Times Magazine 2015 Person of The Year is German Chancellor, Angela Merkel

Time magazine has named German chancellor Angela Merkel its Person of the Year, citing her resolve in leading Europe through this summer’s Greek debt crisis, and her encouragement of other countries to open their borders to migrants and refugees.

 Angela Merkel - TIME’s 2015 Person of the Year Photograph: AP

Merkel is only the fourth woman to ever be named Person of the Year, after Time opened up the contest to women in 1936. She is the first to be awarded the title since 1986.

By the beginning of 2015, Time said, “Merkel had already emerged as the indispensable player in managing Europe’s serial debt crises; she also led the West’s response to Vladimir Putin’s creeping theft of Ukraine”.

Nigeria Wouldn’t Have Survived Four More Years Under Jonathan - Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has opened up on supporting President Muhammadu Buhari during the electioneering, adding that Nigeria would not have survived four more years of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s rule.

The Nobel laureate made his stance known during a programme titled, ‘Channels Book Club’ on Channels Television on Tuesday.He said 

 “We were left with two credible contestants in terms of catchment area for the nation. We had reached, in my view, the bottom. I became convinced that if this country underwent four more years under President Jonathan, the country would run aground completely. I looked at the record and said this cannot go on, this has to stop.

“Then I looked at this man who had contested elections three times before and said he would not contest anymore and then decided to throw his hat in the ring. I talked to people and I said do you know what you’re doing?

$2.1bn Arms Deal Scandal: FG Files Money Laundering Charges Against Dokpesi and DAAR Communications

The Federal Government of Nigeria has filed a six-count charge of alleged N2.1billion money laundering against the former chairman of DAAR Communications Plc owners of AIT and RayPower, Chief Raymond Dokpesi.‎ 

Daar Holding and Investment Limited was filed as co-defendant in the suit. Dokpesi and his company are being accused of violating the Money Laundering Act, the EFCC Act and the Public Procurement Act.

Nigerian Government Plans to Spend N500bn on Programs for Poor Nigerians in 2016

President Muhammadu Buhari has proposed to spend N500bn on social services to cater for the needs of youths and other “vulnerable” groups in 2016.

The proposal was contained in the 2016-2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which he sent to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Buhari wrote separate letters to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, which were read to members in the respective chambers.

Punch reports that the document explained that the social welfare programme would be executed in phases but did not categorically say whether it was meant to implement his administration’s promise to pay each unemployed person in the country N5, 000 monthly.

Nigerian Drug Dealer Jailed in London for Possession of 79 Wraps of Cocaine & Heroin

A Nigerian drug dealer has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison after police found 79 wraps of class A drugs hidden under a bath in Chelmsford, Essex.

Lekan Awosika, 25, of Central Park Road, East Ham, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on November 27, 2015 after he was found guilty of possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Awosika was arrested on March 25 this year by officers from Operation Saturn, a team formed in 2014 to tackle gang related violence and drug crime.

Father & Son Arrested For Stealing $41,000 Worth Of Chicken Wings

Syracuse.com reports: Two employees of a Syracuse restaurant are accused of stealing more than $40,000 in chicken wings and selling them to other restaurants and “on the street” for a poultry sum, according to the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Jon Seeber said Paul Rojek, 56, and Joshua Rojek, 33, of Syracuse, billed approximately $41,000 of chicken-wing orders to the Twin Trees Two restaurant’s business account between February and late November.

The father-son pair was employed there as cooks, Seeber said.

Mycoplasma Genitalium: Scientists Confirm A New Sexually Transmitted Disease

Scientists in the United Kingdom have confirmed the existence of a new sexually transmitted disease called mycoplasma genitalium.

The confirmation of the bacterial disease, which causes painful urination among other things, as an STD comes more than two decades after it was first discovered.

A team of fourteen researchers arrived at the conclusion after conducting a national survey of the sexual lifestyles and attitudes of British men and women.

The researchers said the study, which involved the testing urine from 4,507 sexually experienced participants aged 16 to 44 years for MG, “strengthens evidence that MG is an STI”.

They added, “MG was identified in over one per cent of the population, including in men with high-risk behaviours in older age groups that are often not included in STI prevention measures.”