Chrissy Teigen has announced her departure from Twitter.
The model took to Twitter on Wednesday night, March 24, to write: “Hey. For over 10 years, you guys have been my world. I honestly owe so much to this world we have created here. I truly consider so many of you my actual friends.
“But it’s time for me to say goodbye. This no longer serves me as positively as it serves me negatively, and I think that’s the right time to call something.”
She goes on to explain that, “I’ve always been portrayed as the strong clap back girl but I’m just not. My desire to be liked and fear of pissing people off has made me somebody you didn’t sign up for, and a different human than I started out here as!”
Teigen also encouraged her followers “to know and never forget that your words matter. No matter what you see, what that person portrays, or your intention.”
She continues: “For years I have taken so many small, 2-follower count punches that at this point, I am honestly deeply bruised.”
She concludes by admitting that, “I have made my mistakes, throughout years and in front of hundreds of thousands, and been held accountable for them,” but ultimately she hasn’t been able to learn “how to block out the negativity.”
The decision comes following the recent backlash she received for collaborating with Kris Jenner on plant-based cleaning product line, Safely.
Following her announcement, the mum-of-two who had 13.7 million followers, deactivated her Twitter account.
A UK University, University of Aberdeen has said it will be returning a Benin Bronze to Nigeria many years after British authorities looted the sculptures.
The UK University made the disclosure in a statement released on Thursday March 25. The school also disclosed that they previously repatriated sacred items and ancestral remains to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The bronze sculpture showing an Oba (king) of Benin was acquired by the University in 1957 at an auction, and is believed to be a great example of Benin Late Period Art.
The British forces had stolen thousands of metal and ivory sculptures as well as carvings during an invasion of Benin City in 1897. They were sold to museums, given as gifts to museums or sold at auctions/art dealers.
It was further learnt that the University of Aberdeen initiated move to return the stolen sculpture through Professor Bankole Sodipo, Professor of Law in Babcock University, Nigeria with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria through its Legal Adviser, Babatunde Adebiyi, the Edo State Government through the then Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Yinka Omorogbe and the Royal Court of the Oba of Benin through Prince Professor Gregory Akenzua in 2020.
A statement released by the university read;
The University of Aberdeen is to return a Benin bronze, the first-ever fully repatriated to Nigeria by a museum. The University announced it would return the sculpture more than 125 years after it was looted by British forces.
An ongoing review of the collections identified the Head of an Oba as having been acquired in a way that we now consider to have been extremely immoral, so we took a proactive approach to identify the appropriate people to discuss what to do,” the school said as it became the first institution to agree to the full repatriation from a museum of a Benin bronze.
It would not have been right to have retained an item of such great cultural importance that was acquired in such reprehensible circumstances.
We, therefore, decided that an unconditional return is the most appropriate action we can take, and are grateful for the close collaboration with our partners.
Reigning Formula One champion, Lewis Hamilton has insisted there are no plans of him retiring at the end of this year after signing only a one-year deal to remain at Mercedes for 2021.
The world champion also confirmed he will continue to take a knee in protest against racism ahead of his title defence.
But the Briton said: ‘I don’t feel as though this is the end.
‘We have got regulation changes happening next year which are exciting, and this season could be the most exciting yet. We have new teams, new formats, and it is closer.
‘Over the next eight months or so I will find out if I am ready to stop, but I don’t think I will.
‘The position has nothing to do with whether we are or not winning the championship. I don’t quit when the going gets tough.
‘I wanted a one-year deal. I am fully committed to this sport.’ Formula One, meanwhile, have given the drivers freedom to take a knee, or to stand, in the pre-race ceremonials this season.
Hamilton said: ‘Last year it felt good to take the knee on a personal level to let the black community know I hear you, I see you and I stand with you.
‘We have an amazing platform here. I plan to continue to take the knee because it is important for young children who are watching. They can ask their parents or their teachers why we are doing that.’
This comes after Former Formula 1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone claimed Lewis Hamilton is “being used by the Black Lives Matter movement” over the Formula One star’s anti-racism stance.
The 90-year-old motorsport mogul also said in a recent interview that he would have ban Formula One drivers from taking a knee before races and would stop them from wearing anti-racism t-shirts on the podium if he were still in charge.
‘I’ve said to his father, “Lewis needs to be careful”. Because he’s being used by the people who are supporting this Black Lives Matter and they are taking a lot of money from it. And nobody knows where it goes.’
‘If I’d still been around there wouldn’t have been anyone wearing [anti-racism] t-shirts on the podium, that’s for sure.
‘One hundred per cent, there wouldn’t have been this business of kneeling before races.’
The Dutch government is planning to send 200 people on holiday to Greece for eight days as an experiment to see if tourism is feasible during the pandemic.
About 25,000 people are said to have applied for the free trip and the trial will see travellers enjoy an all-inclusive holiday in Rhodes, costing £342 (€399) per person, BBC reports.
During the experiment, hosted by holiday firm Sunweb, the selected holiday-goers will not be allowed to leave the resort and will be expected to quarantine for ten days when they return back to Holland.
According to RTL Nieuws, those selected must be aged 18-70 and will all be staying at the Mitsis Grand Hotel in Rhodes where they will be the only guests.
In the experiment, which has been given the go-ahead by public health authorities in Holland, they will be allowed to use the hotel’s facilities, including three swimming pools and two restaurants, but won’t be able to head down to the beach or leave the resort.
The country has reportedly been carrying out a number of experiments to understand which events could be safe to resume, including a conference attended by 500 people and a dance party with 1,300 guests.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Holland has recorded 1.25million confirmed cases and 16,536 deaths.
A 35-year-old Nigerian national has been arrested in Mumbai with cocaine worth Rs 1.5 crore (N5,715,000)
The accused identified as Chukwuemeka Emmanuel Enwoko, was arrested by officials of the Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Crime Branch in the early hours of Wednesday, March 24.
According to ANC officials, the accused, a resident of Navi Mumbai was allegedly involved in drug dealing for many years under the disguise of garment business.
Police inspector Dattatray Masvekar, in charge of Azad Maidan unit of ANC received a specific information that a Nigerian national would come to Lal Maidan in Agripada to deliver cocaine to a drug peddler. Accordingly they laid a trap and apprehended Enwonko as he arrived at around 1.45 am.
During his search, 500 grams of cocaine was recovered. The seized contraband substance is worth Rs 1.5 crore in the international market, said officials.
Following the seizure Enwonko was arrested under the relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act along with sections of Foreigners act. He was produced before the court same Wednesday.
A Chadian lady, Vivien Tarmadji, pictured above, has been arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, while trying to board an Ethiopian airline flight 911 enroute Addis Ababa-Italy with 234.35 grams of heroin concealed in her private part.
A statement released by the spokesperson of the agency, Femi Babafemi today March 26, states that she was nabbed by vigilant narcotics agents during an outward clearance of the airline at the boarding gate after being scanned.
”Under interrogation, she claimed she was contacted by a man who called her from Italy to collect the drug from one man who delivered the illicit substance to her in a hotel she lodged in Lagos early in the morning before she took her flight to Abuja same day for onward journey to Italy.
She further claimed that the man brought 50 wraps of heroin for her to swallow but she couldnt, and as such she decided to insert 18 wraps into her private part and returned the remaining to the man that brought them drug to her in the hotel.
According to her, she came into Nigeria to raise money to pay for her house and shop rents which had expired in Italy, as life has been so difficult since the coming in of COVID-19 pandemic. She said the owner of the drug was to pay her 10,000 Euro on successful delivery of the drug to Italy.”the statement read
Police in Uganda has arrested a 23-year-old serial killer who allegedlly murdered four young women and a three-month old baby in less than three weeks.
The suspect identified as Musa Musaasizi, alias, Uncle, was arrested by detectives on Wednesday, March 24.
The suspect, a resident of Mujomba Zone 6, Nakulabye in Rubaga Division, Kampala City, allegedly had sexual intercourse with all the four women before he strangled them, burnt their bodies and later dumped them in isolated areas in the same division.
The suspected serial killer
The Director of Crime Intelligence, Brig Christopher Ddamulira, who confirmed the arrest on Thursday, said the suspect admitted to the killings and is cooperating with detectives to identify the victims and where the killings happened.
“We arrested him and we have handed him over to Old Kampala Police Station for further processing and visiting the crime scenes,” Brig Ddamulira said.
Four victims have been identified by the police but security agencies have given only two names who are both residents of Makerere Kikoni. These are Elizabeth Mutesi, 21, and Mackline Ahereza, 21, who was killed on February 23, 2021.
n
Ahereza was killed in Kikoni and her body transported to Nateete, which is around 10km away, burnt and dumped there.
The identification of one of the killed women enabled a joint security team comprising the Police Directorate of Crime Intelligence and Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence investigators to reconstruct the last moments and movements of the deceased.
Mackline Ahereza
A security source said they used a combination of technology systems acquired under CCTV camera project to know the people the deceased women talked to and areas they visited. The data zeroed in on Musaasizi.
The source said using the same system, the security agents tracked and arrested Musaasizi. Upon interrogation, Musaasizi admitted to killing the women and has an account of each them and the baby.
He has since been taken to Mwanga II Magistrates Court where he recorded an extra judicial statement with a judicial officer.
Mutesi Elizabeth
Musaasizi told detectives that on February 22, he killed Aheereza, whom he says was his girlfriend, on suspicion of having an extramarital affair. He told detectives that he strangled her in his rented house in Nakulabye before putting the body in a suitcase.
He then hired an unsuspecting boda boda rider who took him to Kobil Petrol Station Nakulabye where he bought paraffin in a five-litre jerrycan before continuing to Stone View at Nateete.
Near Stone View, he alighted from the boda boda with his suitcase but told the rider to wait for him on the main road. After a short distance, he opened the suitcase, lit the body, he told detectives. He boarded the motorcycle back to his home.
On March 13, the suspect told detectives he was with his girlfriend only identified as Kansiime in the house when she started communicating with other men on the phone.
He said he had fallen in love with Kansiime while she was pregnant for another man. He claimed that Kansiime’s boyfriend had abandoned her. Kansiime later gave birth and they stayed in a relationship.
Musaasizi said he was annoyed that Kansiime would talk to other men yet he was caring for her. On March 13, Kansiime with her three-month old baby paid Musaasizi a visit and he strangled them to death.
He told detectives that he first put the baby’s body in a bag, before taking it to Makerere-Kivulu and dumping it near the National Housing building. He bought paraffin at the petrol station before returning to his home to wait for curfew time to dump Kansiime’s body.
At around 2am, he, with the help of others, dumped the body of Kansiime near Kasubi Tombs where he doused it with paraffin and lit the fire.
Three days later, he killed another woman only identified as Noreen. He reportedly strangled her and dumped the body near Kasubi Tombs. However, this time he burnt the body with petrol.
