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Police in Brazil say they have arrested 11 people and broken up an international gang that was involved in the illegal sale of World Cup tickets. The scheme is said to have earned the gang as much as $90m (£52m) per tournament and could have been operating for four World Cups. Some of the tickets seized were meant for sponsors, while others had been allocated to Brazil team officials. Police believe some of the tickets were sold to foreign tourists. Lucrative business Police said the man they suspect of being the leader of the gang was an Algerian national who "had free access to restricted Fifa areas". Fabio Barucke, a senior police officer involved in the investigation, said that there were "clues which lead us to believe he could have ties to someone from Fifa". "His car had a sticker which gave him access to any private Fifa event", Mr Barucke explained. According to Mr Barucke, the suspects had confessed to running the scam at four ...

Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro today tweeted that the Boko Haram mess we are dealing with today was created by friends of former Lagos state Governor and leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who he said had promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for this government. The minister also addressed earlier comments made on today's Punch newspaper credited to the APC Leader where he, Tinubu, accused Obanikoro of getting more involved in politics than in his duties as a serving minister. Continue to see more tweets...

According to a post on the Facebook wall of the National Orientation Agency Nigeria, an accomplice and informant of terror sect, Boko Haram, Hafsat Bako, pictured above, has been arrested. Details of her arrest are still sketchy but will bring an update later.

Nigerian billionaire and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, opened direct negotiations, Monday, with the Gboko community of Benue State where soldiers at his multibillion dollar cement factory killed seven locals. The meeting came barely 24 hours after PREMIUM TIMES exposed the massacre. Mr. Dangote arrived in Gboko early Monday where he met with state officials, including Governor Gabriel Suswam, and the leaders of Gboko and Mbayion community where the killings took place March 18, before naming a high-powered committee to negotiate and reconcile with the community. The committee, headed by Joseph Makoju, the immediate past Chief Operating Officer of the Dangote group, and former Managing Director, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, held its first meeting in Gboko Tuesday. The Chief Press Secretary to the Benue State Governor, Cletus Akwaya, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the meeting took place. Mr. Akwaya said the Benue State government had no hand in the killings...

Meet Ben Byrne - the man sharing the bed of Perth identical twins Anna and Lucy DeCinque who spent more than $240,000 on surgeries to look more alike. The 31-year-old won the hearts of both girls after they added him on Facebook on the suggestion of mutual friends. At first, the electrical mechanic had trouble balancing the demands of two girlfriends, but very early on into their 18-month relationship he learned the attention he paid to one, had to be paid to the other. 'It's my first time with two girlfriends, and to be honest it's very difficult because it has to be 100 per cent even,' Mr Byrne told Woman's Day. 'Whatever I do for one I have to do for the other, so it's a fine balance. My mates reckon it's a cool problem to have.' This is the first time the health nut has spoken out about his unorthodox relationship with the 28-year-olds since he came to the attention of global media when Anna and Lucy's story came to light earlier th...

Give someone a cuddle – or even ride a roller-coaster – and you’ll trigger nature’s very own potent ‘love drug’. Jane Mulkerrins unveils the mysteries of the hormone oxytocin 1 Oxytocin, an extract from the pituitary gland, was discovered in 1909 by the British pharmacologist Sir Henry H Dale. He found it could cause contractions and speed up the birthing process, so named it after the Greek for ‘quick’ and ‘childbirth’. Dale later discovered that oxytocin also stimulates the release of breast milk by contracting cells around the mammary glands. It also plays a significant role in sexual arousal and in orgasm, in both men and women. 2 But oxytocin is far more than a useful bedroom, birth and breast-feeding aid – it is also a neurotransmitter that acts on the limbic system, the brain’s emotional centre, promoting feelings of contentment, reducing anxiety and stress, and even making mammals monogamous. A University of Maryland study of male prairie voles showed that oxytocin e...

The Kwara state Police command yesterday July 1st uncovered a ritualist den at Eyekorin road in Illorin, the Kwara state capital following a tip-off. The police, led by the state Police Commissioner, Ambrose Aisabor, stormed an uncompleted building where a decomposing headless body, human parts and some murder weapons were found. Speaking on the discovery, the Police Commissioner said the place is believed to have been a human parts market were people who are involved in ritual activities go to purchase human parts.  "When you get there you would see particles of human parts scattered so we believe that place has been a human parts market where people who are involved in rituals  and ritual activities go to purchase human parts" he said. Continue to see more photos and video... No arrest has been made but according to the Commissioner, an 85 year old woman and other random people are being interrogated. He sought for a continued Police - Public synergy between the Kw...

Osaze believes the player who grabbed him from the back at yesterday's match against France deserved a red card. Continue...

A Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, on Tuesday, said he stood by his comments about the All Progressives Congress and some of its leaders, noting that he looked forward to meeting the party in court. Fani-Kayode, who recently defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party, had during an interview with Channels TV, on Monday, accused some APC leaders of being sympathetic towards the Boko Haram sect. In a response, the APC threatened to sue Fani-Kayode if he did not retract the comments and apologise to the party. In a statement on Tuesday, Fani-Kayode said he would never apologise to the APC or its spokesperson, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for saying “the truth.” Fani-Kayode said, “I wish to make it clear that I stand by every single allegation and assertion that I made in the said interview and that I believe strongly that the APC comprises at least a handful of Boko Haram sympathisers and questionable individuals who have at various times expressed a certai...

