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An Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline has crashed in southern France en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, police and aviation officials say.

French president Francois Hollande said he believed none of the 148 people on board flight 4U9525 had survived.‎
"There were 148 people on board," Mr Hollande said. "The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors."
He said there was likely to be a significant number of German victims.
He added: "The accident happened in a zone that is particularly hard to access."

French prime minister Manuel Valls told reporters the cause of the crash, near a ski resort in the French Alps, was unknown.

A spokesman for the DGAC aviation authority said the airplane crashed near the town of Barcelonnette, about 100 kilometres north of the French Riviera city of Nice.

The local La Provence newspaper said the Airbus A320 was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, citing aviation officials.

The plane had taken off from Barcelona airport at 08:55 (local time), a spokeswoman for Spain's airport operator Aena said.

The plane issued a distress call at 10:47am (local time), sources said.

Spain's deputy prime minister said 45 passengers on board the plane were believed to be Spanish.

Investigators head to accident site
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who said debris from the plane had already been found, was heading to the scene with Mr Valls and French accident investigators.

France 24 journalist John Maguire told the ABC he expected recovery efforts would be challenging.
"It is going to be extremely difficult because it's the Alps, the villages are in small valleys and the plane looks as if it's come down against the mountains," he said.
"We're just learning helicopters have found more wreckage and ... they're confirming what the president of France has said, it is unlikely there are any survivors."

Lufthansa's Germanwings unit said it was as yet unable to verify reports of the crash.
"We have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any confirmed information," it said in a statement.
"As soon as definite information is available, we shall inform the media immediately."

Lufthansa on its official Twitter account said: "We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew on 4U 9525."
"If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors."

An Airbus spokeswoman said the company was trying to assess the situation after the crash reports.
"We are aware of the media reports," Airbus said on Twitter.
"All efforts are now going towards assessing the situation. We will provide further information as soon as available."

The crashed A320 is 24 years old and has been with the parent Lufthansa group since 1991, according to online database airfleets.net.

In July 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed shortly after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport en route for New York, leaving 113 people, mainly Germans, dead and eventually leading to the supersonic airliner being taken out of service.

France's leading air traffic controller union SNCTA called off a strike planned from Wednesday to Friday after news of the crash.
"We are suspending our planned strike as a result of the emotions created in the control rooms by the crash, particularly in Aix-en-Provence," union spokesman Roger Rousseau said.
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Fenerbahçe forward Emmanuel Emenike faces disciplinary action in the Turkish league following his indecent reaction in the derby against Beşiktaş at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium on Sunday.

The Nigeria international tore off his shirt in anger and ran off the pitch, demanding to be substituted in the first half, after his fans booed him for missing a 'simple' chance to put the hosts ahead.

It took the intervention of Fenerbahçe manager Ismail Kartal and his technical staff to stop Emenike from walking down the tunnel. Kartal eventually managed to convince him to put his shirt back on and return to the game.

A former referee in Turkey Ahmet Çakar said Emenike deserved punishment for leaving the pitch and re-entering without permission. He said it was a technical error not to have booked the player, and that the action could mean a replay of the derby.‎
"These incidents are not even open to interpretation, they are all bookable offences, the first thing they teach amateur referees are the rules of the game," Turkish Football quoted Çakar as saying on Beyaz Tv.
"This was not a refereeing error, it was a technical error and that could result in the match being replayed."

The 28-year-old has only scored four league goals for The Yellow Canaries this season, but Kartal revealed he prayed for the Nigerian to score and break his poor run of form in the derby.

"I prayed for Emenike to score and win over the fans again," Kartal told Lig Tv. "The fans need to be more patient and understanding, he cannot change around his fortunes with everyone getting on his back."

Fenerbahçe eventually won the game courtesy of a 90th minute goal from Mousa Sow, but not before Kartal had substituted Emenike at the start of the second half.

The manager also gave Emenike a two-day leave to be spent in Nigeria during the international break.

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Add BBN on 2BAFB965
Figo who is challenging for the FIFA presidency, said Monday that a new victory for incumbent
Sepp Blatter would mean four lost years.

Figo, who said he is financing his own campaign, added that nearly every football leader he meets declares a desire for change but he did not know whether federations would turn against Blatter.

If Blatter wins , it will be like losing four years of trying to modernise, trying to have more transparency because things will continue the same," Figo said.

"I am saying this to all the people I see in meetings and the feedback is positive.‎
Most people say we think we need change, but you have to wait and see on May 29 if really they want change, or they want to continue to be managed like this," added the 42-year-old former Barcelona and Real Madrid star.

All three opponents say they are standing because of FIFA's tarnished image after a storm of controversy over the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Figo, the Ballon d'Or winner in 2000, has promised more transparency and a greater say for national associations, as well as a 40 country World Cup.

