The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Two quick ways to relocate to Canada

    Two quick ways to relocate to Canada

    Relocating to Canada from Nigeria has become a subject of discussion because it presents a wealth of opportunities for many.

    Canada recently announced a historic Immigration Levels Plan 2021-2023 that will see the country welcome over 400,000 immigrants per year

    It is however important to note that many who have relocated to Canada have advised that one must be sure before beginning the process.

    There are two ways to move from Nigeria to Canada. They are: Express Entry and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

    Canada is a federal country, with 10 provinces and three territories. Eleven of these jurisdictions operate the PNP.

    Increasingly, Nigerians are traveling to Canada as temporary residents and transitioning to permanent residents. This is a popular route for candidates who do not immediately qualify for permanent residence when applying from Nigeria.

    Time spent in Canada as a temporary resident counts towards a permanent residence application.

    Here are the required steps to take:

    Provincial Nominee Program

    The Provincial Nominee Program is a program that focuses on individuals who have the education, skills, and work experience to contribute to the economy of a particular Province.

    The program centers on graduates, semi-skilled and skilled workers. Each of the Provinces has streams designated to meet the needs of their labor markets that usually target particular categories of people

    The Provincial Nominee Program allows different Provinces in Canada to nominate individuals interested in settling in a particular province. The program aims at enhancing a broader and even distribution of immigrants across the country.

    The following steps are required to qualify for the Provincial Nominee Program:

    1. Immigrants are required to apply for nomination to the Province they want to live in.

    2. Immigrants need to possess the necessary skills, qualifications, and work experience for the Province to nominate them.

    3. When approved by the Province, applicants should submit another application to the government for Canadian permanent resident status.

    Express Entry System

    Express Entry System is a system created by the Canadian government to address labor market shortages in the economy.

    The express entry system consists of immigration programs that enable skilled individuals to migrate to Canada as residents.

    The system offers some federal programs for skillful or experienced workers under the following categories:

    1. Federal Skilled Trades Program for candidates who are certified and skilled in particular trades.

    2. Federal Skilled Worker Program for skilled workers who have qualifications with a minimum of one year of work experience.

    3. Canada Experience Class for candidates who have worked in certain occupations in Canada for at least one year.

    The steps to take in the express entry program include:

    1. Creating an Express Entry Profile: Interested candidates are required to apply through the Express Entry System by creating an online profile.

    Applicants are usually ranked or scored following a ranking system known as the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

    Comprehensive Ranking System is a points-based system that awards points to profiles created according to specified criteria that include:

    – Age

    – Skills

    – Canadian language benchmark: proficiency in English and French

    – Work Experience

    – Level of Education

    – Provincial Nomination

    – Relative residing in Canada

    – Submitting documents in the document checklist: A document checklist is a list of the documents required to be with the online application.

    The documents include:

    – Birth certificate

    – Marriage certificate if married

    – Language test results got from approved English tests like the International English language Testing System (IELTS).

    – Work experience documents which include reference letters and employment letters.

    – Medical reports

    – Education Credential Assessment report for foreign credentials and copies of certificates.

    – Travel document or valid passport

    Candidates ranked with high profiles following the Comprehensive Ranking System are given Invitations to Apply for permanent residency in Canada.

    Immigration can be a stressful experience, but with the proper steps and timely plans, this can ease your immigration process.

  • Kylie Jenner becomes first woman to hit 300 million followers on Instagram

    Kylie Jenner becomes first woman to hit 300 million followers on Instagram

    Make-up entrepreneur and Keeping Up With The Kardashians reality star Kylie Jenner has emerged as the first woman to reach 300 million followers on Instagram.

    Singer Ariana Grande is tied in second place with Selena Gomez.

    The singers have 289 million each on Instagram.

    READ ALSO: Kylie Jenner is not a billionaire, Forbes magazine now says

    But Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo known as CR7 remains Instagram’s most-followed person.

    He has more than 388 million followers.

