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WSJ: China’s Ant Group plans revamp amid regulator pressure
China’s Ant Group Co Ltd is planning to refashion itself as a financial holding company under the supervision of China’s central bank in the face of regulatory pressure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has submitted an outline of a restructuring plan, which could be finalised before China goes into the week-long lunar new year holiday in mid-February, the Wall Street Journal said, citing sources. Chinese regulators had asked Ant to consider folding up most of its financial businesses into a holding company that would be subject to more stringent capital requirements, two sources told Reuters in December. The country’s central bank, People’s Bank of China, has said Ant controls a range of financial institutions, including sec...
Zambia leader removes 246 inmates from death row
Zambian President Edgar Lungu has removed 246 inmates who were on death row and commuted their sentences to life sentences, a government official said on Wednesday. Minister of Home Affairs, Stephen Kampyongo, said that among the inmates includes 225 males and 21 females. He announced the commuting of the sentences during an event held at Mukobeko Maximum Prison in central Zambia’s Kabwe town which was streamed live on Facebook. Mr Kampyongo said this made the clemency of death to life sentences over 500 after 332 inmates had their sentences commuted in 2015. He said the commutation of sentences of inmates would help to congest the section of condemned inmates at the prison which was meant for 50 people but now has over 400 inmates. The move, he said, was also meant to protect inmates from...
Zlatan Ibrahimovic denies using racist language in on-field spat with Romelu Lukaku in derby clash
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has denied all allegations of using racist abuse during his on-field clash with Romelu Lukaku in the Coppa Italia match between Inter and AC Milan on Tuesday evening. The attackers squared up to each other at half-time, trading verbal blows and ultimately being cautioned by referee Paolo Valeri. Lukaku came out on top in the end, scoring the equaliser in a 2-1 win for the Nerazzurri, while Ibrahimovic was shown a second yellow in the second half and was given his marching orders. The dust has far from settled in the wake of the spat, however, as pitch-side microphones picked up the heated conversation between Lukaku and Ibrahimovic, with the latter reportedly calling the former a “donkey” and telling him to go do his “voodoo sh*t”, among other things. The voodoo referenc...
Timi Frank: Sack, appointment of service chiefs late
Silverbird Television Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Tuesday, attributed the rising spate of insecurity in the country to the retention, for far too long, of Service Chiefs who were no longer delivering as expected by President Muhammadu Buhari. Frank who was reacting to what he described as the earlier reluctance and eventual sack of the Service Chiefs, as well as appointment of new ones in a statement in Abuja, lamented that despite a whooping one term and a quarter of Buhari’s administration (about six years), that the administration “has not achieved any decisive victory against Boko Haram, murderous herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers.” “It became apparent early in the life of this regime that the set of Security ...
Ondo governor: Our people cannot continue to live in fear
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state has declared that the people of the state can not continue to live in fear arising from the cases of kidnapping, robbery, and other criminal activities recorded in the state. Akeredolu said this while receiving the newly posted Assistant Inspection-General of Police for Zone 17, headquartered in Akure, Isaac Akinmoyede, and the new Brigade commander of the 32 Artillery, Owena Catonement, Brig. Gen. Raymond Utsaha. He urged the new AIG and brigade commander to collaborate with other security agencies in the state for optimum performance. According to him” insecurity can be tackled in a different way when there are collaborative efforts. ” We have great challenges. We need all hands on deck. Our challenges are enormous. Top of it is the issue of kidnap...
President Buhari hailed for sacking service chiefs
An environmental activist, Chief Sheriff Mulade, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for relieving service chiefs of their positions and appointing their replacements, saying the development showed that the president has a listening ear given the growing agitation from Nigerians for a change of guard in the nation’s security architecture. This was as he called for the urgent restructuring of the country following what he referred to as “the mismanagement of the nation’s resources, as well as the endless marginalization of the South-South region of the country.” The peace advocate, while reacting to the president’s action, at a media conference in Abuja, expressed optimism that the action would bring improvement in security management in the country. Mulade, who is the National Coordin...
