Author: damazah@gmail.com

Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 other people have been sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of drugs charges.According to state-owned al-Ahram newspaper, they were part of a criminal gang which imported ingredients used to make drugs with the intent of selling them. They also had illegal firearms and munitions.Khalifa, 39, is best known for her TV programme Mission Impossible which dealt with crime issues. She has denied the charges.Nine fellow defendants have been sentenced to life imprisonment, while seven have been acquitted.Khalifa’s lawyer said she would appeal the death sentence.The verdict was first announced last month.However,…

From boosting public revenue to funding education and restoring capital, the anti-graft war is beginning to yield an economic dividend, writes Festus Akanbi Tor an institution traditionally measured by the number of suspects arrested, celebrated prosecutions undertaken and politically exposed persons brought before the courts, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) appears to be broadening the meaning of Nigeria’s anti-corruption war. The figures reeled out by its Chairman, la Olukoyede,, at his three-year stewardship briefing suggest an agency whose activities increasingly carry consequences beyond law enforcement into revenue mobilisation, restitution, investment and economic recovery. Between October 2023 and July 2026,…

Andy Holloway cohosts the Fantasy Footballers podcast with his friends Jason Moore and Mike Wright. The show is one of the premier fantasy sports podcasts, netting over 2 million monthly listeners and numerous awards, including Best Sports Podcast from iHeartRadio and People’s Choice at the Podcast Awards four years in a row.Holloway’s goal has always been about bringing fantasy football to a wider audience, not just hardcore nerds. With the NFL season starting next week and fantasy drafts in full swing, now seemed like a great time to see how Holloway stays focused during what is probably the busiest part…

The Trump administration is moving to allow married couples with a stay-at-home spouse to collect child care subsidies, a policy championed by Vice President JD Vance, using funds from a federal program intended to assist working parents, according to people familiar with the discussions.The change would create the only federal subsidy to pay parents to stay home and raise their children, one of the most significant efforts to date by the Trump administration to harness federal funds to promote a traditional view of families.To do so, officials are seeking to use a Health and Human Services Department fund that was…

The charity says more and more of the seals are travelling further up the river, with one spotted as far west as Windsor. It is thought there are about 3,500 seals living in the Thames and that they mostly stay around the estuary, east of London.Marmalade was considered rare because there are only 500 harbour seals living in the river, compared with about 3,000 of the more common grey seals.Gareth Richards from UK Seal Alliance says “seals are very transient, and will basically go to where there is good fish stocks”.He says “seals can swim from anything between 60 and…

Daryz, Gstaad, Opera Ballo and Benvenuto Cellini all line up on an outstanding Arc Trials Day from ParisLongchamp on Sunday.4.35 ParisLongchamp – Arc hero Daryz returns en route back to ArcPrix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero Daryz returns to ParisLongchamp en route to his defence of Europe’s most prestigious race, tackling the Prix Foy. Francis-Henri Graffard’s star returns having not being seen since his third in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes – where there were excuses for the run given his misbehaviour in the stables prior to the race. That run is the only blemish to an otherwise seamless four-year-old…

It’s rare these days to find comedy and humanity on the same plate — and even more rare to see comedy nuzzling up to mystery. (I don’t mean mystery as in crime-solving; I mean the mystery of existence.) But Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut,” a small-town-theater comedy driven by big ideas, is a funny and dizzying mind-bender. It’s like “Waiting for Guffman” made by the Coen brothers at their most rivetingly unhinged. “The Debut” won’t be for everyone, but if you get onto its wavelength (which I did immediately), it sucks you into its “Twilight Zone of Sub-Broadway” vortex, even as…

If politics were a game of cards, Hon. Shina Abiola-Peller would probably be the sort of player who keeps a few aces discreetly tucked beneath the cuff of his designer shirt. Known in some circles as the man behind some of Lagos and Abuja’s biggest premium nightlife establishments and in others as the flamboyant former federal lawmaker with an appetite for political adventure, Peller has never exactly been allergic to ambition. In Peller’s world, ambition is not a visitor. It appears to have a permanent suite. The former member of the House of Representatives has tasted the intoxicating sweetness of…

Kayode TokedeNigerian banks’ deposits with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) declined by 1.14 per cent month-on-month to N82.99 trillion in August 2026, from N83.96 trillion recorded in July, latest data from the apex bank have revealed.Banks deposit excess liquidity with the CBN through the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF), thereby earning interest on overnight deposits. According to the CBN’s financial data, the N82.99 trillion recorded in August represented the third-lowest monthly SDF placement by banks so far in 2026.The moderation in banks’ deposits with the apex bank came amid the reduction in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 26.50 per…

•30 govs won’t guarantee victory for APC in 2027, Kwankwaso insists Chuks Okocha in Abuja The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, has challenged Nigerians to scrutinise his background and publicly identify any wrongdoing he may have committed. The former Anambra State governor also urged Nigerians to verify the background of his running mate and former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. This is as Kwankwaso issued a stern warning to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that the fact that its has overs 30 governors does not guarantee it victory in 2027. Obi issued the challenge…