Chelsea delays Jose Mourimho's move to ManUtd

Chelsea’s ownership of the copyright to Jose Mourinho’s name is delaying his appointment as manager of Manchester United, according to Sky sources.
Mourinho is understood to have agreed personal terms to succeed the sacked Louis van Gaal at the Old Trafford, and his agent Jorge Mendes has all-but finalised the deal in London with Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward as of the time of reporting.
The pair met for face-to-face talks to resolve complications over image rights, and one of these is believed to be Chelsea’s ownership of the trademark to ‘Jose Mourinho’, despite Chelsea sacking him last December.
  According to the Intellectual Property Office, Chelsea own the rights to Mourinho’s name being used on a string of merchandise including glassware, teddy bears and face masks.
A number of these items, including a large ‘Jose’ poster, are still on sale on the Chelsea megastore website.
The bill for this trademark to be lifted or transferred could reach hundreds of thousands of pounds, Sky sources understand.
Mourinho also has commercial deals with a number of companies of conflicting interest to United, including car manufacturer Jaguar, with one of United’s main sponsors being rival Chevrolet.
Chelsea have declined to comment.
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Fuel price hike: Nig FG, Labour, resume talks

The Nigeria Labour Congress led by Mr. Ayuba Wabba and the Federal Government will resume the suspended talks on the N145 fuel pump price on Wednesday (today).
The Director in charge of Press at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Samuel Olowookere, said in a statement on Tuesday that the meeting would hold by 2pm at the Conference Hall of Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
 
An invitation to the NLC to return to the negotiation table over the contentious increase in electricity tariff and the fuel pump price was delayed on Monday by the Ministry of Labour as a result of a scheduled meeting with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, which served a week-old strike notice on the government.
 The NLC had called off the indefinite strike it called to protest fuel price hike on Sunday as a result of the intervention of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola TInubu.
While the strike was on, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, had said that the Federal Government would only resume the suspended talks with the Labour leaders if the strike was suspended.
 Also, Olowookere said that the plan by PENGASSAN to embark on a nationwide strike by the midnight of Tuesday was suspended following the intervention of Ngige and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources,  Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
He said Kachikwu briefed the conciliatory meeting on the issue of the Joint Venture Cash Call, the arrears of which had not been paid to the Joint Venture Partners which made the oil firms to issue a threat to lay off workers as a result of shortage of cash.
The minister was quoted as saying that the Petroleum Ministry was “restructuring the operational modalities of the Joint Venture Cash Call especially in view of the low oil prices.”
He was said to have assured the union, the JVCC partners and other stakeholders of some positive results during the next meeting scheduled for June.
“We all recall that this committee was headed by the late Hon. Min. of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. James  Ocholi, but in view of the importance and the urgency of the committee, I will assume its full leadership in June to accelerate and bring its assignment to fruitful completion, part of which is to pass some oil-labour regulations into laws for the Petroleum Industry Bill,” Kachikwu was quoted as saying.
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Alleged Ibadan killer husband stands trial

Justice Mukhtar Abimbola of the Oyo State High Court has ordered the commencement of the trial of Mrs. Yewande Oyediran, who was alleged to have stabbed her husband, Lowo Oyediran, to death on February 2, 2016.
The judge said this after overruling the preliminary objection to the charges preferred against the accused, filed by her counsel, Bioye Ashanike.
 
In the application, Ashanike prayed that the court should strike out the charges since they were instituted by the Oyo State Department of Public Prosecution and not the state Attorney General.
The application also raised the issue of court jurisdiction.
The accused person was alleged to have killed her France-based husband in their Akobo home in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, after an argument that spanned over the night.
After revisiting the application by the accused person, the judge dismissed the objection, ruling that the case should commence on June 23 and June 27, 2016.
The founder of the Women Arise for Change Initiative, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, who came to the court premises with members of the organisation, demanded that justice must be rightly served. The members wore shirts with the inscription ‘Justice for Lowo’.
In a statement by Okei-Odumakin, the group said justice had no gender colouration, urging the law enforcement agencies to be objective in their investigation.
The group said, “We remain at this time on the side of the late Lowo Oyediran and assure (the people) that the nation is with you and mourns with you at this time.”
The accused person’s sister, Bolatito Fatoki-Ademola, said her sister was aware that her husband had a child out of wedlock.
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Tomato "Ebola" hits six states

The Federal Government on Tuesday said the pest, Tuta absoluta, popularly known as ‘Tomato Ebola’, which is responsible for the massive destruction of tomato in farmlands, had invaded six states in Nigeria.
It also disclosed that Nigeria spent about N80bn ($400m) annually importing tomato paste, adding that many of the imported products were substandard.
 
