World News

Serena Williams breaks down in tears as she crashes out of the US Open after losing to Australian, Ajla Tomljanovic in her ‘last ever match’

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Serena Williams has crashed out of the US Open in what may have been the final singles campaign of her career.

The 40-year-old who last month announced plans to retire after the US Open, was beaten 7-5, 6-7 (4/7) 6-1 by World No. 46 Ajla Tomljanovic in a grueling 3-hour 5-minute battle.

‘Oh my god, thank you so much, you guys were amazing today,’ she said in an on-court interview filled with emotion. ‘I tried but Ajla just played a little bit better.’ With tears in her eyes, she added:

‘Thank you Daddy, I know you’re watching. Thanks Mom. I just want to thank everyone that’s here, that’s been on my side, so many years, decades.

But it all started with my parents and they deserve everything, so I’m really grateful for them.’

Williams, choked with emotion, continued to credit her elder sister Venus as an inspiration for her instrumental role in the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion’s career. ‘These are happy tears I guess,’ she said.

‘And I wouldn’t be wouldn’t be Serena if it wasn’t Venus so thank you Venus. She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.

‘It’s been a fun ride, it’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever had in my life. And I’m just so grateful to every single person that’s ever said “go Serena” in life. I’m just so grateful because it got me here.’

Asked if the game was her last, she replied: ‘I think so, you never know,’ before leaving the court promptly. Tomljanovic said afterwards: “I’m feeling really sorry just because I love Serena just as much as you guys do.

“What she has done for the sport of tennis is incredible.

“I never thought I’d have the chance to play her in her last match when I was a kid watching all those finals.”

Williams, who played her first professional tennis match in 1995 at the age of 14, walked calmly to the net after the game, waving to all sides of the stadium.

World News

Osun PDP expels governorship aspirant Dotun Babayemi for anti-party activities

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Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expelled a 2022 governorship aspirant, Dotun Babayemi, for alleged anti-party activities. Recall that Babayemi had emerged a governorship candidate in a parallel congress for the just concluded Osun governorship election, but did not become PDP flagbearer.

His expulsion was announced by ward executive members of Otun Balogun 2 in Ayedaade Local Government Area of the state during a press briefing at the state secretariat in Osogbo on Friday September 2.

Secretary of the Ward, Ogunleye Bukayo who read the address on behalf of the excos said the factional governorship candidate was expelled due to a petition filed against him by some party members.

Bukayo said;

“The Ward Executive Committee of the party at its meeting of 20th July 2022 received the report of the disciplinary committee, and after careful and extensive deliberations ratified the report of the disciplinary committee.

“The Ward Executive Committee of the Party in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by sections 57(2) and 59 (1) (g) of the constitution of PDP hereby remove and expel Prince Dotun Babayemi from the Peoples Democratic Party. He, therefore, ceases to be a member of the PDP henceforth.”

World News

Linus Idahosa Appointed to the George Washington University’s GEIF Board

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CEO Del-York International Group Mr. Linus Idahosa and Dean Mehrotra; Dean of the George Washington School of Business DC.

The CEO of Del York International Group, Mr. Linus Idahosa has been appointed as a founding board member of the Global ESG Impact Investment Forum (GEIF)of the George Washington University.

The GEIF is an initiative of the George Washington University’s School of Business (GWSB) championed by the School’s Institute for Corporate Responsibility.

George Washington University (GWU) is a private federally chartered research University that was established in 1821 by the United States Congress and is the largest institution of higher education in the Washington District of Columbia and one of the most highly ranked globally.

L/R Jefferey Stoddard, Adjunct Professor of Real Estate Investment at GWU.John Forrer, the Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility (ICR), Linus Idahosa CEO of the Del-York International Group.

The concept of impact investing is a novelle means of financing projects and investment opportunities that places sustainability and responsible governance at its core.

The ESG board is comprised of top industry leaders, present and past government officials, and scholars with a membership cap of only 30 members.