Musaasizi doesn’t give detectives clear reasons why he killed Noreen ut blames an evil spirit that attacked and ordered him to end her life.
On March 16, Musaasizi asked Mutesi to visit him at home to which she accepted. Mutesi is said to have visited at around 9pm. He said Mutesi asked for Shs50,000 to plait her hair which he gave her and then they had sex. Later, Mutesi told him that he wanted to go back to her home. Musaasizi said he strangled her to death.
He kept the body inside the house until deep in the night when he took it far away from his home where he burnt it. He said all mobile phones of the victims were thrown in the pit latrine at his rented home in Nakulabye.
Criminal Investigations Directorate spokesperson Charles Twiine said detectives are still searching Musaasizi’s home and all other areas where he claims to have killed his victims.
Multi talented, multiple award winning artiste, entrepreneur and social activist, Peter “Mr. P” Okoye will release his brand debut solo album titled “The Prodigal” with a never before seen Virtual Album Concert which will be streamed live across the world on the 1st of April 2021 at 10pm (WAT)
The album contains the hit, “Follow My Lead” (feat. Wande Coal) and also contains a guaranteed wedding song banger “I Do” with Tiwa Savage, melodiuous tune “I Love You” with three vocal divas Simi, Teni, Tamar Braxton, on April 2, 2021.
The album is currently available on preorder through itunes, spotify, uduX and several other digital music pllatforms “The Prodigal”, also features collaborations with P-Classic artistes Singah, DJ Switch, and OviKelz.
Announcing the new single Mr. P says:
“Through my journey in life and as an artist, every battle I’ve won; big and small has been because I followed my instincts.
When you know exactly who you are and what you’re capable of, you learn to trust yourself. And that has made it easy for me to follow my lead”
ABOUT MR. P
Peter Okoye is a multi-talented, multiple award winning artiste, entrepreneur and social activist.
Having dominated/ conquered the music scene as one half of the internationally recognized pop duo P-Square, he has since gone on to become a wildly successful solo artiste and is now popularly known as Mr. P.
An enterprising and skilled entrepreneur, MR. P is involved in varied sectors of commerce including but not limited to Lifestyle, sports and entertainment.
ABOUT THE ALBUM
“The Prodigal” is an album that captures the essence of Mr. P and the range of his creativity as an artiste. The music on this album defies every effort to put him or his talent in any particular box, setting him firmly as a worthy contributor to the exciting new wave of Afro-pop music in and from Nigeria. With this album, Mr. P takes us on a journey through myriad soundscapes; seamlessly coalescing dancehall with pop, old school RnB with Afrobeats, and so much more.
Arsenal football club legend, Thierry Henry has announced he will disable his social media accounts until racist users are held accountable for their posts by the companies
The former Arsenal and France captain made the announcement on his social media platforms on Friday, March 26 after so many black footballers including Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Tyrone Mings complained about racist abuse they receive on social media.
Henry says social media companies such as Twitter and Instagram are not doing all they can to prevent racism on their platforms and he will not return to social media until a change has been made.
Henry wrote: “Hi Guys.
“From tomorrow morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright.
“The sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture to individuals is too toxic to ignore. There HAS to be some accountability.
“It is far too easy to create an account, use it to bully and harrass without consequence and still remain anonymous.
“Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I’m hoping this happens soon.”
Last July, Henry made a statement by taking a knee for the first eight minutes and 46 seconds of a match against New England Revolution.
He also showed solidarity following the death of George Floyd, who died early 2020 after a Minnesota police officer pressed his knee on his neck for the same amount of time as Henry knelt.
He also explained the abuse he received after moving to the New York Red Bulls in an interview last year.
“At one point, I said people didn’t see my colour any more because I played football, because I was, in brackets, famous,” Henry said.
“When I came to play in the US, my colour came back because no one could recognise me, depending on which state we were in. My colour came back. It was the first time again that I felt like I left my neighbourhood.
“When I arrived in New York, some people could recognise me and some couldn’t.
“When you ask for a cab, he looks and sees you are a certain colour and puts the light on and suddenly he isn’t free any more. You’re left like, ‘Hang on I’m alone here’. It hit me again.”
A Customs officer attached to the Western Marine Command drowned Monday, March 22, while chasing smugglers along Badagry water channel.
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Western Marine Command, on Wednesday, March 24, announced that it lost an officer in a boat mishap
The Public Relations Officer, Idaho Sulaiman, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos.
He said the incident occurred at about 6:10 p.m. on March 22, while operatives of the command, Akere Surveillance/Monitoring team under Idiroko Outstation, were acting on credible information along Vawhe-Isalu creeks.
Mr Sulaiman said the team, led by Inspector of Customs (IC) Ajayi A.S., had the mishap while trying to intercept a boat suspected to be carrying smuggled items.
“The accident resulted in the death of Assistant Inspector of Customs (AIC) Aliyu AA by drowning.
“The body of the deceased was found underneath the river with the assistance of villagers around the axis.
“The body was taken to General Hospital Badagry and later deposited at the mortuary, having been certified dead by the doctor on call.
“The corpse was transported by air on-board MAX air airline to Kano on March 23, on the request of the family of the deceased,” he said.
He said the deceased, who hailed from Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina, was born on July 10, 1987.
Mr Aliyu joined the NCS on Oct. 17, 2013, as Customs Assistant II (CAII) and got promoted to the rank of AIC on Jan. 1, 2019.
Sympathising with the family of the deceased, Mr Sulaiman said: “At these trying times, the Customs Area Controller, on behalf of the officers/men of the WMC, commiserate with the family of the deceased and pray for the repose of his soul and also for God to grant the deceased eternal rest.”
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) has named Barcelona the best club of the past decade.
“FC Barcelona won the CLUB WORLD RANKINGS of the First Decade (2001-2010) and also of the second Decade (2011-2020),” the IFFHS said in a statement.
Barça were ranked with 2,877 points with rival Real Madrid second on 2,782 with German giants Bayern Munich completing the top three with a points tally of 2,594.5.
Founded in 1899, FC Barcelona have won five UEFA Champions League titles, three FIFA Club World Cups, five UEFA Super Cup trophies, and 26 Spanish La Liga tournaments.
Before coming up with these rankings, IFFHS usually takes into account the number of points claimed by a team in domestic competitions, as well as their performances in the European competitions.
Rapper Nicki Minaj’s mother, Carol Maraj, has filed a $150 million lawsuit against the driver who is accused of killing her husband in a hit-and-run crash last month.
The driver, Charles Polevich, 70, is accused of striking Robert Maraj, 64, when he was crossing the street on Long Island on Feb. 12 and then driving off without calling 911. Maraj died at a hospital the next day.
Mr. Polevich was later arrested on February 17 on charges of leaving the scene of an incident and tampering with physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty and was freed on bail and ordered not to leave New York state.
Over the weekend, a $150 million lawsuit was filed on behalf of Nicki’s mother, Carol Maraj, against the driver in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by Ben Crump Law.
“After striking Maraj, (Charles) Polevich left the accident scene and did not call for emergency services or render aid to Maraj,” Crump wrote. “He was not only irresponsible and negligent, but more concerned about running away and hiding than seeking help.
“Polevich’s behavior was criminal, cowardly, and immoral. We will hold him responsible for his reckless actions that led to Robert Maraj’s death!”
Polevich’s attorney, Marc C. Gann of Collins, Gann, McCloskey & Barry PLLC, shared a statement with USA TODAY on behalf of his client.
“Mr. Polevich has expressed empathy and condolences to the Maraj family. While the civil suit is not unexpected, the criminal charges pending against Mr. Polevich have no bearing on the civil case. It has yet to be determined whether there was any negligence involved in the accident or the degrees of any negligence,” the statement says. “I will add that the amount demanded is shocking to say the least and I don’t believe is in any way reasonable.”
Nicki Minaj, who was born Onika Tanya Maraj, has not made any public statement on her father’s death.
A woman killed her own mum as state punishment for “premeditated murder”, despite her mum not carrying out the killing.
Maryam Karimi was sentenced to death in Iran after her father killed her abusive and violent husband.
Though her father was the one that killed her husband, Maryam Karimi was arrested and charged with premeditated murder.
She was then sentenced to be executed by her own 29-year-old daughter.
Her death in Rasht Central Prison, Iran, is the latest shocking example of the rise in executions enforced in the Islamic Republic.
Activist and journalist for Iran International TV described the execution as another “victory for a man” as a woman was encouraged to end her mother’s life while her grandfather escaped capital punishment.
Maryam’s father is believed to have killed his son-in-law as he would not consent to a divorce from his violent marriage.
Maryam’s fatal charge was based on “retribution in kind” – known in Iran as “Qisas”. It is a form of retributive justice that equates to notions of “an eye for an eye” in the Islamic Republic.
Following the execution, Iran International TV reports that Maryam’s father, Ebrahim, was brought in by authorities to see her corpse hanging, however for unknown reasons the authorities did not prescribe the death penalty for him.
Activist and journalist at Iran International TV, Aram Bolandpaz said: “Four decades of brain-washing at schools, extreme punishments in Iranian society and a patriarchal regime mean that Maryam’s daughter was raised to make sure that executing her mother was a victory for a man, whether that be for her father or for the oppressive regime.”
She added that: “Qisas is inhumane, savage, and cruel, no matter where in the world. For a country which prioritises the rights of unborn babies and emphasises that life is the most valuable phenomenon, how can the Islamic Republic seize a life from someone in such an awful way.”
Qisas requires the victim’s next of kin to be present at the execution and they are actively encouraged to carry out the execution themselves.
Iran International TV notes that Maryam’s daughter had refused to forgive Maryam or accept Diya (blood money) from her, which is why she proceeded with executing her own mother last week.
Hollywood actor, Johnny Depp’s appeal to overturn a damning high court ruling which backed a report that he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard and left her in fear for her life, has been struck out.
The actor was denied an appeal in his U.K. libel case against The Sun publisher, News Group Newspapers, after he sought to overturn the 2020 ruling of the tabloid accurately calling him a “wife beater.”
After a highly publicized three-week trial in 2020, Justice Nicol ruled that the label was “substantially true” regarding his relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard.
The actor asked the court of appeal to grant permission for him to challenge the ruling, with the aim of having its findings overturned and a retrial ordered. Part of Depp’s argument relied on further evidence that Heard had not yet given away most of the $7m (£5.1m) she received in her divorce settlement, which she had said she was donating to charity.
However following a hearing last week, the court on Thursday March 25 refused Depp’s permission to appeal. Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Dingemans emphasised that an appeal against the trial judge’s decision on questions of disputed fact faced serious difficulties.
Lord Justice Underhill said;
“We do not accept that there is any ground for believing that the judge may have been influenced by any such general perception as Mr Caldecott relies on.
“In the first place, he does not refer to her charitable donation at all in the context of his central findings.
