Aleppo battle: Hopes rise for evacuation of rebel-held area

Hopes have risen that the evacuation of rebel-held parts of Aleppo will now begin soon, following statements by rebel and pro-government sources.
Rebel fighters and civilians in the Syrian city had been due to leave early on Wednesday, but a truce collapsed.
Rebel sources said a new truce had been in effect from 03:00GMT and evacuations would take place early on Thursday.
Sources from the Syrian military, the pro-government Hezbollah and Russian media said preparations were under way.
Reuters news agency quoted one Syrian official source on Thursday morning as saying that the "operation to organise the departure of gunmen from eastern Aleppo has now started".

president Buhari unveils 2017 budget

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, has unveiled a record budget of more than 7 trillion naira ($24bn; £19bn) which is aimed at pulling the country out of its first recession in  25 years, Reuters news agency reports.
Presenting the budget at a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate, Mr Buhari said It marks an increase of more than 20% on last year's spending plan.
The budget seeks to boost spending to revive the economy, he added.  
The recession was largely caused by low global oil prices, as crude sales account for two-thirds of the Nigerian government's revenue. 
The president also said he wants to restore oil output to 2.2 million barrels per day.
It had been severely disrupted following a series of attacks on energy facilities in the oil-rich Niger Delta by militants demanding a greater of the region's oil wealth.
The budget unveiled to the National Assembly is now to be debated by the MPs.
It must be agreed by the parliament before Mr Buhari can sign it into law.

U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved in Hack

U.S. intelligence officials now believe with "a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.
Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said.
Putin's objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a "vendetta" against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to "split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn't depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore," the official said.

Former Russian Energy Minister Vladimir Milov told NBC News that the nomination of someone seen as close to President Putin would be financially and diplomatically advantageous for Putin.
Ultimately, the CIA has assessed, the Russian government wanted to elect Donald Trump. The FBI and other agencies don't fully endorse that view, but few officials would dispute that the Russian operation was intended to harm Clinton's candidacy by leaking embarrassing emails about Democrats.
The latest intelligence said to show Putin's involvement goes much further than the information the U.S. was relying on in October, when all 17 intelligence agencies signed onto a statement attributing the Democratic National Committee hack to Russia.
The statement said officials believed that "only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities." That was an intelligence judgment based on an understanding of the Russian system of government, which Putin controls with absolute authority.

Yahoo Mega-Breach Exposes More Than 1 Billion Accounts

Yahoo is closing 2016 with a bang — and not in a good way.
More than 1 billion Yahoo accounts may have been exposed after a third-party hacker hit the internet company in a separate attack from the one that was revealed in September.
"Yahoo believes an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts," the company said in a statement. "The company has not been able to identify the intrusion associated with this theft. Yahoo believes this incident is likely distinct from the incident the company disclosed on September 22, 2016."
That hack, which affected 500 million accounts, was among the biggest breaches of all time. At 1 billion this time, Yahoo may have earned a dubious new honor.
The data stolen from the newly revealed breach includes names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some instances, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
"The investigation indicates that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system the company believes was affected," the Yahoo statement said.

Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.
Authorities handed over data files from a third party that were purported to include Yahoo data, according to the company's chief information security officer, Bob Lord.
"As we previously disclosed in November, law enforcement provided us with data files that a third party claimed was Yahoo user data. We analyzed this data with the assistance of outside forensic experts and found that it appears to be Yahoo user data," Lord wrote.
Through forensic analysis, Yahoo was then able to determine that a breach occurred in August 2013.
It's "very rare" to learn about two mega-breaches in such a short window of time, Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security at the cybersecurity company SentinelOne and a former Yahoo employee, told NBC News.

Trump: "I don't know why we have to be bound by a 'One China" policy

Also on Fox, Trump said this: "I fully understand the One-China policy, but I don't know why we have to be bound by a One-China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade." And here's the reaction from China, via NBC News: "China expressed 'serious concern' Monday after President-elect Donald Trump suggested he might tear up the basis for decades of bilateral relations between Washington and Beijing... 'China expresses serious concern on this subject,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters. 'If the [one China policy] is compromised or interfered with, . sound and steady development in China-U.S. relations and cooperation in various fields is out of the question

First Read: Trump's Credibility Problem on Russia
Read is a morning briefing fss and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.


As President-elect Donald Trump fills out his Cabinet, he's opening up a new rift with the CIA over reports that Russia tried to interfere with the election. NBC's Kristen Welker reports for TODAY.
Trump's credibility problem on Russia
It wasn't just President-elect Donald Trump's kind words about Vladimir Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign. Or his repeated denials that Russia was involved in the hacking of the Clinton campaign's and DNC's emails. ("They have no idea if it's Russia or China or somebody," Trump told Fox on Sunday. "It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place. I mean, they have no idea.") Or the Trump team's extraordinary statement on Friday blasting the CIA after the Washington Post first reported that the agency concluded that Russia intervened in the election to help Trump win. "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again,'" Trump's transition said Friday night." When you add up ALL of these stories, Trump has a credibility problem with it comes to Russia. Why not take a foreign government's suspected interference in an American election seriously? Why not demand a full investigation? And why lash out at the CIA? These questions make everything Trump touches regarding Russia look suspect -- all before he takes office next month.

fire raid shopping mall in Edo from head to toe

Okere Alexander, Benin City

Fire has raised a shopping mall, Phill-Hallmark Shopping Plaza, in Benin, the Edo State capital, ‎destroying several goods worth millions of naira.

