Media captionWhite House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders explains why Mr Trump rounded on his former adviser Steve Bannon
Lawyers for US President Donald Trump are seeking to stop the release of a book containing explosive insights into his presidency, US media report.
A letter demands that author Michael Wolff and the book’s publisher “immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book”.
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is due for release on Tuesday.
The book extensively quotes former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Among a number of explosive statements, Mr Bannon said he thought a meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a group of Russians was “treasonous”.
The meeting is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his inquiry into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russia.
Mr Trump earlier responded to the release of excerpts of the book by saying Mr Bannon had “lost his mind” after losing his White House position.
On his radio show on Wednesday, Mr Bannon responded to the president’s criticism by saying he was a “great man”.
“You know, I support him day in and day out,” he said on the show produced by right-wing Breitbart News, which he heads.
The book is reportedly based on more than 200 interviews.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Kaduna State House of Assembly, northwest of the country on Wednesday confirmed the appointment of a new commissioner into the State cabinet with a marching order to complete on going projects under his assigned ministry.
Ibrahim Hamza, an architect by profession and consultant to the country’s apex bank CBN, Nigeria Labour Congress as well as some multi national oil companies, is to head the Ministry of Water Resources.
The House which said it believed in his capability and competence, told the commissioner to encourage contractors to go back to sites as soon as funds are made available to the ministry.
Chairman, House committee on Information, Nuhu Shadalafiya tasked the commissioner to ensure that the 8 local Government areas envisaged in the Zaria water project have supply as soon as funds are made available from the recently approved supplementary budget”
“We want judicious use of that resource so that those contractors who have left sites will go back to sites immediately and then ensured that the Project achieve maximum level of completion.
Work should also be extended to other zones of the state particularly, the metropolitan town of Kaduna and Kafanchan so that those water works that are not functional would pick up and begin to give water to the people.
He however advised the Commissioner to work in Partnership with other relevant bodies in order to ensure improved water supply to communities in the State.
The Commissioner assured the legislators that though government is a continuous process, he would ensure that the vision and mission of the present Administration is accomplished.
The Zaria water project, he said, would be given adequate attention.
When professional footballer Jack Blake was released from Nottingham Forest, he didn’t make the standard move to another British club.
Instead he decided to follow in the footsteps of David Beckham and Frank Lampard and play in the US.
But unlike many British stars it wasn’t to see out the end of his footballing days.
Instead, it’s where the 23-year-old is choosing to make his career.
Image caption Jack signed for Nottingham Forest when he was 17
The turning point for Jack was when he was dropped from Nottingham Forest and found himself playing in the sixth tier of English football.
“I got to the stage where I wanted to do something completely different,” he says.
“I saw a lot of people that had done the same route and had found it very difficult.
“It was almost just waking up one morning on the way to training and thinking ‘I’ve got to do something different’.
“I’ve not worked all my life just to see it go down the drain. I knew it had to be something drastic.”
The midfielder moved out to stay with his grandfather in Arizona and secured a trial with Minnesota United.
“At first you’re going in there as an unknown name but I did really well and they signed me within two weeks.”
Despite a good start which even saw him scoring on his debut, Minnesota were moving to the top division of the Major League Soccer (MLS) and they decided not to take Jack with them.
Image caption Blake does his arrow celebration mimicking Robin Hood from his home town of Nottingham
But all was not lost as, in January 2017, Jacksonville Armada signed him and he ended up becoming the leading goal scorer for the club.
“I scored the first ever club hat-trick.”
In November, Jack won the 2017 Young Player of the Year award in the country’s second division – the North American Soccer League (NASL).
Jack is the first British player to be given this award and he hopes it might open up even bigger opportunities in the future.
He’s just been awarded a green card, which means he’s considered a US citizen and doesn’t count towards the limited quota of foreign players teams can have.
“So right now I’m competing for one of seven places on every team,” he says.
“The green card means I become a non-international player and can compete for up to 30 places on the roster.
“There are MLS teams keeping an eye on me.
“To be honest, playing the MLS is an aspiration and I think it’s going to happen.”
Image copyrightReutersImage caption Mehmet Hakan Atilla faces up to 30 years in prison
Turkey has reacted angrily after a Turkish banker was convicted in New York over a massive scheme to help Iran evade US sanctions.
Mehmet Hakan Atilla was found guilty of bank fraud and conspiracy but cleared of money laundering.
Turkey’s foreign ministry described the ruling as “unjust and unfortunate”.
The case hinged on the testimony of a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, who became the prosecution’s star witness after admitting helping Iran evade sanctions.
Reza Zarrab’s statements in court implicated former Turkish ministers and even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the multi-billion-dollar scheme.
President Erdogan has denied that Turkey breached US sanctions, but the case has strained relations between Ankara and Washington.
On Thursday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said the case was based on “pseudo-evidence that was fraudulent and open to political abuse”, accusing the US of “unprecedented intervention in Turkey’s domestic affairs”.
He was convicted on Wednesday of bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was cleared of another money laundering charge.
The 47-year-old faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.
He said that he was told in 2012 by the then economy minister, Zafer Caglayan, that Mr Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time, had instructed Turkish banks to participate in the multi-million dollar scheme.
