Uchestanley blog

REDS Coach Jurgen Klopp is not only anticipating the clash against Manchester City but, also braced for the stern test Pep Guardiola’s side will offer at Anfield when both sides clash today. The Reds retook the second spot from the Citizens after see- ing off Mark Hughes’ Potters at home in midweek and are now primed to cement their second spot against the visitors as both sides continue to chase table topping Chelsea. An excited Jurgen Klopp was caught on the sidelines celebrat- ing the Reds’ emphatic win over Stoke last time out as the Merseyside outfit kept the EPL dream alive at Anfield. Having watched Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and today’s opponent secure wins in their respective fixtures on boxing day, the Kops and their German coach knew a win against Stoke was non- negotiable in order to keep the momentum going at the EPL summit. And against Gaurdiola’s side today, Klopp is ready to continue the streak. City has alw...

As igp relocates to state capital, ahead of new year By ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Lagos, NOAH EBIJE, SOLA OJO and ABDULLAHI HASSAN, Kaduna After the 2011 post- election violence that rocked some states in the northern part of the country, with Kaduna State, as the major casualty, as it lost over 800 persons, out of the about 1,000 that died in the entire country, villages and towns in the Southern Kaduna part of the state have continued to witness incessant attacks by faceless groups, from then, till date. Curiously, the dimension of the attacks is making it difficult for both the people of the area and the security operatives, in and around the state, to define the attacks or identify its causes. When, therefore, a 24 -hour curfew was imposed in four of the councils in the southern part of the state, shortly before Christmas, residents had heaved a sigh relief. But little did they know that respite for them, was far from being in sight, as one of the communities in th...

video of Drake and Jennifer Lopez kissing and grinding on December 29, 2016, has emerged. The duo were present at a winter wonderland prom last night and they appeared super cozy with each other. Jennifer can be seen leaning in for a kiss as she dances with the ' Hotline Bling ' star. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, December 27, 2016, they fuelled romance rumours after posting a pretty intimate photo of them all snuggled up on a couch, looking like a pair of lovebirds. The photo shows Drake's arms wrapped tightly around her while Lopez lies on his lap with her eyes closed. Recall that JLo and Drake sparked rumours of a romance earlier this month when he attended two of her Las Vegas " All I Have" shows, and also invited her to a private dinner party at West Hollywood’s Delilah’s on Monday, December 19, 2016. Although they’ve made no official confirmation, but their latest Instagram photo tells a lot is going on between this two. They certainly look...

A code connected to Russian hacking efforts has been discovered in a utility system in Vermont, which could point to vulnerabilities in the US electrical grid, The Washington Post reported Friday. The code detected in the northeastern state's system did not disrupt its operations, the paper cited US officials as saying. The code was associated with the Russian hacking efforts that US officials have dubbed "Grizzly Steppe." The Burlington Electric Department said it had been alerted by the government Thursday night, carried out a scan and found the malware in one laptop not connected to its grid systems. It said it took action to isolate that laptop. US authorities have not yet pinpointed why the Russians targeted the grid, according to the Post, but that it "may have been designed to disrupt the utility's operations or as a test by the Russians to see whether they could penetrate a portion of the grid." In December 2015, a power failure ...

French companies will be required to guarantee a "right to disconnect" to their employees from Sunday as the country seeks to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking. From January 1, a new employment law will enter into force that obliges organisations with more than 50 workers to start negotiations to define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones. Overuse of digital devices has been blamed for everything from burnout to sleeplessness as well as relationship problems, with many employees uncertain of when they can switch off. The French measure is intended to tackle the so-called "always-on" work culture that has led to a surge in usually unpaid overtime -- while also giving employees flexibility to work from outside the office. "There's a real expectation that companies will seize on the 'right to disconnect' as a protective measure," said Xavier Zunigo , a French workplace exp...

Mexicans are bracing to kickstart the New Year on a sour note, with protests planned against the government's huge hike in gasoline prices. President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised that fuel prices will fall thanks to his landmark 2014 energy reform, which ended a seven-decade-old monopoly held by the state-run firm Pemex. The government plans to end subsidies and let the market dictate prices in March, but Mexicans will feel the pinch at the pump before they start falling. The finance ministry announced Tuesday that the price of gasoline would increase by as much as 20.1 percent to 0.88 dollars per liter on January 1, while diesel would rise by 16.5 percent to 0.83 dollars. The price ceiling will be adjusted daily from February 18, before letting supply and demand determine them in March. Around 100 protestors blocked a service station in the Pacific resort of Acapulco on Friday, while Jalisco authorities investigated reports that a drug gang threatened to ...

