Author: Chronicle Editor

Australia has given approval for the sale of the country’s largest private landholding, the Kidman estate. It will go to Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, and her business partner, Chinese developer Shanghai CRED. The largest Kidman station, Anna Creek, will be sold to a local farming family. The sale of the estate, encompassing about 1.3% of Australian land, had been halted several times due to concerns about foreign interests. Kidman estate said in a statement that “all Australian regulatory approvals for the sale have now been met, 99% of Kidman shareholders have accepted the offer, and the announcement means the…

United States Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has called for urgent action to stop the proliferation of “fake news”. Clinton said it was an epidemic with “real world consequences” that threatened America’s democracy. She urged the private and public sector to combat the numerous false reports, propaganda and malicious stories that had been spread over the past year. She herself has been the target of fake news, including the “pizzagate” story. It wrongly stated during the election campaign that a paedophilia ring involving people at the highest levels of the Democratic Party was operating out of a Washington pizza restaurant.…

On Friday, the candidates vying for the post of African Union Chairperson will engage in a historical public debate at the AU Headquarters in Adis Ababa. The debate, which is the first of its kind its kind will be a faceoff between four candidates; Hon. Pelonomi Venson Moitoi of Botswana, Hon. Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad, Hon. Agapito Mba Mokuy of Equitorial Guinea, Hon. Dr. Amina C. Mohammed of Kenya and Dr. Abdoulaye Bathily of Senegal. Various media houses will be covering the event by 16:30 GMT and organizers have urged audience across Africa to send in their question for…

A report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has showed that at least 736,000 Nigerians fled their home in 2015 following violence perpetuated by Islamist sect, Boko Haram. IDMC also indicated that as many as 3.5 million people in Africa were uprooted from their homes in 2015 due to conflict and natural disasters and left stranded in their own country, with many governments overlooking this growing problem, according to a report released on Friday. Figures from IDMC showed an average of about 9,500 people fled their homes daily last year, bringing the total number of Africans displaced internally to…

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has praised Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s fighting qualities in adapting to his summer move to Old Trafford. Mkhitaryan, 27, signed for £26m from Borussia Dortmund but was left out of the side repeatedly until recently. But in his third successive start, he struck his first United goal in their Europa League win over Zorya Luhansk. “He worked really hard physically, tactically and we know the talent is there,” said Mourinho, 53. Mkhitaryan was a substitute in United’s opening-day win at Bournemouth but was hauled off at half-time in his first league start at Manchester City in September…

French champions Paris St-Germain could make a £50m summer move for Tottenham and England midfielder Dele Alli, 20. (Mirror) Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins says Bob Bradley’s job as manager is safe, citing the example of Fulham as a team who changed their boss more than once in a season and got relegated. (Talksport) Everton could try to sign Leicester winger Demarai Gray, 20, in January after losing Yannick Bolasie to a serious knee injury, which could keep him out for over a year.(Mirror) They are also interested in Manchester United’s Memphis Depay, 22, and Napoli’s Manolo Gabbiadini, 25, for whom…

The current economic challenges affecting Nigeria and other ECOWAS member states have slowed down its economic integration and the adoption of a single currency. This was one of the main issues discussed at the technical meeting of the ECOWAS Macroeconomic Policy Committee on Multilateral Surveillance in Abuja on Thursday. The out-going Chairperson of the committee, Ms Ommy Sar Ndaiye, urged member states to develop strategies to address their prevailing economic challenges. Ndaiye, however, noted that the commission had made progress in its macroeconomic policies. “The depreciation in value of the naira and other economic factors in Nigeria are affecting ECOWAS.…

The Lagos State Government (LASG) on Thursday clarified the controversy surrounding the collection of all water abstraction related revenues, saying that at no time did it authorize any consultant to collect such revenues on its behalf. The Concerned Members of Association of Water Producers of Lagos State had on Monday published a petition in a national daily on Monday, December 5, 2016 alleging harassment, intimidation, financial deprivation, among others by the State Water Regulatory Commission and the Association of Table Water producers of Lagos State, calling on the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to look into the matter. But the State’s Commissioner…

Three pilgrims from Lagos State who went for this year’s pilgrimage in Jerusalem, Israel have absconded, PM News reveals. The absconded pilgrims include one woman and two men. Sources in Jerusalem confided in our reporter that the female pilgrim was the first to abscond few days after arriving the holy land for the 10-day spiritual exercise. One other male pilgrim reportedly absconded few days after the female pilgrim was declared missing, while the last one ran away shortly after the thanksgiving service to mark the departure of the pilgrims from Jerusalem back to Nigeria two days ago. A source said…

The Nigerian Senate on Thursday failed to screen the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, Punch reports. The Presidency had six months ago forwarded a letter to the National Assembly nominating Magu as the substantive Chairman of the anti-graft agency. The deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, had announced at plenary on Wednesday that the confirmation hearing would hold Thursday, after five months of delay. But the Senate did not list the confirmation in the Order Paper for Thursday eventually. Premium Times report that officials of the EFCC led by the acting Chairman, Mr. Wagu, were…