“The appointment, a confirmation of Mr. Linus Idahosa’s global entrepreneurial credentials, is itself an opportunity to bring the important benefits and deep untapped potential of impact investing to Nigeria and Africa as a whole” says Jefferey Stoddard, Adjunct Professor of Real Estate Investment at GWU.

Dean Mehrotra, a member of the Economic Club of Washington, DC and the Dean of the George Washington University School of Business, in company of the the Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility (ICR), John Forrer both congratulated Linus and welcomed him to the board.

In his response to the appointment, Linus Idahosa said

“I am deeply honored to have been appointed to the board of George Washington University’s Global ESG Impact Investment Forum, especially coming from a country and Continent where the potential opportunities for impact investing are immeasurable.

I hope to bring to bear my unique sectoral and regional experience in making the most of the opportunity for all the stakeholders of the GWU community, my Continent and the world at large”

The board will be inaugurated in Washington DC this fall.

World News

Six family members die trying to save sisters who drowned taking selfie at waterfall

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A family outing turned to tragedy as six relatives drowned at a beauty spot.

Two sisters from a family outing of 15 entered the water at Ramdaha Falls of Chhattisgarh in India.

Shraddha and Shweta Singh, aged 14 and 22, were attempting to take a selfie in the water on Sunday, August 28, when the younger sister lost her footing and got into difficulty.

Relatives rushed to Shraddaha’s aid, with brother Himanshu Singh, 18, cousin Rishabh Singh, 24 and his wife Sulekha Singh, 22, jumping into the plunge pool holding hands to try and rescue the sisters. Brothers Abhay Singh, 22, and Ratnesh Singh, 26, also got in to help.

However, witnesses say that within moments all of the relatives began to struggle in deep water.

Horrified onlookers contacted the authorities. Unfortunately, only Sulekha was pulled out alive. Sulekha, from Madhya Pradesh, remains in a critical condition in hospital where she is undergoing treatment.

Officers enlisted divers from the State Disaster Emergency Relief Force to search for those missing. Three bodies were recovered on Sunday evening, August 28, and another three were pulled from the water on Monday morning, August 29.

Korea District Magistrate Kuldeep Sharma told the Times of India that the bodies had been sent for autopsies before being released back to the remaining members of the family.

Police said that signs had been placed at the popular picnic spot to warn visitors not to bathe in the water.

This tragic incident comes less than six months after another drowning at the same spot which claimed the lives of three men from Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh.

World News

Serena Williams beats world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit in three sets to reach US Open third round

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Tennis legend Serena Williams continued on her impressive run at the US Open 2022 by defeating World No.2 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in three sets to proceed to the third round.

The 40-year-old American star won 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 in front of a loud crowd at a full Arthur Ashe Stadium.

It took Serena two hours and 27 minutes to secure the victory on Wednesday night, August 31.

“I’m just Serena. After I lost the second set, I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I better give my best effort because this could be it,”

Williams said after the game, surely echoing the thoughts of every one of the people paying any attention.

‘I’m loving this crowd, it’s fantastic, there’s still a little left in me,’ she said. ‘I love a challenge and rising to the challenge. The last two matches has really come together. After I lost the second set I thought I had to give my best effort.”

“I’m super competitive. Honestly, I’m just looking at it as a bonus. I don’t have anything to prove,” she said, which certainly is true.

“I never get to play like this — since ’98, really. Literally, I’ve had an ‘X’ on my back since ’99,” the year she claimed her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open at age 17.

The six-time champion will play for a spot in the fourth round on Friday, September 2. Her opponent will be Ajla Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian.

World News

Tributes, Flowers For Princess Diana On 25th Death Anniversary

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Flowers and other tributes were laid on Wednesday at Princess Diana’s former London home and above the Paris road tunnel where she lost her life, to mark the 25th anniversary of her death.

The former Lady Diana Spencer, whose fairytale marriage to Prince Charles captivated the world until it publicly unravelled with infidelity and divorce, died in a car crash in the French capital on August 31, 1997.

