Gist Arena

A mother poisoned herself and her two young daughters by drinking acid after falling out with her live-in mother and father-in-law, an inquest has heard. Heena Solanki, 34, was found dead in her bed alongside Jasmine, nine, and Prisha, four, by her widower at their home in Ruislip, west London.The biochemist had forced her two girls to drink the toxic substance and had strangled them before taking the poison and strangling herself.Her husband said.. 'Prior to her death I believed that Heena was happy and content,' he said. 'We lived a nice life with our two children, Jasmine and Prisha... 'The only thing that I was aware of that made her unhappy was that we lived with my parents. This issue got her down at times but it's the only issue I can think of.'There were obviously things she didn't talk to me about which I didn't know. I'm aware of that now.'  He added that they had decided to move out but had not yet told his pare...

A Nigerian drug smuggler has died in a Spanish airport after several bags of  cocaine burst in his stomach. The unidentified man collapsed in the customs area of the Madrid-Barajas airport and upon hearing that the man was from Nigeria, staff were too afraid to approach the man and left him in shivers on the airport floor.   Spain's El Mundo newspaper reports that the man, who had landed on a flight from Istanbul on October 18, died 90 minutes later from a massive drugs overdose, It added:  'A civil guard officer initially positioned the man on his side and identified him from personal documents.When it was clear he was a Nigerian, no one dared touch him.'Medical staff decided immediately that there was a risk that this could be a case of Ebola.' A passenger accompanying him later told police that he had flown from Madrid to Istanbul on October 14 and had not been to Nigeria for four years. Image-Reuters

In a piece titled "Meet The Man Who Tamed Nigeria's Most Lawless City", UK  Telegraph  chronicles how Governor Fashola came into office and transformed Lagos and also how he effectively managed the Ebola epidermic in the state. Read below... He famously claims to be "just doing his job". But in a land where politicians are known for doing anything but, that alone has been enough to make Babatunde Fashola, boss of the vast Nigerian city of Lagos, a very popular man. Confounding the image of Nigerian leaders as corrupt and incompetent, the 51-year-old governor has won near-celebrity status for transforming west Africa's biggest city, cleaing up its crime-ridden slums and declaring war on corrupt police and civil servants. Next month, he will come to London to meet business leaders and Mayor Boris Johnson's officials, wooing investors with talk of how he has spent the last seven years building new transport hubs and gleaming business parks....

Mali has recorded its first case of Ebola after a 2 year girl who had come into the country from Guinea, one of the worst hit with the Ebola epidemic, came down with fever and was diagnosed with the deadly virus yesterday October 23rd. Confirming the development, Malian Health Minister, Ousmane Kone, said the girl is undergoing treatment now and is responding to treatment... "The condition of the girl, according to our services, is improving. Thanks to her rapid treatment" Mali becomes the sixth African country to record a case of Ebola after Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. 

Prophet T.B Joshua will on Nov. 5th face the Lagos State coroner investigating the circumstances that led to the collapse of the church 5-storey building which killed 115 people. At a sitting which held today Oct. 24th, the coroner, Magistrate O.A. Komolafe said it was mandatory the man of God and the contractor that handled the building project appear before him to give their own account of what led to the building collapse, a position the defense counsel argued against but was objected by the coroner "We have heard that he has been addressing the press at various times. Let him come and address the court. The court has summoned him; let him come and tell us what he knows. He cannot sit over there and be sending words to us that he cannot come. The court has said that for the purpose of what we're doing that he should come over.” the coroner said

Hundreds of supporters of Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, on Friday trooped to the streets to protest alleged plan by members of the state House of Assembly to impeach the governor. The protesters, under the aegis of Positive Minds Club for Teachers (PMCT), first converged on Fajuyi Park, Ado Ekiti with placards in the early hours of the day. The protesters later marched to Ijigbo roundabout, Okesha, Okeyinmin areas of Ado Ekiti, where they were addressed by two of their leaders. The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “No to impeachment”, “We want peace in Ekiti”, “Return the N800 million bribe to your leader”, “No going back on June 21 election result”, among others. In his address, the President and Treasurer of the group, Messrs Ojo Patrick and Bello Ganiyu Akande, respectively said that they would mobilise the people of the state to move against any plan to remove the governor from office. “It is a peaceful protest and the police are here to...