A 21-year-old man, Utochukwu Ukandu, has set himself ablaze in the Agbado, Egbe area of Lagos State. PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim had been telling his parents he was frustrated and would kill himself, but they did not take him serious until the incident happened. His elder brother, Ebuka, was said to have seen him setting himself ablaze and raised the alarm. A source said, “Nobody knows exactly why he took that decision. All we know is that he had been telling his parents he would kill himself, but they did not take him serious. “On Monday, around 9pm, he went inside the house and poured kerosene on his body. He wet the bed with the kerosene as well, including the house. He then lit a matchstick and set everywhere on fire.” Firemen from the Lagos State Fire Service, Ikotun division, were said to have been called by a resident. They were said to have arrived the scene just on time with 10,000 litres of water with which they doused the flames. The victim was luckil...

Some policemen and their families escaped being crushed on Monday night when a two-storey building in the Pedro Police Barracks, Somolu, Lagos, collapsed. PUNCH Metro learnt that the building, which served as the kitchen, bathroom and toilet extension, collapsed at about 8.30pm when most of the residents were in their sitting rooms and bedrooms. A resident, who identified herself simply as Faith, explained that the collapse was not surprising considering the dilapidated state of the barracks. Faith, wife of a sergeant in the barracks, said, “It was around 8.30pm Monday evening. We just heard a rumble as if an earthquake had occurred. When we rushed out, we saw that a two-storey building, which is an extension of the main building, had collapsed with the staircases. We were using the collapsed building as our bathrooms and toilets, while a two-bedroom apartment on the ground floor was occupied by two families. What saved us was that many people were already in their sitting roo...

A cargo plane crashed into a commercial building in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, shortly after taking off from the city’s main airport on Wednesday and the four crew members on board were feared dead, the Kenyan Airports Authority said. KAA said on its Twitter feed that all the crew members were “feared to have perished” after the plane crashed into shops in Nairobi’s Embekasi neighborhood. Television footage showed the tail and wings of a white plane ripped in half outside a smoldering two-story building left mangled by the force of the impact.  Police and firefighters search in the wreckage for any possible survivor. Photo: AFP

When Washington imposed sanctions in June 2012 on Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, he dismissed it as an empty gesture. Two years later, Shekau’s skepticism appears well founded: his militant group is now the biggest security threat to Africa’s top oil producer, he is richer than ever, more violent and its abductions of many women and children continue with impunity. As the United States, Nigeria and others struggle to track and choke off its funding, Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials who closely follow Boko Haram provide the most complete picture to date of how the group finances its activities. Central to the militant group’s approach includes using hard-to-track human couriers to move cash, relying on the local funding sources and engaging in only limited financial relationships with other extremists groups. It also has reaped millions from high-profile kidnappings. Last year, Boko Haram was paid an equivalent of about $3.15m by ...

After the Super Eagles exit from the World Cup, the controversy trailing Stephen Keshi’s resignation from the position of chief coach of the team may have been finally laid to rest after he made decision known to a group of journalists in Brasilia, Brazil. In a chat with Cable NG, Keshi reveals why he was leaving, saying: “Yes. I have done my bit. I am tired of all the intrigues and backbiting and insinuations I get. The criticisms are nothing really because even siblings criticise each other.  “In this job sometimes it goes overboard and my family and those of my players get called names. I have had to tell the players many times to ignore those criticisms and just focus on the tasks at hand.” Asked if it was possible that he stays since he is loved by many Nigerians, he expressed his doubts saying: “The same ones who were calling for my head after the Iran match? That ' the World Cup is too big for Keshi '? I know there are many who truly support what we have be...

Too many people have called me and send messages to ask about this cut-off mark issues. Anyway, after a long wait, the Federal Government, in consultation with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, has come out with the cut-off marks for 2014 admissions into universities and polytechnics. The cut-off points were arrived at on Tuesday, after the 5th Combined Policy meeting on admissions to tertiary institutions, held at the National Universities Commission in Abuja. The cut off marks are... 180 for universities while polytechnics and colleges of education were put at 150, respectively. The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, who declared the meeting open, frowned on the inability of most tertiary institutions to utilise their admission quota. Wike, however, said in view of efforts to boost access, institutions which failed to utilise their admission quota for 2014 would be sanctioned. The Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, in...

A suicide bomber, suspected to be a member of the terrorist sect, Boko Haram, early on Tuesday detonated an Impoverished Explosive Device at the Maiduguri Monday Market, killing about 17 persons. Sixty-nine persons were reportedly injured in the attack. In Kaduna, an explosion occurred around the Asikolaye/Bakin Ruwa area, along the Kaduna western bypass, late on Tuesday. The casualty figure was not available as of the time of this report, witnesses however said many were killed and several injured. The explosion reportedly shattered the glass windows of some of the surrounding buildings. Also in Ile-Ife, Osun State, a low-calibre bomb went off in the Onipetu area of the town around 4.00am but nobody was killed. The Osun State police said they deactivated another bomb before it detonated. “They were grenades of low calibre. The first one exploded and the other was defused. It happened in an isolated place, so it did not kill nor injure anybody. We have visited the scene a...