A trickle of well-wishers left flowers, flags and photographs for the self-styled “queen of people’s hearts” at the gates of Kensington Palace, and at the Place Diana, above the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.

At the Spencer family home, Althorp House, where Diana is buried in a lead-lined coffin on a secluded island on the estate, her brother Charles Spencer lowered the Union Jack to half mast.

World News

NCC fixes $0.10 for international calls termination

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The Nigerian Communications Commission has set $0.10 as the new fixed International Termination Rate for voice services paid by overseas telecom carriers for ending international calls on local networks in Nigeria.

The ITR pertains to the cost of bringing call traffic into Nigeria, and it was increased from the $0.045 initially presented in December last year as a floor price.

The Commission said the new rate, which would take effect September 1, 2022, was the fixed rate for ITR services.It added that international operators were mandated to pay local operations in dollars.

This is according to a document on the Determination of Mobile (Voice) International Termination Rate (As Amended) as of August 25, 2022, which is available on the NCC website.On the reason for backtracking on the floor price to a fixed price, the NCC noted,

“While the Determination had set a floor price at $0.045 and gives the MNOs room to negotiate on commercial terms with carriers, there were related indications that MNOs took advantage of this latitude to engage in discriminatory pricing that favours their related international carrier partners to the detriment of the Nigerian transit/IDA operators.

“To check the incidence of such anticompetitive disposition, it was agreed by all parties at the meetings that a fixed rate should be adopted by the Commission, in place of the floor rate which had provided a platform for negotiations with various carriers at a rate above the floor.

“It was further agreed that the present Determination should be amended to include this new fixed rate.”

World News

France to expel imam for hate speech

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France’s top administrative court on Tuesday gave the green light for the expulsion to Morocco of an imam accused of hate speech, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Hassan Iquioussen “will be expelled from the national territory” in “a great victory for the republic,” the minister wrote on Twitter, citing a decision of the Council of State.

The case landed before the highest court after Paris judges blocked the imam’s deportation, which the interior ministry ordered in late July over “especially virulent anti-Semitic speech” and sermons calling for women’s “submission” to men.Iquioussen, 58, reaches tens of thousands of subscribers via YouTube and Facebook accounts from his home in northern France.He was born in France but holds Moroccan citizenship.

His lawyers successfully applied to the Paris court for a block on the order, saying it would create “disproportionate harm” to his “private and family life”.

An interior ministry lawyer last week told the Council of State Iquioussen “has for years spread insidious ideas that are nothing less than incitement to hatred, to discrimination and to violence”.

But the preacher’s lawyer retorted that some of the remarks including anti-Semitic or misogynistic speech dated back more than 20 years, pointing out that he had never been prosecuted for his public statements.

“Yes, Mr Iquioussen is a conservative. He has made retrograde statements on women’s place in society,” Lucie Simon said.“But that does not constitute a serious threat to public order.”

The interior ministry representative retorted that the imam’s words “create fertile ground for separatism and even terrorism,” insisting that he “remains an anti-Semite”.

Darmanin had warned that he would try to change the law if judges found Iquioussen could not be expelled.

Entertainment, Lifestyle, World News

American model pleads not guilty to boyfriend’s murder

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American influencer and Only Fans model, Courtney Clenney, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her late Nigerian boyfriend, Christian Tobechukwu Obumseli.

Clenney, who is professionally known as Courtney Tailor, was arrested on August 10 as a suspect in Obumseli’s murder which occurred earlier in the year.

It was reported last week that policemen responded to calls at the couple’s Miami apartment on April 3, where Tobechukwu was found bleeding. Clenney was also found covered in blood at the scene.

Miami Fire Rescue personnel took him to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where a doctor pronounced him dead.

According to court documents obtained by E! News, the model pleaded not guilty to one count of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon via a written plea dated August 18.

She is also to be arraigned on the 31st of August.Clenney’s attorney, Frank Prieto, stated after her arrest that the move by the police was shocking because of “clear evidence of self-defense in this matter.”

