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A grant of almost £5m will be announced this week by the Heritage Lottery Fund to improve facilities at Dove Cottage, the home of the poet William Wordsworth and the place where he wrote his daffodils poem, in time for 2020, the 250th anniversary of the poet’s birth. The cottage is still full of the poet’s possessions, and among the treasures of the museum are his sister Dorothy’s journals, including the entry for Thursday 15 April 1802, when they saw the flowers. She described: A long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud set a new world record for mass recitation in 2004, when 250,000 school children a...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has confirmed that it is considering petition submitted to it by human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN over alleged crimes against humanity committed in the context of the arms procurement scandal. The ICC revealed this in a letter dated 1 February 2016 with reference: OTP-CR-32/16 and signed by Mark P. Dillon, Head of Information & Evidence Unit of the ICC. The letter reads in part: “The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court acknowledges receipt of your documents/letter. This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the Office. We will give consideration to this communication, as appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” Mr. Falana had in a petition dated 19 January 2016 requested the ICC to “investigate allegations of crimes against humanity committed against the Nigerian people by some former and serving ...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday identified corruption as the greatest single challenge facing Nigeria, attributing it to one of the worst legacies of misrule and bad governance. He also noted that until President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent effort to fight corruption headlong, it had “taken a seat at the very heart of government”, and was fighting Nigeria with a vengeance. The remark by the former president was at the inaugural conference of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy held at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan. It was an undisguised critique of the Jonathan years, unravelling as a very corrupt era in Nigeria’s history. Obasanjo, who himself governed Nigeria twice, 1976-1979 and 1999-2007 tried to exculpate his regimes from blame and praised his efforts at his last coming. “We set up the ICPC and the EFCC to tackle it head on. Today, corruption drains billions of dollars from our economy that cannot afford to los...

In an undercover laboratory in Vancouver, scientists have been slaving away for the find of the century. It’s not a cure for cancer, or even a way to conquer death. This research is a lot more sinister. Scientists have found a way to cross humans with dogs, to cater for a market of very rich people who like collecting unique pets. Dr. Paul Bradshaw, 54, from the Hartman Collinge Institute explains “There is only so much you can buy a person who has it all. This is better than buying your loved one a iphone 6!” Animal rights groups are up in arms, as Pauline Crosby, 34, activist with the Animal Defense League explains “If one my children saw these creatures, they’d scared half to death. Imagine one of them sucking on your toes, in a dark alley”. Dr Bradshaw explains some of the advantages having Human/Dog hybrids, “they’re obviously very intelligent and their vocal cords are functional. This means, not only can they keep you company like a dog can, they can read you bed time s...

Italian government has expressed the conviction that Nigeria will emerge one of the most powerful countries of the world under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi spoke to State House correspondents yesterday (Monday, 1st February 2016) after meeting behind closed-doors with Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja. The Italian prime minister emphasized that President Buhari’s leadership was important to Italy. Renzi said Italy was in total support of the ongoing anti-corruption war championed by President Buhari’s government. Describing Nigeria as a very important partner of Italy in Africa, Renzi also expressed his country's support to Nigeria in the fight against terrorism. The Italian leader called on the international community to consider Africa as priority in the fight against terrorism. Renzi said he and Buhari discussed how to foster both countries' cooperation in the areas of security, energy, i...

Hillary Clinton was given the fright of her life as veteran socialist senator Bernie Sanders pushed her to the limit in the Iowa caucus, on a night of extreme drama in the first test of the US presidential election year. Ted Cruz, the maverick Texas senator, used his formidable ground game to beat the bombastic property tycoon Donald Trump into second place in the Republican race. With more than 99% of the precinct results in, Clinton led 49.9% to 49.5% over Sanders after seeing an apparently comfortable lead slip. The Associated Press and multiple outlets said the race was simply too close to call. Both candidates will now move on to New Hampshire buoyed up, Clinton with a “sigh of relief” that her bid to be the first female president of the United States is alive, and Sanders believing that his revolution against the “billionaire classes” truly began in the snowy cornfields of Iowa. With half of the results in across the rural midwest state, Clinton appeared to be easing to...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has won the Iowa Republican caucuses, the first vote to choose US presidential candidates. "Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives," he declared, to great applause, as he railed against Washington, lobbyists and the media. He took 28% of the Republican vote, beating his rival, the frontrunner Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio. Votes in the Democratic race are still being counted, with Hillary Clinton's camp believing they have narrowly won. Iowa caucus results Republican vote, 99% reported: Ted Cruz: 28%, eight delegates Donald Trump: 24%, seven delegates Marco Rubio: 23%, seven delegates Ben Carson: 9%, three delegates Democratic vote, 99% reported: Hillary Clinton: 50%, 22 delegates Bernie Sanders 50%, 21 delegates Live updates: Iowa votes Her spokesman Brian Fallon has said the former secretary of state and first lady will beat Bernie Sanders, the 74-year-old senator from Vermont, by two delegates in Iowa. In five preci...

It is the first time a country has considered the DNA-altering technique in embryos and approved it. The research will take place at the Francis Crick Institute in London and aims to provide a deeper understanding of the earliest moments of human life. It will be illegal for the scientists to implant the modified embryos into a woman. But the field is attracting controversy over concerns it is opening the door to designer - or GM - babies. DNA is the blueprint of life - the instructions for building the human body. Gene editing allows the precise manipulation of DNA. In a world-first last year, scientists in China announced they had carried out gene editing in human embryos to correct a gene that causes a blood disorder. Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, a scientific advisor to the UK's fertility regulator, told the BBC: "China has guidelines, but it is often unclear exactly what they are until you've done it and stepped over an unclear boundary. "This is the fi...

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said that the NCC approved the acquisition of Visafone by MTN to save the Code Division Multiple Access operators in the country. “With the acquisition, the commission will now engage other top industry players who may have interest in other CDMA players so that the operators won’t just lose out of business. “If we did this, we shall also be saving the subscribers of these CDMA companies who might have invested so much in terms of commitment to the CDMA system,” he said. Danbatta added that the NCC would continue to encourage the revival of technologies in the industry. He spoke at his maiden international press conference, where he said that MTN had communicated the NCC about its withdrawal of the court case the former filed challenging the N680bn fine slammed on it by the commission. Danbatta said that MTN was fined for contravening regulatory orders on SIM registration proce...