“On the contrary, he only mentions it in a very particular context … and after he had already reached his conclusions in relation to the 14 incidents.
“We refuse Mr Depp’s application to admit further evidence in support of his proposed appeal and we conclude that the appeal has no real prospect of success and that there is no other compelling reason for it to be heard. We accordingly refuse permission to appeal.”
The UK judgement came ahead of his $50 million defamation suit against Heard in the United States, set to begin on April 11, 2022. The actress herself is pursuing a $100 million countersuit.
A Federal High Court sitting in Kano has sentenced a 28-year-old man, Abubakar Suleiman, to two years imprisonment without an option of fine for trafficking 30 women to Libya.
In her ruling on Thursday, March 25, the presiding judge, Justice Sa’adatu Ibrahim-Mark, also ordered the convict to pay an additional N250,000, adding that he will serve additional three months in the correctional centre should he fail to pay the said amount.
The National Agency for the Prohibition In Persons (NAPTIP) had charged Suleiman, a resident of Kadawa Miltara Quarters in Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano, with one count of trafficking in persons.
The Prosecution Counsel, Barrister Abdullahi Babale, told the court that the defendant on February 10 conspired with one Salele (a Nigerien) now at large and transferred 30 women from Edo and Lagos State to the Niger Republic through Babura border in Jigawa en route to Libya.
Barrister Babale added that the defendant deducted N5,000 each from the N50,000 paid per person by the sponsors in Libya and the Niger Republic as commission,
He also noted that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 13(2)(c) of the Trafficking in Persons(Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act 2015.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge.
Babale then tendered the defendant’s statement and one of the victim’s statement as an exhibit and urged the court to sentence the defendant according to section 356 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.
The Defence Counsel, Barr. M. B. Isa, pleaded for leniency on behalf of his client as a first time offender.
“The defendant is married and has five children. We pray the court to temper justice with mercy according to section 416 (2) of ACJA 2015.” the counsel said.
A Nigerian man, Dexter Enwerem has been arrested in Norwish, Connecticut in connection with an international phone scam crime organization.
Enwerem, 34, of 29 Ward St., Norwich, was charged with first-degree larceny and is being held in lieu of a $50,000 bond, according to a Norwich Police Department news release Wednesday, March 24.
Police began investigating a complaint in September 2020 from someone who said their 80-year-old mother-in-law sent money to “unknown individuals for the benefit of ‘helping the homeless.’”
“The victim sent gift cards to suspects totaling $13,500 and an $18,000 money order to a suspect identified as Norwich resident Dexter Enwerem,” the release reads.
“After a thorough investigation by Detective Scott Meikle, it was determined Enwerem was part of a Nigerian phone scam crime organization.” it added
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has said that two vaccines developed in the country are awaiting clinical trials and certification.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha who disclosed this during the PTF national briefing in Abuja on Monday March 22, described it as a welcome development that will open a new vista in scientific breakthrough and will boost the morale and image of the medical industry in the country.
Mustapha also called for collaboration among relevant agencies to ensure that the effort is successful.
He said;
“The disclosure that Nigerian scientists have produced at least two local COVID-19 vaccines which are awaiting clinical trials and certification is significant.
“This is a welcome development that will open a new vista in scientific breakthrough and will boost the morale and image of the medical industry in the country.
“I call on all relevant agencies to provide the required support and enabling environment for smooth conduct of the remaining protocols for the certification of these vaccines with a view to encouraging and motivating other researchers.”
The National Rapid Response Team has been deployed by the federal government to Kano over a strange illness bedeviling the state.
Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu made the disclosure at the joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday March 22.
Daily Trust reported that four people have died with over 200 others infected with the strange disease confirmed in 13 local government areas, including eight metropolitan councils in the state.
Ihekweazu who disclosed that symptoms of the disease include fever, vomiting, yellowish eyes and abdominal pain as symptoms, added that the NCDC has collected additional human and environmental samples for metagenomic sequencing which is a method for detecting rare new causes of illness.
He said;
“We’ve tested four samples taken from these cases for Lassa fever and yellow fever at the NCDC National Reference Lab. The results of these were negative.
“We’re working with, our sister agency NAFDAC as well as a toxicologist from FMoH to test for potential non-infectious causes.
“Our immediate focus is to identify the cause of this outbreak, ensure management of current cases and to control transmission.
“We’ll continue to keep members of the public aware of our findings, while we support the state’s response.”
British motor racing giants, McLaren Racing, has signed Nigerian-American Kart racing young prodigy, Ugo Ugochukwu, on a long-term agreement to support him through racing’s junior categories.
The Formula 1 team said in a statement that the agreement gives them an option to sign Ugochukwu to a race deal in the future.
McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown said: “We’ve been watching Ugo’s progress with interest.
“So when the opportunity to sign an agreement with him became available, we had no hesitation moving on it.”
McLaren describes the move as a multi-year contract with Ugochuku and could tie him to a further multi-year racing deal.
Ugochukwu, whose mother is Nigerian and father American, won the 2020 FIA OK-Junior European championship and has graduated to the senior class this season.
F1 has not had an American driver since Alexander Rossi took part in five races for the Marussia team in 2015.
The last American to win a Grand Prix was 1978 world champion Mario Andretti – at that year’s Dutch Grand Prix.
McLaren F1 team principal Andreas Seidl said: “Ugo is a promising young talent with strong development prospects.
“While he is still early in his career, it is clear he has the ingredients to be successful in the sport.
“This signing reflects our refocused approach to identifying and supporting new talent, away from a formal young driver programme to a more tailored basis.”
Ugochukwu said: “I’m honoured to be signed by such an iconic team as McLaren Racing so early in my career.
“To have the support of McLaren is fantastic and what any young driver dreams of. I’m focused right now on developing as a driver and racer, so having McLaren by my side can only help me on and off the track.”
Former child star, Houston Tumlin, who’s best known for playing Will Ferrell’s son in “Talladega Nights,” has died by suicide at the age of 28.
The Shelby County Coroner’s Office confirmed on Wednesday, March 24, that Tumlin died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Pelham, Alabama home on Tuesday, March 23.
In his only role as an actor, Tumlin played Walker Bobby, the 10-year-old son of Ricky Bobby, played by Ferrell in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
According to AL.com, Tumlin was born in Pell City, Alabama, on December 27, 1992, and graduated from Victory Christian High School in 2011. He served in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and was promoted to sergeant in 2017.
Tumlin’s girlfriend, Charity Robertson, confirmed his death in a Facebook post, writing: “I’ve never experienced a hurt like this before. I feel numb, I feel defeated, I feel lost. I feel empty. My heart is absolutely shattered.”
“My sweet, sweet baby.. Our time together was one of the best experiences of my life. I’ll miss your big heart, caring spirit, infectious laughter, & oh man could the list go on. I love your smart mouth, your “I’m always right” attitude, your hugs, your kisses, your touch.. Just YOU!
I just still feel like this is a really bad dream that I can’t wake up from.”
“One thing is for sure though, I have the absolute best guardian angel a girl could ever wish for cause everybody knows you don’t play about me.”
“I love you so much Houston Lee & thank you for loving me so passionately and unapologetically for the time we had each other.”
For the first time since Joe Biden became US president, the secretive state of North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Thursday March 25, the US and Japan have announced.
Under UN Security Council resolutions, North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles, considered threatening weapons.
Japanese officials said North Korea fired the two missiles after 07:00 local time on Thursday. They flew 420km and 430km respectively before landing in waters outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone. There was no damage inflicted to ships or aeroplanes.
US allies, Japan and South Korea have condemned the test.
The missile test comes just days after North Korea reportedly fired two non-ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea.
The US Pacific Command, which is in charge of military forces in the Asia-Pacific region, said that the test highlighted “the threat that North Korea’s illicit weapons programme poses to its neighbours and the international community”.
On Tuesday, Joe Biden laughed off short range missile launch which took place over the weekend, saying the US did not consider it a provocation.
North Korea has spent more than a year in isolation cutting off trade with China amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
North Korea last fired ballistic missiles a year ago amid stalled relations between then-US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The United States has reported more than 30million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The nation surpassed the milestone on Wednesday, March 24, nearly 12 weeks after hitting 20m, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
No other country has recorded so many cases, and there is likely to be a high number of infections that have not been registered, the university said.
It added that the U.S. is also the hardest-hit country worldwide, when it comes to the absolute number of deaths from COVID-19, with more than half a million recorded.
So far, more than 46.3 million have been fully vaccinated in the US, while more than 85.4 million have received at least one dose.
Brazil has recorded the second-highest cumulative total with 12.1m cases, followed by 11.7m cases in India, where daily infections have climbed in recent weeks.
Super Eagles of Nigeria Head coach, Gernot Rohr has warned that his team have to be wary of Benin ahead of their crucial Afcon qualifier this weekend.
Rohr believes the Republic of Benin will be difficult to play against, alas they are currently in fine form and have a full squad for the encounter.
Nigeria, three-time African champions will square off against the Squirrels, who are on a five-game unbeaten run, at Porto-Novo’s Stade Charles de Gaulle on Saturday.
Michel Dussuyer’s men last tasted defeat against the Super Eagles in their first Afcon qualifying game in November 2019.
But at home they have not lost for eight years and Rohr says his team must be humble and cautious.
“Benin have not lost a match for eight years at home, the last time they lost was in 2013 so you can imagine that we want to be the first team to win there in eight years,” Rohr told reporters on Wednesday.
“It will not be easy, they have a very good defence, they were quarter-finalists in the last Afcon. They eliminated Morocco.”
Rohr also revealed Benin have all the players needed for the game as the country provided a private plane for their stars based in France to ensure they honour the match due to covid-19 restrictions.
“They have a private plane to help the French-based players, what we could not have, unfortunately,” he continued.
“They found the money to take a private plane and to bring them back by charter. This was the condition to get the French players.”
Nigeria lead Group L of the qualifiers table with eight points from four games and victory over Benin or Lesotho will seal their place at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled for Cameroon.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria will go on with their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the Squirrels of Benin Republic in a must win clash for both sides this weekend.
Three-time African champions, Super Eagles will travel to Benin Republic for their reverse fixture in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations billed for Cameroon.
Gernot Rohr’s men defeated the Squirrels 2-1 in the first leg played at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo thanks to goals from Victor Osimhen and Samuel Kalu.
Having played out a goalless draw against Sierra Leone in their last match, the Super Eagles would be going all out for a win which would guarantee them a ticket to their 19th appearance at the biennial African football showpiece.
Analysis:
Nigeria’s greatest strength lies in their attack with their defence, their weakpoint, a point made more glaring with the capitulation at the hands of Sierra Leone last time out- starting at 4-0 but ending the game 4-4.
If the Super eagles want to disturb Benin from the start of the match, a three pronged attack including inform striker Kelechi Iheanacho, Paul Onuachu and Chukwueze will be most beneficial to Gernot Rohr’s cause.
