Germany’s `marzipan blackmailer’ sentenced to four years in prison

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A man convicted of leaving a box of poisoned marzipan hearts at a school in Northern Germany and blackmailing a supermarket chain has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.

Dubbed the “marzipan blackmailer’’ by German media, the 38-year-old left the tainted marzipan at a school in Kiel last September and threatened to do so at three other schools if supermarket chain Coop failed to pay him 3.2 million dollars.

He demanded the blackmail sum in the digital currency Bitcoin.

Although no one ate the marzipan, judge Ralph Jacobsen told the Kiel court that the case had been especially serious because it involved the health of the city’s school children.

“Half the city was worried,’’ he said.

Experts who examined the marzipan hearts said they contained a substance that was not life-threatening but could bring about severe health problems.

The post Germany’s `marzipan blackmailer’ sentenced to four years in prison appeared first on Vanguard News.

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Pope makes historic visit to Rome Anglican church

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Pope Francis attends a ceremony during his visit to the All Saints' Anglican Church in Rome on February 26, 2017. FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP

Pope Francis attended a service at the All Saints’ Church in Rome on Sunday, becoming the first pontiff in history to visit an Anglican church in the Italian capital.

Francis’s visit marked the 200th anniversary of the All Saints’ church, furthering a rapprochement between the Vatican and the Anglican Church of England that began last year.

In a further sign of the closer ties, the pope spoke of the “possibility” of a visit to troubled South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, his Anglican counterpart.

Pope Francis added that such a visit would only be for a single day “because the situation is difficult there”.

South Sudan, which only gained nationhood in 2011, has been engulfed since 2013 by a civil war which has left thousands dead and three million people displaced.

“As Catholics and Anglicans, we are humbly grateful that, after centuries of mutual mistrust, we are now able to recognizee that the fruitful grace of Christ is at work also in others,” the pope said in a sermon on Sunday.

“Today we can be encouraged by our gathering.”

Closer ties with other faiths and branches of Christianity have been a priority for Francis since he became pope in 2013.

Last October, he attended a special service in Rome with Welby to mark the 50th anniversary of the first joint prayer of a Catholic pontiff and a head of the Church of England.

The service marked the historic meeting between then archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI.

The Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic church under British King Henry VIII in the 16th Century, and Anglicans have not recognised the pontiff as their spiritual leader since then.

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Ecuador in key vote for Latin American left

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Ecuadorean presidential candidate for the CREO party, Guillermo Lasso (C) greets supporters after accompanying his running mate Andres Paez (behind Lasso) to vote in Quito on February 19, 2017 during general election. Ecuador's elections will decide who succeeds leftist President Rafael Correa after a decade in power.<br />Juan CEVALLOS / AFP

Ecuador voted Sunday in general elections that could see a pillar of the Latin American left swing to the right — and potentially deprive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of his place of refuge in London.

President Rafael Correa, who is not running, expressed confidence that his party’s candidate, Lenin Moreno, would win in the first round.

“They want to give the impression it’s going to a second round. The polls clearly say the contrary,” he said after casting his ballot at an elementary school in Quito.

“Let’s await the results and, in a democratic spirit, accept the will of the Ecuadoran people expressed at the polls.”

The vote puts Correa’s legacy into question. He is marking the end of 10 years in power during three terms as one of Latin America’s leading leftists and an outspoken critic of the United States.

It could also alter the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The two leading conservative candidates have said that if they win, they will evict him from Ecuador’s London embassy, where he has taken refuge for fear of extradition to the United States.

– Continuity or change –
An economist, Correa, 53, initially oversaw a boom in his oil-rich country of 16 million people.

A decade on, “what is at stake are two visions of society, two visions of development, two visions of the state,” he said of Sunday’s election.

Voters must decide whether to continue his socialist agenda by electing his ally Moreno or follow Argentina, Brazil and Peru in switching to a conservative government.

Moreno, who leads in opinion polls, promises to continue Correa’s tax-and-spend social policies.

“The Ecuadoran people have affection (for us) and are determined to continue with this process,” the 63-year-old told AFP.

To win in the first round, he needs to receive at least 40 percent of the vote and outpoll his nearest rival by 10 percent.

If he wins, Correa said, Ecuador will remain “on the same path but with different leadership, which I think in the end is very desirable for the country.”

– Trump –
But in an uncertain contest, Moreno faces a challenge from conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso, 61, second in the opinion polls.

He has vowed to cut spending and taxes, lure foreign investment and create a million jobs.

He has also slammed Correa’s allies over alleged links to a corruption scandal.

“We have to vote for change to fight against corruption,” Lasso said at a campaign rally on Wednesday.

The third-placed candidate is conservative former lawmaker Cynthia Viteri, 51.

