Pope Francis named TIME's Person of the Year 2013

After only nine months as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been named TIME magazine Person of the Year 2013. TIME said the former Argentinian Cardinal has become the 'new voice of conscience and is the person who had the greatest impact on the world in 2013.

"Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly - young and old, faithful and cynical - as Pope Francis," editors at Time Magazine said. 

The runner-up to the Pope is the National Security Agency whistle blower, Edward Snowden.

Pics:Nelson Mandela's body lying in state in Pretoria

The body of late anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela this morning arrived at South African government Union Building, Pretoria, where it will lie in state for three days.

The public, invited heads of states and international guests will be able to view his body from today till Friday. He will be buried in his home village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province on Sunday Dec. 15th.

 

FG cancels resumption ultimatum, pays N200b requested by ASUU

With the apparent stance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on non resumption until the agreement between them and the Federal government has been honored, the Federal Government in a re-conciliatory move removed the ultimatum earlier placed on lecturers to resume otherwise their appointments would be terminated. FG has also provided proof of disbursement of N200billion to the educational trust account which was one of the criteria earlier given by lecturers for resumption.

Addressing newsmen yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, showed a letter with reference number GVD/DGO/GEN/MP/05/151 which was addressed to the Auditor-General of the Federation and titled: “Confirmation of the Execution of your Mandate for the Credit of Account No…Revitalization of Universities Infrastructure Account.”
The letter stated: “I write to confirm the execution of the following mandates by the Central Bank of Nigeria for funding of the above mentioned account as follows:
Mandate FD/LP2013/40/1/30/DF – 129,300,000,000.00
Mandate FD/F124/Vol XII/120/DF – 20,700,000,000.00
Mandate FD/LP2013/40/1/DF – 50,000,000,000.0
“I wish to further confirm that the available balance in the aforementioned account is N200,000,000,000.00 (Two Hundred Billion Naira Only).
“Please, accept the assurances of my best regards.”

As regards cancellation of the ultimatum, Doyin Okupe said about 90% of the lecturers had resumed nationwide so the talk of deadline resumption has dropped.