World News

Morning news anchor dies at 27 from apparent suicide

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A Wisconsin morning news anchor died on Saturday, August 27, at age 27 in an apparent suicide.

News of WAOW anchor Neena Pacholke, who grew up in Tampa and played basketball for the University of South Florida, was engaged to be married at the time of her death, her older sister Kaitlynn Pacholke told Tampa Bay Times. Her sudden death left her family and colleagues stunned and many are mourning her online.

“Neena Pacholke, our beloved morning anchor passed away suddenly Saturday,” 9 WAOW said in a statement.

“The entire team here at News 9 are absolutely devastated by the loss as we know so many others are as well.”

“She was just like a little ball of sunshine, and her smile was massive,” Kaitlynn Pacholke said on Monday, August 29. “My sister was by far the happiest person I thought I knew.”

One of Pacholke’s last posts on Twitter was a retweet from author Jon Gordon about positivity and believing the best is yet to come. The tweet reads:

“We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard. Give yourself (and others) grace. Speak life and encourage others. Look for the good today. Remember your WHY. Believe the best is yet to come.”

“She was a kind person with a big heart and a contagious smile and we will miss her greatly,” the station said.

Her co-anchor Brendan Mackey said Pacholke was “the brightest light in the room” with the “biggest smile and the funniest laugh.”

Lifestyle, World News

They call ‘my children the N-word’ – Meghan Markle hits out at British media

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Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle has disclosed that she hated having to share family photos with the British media outlets whose readers called her children ”the N-word.”

Speaking in a wide-ranging The Cut cover story published on Monday August 29, Meghan disclosed she was expected to give pictures of her now-3-year-old son, Archie, to the Royal Rota, the press pool that covers Queen Elizabeth II and her line of succession, however she did not. She said;

“There’s literally a structure. “Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?“You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game.”

Markle noted that she and Prince Harry did not have control of the @KensingtonRoyal Instagram account they initially shared with Prince William and Kate Middleton.

When the couple broke off to make their own social media handle, @sussexroyal, they chose not to play the “exchange game.”

Instead, Markle and the prince, 37, posted photos without first giving them to the Royal Rota.

The pair shut down their account when they stepped back from their royal roles, which they officially quit in February 2021, but Markle teased her upcoming Instagram return in the interview with the New York magazine offshoot.

The “Deal or No Deal” alum, who is also the mother of 1-year-old daughter Lilibet, has previously addressed the racist media coverage that drove her and her husband from the royal family and off of social media.

The bullying was “almost unsurvivable,” Markle told Oprah Winfrey in her bombshell CBS interview last year, revealing that she experienced suicidal thoughts.

World News

Groom-to-be killed by lightning strike while posing for engagement photoshoot with his fiancée

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A groom-to-be has died after being struck by lightning while posing for engagement photos with his fiancée in a popular tourist spot in China.

The horrific incident occurred at China’s Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Yunnan province last week.

The man identified as Ruan, was hit by a lightning bolt during a wedding photoshoot with his fiancée at the Spruce Meadow, a popular scenic spot.

He was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, South China Morning Post reported.

Before the lightning struck, Chinese authorities reportedly issued a yellow weather warning, the third highest in the country’s weather system.

Despite the thunderstorm, the couple decided to go ahead with their planned photoshoot.

Pictures showed the rescue crew carrying the man on a stretcher in heavy rain.

World News

Nigerian man and his Indian wife arrested for allegedly duping government employee of over N15m

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A Nigerian man and his Indian wife have been arrested in Delhi for allegedly duping a government employee out of Rs 30 lakh (N15,838m) through honey-trapping.

The accused identified as Emmanuel Nnamani and his wife, T. Suchim Tikhir, a native of Nagaland, were arrested from Delhi’s Maidangari area by Cyber Crime & Economic Offence Police of Balasore on Saturday, August 27, 2022.

