Author: Chronicle Editor

US director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn is resigning, the White House has confirmed. Cohn was also President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser. His exit is the latest in a series of high-profile departures from President Trump’s team. There has been speculation that Mr Cohn, a supporter of free trade, was angered by Mr Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports. In a statement released by the White House, Mr Cohn said it had been “an honour to serve my country”. The 57-year-old former president of the Goldman Sachs bank helped Mr Trump push through…

Washington’s top diplomat set off for Africa on Tuesday to tour countries that form a new theater for competition with America’s ambitious great power rival China. Tillerson will visit the continent that President Donald Trump reportedly referred to as “shitholes” from which the US ought not to accept immigrants. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s trip to Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Chad and Nigeria will take him to new battlefields in the United States’ long war against Islamist extremism. But looming over the journey will be a different and arguably more important long-term challenge — the rise of China as an economic…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says it remitted N857.36 billion to the federation account in 2017. The Corporation disclosed this in a statement on its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for December 2017, released, on Tuesday in Abuja. It also said that it remitted N19 billion to the Federal Government for debt repayment, while N644.05 billion was used to finance its Joint Venture operations. It said that it recorded total export receipts of 476.25 million dollars in December 2017, from sale of crude oil and gas as against 201.11 million dollars in November 2017. According to the report, while…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has provided fresh 210 million dollars to meet customers’ requests in various segments of the foreign exchange market. The acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okoroafor in a statement in Abuja, said the CBN offered 100 million dollars to authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market. He said also that the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) segment received 55 million dollars, while another 55 million dollars was apportioned to invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA). Okoroafor reassured the public that the Bank would continue to…

Liverpool are through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time since 2009 after a 0-0 second-leg draw at Anfield gave them a 5-0 aggregate win over Porto in their last-16 tie. Sadio Mane acrobatically fired an effort over the bar and hit the post in a generally tame first half that also saw Dejan Lovren head narrowly wide. Majeed Waris’ strike in the second half was Porto’s only shot on target. The Reds took a 5-0 lead into the game. It was always likely this might be a quiet affair with Liverpool having already done the…

European champions Real Madrid moved into the Champions League quarter-finals as they beat Ligue 1 leaders Paris St-Germain at Parc des Princes. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in the first leg at home, which Real won 3-1, and he headed in from Lucas Vazquez’s cross to extend Real’s lead in France. PSG had midfielder Marco Verratti sent off for two bookable offences, before Edinson Cavani pulled a goal back. But Casemiro’s heavily deflected strike sealed Real’s victory. READ: Fiorentina, Cagliari retire Davide Astori’s mnumber 13 shirt For PSG, 14 points clear at the top of Ligue 1, it is the second…

Fiorentina have retired the shirt number worn by Davide Astori, the Italian defender who died on Sunday at the age of 31. Astori’s former club Cagliari, where he spent eight years from 2008, have also retired the number 13 shirt – which he wore at both teams. Capped 14 times by Italy, Astori joined Fiorentina from Cagliari in 2016. An autopsy on Tuesday reportedly showed he probably died from a cardiac arrest linked to a slowing heart rate. On Monday, prosecutors opened a routine investigation into his death. Udine chief prosecutor Antonio de Nicolo said he had opened a “culpable…

The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee has resigned and pleaded guilty to theft from the city during a two-year affair with her police bodyguard. Democrat Megan Barry, 54, had been seen as a rising star before she admitted to an extramarital affair last month. Prosecutors say she racked up thousands of dollars in expenses with her head of security Sgt Rob Forrest. She initially denied abuse of taxpayer money. Barry has promised to repay the city and serve three years’ probation. “While my time today as your mayor concludes, my unwavering love and sincere affection for this wonderful city and its…

Nigeria’s House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday aimed at helping authorities to tackle money laundering and funding for terrorism. Following international pressure, the law makes the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit an independent body that can share information with similar agencies abroad. The Senate, Nigeria’s upper house, is expected to approve the bill on Wednesday. Parliament’s move comes after the Egmont Group, a body of 155 Financial Intelligence Units across the world, threatened to delist Nigeria unless the local unit gained autonomy, enabling it to deal with financial crimes more effectively. READ: Move aside Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos is…

The Forbes magazine has named the Amazon founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, as the world’s richest man with 112bn dollar fortune. Bezos replaced the Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, who fell into second place with $90bn. Forbes calculated that Bezos’s fortune, which is mostly held in Amazon shares, increased by 39.2bn dollars over the past year. The biggest ever one-year gain. Amazon’s shares have nearly doubled from 846 dollars a share last March to 1,523 dollars per share last night. Gates, who had topped the Forbes billionaires list for 18 of the last 24 years, saw his fortune rose modestly…