The Youth Panorama

  Malaysian airliner Malaysian Airlines A Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner with 295 passengers on board has crashed into  the border between Russia and Ukraine. Several reports indicated that the aircraft which was flying from Amsterdam’s Schipol airport to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by Russian forces. There are no independent confirmation of the allegations, also, there is no information as to whether any of the passengers on board survived the crashed.

After a somewhat average showing at the FIFA World Cup, Brazil 2014, Nigeria has shot up to third place in the latest continental rankings, up by 3 spots from a previous 6th place.     BET Algeria who put up perhaps the best performance for an African side at the Mundial, breaking their own record by going beyond the group stage, is still Africa’s number 1 football nation. The Ivory Coast also maintains its position in second place followed by Nigeria. Not surprisingly, Ghana who put up a woeful performance in Brazil slid to fifth position from third place preceded by Egypt who did not even make it to Brazil. Tunisia, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali complete the top 10 in that order. In a related scenario, Cameroon has been adjudged the worst team in Brazil 2014. Germany is the best team in the world and at the tournament, after winning the trophy followed by Argentina, the Netherlands, Brazil and Colombia. Belgium, France, Costa Rica, ...

Wayne Rooney scored his first ever World Cup goal in Brazil but could not stop England's early exit. Photograph: Michael Regan/The FA via Getty Images England have slumped to their lowest Fifa ranking for 18 years following their disappointing World Cup campaign. Germany top the world rankings, which take into account matches played during the World Cup as well as 46 friendlies, for the first time in approximately 20 years. Argentina, the runners-up in Brazil, have risen to second and semi-finalists Holland have climbed from 15th to third. England are among the biggest fallers after Roy Hodgson’s s...

Louis van Gaal has wasted no time in getting to grips with the challenge of managing Manchester United. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian Louis van Gaal says he is only interested in winning the Premier League in his first season at Manchester United. The Dutchman has, however, asked for patience from supporters while expressing concerns over the club’s commercial expectations. The new Old Trafford manager has already suffered a first setback, with Michael Carrick out for up to 12 weeks with an ankle injury, but he has suggested there could be roles for Paul Scholes and Phil Neville at the club. Regarding a...

Nigeria is by far a very peculiar country with a population that can boast of both creativity and uniqueness in more ways than one. While the exchange of cultures around the world has significantly reduced the peculiarity of a lot of things, here are 20 things in Nigeria we don’t think you would easily find elsewhere; This beautiful hilly settlement: This sachet water (pure water) named ‘Salary’ for reasons best known to the makers: These delicious roasted treats popularly called (boli). You just have to try these: This cyclist and his well stacked "passengers": These palatable meals that don’t need adverts to sell: This hair salon bill board with the President of the United States of America giving a former President of Nigeria a good trimming: These very distinct tribal marks: Beautiful ankara prints made into cute cultural outfits for the gorgeous Nigerian ladies: These ‘kuli-kuli’ treats made out of peanuts: These colourful trad...

Louis van Gaal, the manager of Manchester United, right, poses with his assistant, Ryan Giggs, on his first day in his new job. Photograph: Matthew Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images Louis van Gaal began his first official day as Manchester United manager on Wednesday by being briefed by his staff, Albert Stuivenberg, Marcel Bout and Ryan Giggs, regarding which players had impressed during his absence, before the Dutchman took his first session at 5.30pm. Van Gaal introduced himself to the players individually during lunch but it is understood he is waiting for the return of many of those who are on a post-World Cup break, including Wayne Rooney, before he addresses the squad as a whole. Stuivenberg, the assistant coach, and Bout, the chief opposition scout, had led the debrief regarding the squad, with Van Gaal’s countrymen having emerged as the more prominent figures...

Bruno Martins Indi, left, taking on Brazil's Oscar, helped Holland to third place at the World Cup. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA Porto have signed the Holland defender Bruno Martins Indi from Feyenoord for an undisclosed fee. The 22-year-old centre-back, who played in six games as Holland reached the World Cup semi-finals and won the third-place play-off, has signed a four-year contract at the Estádio do Dragão. Speaking through Feyenoord’s official Twitter account, Martins Indi, who was born in Portugal, said: “I’ve always said that if I left the club then it would be to make a step up. As well as saying a special...