Edo court sentences 32 people for not wearing face masks
A mobile court in Benin, Edo State, on Tuesday sentenced 32 persons to community services for not wearing face masks. Edo State has made it mandatory for residents to wear face masks and obey other COVID-19 protocols in order to check the spread of the viral infection. The prosecuting counsel, Orubosa Okubor, said the 32 persons were apprehended within Benin metropolis and that they pleaded liable. The Chief Magistrate, Rusberth Imafidon, directed the convicts to carry out community services in line with the Correctional Centre of Non-Custodial Regulation. Their punishment includes clearing drains, shrubs, picking of trash, compulsory community sensitisation, and grass-cutting. Mr Imafidon said the offenders would be punished for three hours for one day to serve as a deterrent to other vio...
Liberty Media SPAC Raised $575M With Last Week’s Public Offering
Liberty Media Acquisition Corporation, the special purpose acquisition corporation of Liberty Media Corp. raised $575 million in its Jan. 22 initial offering on the Nasdaq exchange, the company announced Tuesday (Jan. 26). Liberty Media Corp. owns a majority of SiriusXM and about a third of Live Nation. Trading under LMACU, Liberty’s SPAC will “identify, acquire and operate” a business with “attractive risk-adjusted returns” within Liberty’s comfort zone: “digital media, media, music, entertainment, communications, telecommunications and technology industries,” according to the prospectus filed with the SEC on Jan. 21. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful p...
88rising Signs First-Look Deal With Sony Pictures TV
The global Asian music and media company has hired former Imagine and NBC exec Alex Lin to spearhead its film and television development. Sony Pictures TV has signed 88rising, the emergent company that spotlights modern global Asian culture, to a first-look deal. The two will partner to develop scripted series centering Asian and Asian American culture, across all platforms, and 88rising has hired former Imagine and NBC exec Alex Lin to serve as its first development executive for film and television. Since its founding in 2015, 88rising has quickly risen — pun unintended — from a record label for pan-Asian artists to a music, media and events company that in 2018 became the first to stage an Asian music festival in the United States (Head in the Clouds, dubbed “Asian Coachella...
ARIA Appoints Annabelle Herd as CEO
Herd brings a skillset loaded with legal and lobbying work in the nation’s capital, Canberra, and extensive experience in the television industry. Previously, she carved out a 16-year career at free-to-air Network 10, where she most recently held the post of Chief Operating Officer, tasked with leading its broadcast operations; group strategy; corporate and internal communications; interstate markets; policy, regulatory, compliance and government affairs; and lobbying and stakeholder relations. And before that, she worked at senior levels with government in Canberra, culminating in a stint as Senior Advisor (Broadcasting and Copyright) and Acting Chief of Staff for then Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator the Hon. Richard Alston AO. While in the capital, she worked as a gover...
Thomas Tuchel appointed new Chelsea manager
Chelsea have confirmed the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as the club’s new manager. The Blues moved swiftly to bring in the German following the decision to sack Frank Lampard on Monday. The 47-year-old will be charged with the task of reviving the fortunes of a side sat in ninth in the Premier League table, with Champions League qualification the likely target for the remainder of the season. Tuchel, who was sacked as coach of Paris Saint-Germain in December, has signed an 18-month contract, with the option of a further year in west London. His predecessor, Lampard, had been handed a three-year contract when the Blues legend was appointed Chelsea boss in the summer of 2019 following a season in charge of Championship side Derby County. When will Tuchel take charge of his first game? Tuchel...
APC welcomes appointment of new service chiefs
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed confidence that the new service chiefs will consolidate on the remarkable achievements of their predecessors in keeping the country safe and peaceful. President Muhammadu Buhari had Tuesday sacked the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar. He replaced them with Major-General Leo Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff; Major-General I. Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff; and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao, Chief of Air Staff. The National Secretary of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party, Sen. John Akpanudoedehe, in a sta...
