A group of civil rights campaigners, yesterday, protested to the National Assembly to demand the passage of a bill prohibiting illegal possession of arms before the forth coming general elections.

Activities at the High Court, Ikeja were yesterday halted for minutes by the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS when they protested over the ongoing coroner inquest into last year’s collapsed building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN which killed over 100 persons.

The group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has sent an urgent appeal to four UN Special Rapporteurs and the Special Envoy on Global Education over the imposition of compulsory insurance scheme for students of the Federal Government Colleges.

The 2021 Confederations Cup will not be held in Qatar, FIFA announced on Wednesday. Jerome Valcke, FIFA secretary general, said the tournament will be played “in an Asian country”, but Qatar had been ruled out because of its climate.

Jamaica, long associated with a vibrant pot-smoking culture, on Tuesday passed a law decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the leaf it calls ganja.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Wednesday she was “very disappointed” at the failure of the latest bid to spare two Australians on death row in Indonesia, as Jakarta signalled that execution preparations were almost complete.

World leaders have proved “shameful and ineffective” in failing to protect civilians from groups like Islamic State (IS), Amnesty International said Wednesday, calling 2014 a “catastrophic” year.

NATIONAL Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Professor Adewale Oladipo, yesterday, said that former President Olusegun Obasanjo destroyed an expired party membership card and not the new and authentic card being issued by the party.

LOKOJA—An 80-year-old American missionary, Rev. Phyllis Sortor, has been abducted by unknown gunmen in Kogi State.

My attention has been drawn this morning to an article entitled: “Jonathan Replies Soludo over “missing N30 trillion” claim”— extracting from Mr. President’s interview as published by Thisday newspaper. ThisDay quoted Mr. President as saying that “Soludo said that under Ngozi’s watch they stole N30 trillion” but that since the sum of the federal budget over the last four years was less than N30 trillion, such an amount could not have been “stolen”. According to the President, “it is all political”. I had earlier stated that I would not make further comments on the issues until probably after the elections but since Mr.