Nurse Nina Pham, the first person to contract Ebola in the US met with president Obama at The White this afternoon where she received a hug from him. Nina, who contracted Ebola while treating Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan at the Emory University hospital in Texas, is now free from the virus after being successfully treated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. When President Obama heard she was Ebola-free, he sent word to her asking if he could hug her and she agreed to meet him. Aww...(Photo credit: White House Press)

The United Kingdom-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, IHRC, has released a  damning report  accusing Nigerian soldiers of indiscriminately shooting and killing defenceless members of the Islamic Movement of of Nigeria in Zaria between July 25 and 26. The report said 34 defenceless members of the group, led by prominent Islamic cleric, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, were murdered in cold blood as they marched through the streets of Zaria, in Kaduna State. More than 100 others were injured, it adds. The report, compiled from interviews with victims, their families, witnesses, found that contrary to the Nigerian army’s account of the killings, the protesters were peaceful and did not provoke the attacks. The IHRC fact-finding team, led by its Chair, Massoud Shadjareh, also obtained a video footage of soldiers firing at unarmed civilians at the end of the procession. The report said bystanders were among those killed by the rampaging soldiers. The IHRC also said that ...

Shacarye Tims A 25-year-old woman snatched an Australian tourist’s $25,000 Rolex and hid it in her vagina after an early morning hookup in a Manhattan hotel room, officials said. Brenton Price was getting a massage from Shacarye Tims in his room at the Holiday Inn in Chelsea about 5:30 a.m. Oct. 19, after meeting her at a bar, police said. “I just innocently picked up a girl at a bar and got robbed,” Price said when reached in California. “I was a tourist,” he told the Daily News. “I met someone and got robbed. I helped catch the criminal.” A source said Tims also had priors in other states, including a prostitution arrest in Las Vegas. Price put his Yacht-Master II Rolex on the nightstand at the 125 W. 26th St. hotel after Tims complained it was scratching her, police sources said. When he noticed the Rolex was missing about 10 minutes later, Tims suggested that it might have fallen behind the nightstand, cops said. As Price searched, T...

The Boko Haram insurgents, who reportedly abducted about 50 women and girls from two border villages between Adamawa and Borno states have freed the women among their captives. This was disclosed in an interview by villagers, who spoke on the issue with newsmen on the telephone from their hide-outs. They however, said that the exact number of those released could not be ascertained, but that no fewer than 45 girls were still being detained. According to the villagers, the women and girls were abducted from Waga Mangoro which was between Gwoza in Borno and Madagali in Adamawa states. Relatives of some of the abducted women who were later released by the insurgents also, told newsmen in Yola that some of the girls have been turned to cooks while others were married off immediately to some of the insurgents. A relative to the one of the women who spoke on the condition of anonymity said; ”Initially, the insurgents captured 80 girls and women whom they later l...

President Goodluck Jonathan has said he will pick his nomination form on or before the expiration of the deadline given to all aspirants, by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. He stated his decision at a private meeting with governors held at the House 7 wing of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. An official source, who was privy to the meeting said the president thanked the governors for endorsing him and said he has finally made up his mind to take the baton of expression. The source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the president has already set up his Presidential Declaration Committee and will pick his form on his return from Israel. The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had on Wednesday directed the president and other aspirants to pick their forms for nomination and expression of interest on or before October 30 or risk not participating in the 2015 general elections. Mr. Jonathan is to formally declare his presidential ambition between Nov...

A jilted lover has chopped off his own penis after he was dumped by his girlfriend.Oliver Ilic, 22, was told that he was no good in bed so it is claimed he mutilated himself then threw the remains in the bin. According to  Metro.co.uk , he is alleged to have told doctors that he had a small appendage and cited that as the reason why his girlfriend was no use to him.Ilic contacted emergency services when he could not stop the bleeding and was taken to hospital.Police searched his house and discovered the severed organ in a bin after it had been cut off with a single swipe from a razor blade which was also lying in the bin. Doctors were initially unable to re-attach his penis but he was then transferred to the capital, Skopje, where it was reunited with his body following five hours of surgery.However they said it was still too early to know if the operation would be a success and if it would ever function properly again.

A district pastor of a church in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, has been remanded by a Lagos Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ikeja.The 37-year-old pastor, Adebambo Adetunji, was alleged to be one of the gang members, who robbed motorists at the Ojota Bus stop, between April and July, 2014.  Punch   learnt that Adetunji and other suspects, who were still on the run, were notorious for snatching cars and robbing victims of their valuables at gun point. Our correspondent gathered that a Toyota Camry and a Mercedes Benz ML320 , were diverted by the suspected robbers, who were said to have also used cutlasses in their operations. It was learnt that Adetunji was arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad led by SP Abba Kyari after Badmus had reported the attack to the police. The prosecutor, brought the suspect, before the Magistrate, Mrs. M.O. Oshodi, on three counts bordering on armed robbery.The charges read in part, “That you, Adebamb...