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, who said this during a press briefing in Abuja, stated that the report that tomato processing factories had mopped-up tomato fruits in Nigeria was unfounded and untrue.
According to him, the highly reproductive nature of the tomato pest coupled with the favourable environment and lack of management knowledge for containment resulted in its spread like a wild fire without any challenge. This development had led to the destruction of tomato fruits in Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau and Lagos.
Ogbeh, however, stated that the Federal Government had started consulting with states and experts in other to fashion out measures to tackle the pest.
He said, “The pest can also attack even pepper and Irish potato. So we are confronting something quite serious. But the good thing is that we are tackling it right now as experts will commence work immediately. We are bringing the commissioners and governors of states to jointly attack this pest, which, if not dealt with, will create serious problems for food security in our country.”
He stated that the experts had, however, offered some varieties of tomato that grow well in the western part of the country as alternatives.
On the amount spent on importing tomato paste, the minister said, “We have two processing plants for tomato paste in Nigeria, Erisco and Dangote, and their capacities are huge. We welcome their arrival because our annual import bill of tomato paste is about $400m and it is a good sign that we can now produce here and make money for our farmers.”
Proffering measures that could be used to check pests as well as manage pesticides in Nigeria, CropLife International, a group of agro-professionals, advocated the use of hazard-based approach rather than a risk-based methodology.
The group, in a communique issued at the end of a two-day West and Central Africa Hub and Regulatory Workshop in Abuja, also called for the promotion and adoption of relevant biotechnologies in farming activities.
In the communique, it insisted on the need for safe and responsible use of pesticides as well as safe management of empty pesticide containers.
During the workshop, CropLife got the support of the Senate towards enacting of a pesticide legislation to mitigate the problem of misuse and address importation of pesticides including marketing, storage, application and use, among other provisions.
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EFCC detains Fani-Kayode for three more weeks

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has transferred a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, to its Lagos office.
  The EFCC also obtained a fresh remand order from a Lagos Magistrate’s Court to hold the ex-minister for another 21 days.
Fani-Kayode, who was the spokesman for the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation was arrested on May 9, 2016 for allegedly receiving N840m during the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.
According to the EFCC, the money which Fani-Kayode admitted to receiving, emanated from the account of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The anti-graft agency also froze Fani-Kayode’s bank account and seized his passport in the course of its investigations.
In Lagos, a Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Bola Osunsanmi, on Monday ordered the further remand of Fani-Kayode for additional three weeks in the custody of the EFCC.
The remand order was pursuant to an application by the EFCC on Monday, praying the magistrate for an order to keep Fani-Kayode in its custody pending when he would be arraigned before the proper court upon conclusion of investigations.
Counsel for the EFCC, Mr. A.N. Anana, told the magistrate that the order to remand Fani-Kayode was being sought under the provisions of Section 261 of Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, 2011.
“We have an application before the court dated May 10 for an order of remand brought pursuant to Section 261 of ACJL; attached with it is a nine-paragraph affidavit of urgency deposed to by one Tosin Ngbodagha,” Anana told the magistrate when the case was called at about 12.pm on Monday.
But in opposition to the EFCC’s prayer, Fani-Kayode’s  lawyer, Mr. Wale Balogun, accused the anti-graft agency of acting illegally and breaching the constitutional rights  of his client, who, he claimed, had been granted an administrative bail on May 12 by the EFCC and ought to have been released to enjoy the bail.
Besides, Balogun contended that the EFCC ought to release his client since the remand order made by an Abuja chief magistrate to remand him for 14 days had lapsed.
“We are asking the court that the defendant cannot be remanded in view of the fact that the matter is pending before the high court on the same subject, under the Criminal Justice Act of Lagos. It is a breach of the constitution. They granted him bail but refused to release him,” Balogun added.
But after standing the matter down for some time, the magistrate, in a ruling delivered at about 2.07pm, said the defence counsel had placed no evidence before the court to prove that the case was already before the high court.
She granted the application by the EFCC to remand Fani-Kayode for three weeks pending when he would be arraigned before the proper court.
However, Fani-Kayode’s spokesman, Mr. Jude Ndukwe, described the investigation of the ex-minister as a witch-hunt.
In a statement on Monday, Ndukwe said it was unfortunate that the EFCC had sacrificed professionalism on the altar of politics.
He said, “Despite having been served court notices for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights, the EFCC sneaked Chief Fani-Kayode into an Ikeja magistrate court and obtained a highly contentious warrant to keep him in their custody for another three weeks even though the EFCC requested for a 30-day remand warrant.
“Chief Fani-Kayode’s lawyers had served the EFCC the court notices from a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, May 20, 2016, but to our consternation, he was whisked to Lagos last Thursday and taken to an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court on Monday where they applied to keep him for another 30 days.
“This is a gross abuse of court processes and a denial of his fundamental human rights. It is even most shocking that the EFCC attempted to take him to the magistrate court without notifying his lawyers or family members. His lawyers had to go from court to court in Lagos searching for the venue of the court proceedings before they eventually traced it to Ikeja.
“This type of treatment to any citizen of our nation especially in a democratic era is, to say the least, inhuman.”
Ndukwe alleged that the commission had concluded investigations into the ex-minister but were only keeping him in custody in order to punish him.
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BREAKING: US lifts decades-long arms embargo on Vietnam