Figo concluded by saying "Sometimes you are afraid of change and the most important thing
is to try to convince people that change is not a big deal.‎"
Yhemmie_blaq

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No fewer than 10 students of Ebonyi State University, EBSU, Abakaliki, were last weekend hospitalized at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, FETHA, after eating African salad, popularly known as abacha.
The students, studying at the College of Agricultural Science, CAS campus of the university, were rushed to the hospital when their health condition started deteriorating as it was gathered that the delicacy was infected with cholera-causing bacteria.
Confirming the incident, the Director of Rural Health, Ministry of Health, Dr. Christian Achi, said the food was infected from the activities of flies within the environment.
He said: "This is a case of cholera; the food they ate was already infected, following the activities of flies that go around perching on food items and dirty substances.
"I want to urge the people of the state to cook and eat in their homes; they should not expose their food and cooking utensils to flies. They should maintain hygiene and avoid dirty environment."

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The Spiritual Leader of One Love Family, Sat Guru Maharaji Ji, has advised the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), to forget Nigeria's presidency.
"There is no vacancy for Buhari at Aso Rock," he declared recently in a statement.
‎
According to him, "President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is the verifiable divine choice of the forthcoming presidential election. As the Living Perfect Master of creation in whose hands the fate of Nigerian project lies spiritually, I declare divinity's decision to return Jonathan to Aso Rock over Muhammadu Buhari.
"I had publicly and sufficiently advised Buhari against nursing the ambition to rule Nigeria again. Superior forces are actually in-charge of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am at the helm of these great and unseen primordial powers of creation.
"My commitment to ensuring that Buhari and his fellow Anglo-American proxies do not deflect Nigeria off its path of gradual transition to authentic sovereignty, sustainable unity and real prosperity is sacrosanct. Nigeria is no longer to be ruled by feudal agents of Western neo-colonial power and Arab imperialists," Guru added.

The spiritual leader called on all lovers of freedom, fairness and human dignity in Nigeria to vote for President Jonathan, saying, "He is an authentic component of Nigeria's divinely graphed transition to greatness. His return to Aso Rock will further secure Nigeria from being re-enslaved by those who insist they were born to rule."

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The Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has appealed to the All Progressives Congress and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, to take what he termed "their impending defeat" in Saturday's election in good faith.

According to him, President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party will through the election send Buhari on political retirement.

Fayose, who stated this through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, added that the APC would, by the election, be taught a political lesson that elections were not won on pages of newspapers and through sheer propaganda. He said the defeat would put an end to propaganda, bad mouthing and the noise of the APC, "because lies will always fail, while truth will stand the test of time".


The governor noted that it was imperative to offer the advice because of Buhari's antecedent of inciting people to violence as his own response to defeat in elections, adding that the APC had always believed that any election it did not win was rigged.

He said: "The reason APC will fail woefully is because people have come to know it as a party peopled by liars, deceits and hypocrites who should not be entrusted with the leadership of this country.


"Even leaders of thought in the North have since withdrawn their support when they realised the agenda of certain APC leaders against the North.

"I can say it categorically that Buhari will be beaten silly and I am advising Buhari and his APC to take the impending defeat philosophically as an act of God.

"May be after this election, the party will change its name from APC to Panadol."

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The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has asked Lagos residents not to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming elections, saying doing so would turn the state into "a theatre of unending war and violence."

The opposition party, which accused President Goodluck Jonathan of courting "violent militia groups" in his bid to win the polls, said Lagosians needed to be alerted to the grand plan by the PDP to provoke violence in Lagos State, where "peace has endured for years."

The APC, in a statement by its Lagos State Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, said the recent rally by members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, with attendant vandalism of APC campaign posters and billboards signalled a return to the days of insecurity in the state, should PDP be voted in the forthcoming March 28 and April 11 general elections.

The statement read in part, "We want to alert the good people of Lagos to the grand design by the PDP that has supervised the worst security crisis the country since the civil war, to launch unending violence and seek to compromise the enviable security situation we have been enjoying when other parts of the country became theatres of insecurity.

"We want to alert Lagosians that sponsoring and launching gun-toting OPC militias on Lagos streets is the last ditch effort of an incompetent government to launch violence on Lagosians so as to prepare them for the return of wholesome criminality and other forms of insecurity that Lagosians have put behind them.

"We want to remind Lagosians that the same way and manner the PDP and the Jonathan presidency are sponsoring and arming OPC to cause mayhem and insecurity in Lagos was the same way the PDP armed and sponsored hoodlums in the South-South, and after elections they became kidnappers and assassins and Nigeria has not recovered from this. The same way and manner was also adopted by the PDP to train and sponsor hoodlums for electoral violence in the North and they were soon to become Boko Haram militants, as revealed by the late former National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi.

