominence with his radical designs for the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Lloyd’s of London building.
Lord Rogers was regarded as one of the world’s most successful and influential architects, and he won most of his industry’s major honours. He was knighted in 1991. Read more
South African Court to Hear Zuma’s Plea to Appeal Parole Ruling on Tuesday (VOA)
South Africa’s high court will on Tuesday hear former president Jacob Zuma’s request to appeal against a ruling that set aside his medical parole and said he should return to jail, his foundation said on Saturday.
The court said on Wednesday Zuma should go back to jail after the 79-year old began medical parole in September. He is serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court, after he ignored instructions to participate in a corruption inquiry.
Zuma’s legal team are appealing the ruling, as is the country’s prisons department.
“Judge (Elias) Matojane has indicated his intention to hear the application for leave to appeal on Tuesday 21 December,” Zuma’s charitable foundation said on Twitter. Read more
Eguavoen considering Dennis, Awoniyi if Oshimhen remains unfit (VON)
Super Eagles Interim manager Austin Eguavoen says he will consider strikers Emmanuel Dennis and Taiwo Awoniyi if first-choice Victor Oshimhen remains unfit.
The 23-year old Oshimhen has been out of action since November after a crushing facial injury while [laying for Italian side Napoli against Inter Milan.
With gashing injuries to his left eye and cheek bone, Oshimhen underwent surgery and has commenced light training.
While most Nigerians want him fit in time for the 2022 AFCON in Cameroun next month, coach Eguavoen is already making contingency plans. Read more
La Liga: Barcelona secure late win over Elche, Sevilla beat Atletico (Punch)
Barcelona are in sight of La Liga’s top four again after 19-year-old Nico Gonzalez scored a late winner to seal a much-needed victory over Elche before Atletico Madrid were beaten by Sevilla.
Nico’s strike came after the 22-year-old Ferran Jutgla, making his full debut, and the 17-year-old Gavi had earlier given Barca a two-goal lead at Camp Nou.
But Elche scored twice in 96 seconds shortly after the hour as Tete Morente and Pere Milla pulled the visitors level, only for Nico to drag Barcelona to a 3-2 victory.
And the result got even better for Barca’s top-four chase after Atletico lost 2-1 away at Sevilla, Lucas Ocampos smashing home in the 88th minute at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan to consign Atleti to a third consecutive league defeat. Read more
Police make arrest after alleged racist abuse aimed at Arsenal players during win over Leeds (ABC)
Police have made one arrest after Arsenal reported a fan for alleged racial abuse during their 4-1 Premier League win at Leeds United on Saturday.
Leeds confirmed the arrest, saying the incident occurred in the first half of the match at Elland Road.
“Racism will not be tolerated at Leeds United and any supporter found to be using racist language will be subject to a lifetime ban for all Leeds United games,” the club said in a statement.
Arsenal substitute Rob Holding was pictured talking to the fourth official just after the half-hour mark, before a member of Leeds staff was notified. Read more
Bundesliga: Hertha fight back to beat Dortmund 3-2 (Punch)
Marco Richter scored twice as hosts Hertha Berlin earned a shock 3-2 win over second-placed Borussia Dortmund Saturday to leave Bayern Munich nine points clear at the top of the Bundesliga.
Julian Brandt gave Dortmund a first-half lead, but Hertha roared back with three unanswered goals at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium as Ishak Belfodil equalised before Richter scored twice.
Dortmund substitute striker Steffen Tigges pulled one back shortly after replacing Brandt, but the visitors head into the winter break having won just once in their last four league games.
“We gave the game away,” admitted Dortmund goalkeeper Marwin Hitz. Read more
Man City transfer round-up: Front row for Dusan Vlahovic as Antonio Conte talks Harry Kane (Mirror)
Manchester City have traditionally excelled in the festive period of the season under Pep Guardiola.
While the majority of the Premier League feel the attrition of the congested calendar, the depth City possess in almost every area of their squad means they can rotate in a more effective way than any other side.
Even so, with Covid-19 outbreaks wreaking havoc on the top-flight schedule it’s becoming clear that this season will be another in which there are twists and turns to come. The January window may be more important than ever with that in mind.
Mirror Sport has your latest City transfer stories ahead of the opening of what promises to be a frantic January market. Read more
Brazil’s Ronaldo says he is buying first club Cruzeiro (NDTV)
Former Brazil striker Ronaldo said on Saturday that he was buying Cruzeiro, the club where he made his professional debut, but which has been languishing in Brazil’s Serie B for two seasons. “I am very happy to have concluded this deal,” the 45-year-old said in a video posted on social media by club president Sergio Santos Rodrigues. “I have a lot to give back to Cruzeiro, to take Cruzeiro where it deserves to be,” Ronaldo added, holding a club shirt with the No.9 and his nickname ‘Fenomeno’ on the back.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us. I ask the fans to get connected to the club again, to go to the stadium, because we will need a lot of strength and unity. We have a lot of work and ambition to make Cruzeiro great again,” he added.
Globoesporte.com reported that Ronaldo will pay 400 million reais (about 60 million euros) to become the club’s majority shareholder.
He already has a controlling stake, acquired in 2018, in Spanish club Valladolid, who were relegated to the second division last season. Read more
Tiger Woods soaks in ‘everything’ with son Charlie during first round of PNC Championship (USAToday)
Justin Thomas sidled up to Tiger Woods on the first tee of the PNC Championship and asked the 15-time major winner, “So, you’re gonna have Charlie carry you, huh?”
Woods smiled and said of his 12-year-old son with the mini-me mannerisms, “Yeah, I kinda feel bad for him.”
Make no mistake, Woods is playing this week only because he loves his son. One can only imagine how much Charlie has been pushing his dad to sign up for the spot the tournament saved for them. Tiger must have had the date circled as he pushed his body during rehabilitation from multiple surgeries to his right leg and ankle.
“It shows just how much Tiger’s changed and how we all change as we get older,” Padraig Harrington said. “Priority is his family. He wouldn’t play golf this week if it wasn’t for his son.” Read more
