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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...