Author: chicagoinquirer

by Emeka Obasi The last weeks of the 2023 Presidential elections will continue to keep many guessing. All eyes are on the candidates and what each of the six Geo Political Zones stands to gain at the end of the day. There is more of strategic thinking than horse trading. Labour Party trail blazer, Peter Obi  has tried so hard to prove that politics is not about physical structure. He continues to break barriers, gaining recognition from what many thought would be a difficult terrain. Many did not reckon with the fact that his Running mate, Datti Baba- Ahmed is…

by Hillel Italie NEW YORK – Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who broke with his party two years ago after the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, has a book deal. The Open Field, a Penguin Random House imprint overseen by Maria Shriver, announced Tuesday that Kinzinger’s “Renegade: My Life in Faith, the Military, and Defending America from Trump’s Attack on Democracy” is scheduled for release on Oct. 17. “Ever since my final falling-out with the GOP, on the day of the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump’s followers, I have wanted to…

by Karl Ritter and Mathew Lee MUNICH  — The top diplomats from the United States and China met on Saturday in the first high-level contact between their countries since the U.S. shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon two weeks ago, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken sending the message that Beijing’s surveillance program had been “exposed to the world.” Blinken and Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, held the hourlong talks in Munich, where they were attending an international security conference, according to the U.S. State Department. “I made very clear to him that…

by Bill Barrow ATLANTA  — Former President Jimmy Carter, who at 98 years old is the longest-lived American president, has entered home hospice care in Plains, Georgia, a statement from The Carter Center confirmed Saturday. After a series of short hospital stays, the statement said, Carter “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.” The statement said the 39th president has the full support of his medical team and family, which “asks for privacy at this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”…

by Emeka Obasi Dele Aiyenugba led Enyimba to their first FA Cup glory, he remains a hero in Aba sixteen years after he left for Israeli club Bnei Yehuda. The goalie was treated to a Guard of Honour recently when his team, Kwara United faced the People Elephants at home in a Premier League clash. Aiyenugba received a standing ovation from the enthusiastic crowd and he inspected the Guard of Honour mounted by players of Enyimba and visiting Kwara United. On November 12, 2005, the Aba Ngwa Boys lifted the trophy with a 6-5 penalties victory over Lobi Stars at…

by Karl Ritter and Geir Moulson MUNICH  — The United States has determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday, insisting that “justice must be served” to the perpetrators. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Harris said the international community has both a moral and a strategic interest in pursuing those crimes, pointing to a danger of other authoritarian governments taking advantage if international rules are undermined. “Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population — gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape, and deportation,” Harris said. She…

by Gerald Imray Christian Atsu, the Ghana international forward who played for Premier League clubs Chelsea and Newcastle, has died in the earthquake in Turkey. He was 31. Search teams recovered Atsu’s body in the ruins of a luxury 12-story building where he had been living in the city of Antakya, Hatay province, his manager said Saturday. “Atsu’s lifeless body was found under the rubble. At the moment, his belongings are still being removed,” manager Murat Uzunmehmet told private news agency DHA. Atsu joined Turkish club Hatayspor in September and scored the winning goal for his new team in a…

by Chinedu Asadu ABUJA, Nigeria  — No one in Godgift Inemesit’s family of eight is sure when they will eat each day — except for her three kids, two of whom have malaria. She can’t pay for the drugs they need or feed the rest of her family regularly. Like most Nigerians, the family’s savings are trapped in the bank. A changeover to redesigned currency has plunged Africa’s largest economy into crisis just ahead of a presidential election: There aren’t enough new banknotes in a country reliant on cash. For Inemesit, 28, the shortage of cash means even basics like…

by Jim Salter ST. LOUIS  — As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself. This week a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson’s murder conviction and ordered him freed. Johnson closed his eyes and shook his head, overcome with emotion. Shouts of joy rang out from the packed courtroom, and several people — relatives, civil rights activists and others — stood to cheer. Johnson’s lawyers hugged each other and him. “I can’t say I knew it would happen,…

by Adrian Sainz and Jonathan Mattise MEMPHIS, Tenn.  — Five former Memphis police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to second-degree murder and other charges in the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols, with his mother saying afterward that none of them would look her in the eye in court. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith made their first court appearances with their lawyers before a judge in Shelby County Criminal Court. The officers were fired after an internal police investigation into the Jan. 7 arrest of Nichols, who died in a hospital…