Splash Instablog

Okechukwu Nnodim, Abuja: The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation of not remitting $3.8bn (about N748.6bn at the current official rate of N197 to a dollar) and N358.3bn to the Federation Account in 2013 in its latest audit report. According to the report, the NNPC also received a total of $12.9bn from the Nigeria Liquefied and Natural Gas Company between 2005 and 2013 but did not remit anything to the Federal Government. The report also stated that the country recorded a loss of revenue of N20.4bn and $5.966bn in 2013, adding that oil and gas companies underpaid the federation by $599.8m in the same period. The Chairman of NEITI, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who disclosed this on Monday while presenting the 2013 audit reports of the agency in Abuja, stated that 41 oil and gas companies and 16 government agencies participated in the audit. Citing the audit report, Fayemi said some revenues that should have gone ...

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, welcomes Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, center, prior to a dinner at the historical Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Monday, May 23, 2016. World leaders and representatives of humanitarian organizations from across the globe are converging in Istanbul for the first World Humanitarian Summit. He said the invitation to Akinci aimed to diplomatically upgrade the breakaway north of the island, which only Turkey recognizes as an independent state and maintains more than 35,000 troops there. Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup aiming at union with Greece. The dinner was held as part of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul. Anastasiades, who attended the summit, was invited to the dinner but refused to go after he was told Akinci would also be there. Anastasiades said he remains committed to the yearlong peace talks as long as "rules o...

Human remains retrieved from the crash site of EgyptAir Flight 804 have burn marks and are very small in size, suggesting an explosion on board may have downed the aircraft in the east Mediterranean, a senior Egyptian forensics official ...

Syrians soldiers inspect damaged buses at the scene where suicide bombers blew themselves up, in the coastal town of Tartus, Syria, Monday, May 23, 2016. A series of rare explosions including suicide bombings rocked coastal government strongholds in Syria Monday, killing several people and wounding dozens more, state media and opposition activists said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks. Gunfire could be heard Tuesday in the city of Tartus as the funerals got underway. Shooting in the air is a traditional sign of mourning in parts of the Middle East. The victims being buried Tuesday include three children from the Hammouda family, killed in the town of Jableh on Syria's Mediterranean coast. A series of explosions ripped through civilian targets in Jableh as well as the coastal city of Tartus Monday, killing more than a hundred people, most of them civilians. The attacks were the most serious breach of President Bashar Assad's coastal s...