Earlier this month, another Nigerian national, Samson Emeke Alika, was arrested in connection with the case. The complainant alleged that he came in contact with a woman who claimed to be from United Kingdom (UK) through Facebook and they had chatted through Whatsapp.

The woman allegedly informed the complainant of having sent a gift of huge value containing gold biscuits, a Rolex watch, and an I-phone.

Later the complainant received a call over the phone, the caller identifying himself as a Customs Officer informed that a gift of high value in his name has arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) from London for which he has to pay Customs charges to receive the gift.

The complainant kept depositing Rs 2 lakh, Rs 3 lakh, and Rs 4 lakh at different instances to the tune of around Rs 30 lakh. Then the complainant realized that he has been duped and lodged a complaint at the Balasore Cyber Police Station.

Following the investigation, Balasore Cyber Police arrested Alika from New Delhi earlier this. His passport had expired in 2018 and another passport in his possession appeared to be a forged one.

Amresh Kumar Panigrahi, additional SP, Balasore, said they have seized two laptops, one Hyundai i20 car, one Dangal, two invalid passports, one SBI passbook, two gold chains and seven mobile phones from the couple’s possession.

The three persons worked as a team to cheat the victim from Balasore district. Further investigation into the case is on, to nab other people involved, Panigrahi added.

Football, World News

Woman who accused footballer Benjamin Mendy of rape claims she was ‘pressured’ by police to press charges

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A woman who claims that a Premier League footballer raped her yesterday admitted she felt ‘pressured’ by police to press charges.

She said she had not initially considered her encounter with Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy, 28, to be rape and told officers she didn’t want to get involved in the case.

The woman, aged 22, is one of three who claim the French international raped them at a two-day pool party at his £4.8million mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire, last summer.

Testifying from behind a screen, she told Chester Crown Court that she was contacted by officers five months later and felt like she was ‘being dragged into the situation’ and it was the police who first called what happened to her ‘rape’.

The footballer allegedly forced himself on her during a ’20-second’ attack, which left her feeling ‘dirty and ashamed’.

She told the court: ‘I felt the word rape meant like a stranger or in an alleyway. But he was my friend and it was his house.’

She added: ‘It was not any different to what I had experienced before. I felt there was pressure on me but boys can be quite pressuring.’

She accepted that before giving her police interview she had Googled: ‘How much is Benjamin Mendy worth?’ and that she kept in touch with him on social media following the alleged rape.

She also agreed that there was a group of people, including some of the alleged victims, known as ‘the Manchester circle’ in the city’s clubs. She claimed that after Mendy’s arrest, his co-accused and alleged ‘fixer’, Louis Saha Matturie, 41, messaged her: ‘Ben’s done a lot of crazy stuff.’ Mendy denies eight counts of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault.

Saha, of Eccles, Greater Manchester, denies eight rapes and four sex assaults.

The trial continues.

World News

137 borders in Nigeria are unguarded – CDS Lucky Irabor

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Lucky Irabor, the Chief of Defence Staff has said that 137 out of about 261 borders in the north-east and north-west regions of the country are unguarded.

Delivering a lecture on “security, defence & development in Nigeria” at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos on Thursday August 25, Irabor noted that porous nature of the borders has made it easily accessible for terrorists and bandits to enter the country to commit mayhem.

He said;

“Our borders are largely unmanned. The penetrability of our vast unmanned land areas – the north-east and north-west zones, particularly Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina states – with neigbouring countries such as Niger Republic and Chad among others has continued to be a key source of criminality and violent crimes in those parts of the country.

“The porous nature of the borders has made it easily accessible for terrorists and bandits to enter the country to commit mayhem. For instance, there are about 364 approved international border points in Nigeria with about 261 in the north-east and north-west regions.

Out of this 261 only 124 are manned leaving the remaining 137 unmanned by security agencies. Intelligence suggests that violence actors are using some of these normal border points to move freely from countries into Nigeria to cause mayhem.”