This attack line will have pace, power and unpredictability as the Benin team won’t be able to predict the movement of the three players especially if they rotate positions during the match.
Also Onuachu, Belgium’s highest goalscorer, will be a wild card and provides an aerial threat if Nigeria decides to focus on crosses from the wings.
Benin has never faced Onuachu and don’t know what to expect against the towering striker.
Another option for the Super eagles will be to start Napoli forward, Victor Osimhen.
But that comes with its own risks as the Edo born goalscorer is not in form and recently returned from a head injury. That will also mean sacrificing Onuachu, meaning Nigeria’s aerial threat chances will be drastically reduced.
Also Nigeria’s full backs have a crucial role to play at this game.
FC Porto’s Zaido Sanusi, who ran Cristiano Ronaldo ragged in the UEFA Champions league, will have to be industrious at left back and ensure his over lapping runs and crosses are always pinpoint and perfect.
He should ensure that with every foray he makes forward, communication should be made to defensive midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi to cover up for him so that Benin don’t capitalize on that position during counter attacks, because the Squirrels will surely counter attack knowing Nigeria will dominate possession for long spells during the game.
Knowing that Benin will play a defensive game, Rohr should know that the key to unlocking his opponent’s defence lies with Joe Aribo and Alex Iwobi.
They should stick to their roles and always look for openings in the defence line to lay passes for Iheanacho, Chukwueze, Onuachu and Osimhen who will always be running during the game.
The first leg between both teams staged at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo ended in defeat for Benin, with goals from Victor Osimhen and Samuel Kalu inspiring a 2-1 triumph, while Benin’s only strike was scored by Stephane Sessegnon.
But Sessegnon was omitted from his team’s 23-man squad as he remains clubless .
Just like Ahmed Musa, the 36-year-old Sessegnon will be in the Squirrels camp as a non-playing captain to boost the morale of his teammates.
Victory for Benin at Porto-Novo’s Stade Charles de Gaulle would guarantee them a ticket to their fifth appearance at the biennial African football showpiece.
Benin should exploit Omeruo’s instability and incessant lack of full time concentration if they want to penetrate Nigeria’s defence line.
Also the Benin team would be better served if they operate more through the right if Ebuehi starts at right back for Nigeria . Ebuehi’s strength isn’t at defending so his forays forward will create openings at the back of the Eagle’s defence, a tactical error the Squirrels could capitalize on and inflict damage on the Eagles.
The Africa Cup of Nations qualifier has been scheduled for 17:00 (West African Time) on Saturday, March 27.
Nigeriaplayertowatchoutfor : Iheanacho, Onuachu
Beninplayertowatchoutfor: Steve Mounie
Predictions:
It will be a very tough game as Benin will prove a tough nut to crack but if Nigeria’s defence can hold its own, the power of the strikers at Rohr’s disposal will be too much for Benin to handle and they will eventually crack.
Lazio midfielder, Daniel Guerini has tragically died at the age of 19 after he was involved in a car crash in Rome, Italy.
Reports in Italy say the accident took place around 8pm on Wednesday, March 24, and two others who were involved in the accident are in critical condition.
Lazio tweeted on Wednesday evening: “We are shocked by the pain. The president and all the people involved with Lazio are together with the family of the young Daniel Guerini.
Ancora increduli e sconvolti dal dolore il Presidente, gli uomini e le donne della Società Sportiva Lazio si stringono attorno alla famiglia del giovane Daniel Guerini 🙏 pic.twitter.com/SX7DrK5JBT
According to Italian newspaper Gazetta, Guerini’s vehicle collided head-on with a Mercedes A-Class, with two passengers in his car rushed to hospital.
The driver of the A-Class, a 68-year-old man, was also transported to hospital but with less serious injuries.
Police have launched investigations to establish the cause of the crash.
Guerini started his career in Lazio’s youth system before joining Torino on a free transfer in 2016.’
He then played for Torino and Fiorentina at youth level before being loaned out to SPAL early last year.
Guerini, who represented Italy at Under-15 and U16 levels, rejoined Lazio permanently in January, signing a three-year contract with the club.
Fiorentina also paid their respects to Guerini, tweeting: “We are shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death of Lazio youngster Daniel Guerini, a member of the Fiorentina youth academy in 2018/19 and 2019/20.
“The thoughts of President Commisso and everyone at the club are with the Guerini family at this extremely difficult time.”
We are shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death of Lazio youngster Daniel Guerini, a member of the Fiorentina youth academy in 2018/19 and 2019/20. The thoughts of President Commisso and everyone at the club are with the Guerini family at this extremely difficult time. pic.twitter.com/8EuhC7HoQT
— ACF Fiorentina English (@ACFFiorentinaEN) March 24, 2021
A Nigerian woman, Adeola (Addy) Olubamiji (PhD) has listed her achievements as she turns 36 years old.
From growing up in the slum of Mokola, Ibadan, frying akara to pay her school fees, working as a cleaner and a sales girl, Dr. Olubamiji is currently the Director of Additive Manufacturing Solutions at Desktop Metal, Massachusetts, USA.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, March 23, Dr. Olubamiji revealed that she is a Director at a Tech company, owns three houses and is on the list of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.
“They said be a Director at 35. Me: I can’t make it. No Stanford degree, I have an accent and I am black,” she wrote.
“35: – Director at a Tech Company, 3 Houses in the bag, Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, STEP Awards Honoree, RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrants, 36, I am ready!”
Dr. Olubami is the chief consultant at Tech Centrix Ltd. (Canada & USA), the founder of STEMHub Foundation Canada and she sits on the board of several organisations such as Health & Science Innovations, Indiana, USA and AfricaHacks, USA.
In June 2017, Adeola received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the 113-year-old University of Sas – katchewan, Saskatoon, Canada and made history as the first black person to have received this PhD from the university.
Some of the awards she has won include 2020 Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, 2020 STEP (Science technology Engineering and Production) Award by the American Manufacturing Institute, RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant 2020, 2019 Influential Women in Man – ufacturing Award by Putman Media, 2019 L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth Canada Honoree.
Samia who became the first female President of the East African country following the death of President John Magufuli, stated that she knelt before her husband not because she’s inferior, but because of love and affection.
She averred that such tradition should not be thrown out as it strenghtens family bond and ensure children are brought up with good manners.
Samia said;
‘Some of you will say we are equal in all aspects of society, No! That’s not the right position. Even as vice president, I will kneel before my husband. I don’t kneel because I am inferior, it’s because of love and affection.
‘Don’t leave this tradition so we can strengthen the bond of our families and bring up our children through good manners.’
Myanmar’s military have reportedly shot dead a 7-year-old girl in the city of Mandalay the youngest victim yet in the military’s crackdown on civilian ever since the infamous February 1 coup.
The country has been in a dire state ever since the military, headed by coup-leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, seized power last month, and detained civilian leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, establishing a ruling military junta.
The young girl was killed in her father’s arms at home during a military raid, according to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and Reuters news agency.
According to local news outlet Myanmar Now, the girl, named Khin Myo Chit, was shot while sitting in her father’s lap after security forces kicked down the door to the family’s home on Tuesday, March 23.
Soldiers then reportedly asked the father if everyone in the family was present in the house.
After the father answered ‘yes’, they accused him of lying and shot at him, but the bullet missed him and killed the girl instead.
This killing adds to a continuous pattern of abuse and indiscriminate use of deadly force that the military in the Asian country have employed since civilians started protesting against the military junta for carrying out the coup.
Previous reports from Myanmar say not only have security forces targeted unarmed protesters and opponents to the coup, but they have targeted bystanders, civilians in their homes, and children. See HERE
Despite the reported killings, tens of thousands of people still take to the streets to protest and take part in the movement.
Following the killing of the young girl, protesters on Wednesday called for a “silent strike” urging businesses and shops to close and people to stay in their homes.
The aim of the silent strike is to shut down entire towns and cities, turning everywhere to ‘ghost land’
As at Wednesday, photos on social media show empty streets and deserted roads throughout the country.
At least 275 people have been killed since the coup, according to AAPP, though activists say the death toll is likely much higher because the military government has been shutting down social media across the country .
Humanitarian organization Save the Children has reacted to the killing of children by the military.
“We are horrified that children continue to be among the targets of these fatal attacks on peaceful protestors. The death of these children is especially concerning given that they reportedly were killed while being at home, where they should have been safe from harm,” Save the Children said in a statement.
“The fact that so many children are being killed on an almost daily basis shows a complete disregard for human life by security forces.”
Previously on Monday a 15-year-old boy was also killed in Mandalay, according to Reuters.
He was one of three people shot dead in the city that day, AAPP reported.
The and European Union have imposed further sanctions on groups and individuals linked to the coup and crackdown on protesters.
There have been new sanctions against Myanmar’s chief of police, Than Hlaing, and its Bureau of Special Operations commander, Lt. Gen. Aung Soe, as well as two army units long implicated in human rights abuses in ethnic areas.
U.S. women’s national team star, Megan Rapinoe has hit out at the U.S. Soccer federation, accusing the federation of fighting against the team’s pursuit of equality during remarks made before a congressional committee on Wednesday, March 24.
The footballer, a two-time World Cup winner, has been at the forefront of her team’s gender discrimination lawsuit against U.S. Soccer and on Wednesday appeared before the House Oversight Committee for a hearing designed “to examine the economic harm caused by longstanding gender inequalities, particularly for women of color,”
In Rapinoe’s prepared opening statement she said: “It’s my honor to be in front of you today. It’s probably no surprise, but equal pay and equality in general is a deep and personal passion of mine.
“What we’ve learned and what we continue to learn is that there is no level of status, accomplishments, or power that will protect you from the clutches of inequity. One cannot simply outperform inequality or be excellent enough to escape discrimination of any kind.
“I am here today because I know firsthand that this is true. We are so often told in this country that if you just work hard and continue to achieve – you will be rewarded fairly. It’s the promise of the American dream. But that promise has not been for everyone.
“The Women’s National Team has won four World Cup championships and four Olympic gold medals on behalf of this great country. We have filled stadiums, broken viewing records, we’ve sold out jerseys, all the popular metrics by which we are judged.
“Yet despite all of this, we are still paid less than our male counterparts – for each trophy, of which there are many, for each win, each tie, each time we play. Less.
“In fact, instead of lobbying with the women’s team in our efforts for equal pay and equality in general, the U.S. Soccer Federation has continually lobbied against our efforts and the efforts of millions of people marginalized by gender in the United States.
“And if that can happen to us, to me, with the brightest lights shining on us at all times – it can, and it does, happen to every person who is marginalized by gender. But we don’t have to wait. We don’t have to continue to be patient for decades on end. We can change that today, we can change that right now. We just have to want to.”
“So as always, LFG. Thank you.”
She fielded questions from members of the U.S. House of Representatives, addressing issues related to equal pay and transgender rights.
