Akintunde Oluwatobiloba

  A businessman counterfeited documents he used to drain Dhs873, 000 from a housewife’s bank account. He will spend three years in the dock, a court ruled on Tuesday. The Asian defendant, 29, with the help of fugitive accomplices forged an application requesting a telecom company to shift the ownership a phone number from the victim –an Indian woman, 49- to another person. They forged her Emirates ID copy and attributed it to an identity authority. They forged a No Objection Letter and a cash transfer request attributed to her. They presented the letter to the company and request to the bank. They managed to swindle the money with the help of an accomplice who impersonated her, prosecutors explained. The defendant denied. The Dubai Criminal Court convicted and jailed him for three years plus deportation. In police and prosecution records, the woman complained that she returned from her homeland in Dec.2017 and tried to use her ATM card. She was stunned to reali...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders agreed Tuesday to work together on a $2 trillion infrastructure package — but put off for later the difficult question of how to pay for it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said there was “good will in the meeting” — a marked departure from the last meeting between Trump, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which ended with Trump walking out in a huff. Schumer said the two sides agreed that infrastructure investments create jobs and make the United States more competitive economically with the rest of the world. Most importantly, Schumer said, “we agreed on a number.” “Originally, we had started a little lower. Even the president was eager to push it up to $2 trillion, and that is a very good thing,” Schumer said. Added Pelosi: “We did come to one agreement: that the agreement would be big and bold.” Pelosi and congressional Democrats had asked for the meeting with Trump ...

Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, met with President Donald Trump on Tuesday to discuss an infrastructure plan. Schumer said the two sides had agreed to craft a $2 trillion infrastructure package to fix roads, expand broadband access to rural communities, and more. But Schumer also said the two sides di...

Cross-party talks to resolve the Brexit crisis are reaching the end, Prime Minister Theresa May’s government indicated on Tuesday, with reports suggesting she wants a conclusion by the middle of next week. Ministers held their latest talks on Monday with senior members of the main opposition Labour party. They are seeking a way through the political deadlock over how to leave the European Union, which has forced Britain to twice delay its intended exit. “There were serious and constructive discussions last night, and we will now look to hold further talks in the coming days,” May’s spokesman said. “Further talks will now be scheduled in order to bring the process toward a conclusion,” he added. No announcements are expected this week due to local elections being held on Thursday, but the spokesman said progress must be made “as soon as possible.” Reports suggest the government is aiming to decide by the middle of next week if the talks will ever succeed, or if th...

Kuwait is struggling to increase oil production capacity. To put the country on a path toward a more sustainable energy future, Kuwait needs stability between its two branches of government and continuity in the energy sector.  Kuwait is one of the world’s top 10 oil producers, with current reserves estimated at 101.5 billion barrels of crude oil. Yet its oil production is stagnating. Multiple ministerial changes at the Ministry of Oil over the past decade, an obstructionist Parliament, project delays, and runaway consumption have frustrated long-standing plans to increase production capacity. Kuwait is today an importer of liquefied natural gas and is likely to remain so for decades to come as its own gas development plans have not progressed at a pace that has matched demand growth. But things may be about to change. In December 2018, Khaled al-Fadhel was appointed Kuwait’s new oil minister, and Hashem Hashem was appointed chief executive officer of Kuwait Petr...

A priest received a standing ovation at Lyra McKee's funeral when he asked mourners why it took her death to unite political parties. Political leaders attended a vigil in Londonderry following her death, and also her funeral at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast on Wednesday. Fr Martin Magill asked: "Why in God's name does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman with her whole life in front of her to get to this point?" Ms McKee was shot dead on Thursday. The journalist had been observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry. A dissident republican paramilitary group, the New IRA, said its members killed her. Prime Minister Theresa May, President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar and other politicians were at the service.  ( Leo Varadkar, Theresa May and Michael D Higgins sat at the front of St Anne's Cathedral) ( Irish President Michael D Higgins consoles Ms McKee's partner Sara Canning) ( ...

According to Oleksandr Turchynov, facilitation of the process of issuance of Russia passports to the residents of the so-called "DNR" and "LNR" is pressure on Ukraine Putin’s decree on facilitation of the process of obtaining the Russian citizenship for the residents of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a conscious escalation of aggression against Ukraine and pressure on the authority, as Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of National Security and Defence Council, said, the press office of the establishment reported. Turchynov noted that this decree creates legal conditions for formal use of Russia’s Armed Forces against Ukraine. “This is due to the fact that Russian legislation allows the use of the Armed Forces to protect Russians outside of Russia’s territory,” he said. Turchynov hopes for the international reaction with enhanced sanctions pressure. “There is only one reaction – enhancement of our defence capacity and respective inter...

