Author: straightnewsng.com

Christmas Island in Kiribati, an island country in the central Pacific Ocean, was the first country to pop Champagne, welcoming 2024 while it was just 5 a.m. on December 31 on the East Coast of the United States and 11 a.m. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, the global standard). On the other side of the international date line, Hawaii, American Samoa, and many of the US outlying islands will be among the last places to celebrate the new year. They’ll have to wait until Monday morning (Eastern Time) to toast 2024. In all, there are 39 different local time zones in use across the…

Irked by allegations of genocide, South Africa has filed an application at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings against Israel for its war against Hamas in Gaza, the ICJ confirmed. More than 21,507 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the enclave’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. Among the dead are at least 308 people who were sheltering in United Nations shelters, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, in response to Hamas’ deadly terror attacks and kidnapping rampage on October 7, have…

As the Nigerian Senate okayed Bola Tinubu’s request to borrow $ 7.8 billion and €100 million, the President has pumped up loans package of his administration.  The latest forms part of the 2022–2024 borrowing plan of the Federal Government. The request was approved after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on Local and Foreign Debt during Saturday’s plenary. Tinubu had said that the Federal Executive Council under former President Muhammadu Buhari approved the loan facility on May 15, 2023, to finance health, education, infrastructure, agriculture, insecurity, and other sectors. The president added that the foreign loan…

Akwa Ibom Governor Umo Eno last week signed the 2024 appropriation bill of N849.97 billion into law. Eno, who gave the assent during an expanded Executive Council meeting held at the Government House, Uyo, on Thursday, called for an increase in revenue generation effort. The final budget size of N849.970 billion signed into law, as passed by the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly on December 21, indicated an addition of N4.3 billion from the original sum of N845.63 billion presented by the governor. The governor stressed the need to pay greater attention to the revenue generation in the 2024 fiscal…

Before passage of the 2024 budget into law, the Nigerian Senate on Saturday had added about N1.2 trillion to it. It increased the budget from N27.5 trillion presented by President Bola Tinubu in November to N28.7 trillion. The reason for the increment was clearly stated by the upper legislative chambers. However, the Red chamber pegged the benchmark of oil price at $77.96 per barrel of crude oil to reflect the current market values of the product in the international market. The Senators approved the oil production rate of 1.78 million barrels per day and the exchange rate of N800 to a US…

Sympathisers and passersby developed goose pimples as a family of eight travelling home for the New Year celebration perished in an auto crash at the Amanwozuzu junction in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State. Our correspondent, who visited the scene of the tragedy, was told by eyewitnesses and police officers on duty that the father of the family who was conveying his wife and children in a Sienna vehicle ran into a stationary truck carrying rods on Thursday, December 29, around 3 pm, The identities of the victims were not known as at the time of filing this report.…

As 2024 elections near, former US President Donald Trump is walking a slippery path to the Republican presidential primary ballot. The US state of Maine on Thursday blocked Trump, the second state to disqualify him over his role in the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol. Maine’s top election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, decided in favor of the citizens who had claimed that Trump should be constitutionally barred from seeking re-election after trying to upend the 2020 election. Bellows said in her decision that the January 6 attack “occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge…

Incidence of sanitation-related diseases rose from 27 per cent in 2018 to 39 per cent in 2023 in Nigeria, a STONE Pro-Max 2023 reported.  This was contained in the report of project circus review period (2018–2023) tagged STONE Pro-Max 2023 signed by Prince Ene Baba Owoh, Jr, the National Co-ordinator/Secretary of National Technical Study Group (NTSG).  ‘The incidence and prevalence of sanitation related diseases has increased by Twenty Seven (27%) per cent in 2018 to thirty nine (39%) per cent in 2023,’’ the report stated. The report further stated that ‘‘Inadequate sanitation/hygiene practices of the people in thirty two (32)…

Nigeria’s Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio has described the Christmas Eve killing of more than 155 persons in 26 villages of Plateau State as “reprehensible, barbaric and unacceptable.” Akpabio stated this in a condolence message to Governor Caleb Mutfwang and people of the state signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh. While commiserating with the government and the bereaved families, he charged the security agencies to ensure that the perpetrators of the dastard and inhuman act are apprehended and dealt with accordingly. “My heart bleeds at the barbaric and well-coordinated attacks by supposedly human beings against…

Human Rights groups in Nigeria have joined in condemning the Christmas Eve terrorists’ attacks on communities in Plateau State, Nigeria, which led to the massacre of more than 160 innocent Nigerians and the displacement of about 10,000 persons.  The latest is the Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN), described the attacks as a “carnage, barbaric, and condemnable,” calling on the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice. This was contained in a press release issued by its Director and Secretary, Otuekong Franklyn Isong and Barr. Christopher Ekpo, respectively, on Wednesday,…