Leicester champions? ‘Why not?’ says Ranieri

Premier League leaders Leicester stunned nearest rivals Manchester City with a convincing victory at Etihad Stadium to move six points clear.

Robert Huth turned in Riyad Mahrez's corner to give the Foxes an early lead.

City rarely looked like breaking down the visitors' defence, while their own back line appeared vulnerable.

Mahrez made it 2-0 with a step-over and finish, and Huth found space to head home a Christian Fuchs corner before Sergio Aguero's late consolation.

Leicester had already beaten third-placed Tottenham at White Hart Lane in January but this resounding result against Manchester City was their most significant in a remarkable season.

The Foxes have now picked up 28 points on their travels and, although they were denied a sixth clean sheet in their past seven matches, this was another win earned by their solid defence.

Aguero's glancing header from teenage substitute Bersant Celina's cross meant Manchester City retained their record of only failing to score once at home this season, but they had toiled in front of goal for much of the match.

Claudio Ranieri's side travel to fourth-placed Arsenal next weekend - win there too, and people might be asking 'who can catch Leicester?' rather than 'can the Foxes really win the title?'.

While Leicester's defence was a solid and well-organised unit, given further protection by N'Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater in central midfield, Manchester City looked nervy whenever the visitors came forward.

Martin Demichelis was left flat-footed by Robert Huth for Leicester's first goal and was beaten with ease by Mahrez for their second, while Huth was completely unmarked when he made it 3-0.

Things could easily have been even worse for home boss Manuel Pellegrini in his first game at the Etihad since it was announced Pep Guardiola would be replacing him in the summer.

Leicester's Jamie Vardy twice broke clear to latch on to balls over the top and was only prevented from inflicting further damage by smart blocks by Joe Hart.

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini said he had "no complaints" about the result but insists his side's hopes of winning the title are not over.

Pellegrini told BBC Sport: "Leicester played better than us. Conceding a goal from a set piece after two minutes was very important for the game.

"We had chances but it was a difficult game. I expected more from the beginning because it was very important, we are at home and playing top of the table, but we couldn't do it.

"There are 36 points to play for, nothing is finished. It is important for us to recover our players and I am continuing to not give up because we got an unexpected defeat but we must continue."

Ranieri saluted his side's defensive discipline at the final whistle, telling BBC Sport: "We played very, very compact and believed everything could be possible.

"We play without pressure because we don't have to win the league. We must enjoy. This league is so strange and now it is important to think about Arsenal.

"I want to wait until the end of April because I know the last matches are very tough. This is a fantastic moment for the Premier League, nobody knows who can win it."

While Leicester head for the Emirates and another test of their title mettle, Manchester City must pick themselves up for the visit of another in-form team, Tottenham, before starting a run of fixtures that sees them play in the FA Cup, Champions League and the Capital One Cup final in the space of a week.

Clergy man In trouble as he impregnates seven church members, two married women

A randy man of God identified as Dukes (surname withheld) in Umunede, Delta State who has been accused of sleeping with his church members in the past two years, has allegedly impregnated seven of his single female church members and two married women, according to The Punch.

While trouble is currently brewing over the act, it was reliably gathered that the self-acclaimed man of God had also allegedly seduced several young girls in neighbouring communities: Ute-Ukpu, Otolokpo under the guise of providing them with suitors before he moved into Umunede after his cover was blown.

He was said to have been arrested and detained at Agbor Police Station by aggrieved parents of his victims for two days before granted bail.

A member of his church “Light Of God Ministries” Josephine Ogor said, “The self acclaimed reverend uses preaching, choirs and organised youth fellowship to get young girls.”
“That was what he did in Ute-Okpu, Otolokpo neighbouring communities before he moved into Umunede and he was driven away by the elders of the communities, he likes girls of 15, 16 and 17 years he sleeps with,” she added.

Investigation revealed that until some married women started carrying their marital problems to him, the self-acclaimed man of God allegedly known for magical powers, specialises in mind-blowing prophecies for unsuspecting members of his church including some highly placed politicians and businessmen across the state.

His victims, some who claimed they were hoodwinked into sexual intercourse with him via magical powers, Awele John, Marble Ogoan and Rosemary Iwendi said: “Please Mr. Pressman don’t use our pictures.”

“The man is fake, he uses magical powers to woo young girls he sleeps with, that was how we fell into his net, and our eyes were opened”.

Another victim, a married woman who did not want her name in the print said she had gone to the reverend’s house to seek advice on constant quarrels between her and the husband for possible solution when Dukes allegedly gave her anointed oil for her to rub and take from it but this was not to be, when she found herself in love making with the reverend during the night.

She said: “I saw myself having sexual intercourse with the Reverend in my sleep and I was shocked before I made it known to my husband”.

Further investigation revealed that his modus operandi is to give out olive oil bottles to unsuspecting female miracle seekers, young girls looking for suitors, a situation that keep them glued to him before taking them to bed.

But in swift reaction, the Reverend dispelled on telephone as untrue and attempts to blackmail him as true man of God, adding that those who claimed to have been impregnated by him designed a plot to kill him.

He said: “I am not responsible for their pregnancies, they are lairs”.

At Agbor Police Division, two investigating police officers who did not want their names in the print said: “We are currently investigating the Reverend after some parents of the girls he allegedly seduced reported the matter at the station, we have earlier arrested and released him on bail while investigation is ongoing.”

GTB Seeks Redemption Of $500 Million Eurobond

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) has launched a tender offer to repay a $500 million Eurobond early, a move to deploy its available Dollar liquidity ahead of the debt’s maturity, according to Channel.

The bank said the notes, priced to yield 7.5 per cent, were due to mature in May 2016 and the tender was voluntary.