"We want to warn Lagosians that the return of violent crime and violent political campaigns by the desperate PDP in its bid to overwhelm and conquer Lagos will inflict tremendous harm on their wellbeing and security, if Lagosians cast their votes for the PDP. We warn that voting for PDP, which has compromised the peace and tranquillity of Lagos as a result of its deadly desire for power in recent weeks."

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday said he would ensure that the Naira was equal to the dollar in value, if voted into office.
Buhari stated this during the South-East presidential rally of the party at Dan Anyima Stadium, Owerri.‎
"It is sad that the value of the naira has dropped to more than N230 to one dollar; this does not speak well for the nation's economy,'' he said.
He urged the people to vote for APC, noting that he would ensure that corruption was tackled headlong if elected.

Earlier, Gov Rochas Okorocha had urged APC supporters to vote for the party's candidates at all levels, noting that a vote for Buhari without support to others at the state would amount to nothing.
Okorocha said Buhari would address the problem of electricity, bring back the kidnapped Chibok girls and promote industrial growth.
He said that Buhari was loved by the people in the region and urged them to elect him and other APC candidates during the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
Former governor of Anambra, Mr Chinwoke Mbadinuju and former Minister of Education, Chinwe Obaji, were formally welcomed to the APC at the rally.

The rally was attended by APC supporters from Abia, Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu and Imo. 

(NAN)

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All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organization, APCPCO, Monday, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of shifting N1 trillion from the public coffers to fund his campaigns of buying over traditional rulers and some major interest groups.

The APCPCO also said part of the money was also being used in funding what it described as the hate campaign launched against the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, General Mohammadu Buhari.
The accusation was immediately rebuffed by the Jonathan campaign yesterday which accused the Buhari campaign of being gripped with fear of losing the election.
The APCPCO regretted that President Jonathan who should ensure accelerated development of the country with its resources had gone on a wild goose chase, disparaging Buhari and squandering the resources of the nation in a bid to win the election.
Director, Media and Publicity of the Buhari campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu while asking Nigerians to think twice before voting this Saturday, said that Jonathan should have resorted to showcasing his legacies in office instead of sharing money.
"We will like to bring to your attention and that of Nigerians how the President Goodluck Jonathan led Peoples Democratic Party government is wasting one trillion Naira that belong to Nigerian people in his self-serving and desperate bid for a re-election at all cost in the midst of grinding poverty his party and government has subjected Nigerians to in the last 16 years.
"It is unconscionable and height of betrayal of public trust that a government and a President who should preside over the husbandry and judicious use of our national patrimony is superintending over its massive squander in a futile attempt to stop the idea of change. Let us sound a note of warning at this point that no amount of sponsored negative media propaganda can stop this idea whose time has come.
"The APC Presidential Campaign and the acceptability of our candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice Presidential Candidate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has become a peoples' movement and Nigerian masses who are the drivers of change are the major stakeholders.
"A panoramic view of how much Nigeria's resources Jonathan and PDP have laboriously and wantonly spent on print, broadcast and social media campaigns just to damage the unassailable credential of Gen Buhari's integrity will confound any casual observer of the polity in recent times.
"An average cost of a wrap around in Tier 1 and Tier 2 newspapers in Nigeria is between N15 million to N20 million and the Jonathan campaign buys average of 5 wrap around and front pages in a day in the last 3 months coupled with the hundreds of billions that have been spent on negative TV exposures on AIT, NTA and other television and radio stations across the country.
"We had expected that a President that has spent about 6 years in office with the revenues more than what all governments before him had received will run on a record of performance rather than peddling lies and hate media campaigns that are accentuating ethnic and religious tensions in the country."
Shehu also stated that Jonathan had spent handsomely on traditional rulers in the south west, revealing that the presidential financial train had now moved to the north.
According to him, the monies expended on PDP campaigns could provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.
"President Jonathan has been criss-crossing Nigeria giving an average of N50 million each to traditional rulers, most especially in the South West and the Northern parts of Nigeria. This week, the President's campaign money is being shipped to the North.
"You  will recall that a Pastor recently confirmed that N7 billion was given to Pastors to spread unfounded allegations of Islamaphobia and scare mongering against Gen Buhari and other APC leaders.
"A fraction of the trillion naira hate campaign expenditure will fund the APC programme of feeding primary school pupils in Nigeria on one nutritional meal a day, comfortably pay N5000 monthly to 25 million very poor Nigerians for a year and pay unemployment benefit for one year for graduates who can't find gainful employment one year after NYSC which are core to the social welfare programmes of the APC Federal government Gen Buhari will lead.
Reacting to the allegations last night the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, PDPPCO spent over one trillion naira of Nigeria's tax payers' money on media and  to bribe traditional rulers especially in the South West, Director, Media and Publicity, PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode described the APC of being gripped by the fear of losing Saturday's general election.
Fani-Kayode who noted that  very little of what APC says worries the party, said that  the allegation was evident that the party has lost touch with reality.
He said, "They are afraid of losing. The president of this country does not give bribe; we do not believe that traditional rulers in this country, especially those in South West are bribe takers.
"They also said money was given to pastors. That is a lie. No pastor of the living God, no pastor worth his salt is a bribe taker."