  • Man held for damaging ‘paedophile’ statue at BBC headquarters

    Man held for damaging ‘paedophile’ statue at BBC headquarters

    A man has been arrested for hitting a statue with a hammer on the BBC headquarters in central London.

    According to a BBC staff, the man was heard shouting “paedophile” as he struck the statue, which is connected to New Broadcasting House.

    The man was brought down with the help of a fire crew about four hours later.

    He was also checked over by ambulance workers before being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and taken into custody.

    There has been a campaign to have the statue removed for several years, because the sculptor recorded sexually abusing his daughters in his diaries.

    READ ALSO:Queen Elizabeth’s son, Andrew faces sex assault suit in U.S

    The statue called ‘Prospero and Ariel’ was carved by Eric Gill and has been on display at the BBC since 1933.

    In recent years, groups such as QAnon have campaigned against the statue carved by Gill, who died in 1940.

    The attack on the statue comes a week after four people accused of illegally removing a statue of 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol were cleared of criminal damage.

    It happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city in 2020, during a widespread debate about the place of certain historical statues in modern society.

  • Prince Andrew’s legal team decline comment on U.S. court decision

    Prince Andrew’s legal team decline comment on U.S. court decision

    The legal team for Britain’s Prince Andrew, on Thursday, refused to make any comment after they failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit.

    Prince Andrew was accused of sexually abusing Giuffre’s when she was a teenager.

    In a decision made public on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge, Lewis Kaplan said Giuffre, 38, could pursue claims that Andrew battered her and intentionally caused her emotional distress while the late financier, Jeffrey Epstein, trafficked her.

    “The legal team has advised me that there will be no comment,’’ a spokeswoman said.

    The 61-year-old prince, the second son of 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth, has denied Giuffre’s accusations that he had forced her to sleep with him more than two decades ago at a London home of former Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and abused her at two Epstein properties.

    READ ALSO: Queen Elizabeth’s son, Andrew faces sex assault suit in U.S

    The judge’s decision means Andrew could be forced to give evidence at a trial, which could begin between September and December 2022, if no settlement was reached.

    The prince was forced to step down from public duties in 2019 because of his connections to Epstein.

    Also in the wake of a disastrous BBC TV interview, which he had hoped would clear his name, but instead led to ridicule and further questions.

    Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday it would not comment on an ongoing legal matter.

     

    (Reuters/NAN)

  • Queen Elizabeth’s son, Andrew faces sex assault suit in U.S

    Queen Elizabeth’s son, Andrew faces sex assault suit in U.S

    A United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has given an American woman Virginia Giuffre, permission to bring a sexual assault suit against the second son of the Queen of England, Prince Andrew.

    Andrew is to face the civil case in the United States over allegations he sexually assaulted Giuffre in 2001 when she was 17.

    According to The BBC, the case against the 61-year-old Duke of York could be heard in court later this year.

    READ ALSO: UK’s Queen Elizabeth pulls out of COP26 following advice to rest

    Andrew’s lawyers had told the court that the complaint ought to be dismissed, following a 2009 deal she signed with convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    The prince consistently denied the allegations against him.

    But a New York judge, Lewis A Kaplan, ruled in a 46-page decision that the case against him could continue.

  • Maya Angelou becomes first black woman to feature on US coin

    Maya Angelou becomes first black woman to feature on US coin

    Popular Poet and human rights activist, late Maya Angelou, has been added and featured to the US quarter coin.

    She is the first black woman to be added to the coin.

    This happens to be the first in a series of coins that is designed to celebrate the achievements of American women.

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen reiterated how glad she was of the significance of the redesigned coin and the perception it gives about the Nation.

    She said: “Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country — what we value, and how we’ve progressed as a society.

    “I’m very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou.”

    The quarter coin, which is short for the quarter dollar is worth 25 cents and has inscriptions of “The United States of America” and “Quarter Dollar” on the top and bottom respectively.

    On the sides, the inscriptions engraved are the name of the poet “Maya Angelou” and the Latin word “e pluribus unum” which means ‘one from many.

    In the middle is the portrait of Maya with her lifted hands up to the sky and behind her was a dove.