The inferno, which was said to have started at about 2am of Sunday‎,destroyed the three-storey building.
don't say I told you oo

 

Rivers rerun: Accusations by Wike, others shamand phoney- Army

 

The 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, has said that the allegations made by Governor Nyesom Wike and other politicians, accusing the military of involvement in the Saturday legislative re-run elections in the state are aimed at tarnishing the image of the army. Maj.-Gen. Kasimu Abdulkarim, the General Officer Commanding of the 6 division reacted to the allegations in a statement made available the Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
 Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/rivers-rerun-accusations-by-wike-others-sham-and-phoney-army/

Ronaldo declared 20 million euros in Swiss banks

Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during a training session at Valdebebas training ground in Madrid on December 9, 2016, on the eve of the Spanish League match Real Madrid CF vs RC Deportivo de La Coruna.
GERARD JULIEN / AFP
Cristiano Ronaldo declared income of over 225 million euros in 2015, including 20 million euros held in 22 Swiss bank accounts, a Spanish newspaper reported Sunday as the Real Madrid star battles accusations of tax evasion.
The Portuguese international earned 203.7 million euros outside of Spain and 23.5 million inside the country, according to a copy of his 2015 tax return obtained by daily newspaper El Mundo.
The figures match the details of the player’s income published Thursday by the player’s management company Gestifute, which argued they show Ronaldo was in compliance with Spain’s tax authority.
But El Mundo provided a more detailed breakdown of his finances.
It said he had 20 million euros in Swiss banks — the vast majority, more than 17 million euros, in three accounts at Swiss private bank Mirabaud. The rest of his money in the country was held in 19 accounts in regional Swiss bank St. Galler Kantonalbank.
The player had just 33,452 euros in five bank accounts in his native Portugal, the newspaper added.
Ronaldo had 14 million euros invested in 19 SICAVs — an investment fund similar to mutual funds — in Luxembourg, the newspaper added.
The rest of his foreign holdings was made up of shares, bonds and real estate.
Ronaldo’s finances have been in the spotlight after an international consortium of media organisations claimed earlier this month that a huge data leak involving 18 million documents showed the player hid 150 million euros from image rights in the British Virgin Islands.
Spanish tax authorities are investigating the allegations.
Ronaldo, 31, denies wrongdoing and said after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund that “he who owes nothing isn’t afraid”.
The financial details released by his management company last week relate only to 2015 and Spanish tax authorities are reportedly focusing on possible irregularities in his tax declarations as a non-resident between 2011 and 2014.

160 Worshipers Killed After Church Collapses in Nigeria

Metal girders and the roof of a crowded church collapsed onto worshipers in southern Nigeria, killing at least 160 people with the toll likely to rise, a hospital director said Sunday.
Mortuaries in the city of Uyo are overflowing from Saturday's tragedy, medical director Etete Peters of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital told The Associated Press.
The Reigners Bible Church International was still under construction and workers had been rushing to finish it in time for Saturday's ceremony to ordain founder Akan Weeks as a bishop, congregants said.

People gather around the remains of a church that collapsed during a service in the southern city of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria, in a still image taken from video Saturday.
Hundreds of people, including Akwa Ibom state Gov. Udom Emmanuel, were inside when metal girders crashed onto worshipers and the corrugated iron roof caved in, they said. Emmanuel and Weeks, who preached that God will make his followers rich, escaped unhurt.
Many uncounted victims are in private mortuaries scattered across Uyo, youth leader Edikan Peters said. He said some people are secretly taking the bodies of relatives to their homes because mortuaries are overcrowded and some do not have refrigeration.

ExxonMobil CEO Expected as Secretary of State Pick

Donald Trump is expected to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, two sources close to the transition process told NBC News on Saturday.
The 64-year-old veteran oil executive has no government or diplomatic experience, although he has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pick would put to rest weeks-long speculation of who would earn the post as the U.S.'s top diplomat, and would place Tillerson fourth in line to the presidency.
He will also be paired with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his deputy secretary of state, one of the sources added, with Bolton handling day-to-day management of the department.
.
The sources cautioned that nothing is final until the president-elect officially announces it, which could happen as early as next week.
Tillerson, who was once dubbed "T.Rex" by Sarah Palin, met Saturday with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City, the president-elect's spokesperson confirmed.
In a pre-taped interview set to air Sunday on Fox News, Trump discussed why a businessman such as Tillerson would be a good fit as America's chief diplomat.
"Well, in his case, he's much more than a business executive, I mean he's a world-class player," Trump said, acknowledging Tillerson's relationship with Russia through his business dealings.
"To me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well," Trump added. "He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company — not for himself, for the company."
Trump spokesman Jason Miller said no official announcement on the secretary of state pick is expected until "next week at the earliest."