Chelsea have signed Filipe Luís from Atlético Madrid following Ashley Cole's departure to Roma. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA José Mourinho’s plan for a full-scale assault on the Premier League title took a step closer to being completed on Wednesday as Chelsea confirmed the signing of the Brazil defender Filipe Luís for a fee understood to be around £20m. After Ashley Cole was unveiled as a Roma player on Tuesday, Filipe Luís has been signed as a direct replacement for the former England defender after helping Atlético Madrid win their first league title since 1996. With the Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois – who is in line to play his first season at Stamford Bridge after three successful years on loan at the Vicente Calde...

Germany midfielder Toni Kroos is expected to move to Real Madrid after turning down Bayern Munich's offer of a new contract. Photograph: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos is on the verge of joining Real Madrid after revealing to a Spanish newspaper he expects the move to go through “tomorrow or the day after”. Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed on Tuesday that negotiations had been opened up with the Champions League winners. Kroos, whose contract with Bayern has only a year left to run on it and who has turned down their offer of a renewal, is currently holidaying in Majorca after winning the World Cup with Germany. While on the Spanish island, he met up with his agent on Tuesday before confirming his intentions to sports daily AS. “I’ll be going to Madrid either tomorrow or the day after,” Kroos said. A fee of around €25m (£19.75m) is reporte...

Massimiliano Allegri led Milan to the title in 2011 but was sacked at the beginning of 2014. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images Juventus have appointed the former Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri as coach to replace Antonio Conte. Allegri has been hired on a salary of €2m (£1.6m) on a two-year deal as the club seek a fourth successive Serie A title. Juventus announced that he will be presented later Wednesday. Allegri joined Milan from Cagliari in the summer of 2010 and in his first season led them to their first Scudetto since 2004, though the Rossoneri finished second to Juventus the following year. Allegri was sacked by Milan in January this year since when they have stumbled through the appointment of Clarence Seedorf, who lasted less than five months, and Filippo Inzaghi. Conte had his contract terminated by mutual consent amid suggestions that he will...

Antonio Conte, head coach of Juventus, has left the club by mutual consent, and has been linked to the Italy job. Photograph: Di Marco/EPA Juventus have announced that their coach, Antonio Conte, has had his contract terminated by mutual consent. Conte, who had won three consecutive Serie A titles with Juve since joining from Siena in 2011, was widely reported to have told the club at the end of the season that he wanted to make sweeping changes with a view to mounting a serious challenge in the Champions League. Under Conte, the furthest Juve have progressed in the Champions League has been to the quarter-finals in 2013. It is not immediately clear why Conte has been allowed to leave – he said only that “right now I’m thinking about the present” – but there are suggestions that he will succeed Cesare Prandelli, now manager of Galatasaray, in charge of t...

Following the impeachment Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led federal government against excessive use of power. Atiku Abubakar In a statement by his media office in Abuja, Atiku said impeaching elected public office holders to settle scores would only build tension in the country. He explained that the excessive use of power is not good for decent democratic practice, saying triumphalism in the suppression of opponents is a bad omen for democracy. According to PM report, Atiku decried the use of impeachment to settle scores by the PDP-led federal government, saying the the frequency with which elected officials were being removed from office by impeachment would destroy the whole purpose of inserting the impeachment clause in the Constitution, adding that it could not have been the intention of the framers of the 1999 Constitution. He said the impeachment clause in the co...

Latest news coming out of Adamawa State, northern Nigeria, indicate that embattled Governor Murtala Nyako has been sacked. According to Premium Times, the governor was removed by the state House of Assembly some moments ago. It was gathered that the governor was sacked after the lawmakers deliberated on a report submitted by an investigative panel that probed allegations of financial misconducts against him. The committee submitted its report to the House on Monday, 14 July, 2014. Seventeen of the 25 members of the Assembly adopted the report of the panel after Speaker Umaru Fintiri read the report on the floor of the House. According to reports, the panel found the governor guilty of all the 16 allegations of gross misconduct leveled against him by the House. It was gathered that the motion for the governor’s impeachment was moved by Jerry Kumdisi, the member representing Gombi state constituency. The motion was seconded by Kwamoti Laori, the Deputy speaker of the...

Following the impeachment of the governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako and the resignation of his deputy, Bala Ngilari, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Umaru Fintiri, has been sworn into office as the new Acting Governor. Umaru Fintiri being sworn in as acting governor He was sworn in by the President of the Customary Court in the State at the council chambers of Government House, Yola. Giving a short remark after his swearing in, the new acting governor promised to pay the civil servants their two months outstanding salaries being owed them by the state government. Premium Times reports that Fintiri will hold office for a maximum of 3 months during which time the electoral commission, INEC, is expected to conduct a fresh governorship election. Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako was accused of misconduct and misappropriation of funds and was served an impeachment notice. Part of the allegations against him was the alleged cut in civil servants salar...

