Headline

NDE Trains 50 Women On spice, Seasoning Production In Bauchi

Published

4 years ago

March 10, 2022

The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), says it has begun a five-day entrepreneurship skill development programme for 50 women on spice and seasoning production in Bauchi State.

Mr Jubrin Habeeb, Head of Department (HOD), Small Scale Enterprise (SSE) NDE, Bauchi, who disclosed on Wednesday in Bauchi, said the training commenced on Monday.

According to him, the training was carried out under the Women Employment Branch (WEB), one of the branches of SSE of the NDE where women were frequently trained on different skills.

He said that the Director General of NDE, Malam Abubakar Fikpo initiated the idea as part of measures to address economic challenges in the country, adding that the women were selected across the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.

“In this kind of business, these women can start with a small amount of money.

“They can even engage in the production at the comfort of their rooms without having to take the products to the market as their neighbours would patronise them,” he said.

Habeeb, who explained that the women would be given lunch on a daily basis during the course of the training, said that each of them would be entitled to a transport allowance of N3,000 at the end of the training.

He expressed optimism towards resettling the women after the training in order to expedite the establishment of their businesses and become employers of labour.

“The federal government is not folding its hands in making sure that the rate of unemployment is drastically reduced in this country.

“It is doing that through the engagement of unemployed youths on different entrepreneurship and skills acquisition training and fortunately, in most of our training here, women are extremely serious.

“When you look at the Northeast, because of insurgency, you will see a woman with 10 children whose husband has been killed and this is why I’m always happy seeing women being trained like this.

“Apart from the fact that these women would be able to take care of themselves and their children with the business, the training is also going to mitigate unemployment,” said Habeeb.

He however, advised the trainees to listen attentively to the instructor and put in their best in becoming ideal producers of the items.

Headline

UK Nursery Worker Jailed For Abusing 21 Babies

Published

16 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

A judge on Friday jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous” and “sadistic” attacks on babies.

In one incident, Londoner Roksana Lecka, 22, kicked a little boy in the face several times.

Lecka, who blamed cannabis for her crimes, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted after a trial of another 14 counts.

Sentencing her for attacks on 21 babies, Judge Sarah Plaschkes said she had committed “multiple acts of gratuitous violence” at two London nurseries where she worked.

“You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots,” she said.

“Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain… Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic,” she added.

Lecka’s cruelty was revealed in June 2024 after she was seen pinching a number of children.
Police were called in and found multiple incidents recorded on the nursery CCTV.

Victim impact statements submitted to London’s Kingston Crown Court from parents of Lecka’s victims told how they were left heartbroken and guilt-stricken by the attacks.

“These children were so innocent and vulnerable,” one mother told the court.

“They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents that something had happened to them,” she added.

“They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”

The hearing was told that she had apologised to the parents in a letter to the court in which she said cannabis had turned her into a different person.

She had been addicted to the drug around the time of the offences, but had not told the nursery.
She was found not guilty of three further counts of child cruelty.

Headline

Italy Fines Six Oil Firms $1bn Fine For Restricting Competition

Published

19 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

Italy’s antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than 936 million euros ($1.1 billion) for “restricting competition” in the sale of fuel.

The authority said in a statement that Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras and Tamoil “coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices”, which tripled between 2019 and 2023.

A probe following a whistleblower’s complaint revealed that “the companies implemented parallel price increases — largely coinciding — which were driven by direct or indirect information exchanges among them”, the authority said.

“The cartel began on 1 January 2020 and continued until 30 June 2023,” it added.

AFP

Headline

Trump Signs Order For TikTok’s Sale, Valued At $14bn

Published

21 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that his plan is to sell TikTok’s US operations to American and global investors.

As reported by Reuters on Friday, the order requires companies bidding for TikTok to meet the national-security requirements of the 2024 law that otherwise would ban the app unless its Chinese owners divest.

Speaking to reporters at an Oval Office briefing on Thursday, Vice President James Vance said the newly created US entity would be “valued around $14 billion.

“We actually think this is a good deal for investors, but they will make a determination about what they want to invest and what they think is the proper value,” he said.

The White House on Thursday pushed back the law’s enforcement date to January 20 to allow time for the transaction, investor commitments, and negotiations with Chinese authorities.

The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok’s US assets.

However, details remain to be worked out, including how the U.S. company would handle TikTok’s most valuable asset: its recommendation algorithm.

“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance said.

According to Reuters, Trump’s order says the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company’s security partners, and operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture.

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated approval of the plans. “I spoke with President Xi,” Trump said. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”

Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump’s action.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, with helping him win reelection last year. Trump has 15 million followers on his personal TikTok account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.

He said that Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox News owner Fox Corp, and newspaper publisher News Corp, and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.