Lagos Assembly lawmakers want all kidnappers dead

– The Lagos state House of Assembly have approved death sentence for kidnappers

– The bill considers different degrees of the crime and appropriate punishment

The bill approval followed the adoption of a report presented by Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, the chairman of the house committee on judiciary, petitions, human rights and Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC).

The committee’s report on “A Bill for a Law to Provide for the Prohibition of the Act of Kidnapping and for Other Connected Purposes” reads in part:

“The bill prescribes life sentence to kidnappers, whose victims did not die in their custody.

Any person, who kidnaps, abducts, detains, captures or takes another person by any means or tricks with intent to demand ransom or do anything against his/her will, commits an offence, and liable on conviction to death sentence.

The bill also criminalises attempt to kidnap, also stipulated life imprisonment for anyone who makes attempt to kidnap another person.

The bills is against false representation to release a kidnapped or abducted person. This attracts seven years imprisonment.

The lawmakers approved 25 years imprisonment to whoever threatens to kidnap another person through phone call, e-mail, text message or any other means of communication.

Any person, who knowingly or wilfully allows or permits his premises, building or a place or belonging to which he has control of, to be used for the purposes of keeping a person kidnapped is guilty of an offence under the law and liable to 14 years imprisonment without an option of fine.”

The bill that aims ensuring zero tolerance for kidnapping was reportedly sponsored by Speaker of the House Mudashiru Obasa.

The bill has been amended by the lawmakers and now awaits third reading before it will be sent to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for assent.

Trump, without evidence, says illegal voting cost him US popular vote

US President-elect Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that he won the popular vote in the Nov 8 election “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”, though he provided no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The allegation by Trump, who won the required votes in the Electoral College to secure the presidency, comes as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote over Trump has surpassed 2 million votes and is expected to grow to more than 2.5m as ballots in populous states such as California continue to be tallied.

Clinton’s legal team said on Saturday it had agreed to participate in a recount of Wisconsin votes after the state’s election board approved the effort requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, which Trump has called “ridiculous”.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” the Republican Trump tweeted as reporters waited for him to leave his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida to fly back to his residence in New York City.

The US presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, based on a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the national vote.

Trump has surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The Electoral College results are expected to be finalised on Dec 19. Trump takes office on Jan 20.

“It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited,” Trump added in follow-up tweets.

Several hours later, Trump tweeted, again without citing evidence: “Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California ─ so why isn’t the media reporting on this? Serious bias ─ big problem!” Clinton won all three states.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Criticising recount effort
Before the election, Trump made unsubstantiated allegations that the results of the election might be “rigged” against him but several studies have found no evidence of widespread or significant voter fraud in the United States.

Since the vote, his message has alternated between appealing for unity and railing against his opponents and the media.

In a video message released ahead of the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Trump said he hoped it would be a time for Americans “to begin to heal our divisions” following a “long and bruising political campaign.”

In a tweet on Saturday, Trump derided the fundraising effort by Stein to launch recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as a “scam” that is “is now being joined by the badly defeated and demoralised Dems.”

Those states had voted Democratic in recent presidential elections but all voted narrowly in favour of the Republican Trump in this month’s election. The recounts are not expected to change the results of the election.

Stein, who won about 1 per cent of the national vote, has said she wants a recount to guarantee the integrity of the US voting system, a push that came after some computer scientists and election lawyers raised the possibility that hacks could have affected the results.

Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration has said there is no evidence of electoral tampering, but experts have said that the only way to verify the results are accurate is to conduct a recount.

‘Likely hacker attack’ hits almost 1 million German homes

Internet service for almost one million households in Germany was disrupted by likely deliberate hacking, provider Deutsche Telekom said on Monday.

Around 900,000 customers using specific models of router have been affected since Sunday afternoon, the firm said, with some unable to connect at all while others suffered intermittent problems.

“We believe that influence was exerted on the routers from outside,” a Telekom spokesman told AFP, saying software had been installed on the devices that prevented them from connecting to the company’s network.

It did not provide details of which models of router ─ network hardware that connects households to their internet and telephone service provider ─ were affected.

Deutsche Telekom said that its engineers and colleagues from the companies that produce the devices had been working through the night to find a solution.

Customers affected have been advised to disconnect their routers from the network since the problems began on Sunday afternoon.

Germany has been the target of repeated cyber attacks in recent years. In September, several political parties were targeted with fake emails purporting to be from Nato headquarters but which in fact contained a link that installed spying software on victims’ computers.

Meanwhile, hackers targeted the Bundestag (German parliament) in a 2015 attack that security services have since blamed on Russia.

With federal elections slated for autumn 2017, Germany has anxiously eyed the impact of leaked documents obtained by hackers on the US presidential polls this year.

US authorities have accused Russia of orchestrating the leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee that embarrassed candidate Hillary Clinton.

A cyber attack in October also made large portions of the US internet unavailable for millions of users worldwide.

By Dawn

Pakistan Boxing

World Boxing Council’s (WBC) Silver Flyweight Champion Muhammad Waseem on Monday expressed disappointment that the government of Pakistan had not offered him any support despite his achievements.

Mohammad Waseem successfully defended his WBC silver flyweight title yesterday as he defeated Giemel Megramo of the Philippines.