Armenia and Turkey have strained relations due to their different views on WWI history. Armenia says that around 1.2 million of its people were killed or starved to death by the Ottoman Empire during the war. Turkey has repeatedly denied accusations, claiming that the victims of the mass killings were both the Turks and Armenians. ANKARA (Sputnik) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended his condolences on Wednesday to the descendants of Armenians who were killed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and sent a letter to Aram Atesyan, the general vicar of the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, in which the president lamented the mass deaths. The Turkish leader's remarks coincide with Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which is marked annually on April 24. "I remember with respect the Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives under harsh conditions of the First World War and offer my sincere co...

A combative President Trump on Wednesday vowed to fight subpoenas from House Democrats seeking his tax returns and sitdowns with former officials who had testified to the special counsel during the Russia probe. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump said as he prepared to board Marine One at the White House, the start of a trip to Atlanta, where he and the first lady will deliver remarks at the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit. “The subpoena is ridiculous. We have been [the most] transparent president and administration in the history of our country, by far,” he said before taking aim once again at special counsel Robert Mueller and his team. “We just went through the Mueller witch hunt where you had really 18 angry Democrats that hate President Trump. They hate him with a passion,” he said. Trump accused Democrats of playing politics But, the president added, he was still on the job draining “the swamp.” “I’m breaking down the swamp. They’re getting caugh...

Friends and relatives carry the coffins of eight-month-old Mathew and his grandmother Agnes Vnikpridha, 69, who died during a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, at their funeral in Negombo, Sri Lanka, The scale and sophistication of the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka suggested the involvement of an external group such as Islamic State, the US ambassador said on Wednesday, as the death toll from the bombings rose to 359. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks on three churches and four hotels, and details have begun to emerge of a band of nine, well-educated suicide bombers, including a woman, from well-to-do families. Sri Lankan officials have blamed two domestic Islamist groups with suspected ties to Islamic State. “If you look at the scale of the attacks, the level of coordination, the sophistication of them, it’s not implausible to think there are ...

Elizabeth Warren wrote in The Cut about being a fan of Game of Thrones , about Daenerys and Cersei and what's to come in season 8  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (left) and Daenerys Targaryen Elizabeth Warren: Massachusetts senator, Democratic candidate for president … and TV critic? The former Harvard law professor-turned-consumer advocate-turned-politician added another line to her resume on Sunday: Writing for New York ‘s style website, The Cut, Warren opened up about being a Game of Thrones fan and what is to come in the series’ final season, which premiered last week. She also drew winking political parallels between  Game of Thrones ‘ worldview and her own, noting of one character, “It never crosses the mind that the bank could fail, or betray her.” Warren, 69, wrote that she watches the show because, just like everyone else, I want to find out who lives, who dies, and who e...

A WOMAN spoke about her lip filler horror on This Morning. She took to the ITV show to warn about unregulated cosmetic injections. A woman is pushing for tighter regulations on lip fillers after a cosmetic procedure left her pout swollen and sore Rachael Knappier, 29, saw her smackers “quadruple” in size after she got plumper injected into them. Following the ordeal, the British woman claims that nurses laughed at her after seeing the results. Rachael got the botched filler inserted as she attended a “Botox party”. But shortly after the procedure was done, she woke up with a large lump on her lip. On a segment of ITV’s This Morning, she said: "It was fine. I went to bed. “I woke up at two in the morning and saw what you see in those pictures. "My lips touched my nose. They quadrupled in size. “The pressure and burning on my lips was unbelievable." Rachael rushed to hospital, where she says medical staff couldn’t resist giggling at her appearance. ...

After capturing the pain of unrequited love in award-winning heartbreak album 21, Adele appeared be looking out onto a future of happiness when she tied the knot with husband Simon Konecki in 2016. Yet the couple stunned fans over the weekend by announcing they are set to divorce after eight years together. Adele's last record 25 had been billed as her 'make-up album' after finding love with Simon in 2011 , but following news of their break-up fans have been giving the album another listen and claim to be picking out subtle warning signs trouble was brewing. Adele and Simon married in 2016 after falling for each other in 2011 While billed as a 'make-up album', Adele's 2015 release '25' often gave a portrayal of a couple in trouble   Eighth track on the album, Love in The Dark, paints the story of a tumultuous relationship struggling to survive. Included in the bleak lyrics, is the line: "This is never ending, we have been he...