In an ongoing state visit to Vietnam, President Barack Obama scores a major diplomatic point moments ago when he declared that the US has lifted its longstanding arms embargo on the nation put in place at the height of the Vietnam War.

Following the return to normalcy in relations with Cuba. this is another successful restoration to warm relations with another hitherto hostile country.

Surprising revelation emerges over why girls are continuously smuggled into China

"When I woke up I didn't know that I was in China."

Lan remembers the night that changed her whole life.

While preparing for university along the border in northern Vietnam, a friend she met online asked her to a group dinner. When she was tired and wanted to go home, the people asked her to stay and talk and have a drink.

Next thing she knew, she had been smuggled across the border to China.

"At that time, I wanted to leave," says Lan. "There were other girls there in the car but there was people to guard us."

The villages along the Vietnamese-Chinese border are a hunting ground for human traffickers. Girls as young as 13 say they are tricked or drugged, then spirited across the porous border by boat, motorbike or car. Young Vietnamese women are valuable commodities in China, where the one-child policy and long-standing preference for sons has heavily skewed the gender ratio.

To put it simply, Chinese men are hungry for brides.

8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Trafficked girls not forced into marriage typically end up as sex workers. Some escape to back to Vietnam with help from the authorities. But cracking down on trafficking is no easy matter, as the mountainous terrain of Northern Vietnam makes it difficult to monitor the border.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

A young Vietnamese woman who escaped after being trafficked over the border to China.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

A young woman, left, visits her mother in Northern Vietnam. She was tricked by traffickers into crossing the border to China, but managed to escape before they could force her into a marriage. She is now back in her home country sharing her story to warn vulnerable girls about trafficking.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Two girls who have escaped trafficking and returned to Vietnam share their personal experiences to warn others at a market in Northern Vietnam.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Vietnamese girls as young as 13 are taken to China by human traffickers, to be sold as brides. Pictured, girls reading leaflets designed to educate them about the threat of sex trafficking at a market in Northern Vietnam. 

8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

The official checkpoint on the right separates Lao Cai, Vietnam, from China. Villages around the border are hunting grounds for human traffickers looking for young Vietnamese women, who are approached online or in public spaces like the local markets.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Girls at a regional market in Bac Ha, Vietnam. Outreach workers say the market is a common hunting ground for traffickers. Girls trafficked from Vietnam can be sold as brides for $3,000 or more to the end buyer.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Girls say they are tricked or drugged, then taken across the border by boat, motorbike or car. This river marks the boundary between China and Vietnam in Lao Cai, and is frequently crossed by smugglers.

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Trafficked girls not forced into marriage typically end up as sex workers. Some escape to back to Vietnam with help from the authorities. But cracking down on trafficking is no easy matter, as the mountainous terrain of Northern Vietnam makes it difficult to monitor the border.

Hide Caption

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

A young Vietnamese woman who escaped after being trafficked over the border to China.

Hide Caption

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

A young woman, left, visits her mother in Northern Vietnam. She was tricked by traffickers into crossing the border to China, but managed to escape before they could force her into a marriage. She is now back in her home country sharing her story to warn vulnerable girls about trafficking.

Hide Caption

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Two girls who have escaped trafficking and returned to Vietnam share their personal experiences to warn others at a market in Northern Vietnam.

Hide Caption

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Vietnamese girls as young as 13 are taken to China by human traffickers, to be sold as brides. Pictured, girls reading leaflets designed to educate them about the threat of sex trafficking at a market in Northern Vietnam. 