It said in a tender notice that the bank would maintain cash to repay any outstanding debt not tendered.

The results of the tender offer will be announced on February 11.

'He ripped off my clothes'

Two soldiers dragged a 14-year-old girl into the tall grass in November. One held her down, the other raped her.

That same month, a 30-year-old woman was approached by a man in uniform.

"We are going to have sex like a man and wife," he said. She tried to resist, was punched in the face and was then raped.

Another girl, 14, was walking down a path in the bush when she was approached in late December.

"He ripped off my clothes and used them to tie my hands behind my back," she said.

These three incidents are among eight sexual abuse allegations documented by Human Rights Watch from October to December 2015 in the Central African Republic.

All of them were allegedly committed by United Nations peacekeepers.

"In a country where armed groups routinely prey on civilians, peacekeepers should be protectors, not predators," Hillary Margolis, women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a news release.

The rights group conducted its research from January 16 to 30 in Bambari, where the Democratic Republic of Congo has deployed approximately 800 soldiers.

Human Rights Watch said all of the victims it spoke with believed the peacekeepers that assaulted them were from the Republic of Congo or from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Its report comes less than a week after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announced six cases from 2014 in which children may have been abused by foreign soldiers: five girls and a boy, between the ages of 7 and 16.

Those follow a litany of other abuse claims, both from the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations monitoring the region.

The head of the peacekeeping mission was fired over the issue in August.

"I believe the disturbing number of allegations we have seen in many countries -- but particularly in the Central African Republic in the period before U.N. peacekeepers were deployed and since -- speaks to the need to take action now," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in August. "Enough is enough."

In December, the U.N. issued a report on sexual assault by peacekeepers.

It's over 100 pages, but its findings can be summed up in two words: We failed.

"Overall, the response of the UN was fragmented and bureaucratic, and failed to satisfy the UN's core mandate to address human rights violations," it said. "In the absence of concrete action to address wrongdoing by the very persons sent to protect vulnerable populations, the credibility of the UN and the future of peacekeeping operations are in jeopardy."

The report issued a dozen recommendations on what needed to be done.

And though more allegations have surfaced since the report was issued, it's unclear whether any formal charges have been filed against possible perpetrators.

The peacekeepers' involvement in the Central African Republic, one of the world's poorest nations, stems from political violence that began in 2013.

France and African nations sent peacekeepers after a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in March 2013. Christian and Muslim militias battled for control before a tentative political transition began.

The violence prompted a humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their homes. Some sought refuge in neighboring countries, but many others were internally displaced, living in makeshift camps.

With CNN

Capital Investment Plan Will Trigger Economic Turnaround, Says Adeosun

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has said that the planned 1.8 Trillion Naira capital investment in 2016 by the Federal Government will drive economic growth, according to Channel.

Giving a breakdown of the current administration’s plans to reposition the economy at a Forum and Survey Launch in Lagos on Friday, Mrs Adeosun said a spending stimulus was needed to reflate the economy and avoid recession.

The Minister, in her keynote address, told the participating Chief Financial Officers at the forum organised by the KPMG, that Nigeria’s GDP in 2015 was the lowest in the last 15 years and pointed out that even whilst oil prices were high, GDP had been falling.

According to a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Finance Minister on Media Matters, Mr Festus Akanbi, the Minister recalled that a similar stimulus had actually been provided in the global downturn in 2008.

She pointed out that the stimulus now needed, would be strategically targeted at investments that would support a diversified economic growth.

The Finance Minister said the proposed 2016 budget would finance investments in key infrastructure particularly in transport, power, health, housing and education.

“These investments would create jobs with the various contractors that would execute the projects,” Mrs Adeosun further told the gathering.

She explained that public investments would attract further investments from the private sector and that investments in power and transport would increase the competitive position of Nigerian businesses.

The Minister cited the case of Ethiopia, which is now seen as a model for African economy which has diversified from a single product, coffee to a multi-product with exports of flowers providing US3.5bn Dollars of earnings as well as leather goods and other products.

Mrs Adeosun said that to attain that level of growth, the Ethiopian Government had invested up to 60 per cent of its budget in capital, pointing out that this threshold contrasted to the Nigerian situation, where In 2015, Nigeria’s capital expenditure was just 10 per cent of the total.

“No economy has ever grown by underinvesting in infrastructure,” the Minister stressed.

Explaining the strategies that the government had adopted, the Minister said: “The ongoing “fiscal housekeeping”, which included sanitising the payroll, which to date, has unveiled over 23,000 possible ghost workers and the creation of the Efficiency Unit, are key strategies in managing recurrent expenditure.

“The focus on improving non-oil revenue collections is also an important strategic objective”.

According to the Minister, this is essential in ensuring that the planned borrowings were channelled to capital projects rather than being spent on recurrent items.

On the subject of the planned borrowing, the Minister explained that Government was seeking the lowest cost funds and was therefore, consulting with the multilateral agencies, which offered concessional rates of interest as low as 1.5 per cent before looking at the commercial Eurobond Market.

She said that the financing strategy was to restructure much of the existing debts, which had short maturity and aligned it with the investment plans of the government in line with its Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

The Minister assured Nigerians that the government was ensuring that projects to be undertaken, would create direct and indirect revenues, which would be used to repay the obligations.

Mrs Adeosun said that for the medium term, the outlook for the economy was strong.

“If the planned investments in capital are undertaken, the GDP growth projections show that Nigeria would become a leading global economy.

The government will work to ensure that consumption from our huge population would drive internal growth across a number of key sectors,” she stated.

The Minister, however, assured the audience that if the disciplined implementation of the plans could be attained, Nigeria would finally be able to diversify and end the situation where the entire nation focus on oil price.