UN Genocide Adviser Warns That Burundi Risks Civil War

Adama Dieng, UN Secretary-General Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide

There is a serious risk that if violence in Burundi isn't stopped there could be a civil war — and after that, "everything is possible," the U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide said Tuesday.

Adama Dieng told reporters he is using the occasion of the first international day to commemorate victims of genocide on Wednesday to call on Burundi's government and opposition to end the violence and negotiate a political solution to restore peace to the troubled African nation.

FOR THE RECORD: Buhari Dissociates Self From Media Muzzle Law, Says, ‘I’m Committed To Free Speech’

President Muhammadu Buhari ©Mandel Ngan (AFP)

President Muhammadu Buhari has reaffirmed the commitment of his administration to the protection of free speech in keeping with democratic tradition. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity.

The president was reacting to the widespread condemnation of a bill proposed by the Nigerian Senate that seeks to hand down heavy sanctions for comments made on the social media that are perceived to be false.

Beijing Traffic Cut, Schools Closed Due To Pollution Red Alert

A man wears a mask due to red alert for air pollution in Beijing, on December 8, 2015 ©Greg Baker (AFP)

Half of Beijing's private cars were ordered off the streets Tuesday and many construction sites and schools were closed under the Chinese capital's first-ever red alert for pollution. A grey haze descended on the city of around 21.5 million people, with levels of PM2.5 -- harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs -- at one point above 300 micrograms per cubic metre according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.

Beijing air pollution ©AFP (AFP Graphic)

The World Health Organization's recommended maximum exposure is 25.

FG Splits PIB, To Break NNPC Into Two Companies

*Senate to get first PIB this week

*To replace DPR, PPPRA with NPRC

The Federal Government has broken up the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill into different versions and is proposing splitting the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into two companies – the Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Company (NPAM) and a National Oil Company (NOC) that would be run on commercial lines and partly privatized.

According to Reuters, yesterday, the Federal Government is breaking up the PIB and is replacing it first with a law to overhaul the petroleum sector with the aim of closing loopholes that bred corruption.

It’s Rape Of Democracy, Says Sylva As INEC Stops Poll; Dickson, Sylva Divided Over Southern Ijaw Poll’s Cancellation

Bayelsa poll Results

Local Govt                     APC               PDP

Brass                            21, 755           6,516

Sagbama                      5,382            28,934

Yenagoa                       14,563          24,258

Kolokuma/ Opokuma     6,896             7,619

Ekeremor                       7,918          14,604

Ogbia                             9,106          13,051

Nembe                           6,974          10,768 

•Election cancelled in Southern Ijaw Local Govt

Another electoral logjam surfaced yesterday — courtesy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which failed to conclude a governorship election. Just as it did in Kogi State last month, the agency threw a spanner in the works, declaring Saturday’s election in Bayelsa State inconclusive.

Kenya And Ethiopia Vow To Turn Conflict-Ridden Border Into Trade Hub

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopia Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in Moyale, Marsabit County, after unveiling a plaque during the launch of the cross-border integrated programme on December 7, 2015. Photo | Phoebe Okall | Nation Media Group  

The leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia promised on Monday to create jobs, reduce poverty and foster trade in their restive borderlands, where conflict has intensified in recent years. The US$200 million project aims to create a trade and investment hub along the remote 860 km (530 mile) border where human, arms and drug trafficking are rife, the head of the United Nations in Kenya, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, said.

FOR THE RECORD: Bayelsa Election ‘Inconclusive’

Former governor Timipre Sylva and incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson (Image source: PREMIUM TIMES)

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the cancellation of election in Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa state, consequently rendering the governorship election inconclusive. Baritor Kpaghir, the resident electoral commissioner, announced the cancellation at the collation centre in Yenagoa, capital of the state.

Citing violence and irregularities, Kpaghir announced that a new date would be set for the rescheduled exercise.

Iran Swine Flu Outbreak Kills 33 In Three Weeks: State Media

The World Health Organization declared the swine flu pandemic over in August 2010 ©Sam Panthaky (AFP)

An outbreak of swine flu has left 33 people dead in two provinces of southwestern Iran in the last three weeks, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. IRNA quoted Deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayyari as saying there had been 28 deaths in Kerman province and five in Sistan-Baluchistan and warning the H1N1 virus was likely to spread to other areas including the capital Tehran.

New Ooni Of Ife Crowned In Nigeria; Gets Staff Of Office

The new Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ojaja II (BBC)

Thousands of people have attended the coronation ceremony of the new Ooni of Ife - a revered monarch in south-west Nigeria. Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, 40, was appointed in October to replace Oba Sijuwade, who died in a London clinic in July aged 85.

Dignitaries, including Nigeria's Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, attended the event in Ife, Osun state.

Nigeria: Reckless Spending Responsible For Dwindling Resources, Says NLC

Nigeria Labour Congress

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said yesterday that reckless spending by governors, through uneconomical borrowing from commercial banks, was partly responsible for states’ dwindling resources. Its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, in a statement, said the extravagant expenses which the governors were embarking upon had made it possible for them not to have resources for other activities such as payment of salaries.

