Five Injured In Lagos Explosion

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April 14, 2025

The United States mission has announced changes to its visa interview requirements for Nigerian travellers.

According to a statement on the mission’s site on Friday, the new requirements take effect on April 22.

Based on the release, visa applicants in Abuja and Lagos must take along a DS-160 visa application form with a confirmation/barcode number that begins with “AA” followed by two zeroes.

The US mission said the code must match the one used to schedule their appointment online.

It warned that the failure to verify the alignment will result in denial of entry into the consular section or the visa interview, the mission warned.

“At least two weeks before your interview, please double-check that the barcode number on your DS-160 form matches the one you used to schedule your appointment,” the mission added.

“You cannot reuse a DS-160 from a previous application. If your DS-160 barcode is incorrect, you must log into your AVITS account at least 10 days before your appointment to create a support ticket requesting correction of your barcode number.”

The mission also advised applicants to ensure that their appointment is made at the location chosen during the DS-160 application process. The revisions are part of the efforts of the consulate to ensure a smoother “visa processing”.

Starting January 1, all visa applicants were mandated to visit the Consulate General in Lagos twice as part of the application process.

Credit: channelstv.com

US court orders FBI, anti-drug agency to release Tinubu’s records

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April 14, 2025

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, FBI, to make information about President Bola Tinubu public.

Judge Beryl Howell gave the order on Tuesday.

The development was sequel to a motion by Aaron Greenspan, an American who is seeking a reconsideration of an earlier ruling.

Howell said protecting the information from public disclosure is “neither logical nor plausible”.

Greenspan had accused the FBI of violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by failing to release within the statutory time “documents relating to purported federal investigations into” Tinubu and one Abiodun Agbele.

Tinubu was alleged to have forfeited $460,000 to the US government in 1993 after authorities linked the funds to proceeds of narcotics trafficking.

Recall that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and andLabour Party candidate Peter Obi had challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest Nigeria’s presidency at the Presidential Election Petition Court.

Then the issue of Tinubu’s forfeiture of the funds featured prominently, but the election court dismissed the suits and affirmed Tinubu’s election.

However, on Tuesday, Judge Howell ruled partly in favour of Greenspan.

The judge said that the FBI and DEA failed to show that they properly invoked the FOIA.

Credit: dailypost.ng

Goldfields to close down Damang mine if …

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KWESI ALFRED ADAMS

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April 14, 2025

Mining giant, Gold Fields Ghana Limited (GFGL), says it may not continue its operations at its Damang mine beyond April 18, 2025 following rejection of the company’s application for extension of the Damang mining lease.

The lease for the Damang mine expires on April 18, 2025 and the mother company, Gold Fields, applied to government for extension, but the latter rejected the request.

No reason has been offered by government for the rejection.

In a press statement announcing the rejection, Managing Director of GFGL, Elliot Twum, said the company had tabled a further proposal for the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to consider.

In the interim, we must begin preparation to comply with the expiry of our mining lease,” the company said.
According to Elliot Twum, “starting today and over the weekend the company must initiate a phased reduction in production and take steps toward ensuring a safe and orderly shutdown of current mining activities at Damang, pending resolution of the matter or further clarity on the way forward.

“We encourage all our people there to remain focused on maintaining safe and productive operations. We understand this news may come as a shock and will cause concern, particularly to our employees, business partners and communities at Damang.”
In view of this development, the company has established a Management Committee to urgently assess the situation, identify potential paths toward resolution and evaluate the possible impacts on their people.

“Our immediate priorities are to ensure the safety and security of our people, understand the implications of government’s decision including any plans that they may have for the future of Damang mine and explore how we can best mitigate any negative effects on our people.”

The statement assured that GFGL was fully committed to engaging constructively with all relevant stakeholders regarding the issue at stake.

My biggest fear is being alone -Lady Gaga

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April 14, 2025

No-one wants to be alone, and no job is more isolating than being a pop star.

Just ask Lady Gaga.

Her rise to fame in 2009-10 was unlike anything we’d seen before. One of the first pop stars to harness the power of the internet, she seemed to exist in a permanent onslaught of TMZ photos and gossip blogs.

Their appetite was voracious. She wore through so many looks and sounds in the space of three years that one critic wrote she was “speed-running Madonna’s entire career”.

And as her fame grew, the headlines became more unhinged. She staged a satanic ritual in a London hotel… She was secretly a hermaphrodite… She planned to saw her own leg off “for fashion”.

When she attended the 2010 MTV Awards in a dress made entirely of meat, nobody seemed to get the joke: Gaga was presenting herself as fodder for the tabloids, there to be consumed.

On stage, she was an object of worship for her fans, the Little Monsters. But anyone who isn’t a megalomaniac knows that that sort of adulation is a distant illusion.

“I’m alone, Brandon. Every night,” Gaga told her stylist in the 2017 documentary, Five Foot Two.

“I go from everyone touching me all day and talking at me all day to total silence.”

Now 38, and happily engaged to tech entrepreneur Michael Polansky, Gaga admits that those years of solitude scared her.

“I think my biggest fear was doing this by myself – doing life on my own,” she tells the BBC.

“And I think that the greatest gift has been meeting my partner, Michael, and being in the mayhem with him.”

Credit: bbc.com

I died, went to heaven but God sent me back –Actress Doris Ogala

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April 14, 2025

Nollywood actress Doris Ogala has shared a deeply personal and spiritual experience, claiming that she died briefly and visited heaven before being sent back to earth.

