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Donald Trump Donald Trump, clearly angered by news reports that he has grown depressed and sullen over his fading presidential prospects, has issued some of his sharpest attacks on the media. “I am not running against Crooked Hillary Clinton,” the Republican presidential candidate said in a speech late Saturday in Fairfield, Connecticut. “I’m running against the crooked media.” Trump seemed particularly upset with a New York Times article that quotes unnamed associates of his as saying that in private “his mood is often sullen and erratic.” Republicans close to his campaign were quoted as saying he was “exhausted, frustrated and still bewildered” by the political process. The real estate tycoon returned to his message on Sunday, tweeting: “My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm.” Later, amid a flurry of further tweets on the subject, he added: “It is not ‘freedom of the press’ when newspapers and ot...

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- The mother of a kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl appealed Monday for Nigeria's president to free detained Boko Haram militants in exchange for the more than 200 girls held captive, as the Islamic extremists have offered. A Boko Haram video posted Sunday shows dozens of the 218 girls who were abducted from a remote school in April 2014, with one saying that "some" have died in military airstrikes. Nigeria's defense ministry disputed that Monday. "It is extremely difficult and rare to hit innocent people during airstrikes because the operation is done through precision attacks on identified and registered targets and locations," spokesman Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar said in a statement. In the video, one of the kidnapped girls begs their parents to press Nigeria's government to free detained Boko Haram members so that the schoolgirls can be freed in a prisoner swap. "The government should just release the militants," her m...

Saudi Arabia has intercepted a boat carrying 31 illegal migrants, including six Nigerians, that was trying to reach the kingdom, the Border Guards force said on Monday. The guards have reported repeated interceptions of migrants in the Red Sea over the past two months. In the latest case, a patrol “foiled an attempt by a group of 31 people from different nationalities to enter Saudi waters on a wooden boat”, Border Guards spokesman Colonel Sahir al-Harbi said. He said the group comprised 20 Sudanese, six Nigerians and five Ethiopians. “They were coming from Sudanese shores,” he said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency. At least 339 illegal immigrants have been intercepted by Saudi border guards off the coast since the first half of June, according to figures cited by SPA. The vast majority have been Sudanese, whose impoverished homeland lies less than 300 kilometres (186 miles) from oil-rich Saudi Arabia. According to the United Nations, since 2014 more than 10,000 people have ...

Following the demands by the Boko Haram sect that the Federal Government swap detained Boko Haram members for the abducted Chibok girls, Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Gabriel Olonishakin has said it’s a political decision. According to him, the military is continuing its operations in the North East and swapping the girls for the Boko Haram prisoners is a political decision and will not stop the military operations. He made this comments to State House Correspondents after a meeting of the security chiefs at the Aso Villa. LEADERSHIP recalls that on Sunday, Boko Haram sect released a new video showing the abducted Chibok girls and claiming that some of the girls were killed by air strikes launched by the Nigerian Air Force on their locations. The video showed a masked armed man standing in front of several girls, who, he claimed, were the over 200 girls who abducted from their school hostel at Government Secondary School, Chibok, in 2014. The man said the video was released to send a...

A former Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, has lashed out at the current All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government, saying the party is not fit to be in power. Addressing Journalist in Abuja, Makinde said except stringent measures were taken, the country may explode because of the current economic hardship in the country. According to Makinde, the situation of insecurity and hardship in the country could lead to a breakdown of law and order. Makinde said, “The APC is part of the corruption in the country. They are not fit to be there, they must handle the issue of padding very carefully. We are sitting on a keg of gun powder. The day it will explode, it will consume us. So many graduates are not employed. Unemployed people are the people behind the militancy in the Niger Delta region. “I want to warn Christians in the National Assembly. They should be careful, they should not take the issue of Sharia law and the grazing bill in the National Ass...

Morne and Celeste Nurse, the biological parents of the South African born baby C ASouth African woman who kidnapped a newborn baby from her sleeping mother’s arms in hospital almost two decades ago has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a judge who told her she “betrayed and lied to” the child. Judge John Hlope, sitting at Cape Town’s high court, told the 52-year-old woman - who cannot be named to protect the adopted identity of her victim - that her actions had caused “so much harm” to the child’s biological family. Celeste and Morne Nurse and their other children celebrated their lost child’s birthday with a cake each year and made regular media appeals in a bid to find her.

President Jacob Zuma and the country’s political parties have conveyed their “deepest condolences” to the family of Makhenkesi Stofile, former Eastern Cape premier, cabinet minister and ambassador to Germany. Makhenkesi, who also served as the ANC chief whip in the country’s first democratically elected government, succumbed to an undisclosed illness on Monday (August15). He was 71. Former minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile has died at the age 72. File picture: Damaris Helwig. Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA Zuma described Stofile, whose death has been likened to the fall of a Baobab tree, as a “distinguished freedom fighter” and a dedicated servant of the people. “We wish to convey our deepest condolences to his family during this painful and difficult period,” he said. Political parties have also reflected on Stofile’s death and commended him for the “sterling role” he played in the country’s politics and sports. He served as sports minister between 2004 and 201...