Two bombs exploded in a busy market area in central Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens, Iraqi police said. The blasts ripped through shops in the Al-Sinek area, a police colonel said, adding that at least 38 people were wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what was the deadliest attack to hit the capital since mid-October but the Islamic State jihadist group has claimed nearly all such bombings. Baghdad has been on high alert since the start on October 17 of an offensive, Iraq's largest military operation in years, to retake the northern jihadist stronghold of Mosul. The area that was targeted on Saturday is packed with wholesale markets and usually teeming with daily labourers unloading vans and wheeling carts around.

Global terror attacks have cast a pall over 2016 but Australia was on Saturday set to defy the threats and ring in the New Year with bumper crowds gathering to watch a firework extravaganza on Sydney's glittering harbour. 2016 has seen repeated bloodshed, most recently a deadly truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market, a similar incident on Bastille Day in France that killed 86, and atrocities in Turkey and the Middle East. Some 1.5 million people are packing Australia's biggest city to watch the midnight fireworks, a larger-than-usual crowd due to the weekend timing and warm weather, as the New South Wales state premier urged "business as usual". "My encouragement to everyone is to enjoy New Year's Eve... in the knowledge that police are doing everything they can to keep us safe," Premier Mike Baird said. Some 2,000 extra officers have been deployed after a man was arrested for allegedly making online threats against the celebrati...

Russia is pushing for a UN Security Council vote Saturday to support the ceasefire it helped broker in Syria, where the truce remained largely intact on its second day despite sporadic clashes. Moscow says it wants the United Nations to be involved in peace talks between Damascus and rebels in Kazakhstan in January, although the UN is negotiating its own separate peace efforts. Rebel supporter Turkey and key regime ally Russia, which brokered the truce, say the talks in the Kazakh capital Astana aim to supplement UN-backed peace efforts, rather than replace them. They want to involve regional players like Egypt , Saudi Arabia, Qatar , and Jordan. Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin voiced hope that the council would vote Saturday on the draft resolution -- which also endorses the planned talks in Kazakhstan -- "and adopt it unanimously". Diplomats however, said they did not see how a quick UN weekend vote could occur as the resolution needed to be...

A ll football lovers will agree, that 2016 has been a very eventful year in the world of football, and whether it was the EPL, Laliga, Euro Cup, Copa America, Rio Olympics, Champions league and even women's and youth tournaments, soccer fanatics were glued to their Tv sets as they watched their favorite players fight for glory on the pitch. Not surprisingly, no Nigerian player made the list, but Mikel Obi made the substitute bench for his exploits at Rio 2016, Ballon d'or winner C.Ronaldo was included for his heroics at Euro 2016 with Portugal and champions league success with Real Madrid while Jamie Vardy starts upfront in my team of the year. See the World football team of the year 2016 below, and say whether you agree or not (with reasons).. Formation : 4-3-3 Goalkeeper : David De Gea: His breathtaking saves were the major reason Man U ended in top 7 last season and also won the F.A cupand what makes his success so remarkable is the fact that he turned...

Sekem crooner MC Galaxy posted a shocking video of himself on Instagram flaunting bundles of Naira notes. Watch the video on

A member of Run DMC has filed a $50m (£40m) trademark lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Amazon and other US retailers. Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels has accused the corporate giants of "advertising, selling, manufacturing, promoting and distributing multiple products" in the group's trademarked name without his consent. The 52-year-old rapper is the founder of the 1980s hip-hop group and the owner of the band's brand name. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York by McDaniels, regarding products including glasses, hats, t-shirts, patches, wallets and other items of the DMC brand. The lawsuit alleges the retailers have "improperly profited, diluted and harmed Run DMC". The rapper says the brand has generated more than $100m (£80m) in revenue since its inception in 1981. The group is considered a hip-hop pioneer, with hits including King of Rock, It's Tricky and the Aerosmith collaboration Walk This Way. Run DMC was founde...

