US Navy Rescues 128 African Migrants From Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Others From Drowning In The Mediterranean

A US warship has rescued 128 African migrants from an inflatable raft that was threatening to capsize in rough seas in the Mediterranean.

The USS San Antonio, which is equipped with an amphibious transport dock that can help in rescue operations, was scrambled on Wednesday after a Maltese military aircraft spotted the dinghy.

“We successfully transferred 128 men between the ages of 20 and 30 from an inflatable raft on the San Antonio,” a US Navy official in Italy told AFP.

“The raft was being rocked by winds and seas and we had expected that overnight the seas would increase. If they were to be left out to sea they would probably be in the water right now,” he said.

“We provided food, water, medical attention and temporary shelter.”

The Maltese military said the migrants were mostly Gambian even though they had earlier said they were from Somalia. They were later transferred onto two patrol boats and taken to Malta.

The others were from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Malta said they were rescued around 75 nautical miles southwest of the Mediterranean island state.

More than 400 asylum seekers have drowned this month in two tragedies in the Mediterranean.

The Italian coast guard meanwhile released video footage of the arrival in Sicily on Wednesday of a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that rescued 93 African migrants — the latest in over 32,000 who have arrived on Italy and Malta so far this year.

Very Tragic: Gunmen Burst Into Wedding Reception And Murder Groom Over £60 (N15, 500) Debt

A new bride, Jacqueline Cousins was forced to watch her new husband being shot dead by masked gunmen at their Jamaican wedding reception. 

Jacqueline Cousins, 49, married Dameion Cousins, 31, in an idyllic ceremony in the Caribbean.

But hours later an armed gang burst into the reception claiming the groom owned them $10,000 Jamaican dollars - just £60...which is like N15, 500.

They held the bride at gunpoint while Mr Cousins was shot in the head outside in the driveway.

Mrs Cousins, a family support worker, from Hornsey, North London, said she has no idea why the gangtargeted her husband.

She said: 

'I started screaming and screaming and I could not believe what I was seeing.

'I lay down next to him and I put my head on his chest. I realised he was dead.

'We were just two people who really loved each other and had taken that move to be together and just a few hours later this is what I was dealing with.

The mother-of-seven first met Mr Cousins - a songwriter and performer - when she visited her parent's home in Jamaica 11 years ago.

The couple did not begin dating until seven years later when her previous marriage fell apart.

After a long-distance romance Mr Cousins proposed on New Year's Day in 2012 and the pair married in an intimate ceremony at his home in Hart Hill, Jamaica, in July this year.

The reception was also held at the property and Mr Cousins briefly left towards the end of the evening to drop his two daughters back to their mother's house.

The new wife and her mother-in-law Dorothy, 80, were chatting in an upstairs bedroom when two thugs burst in and demanded to know 'where is the Rasta?'.

They claimed he owed them cash and one of the intruders went in search of valuables.

But at that moment Mr Cousins pulled into the drive and the women heard a number of gunshots before the gunmen scarpered.

Distraught Mrs Cousins discovered her new husband had been shot in the head and neck.

Recalling the attack, she said: 'I was so frightened I could barely lift my head to look at them

.'I told them that he was not there, that they could take what they wanted, but it all happened to quickly.'

Police arrested two men following the brutal attack, but released them without charge and no one has ever been caught or prosecuted.

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ASUU strike: NANS barricades Niger Bridge for hours

Asaba –  The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Friday barricaded the Asaba axis of the Niger Bridge for more than two hours.

The action, which was jointly carried out by some university students and their polytechnic counterparts was in protest of the protracted strike by ASUU.

The aggrieved students blocked the bridge at about 1 p.m., which resulted to a traffic gridlock that stretched from the bridge to Okwe junction about five kilometres to Asaba town.

They also lamented the recent decisions of polytechnic lecturers under the auspices of ASUP to also embark on a similar strike, saying it would further cripple the education sector and send a wrong signal to the international community.

NANS National Public Relations Officer, Victor Ola-Ogun, said that the students were tired of the strike and appealed to ASUU to call it off.

He said that the students had embarked on the peaceful protest and taken it to Kano and “now they are in Zone B, that is Delta and the Anambra area of the country.’’

He said that if the lecturers refuse to call off the strike, the association would further move the protest to Zone C and D, comprising the middle Belt areas and South West of the country.

“We do not want a situation where our ladies will become prostitutes and the men armed robbers.

“We are always there to fight for the lecturers’ welfare and now that the Federal Government has decided to meet some of their demands, they should consider for our sake and go back to work,’’ Ola-Ogun said.

The students, which were drawn from different parts of the country, came in large number.

They will leave Delta to their various destinations on Saturday. (NAN)

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Late Augustus Aikhomu's Widow & Children Abducted Today

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Rebecca Madojemu-Aikhomu the widow of Late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu and two of her children have been kidnapped today. They were kidnapped along Benin-Auchi road after they flew in from Lagos and were heading home. Their driver was killed in the process. So much for kidnapping now.

Video: Wizkid Causes Stampede At Felabration After Throwing N100,000 Into The Crowd

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