FROM its new base, christened “Israel Barracks”, some kilometers away from the Atlantic Ocean in the southern coast of Niger-Delta, the Niger-Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, led by rebel ex-militant leader, “General” John Togo, Tuesday, threatened to down any aircraft, belonging to the military, oil companies and commercial airlines that fly between two to three miles, near its barracks on spy mission.

MOVEMENT for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND , said, today, that the militant group attacked and destroyed the Obidi pipeline, which reportedly conveys crude oil to the Warri Refinery in Delta State.

The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, yesterday raised an alarm over the quality of judges presently serving on the bench, saying the performance of majority of them is below average.

The Federal Government has named Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Taraba States as beneficiaries of the proposed six new universities after Bayelsa State, the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan and Education Minister, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i’s, Jigawa State earlier announced as benefiting states.

Lagos state House of Assembly has approved the Special Expenditure Request forwarded to it by the Commissioner, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget.

Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) who is also National Chairman of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, says the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the northern consensus candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has made it easier for the opposition to defeat the PDP in 2011.

THE national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said yesterday that it has no hand in the consensus arrangement of the Mallam Adamu Ciroma’s consensus candidate committee which produced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the chosen one for the north.

United Airlines yesterday announced plans to commence flight to Washington DC from Lagos with effect from December 13, 2010.

The decision of the major northern presidential aspirants to spend only four years in office and hand over to someone from the South-East has inevitably placed focus on that region on the probable running mate to Atiku if he emerges as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The United States government yesterday advised the Federal Government to engage its teeming population of graduates of tertiary institutions in active productive sectors of the economy in order to accelerate socio-economic development of the country.