Sex tape adds to GSK China scandal

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has confirmed the existence of a sex tape of its former head in China, the latest twist in its corruption scandal in the country.

The secretly-filmed video of Mark Reilly and his Chinese girlfriend was emailed to several senior executives of the British firm in March last year.

Mr Reilly has been accused of ordering staff to bribe hospital officials to use GSK products.

GSK said it was continuing to co-operate with the Chinese authorities.

"The issues relating to our China business are very difficult and complicated," the firm said in a statement.

The revelation has added to the

Super Eagles look to make history against France

The Super Eagles is looking to make another history in World Cup as they take on France in the knockout stages of the tournament. A place in the 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals awaits the Eagles if they win France later today. The French team looks extremely deadly in their opening two matches of the World Cup as they thrashed Honduras 3-0 and hammered Switzerland 5-2.

French top striker, Karim Benzema, who has three goals and two assists, leads the strong French attack, which has been

CAC’s 24hrs business registration collapses

Barely two years after it was commissioned by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, the 24 hours registration of businesses by the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, has collapsed due to technical hitches occasioned by server failure.

As a result, business registration now takes between one to three months, while business name availability search takes more than one week.

During the course of the investigation, this reporter applied for business name availability search at the CAC office at Alausa, Ikeja. He was asked to check back in nine days. When he sought to know why, the attendant at the availability section responded

BNP Paribas to be 'punished severely', says boss

The boss of BNP Paribas has written to staff warning that the French banking giant will be fined heavily by US authorities.

"I want to be clear, we will be punished severely," Jean-Laurent Bonnafe said in the internal memo.

The bank could be fined $8.9bn (£5.2bn) for allegedly violating sanctions rules as early as Monday, reports suggest.

The Financial Times and New York Times also report that the bank will

Lagos outdoor advertising generates N50bn annual turnover, says LASAA

George Noah, managing director, Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA), says Lagos which accounts for sixty percent of Nigeria’s advertising market, currently generates an annual turnover N50 billion.

A breakdown according to Noah shows that outdoor media buying agencies generate about N8.6 billion; fabricators, N1.5 billion; installers, N382 billion; large format printers, N8.27 billion. Also, outdoor specialist agencies generate N21.9 billion, outdoor protection services, N370 million; adverts N1.25 billion, while other areas account for N8 billion.

Noah spoke on Thursday at the

FG loses millions of dollar over failure to renew oil licences

The Federal Government is losing hundreds of millions of dollars to its failure to renew the leases of some oil companies which expired between three and four years ago.

The companies affected are Shell, Chevron and Total, all of which operate a joint venture partnership with the Federal Government.

How much a company pays on each lease depends on the reserve estimate of the lease, a source said.

According to another industry source,

Why passengers are scared of water transportation

The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, has said that passengers are scared of traveling by water because they are not sure of the condition of the boats and ferries plying the nation’s waterways.

Disclosing this in Lagos at a meeting with operators in the water transportation business in its office in Lagos, Muazu Sanbo, the Lagos Area Manager of NIWA, said that the Authority will soon put in place measures to ensure that all safety requirements are met by operators in the sector.

Among the measures to be put in place are

North Korea's economy 'grew 1.1% in 2013'

North Korea's economy grew by 1.1% in 2013, according to estimates by South Korea's central bank.

It is the country's third consecutive year of positive growth, in spite of international sanctions against it.

The Bank of Korea puts North Korea's gross national income (GNI) at 33.8 trillion won (£19.6bn), or roughly 2.3% of South Korea's GNI of 1,441tn won.

The bank said last year's expansion reflected gains in agriculture and mining.

North Korea - which does not

Construction industry’s 300% investment value growth hinged on Local Content Act

The local construction industry in Nigeria has suffered slow growth as a result of the non-application of local content in the industry. According to Solomon Ogunbusola, president, Federation of Construction Industries (FOCI), the situation is such that the industry’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is as low as 3.2 percent.

Bode Adediji, former president of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), who blamed the slow growth on a combination of factors, explained that

More than 50,000 displaced by turmoil in Ukraine - UN

The number of people displaced internally by the turmoil in Ukraine has reached 54,400 with 16,400 fleeing fighting last week alone, the UN says.

A further 110,000 people left Ukraine for Russia this year, most of them from eastern regions, though only 9,500 sought official refugee status there.

A truce declared by Ukraine a week ago is due to expire shortly in the east.

 Three Ukrainians tell Steve Rosenberg why they left their homes for Russia

Deadly fighting has continued during the ceasefire between pro-Russian separatist rebels and troops.

Hundreds of civilians and combatants have been killed since mid-April.

Nike's marketing costs soar on World Cup

Heavy spending on marketing weighed on Nike's performance in its fourth quarter which ended 31 May.

Expenses on marketing soared 36% to $876m (£514m) as Nike boosted promotion ahead of the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

That curbed profits which rose 1% to $698m, compared to the same quarter in 2013.

Between March and May Nike launched a number of new shoes including the Mercurial Superfly, worn by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo.

On Thursday, Portugal became

Explosion exposes Apapa fragility as FG stays silent on traffic chaos

Reflecting on the fatal explosions that occurred in the Apapa area of Lagos, Wednesday night, experts have warned of the need to find a solution to the perennial traffic gridlocks and to limit the quantity and concentration of hydrocarbons in the area.

Experts warned that the casualties would have been much more, if the explosion had engulfed the huge number of fuel bearing tankers lining the area.

