Queen's wants to throw-up a street party for her 90th birthday and tickets to cost £150

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The Queen celebrates two birthdays - her actual birthday in April and her official birthday in June

Tickets for a street party to mark the Queen's 90th birthday in London's The Mall will cost £150 each, her grandson has announced.

Peter Phillips said the Patron's Lunch on 12 June was a not-for-profit event and would have a "carnival atmosphere".

Most of the 10,000 guests will be from organisations associated with the Queen, with 1,000 tickets to be released in a public ballot next month.

The party will be the culmination of a weekend of national celebrations.

The Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June.

'Up to something'

The Patron's Lunch will honour the Queen's lifetime dedication to service and mark her patronage of more than 600 charities and organisations.

The street party at The Mall will take place in June

Mr Phillips, who is helping to organise the event in his role as director of Sports and Entertainment Ltd (SEL), said the Queen had heard about his plans before he had a chance to tell her.

He recalled that upon approaching her with the idea she said: "I've heard you're up to something."

He added: "There's a huge amount of pride, the fact that I'm able to celebrate, to put something on, to put a celebration on which ultimately she appreciates, she enjoys and she thinks is a great idea."

Mr Phillips said the party's guests would be given hampers of food at tables set up along The Mall.

The event will also feature a carnival parade before and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh take to a stage to listen to speeches marking the occasion.

The majority of the tickets for the event, which is also being attended by Prince William and Prince Harry, have been allocated to the hundreds of organisations and charities associated with the Queen.

In February a ballot will open to the public for a minimum of 1,000 tickets, with winners able to buy them from the event's website.

Remarking on the cost of the tickets, Mr Phillips said the event's corporate partners had "provided the funding for the majority of the costs".

He said: "This is a not-for-profit event. SEL is being paid a set fee basically to take this from sign-off from the palace through to delivery of the event."

A spokeswoman for the Patron's Lunch said support from the event's partners did not cover its costs fully and tickets offered "genuine value".

The organisers also hope communities around the country will be inspired to stage Patron's Lunches in their own areas and raise money for local projects.

Other events taking place over the Queen's official birthday weekend will include a service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral and the traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony, also known as the Queen's Birthday Parade, at Horse Guards Parade.

Any surplus money from the Patron's Lunch will be allocated to a newly created Patron's Fund, which will be used to support specific initiatives and projects run by the Queen's charities.

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school girl who shared her inhaler with classmate suspended, could get month in alternative school

Garland, Texas, seventh-grader Indiyah Rush, 12, was suspended from her middle school for sharing her inhaler with another girl, according to reports

A Dallas-area middle schooler was suspended for sharing her inhaler with a classmate she thought could be having an asthma attack Tuesday, according to reports.

Seventh-grade honors student Indiyah Rush, 12, also faces up to 30 days in a Garland, Texas, alternative school, KDFW-TV reported. She handed the other girl her inhaler after she noticed the girl wheezing and then breathing heavily during gym class at Vernon Schrade Middle School, Indiyah told the TV station.

“I was just trying to save her life,” she said. “I didn’t know I was doing anything bad.”

Now both Indiyah and the as-yet-unidentified girl she helped will appear at hearings to find out how many days they’ll have to spend at alternative school. A school incident report obtained by the TV station identified Indiyah as the “perpetrator” who had a “controlled substance/marijuana.”

Her mom Monique Rush said she’s worried Indiyah will get mixed in with true drug offenders at alternative school and “I don’t want any of that to rub off on her.”

“I mean, they punished her twice. They suspended her on top of sending her to alternative school,” Rush said. “How could you do a kid like that?”

A representative for Garland Independent School District didn’t immediately respond Thursday night to a request for more information on the health condition of Indiyah’s classmate and the possible punishment. Garland ISD spokesman Chris Moore defended the disciplinary measures in an interview with KDFW.

“It’s a prescription, and one student’s severity with asthma may not mirror that of the girl who let the other girl borrow hers,” Moore said. “And that could have resulted in some pretty significant issues.”

Moore noted Indiyah may receive no days at the district alternative school because the offense carries a penalty of zero to 30 days. Indiyah’s hearing is scheduled for Friday.


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Ebola virus: New case emerges in Sierra Leone

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Health officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the West Africa outbreak over.

The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.

But two tests conducted on a person who died in northern Sierra Leone proved positive for the virus, an Ebola test centre spokesman said.

The death occurred earlier this week.

Ebola test centre spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis said that the patient had died in the Tonkolili district. He had travelled there from Kambia, close to the border with Guinea.

The tests were conducted by British health experts. A reporter in the capital Freetown said health officials were now urgently seeking those who had come into contact with the victim.

Close to 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and 11,000 people across the region, since December 2013.

In declaring West Africa clear after the recent outbreak on Thursday, the WHO warned that the area was susceptible to small flare-ups of the virus.

Liberia was the last country to see the end of active transmission of Ebola. But it had been declared clear twice before, only for the infection to re-emerge.

A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.

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Ondo police arrest 150 suspected Boko Haram members

Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase

The Punch, Men of the Ondo State Police Command have arrested 150 middle-aged men suspected to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

The suspects, who were in possession of arms and ammunition, were being conveyed in a truck with registration number Kano NSR 97 XZ before they were intercepted by the policemen at Lipakala Junction in Ondo town.

The truck was heading towards Ore, in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state .

The suspects were initially detained at the Fagun Police Division before they were transferred to the headquarters of the command in Akure, the state capital.

Some of the items found inside the vehicle of the suspects included locally-made guns, knives, cutlasses and several torch lights .

One of the suspects, who identified himself as Abdulahi Sheriff, claimed that they were not Boko Haram members but farmers coming from Benin-Kebbi to seek greener pasture in Ore town.

He added that their relocation from the North was due to the harsh and dry season in their area which had negatively affected their activities as farmers.

The police spokesperson in the state, Mr. Femi Joseph, who confirmed the arrest, told our correspondent that the suspects claimed they were not terrorists but farmers who were travelling from Kebbi State to work in Ondo State.

Joseph said, “We discovered in our findings that the men are not Boko Haram members. Some of them engage in trading while some of them were going to Ore to do menial jobs. There is nothing that indicated that they are members of Boko Haram.”

On the issue of arms found in their vehicle, the Police Public Relations Officer explained that some of the suspects who were hunters were the owners of the guns and other weapons.

The police spokesperson, however, said the suspects would not be released until the command completed investigation into the matter.

He said, “We have to be completely sure that they are not members of the Boko Haram sect before we can allow them to go.”

Budget: PDP wants NASS to commence impeachment process against Buhari

Nigerian Tribune, The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday, called on  the National Assembly to commence impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari, for the various constitutional breaches he had committed since his assumption of office, especially the submission of two versions of the 2016 appropriation Bill before the National Assembly.

This was contained in a statement signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja, by the party’s acting national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, after an emergency meeting of the NWC on Thursday night.

The party said the National Assembly should thoroughly investigate the shameful act, including the distortion and banding of figures and ensure appropriate sanctions.

The party also asked the ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning to resign, having failed to provide the much needed capacity in the management of the nation’s economy, resulting in the embarrassing crashing of the nation’s currency to as low as N305 to a dollar.

Also, the party asked the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resign, for plunging the country’s currency policy into chaos.

It lamented that the APC government, rather than address grievous national issues, had, instead, resorted to violation of peoples rights in the name of fighting corruption.”

It noted in particular, the continued detention of its spokesperson, Chief Olisa Metuh, for nearly 10 days in clear breach of his fundamental human rights.