    On her head was something like a beam shining on her.

    The US mint has said that the images were inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived.

    On the other side of the coin is of course George Washington.

    It is believed other women will be added to the other American women’s quarters programme like Chinese Anna May Wong who is known as the first Chinese American movie star, and Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly to space.

    Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights, activist.

    READ ALSO: Maya Angelou remembered at memorial service

    She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years.

    She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.

    She was born on 4th April 1928 and died 28th May 2014.

    In 1972, she became the first Black woman to write a screenplay for a major film release

    “I know why the caged birds sing” which was written in 1969 and went on to become a best seller for two years and in 2011 Time magazine ranked it as one of the most influential books of modern times.

    She was the first female inaugural poet in U.S. presidential history. In 1993 she performed “On the Pulse of Morning,” for former president Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

    In 2010, she was bestowed the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom the following year by former President Barack Obama.

    Some American lawmakers have also expressed their excitement in this development like Rep. Barbara Lee, the sponsor of the resolution that paved the way for the creation of the American Women Quarters Program, who via her Twitter handle Rep. Barbara Lee claims that the phenomenal works of black women have gone unrecognized for too long. She said

    “Excited to announce that today, Maya Angelou becomes the first Black woman to appear in a US quarter!

    “The phenomenal women who shaped American history has gone unrecognized for too long—especially women of color. Proud to have led this bill to honor their legacies.”

  • U.S. approves transfer of five suspected al-Qaeda detainees from Gitmo

    The United States on Wednesday approved the transfer of five more detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, including Guled Hassan Duran, a key figure of the al-Qaeda terror group.

    The Washington Post reported that the five detainees released from U.S. custody are Duran, Moath al-Alwi, Suhail al-Sharabi, Zakaria al-Baidany and Abdulmalik Bajabu.

    It also reported that none of the detainees had been charged with any crime.

    The move came as the prison turned 20 years old on Tuesday as President Joe Biden had been criticised by some human rights groups for not taking more action to close the facility.

    To date, 18 of 39 detainees in Guantanamo Bay have been cleared by U.S. national security officials for transfer out of the military prison in Cuba.

    No date has been announced when any of the 18 detainees cleared for transfer would leave.

    READ ALSO: Amnesty urges Biden to close Guantanamo camp

    Duran’s attorneys claimed that Duran, a Somali national suspected of being a key member of al-Qaeda’s branch in East Africa was kept at CIA black sites for two years.

    They claimed he was deprived of sleep, food, water, medical care, and beaten at the black sites.

    Baidany is a Yemeni national the CIA suspected of having a key role in al-Qaeda’s alleged plans to conduct bombing operations in Georgia and Chechnya.

    However, the report said U.S. national security officials made their decision to transfer Baidany because there was no information indicating he had engaged in activities against the country before he was captured.

    U.S. national security officials cleared Alwi, a Yemeni national, because of his lack of a leadership position in al-Qaeda or the Taliban and also due to his highly compliant behaviour in recent years.

    Bajabu, a Kenyan national accused of being a member of the East Africa al-Qaeda group, was cleared after U.S. national security officials determined he had a low level of training.

    He was also deemed to have lacked a leadership role in his activities prior to being detained at Guantanamo Bay.

    Sharabi, a Yemeni national who served as a bodyguard to former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, served nearly 20 years in prison, but the U.S. government did not detail why he was approved for transfer.

     

    (Sputnik/NAN)

  • EU Parliament president David Sassoli dies aged 65

    EU Parliament president David Sassoli dies aged 65

    President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, has died at the age of 65.

    Sassoli died Tuesday morning in a hospital in the north-eastern Italian municipality of Aviano, his spokesman confirmed to dpa.

    On Monday, the EU parliament confirmed he had been admitted to hospital in Italy on Dec. 26 “because of a serious complication due to a dysfunction of the immune system’’.

    The Italian centre-left politician spent several days in hospital in September with pneumonia.

    He also had to skip the legislature’s October plenary session due to illness.

