NNPC spends N620m daily refining crude oil –Alison-Madueke

Moves by the Federal Government to tackle the menace of crude oil theft through the option of crude transportation by marine vessel has increased Nigeria’s cost of refining hydro-carbons to a whopping N620 million daily, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has said.

The Minister stated this in Lagos yesterday at the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

She regretted that the oil and gas industry had been plagued with a plethora of challenges that have negatively impacted on the ability to meet national crude oil production target as well as loss of revenue to investors, environmental degradation and sometimes loss of lives and property.

Impeachment Panel Dismisses Allegations against Nasarawa Gov. Al-Makura

The panel set up to investigate the 16 allegations of gross misconduct leveled against Gov. Umaru Al-Makura by the Nasarawa State House of Assembly on Tuesday dismissed the allegations for want of evidence.The Chairman of the panel, Yusuf Usman, during the proceeding of the panel in Lafia, said the assembly failed or neglected to appear before it to prove its allegations.

He said the panel, therefore, had no choice than to dismiss the allegations. Usman said the panel had, at the Monday sitting, given a grace of 24 hours to the House of Assembly to appear before it and substantiate its case. He also drew attention to the appearance of counsel to the assembly, led by Mr Ocha Ulegede on Tuesday.

U.S. general killed, German general wounded in Afghan attack: officials

 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers keep watch at the gate of a British-run military training academy Camp Qargha, in Kabul August 5, 2014.

 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers keep watch at the gate of a British-run military tA U.S. general was killed and more than a dozen people were wounded, including a German general, in the latest insider attack by a man believed to be an Afghan soldier, U.S., German and Afghan officials said on Tuesday.

The slain general, whose identity was not immediately released by the Pentagon, was believed to be the most senior U.S. military official killed in action in Afghanistan since the war there began in 2001.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters that "many were seriously wounded" and the gunman was killed in the attack, which took place on Tuesday at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University, a training center in Kabul.

Air strikes in east of Syrian capital kill 64: monitoring group

Children react beside a dead body under rubble at a site hit by what activists said were two airstrikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Douma in eastern al-Ghouta, near

Air strikes by Syrian government forces in the eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus killed at least 64 people at the weekend, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

Bombardments, gun battles and executions regularly kill over 150 people a day in Syria's three-year-old conflict, but the toll from the air strikes was especially high.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group that tracks violence through a network of sources in Syria, said the attacks occurred in the areas of Kafr Batna and Douma in the eastern outskirts of the city.

Central African Republic ceasefire in tatters after clashes

                                   Seleka fighters take a break as they sit on a pick-up truck in the town of Goya

The Central African Republic's Muslim rebels and Christian militia accused each other on Tuesday of violating a ceasefire deal signed last month, following days of clashes in the country's remote north.

The signing two weeks ago in the neighboring Congo Republic raised hopes of a political solution to sectarian violence that has killed thousands and displaced more than a million people since the Muslim Seleka fighters seized power in March 2013.

The Christian "anti-balaka" took up arms in response to a wave of abuses by Seleka fighters once in power last year, pushing the rebels back northward. Tens of thousands of Muslims fled militia violence into the Seleka-controlled enclave.