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The Nigeria Police Force on Monday made a U-turn on its earlier warning to voters to stay away from polling centres after exercising their civic duty on days of elections.

The Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, had on Thursday said there was no need for   voters to stay back after casting their votes because   two or three policemen would be stationed at every polling unit to guard their votes.

   "Cast your votes and go and cool down. If you remain there, there is a likelihood that you will commit an offence,'' he had   said.

But the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and others faulted the warning, saying there was no aspect of   the electoral law that prohibited voters from stay behind to monitor   ballot counting.

"As many of the voters may wish to remain to see the actual counting of the votes after voting has ended," Jega had stated.

However, the Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, said that people could stay behind as long as they maintained the peace, and obeyed the electoral guidelines.

"Anybody who commits any offence against the Electoral Act would be dealt with in line with the law. Voters are free to stay behind if they chose to," Ojukwu stated.

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A governorship aspirant of All Progressive Congress, APC, in the recent party's gubernatorial primary election and 17 other members of the party have decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Taraba State.
The aspirant, Yususfu Akirikwen recently staged a walk out of the recent APC gubernatorial nomination alongside two other aspirants at Jolly Nyame Stadium the venue of the APC primary election.

Announcing his defection at a rally of the governorship candidate of PDP, Dickson Ishaku in Jalingo, Taraba State capital, Akirikwen said him and the 17, 000 APC supporters had taken the decision out of lack of internal democracy in APC.
He announce the names of the defected APC members across the 16 local government areas of the state and displayed their membership cards to the public.‎
"Four of us contested to be the flag bearer of the party in the state, one person out of us hijacked the whole process, we complain to the national secretariat of the party and nobody has ever call us

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Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, Abuja, on Monday gave officials of the Youth Democratic Party 24 hours to address a press conference and retract the misrepresentation of his judgment delivered on March 4, 2015.‎
The court had, in the March 4 judgment, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to register YDP as a political party but the party officials had gone ahead to tell the media that the court also ordered that the party should be allowed to participate in the forthcoming elections or the elections be postponed.

Justice Mohammed, who also on Monday ordered the party officials to file an affidavit of compliance, threatened to jail them if they failed to carry out his directives.
The judge had, on March 12, when INEC's application for stay of execution of the judgment was slated for hearing, summoned the party officials to appear in court on Monday to explain how they came about the court pronouncement ordering their inclusion in the polls.

Justice Mohammed, in a bench ruling after listening to the party's counsel, Kelvin Nwofo (SAN), and INEC's lawyer, Mr. Wole Balogun, on Monday held that a case of contempt had been established against the party officials from the two affidavits filed by them.
He, however, held that because the court was not out to unnecessarily join issues with anybody and that in view of plea for mercy by the party's lawyer, he would "reluctantly temper justice with mercy."
The judge said, "It is clear that the court did not order to include them in the ballot papers or to shift the elections.
"The case of contempt is clearly established in the circumstances of this case and learned senior counsel for the plaintiff has pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy and to forgive the plaintiff's officials.
"This court is not out to unnecessarily join issues with anyone, least of all the officials of the plaintiff, Young Democratic Party.
"It is on that premise that I will reluctantly temper justice with mercy in this matter, subject to the following conditions:
"(i) The officials of the plaintiff shall within 24 hours from now call a national press conference and debunk or retract the misrepresentation made against the order of this court that was delivered on March 4, 2015.
"(ii) The officials of the plaintiff shall file an affidavit in court for compliance with paragraph (i) of this order.
"In case of failure to comply with the court's directive herein, this court will not hesitate to commit to prison, the affected officials of the plaintiff (YDP) on the next return date since evidence of contempt has been established."
The judge then adjourned the matter till March 31.

Justice Mohammed, had said on March 12 that the court was embarrassed by the claim of the party officials at a press conference.
The judge had only held in the said judgment that YDP was deemed registered as a political party by the virtue of the failure of INEC to communicate its decision not to register the then political association as a political party within 30 days of receiving its (the plaintiff's) application as stipulated in section 78 (4) of the Electoral Act.
A copy of the court's judgment had also shown that the plaintiff – the YDP – did not ask for inclusion in the polls in its amended originating summons dated December 2, 2014.

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