Irabor who advocated for use of technology as a tool in strengthening the Nigerian borders, erection of physical structures and an effective management, added that there is a need to have a broad based integrated border management system to be established.

He said;

“So I am looking ahead, when we bring technology to bear in the management of our borders, in addition of course, to physical, structures that need to be established across the length of our borders, then we cam contribute to the overall security of our land.“We move to correct this but the point remains that a good number of borders remain unmanned.”

World News

Atiku and Wike meet in London

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PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Governor Nyesom Wike met in London last night, Thursday August 25.

Both men have been at loggerheads after Gov Wike lost out in the May 28/29 Presidential primary of the party and also lost out in becoming the Vice Presidential candidate of the party. Efforts to resolve their issues had failed until recently.

PDP social media handles shared the photos of their meeting with some other PDP governors and stakeholders with the caption “A United Family, Stronger Together”

The meeting was held a few hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, met Gov Wike and some other PDP governors and stakeholders.

Business, Entertainment, World News

Anthony Joshua lacked confidence against Usyk – Deontay Wilder

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American Heavyweight boxer, Deontay Wilder has claimed that Anthony Joshua lost his rematch to Oleksandr Usyk due to a lack of confidence.

Wilder, who is set for a ring return on October 15 against Finland’s Robert Helenius, believes Joshua showed a lack of confidence in the build-up to the fight and has questioned the 32-year-old’s mentality.

“Sometimes you just look at both fighters, and sometimes the eye test will tell it all,” Wilder told ESNews.

“The body language is telling a story, the way the momentum of a fighter is telling a story, you could look at Usyk and tell how confident he was, how the tables have turned, you could tell he owned it, he feels like who he is.

“With Joshua, you could tell that he wasn’t himself, his usual self of being motivated and secure within himself.”

Wilder also claimed he received an offer from Eddie Hearn before Joshua’s fight with Usyk, adding that it was a sign the promoter did not have full confidence in Joshua’s ability to reclaim the heavyweight titles.

“Eddie Hearn came to us, after everything is over with my fight, talking about offering a deal,” said Wilder.

“My thing is we’re busy. For me, it’s easy to see what was going on. Boxing’s solely a business, it’s not a sport. It’s strictly a business.

“But he was trying to contact us for reassurance.

All of a sudden you want to make a fight because even you don’t have confidence in your own fighter that he was going to win.

“For me, he was trying to make a deal to ensure he can lock something in but the thing about it is when you lose that price goes up. He ain’t going to get no solid deal locked in. We’re not stupid, when you’re

World News

17 year old pilot becomes youngest to fly around the world solo

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Mack Rutherford, a 17 year old teenager has become the become the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a small aircraft. Mack Rutherford landed at Sofia in Bulgaria, after a five-month journey across 52 countries.

The trip took him through Europe, Asia, Africa, the US, across two oceans, with his plane touching down in the UK at Wick in Scotland and departing from London’s Biggin Hill Airport earlier this week. Along the way, Mack, who is British-Belgian, encountered sandstorms in Sudan and spent the night on an uninhabited Pacific island.

After completing the feat on Wednesday, August 24, Mack encouraged others to “follow your dreams, no matter how old you are”.”Work hard and move forward to achieve your goals”, he added.

The previous record holder for flying solo was British pilot Travis Ludlow, who was 18 years when he completed his journey last year.

Mark’s elder sister Zara is the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

She completed her own journey in January this year and disclosed that she had “given him advice on the route” and she travelled to greet Mack as he returned to the starting point of his trip.Mack, comes from a family of aviators.

He set off from the Bulgarian capital on 23 March, experiencing extreme heat in Dubai and unexpected airport closures in India.

Mark also said he had slept in a shed beside a runway on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean after a “hairy moment” passing through through rain and low cloud.

In an earlier interview with CNN while he was part of the way through his journey, Mack described some of the beautiful places he was able to fly past, from wildlife in national parks in Kenya to the New York City skyline.