Speaking to DawnNews from Seoul, Waseem said that when he won his first WBC title for Pakistan in July, the federal government and the Balochistan Government had “promised to help him and commit to other financial help.”

He added he feels “extremely disappointed that no one from both governments fulfilled their promise and did not even bother to call him.”

He said he was thankful to the inspector-general Frontier Corps and the Pakistan Army for their support and and help he has received from them in managing his expenses and living costs Los Vegas where he received training in Floyd Mayweather Jr gym.

The Quetta-born boxer said that he trained and worked hard before his fight and had to be away from family and friends for long time.

Waseem said his Korean promoter often reminded him about his abilities and achievement but also never forget to express his anger on the lack of support Waseem was receiving from his government despite his hard work.

Waseem said that he has received offers to play for other countries, like Korea, but he loves his country and will continue to represent Pakistan.

Waseem said that during his last fight, “Both of us boxers did a lot of punching and I received 3 to 4 cuts near my eyes and face and I bear the pain with happiness for my country but I really fear for the future of boxing in Pakistan.”

He added, “The Pakistan boxing Federation is in a tug of war for posts and power but no one is doing any thing to promote boxing in Pakistan”.

Waseem claimed that his fellow boxers are in bad shape and one of his fellow boxers use to work as vendor selling samosas to earn a living.

“Now imagine where Pakistan boxing stands at the and how bleak the future will be,” he said.

By Dawn

War on terror: ‘US asks Pakistan to do more yet fails to compensate’

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi said the United States is not willing to release the amount due from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) which has already been spent by Pakistan and yet claims Pakistan has ‘not done enough’ in the ongoing war on terror.

“The US is not willing to release the funds from CSF which we have already spent on the war on terror, yet they (US officials) always complain about our lack of efforts,” said Fatemi.

Fatemi was speaking with DawnNews anchor Amber Shamsi on Monday.

“Pakistan’s role in the war on terror has been unprecedented, and the country has achieved immense success. The work done by Pakistan has not been done by any European country or the US,” added the special assistant to the prime minister.

He said the credit for the success goes to the elected leadership and the stakeholders, the armed forces.

‘Pakistan is not isolated’
Answering a question regarding India’s attempt to isolate the country on the international front, Fatemi rubbished claims that Pakistan has suffered due to India’s ongoing efforts.

“I do not agree that Pakistan has been isolated diplomatically.”

He was of the opinion that India’s refusal to attend the Saarc conference was more damaging to the region as a whole rather than Pakistan.

“India does not forgive any country. Nepal’s Saarc summit was sabotaged by India. Maldives and Sri Lanka’s Saarc summit was also sabotaged by India,” added Fatemi.

He further added that India uses the Saarc summit as a means to pressurise other countries.

“All major international countries are of the opinion that the only way forward towards progress is through regional cooperation.”

He said Saarc is the only organisation in the region present for regional cooperation, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was to present proposals for cooperation which would have benefited every country in the region.

‘Central Asia is a major area of activity’
Talking in regards to Russia and the Central Asian states, Fatemi said Central Asia was a blank spot in the foreign policy of Pakistan and, “measures have been taken to rectify the situation.”

He said relations with Russia was an area with significant problems due to the history between the two countries.

“Now we are bringing the Russians on board various projects in the country and increasing defence cooperation,” stated the special assistant to the premier.

“Pakistan’s foreign policy was not geared towards Central Asia, and it was a blank spot for which we had no direction. Now, it has become a major area of activity for us,” said the special assistant.

He said Pakistan is now getting political support from the region after the shift in policy, along with economic, energy and power projects.

“Using the connectivity, we will utilise the Central Asian states to enter Europe. The idea is to be connected to further deepen our ties.”

“We are also discussing a road from Gwadar which would connect to the Pak-Iran border and beyond. Another option present is to make another diversion on the Karakoram Highway before Xinjiang and enter Kyrgyzstan,” added Fatemi.

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BIO: Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972),[2] known professionally as Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the 2000s in the United States. Throughout his career, he has had 10 number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. With US sales of 45.1 million albums and 42 million tracks as of June 2014, Eminem is the second best-selling male artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, the sixth best-selling artist in the United States and the best-selling hip-hop artist. Globally, he has sold more than 172 million albums, thus being one of the world’s best-selling artists. Rolling Stone ranked him 83rd on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, calling him the King of Hip Hop.

After his debut album Infinite (1996), Eminem signed with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and subsequently achieved mainstream popularity in 1999 with The Slim Shady LP, which earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. His next two releases, 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP and 2002’s The Eminem Show, were worldwide successes, with each being certified diamond in U.S. sales, and both winning Best Rap Album Grammy Awards—making Eminem the first artist to win the award for three consecutive LPs. They were followed by Encore in 2004, another critical and commercial success. Eminem went on hiatus after touring in 2005, releasing Relapse in 2009 and Recovery in 2010. Both won Grammy Awards and Recovery was the best-selling album of 2010 worldwide, the second time he had the international best-selling album of the year (after The Eminem Show). Eminem’s eighth album, 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, won two Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album; it expanded his record for the most wins in that category and his Grammy total to 15.

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