A husband and wife were killed when an Israeli drone struck a car in southern Lebanon, according to CCTV footage. Hassan Ali Jamil Atoui, a blind person in the pager attack last year, was the target of Israel’s attack, according to Israel.
Published On 6 Oct 2025
Property was destroyed by fire at the Rivers State Secretariat Complex in Port Harcourt on Monday evening when a section of the Podium Block was destroyed.
The Rivers State Pension Board’s headquarters are located in the affected area.
Iyingi Brown, the head of service, attributed the incident to an electrical fault in a voicemail to Channels Television.
She claimed that firefighters from the military, the Federal Fire Service, and the State Fire Service battled the fire before it was finally put out.
The Rivers State Pension Board was disbanded shortly after Governor Siminalayi Fubara without giving a reason for the decision.
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It also came in response to the governor’s recent warning to permanent secretaries, who he claimed, performed poorly during the state’s emergency rule period.
Fubara had stated that the appropriate response would be to use such records against the erring officers.
The timing of the fire incident has raised public questions about whether the board’s dissolution was a coincidence or an attempt to destroy important documents.
Reaching next summer’s World Cup is “the last piece of the jigsaw for Steve Clarke and his players”, says Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell.
Maxwell believes the players can now “touch it” and “smell it” after a positive start to the qualifying campaign with a draw in Denmark and victory over Belarus.
Full points in front of a raucous Hampden Park this week in the matches against Greece (Thursday) and Belarus (Sunday) would put Scotland men on the brink of World Cup qualification for the first time in 27 years.
“We saw the impact that qualification for Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 had and I’m sure that the World Cup would be similar. It’s been a long, long time since we’ve been at one and it would be brilliant to be back there. We’ve given ourselves a chance.
“You need to have a good start, you need to pick up points when you can. You’re not going to get any second chances. Regardless of how the games go this week, we’re still going to be in it come the end of the last window in November but the boys have given themselves a great platform.
One of Maxwell’s big calls in his first year as chief executive, along with the hiring committee, was to appoint Alex McLeish’s successor. Clarke has been in his post since 2019, making him the longest serving Scotland men’s head coach since Craig Brown, who took the side to the 1998 World Cup finals in France.
Clarke, 62, has indicated the current qualifying campaign will be his last.
“In 2019, when he took over, if we said this is what the Scotland team is going to achieve over Steve’s tenure, I think every Scotland fan would have bitten your hand off for it,” said Maxwell.
“This is the last piece of the jigsaw for him, the last piece of the jigsaw for the players – getting to the World Cup. We want to get there in the summer and we’ll see what happens from there but he’s been a tremendous manager for us.
“We’ve had full houses at Hampden for a number of years now and that’s testament to the team being successful on the pitch and the country rallying behind them, which only comes when you’re qualifying for major tournaments, when you’re getting the results that you need and he’s got a track record of doing that.
“He’s been very clear that he wants to get to a World Cup and we’ll talk about that then. That’s the position. The focus for everybody has to be on the finals, on qualifying for the World Cup next year and going and enjoying next summer.”
Maxwell was speaking at the expansion of the SFA and Scottish government programme ‘Extra Time’, which aims to provide sport and activity clubs for low income families across the country.
“The big picture from the Extra Time perspective is to roll it out across every school in the country,” said the chief executive.
“That would be fantastic for us, that kids are taking part in sport. My area is football but kids taking part in sport generally is a very positive thing particularly round about their school day; particularly about the energy that that gives them, the interest that gives them, the excitement that gives them.
Only two Christians and only four percent of the 119 people chosen in the indirect vote were women, according to a press release from the electoral commission on Monday, raising questions about inclusivity and fairness.
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The election marks a historic turning point for Syria’s fragile transition after nearly 14 years of conflict, but critics claim it favors well-connected individuals and will likely allow the country’s new rulers to maintain control while preventing genuine democratic change.
Najmeh, according to AFP, claimed that the proportion of women in the parliament was “not proportional to the status of women in Syrian society and their place in political, economic, and social life.”
In light of the number of Christians in Syria, he described the representation of Christians as “weak.”
Following the war, which left millions of Syrians dead and millions of people displaced, the authorities switched to an indirect voting system rather than universal suffrage.
About 75% of Syrians are believed to be Sunni Muslims. After a nearly 14-year civil war, the former al-Assad regime, which was overthrown in December, was largely led by Alawite minority members.
Around 6, 000 regional electoral colleges selected candidates from preapproved lists for Sunday’s vote, a nearly two-thirds of the new 210-seat body’s members. The final three will be chosen in the future by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Authorities delayed the vote in areas that were not under the control of the government, including the Druze-held province of Suwayda and parts of the north and northeast of Syria, where the Kurdish-held regions are located. 21 seats were left empty as a result of those suspensions.
AFP-cited Najmeh as saying that the state was “serious” about having “supplementary ballots” to fill the assembly’s seats.
Osama Bin Javaid, a journalist from Damascus, quoted Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid as saying, “The elections were not representative if you ask the Druze in the south or the Kurds in the north.
People in major cities like Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, and other parts of the nation are hopeful that this will be their first real election, they say.
By the end of the year, Syria’s Kurds and Damascus have reached an agreement to incorporate Kurdish-administered civil and military institutions into the state, but negotiations on implementing the agreement have stalled.
According to Najmeh, the implementation of the March 10 agreement was delayed by the lack of timetables for the elections in Raqqa and Hasakeh.
Najmeh opposed the idea of a quota-based system, saying that the president’s choice might “perhaps” make up for some “underrepresented components of Syrian society.”
Nour al-Jandali, a rights activist in the city of Homs in central Syria, quoted by AFP as saying that the new lawmakers “have a great responsibility.”
James Morrison has seemingly started dating again, 18 months after his wife, Gill Catchpole, died by suicide.
The singer and his late wife shared two daughters and she was found dead aged 45 in their Gloucestershire home in January 2024. Morrison, who found his wife after a friend struggled to gain access to the property, said losing his wife left him feeling “completely heartbroken”.
The Broken Strings singer appears to have found happiness with travel influencer Mariel Jones after what he has described as the most difficult time of his life.
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On her Instagram account, Jones and Morrison have shared a number of images, including ones taken while on vacation in Rome, Sicily, and Copenhagen. The two are seen kissing in an Italian photo from July. Under her posts, friends of the influencer have written “cuties.”
The singer, who has worked with Catchpole for more than 20 years, appears to have made a new beginning. Morrison described their relationship as a “fairy tale” because he was a lodger at her mother’s house during a White Wine Question Time interview.
He acknowledged that it wasn’t the most enjoyable place to start, but I still think it was very romantic because we both met each other in the way that we did. It resembles a fairy tale in some ways.
Morrison posted a message on Instagram showing himself in a recording studio just before Catchpole passed away. The post’s title read, “New Year, new adventure.” Although the post made hints about the release of new music, Catchpole canceled all of his work commitments after his passing.
GP Dr. Emma Basker claimed Ms. Catchpole had “reoccurring mental illnesses,” including anxiety and PTSD, in a written statement. She had been given counseling and medication.
Morrison has discussed how to deal with grief through focusing on one’s family in the wake of her passing. He claimed that starting to perform once more gave him a new sense of purpose.
His album from 2019, You’re Stronger Than You Know, was dedicated to his wife after she showed strength during her difficult pregnancy with their second child, Ada Rose.
If you’re struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, you can email jo@samaritans.org or visit their site to find your local branch.