In an emotional post shared on Instagram on Thursday, Ogala recounted the surreal encounter, stating that she was told by a divine voice that her time on earth was not yet over.

“I may not have much time now. I have to speak up. I died a few days ago. God gave me a second chance,” she wrote.

The actress described her heavenly vision as serene and majestic, where she felt completely free of earthly burdens.

Ogala claimed she was a queen and had servants attending to her.

“I saw myself in heaven. Very peaceful. All my burden was “lifted. I didn’t want to come back. It was so cool and smooth. The feeling is out of this world. I was a queen. I had servants and gold coins everywhere. Believe me, this is what I saw,” she said.

Sharing a short video from the day of the incident, Ogala continued, “I died as you are seeing me here. I was dead physically but I was in heaven. And God said to me, my child go back, it’s not your turn yet.”

She added that she was gently led through a beautiful passage before being told to wait for her time.

Ogala’s testimony has sparked conversations online, with many fans expressing awe and support, while others have responded with curiosity, asking if there were servants in heaven.

Credit: myjoyonline.com

Empress Gifty announces collaborative album with Kuami Eugene

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April 14, 2025

Ghanaian gospel singer Empress Gifty has disclosed that she will be soon launching a collaborative album with singer Kuami Eugene.

According to the gospel artiste, the album would be expected to drop by October this year, the first time she would collaborate with Kuami Eugene.

This year, maybe by October, my album will be out. It is a project with Kuami Eugene. This is my first project with him.

On what inspired the gospel singer to embark on the project, she revealed that Kuami Eugene had contacted her, in hopes of having her on the project.

He called me, and he told me he has something for me. Sometimes you need to have connections with the person and I think, myself and Kuami have that connection and it is working for us.

However, this would not be the first time Kuami Eugene would collaborate with a gospel musician. Kuami collaborated with gospel singer Joyce Blessing last year, preceded by a feature with Obaa Christy in 2020. This feature with Empress Gifty will be his third gospel collaboration.

Credit: pulse.com.gh

“I’m going to get Ghana’s film industry working again” –Kafui Danku

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April 14, 2025

The Executive Secretary of the National Film Authority, Kafui Danku-Pitcher, has expressed optimism in the revival of the film industry in Ghana.

In an interview on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z, Kafui said she was ready to bring a positive change in the film sector.

“When we grant interviews addressing our problems in the industry, apart from reviving the cinema culture, we also talk mainly about funding and distribution. It runs across most of the interviews; at least 99% of the interviews we grant when we talk about the challenges we are facing. So we want to work towards getting the film fund, and also I am gonna get the industry working again,” she told the host Kwame Dadzie.

Kafui Danku, who assumed office as the Executive Secretary about a month ago, has since been engaging stakeholders of the film industry to lay the foundation for the proper take-off of her administration.

In the meantime, she has, through a press release, informed film practitioners to register with the authority for their licences to enable classification of their films.

“In accordance with the Development and Classification of Film Act, 2016 (Act 935), the National Film Authority (NFA) reminds all filmmakers and exhibitors that all films intended for public exhibition in Ghana must be classified by the NFA,” the press release states.

According to the law, “a person shall not exhibit or cause to be exhibited a film unless the film has been passed and classified by the NFA.”

The release also indicates that this regulation aims to streamline, develop, and uphold standards in Ghana’s growing film ecosystem, and applies to feature films, short films, trailers, TV series, documentaries, adverts, music videos and other audio-visual content exhibited in cinemas, on television, online streaming platforms, or in any public space.

Stakeholders of the film industry are to “note that effective 1st May 2025, a new enforcement measure will be applied to the film classification process: Every producer, distributor or exhibitor submitting content for classification must hold a valid Film Producer / distributor / exhibitor licence issued by the NFA.”

Credit: myjoyonline.com

Tanzania’s top opposition party disqualified from polls, election commission says

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April 14, 2025

Tanzania's main opposition leader Tundu Lissu speaks with his lawyers

Tanzania’s main opposition party CHADEMA has been disqualified from elections due later this year, a senior election commission official said on Saturday, days after the party’s leader was charged with treason for allegedly seeking to disrupt the vote.

Ramadhani Kailima, director of elections at the Independent National Elections Commission, said CHADEMA had failed to sign a code of conduct document due on Saturday, thereby nullifying its participation in the presidential and parliamentary elections expected to take place in October.

“Any party that did not sign the code of conduct will not participate in the general election,” he said, adding that the ban would also cover all by-elections until 2030.

CHADEMA leader Tundu Lissu, a former presidential candidate, was charged with treason on Thursday.

The decision to disqualify his party will intensify scrutiny of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s record on rights as she seeks re-election. Rights campaigners and opposition parties have accused Hassan’s government of a growing crackdown on political opponents, citing a string of unexplained abductions and killings. The government has denied the allegations and has opened an investigation into reported abductions.

Hassan’s party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has said in the past that the government respects human rights and has denied any involvement in human rights violations.

CHADEMA did not immediately comment on the election commission’s decision.

Earlier on Saturday, the party said it would not participate in the election code of conduct signing ceremony, as part of a push it is making for reforms. Credit: cnn.com

Israeli strike destroys part of last fully functioning hospital in Gaza

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April 14, 2025