Last year the US Womens team sued US Soccer Federation over it’s unequal pay compared to the Men’s team and unfair working conditions.
In December, the USWNT and U.S. Soccer reached a settlement over one portion of the team’s lawsuit, involving unequal working conditions.
As part of the settlement, U.S. Soccer agreed to revise policies over charter flights, venue selection, professional support, and hotel accommodations.
Egypt and Liverpool striker, Mohamed Salah has been given an exclusive private security team while in Kenya ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Harambee Stars on Thursday, March 5.
The Egyptian national team touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 9 pm on Tuesday night, March 23.
Upon arrival, a team bus drove them to Villa Rosa Kempinski, a few metres from the city centre in Nairobi.
But to the surprise of journalists and even other players, immediately Salah came out of the airport to head into the waiting bus, four well built men wearing black suits surrounded him and started protecting him.
The security team didn’t even let the striker take selfies with fans.
According to reports, Salah was given extra security from the Egyptian Embassy in Kenya.
“Ahead of their trip to Kenya, the national association reached out to the Egyptian Embassy in Kenya and requested to make sure they provide enough security specifically for the player [Salah] and it was granted,” an Egyptian Embassy official told Goal.
“The request we know was only made for Mohamed [Salah], I don’t know about the rest or any other player,” the source further explained.
Egypt sit on top of Group G in the qualifiers with eight points, just ahead of second-placed Comoros on goal difference, and will need just one point from the two remaining encounters to qualify.
A serial Facebook hacker, Vincent Harrison Chukwuemeka, has been sent to one-year imprisonment without the option of a fine, by Justice Agatha Okeke of the Federal High court Uyo, for impersonation and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N407,000 (Four Hundred and Seven Thousand Naira).
A statement released by antigraft agency, EFCC, says Chukwuemeka falsely presented himself as Lisa, while claiming to be a representative of Facebook and WhatsApp from the United States of America, through the African Head Office. Under that guise, he allegedly defrauded one Felicity Felix Ekpezu of the said sum, as he (Chukwuemeka) deceived her (Ekpezu) to believe that she had won $971 (Nine Hundred and Seventy-One United States Dollars) and an Iphone 6s, to which she needed to pay N407, 000 to redeem.
According to the statement, he was arraigned on a one-count charge bordering on impersonation and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N407, 000. He initially pleaded “not guilty” to the charge, but in the course of trial changed his plea to guilty and refunded his victim the money he fraudulently collected from him.
The court at the resumed sitting today, sentenced him to one-year imprisonment beginning from the date of his arrest without an option of a fine.
American Idol contestant, Funke Lagoke was rushed to the hospital after she fainted and fell flat on her face after her performance with fellow singer Ronda Felton on Monday night’s episode.
The terrifying incident happened while she was receiving feedback from the judges after her performance with her fellow contestant and duet partner.
The pair performed ‘Tell Him’, a song written and recorded by Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion.
In a clip from the episode, Lagoke’s hands can be seen shaking as judge Lionel Richie was critiquing their performance of “Tell Him.”
“Funke, you got yourself to the end. The problem is … ” Richie said before Lagoke fainted, landing with an alarming thud.
Richie and Panelist Luke Bryan immediately ran onto the stage to help staff members attend to Lagoke before she was rushed to the hospital.
The show later revealed that Lagoke had been “treated for dehydration and released from the hospital.”
“She will return for the showstopper round,” the statement added.
Richie, 71, told Felton that she and Lagoke had both advanced to the next round.
“Both of you deserve to go through,” he said. “I want you to know, congratulations, okay? I know that was traumatic, okay? But we’re here for you. We’re family, okay?”
Despite the happy news, Felton still looked worried over her duet partner, saying: “She’s gotta get some stitches.”
Katy Perry then added, “But she’s gonna come back tomorrow and she’s gonna be singing for showstopper.”
“I’m just worried about her health more than anything. I feel like that’s the number one important thing right now,” Felton said in a confessional. “I just want her to know that I love her, that I care about her. I want her to be okay.”
Funke, whose name is Funmike Lagoke, is a former Miss Nigeria USA winner. She competed in the beauty pageant back in 2019 and won the title.
A 28-year-old Nigerian national, James Morrison, has been arrested by the Excise Enforcement officials in Hyderabad on the charge of peddling drugs.
The officials seized 153 grams of cocaine and 16 grams of MDMA (methylenedioxy- methamphetamine), a party drug commonly known as ‘Molly’ or ‘Ecstasy’ from the suspect during a raid on a house at MS Makhtha area of Khairatabad on Tuesday, March 23, following a tip-off.
The Nigerian, who claimed to be staying in India on student visa, was said to be a repeat offender and had secured bail after being arrested on similar charges last year.
According to investigations, one Daddy Boy alias John and Mike from Bengaluru appointed James as his agents to sell drugs in the city.
It was alleged that Daddy Boy would send the contraband to James through agents. The Nigerian would then contact customers through calls or WhatsApp and meet them at Imax, Necklace Road, Somajiguda, Begumpet, and other surrounding areas. He sells a gram of cocaine at Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per gram and a gram of MDA for Rs 5,000 per gram.
The Asst. Prohibition & Excise Superintendent, N. Anki Reddy, who led the team, said that the Nigerian was earlier arrested in August last year on charges of drug trafficking and six grams of cocaine seized from him then.
“This James Morrison was arrested in the month of August 2020 in a Drugs case where in 6 Grams of cocaine was seized from him and 2 more accused Nelson Samuel Smith and Abdul Kareem Abdullah,” the official said.
“He is telling that he came to India on a student visa around four years ago. As of now there was no evidence of him having any visa. He further said his passport was deposited in a court case in Mumbai and only a photocopy of the passport was seized from him.” Reddy added.
One Galaxy J7 prime mobile phone, one small weighing machine, a red tape and empty polythene covers weighing (86) gm and one long note book showing transactions related to drugs were also seized from the Nigerian.
“These raids were conducted as per the instructions of Sri N. A. Ajay Rao Joint Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise and under the direct supervision of N. Anjireddy Asst Excise Superintendent, Enforcement, Hyderabad and E. Chandrakumar CI, Md. Nijamuddin SI , Bhaskar Reddy, Azeem and K. Sreedhar HCS, Prakash, Rakesh, Srikanth, Gopal, Sai, Tejeswar and Sravanthi constables participated in the raid.” the statement says.
There was a huge scare at Atletico Madrid training on Tuesday evening, March 23 when French striker Moussa Dembele fainted and appeared to lose consciousness during a training session.
The former Lyon striker was filmed stretching out his hamstrings before collapsing to the ground and lying motionless on the pitch.
Dembele’s team-mates quickly assisted the striker before calling for the help of Atletico’s medical staff for urgent medical attention.
Members of the medical team spent several minutes trying to resuscitate the player, while his teammate ran to the pitch-side ambulance to get a stretcher.
The 24-year-old later regained consciousness after being turned on his side and was able to leave the pitch unassisted.
Medical tests were later conducted on him and reports have stated there is no ‘serious’ concern, claiming the incident was caused by low blood pressure.
The player will continue to be monitored by the club’s medical staff and will remain under close supervision following the incident.
Dembele – who joined Atletico on a ‘loan with an option to buy’ deal from Lyon in January, has so far featured in just 87 minutes of action for Atleti.
🚨 ÚLTIMA HORA 🚨
💥 Susto en el entrenamiento del Atlético
🤕 Moussa Dembélé ha sufrido una bajada de tensión y se ha mareado
👍🏽 El jugador se encuentra bien pendiente de evolución
Boxing legend, Mike Tyson has confirmed he will fight Evander Holyfield 24 years after their last fight in massive $25million deal.
The heavyweight boxing legends were involved in two incredible battles in 1996 and 1997, when Tyson infamously bit off a part of Holyfield’s ear and was disqualified and also fined as a result.
Despite their age, Holyfield is now 58 while Tyson is aged 54, a third bout between the pair has been set for May.
Both fighters are in incredible physical shape since they returned to training last year.
Tyson fought an eight-round exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr last November. After Tyson’s fight, Holyfield called him out and both camps started discussions over a multi-million dollar fight at the Hard Rock Stadium.
The fight has now been scheduled for May 29.
Speaking on Instagram Live late Tuesday night, Iron Mike reaffirmed plans to fight in Miami at the start of Memorial Weekend.
Tyson said: “I just want everybody to know, the fight is on with me and Holyfield.
“Holyfield’s a humble man, I know that. And he’s a man of God, but I’m God’s man.
“And, listen, I’m going to be successful on May 29th.”
Watch the video below .
Mike Tyson has declared that the Evander Holyfield trilogy fight is on for May 29th…
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has announced that people can now buy Tesla electric vehicles in the U.S. with bitcoin.
“You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin,” the chief executive – and self-named “Technoking of Tesla” tweeted on Wednesday, March 24.
Musk also went on to clarify in another tweet that Tesla will be keeping the money received from customers as bitcoin, rather than coverting it to traditional currency like dollars.
“Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly. Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”
Musk also said that the option to pay with bitcoin will be available to other countries “later this year.”
This comes a month after the automaker revealed that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would soon start accepting the world’s most popular cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
An environmental scientist has warned that Penises are shrinking and genitals becoming malformed because of pollution.
Dr. Shanna Swan, one of the leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologists in the world, disclosed this in a new book detailing the challenges facing human reproduction.
In the book, she writes that humanity is facing an “existential crisis” in fertility rates as a result of phthalates, a chemical used when manufacturing plastics that impacts the hormone-producing endocrine system.
As a result of this pollution, a growing number of babies are being born with small penises, Dr. Swan writes.
Her book, titled Count Down, examines “how our modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development, and imperilling the future of the human race”.
Dr. Swan revealed that she began her research by examining phthalate syndrome, something observed in rats which found that when fetuses were exposed to the chemical they were likely to be born with shrunken genitals.
She discovered that male human babies who had been exposed to the phthalates in the womb had a shorter anogenital distance – something that correlated with penile volume.
The chemical has an industrial use in making plastics more flexible, but Dr. Swan says it is being transmitted into toys and foods and subsequently harms human development.
Dr. Swan, who is a professor in environmental medicine and public health at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, based her work on a series of peer-reviewed research studies.
One study published in 2017 found that sperm levels among men in Western countries had dropped by more than 50% over the past four decades after examining 185 studies involving close to 45,000 healthy men.
Dr. Swan believes that the rapidly decreasing fertility rate means that most men will be unable to produce viable sperm by 2045.
A South African pastor who was called out for sitting on people’s faces and farting on them as a blessed healing ritual, has defended himself.
The Pastor from Giyani, Limpopo gained viral attention after his photo made rounds on social media. In the viral photos shared online, Pastor Christ Penelope of Seven Fold Holy Spirit Ministries was seen sitting on his congregants’ faces and allegedly farting on them.