Your last name doesn't have to be Jenner or Kardashian to be able to make a living from social media posts, as a new generation of influencers and "micro-influencers" are proving. It's perfectly possible you've never heard of James Charles. Birmingham City Council clearly hadn't. They were rather taken by surprise by the thousands of fans who brought the city centre to a standstill when he appeared for a meet-and-greet at the Bullring in January. Charles is just one example of an influencer - a social media star who may not be an A-list celebrity by conventional standards, but inspires a cult-like following among fans, which is then often used to build an empire. Huda Kattan, for example, has been described as "the Bill Gates of beauty influencers" for quitting her job and, with the help of social media, launching her own company, which is now valued at more than $1bn (£760m). So how should an influencer be defined? "It...

A wave of bombings that killed 290 people in Sri Lanka on Sunday was carried out with the support of an international network, officials say. The government has blamed a little-known local jihadist group, National Thowheed Jamath, although no-one has yet admitted carrying out the attacks. Another 500 people were injured in the suicide attacks on churches and hotels. A nationwide emergency will be declared from midnight (19:30 GMT) on Monday, the president's office has said. Police have arrested 24 people in a series of raids. Meanwhile, another blast rocked a street near a church in the capital, Colombo, on Monday. Azzam Ameen, of BBC Sinhala, said a vehicle used by the attackers exploded as security forces tried to defuse explosives inside. It is not known if anyone was hurt. "We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country," cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said. "There was an inte...

Tehran, April 22, IRNA – Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani in a message cabled on Monday congratulated Major-General Hossein Salami on his appointment to the post of commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is regarded as an invaluable heritage and fruit of the Islamic Revolution which played a very prominent role in all scenes, rendering services and the country's defense in particular, Larijani said in his message. It is expected to witness further strengthening and bolstering of the IRGC during your commandership, he said. Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a decree appointed Major General Hossein Salami as new commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC). In his decree, Supreme Leader appreciated Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari for his valuable efforts He also expressed hope for boosting IRGC all-out potentials and its readiness in all fields. The Leader promoted Salami to rank of major-g...

With less than a month to go before the 10th anniversary of the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the country is in mourning. On Easter Sunday, a series of coordinated explosions occurred on both sides of the South Asian island state — in churches and luxury hotels in the capital city of Colombo and the cities of Negombo and Batticaloa. By Monday, the death toll stood at nearly 300 killed, with almost another 500 injured. The death toll places the Sri Lankan Easter attacks high on the list of global terrorist attacks in recent years. The toll could have been higher than it was, too: a Sri Lankan military spokesman announced on Monday that another explosive device — what appeared to be a “homemade” pipe bomb — was located and disabled on a road near Colombo’s major international airport. One day after the attack, attribution remains unclear. No group has come forward to claim the attack, which has in the meantime allowed for rampant speculation in Sri Lanka and the r...

The Nigerian Army has taken delivery of LPG cylinders manufactured by a Nigerian company for the flag off of its LPG Welfare Scheme, aimed at promoting LPG adoption among its officers and men. The cylinders were produced at Techno Oil’s newly-built LPG manufacturing plant in Lagos, which started rolling out cylinders earlier this year. The TecnoGas cylinders, which have since secured certifications by various agencies, including the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), are being produced in commercial quantities for Nigeria and overseas markets. On April 11, the army inaugurated a scheme, known as the Nigerian Army Welfare by Guarantee Ltd., and followed up with the inauguration of a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant at the Mambila Barracks in Abuja. The event was witnessed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, who directed that filling stations would henceforth, host LPG plants as part of efforts to deepen cooking gas usage in Nigeria. ...

The nation’s economy, no doubt, has become a classical case of abused entity, literally going through the pains of maladministration, mismanagement of its resources, secret and underhand dealings, but mostly plundered and exploited. Unfortunately, it is still hostage to the old political game and subsidy conundrum.  Nigeria, according to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, spends about N1.4 trillion yearly on fuel subsidy. This means that in four years, Nigeria would have spent N5.6 trillion, which is in excess of the cost of $13 billion Dangote’s refinery under construction. But the economic effect of the non-tinkered direction has been drain from the pockets of hard working Nigerians and facilitation of the extreme poverty in the country, now ravaging nearly 90 million people. Top government officials have been bold to say that fuel subsidy has “no clear cut alternative”. This means there is no end in sight. The economy has not been at its ...