Correa says Latin America needs a strong leftist movement to resist US President Donald Trump’s hard line on immigration and trade.

But Lasso and Viteri have shown more willingness to work with Washington since Trump’s election victory in November.

– Boom, bust –
Franco Sandoval, a student in Quito, said he will vote “for a change.”

“The ones who are in power have been there for a long time. They have done their job,” he said. “But at some point, they go off the rails.”

Ecuador exports half-a-million barrels of oil a day. Correa used the wealth to fund social welfare schemes and public works.

He called it “21st-century socialism.”

But oil prices have plunged over the past three years, helping shrink Ecuador’s economy by 1.7 percent last year.

Correa is accused of failing to save any petrodollars for a rainy day and of hampering businesses with high taxes and duties.

“Whoever becomes president will have to dig the grave of ’21st century socialism,'” said Alberto Acosta-Burneo, an economist at the Spurrier Group consultancy.

“It is no longer viable in the current economic situation.”

– Close contest –
Although opinion polls indicate Moreno will probably win Sunday’s first-round vote, his lead may not be big enough to avoid a runoff in April against one of his conservative rivals, most likely Lasso.

Analysts say voters fed up with Correa may rally behind any conservative candidate who gets through to the second round.

Polls show a high ratio of undecided voters.

“Any party could beat the governing one in the second round because there is major resistance to and rejection of the government,” said political scientist Paolo Moncagatta of Quito’s San Francisco University.

But Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington was more cautious.

“It is a mistake to underestimate the strength of support for Correa’s side,” he said.

Polling stations opened at 1200 GMT and were due to close at 2200 GMT.

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Police releases Audu Maikori

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Audu Maikori

The founder and president of Chocolate City Group, Audu Maikori, has been released by the Nigerian after his arrest in Lagos on Friday.

His release was confirmed by Chocolate City’s chief operations officer, Paul Okeugo. “Audu [has been] released and unharmed,” he said on Saturday evening.

Maikori was arrested by of policemen attached to the inspector-general’s monitoring and intelligence team over ‘inciting comments’ he made on social media on Southern Kaduna killings. He was moved to Force Headquarters in Abuja, where he was kept till Saturday.

In a series of tweets on January 23, Maikori alleged that five students of Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, Kafanchan, were murdered by Fulani herdsmen.

“My driver’s younger brother and five others students of college of education Gidan Waya were ambushed and killed by herdsmen yesterday #SouthernKaduna,” he said in one of the tweets.

But the school’s management denied that any of its students was killed. Kaduna State also condemned the misinformation and vowed to prosecute rumour peddlers.

Before his arrest, however, Maikori apologised for the wrong information contained in his tweets, claiming that he was misled by his driver, who himself was an indigene of Southern Kaduna. The driver, he said, was handed over to the police after he (Maikori) decided to further investigate the story to “ensure that all the facts of the case and evidence were presented to the authorities.”

“I hereby tender an unreserved and sincere apology to the Management of the College of Education, Gidan Waya, His Excellency the Governor of Kaduna State and the Kaduna State Government, and also to the people of Southern Kaduna and the Fulani community and also VANGUARD newspapers whose source was my driver for the false statement by my driver which I also publicized believing same to be true,” Maikori said in a statement on February 5.

“This action is made even more imperative because I understand that as a leader in my community, my statements are taken seriously and shapes the narrative. But nothing is more important in leadership than owning up to mistakes honestly and with integrity regardless of the repercussions or circumstances.”

Southern Kaduna, for a few weeks, was a scene of bloody conflicts between suspected Fulani herdsmen and indigenes of the area with scores of the residents killed. The conflicts forced the state government to impose a 24-hour curfew on Zangon Kataf which was only relaxed on February 4 to “6 pm and 6 am”.

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Banking sector records over 910m transactions worth N65trn in 2016

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CBN building

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said a total volume of 910,186,115 transactions valued at N65.16 trillion were recorded in 2016 as electronic payment in the banking sector.

This statistics is contained in a “Selected Banking Sector Data for 4th Quarter 2016’’ released by NBS in Abuja.

The report stated that ATM transactions dominated the volume of transactions recorded, with 590, 238, 934 volume, valued at N4.98 trillion recorded during the period.

“In terms of credit to private sector, a total of 59.56 trillion Naira worth of credit was allocated by banks in 2016.

“Services and Industry got credit allocation of N23.07 trillion and N22.85 trillion to record the highest credit allocation in the year under review.

“As at fourth quarter 2016, the total number of banks’ staff dropped from 82,540 in third quarters 2016 to 76,812 in the fourth quarter,’’ it stated.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the data was supplied administratively by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), verified and validated by the NBS.

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