Author: Chronicle Editor

Nuclear disarmament group ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its decade-long campaign to rid the world of the atomic bomb as nuclear-fuelled crises swirl over North Korea and Iran. More than 70 years since atomic bombs were used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Nobel committee sought to highlight ICAN’s tireless non-proliferation efforts. The decision sent a strong message to US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to tear up a 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear programme and who last month alarmed delegates at the UN General Assembly by warning he may be forced…

Tropical Storm Nate has killed at least 22 people in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras before it moves north towards the US. A state of emergency has been declared in the Central American nations, where more than 20 people are missing. It has caused heavy rains, landslides and floods which are blocking roads, destroying bridges and damaging houses. In Costa Rica, nearly 400,000 people are without running water and thousands are sleeping in shelters. At least eight people have died in the storm there, while another 11 were killed when it moved north and reached Nicaragua, where as much as…

FC Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu insists the club will stand with the Catalonian people and demand talks between the region and the rest of Spain over the current independence stalemate. The La Liga giants’ chief has followed calls from Andres Iniesta on Wednesday for both sides to engage in dialogue and respect the will of the Catalonian people, following a referendum last weekend that yielded a 90 percent result in favour of separation from Spain. Bartomeu said: “These last few days, Catalonia has been going through one of the most transcendental periods in its recent history. “FC Barcelona, as one…

Argentina are in danger of missing their first World Cup since 1970 after they were held to a goalless draw against Peru on Thursday. Even a sell-out home crowd in Buenos Aires’ La Bombonera was not enough to rally Lionel Messi’s side, who slipped further down the South America qualifying table. Boca Juniors striker Dario Benedetto was given his first full debut in attack alongside Papu Gomez but they were unable to break the deadlock. Argentina showed promise and controlled possession for opening stages of both halves, although Peru held strong. Messi came close to scoring when finding himself on…

Pay-television service provider, GOtv, will, in October, make available to subscribers on its newly launched GOtv MAX bouquet an exciting range of series and reality shows. Among the cracking programmes scheduled to air in October are Empire, The Walking Dead, A Thousand Ways to Die andFear Factor. GOtv MAX subscribers will have access to the hottest movies and series on Fox Entertainment and Sony MAX as well as riveting reality programmes on CBS Reality. On Fox Entertainment, Empire Season 4, which started on 28 September, will continue in October, while Walking Deaddebuts on 23 October. On Sony MAX, a new…

The three-year-old troubled marriage between a popular radio presenter, Omotoke Makinwa and her estranged husband, Maje Ayida has been dissolved. An Igbosere High Court in Lagos on Thursday dissolved the union, citing husband’s adulterous lifestyle, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Makinwa, is the co-host of the ‘Morning Drive’ on Rhythm 93.7FM, a blogger and an author. She had on March 9, 2016, asked the court to dissolve the marriage on the grounds that the husband committed adultery. Justice Morenike Obadina, while delivering judgment held that Ayida filed an answer to the petition but did not give oral…

One of the most prominent news items of the last three weeks has been TStv, a new pay-television service provider that announced itself with considerable bang and arrested the attention of Nigerians with seductive, but hardly plausible offering. The implausibility of its offering hardly came as a surprise to those familiar with the new provider’s front man, Bright Echefu, a young medical doctor and latter-day businessman. After graduating from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Echefu went abroad and returned to establish African Health Television (AHTV) under his holding company, Bricke and Athens Limited. The year 2015 was a bad one…

The students of Lumen Christi International High School, Arue-Uromi, Edo State won this year’s SEPLAT Pearls Quiz competition. The annual competition is organised by SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company PLC, operators of the NPDC/SEPLAT JV assets, OML 4, 38 & 41. The winning school, represented by Kingsley Okafor, Cletus Ifedhor and Clinton Opara emerged after a keenly contested finale on Thursday, October 5 at the Unity Hall of the Delta State Government House in Asaba, the state capital. Each one of them walks away with scholarships worth N100,000 and N7 million for their school. This is the sixth edition of the…

Film producer Harvey Weinstein has issued an apology as a newspaper reported a number of sexual harassment allegations against him. “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it,” said the movie mogul’s statement. But he later disputed a New York Times report that claimed he harassed female employees over nearly three decades. The newspaper reported he had reached at least eight settlements with women. Mr Weinstein, a married father-of-five, said he planned to take a leave of absence from his company and had hired therapists…

Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday fixed Nov. 16 to hear the N2 billion Fundamental Rights suit brought against the EFCC by Mrs Patience Jonathan. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the wife of the former president Goodluck Jonathan had filed the suit in June to challenge her alleged incessant harassment by the anti-graft commission. At the resumed hearing, Mr Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN) announced to the court of his readiness to move his client’s application. Justice John Tsoho, however, refused to entertain the suit on the grounds that the respondent was not…