Argentina's captain, Lionel Messi, cuts a dejected figure after his side's World Cup final defeat. Photograph: Martin Rose/Getty Images Lionel Messi, controversial winner of the Golden Ball for the World Cup’s best player, believes Argentina had enough clear chances to have beaten Germany in Sunday’s final. The Argentina captain, who had carried his nation’s hopes through the group stages but looked listless in the semi-final and final, admitted Germany had more of the ball but said his team had the better chances. “We deserved a bit more after the match we played,” Messi said. “It’s very pai...

Bastian Schweinsteiger celebrates victory over Argentina in the World Cup final at Germany's after-party. Photograph: Markus GIlliar/Handout/EPA Minutes after lifting Germany’s first World Cup for 24 years in the Maracanã the triumphant generation of players who have grown up together said they had the hunger to dominate for years to come. Emerging from a beer-soaked dressing-room audience with Angela Merkel, a battered Bastian Schweinsteiger said they did not intend to stop with Germany’s first trophy since Euro 96. “You never know what happens in the future. But we are fit, we are hungry and we...

Thomas Vermaelen, right, has one year remaining on his Arsenal contract and would cost approximately £12m. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images Thomas Vermaelen’s ability to play at left-back as well as at centre-back is a factor in Louis van Gaal’s desire to sign the Belgian for Manchester United from Arsenal. With Patrice Evra expected to depart United for Juventus after the club agreed to a request not to stand in his way, Van Gaal will have Luke Shaw as his sole recognised left-back. Shaw has just arrived at United from Southampton for an initial fee of £27m and, although it is expected ...

In the video-recorded speech, Shekau rambles on about the goal of his group, their world-view, and what he terms, ‘the ills’ of Nigerian and Western society. "My greetings goes to all Muslim faithful, especially the jihadist. I am the father of Muhammadu, Abubakar the son of Muhammadu Shekau. May God grant us good intentions and make us succeed in our quest to see the face of Allah in this perilous times; the times when indecent living like homosexuality is being accorded legislative backing; the era when adultery and fornication has become a thing of pride; the period when people go about the world as though there is no God. "Just like a young man came out to say recently that he never believes in the existence of God - and we said to the young man that he was caught napping to realize that that is what westernization is teaching the world; that is the values of America, France, Britain; but if you are just realizing that, then may the wrath of Allah befal...

A man identified as Adedayo Rasaki Daniel, was reportedly caught on Sunday with explosive substances around one of the hostels at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State. Adedayo Rasaki Daniel, the suspected bomber The man who claimed to be mad was caught with petrol, wires, stove, and newspapers at about 12noon by students of the institution. Daily Times reports that an eyewitness named Baba T disclosed that the suspect was caught as he attempted to break into one of the rooms in Awo Annex. The suspected bomber Another eyewitness, Abbey said, the few students on campus are those doing their project, making it easy to spot any strange face. So when they saw Adedayo, they confronted and asked him questions which he couldn’t answer and when they searched his bag, they found the explosive materials inside.

Diego Maradona says the award to Lionel Messi, right, of the World Cup's Golden Ball was a "marketing plan". Manuel Neuer is on the left. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Diego Maradona has criticised Fifa for awarding Argentina’s Lionel Messi the Golden Ball award for the World Cup’s best player. Messi was presented with the award after his country’s 1-0 defeat by Germany in the final in Rio, beating such stellar performers as Arjen Robben, James Rodríguez and Thomas Müller. Despite scoring four goals in seven matches, the Barcelona star was not at his best during the knockout stages and Maradona dismissed the decision as a “marketing plan”. “Messi? I would give him heaven if possible,” the 1986 World Cup winner said on his television show on Telesur. “But it’s not right when someone wins something that he shouldn’t have won just because of some marketing plan.” The Fifa president, Sepp B...