It was learnt that some of the congregants line up for the “sacred fart”, with some believing that they will be rich after the ritual. It was also alleged that some wait for up to two months to make the list.
Pastor Penelope however defended himself by saying that his unique style of healing was copied from Jesus. The cleric who denied farting on his members, further said in an interview with Drum that he’s demonstrating God’s power.
He said;
It started with Master Jesus when he stepped on Peter. It is the demonstration of God’s power. Just like God made Adam go into a deep sleep – it is a similar thing. God did anything with the body of Adam while he was on the ground in deep sleep. He was not feeling anything.
When someone is in a deep sleep you can do anything with the body “you can even drive a car over it or stand on them. It is God. The Bible doesn’t say anything about Adam saying, “God, you are hurting me.”
Pastor Penelope also disclosed that his congregants feel nothing when they are pinned on the ground. He added that the criticism he has faced doesn’t worry him because when he stands on congregants it shows the power of God.
He added;
When they wake up from the deep sleep, they will tell you that they didn’t feel anything. It is showing the power of God and those who needed healing are healed afterwards and others get to manifest at that moment.
It doesn’t even bring hurt to me when people speak lies about you. Remember when people try to tarnish your image, that is when He shows his glory.
As long as souls are won into the kingdom. He who sits on the throne laughs at his enemies.
It’s not the first time he has been in the news. A couple of years ago he made headlines for anointing his congregation with condom oil and claiming the Holy Spirit had instructed him to let the congregants eat tetrapodophis, which is an extinct four-legged snake.
He had also revealed that he is the spiritual son of another controversial church leader Professor Lesego Daniel of Rabboni Centre Ministries. Lesego Daniel made his church members drink petrol and eat grass and millipedes.
Lingerie model, Ruby Mae flipped a middle finger as soon as it was revealed that her ex-boyfriend and footballer Dele Alli is seeking new love on a celeb dating app after she dumped him.
The 24-year-old Tottenham midfielder was left ‘gutted’ after his girlfriend of five-years, 25, ended their relationship, prompting his decision to join celebrity dating app, Raya used by the likes of Cara Delevingne, Adele, and Ben Affleck.
On Alli’s relationship status, a pal said: “Dele’s still gutted about the break-up with Ruby but knows he’s got to look to the future.
“His pride was dented but now he is open about starting a relationship with the right person.”
Dele’s profile on the dating app features an image of himself in a smart navy suit and grey tie while sipping on a beverage.
After the news surfaced on Monday, March 22, that Dele Alli had joined the exclusive platform, Ruby shared hot Instagram photos of herself posing in a bikini and bucket hat and then gave a middle finger for the camera.
A male teacher, Alexander Price, 43, has been sacked after comparing schoolgirls to ‘prostitutes’ and ‘Kardashian clones’ on his secret gossip blog.
Price who teaches at Denbigh High School in north Wales had a blog that he operated anonymously called ‘The Provoked Pedagogue’ where he documented his thoughts like a diary.
In one article titled ‘The Problem With Prom’, Price called the event ‘a shallow, vacuous affair, about nothing more than who has spent the most on looking nice’.
He said the girls would spend ‘nine out of 12 months’ planning for prom when they should be learning.
Price, who teaches Design and technology, then shockingly said girls who went to prom ended up looking like a cross between ‘Eastern European prostitutes and trans-human Kardashian clones’.
He added: ‘The prom means more to them than GCSE results, the pressure builds and builds and when they should be studying they are on ASOS. ‘Young girls in school fresh-faced or pimpled are plastered in make-up because they feel pressure from all angles, often including the school.
‘Parents getting paid alone to pay for hair extensions and lip pumping, botox for some and dermal peels for others – make-up so thick that when it cracks it rivals tectonic plates.
‘Then there’s the fake tan: ludicrous shades and colours that defy even the unlimited variations provided by the human gene.’
Parents got to find out he was the owner of the blog and reported him to the school authorities who formed a panel to investigate the allegations.
The panel ruled the posts were ‘inappropriate’ and ‘offensive’ and found he had committed unacceptable professional conduct.
Panel chair Steve Powell said the comments ‘were disrespectful’ and were likely to cause offence to any pupil or parent who came across them.
The school has now sacked the teacher .
Powell added: ‘It was particularly concerning that a focus on these comments and the article as a whole was on families from poor backgrounds in an unnecessary and unwarranted way.’
Price, in reaction to the panel’s decision, admitted writing the blogs but denied they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.
He said the panel had not taken the blogs in the proper context.
Libyan Army on Sunday, March 21, raided human smuggling dens in Nessma town, south of Bani Walid, arrested 16 smugglers and freed 85 African migrants held in captivity.
Brigade 444 said its forces had neutralized the hideouts which is about 200km from Tripoli and arrested the smugglers whom it said were criminals wanted by the authorities but had never been apprehended.
The brigade added on Facebook that during the delicate “combat operation”, its forces had freed 85 African abductees, in addition to ending the smugglers’ kidnap, looting, and banditry in the area that were burdening the residents for a long time, seizing weapons and vehicles they were using.
“Our forces are still working on ending such crimes in order to exact justice and reach every criminal hideout in the country.” The brigade said.
The suspect in the King Soopers shooting in Boulder, Colorado, has been identified as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa of Arvada.
He has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, Boulder Police Chief Maris Harold said at a press conference on Tuesday, March 23.
The 21-year-old stormed the supermarket at about 14:30 local time began firing at shoppers. He also got involved in a gunfight with police and fired multiple rounds at them through at least 3:21 p.m. local time.
Alissa, who was shot in the leg, was in stable condition at an area hospital and was expected to be released later on Tuesday, officials said.
Police did not provide a motive but did identify the names of the 10 victims of the shooting, who range in age from 20 to 65 (Denny Strong, 20, Nevin Stanisic, 23, Rikki Olds, 25, Tralona Bartkowiak, 49, Suzanne Fountain, 59, Teri Leiker, 51, Officer Eric Talley, 51, Kevin Mahoney, 61, Lynn Murray, 62, Jody Waters, 65).
Boulder police officer, Eric Talley, was among the 10 victims killed in the shooting.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Talley, who was the first officer on the scene, “died heroically.”
“He died charging into the line of fire to save people who were simply trying to live their lives and go food shopping,” he said. “And the man who gunned them down will be held fully responsible.”
“I want to say to the community, I am so sorry this incident happened,” Chief Herold said, “and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure this suspect has a thorough trial and we do a thorough investigation.”
Bobby Brown.Jr’s cause of death has been confirmed by the Los Angeles County Coroner.
According to an autopsy report, the son of singer Bobby Brown died from the “combined effects of alcohol, cocaine, and fentanyl.” The manner of death is described as accidental.
Brown Jr. was found dead at 28 in his California home on Nov. 18 2020. His girlfriend, who had last seen him alive that morning, found him unresponsive on his bedroom floor of their Los Angeles area home at approximately 1:45 p.m and called paramedics, who declared him dead, the report states.
While officials did not find drugs or drug paraphernalia at the scene, Bobby Jr. is listed as having a “medical history of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use.”
The evening before he was found unresponsive, the investigative report states Brown Jr. consumed tequila with friends, and “snorted” Percocet along with three lines of cocaine.
Brown Jr. was one of two children from the 11-year on-and-off relationship between Brown and Kim Ward, which ended in 1991. Brown Jr. was following in his father’s footsteps with a music career.
In 2012, Bobby Brown’s ex-wife, Whitney Houston, was found dead after drowning in a Beverly Hills hotel room bathtub. Coroner’s officials said heart disease and cocaine were contributing factors. She was 48.
Three years later, Brown and Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was found facedown and unconscious in the bathtub of her Georgia home on Jan. 31, 2015. She died at age 22 in July 2015 in an Atlanta-area hospice. She was buried next to her mother in a New Jersey cemetery.
Her family blamed her ex-fiance, Nick Gordon, who was never charged in the case. Gordon was found responsible in a wrongful death civil lawsuit and ordered to pay $36 million to Bobbi Kristina’s estate. He died at age 30 on Jan. 1, 2020, of heroin overdose.
Big Brother Naija’s Dorothy Bachor has reacted after photos of a bride who looks so much like her began trending, with people saying the reality star married secretly.
Dorothy was bombarded with photos of the lookalike bride with her groom, as followers tagged her.
One follower asked: “Is that you Dorothy?”
And Dorothy responded: “No boo, y’all stop tagging me.”
Yobe state governor and chairman of the Caretaker Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Mai Mala Buni, has said that the party’s vision is to stay in power for another 32 years.
Buni said this when he spoke at the inauguration of the Governor Badru Abubakar 65-man Strategy and Contact Committee of the party in Abuja on Tuesday March 23.
In his words, the party’s vision is to go beyond the 8th term which is 32 years.
”Our vision is to provide a wheel that will drive the party to go beyond 6th, 7th and even 8th term of office to effectively implement the party manifesto, improve the lives of Nigerians and, to remain Nigeria’s leading political party.
This committee is therefore very key to our process of transition towards successful congresses and national convention and, to establish a very solid, reputable and reliable future for the party”
There is currently crisis in Australia’s political scene after videos emerged showing staff members performing sex acts in the country’s parliament, leading to one senior aide being fired.
One of the videos showed the senior aide performing a sex act on a female lawmaker’s desk.
The videos were leaked to Australian media by a whistleblower who is a former government staff member.
According to the whistleblower, he had become “immune” to the footages because of the volume of footages he received.
He said the footages were filmed in 2019 and also claimed that officials had used the prayer room to have sex and even brought sex workers into parliament.
The whistleblower described some of his colleagues as a “culture of men thinking that they can do whatever they want, “morally… bankrupt”.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the videos as “disgraceful” and said his government will carry out investigation.
The parliament sex scancal comes after a former staff member, Brittany Higgins revealed how she feared losing her job following an alleged sexual assault.
Higgins alleges she was raped by senior colleague in an office in March 2019, but says she felt pressured not to report the incident to police.
Also last week, thousands took part in marches to protest against the sexual abuse and harassment of women in Australia.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, March 23, Prime Minister Scott said he was “shocked”, adding:
“We must get this house in order. We must put the politics aside on these things, and we must recognise this problem, acknowledge it, and we must fix it.”
Ms Higgins’ allegations have increased the spotlight on sexual assault and sexism in Australian politics.
Days after she went public with her story, Attorney General Christian Porter revealed he was the subject of a 1988 rape allegation but police closed the investigation because of a lack of evidence as he denies the allegation.
Watch the prime minister react to the videos below.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison described report of lewd behavior by male government staff in Parliament House as ‘disgusting’ and said he would speak with all government staff members to remind them of their responsibilities https://t.co/x8BsaE6J3Lpic.twitter.com/PUgOHJL7Pc
Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu has fired back at his colleague, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe over comments he made about him.
Abaribe was the deputy governor when Kalu governed Abia in 1999 but he was impeached before the end of Kalu’s first term.