He also told the court he paid Mr Caglayan bribes amounting to more than 50m euros ($59m; £44m) to facilitate deals with Iran.
The US has charged Mr Caglayan as part of the case. Mr Caglayan has not publicly commented.
However, Mr Erdogan’s government has repeatedly condemned the US investigation, describing the case as “a plot against Turkey” and saying Zarrab had been pressured into committing slander.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Bassirou fled Burkina Faso because he feared for his life and arrived in Italy by boat.
His life turned around when he got involved in a project run by Lai-Momo, a charity that is training asylum seekers in one of Italy’s finest arts: making leather bags.
Video journalist: Sofia Bettiza.
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been in power in the sub-Saharan country since 1979
Mercenaries have attempted to launch a coup in the Western African state of Equatorial Guinea, its government says.
At least 30 armed men from Chad, Cameroon and the Central African Republic were arrested late last month, a minister said.
They were found with rocket launchers, rifles and ammunition just over the border in Cameroon, he added.
The government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is often accused of corruption and human rights abuses.
Troops in Equatorial Guinea shot dead a “mercenary” during clashes on Wednesday near the border with Cameroon, TVGE, the state television reported, adding that security forces had “used gunfire to disperse (others) in the forests along the border”.
Mr Obiang has been in power for nearly 40 years, taking power in a coup by ousting his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was shot by firing squad.
The long-time leader was re-elected to a fifth seven-year term in 2016.
In a statement read on public radio, Security Minister Nicholas Obama Nchama blamed the alleged coup on mercenaries hired by opposition groups and supported by unnamed “powers”.
He said the coup attempt had been foiled with the help of the Cameroonian security services.
Equatorial Guinea has faced alleged coup attempts in the past.
In 2004, a former British soldier, Simon Mann, was linked to an attempt to overthrow Mr Obiang.
The former British Army officer and businessman was arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 and extradited four years later to Equatorial Guinea.
In 2008, Mr Mann was sentenced to 34 years in prison, although a year later he was released after being pardoned by Mr Obiang.
Equatorial Guinea is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, but much of its population still lives in poverty.
A claim that Tony Blair warned Donald Trump’s aides UK intelligence may have spied on him is “a complete fabrication”, the former PM has said.
A new book says Mr Blair had shared a “juicy rumour” with the son-in-law of the US president, Jared Kushner, that campaign staff, “possibly even Trump himself”, had been under surveillance.
He is said to have been “angling” for a post-election Middle East adviser role.
Mr Blair’s office said the allegations were “absurd” and “simply untrue”.
The former UK prime minister told BBC Radio 4’s programme: “I have never had such conversations in the White House or outside of the White House, with Jared Kushner or with anybody else.”
He said he had met Mr Kushner and had discussed the Middle East peace process with him but “I wasn’t angling for some job”.
“I have absolutely no desire for an official position was never offered one, don’t want one,” he added.
He said the claim was “a reflection of the crazy state of modern politics”.
The account of an alleged meeting between Mr Blair, Mr Kushner and a senior aide at the White House in February 2017, the month after the presidential inauguration, is contained in the book by journalist Michael Wolff and reported in the Times.
According to Mr Wolff’s account, in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Mr Blair shared the rumour that, during the election, British intelligence “had had the Trump campaign staff under surveillance, monitoring its telephone calls and other communications”.
The former PM is reported to have given the impression that Barack Obama’s administration had hinted that such surveillance would be helpful.
Last March the US TV channel Fox News carried an unsubstantiated claim that UK intelligence services could have been involved in an alleged spying operation on Trump Tower in New York.
The UK’s spy agency GCHQ said the claims “should be ignored, describing them as “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous”.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption The meeting between Jared Kushner and Tony Blair is reported to have taken place in February last year
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has disavowed his former aide Steve Bannon, saying he “lost his mind” after he lost his job,
It follows reported comments from Mr Bannon in the book in which he describes a meeting between the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, and a group of Russians, as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”.
The Senate, House of Representatives and a US Department of Justice team led by special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating alleged Russian interference in the presidential election and alleged attempts to undermine Hillary Clinton.
The claims have been denied both by the Kremlin and Mr Trump.
The president has also vehemently denied any collusion with Russia.
Mr Trump’s lawyers have sent a cease-and-desist letter to Mr Bannon, US media reports said.
On Wednesday White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders described Mr Wolff’s book as “filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House”.
“Participating in a book that can only be described as a trashy tabloid fiction exposes their sad desperate attempts at relevancy,” she said.
A knife fight with consequences
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Steve Bannon left his White House post in August
By Jon Sopel, BBC North America editor
It’s not unusual for former political allies to fall out. It happens all the time. But normally it’s done in private, and maybe hinted at in public. Not this time. Not with this President.
This is a vicious knife fight between Donald Trump and his former campaign chief and White House Chief strategist being played out across social media.
Other Trump family members and supporters are piling in too. Why? Because Steve Bannon has enraged Donald Trump with his description of a meeting that took place between the president’s son, Don Jr, and son in law, Jared Kushner, with a Kremlin-linked, Russian lawyer as unpatriotic and treasonous.