According to them, the blockage of the roads by the tankers would have made escape and consequent evacuation of the casualties difficult, if not impossible.

 An industry operator,  who did not want his name mentioned said 

‘Rebasing negatively affected NSE’s market capitalisation to GDP ratio’ - Oscar Onyema

The recent rebasing of the nation’s Gross Domestic Products, GDP, undertaken by the Federal Government has negatively impacted the contribution of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE’s market capitalisation to the GDP, says Oscar Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of the NSE.

While speaking at the second quarter Capital Market Committee, CMC meeting held in Lagos, he pointed out that the market capitalisation GDP ratio has dropped to below 20 percent.

According to him,

Japan consumer price growth at 32-year high

Consumer prices in Japan rose at an annual rate of 3.4% in May, the fastest pace in 32 years, as the effect of the sales tax hike started to be felt.

Japan raised its sales tax rate from 5% to 8% on 1 April.

The price growth in May follows a 3.2% jump in April and is a big boost for Japan's attempt to trigger inflation.

Japan has been battling deflation, or falling prices, for best part of the past two decades and that has hurt domestic demand and stifled growth.

The Japanese government has

FG flags-off distribution of WAAPP-seeds in Niger state

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture  has flagged- off the distribution of the West Africa Agriculture Productivity Programme (WAAPP)-assisted Certified and Foundation Seeds of rice, maize, sorghum and seed yam.

The flag off was performed by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mrs. Asabe Asmau Ahmed  recently at Doko Town, in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.

Mrs.Asabe, commended WAAPP for improving agricultural productivity in the ECOWAS countries and for

Work set to commence on 3,050mw Mambilla hydro dam -Sambo

The Vice-President, Arc. Namadi Sambo, has disclosed that work will soon commence on the 3,050 megawatts Mambilla Hydro Dam in Taraba State.

Arc. Sambo who spoke in Kaduna State explained that all designs of the major hydro project have been completed and as soon as other logistics are in place, work will resume at the site.

He added that the project, described as the largest in Africa will

58 million children, aged 6 to 11, still out of school – UNESCO

New UNESCO data show that 58 million children aged 6 to 11 are still out of school today, showing little overall improvement since 2007. But a new policy paper highlights that improvements are possible: 17 countries reduced their out-of-school populations by almost 90% in little over a decade by investing in positive actions such as abolishing school fees, introducing more relevant curricula and providing financial support to struggling families.

The data, produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and presented at a press conference1 on Thursday 26 June, showed that 

Militants take Iraqi gas field town, president calls parliament session

Militants took a town an hour from Baghdad that is home to four natural gas fields on Thursday, another gain by Sunni insurgents who have swiftly taken large areas to the north and west of the Iraqi capital.

Iraq's presidency said a session of parliament would be held on July 1, the first step to forming a new government that the international community hopes will be inclusive enough to undermine the insurgency.

The overnight offensive included Mansouriyat al-Jabal, home to the gas fields where foreign companies operate, security forces said. The fighting threatens to rupture the country two and a half years after the end of U.S. occupation.

The insurgents, led by

South African metal workers to go on strike

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has said its members will down tools on 1 July.

The union, which represents metal workers and other artisans, is demanding a salary increase of 12% for 22,000 of its 230,000 members.

It said the strike was inevitable after revising down its demand from 15%.

The longest strike in the history of the country ended on Wednesday after platinum workers returned to work after five months without pay.

Secretary general Irvin Jim said NUMSA is ready to

4 killed as car bomb goes off near Lagos tank farm

A car laden with bombs yesterday exploded at the ever busy Folawiyo junction on Creek Road, Apapa, killing four persons, while several others were injured.

Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the car, a Mercedes-Benz 190, exploded around 8:30pm, after it was parked beside a fuel tanker heading into Folawiyo tank farm.

The explosion was said to have

Google removes first search results after EU ruling

Google has begun removing some search results to comply with a European Union ruling upholding citizens' right to have objectionable personal information about them hidden in search engines.

The so-called "right to be forgotten" was upheld by Europe's top court on May 13 when it ordered Google (GOOGL.O) to remove a link to a 15-year-old newspaper article about a Spanish man's bankruptcy.

"This week we're starting to take action on

UN advocates safety nets for informal sector

The United Nations, UN has advised  Nigeria to pay more attention to the informal sector of the economy. It said if well developed, the sector would make unprecedented impact on the economic development of the country.

The Economy Resident Coordinator/Representative of UNDP, Mr Daouda Toure, stated this at the validation meeting for the report on ‘Informal Sector and Economic Development in Nigeria held in Abuja.

Toure said

Barclays accused of 'dark pool' fraud

A fraud lawsuit against Barclays in the United States has been filed by the New York attorney general.

The lawsuit alleges the bank falsified documents and misrepresented benefits it was offering to big institutional clients, including pension funds.

It relates to the bank's "dark pool" trading operations, which allow clients to trade large blocks of shares while keeping prices private.

Barclays said it was taking the allegations "very seriously".

Shares in the bank fell more than

FDI: Despite challenges, Nigeria still among top three in Africa

Nigeria remains one of the top three destinations for foreign direct investments (FDI) in Africa, despite current challenges, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said.

UNCTAD said this just as the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) gave its nod, in Vienna, on Wednesday, for the establishment of an Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) in Nigeria.

According to the UNCTAD report released on Wednesday,