FIFA WORLD CUP 2014: SPECULATIONS RISE AS GERMANY AND ARGENTINA FACE-OFF FOR THE 3RD TIME IN W.C. FINALS.

  The 2014 world cup is finally going to come to end end today, sun 13th of July, and the air between the two finalists, Argentina and Germany, is definitely thick with apprehension as one of them would be going home as a FIFA world cup champion.
  Report has it that this year's world cup final turns out to be the third time the two finalists would be having a face off.
    According to CNN, Germans and Argentinians have faced each other in the World Cup finals twice before. Back when West Germany was still a country, it lost to Argentina in 1986. Four years later, Argentina lost to West Germany in 1990. 
  Although, much is expected from the Germans, especially after delivering a very fatal blow of 7 to 1, to the host country, Brazil, during their semi-final. A blow so brutal that the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff , described it as the worst nightmare she could never imagine herself dreaming.
  More so, the Argentinians have been showing wonderful signs of honing for the Champions Cup, especially after their 4-2 victory against the Netherlands in their semi-finals which led to the team's qualification for the world cup finals since the past 24 years.
  However, Brazilians have doubled their mournings after losing 0-3 to Holland in the third-place match yesterday.
  Speculations still remain as to who would come out FIFA 2014 Champion. Is it the fierce and fearless Germans or the calm but gritty Argentinians?

COMMENCEMENT OF RAMADAN 2014/1435

photo credit

  Muslims in some parts of the world are set to commence fasting tommorrow Sunday, 29th of June and 1st of Ramadan (2nd to those who started today) while some Muslims have commenced theirs today, saturday, 28th of June 2014.

 In Nigeria for instance, some Muslims in some parts of the country have commenced fasting and counting the Islamic month of Ramadan today. According to reports from the leadership online publication, The Sultan of Sokoto and President General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III yesterday urged the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria to commence their fast today, Saturday, June 28, 2014, following the sighting of the moon in various parts of Nigeria.Read it here

 Also, in the United States of America, it was announced by The Fiqh Council of North America that the month will begin Saturday, read it here.

 Meanwhile, some Muslims especially in the eastern part of the world are maintaining that Sunday, 29th of June will be the commencement of the month and fasting therein.

According to Doha News online, they reported that Ramadan would be starting on Sunday following the Islamic (hijra) calender of this year, click doha news to read more on that.

 However, sources from Saudi Arabia reported that the Saudi government has declared that the Islamic month Sha'aban would complete 30 days today and Ramadan would commence tomorrow due to the fact that the moon was not sited yesterday in the country and neighboring countries.

AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATE DRAWING OF GUN DURING PROTEST IN BRAZIL

Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil, are investigating an incident in which a man drew a gun during a protest against the high cost of the World Cup.

Police say it happened Monday as dozens of protesters gathered on Avenida Paulista, the city's main avenue and a popular destination for tourists.

Sao Paulo civil police say they are investigating whether the man in civilian clothes was a police officer and whether he actually fired the gun that he waved in the air. Local media say that shots were heard and that riot police fired stun grenades to disperse the protest.

A week ago, a man who identified himself as a police officer appeared to have fired a live pistol at an anti-World Cup protest in Rio de Janeiro.

source: AP

TOP NIGERIAN POLITICIANS PAY CONDOLENCE VISIT TO FAMILY OF LATE ICON

 

 Five days after the death of the business and religious icon Alhaji Abdul Azeez Arisekola Alao, Nigerian top politicians paid a condolence visit to his family in Ibadan, capital of Oyo state.

According to punch, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and the first son of the late MKO Abiola, Kola, on Monday paid condolence visits to the family of the late Abdul-Azeez Arisekola Alao, who died in London Wednesday last week.

In his tribute, Tambuwal, described the late Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland as a sincere person who was always confident to defend what he believed in.

“Arisekola-Alao is a very sincere person and genuine in whatever he did and lived a life of piety and of closeness to God. He has lived a good and simple life; a life of being there for all and not for himself and his immediate family. We will surely miss him. If you have, share it with the rest of the people and that is the nature of Arisekola-Alao,’’ the speaker said.

Atiku also said the late Islamic leader lived a life worthy of emulation.

“Arisekola has created a vacuum that would be difficult to fill. I pray that Allah grant him the highest place in paradise,” he said.

Kola Abiola said that the deceased lived a purposeful life, calling on Nigerians to uphold the legacy he left behind.