Hundreds of mourners have gathered at a small Polish church to bid farewell to the truck driver killed in the Berlin Christmas market attack. Lukasz Urban, 37, had been waiting to deliver steel in the German capital when his truck was hijacked by a man believed to be Tunisian Anis Amri. Amri is suspected of using the truck in the 19 December attack, which killed a total of 12 people. He was killed in a shoot-out with police in Italy days later. Mr Urban was shot on the night of the attack and his body was found in the truck's cab. Among the mourners at the church in Banie, near the border with Germany, was Poland's president Andrzej Duda, several other Polish political officials and a representative of the German embassy to Poland. A letter was also read out from Poland's Prime Minister, Beata Szydlo, describing her "great pain and sadness" at Mr Urban's death and expressing her sympathy to his family. Bishop Henryk Wejman described Mr U...

Turkish Parliamentary Commission on Friday, approved draft constitutional amendments that would introduce a new executive presidential system, giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more powers according to report. The commission’s nod after nine days of debate paves the way for a vote in parliament and is supported by lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Under the changes, the prime minister’s post will be abolished, while the president and vice president will have full executive powers. The draft proposal allows the president to be a party member. Erdogan had to nominally step aside as AKP leader after he was elected president in 2014, as the constitution designates the head of state as a non-partisan office. The number of parliamentarians will increase from 550 to 600 and general elections will be held every five years, instead of four years, the report said. It calls for ...

The Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign States of Biafra » (MASSOB) has urged US President elect, Donald Trump to come to its rescue. The group said further that Trump must save all Biafrans from the Muhammadu Buhari administration. “Biafrans are being killed and detained without cause by the Nigerian government. Biafrans have become an endangered species in Nigeria,” MASSOB Leader for Abia South Zone, Okporie Nkama said in Abia. “Now, you have been commissioned with a sacred assignment to ensure that the people are free from slavery, intimidation, mass killings and wicked policies against Biafrans by the Nigerian government. “You must rise to the occasion. Remember our non- violence strategy; we will certainly gain independence through nonviolence. Biafrans are encouraged by the support we are getting from the international community. “We urge United States President elect, Donald Trump, to come to the aid of Biafrans ...

Following the capture of Camp Zero which is the strong-hold of Boko Haram terrorists in Sambisa Forest, Abubakar Shekau has been reportedly sighted at Kala-Balge area. Shekau who is the factional leader of the terrorist group was not captured in the mop-up raid in the forest which took place on Friday, December 23. Boko Haram regrouping close to Lake Chad - source READ ALSO: Boko Haram leader Shekau surfaces in new video, denies fall of Sambisa Although the Boko Haram leader was spotted in a recent video claiming the dreaded group is still strong, the Nigerian Army has dismissed it as mere propaganda. The Punch reports that a top military source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the terrorist group was “tremendously weakened and are trying to avoid confrontation … by hiding in some obscure locations.” A member of the vigilante group involved in the fight against Boko Haram said: “They were sighted in large numbers in … the Kala-Balge area...

December 30, 2016 By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) – Britain scolded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history, a move that aligns Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with President-elect Donald Trump. After U.S. President Barack Obama enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by refusing to veto a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Kerry’s public rebuke of Israel has unsettled some allies such as Britain. Amid one of the United States’ sharpest confrontations with Israel since the 1956 Suez crisis, Kerry said in a speech that Israel jeopardizeds hopes of peace in the Middle East by building settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. While Britain voted for the UN resolution that so angered Netanyahu and says that settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, a spokesman for May said that it was clear that the ...

THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in October, 2007 threatened to widen the theatre of the conflict back then, by blowing up the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. This threat was contained in an interview by Times of Nigeria with Jomo Gbomo, the self-acclaimed leader of the militia group MEND is one of the largest militant groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The organization claims to expose exploitation and oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and devastation of the natural environment by public-private partnerships between the Federal Government of Nigeria and corporations involved in the production of oil in the Niger Delta.

