Ayeiroyin

car bomb has killed seven police officers and wounded more than 24 people in Turkey's Diyarbakir, a day before the prime minister was due to visit the biggest city in the largely Kurdish southeast. A parked car laden with explosives was detonated by remote control on Thursday as a minibus carrying the police officers turned a corner on a busy street, security sources said, adding that civilians were among the wounded. President Erdogan, who is on a visit to Washington for a nuclear security summit, denounced the attack, saying it showed the "ugly face" of militants "as they are cornered". "This shows terrorism's ugly face again. The determination of our security forces will, God willing, put an end" to it, Erdogan said. 27 people had also been wounded in the attack. The southeast has been scorched by violence since a ceasefire between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the government collapsed last July. Government believe that bo...

An overpass collapsed Thursday in the Indian city of Kolkata, crushing vehicles below it, killing at least 22 people and leaving dozens more missing, authorities said. Maj. Gen. Anurag Gupta, from India's National Disaster Management Authority, said early Thursday evening that authorities didn't then know how many people were driving across the bridge when it fell or how many more remained trapped. "We cannot predict how many people are still under wreckage," Gupta said. "We can't tell, since it's a bridge and not a building." Gupta said that in addition to those killed, at least 75 others suffered injuries in the midday collapse in a busy commercial area north of Kolkata's center. Relatives of the dead will get $7,500; critically injured will get $3,000, official says The Kolkata overpass that fell had been under construction for the past five years Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he's "shocked and saddened" Sgt. Saurav B...

The political crisis in Brazil yesterday spiraled closer to a tipping point, with the government appearing at risk of implosion months before the Rio Summer Olympics begin. President Dilma Rousseff’s odds of being impeached appear stronger than ever now that the country’s largest political party said it’s pulling out of her coalition government. The latest crisis began when federal police took Lula da Silva in for questioning as part of a long-running corruption investigation. A few days later, Rousseff, his handpicked successor and protégé, named him chief of staff, a move that largely protects him from prosecution. That appointment prompted massive street protests. A legal battle has ensued trying to block Lula da Silva’s appointment while efforts to impeach the President have gained momentum. Rousseff won a second term in 2014, but she’s battled controversy since. A corruption investigation into a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras has emb...

The House of Representatives has accused the Presidency of being ungrateful to the National Assembly over claims that failure of the federal legislative arm to send details of the budget to the aNigeria President was responsible for his refusal to assent to the Appropriation Bill as passed. Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, who made this declaration on Wednesday in Abuja, said that it was unfortunate that the Presidency could lay the blame for Buhari’s withholding assent to the 2016 budget at the door step of the National Assembly, considering the errors and flaws contained in the original budget submitted to the National Assembly. Speaking to journalists, Rep. Jibrin described the 2016 budget as the most difficult Appropriation Bill the National Assembly has ever worked on while reacting to media reports that President declined to assent because the National Assembly failed to forward details of the budget. “We wish to make some clarifications...

Anglo-Dutch oil giant drawn into corruption probe that has dogged Italy’s Eni Italian prosecutors are investigating  Royal Dutch Shell  PLC’s involvement in a Nigerian oil deal, a person familiar with the matter said, drawing the oil company into a corruption probe that has dogged Italy’s energy giant  Eni  SpA. The prosecutors are investigating whether Shell’s piece of a $1.3 billion payment to acquire a rich oil field off the coast of Nigeria constituted a bribe, according to a person familiar with the probe. Italian and Dutch police last month raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague looking for evidence that could be used in the case, the person said. Shell on Wednesday confirmed it had received “notice of proceedings” from Italian prosecutors in connection with the Nigerian oil block and that its offices had been “visited” recently by Dutch authorities. The Anglo-Dutch company said it is cooperating with the investigators and is looking into the allegation...

The Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the three tiers of government collectively owe the electricity distribution companies about N60bn. According to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, the umbrella body of the firms, the Nigerian Army is the highest debtor, with over N15bn as of December 2015. The Executive Director, ANED, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the matter, stressing that the debt had started weighing down the Discos heavily. He said, “The total amount of debt owed the power distribution companies by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal, state and local governments is about N60bn. As of December last year, the total debt was N58bn, but it has grown to about N60bn as we speak. “A large part of this debt is owed by the military. The Nigerian Army takes pleasure in beating up our staff for unjust reasons and they don’t like to pay their bills. We won’t c...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday said that the President of Nigeria has given approval for the corporation to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee the country’s supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) petrol. In a statement “NNPC determined to end fuel scarcity,” its  Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen said that  due to the challenges that “major oil marketers face in contributing their supply quota due to constraint in accessing foreign exchange and outstanding subsidy obligations, NNPC is burdened with the obligation to guarantee almost 100% in the national supply, since the domestic crude oil supply (445,000 bbls/d) can only guarantee about 50% of the 45 million litres national requirement for petrol; we have secured presidential approval to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee national supply of petrol.” Explaining the causes of the scarcity, the spokesman noted that in continuing with our d...