One of the children of the deceased, Isa, who spoke on behalf of the family, thanked the visitors for their concern for the family.

Atiku later visited Governor Abiola Ajimobi in his office to commiserate with the governor.

Ajimobi said the late Arisekola-Alao would be immortalised through the naming of an important institution in the state after him.

He said that the deceased epitomised service to humanity as he lived his life for both the rich and the poor, adding that the people of Oyo State in particular and Nigerians as a whole would continue to remember the deceased for his philanthropy.

AREA G POLICE STATION FLOODED AFTER HEAVY DOWNPOUR IN LAGOS

The Area G police station, Ogba Lagos has witnessed serious flooding after heavy rainfall in Lagos state last evening.
 The downpour didn't only affect the police station as traders and other residents could be seen struggling to have their ways through the heavy flooding along Ogba-Ijaiye road after the rain.
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 Meanwhile, the downpour also led to heavy traffic which had most residents trekking all the way from Berger and Ogba to pen-cinema, Agege and Ikeja.

SHOT UKRAINIAN MILITARY PLANE CLAIMS 49 LIVES

 


 A Ukrainian military plane transporting personnels and supplies was shot down early Saturday, killing all 49 people on board, a spokesman said. It is likely one of the bloodiest single events in that nation's current period of turmoil.

   Military spokesman  from the anti-terror operation unit, Vladislav Seleznyov  said that the Ilyushin-76 military transport plane went down while approaching an airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk.

   In a statement, Ukraine's defense ministry said the plane, which was transporting military personnel, was shot down by insurgents using anti-aircraft machine guns.

   Also, Video posted to YouTube claimed to show the plane being shot down. Small flashes can be seen climbing skyward, followed by large flashes on the ground on the distant horizon.

The plane was also carrying military machinery and supplies, the ministry said.

Officials originally had said the incident occurred late Friday but later updated the time. 

   It was reported that some hours before the plane went down, Ukraine's Kiev-based government -- which is trying to regain control of the country's restive south and east -- announced that an operation targeting pro-Russian separatists in the city of Mariupol had been successful.

Anton Geraschenko, adviser to acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov,  said more than 30 "terrorists" had been detained and their base destroyed. Other separatists are hiding in homes and basements for safety, he said.

Four Ukrainian soldiers were injured in the operation, he said.

Residents of the southeastern port city may in the past have blocked Ukraine's security forces, he said, but "today, not one resident of Mariupol protected terrorists."

Source: CNN.

EGYPT ELECTIONS: MAJORITY VOTE IN FAVOUR OF SISI

Cairo AFP reported that Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was assured Thursday of an overwhelming victory in Egypt's presidential election, securing 96.2 of the vote with most of the ballots counted.
At least 21 million voters, or 96.2 percent chose the retired field marshal, who deposed the elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July, with the ballots counted from 312 of 352 counting stations, state television reported.
His victory had never been in doubt with the main Islamist opposition crushed since Morsi's ouster.
Sisi's only electoral rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, received 3.8 percent of the votes counted.
Sisi rode on a wave of support for a potential strongman who can restore stability after several years of tumult.
Hundreds of his supporters took to the streets waving Egyptian flags, setting off fire works and honking their car horns.
"It's a victory for stability," said Tahra Khaled, who joined the crowd celebrating in the iconic Tahrir Square, the nerve centre of mass protests that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The army-installed government and Sisi were eyeing a large turnout as an endorsement of the overthrow of Islamist president last year, and the subsequent crackdown on his supporters.
Voting had been scheduled to end on Tuesday, but was extended for an extra day in a last minute decision that sparked protests from Sabbahi, a leftist politician who came in third in the 2012 election Morsi won.
An election committee official said turnout has "surpassed 25 million (46 percent)" out of almost 54 million registered voters, the official Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website.
The move to extend polling for a day fuelled criticism of an election already marred by a deadly crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
An electoral official had said after Tuesday's voting, when the election had originally been scheduled to end, turnout was around 37 percent, well below the 52 percent of voters who cast their ballots in the 2012 election which Morsi won.
Sisi had appealed for a large turnout, seeking vindication for his overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's only freely elected president, after a single turbulent year in power.
Sisi had urged "40, 45 (million) or even more" to give credibility to an election boycotted by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and secular opposition groups.
After reports of meagre numbers at polling stations on the first day of voting Monday, Sisi's backers in the state-run media appealed to people to get out and vote.
 CCTV News  reported that the official results of the votes will be out in two days.