Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar Dumps APC​

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has resigned from the party. Mr Abubakar’s aide, Mr Paul Ibe, revealed this in a tweet this morning. “H.E. @atiku has resigned from the All Progressives Congress,” the tweet read.

Mr Abubakar contested against the president, Muhammed Buhari alongside three others for the ticket of the APC in 2014. He lost out in the primary but collapsed his structure to support the president at the 2015 presidential campaign.

Five Ukraine troops die 💐 in heavy fighting with Luhansk rebels❗​

Five Ukrainian troops have been killed by intense rebel shelling in the east of the country, the military says, in a new escalation of fighting.

Four of them died during an eight-hour clash near Krymske, a village 50km (31 miles) north-west of Luhansk.

The UN says more than 10,000 people have died since the eastern Ukraine conflict erupted in April 2014, soon after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

Armed men in camouflage, without insignia, blocked access to some administrative buildings in Luhansk on Tuesday, hours after rebel leader Igor Plotnitsky had sacked his "interior minister" Igor Kornet.

The armed men who appeared on the streets were loyal to Mr Kornet, AFP news agency reported from Luhansk.

FG okays fresh N28bn budget support for 35 states​

The Federal Government has approved a fresh budget support loan facility for 35 states across the country. Each of the states will get N800m, totalling N28bn to meet their salaries and other obligations.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Thursday at the end of a meeting of the National Economic Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Udoma said the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had been directed to effect payments. Udoma said the Accountant General of the Federation reported to Council that approval had been received and CBN had been directed to pay N800 million to each of the 35 states of the Federation. Only Lagos State is not taking the loan.

Argentina 🇦🇷 missing submarine: Still no sign of ARA San Juan​

Argentina's navy has said there is still no sign of a submarine that disappeared nine days ago.

Although an event "consistent with an explosion" was detected north of the ARA San Juan's last-known location, spokesman Captain Enrique Baldi said there had been no more trace of it.

The ARA San Juan was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the southernmost tip of South America, when it reported an "electrical breakdown".

​🇰🇪Kenya 👔MP Kaluma Drafts Secession 📜Bill to Form 'People's Republic of 🇰🇪Kenya'​

Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma has drafted a bill seeking to split the country into the People's Republic of Kenya and the Central Republic of Kenya. In the Bill to be tabled in Parliament, Kaluma wants 40 out of the 47 counties to secede and form the People’s Republic of Kenya.

Kaluma argues that these counties have continually been discriminated upon by successive governments. The Bill says while all important public appointments have remained the eternal; preserve of a few, the national budget is permanently skewed to benefit a few groups, communities and regions while marginalising the rest.

The MP says the rest of the country has been rendered mere taxpayers without corresponding rights to equal opportunities and service. "The current administration has captured the state and totally emasculated Parliament, commissions and independent offices established to secure good governance," the draft Bill reads. According to the Bill, the People's Republic of Kenya would include major counties such as Nairobi and Mombasa.

Update: At least 184 killed in Egypt mosque attack​

Suspected militants have launched a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province, killing at least 184 people, state media say. Witnesses say the al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed, near al-Arish, was targeted during Friday prayers. Local police said men in four off-road vehicles opened fire on worshippers, AP reported.

One report said the target appeared to be supporters of the security forces who were praying at the mosque. Locals are also quoted as saying that followers of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, regularly gathered at the mosque. Islamist jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS), see Sufis as heretics. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is to meet security officials to discuss the incident, Egypt's private Extra News TV reported.

Egypt has declared 3 days of mourning in remembrance of the victims.