He added always having “something I can look at” helped him maintain focus in the low-altitude flights – which took up to 11 hours at a time.Asked what his plans for the future were, Mack said:

“I’m going to keep flying. I’m thinking of something like the air force, but I’m nowhere 100% sure on anything.”After I finish this I’ve just got to focus on school and try and catch up as much as I can.”

With the feat he has now broken two Guinness World Records – becoming the youngest person to fly around the world solo, as well as the youngest to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight plane.

The teenager flew a Shark – a high-performance ultralight aircraft which can hit a cruising speed of around 186mph (300km/h).

His sister Zara said that she was “constantly” trying to keep in touch and assist her brother while he was in the air.

“Our parents called him every day, and I joined in those conversations. “I gave him advice on the route, on the flight, so that I could be useful to him.”

Mack has previously said he wanted to be a pilot since the age of three and he achieved the feat in September 2020 when he qualified for his licence aged 15.

His father Sam Rutherford is a professional ferry pilot, while his mother Beatrice is a private pilot.

World News

Appeal Court upholds life sentence of two Nigerians and others jailed for drug smuggling in Cambodia

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The Phnom Penh Appeal Court has upheld the life sentence given by the municipal court to two Nigerian men, a Filipina and Cambodian woman, in connection with smuggling of more than 2.5 kilogrammes of cocaine from Brazil to Cambodia in 2014.

Presiding Judge Ky Rithy said, “After having a clear consideration in this case, the Judges’ Council of the Phnom Penh Appeal Court has found that the sentences given by the Phnom Penh Appeal Court is appropriate and fit for their offence.”

The four convicts have the rights to appeal against the judgement to the Supreme Court within a month.

Judge Ky Rithy named the four as 49-year-old former nurse from Philippines Macoy Mavill Villamor; Nigerian cloth vendors Emmanuel Thankgod, male, 41; and Michael Sunshine, male, 39; and Cambodian Meng Sinuon, 38, a former waitress working with a French-owned-restaurant living in Chamkar Mon district’s Phsar Doeum Thkov commune.

Macoy was sentenced on September 16, 2014 by the Municipal Court with a life sentence while Sunshine got 30 years, Thankgod 27 years, and Meng Sinuon got 22 years in prison.

Besides, all the convicts were slapped with fine of $10,000 each. They were charged with ‘drug transport and trafficking’ under Article 40 of the Law on Drug Control.

Macoy was arrested on February 12, 2014 at the Phnom Penh International Airport in a joint operation by the police in the anti-drug department at the Ministry of Interior, the excise and customs police officers and immigration police.

Police seized a total of 2,513 grammes of cocaine powders from Macoy and her confession led to the arrest of Nigerians who arrived to receive the drug from her.

World News

UK Govt in talks with Nigeria to receive migrants rejected for asylum in the UK

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Nigeria is among five more African countries reportedly in ‘advanced talks’ with the UK government over a Rwanda-style deal.

The UK-Rwanda deal seeks to remove illegal immigrants from the UK for processing their asylum claims out of Europe.Now, Morocco, Nigeria, Namibia, Niger, and Ghana are all in discussions with the UK government about receiving migrants rejected for asylum from the UK, The Times reports.

This comes after 25 boats were intercepted by Border Force and the Royal Navy on Monday and escorted into Dover and Dungeness in the morning, before hundreds more people were brought ashore into the evening amid a large number of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK.

According to reports, as many as 1,000 people may have arrived yesterday, after three days without crossings.

August is set to become a record month for the year with around 6,000 migrants having crossed the Channel so far, The Telegraph reports.

The highest ever total in a month is 6,878 in November. And yesterday the yearly total reached 21,000. The total did not pass 20,000 until November in 2021.

It was also revealed that the Foreign Office has been taking up the task of establishing a list of countries interested in agreeing on a Rwanda-style deal.

An initial list of 20 countries was quickly reduced when ambassadors warned that seeking such agreements would damage relations.

Albania, North Macedonia, and Moldova were on the initial list but were removed following the negative media coverage.

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