Kagame Still To Decide On Third Term

Kagame of Rwanda (Image credits: AFP)

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has said he is yet to decide whether to run for a third term at the end of his reign in 2017, Reuters news agency reports.  The United States has urged the Rwandan leader, who has been in power since the end of the country's genocide in 1994, to respect the constitution and leave at the end of his current term.

Bayelsa Governorship Poll: Dickson, Sylva Know Fate Today

Former governor Timipre Sylva and incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson (Image source: PREMIUM TIMES)

Both the incumbent governor in Bayelsa State, Hon Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and his main opponent, former governor Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will today know their fate as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday disclosed that it would today declare the results of the remaining three local government areas in the state, having announced the results in five LGAs yesterday. Results from five local governments announced by INEC yesterday showed that the candidate of the PDP, Governor Seriake Dickson, was leading his APC counterpart, former governor Timipre Sylva with a margin of 25,415 votes.

Doctor And Wife To Be Sentenced After Keeping Slave For 24 Years

Emmanuel Edet and his wife Antan were found guilty in November of cruelty to a child, slavery and assisting unlawful immigration

A doctor and his wife will be sentenced today after keeping a young man as a slave for 24 years. Emmanuel Edet, 61, a trained obstetrician, and his wife Antan, 58, a senior sister at a hospital, were both found guilty in November of cruelty to a child, slavery and assisting unlawful immigration. The couple, of Perivale, north west London, will be sentenced at Harrow Crown Court at 2pm.

Burkina Faso Ex-Coup Leader Charged

Burkina Faso's coup leader general Gilbert Diendere waits on September 23, 2015 at Ouagadougou International airport to welcome six leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who are arriving to oversee the formal re-installation of interim President Michel Kafando following a coup d'etat by General Diendere.

The leader of September's short-lived coup in Burkina Faso has been charged with complicity in the 1987 murder of former President Thomas Sankara. Gen Gilbert Diendere is the most senior official to be charged in connection with the assassination.

Mr Sankara was murdered by a group of soldiers, but the exact circumstances of his death have remained a mystery.

Net Tightening On Sepp Blatter And Jerome Valcke As US FIFA Inquiry Continues

*Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke could both face arrest at some stage

*Valcke is identified as 'Co-Conspirator No 17' in an updated US Department of Justice indictment document, according to sources

*One source close to Blatter said that until recently the FIFA president was not a 'target' of the US DoJ

*Valcke and Blatter have both been linked to US$10m payment allegedly made to former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner  

Triple Suicide Attack Leaves 15 Dead, Over 130 Injured On Lake Chad Island — State TV

21 killed in Boko Haram suicide attack on Shia procession in Nigeria http://on.rt.com/6xs5 

Some 15 people have been killed and 130 others injured as four suicide bombers attacked the island of Koulfoua on the Chadian side of Lake Chad, Chad's state TV said. "The provisional death toll is 19 dead, including the four kamikazes, and 130 injured," the statement said.

Earlier reports suggested around 30 were killed in the triple suicide attack that coincided with market day.

Commuter Train Hits Passenger Bus In Indonesia; 14 Dead

Emergency rescuers evacuate bodies of victims from a collided commuter train and fuel tanker in Jakarta, Indonesia, 09 December 2013.

Police say a commuter train slammed into a passenger minibus at a railroad crossing in Indonesia's capital, killing at least 14 people and seriously injuring 10 others. Tambora neighborhood police chief Wirdhanto says the bus driver allegedly ignored the warning signals when he crossed the tracks and was rammed by the train in western Jakarta on Sunday.

Five Killed As Violence Mars Bayelsa Election; Violence, Apathy Mar Bayelsa Election

Sylva and Dickson – Bayelsa Guber Poll frontrunners (Image source: PREMIUM TIMES)

•Four journalists escape death by the whiskers
•Card reader fails to recognize Jonathan again; rejects Dickson, wife, mother

The guns boomed yesterday in Bayelsa State as voters went to the polls to elect a new governor for the next four years. Five people laid dead by the time the guns went quiet.

Four journalists covering the election were, however, lucky, having escaped death by the whiskers the previous night during an attack by hoodlums at Odioma, in the Brass Local Government Area of the state.

INEC Formally Declares Bello Kogi Gov-Elect

Yahaya Bello, Kogi State Governor-elect

Yahaya Bello, the substitute governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has formally been declared the winner of the Kogi state governorship election. In the supplementary poll on Saturday, Bello won 6,885 votes to take APC’s unassailable lead to 247,742, while the incumbent governor, Idris Wada, got 5,363 votes, taking PDP’s total to 204,877.

Emmanuel Kucha, the INEC returning officer, announced the results of the supplementary election on Saturday night, while a formal declaration was made on Sunday morning after the results were merged.

NUC Berates Varsities Over Poor Maintenance Culture

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has said that poor maintenance culture by Nigerian universities is responsible for the high percentage of non-functional and obsolete equipment in the nation’s institutions. The Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie, said this in Abuja at a seminar organized by the commission in collaboration with Eagle Scientific Limited on Science and Engineering Equipment Functionality, Procurement and Processes in Nigerian universities.