Frenchman Thomas Coville has smashed the record for sailing around the world single-handed without stopping by 12 days. The 48-year-old finished in 49 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes and 38 seconds. The previous record of 57 days 13hr 34min and 6sec was set by fellow Frenchman Francis Joyon, who took it from Britain's Ellen MacArthur in 2008. Coville set off from Brest in France on 6 November and will rarely have slept for more than three hours at a time. "Mentally I had my highs and my lows but I knew where I wanted to get to," Coville, who had made five previous attempts to break Joyon's record, told Le Parisien newspaper. "Physically I could not have gone much further."

 record amount of rainfall has led to the closure of Australia's famous national park at Uluru. Waterfalls appeared all over the landmark, also known as Ayers Rock, at the heart of the park in central Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) described the massive Christmas storm as a twice-a-century weather event. Flash floods in the remote town of Kintore forced the evacuation of dozens of residents. Northern Territory police told Australia's ABC Network that up to 25 houses were flooded in the town, near the border with the state of Western Australia.

Powerful typhoon Nock-Ten is continuing to batter the Philippines, as it heads towards the area around the heavily-populated capital Manila. Civil defence officials have been put on "red alert", as the storm is due to hit the city later on Monday. The storm has weakened since making landfall on the eastern coast on Sunday, but it still packs winds up to 140 km/h (87mph), meteorologists say. The storm cut power lines and uprooted trees, but no deaths were reported. Manila's civil defence office warned that the capital could be hit by "heavy to intense rains, flash floods and severe winds".

Actress Carrie Fisher is in stable condition after suffering a cardiac arrest on Friday, her mother says. Fisher, 60, who played Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars, is in the intensive care unit of a Los Angeles hospital. She had heart problems during a flight from London to Los Angeles, and passengers attempted to revive her with CPR. Friends and colleagues have shared their  hopes for her swift recovery. Her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds,  said on Twitter:  "Carrie is in stable condition. If there is a change, we will share it. For all her fans & friends. I thank you for your prayers & good wishes."

Doctors have confirmed a diagnosis made more than 200 years ago by one of medicine's most influential surgeons. John Hunter had diagnosed a patient in 1786 with a "tumour as hard as bone". Royal Marsden Hospital doctors analysed patient samples and case notes, which were preserved at the museum named after him - the Hunterian in London. As well as confirming the diagnosis, the cancer team believe Mr Hunter's centuries-old samples may give clues as to how cancer is changing over time. "It started out as a bit of fun exploration, but we were amazed by John Hunter's insight," Dr Christina Messiou told the 

All 92 people on board a Russian military aircraft are feared dead after it crashed into the Black Sea. The plane disappeared from radar two minutes after taking off from Sochi at 05:25 (02:25 GMT), heading for Latakia in Syria, the defence ministry said. Debris and 11 bodies have been found, with no reports of survivors. The Tu-154 was carrying soldiers, reporters and 64 members of the famed Alexandrov military music ensemble who were to perform for Russian troops. More than 100 divers are involved in a round-the-clock search operation at the site of the crash, Russia's defence ministry says. Russia's transport minister says investigators are looking into an "entire spectrum'' of possible reasons the crash occurred, including the possibility of a terror attack. Earlier, a Russian official had downplayed any suggestion of a terror attack. President Vladimir Putin has said Monday will be a day of national mourning. The flight had originated in Mosco...

Global News From installing Wall Street executives in his Cabinet to avoiding news conferences, the president-elect is adopting some of the same behavior for which he criticized Clinton during their fiery presidential campaign. READ MORE: Donald Trump tabs oil exec Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State: report Here’s a look at what Trump said then – and what he’s doing now: GOLDMAN SACHS Then: “I know the guys at Goldman Sachs,” Trump said at a South Carolina rally in February, when he was locked in a fierce primary battle with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton.” Now: A number of former employees of the Wall Street bank will pay a key role in crafting Trump’s economic policy. He’s tapped Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn to lead the White House National Economic Council. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary nominee, spent 17 years working at Goldman Sachs and Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief stra...

Global News The devastating wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta in the early spring captivated much of our headlines. In May, the wildfire forced nearly 90,000 people from the area as “the beast” of a wildfire ripped through the community, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. It wasn’t until June that residents were allowed to return to Fort McMurray. In the U.S., Donald Trump shocked much of the country when voters went to the polls on Nov. 8 and elected the real estate mogul as the country’s 45th president. The refugee crisis and the Syrian conflict dominated international headlines as hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the war-torn country, many ultimately dying trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Europe. A protester uses a tennis racket to return a tear gas canister at a demonstration against the French government’s proposed labour law reforms in Nantes on June 2, 2016. Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump ...