US ELECTION: TRUMP DEALT BLOW BY CRUZ IN IOWA VOTE

"Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives," he declared, to great applause, as he railed against Washington, lobbyists and the media. He took 28% of the Republican vote, beating his rival, the frontrunner Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio. Votes in the Democratic race are still being
counted, with Hillary Clinton's camp saying they have narrowly won. The aim of the primary and caucus races in the coming months is to determine which candidates will stand for the two main parties in the November presidential election.

UGANDA'S KIIRA MOTORS UNVEILS 'AFRICA'S FIRST SOLAR BUS'

A solar-powered bus described by its Ugandan makers as the first in Africa has been driven in public. Kiira Motors' Kayoola prototype electric bus was shown off at a stadium in Uganda's capital, Kampala. One of its two batteries can be charged by solar panels on the roof which increases the vehicle's 80km (50 mile) range. The makers now hope to attract partners to help manufacture the bus for the mass market.Kiira Motors' chief executive Paul Isaac Musasizi told

Guardiola to succeed Pellegrini at Manchester City

Outgoing Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola will take over from Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City on a three-year deal from the end of the season, admitting it was a “risk” but also an opportunity he could not turn down.“If I were 55 or 60 years old, I’d stay (at Bayern) until Karl-Heinz Rummenigge or Matthias Sammer said ‘enough’,” Guardiola said. The Spaniard said he thought himself “young enough. I need a new challenge”. He added that he couldn’t finish his career “without experiencing England”. “I

Messi seeks to meet Afghan boy in plastic jersey

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is hoping to arrange a meeting with an Afghan boy who shot to fame after pictures of him dressed in a striped plastic bag jersey went viral, Kabul’s football federation said Monday.Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi idolises the Argentine soccer star but a jersey of his favourite player is beyond the means of his poor family in the volatile province of Ghazni near Kabul. His elder brother Homayoun, 15, made him the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt
with Messi’s named scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on

Combining youth service, participation in law school unacceptable – NYSC

The National Youth Service Corps has warned that participation in the National Service and attendance of Law at the same time is unacceptable. This is part of resolutions made at 2016 Annual Management Conference of the Scheme, which took place in Asaba, the Delta State capital. The conference noted that “the NYSC Act provides for uninterrupted service year, and advised prospective Corps members to choose which one to defer between National Service and Law School attendance instead of attempting to combine both. “Parents of
prospective Corps members have also been advised by the confab to allow their graduate children take decisions as adults and avoid discouraging them from accepting postings to any locations in the country. “Management also noted the return of normalcy in some states whose orientation camps were closed due to insecurity, and expressed readiness to make phased reopening of the camps after due consultations with security agencies and governments of the affected states.” The conference further resolved to deepen engagements with key stakeholders, including the security and intelligence community and traditional rulers on matters of security and general well-being of Corps members. Beginning from the 2016 Batch ‘A’ Orientation, as agreed by the conference, Corps members will be sensitized on national attitudinal change. It was also agreed that the policy on posting of the corps members to places of primary assignment would be reviewed to meet contemporary needs. Participants resolved that the Scheme would set up committees to study strategies for tackling challenges posed by the increasing population of corps members as espoused in a research report presented at the conference.