Germany's Mario Götze (left) celebrates with Thomas Müller after scoring the winning goal during extra time in the final. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters When the goal finally arrived, 112 minutes into a long, wearing night of tension, there were members of the German entourage who seemed intent on re-enacting the infamous end to the Ryder Cup at Brookline. Their victory run, en masse, took them all the way from the dugout to the opposite side of the pitch where André Schürrle had created the game’s decisive moment. Mario Götze, another of Germany’s substitutes, had taken down Schürrle’s cross on his chest with his first touch. His second was to arrow a left-volley into the net and ensure that Germany will always remember Rio de Janeiro with the same fondness as Bern in 1954, Munich in 1974 and Rome in 1990. Argentina’s anguish will not be made any easier by the knowledge that Gonzalo Higuaín and Lionel Mes...

  Abubakar Shekau Boko Haram leader The leader of Boko Haram sect, Imam Abubakar Shekau has claimed responsibility for a car bombing of Lagos in a new video released today.  The suicide bombing carried out by a female, was carried out near a fuel depot in Apapa area of Lagos. The car bombing could have been a major disaster had it worked as planned according to a report released by SaharaReporter the second day after the bombing.    Shekau also said that the sect was behind the recent Abuja bombings that killed many people in a shopping plaza located in the federal capital.   The AFP news agency which received a copy of Mr. Shekau’s video reported that Shekau also issued fresh threats of impending attacks.     OUR ORIGINAL REPORT: Lagos Explosion Was A Car Bombing Contrary to information sent...

Argentina celebrate their semi-final win in São Paulo. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP 1. Argentina don’t care what you think Plenty of sides tried free-flowing, pacey Latin football this summer – even England had their moments. A moment. But Argentina stayed functional. They haven’t conceded once in the knockouts, they’ve not been behind in any game, and they don’t mind a lack of respect. Coach Alejandro “The Sloth” Sabella says his side are “sore, beaten and tired after the war [with Holland]. But with work, humility and seriousness, we’ll get there”; Pablo Zabaleta says their strengths are spoiling, staying “compact and tight”, “closing down” and feeding on negativity. “Sometimes, if you have all the people against you, you feel even stronger.” 2. Passion will only take you so far A series of heroic performances were undone by moments of cold quality – Switzerland, Mexico and Nigeria among those...

Gordon Brown, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education on Friday, expressed optimism that the over 234 school girls that were kidnapped on April 14, 2014, from Chibok, Borno State by the Boko Haram terrorist group will be released before July 22, 2014. The abducted Chibok girls According to Leadership, Brown, who made the revelation in a statement, also called on the world to show support for the abducted girls. “We, of course, hope that the Chibok girls will be released before July 22,” Brown said. Brown, who is expected to commence his new term as special envoy this month, promised that he will never abandon the girls. “ We are reminding people that we are in the mind-set of a global civil rights struggle,” he said. “Girls’ rights should be taken seriously and they should have the right to be at school free of intimidation and violence. We will mark the 100 days by pledging to rebuild their Chibok school and by calling for international sup...

An employee hangs shirts of new Barcelona player Luis Suárez at the club's official store. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images Barcelona will not be allowed to publicly unveil new £75m signing Luis Suárez while he remains banned for biting, Fifa has confirmed. Suárez is due to complete his move from Liverpool in the next few days, and the Catalan club has previously introduced star signings including Neymar and Cesc Fàbregas to packed stadiums. There have been suggestions Barcelona could hold a similar event for Suárez in a non-football venue to get around the four-month ban imposed on the Uruguay s...

Arjen Robben and Louis van Gaal after the Netherlands victory over Brazil. Photograph: Jorge Silva/REUTERS Dutch winger Arjen Robben has ruled out the possibility of following Louis van Gaal, his national team manager, to Manchester United. The 30 year-old former Chelsea forward told Dutch broadcaster NOS that Van Gaal had offered him a role in a revamped United squad next season. Despite admitting that he shares a “special bond” with Van Gaal, who made him vice-captain of the Holland team, he will not be joining him at Old Trafford next season. “I have a special bond with him. He is the most important coach in my care...

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, has voiced his support for his fellow terrorists in other parts of the world. Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau According to Vanguard report, in a new video given to the AFP, the leader of Boko Haram hailed Al-Qaeda, Taliban and the extremist Sunni Islamic State (IS) militant group, which has taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Listing IS chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Shekau said, " My brethren… may Allah protect you ." When Obama labelled the group as terrorists, he said that the group has links with al-Qaeda, and the Treasury Department confirmed this statement saying it has proof of Boko Haram receiving support from the terror group. In May, when President Jonathan had during the security summit hosted by French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Saturday described the Boko Haram, as the “al Qaeda of West Africa.” However in reaction to ...