    The Centro di Riferimento Oncologico hospital in Aviano did not respond to requests for information Tuesday morning.

    Sassoli told the Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper last month that he was not planning to stand for re-election in early 2022.

    His spokesman said on Twitter that the time and place of the funeral would be announced in the coming hours.

    “Ciao David, a lifelong friend,’’ Italy’s Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini, tweeted in one of the first reactions to the news.

    Born in Florence on May 30, 1956, Sassoli had been a member of the EU assembly for more than 10 years, following a switch from journalism to politics.

    READ ALSO: The president we need next

    Sassoli belonged to the Social Democratic party Partito Democratico (PD).

    He had been president of the European Parliament since July 2019, replacing his compatriot Antonio Tajani from the conservative Forza Italia.

    Before that, he had been vice president of the EU parliament from 2014 to 2019 and worked for around three years (2014 to 2017) as a representative of then-European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

    He got his start in journalism working for smaller newspapers, eventually joining the Rome daily Il Giornio in 1985.

    Sassoli later switched to television.

    His former role as a presenter of the main evening news on RAI public television means that Sassoli’s face is quite well known in Italy.

    He was critical of many EU members’ migration policies and repeatedly advocated on behalf of migrants.

    In Italy, migration is a contentious subject, especially between left and right-wing parties, as a large number of migrants arrive in the Mediterranean country in boats in a bid to get into the EU.

    Sassoli was also considered a progressive Catholic.

    According to his party, he was a boy scout and was involved in Catholic youth groups.

    He was married and had two children.

     

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Kremlin not optimistic after Russia-U.S. talks

    Kremlin not optimistic after Russia-U.S. talks

    The Kremlin is not seeing a significant reason for optimism at the Russia-U.S. consultations on the security guarantees, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

    Russia and the U.S. held consultations in Geneva on Monday, and Moscow would also hold talks with NATO and the OSCE later this week.

    “Well, so far, let’s say, we do not see any significant reason for optimism.

    “It deserves a positive assessment, and this positive assessment was given by Ryabkov (Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov) about how these negotiations took place.

    READ ALSO: Kazakh unrest: Negative impact of social media must be addressed –Kremlin

    “ I mean their nature, that is: open, substantive and direct,’’ Peskov told reporters.

    The spokesman also said that this is not a process for the sake process and the result is important.

    The Kremlin spokesman mentioned said negotiations on security guarantees have no deadline but Russia would not be satisfied with endless talks.

     

    (Sputnik/NAN)

  • Kazakh unrest: Negative impact of social media must be addressed –Kremlin

    Kazakh unrest: Negative impact of social media must be addressed –Kremlin

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said the events in Kazakhstan had made it clear that social networks do both good and evil.

    According to him, their negative impact must be stopped.

    “Obviously, social networks, apart from the good, also do evil. The aim is to take measures to stop this evil. This story is not new, it is old. It just found its obvious relevance once again in the course of recent events in Kazakhstan.’’

    Asked if the Russian government plans to introduce any social media regulations given Kazakhstan’s experience, Peskov replied “there is nothing like that right now.”

    Mass protests in Kazakhstan began in the early days of 2022, with residents of the western cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau protesting a twofold increase in the price of liquefied gas.

    READ ALSO: 7,939 people detained during unrest in Kazakhstan

    The protests spilled over to other cities, including the former capital and largest city of Almaty, where looting, attacks on government buildings, and armed clashes with the police broke out.

    In response, the Kazakh authorities declared a nationwide state of emergency until January 19, and launched an anti-terrorist operation. Almost 1,000 people were injured during the unrest, according to the United Nations.

    On Wednesday, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed the government and took over the Security Council, describing the situation in Kazakhstan as undermining national integrity.

    He officially requested the assistance of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation in “overcoming the terrorist threat,’’ which then sent collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan to normalise the situation.

    On Friday, Tokayev said that terrorists, which include foreigners, were stoking the insurgency, and vowed to eliminate those who would not lay down their arms.

    (Sputnik/NAN)