African leaders to withdraw membership from ICC

African leaders have backed a Kenyan proposal pushing for a pullout from the International Criminal Court, leaders said Sunday, repeating claims it unfairly targets the continent. Chad’s President Idriss Deby, elected African Union chairman at the two-day summit, criticised the court for focusing its
efforts on African leaders. “Elsewhere in the world, many things happen — many flagrant violations of human rights — but nobody cares,” Deby said at the close of the summit late Sunday, which had an official theme of protecting human rights. No legally binding decision was made, and the decision to leave the ICC’s founding Rome Statute is up to an individual nation. The decision is a “proposal…for the AU to develop a road map for the withdrawal of African nations”, a Kenyan presidential statement read. The war crimes trial of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo began last week, rekindling a bitter row across Africa over the international justice system. Set up in 2002 as the last resort to try war criminals and perpetrators of genocide never tried at home, the ICC has opened probes involving eight nations, all of them African: Kenya, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda and Mali. The AU, led in particular by Kenya, has accused the court of unfairly targeting Africans for prosecution as the majority of its cases come from the continent. This included a failed case to try Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and a faltering case against his deputy William Ruto, for allegedly masterminding deadly post-election violence in the east African country in 2007-2008 in which some 1,200 people died. “We refuse to be carried along in a vehicle that has strayed off course to the detriment of our sovereignty, security and dignity as Africans,” Kenyatta said in a statement. In November 2015, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom, speaking for the AU at an annual meeting between the 123 countries that have signed up to the Hague-based ICC’s founding statute, said it was “no longer a court for all.” Around one-third of its member states are in Africa. But while leaders criticised the court, others said that was a mistake. “Leaving the ICC with no credible mechanism for justice for mass crimes in sight would be an error of colossal proportions,” Kenya’s Daily Nation said in an editorial. “It is far better for member states to stay in the court and advocate reforms, rather than bolting and leaving millions on the continent unprotected by an international court which can step in when national institutions fail.”

Alleged N1trn rail contracts scam: Reps invite Amaechi, NRC MD, others

Members of the adhoc committee of the House of Representatives on failed rail contracts have summoned the Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, Seyi Sijuwade; former Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Mohammed Bello Haliru; and former Minister of Transport, Idris Umar, to explain their roles in the alleged N1 trillion rail contracts scam.The adhoc committee is headed by Ehoizuwa
Johnson Agbonayinma, PDP, Ikpoba/Oha Federal Constituency. They are expected to appear before the committee tomorrow during the investigative hearing. Chairman of the adhoc committee, Agbonayinma, confirmed that all the stakeholders had been duly informed and were expected to show up unfailingly tomorrow. Asked why the Minister of Transport was invited, despite the fact that he is barely three months old in office, Agbonayinma said: “The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, was also invited to tell us all he knows, though he just assumed office but you know government is a continuum. “This 8th House is 100 per cent in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s crusade against any form of corruption. “We are not out to witch-hunt anybody but anyone found wanting in the course of this investigative hearing will be adequately exposed although as you are aware, not until it is proven by a competent court that such persons are guilty you can’t say they are guilty.” It would be recalled that during the last investigative hearing on December 10, former chairman of the NRC board, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, had denied that during his tenure, no contract was awarded by the board he chaired. Tukur, a former chairman of PDP, had told the adhoc committee that the Procurement Act excluded the NRC Board from participating in the award of railway contracts. “The Board which I chaired, was never involved in any contract award and was never told or invited to participate in issues of contract award of financial disbursement,” he said. He said throughout his stay as the Board Chairman of the NRC, no issue of contract award of any amount or tune was discussed or awarded by the Board. Another Chairman of the board, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, also a former chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, told the adhoc committee that he was not privileged to appoint any consultant or award contracts for the railway projects. According to Baraje, all the paraphernalia and indices that would assist him carry out his work were all gone. “We only played the role of inspection because the procurement act excluded the board from participating in any contract,’’ he added. He expressed worry that the country’s railway transportation system had suffered neglect, in spite of playing critical role in the development of the economy. Baraje said more attention should be given to the 25-year railway modernisation plan to boost transportation in the country. Also speaking at the hearing Senator Ladan Shuni, another former Board Chairman of the NRC, wondered the essence of inaugurating a board that lacked the capacity to oversee the award of contracts. The investigative hearing is expected to unravel how over N1 trillion was expended on rail rehabilitation, purchase of coaches, spare parts and materials for NRC. Vanguard recalls that the House of Representatives, had on October 14 based on a motion promoted by Rep Solomon Ahwhinawi, PDP, Delta had set up the adhoc committee to probe contracts awarded for the rehabilitation of rail tracks, standard gauge, bridges, coaches, wagons and locomotives between 2010 and 2014 amounting to N1 trillion.