The Senator representing Abia South had alleged in his book titled “Made in Aba”, that he was impeached because he failed to join the league of “Egusi peelers that thronged Kalu’s mother’s abode for whatever reason”.
He said;
“I lasted exactly three years and nine months in office, before I threw in the towel. The bumpy ride ended on 7th March, 2003, when I finally resigned and switched parties.
“The one tenure was characterised by three attempts at impeachment. The one thread that runs through them all is that government can make no error.”
Also speaking in the buildup to Saturday’s bye-election in Aba North and Aba South Federal Constituency, Abaribe said Kalu who has been campaigning for his younger brother who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election, is yet to recover from Kuje prison experience and may find it difficult to understand the new changes in Abia.
Reacting to this, Kalu stated that he picked Abaribe from the gutter and he is little-minded to think he is ashamed of his prison experience.
He said;
“ I picked Abaribe from the gutter. My conspirators thought I would be President in 2023, so they decided to cut my journey short at all cost. Abaribe continued to supply petitions. But you see, these people are not God.
“They think I am ashamed to have gone to prison. I am not and I don’t blame them because they don’t know my relationship with God… Joseph went to Prison, even Obasanjo went to prison. My going to prison is part of my life script and I am thankful God allowed it.
“They are little minds and wicked people who have refused to do any project for their own people. They have kept a centre table for you and called it bridge.
“You can’t even pay common salaries and you are here swearing to God, ‘na me build this road’. The only road the state is constructing is the 600 meters road in Eziukwu which they have been building in the last six years; that’s one year 100 meters.
“Compare my village and these people’s village and you will see how shameless they are. If you can’t build your own village, is it my own you will build?”
CNN’s Chris Cuomo continues to lose viewership on his show ‘Cuomo Prime Time’ as his embattled brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., faces multiple scandals and bipartisan calls for his resignation.
“Cuomo Prime Time” one of CNN’s hit shows, had its smallest average audience last week since the coronavirus pandemic started to dominate the news cycle across the United States.
According to the NY Post, the show averaged 1.31 million viewers during the week of March 15, the show’s smallest total since it averaged 1.3 million viewers during the week of March 2, 2020 – days before the coronavirus lockdown started in the US.
“Cuomo Prime Time” finished 2020 with a yearly average of 1.8 million viewers, making it CNN’s most-watched program.
However, the CNN show has dropped roughly half a million nightly viewers since then.
“Cuomo Prime Time” also struggled among the key demographic of adults age 25-to-54, averaging only 307,000 viewers for its worst performance since the week of Feb. 24, 2020, which is a very important statistic. As that is the group most coveted by advertisers.
Cuomo has refused to cover his big brother’s scandals on his show and the show’s downfall could be impacting other CNN programs, too, as CNN failed to surpass Fox News among total viewers during any specific hour of the day from 6 a.m. to midnight through out last week Monday to Friday.
Last week Fox News doubled CNN’s primetime viewership and had a double-digit percent advantage over CNN among total day viewers.
This means, CNN had it’s lowest rated weekday audience among both total day and primetime viewers since the week of Feb. 24, 2020.
CNN announced last month that Chris Cuomo would no longer be allowed to cover his troubled senior brother.
The network giants said the rule had been in place since 2013 but an “exception” was made during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Andrew Cuomo despite being accused by several women of sexual assault and misconduct has vowed he doesn’t plan on stepping down.
“I am not going to resign, I was not elected by the politicians, I was elected by the people,” he said on March 12.
Footballer, Mikel John Obi, has spoken out about how manager Antonio Conte ended his career at Chelsea because he chose to represent Nigeria at the 2016 Olympics.
Mikel Obi, who stayed at Chelsea for 11 years after arriving as a teenager in 2005, says he had the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the 2016 Rio Olympics but was warned by Conte who had just arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2016, that he would not be part of his plans if he decides to represent Nigeria at the Olympics.
Mikel, said he snubbed Conte’s threats and went to the Rio Olympics, helping Nigeria win a bronze medal and in the process, permanently damaging his relationship with the Italian coach.
“I had been called up by my national team to play and it was a dream,” Mikel, 33, told The Athletic.
“It’s a dream for anyone to go to the Olympics. Yes, as players we want to win the Champions League and the World Cup, but the Olympics is a massive tournament.”
“This guy [Conte] who has just walked in the door for five minutes is telling me I had to choose.
“He was saying, ‘If you do that, you won’t be a part of this team’. I spoke to the club and told them that I wanted to go. The club respected me because of what I had done for them and how long I’d been there.
“So off I went and I felt punished for that. I came back and I didn’t make the squad. I was never in the squad list on matchdays again.
“The funny thing is, just before the January window was going to start, he came up to me and said ‘I want a meeting with you’. This was after making me train on my own for months, treating a player who had been at Chelsea for a long time like this!
“When he tried to meet with me he was like, ‘Let’s try and make up, I will need you in the team, let’s squash this, blah, blah, blah!’. I was like, ‘Are you joking?! Are you f*cking serious?!’ He knew I wanted out. I stood up and walked out of the room. You can’t disrespect a human being like that.
“I couldn’t wait for the window to open to get out. I was talking to the hierarchy and explaining that I would definitely have to go. They agreed, they understood.”
After the bust up, Mikel within months went to China on a free transfer joining Tianjin Teda.
He spent two seasons with the club before returning to England with Middlesbrough. He then joined Turkish outfit Trabzonspor in 2019 but left months later after being forced to play football despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mikel then signed a one year deal with Stoke City in August 2020 and has been a key figure for the club, starting 28 games in the Championship.
The Federal Government has raised an alarm of an alleged racketeering of COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Abdullazzi Abdullahi who disclosed this at the joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, alleged that some people are selling their vaccination slots.
Abdullahi noted that everyone will be vaccinated and also averred that testing rates will be sustained to ensure that positive cases are identified, isolated and treated.
He said;
“Everyone will be vaccinated free and everyone will eventually be vaccinated. There is no need to pay to be vaccinated.
“We are sustaining distribution of available commodities, PPEs and consumables to ensure availability at all times for end users at treatment centres.”
Good and bad reasons to disable comments in WordPress
Why Disable Comments in WordPress?
Many small business owners use WordPress to create their website. These business websites often doesn’t have a blog section and mostly has static pages like services, about us, contact, etc. In such cases, it doesn’t make sense to allow comments at all.
In other cases, bloggers may publish certain posts like announcements that they don’t want to allow comments to trolls. In these cases, you can easily disable comments on those specific posts or pages.
The other scenario is some business blogs choose to disable comments entirely to prevent spam. Although you can always use spam protection techniques (which we’ll share later in this article), disabling the comment section will definitely solve the problem.
Whatever your reason may be, you can certainly disable comments and even remove the comment section from your WordPress site.
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll learn in this article:
Disable Comments on Future Posts
Disable Comments on a Specific Page or Post
Disable Comments on Pages and Posts in Bulk
Delete All WordPress Comments
Disable Comments on Media
Disable WordPress Comments Sitewide using a Plugin
Remove “Comments are closed” in WordPress
Spam Protection Techniques
Disable comments in WordPress using standard dashboard settings
By default, WordPress enables comments on all posts, and disables comments on all pages. You can change this to disable / enable comments completely (site wide), or selectively on some posts and pages. You can also regulate comments in many ways using the options in the Settings page.
The place to start managing comments is Settings > Discussion in your WordPress Dashboard.
1. To stop comments on all future posts (and pages):
Uncheck the option “allow people to post comments on articles”. You can also disable pingbacks and trackbacks here. This will stop comments and pings entirely on all future posts on your site. (Pages are disabled by default).
If you wish to allow comments on individual posts or articles, you can do so by changing the settings under Discussions in the individual post or page. (More on that below).
2. To stop all comments on all published posts (or pages):
Simply disallowing comments as mentioned above will not stop the flow of comments on existing posts and pages. To trash all comments on all existing posts visit your Dashboard > Comments.
Here, you can select the comments you want gone, click Bulk Actions, select “Move to Trash”, and then click the Apply button.
3. To stop comments on selected posts (or pages) in bulk:
This time let’s go to the All Posts section. Select all the posts for which you wish to delete comments. Then click on Bulk Actions > Edit > Apply. A new option Bulk Edit will open up where you can choose the Do Not Allow option for comments.
You’ll be restricted to selecting from 20 posts at a time because that’s the default setting for display of posts in the All Posts screen. To display a greater number on each screen, make changes under Screen Options.
4. To stop comments on existing posts individually:
Select the specific post from All Posts and click Edit Post. Below the writing area, you’ll see a heading Discussion. If you cannot see this option, enable “Discussion” under “Screen Options”. In the Discussion box, uncheck “Allow comments”.
You can also achieve the same result by opting to Quick Edit individual posts.
5. To disable comments on media files:
We’re still not done, as the posts may continue to receive comments on the media files.
When you upload an image to your post, an attachment file is created. This file will continue to receive comments, even if you’ve disabled them on the corresponding post. To disable comments in WordPress for those attachments, visit Media Library, select the media file and click on Edit.
You’ll find a “Discussion” box similar to to the one in the text editor for posts, and you can disable comments there.
It’s not possible to do a bulk edit for media files using settings in WordPress, but you can do this by adding some code to your theme file.
6. Besides disabling comments altogether, you can also get more control over comments by adjusting things in the Settings > Discussion panel. Let’s have a quick look through the options available:
Requiring moderator to approve the comment before it is published: This not only catches bots and spam, but also helps to prevent a comment from appearing right away on the frontend of your site. It will appear on your dashboard in the comments queue where you’ll have to deal with it.
Blacklisting IP addresses, usernames or emails: blacklist known offenders, and even a partial match to the list will be blocked. You can also add a bit of code to .htaccess to block known malicious IPs.
Requiring the user to register: Can bring down both spam and the volume of comments.
Approving comment authors: Save time by approving comment authors. Subsequent comments will pass through easily.
Closing comments on older articles: Specify the number of days after which comments will be stopped. Spammers generally target older posts, so closing comments will cut down on spam.
Limiting links: This can thwart spammers who like to leave as many links as possible with their comment.
Be notified when you receive comments: If you keep yourself abreast with new comments, you can act swiftly on unwanted ones.
Disable Comments on a Specific Page or Post
By default, comments are turned off on all your pages.
However, WordPress gives you the freedom to enable or disable comments on individual pages and posts.
Simply head over to Pages » All Pages from the left sidebar. On the next page, you need to hover your mouse cursor over the title of a page that you want enable or disable comments and click the Edit link.
On the top-right corner of your page, you’ll see the 3 vertical dots icon. You need to click on it to open a dropdown menu and then click on Options.
This will open a popup box, and you need to make sure the Discussion box is enabled here.
Once you close this modal box, you’ll see the Discussion meta box on the right side of your editor. If you don’t see it, then please make sure that you click on the Document tab to view it.