Hide Caption

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8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

The official checkpoint on the right separates Lao Cai, Vietnam, from China. Villages around the border are hunting grounds for human traffickers looking for young Vietnamese women, who are approached online or in public spaces like the local markets.

Hide Caption

2 of 8

8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Girls at a regional market in Bac Ha, Vietnam. Outreach workers say the market is a common hunting ground for traffickers. Girls trafficked from Vietnam can be sold as brides for $3,000 or more to the end buyer.

Hide Caption

3 of 8

8 photos: Vietnamese girls smuggled into China to become child brides

Girls say they are tricked or drugged, then taken across the border by boat, motorbike or car. This river marks the boundary between China and Vietnam in Lao Cai, and is frequently crossed by smugglers.

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"It costs a very huge amount of money for normal Chinese man to get married to a Chinese woman," explained Ha Thi Van Khanh, national project coordinator for the U.N.'s anti-trafficking organization in Vietnam. Traditionally, Chinese men wishing to marry local women are expected to pay for an elaborate banquet and to have purchased a new home to live in after the wedding. "This is why they try to import women from neighboring countries, including Vietnam."

Diep Vuong started the Pacific Links Foundation to combat trafficking in Vietnam. She says that Vietnamese brides can sell for upwards of $3,000 to the end buyer and that they are often considered desirable because of cultural similarities to the Chinese.

Raid reunites trafficked tea plantation sisters

Nguyen was just 16 when a friend's boyfriend drugged her and smuggled her into China. She tried to resist a forced marriage. For three months, she refused, even though her traffickers beat her, withheld food and threatened to kill her, she says. Finally, she relented. She says her husband was kind to her, but she never stopped missing her family in Vietnam.

"My desire to go home was indescribable," Nguyen said. "I agreed to marry the man but I could not stay with a stranger without any feelings for him."

When her mother-in-law realized Lan was never going to warm to the marriage, the family returned her to the traffickers. They got their money back, Nguyen says, after which she was forced into a second marriage.

A refuge for escaped women

The Pacific Links Foundation runs a shelter for trafficking victims in the city of Lao Cai, northern Vietnam. The young women stay for an average of two to three years. They go to school or get vocational training. They do art therapy. They learn to cook and sew and keep a big garden. Surrounded by other woman with similar experiences, the shelter helps them get back on their feet and then to find jobs to support themselves.

"Once that whole investment process can happen with these young women then it is much easier for them to have their own lives," says Diep.

Her organization also does community outreach to try and stop more girls from falling into the hands of traffickers. About once a month, a group of trafficking victims visits the market at Bac Ha, a regional hub for buying food, fabric and livestock. On this day, on a stage overlooking hundreds of shoppers, they talk about their experiences, take questions and play games with the crowd. When they ask people to share personal experiences concerning trafficking, more than 20 people come forward.

"I think awareness is the only tool," Diep says.

Police save girls from trafficking in Vietnam 03:16

Ha from the U.N. agrees that the top priority is to spread awareness, especially in the poor, rural regions along the border. She also believes reducing poverty will help stop women going to China seeking work, another common way traffickers lure victims.

Saved at the border

During CNN's trip to the border, the government called and told us the police had just rescued five girls as they were about to cross the border with a trafficker. We met the girls, who are just 14 years old. They said they were promised $600 to go to work in China by a neighbor from the same village. They didn't tell their parents they were going. The neighbor is now under arrest.

The Vietnamese police are sometimes able to rescue women even after they have crossed into China, by enlisting the help of Chinese authorities. Nguyen Tuong Long, the head of the government's social vice prevention department in Lao Cai, says last year they rescued and returned 109 Vietnamese trafficking victims.

"Because of cooperation between the Vietnamese and the Chinese police, we have found and caught trafficking rings," Nguyen says. "We've found women far inside China, at brothels where they're forced to become sex workers."

Trafficked women who aren't rescued in raids have to find ways to get out on their own.

Some of them say they were able to contact their families from China, but they couldn't get help from police because they didn't know exactly where they were.

Lan and Nguyen ended up in the same town in China. After two years, together they managed to slip out of their homes and take a taxi to a local police station. The whole time they were afraid their husbands' families would find them. The Chinese police investigated and eventually returned them to Vietnam.

The women were free of their forced marriages, but they paid a high price. Both left their babies in China.

Lan says if she saw her daughter again, she would apologize for leaving her behind. "I hope she'll have a better life there," she says.

Both Lan and Nguyen say in school their teachers had talked to them about trafficking. At the time, neither believed it could happen to them.
CNN