Now, you can uncheck the Allow Comments box to disable comments on this page and click on Update to save the changes.
On the other hand, if you want to selectively enable comments, then you can just check the box to enable it for certain pages.
You can follow the same process for turning off comments on individual posts or other custom post types.
Disable Comments on Pages and Posts in Bulk
Want to disable comments on all your published posts and pages without doing it individually? You can do that without the use of a plugin.
First of all, go to Posts » All Posts to see all your articles.
Next, select all the posts, choose Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown box, and click on Apply.
You’ll now be able to perform bulk actions including changing the author name and turning off comments for all the selected posts.
Select Do not allow from the comments dropdown box and click on Update. This will disable comments on all your selected posts.
You can follow the same process to turn off comments on your pages.
Plugin solutions for disabling comments
Setting the manual WordPress settings aside, you can also use plugins to make the job easier and give you a more “managed” control over comments, so to speak. Here’s the main player in this realm:
If you don’t want to disable comments manually, then you can use the Disable Comments plugin to do it with just a click.
It allows you to completely disable comments everywhere on your WordPress site. You can also disable them on specific post types like posts, pages, media, and others. It also removes the comment form and stops displaying existing comments.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Disable Comments plugin.
After activating the plugin, head over to Settings » Disable Comments from the left sidebar of your admin panel.
Selecting the first option allows you to disable comments on your WordPress site. The plugin will also remove the comments menu item from your WordPress admin area.
Using the second option, you can selectively disable comments on your posts, pages, or media.
If you want to remove comments only from the media attachments, then you can select On certain post types radio button and then check the Media checkbox.
You can do the same if you only want to turn off comments on WordPress pages. Using the plugin is the easiest way to disable comments on WordPress pages.
When you’re done, simply click on the Save Changes to complete the process.
Remove “Comments Are Closed” in WordPress
If your WordPress theme is not checking the comment status properly, then it may still display the comment form, existing comments, or even show the “Comments are closed” message.
You can ask your theme developer to fix this because this is not a standard compliant approach.
Alternatively, you can also try fixing it yourself by following the instructions below.
First, connect to your WordPress site using FTP Client or the File Manager in your WordPress hosting control panel. Now navigate to your current theme folder which will be located in /wp-content/themes/ folder.
In your theme folder, you need to locate the file comments.php, right-click on that file, and rename it to comments_old.php.
Next, you need to right-click in the right panel of your FTP client and select Create new file option. And then, name your new file as comments.php and click the OK button.
This trick simply serves an empty comments template to your WordPress theme, so no comments or comment related messages will be shown.
If your WordPress theme does not have the comments.php file, then you need to ask your theme developer which file you need to edit.
The Ondo State Security Network Agency otherwise known as Amotekun Corps, have seized one hundred cows after its owners flouted the open grazing law of the State.
Commander of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo State, Adetunji Adeleye said the cows were seized after Amotekun operatives responded to a distress call of cows blocking the Ilesa-Akure expressway.
Adeleye said the herdsmen took to their heels upon sighting the operatives of the Amotekun Corps, abandoning their cows. He added that it took his men about 30 kilometres walk to control the cows to the corps’ headquarters in Akure, the State capital.
He said;
“Our men controlled the cows to the headquarters of our office which was about 30 kilometers from the point they were intercepted.
“We should take note that our men are in all the 18 local government areas and we are on 24 hours patrol. We arrived at the scene promptly.”
The Amotekun Commander also alleged that some kidnappers use illegal cattle grazing as a ploy to waylay and kidnap innocent residents of the state.
The 90-year-old motorsport mogul took aim at the politicisation of the sport and also said he would have ban Formula One drivers from taking a knee before races and would stop them from wearing anti-racism t-shirts on the podium if he were still in charge.
Recall Hamilton spoke out against racism issues within F1 in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States last year.
The 36-year-old British racer knelt before races to show his solidarity with the Black Lives Matter and wore the anti-racism movement’s T-shirts on the podium as he won his seventh world title triumph.
In a wide-ranging interview with Telegraph ahead of the start of the 2021 F1 season, Ecclestone said: ‘I’ve said to his father, “Lewis needs to be careful”. Because he’s being used by the people who are supporting this Black Lives Matter and they are taking a lot of money from it. And nobody knows where it goes.’
‘If I’d still been around there wouldn’t have been anyone wearing [anti-racism] t-shirts on the podium, that’s for sure.
‘One hundred per cent, there wouldn’t have been this business of kneeling before races.’
Last year, Hamilton branded Ecclestone “ignorant and uneducated” after the business magnate said he was “surprised” to hear that the driver had been affected by racism within the sport.
Ecclestone also hit back at Hamilton’s criticism, claiming the Mercedes star had misunderstood him.
He said: “I agree we need to give more people a chance. Don’t forget I was the first person to put a black guy in a Formula 1 car. And I supported him and have supported an awful lot of black people. But Lewis is entitled to his view.
“But I’ve said to his father, ‘Lewis needs to be careful’. Because he’s being used by the people who are supporting this Black Lives Matter and they are taking a lot of money from it. And nobody knows where it goes.”
Former Formula 1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone has claimed Lewis Hamilton is “being used by the Black Lives Matter movement” over the Formula One star’s anti-racism stance.
The 90-year-old motorsport mogul took aim at the politicisation of the sport and also said he would have ban Formula One drivers from taking a knee before races and would stop them from wearing anti-racism t-shirts on the podium if he were still in charge.
Recall Hamilton spoke out against racism issues within F1 in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States last year.
The 36-year-old British racer knelt before races to show his solidarity with the Black Lives Matter and wore the anti-racism movement’s T-shirts on the podium as he won his seventh world title triumph.
In a wide-ranging interview with Telegraph ahead of the start of the 2021 F1 season, Ecclestone said: ‘I’ve said to his father, “Lewis needs to be careful”. Because he’s being used by the people who are supporting this Black Lives Matter and they are taking a lot of money from it. And nobody knows where it goes.’
‘If I’d still been around there wouldn’t have been anyone wearing [anti-racism] t-shirts on the podium, that’s for sure.
‘One hundred per cent, there wouldn’t have been this business of kneeling before races.’
Last year, Hamilton branded Ecclestone “ignorant and uneducated” after the business magnate said he was “surprised” to hear that the driver had been affected by racism within the sport.
Ecclestone also hit back at Hamilton’s criticism, claiming the Mercedes star had misunderstood him.
He said: “I agree we need to give more people a chance. Don’t forget I was the first person to put a black guy in a Formula 1 car. And I supported him and have supported an awful lot of black people. But Lewis is entitled to his view.
“But I’ve said to his father, ‘Lewis needs to be careful’. Because he’s being used by the people who are supporting this Black Lives Matter and they are taking a lot of money from it. And nobody knows where it goes.”
Chelsea billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich has launched legal action claiming he was defamed in a book titled ‘Putin’s People’ which was released last year.
The book was written by author Caterine Belton and contains a number of claims about Abramovich and others close to Russia president Vladimir Putin.
In the book it was alleged that Abramovic bought Chelsea in 2003 under the special orders of Putin, and wanted to use the club as a conduit to increase Russian influence in the UK
Abramovic has now released a statement using the club’s official website, saying the book published by HarperCollins contains “a number of false and defamatory claims made” that have damaged his reputation and that of the club.
He also pointed out that he bought the club purely for sporting reasons and that the huge difference in success after he bought the club from Ken Bates in 2003 can clearly be seen by all.
Abramovich’s statement, reads: “Today my legal representatives have issued legal proceedings in England in relation to a book that was published in the UK. The book contains a number of false and defamatory statements about me, including about my purchase, and the activities, of Chelsea Football Club.
“Today’s action was not taken lightly. It has never been my ambition to gain a public profile and I have always been reluctant to provide commentary on any matters, including any false or misleading statements about me or Chelsea Football Club.
“However, it has become clear that the false allegations in this book are having a damaging effect, not only on my personal reputation, but also in respect of the activities of Chelsea Football Club.
“My objective has been to avoid a legal case and my legal team has engaged with the publishers to try to find an amicable resolution. We have provided them with detailed information addressing the various false allegations about me in the book, including the repetition of allegations that have already been held to be false in the English High Court during previous legal proceedings.
“Unfortunately, these engagements were not successful, and the publisher has not corrected the false statements in the book.
“On the subject of Chelsea Football Club. In contrast to the portrayal in the book, my ambition with Chelsea has always been to create world class teams on the pitch and to ensure the club plays a positive role in all of its communities.
“I believe our successes and activities over the years speak for themselves, including the trophies won, expansion of the academy, development of the women’s team and the Chelsea Foundation becoming the largest charitable organisation within the Premier League.
“It is my hope that today’s action will not only refute the false allegations in regard to my own name, but also serve as a reminder of Chelsea’s positive footprint in the UK. I have every belief that the courts will give me a fair hearing, as they have in the past.”
Prior to Abramovich buying Chelsea in 2003, Chelsea’s only previous league title came in 1955.
Since 2003, the Blues have won the Premier League on five occasions and also won the Champions League in 2012.
A glamorous model claims she was offered £52,000 to seduce tennis star, Novak Djokovic, and film it.
Serbian influencer Natalija Scekic says the plan was apparently to destroy the star’s marriage and career.
She said she was approached to seduce the tennis ace and film the encounter, with the intention of spreading the images online.
Serbian star Djokovic became the longest-serving world number one earlier this month, dethroning Swiss star Roger Federer.
After staying 311 weeks as the leader of the ATP men’s ranking, 18-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic decided to throw a party to celebrate.
The party is where the seduction was supposed to take place.
Natalija said she was approached by someone she knew in London who she considered a “serious guy”.
Speaking to the magazine Svet and Scandal, she said a man was hired in the UK to take care of the scam.
She said: “It is true that a guy contacted me. I know him from the city (London) and I considered him a serious guy.
“When he asked me to meet him, I thought it was for a business matter. I am familiar with their work and thought they were good.
“However, as the conversation progressed, I realised it had nothing to do with my life.
“I thought there was a hidden camera somewhere when he told me I had to seduce Novak and record it, but not to worry about that because he was already taking care of it.”
She says she was told she could get about EUR 60,000 (£52,000) for “doing that as well as a trip wherever I wanted”.
The model said: “I laughed, expecting him to say it was all a joke, but the man was serious. I felt offended and humiliated.”
She said she turned him down and wanted to throw a drink in his face.
Natalija continued: “At that moment I thought about hitting him, throwing water over him, but I stopped myself because we were in a public place.
“I grabbed my things and left. I hope he didn’t find a woman who wanted to do that because it is not fair to Novak.
“He is our best ambassador, an exemplary man, a family man.
“For someone to seduce him like that for money, or at least try to…”
Djokovic has been married to his high school sweetheart Jelena Ristic since July 2014. They have two children together.
