BELARUS FREES NOBEL LAUREATE BIALIATSKI IN SWAP FOR US SANCTIONS RELIEF. (PHOTO).
Belarus frees Nobel laureate Bialiatski in swap for US sanctions relief Belarus has released Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova from prison, human rights advocate Pavel Sapelka of the Viasna group confirmed. Their release coincides with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s efforts to improve ties with the United States. Earlier, Washington announced it was lifting sanctions on Belarus’s potash sector, and in return, Lukashenko pardoned 123 prisoners. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has faced years of Western isolation and sanctions over human rights abuses and for allowing Russian military operations on its territory. Since July 2024, Minsk has released hundreds of prisoners as part of efforts to ease tensions with the West. U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus John Coale described recent talks in Minsk as “very productive” and said the countries are moving from “baby steps to more confident steps” toward normalizing relations. Opp...
A total of N415.730 billion has been distributed as Federal Allocation for the month of April 2017 by the Federal Governmebt,State Governments and Local Government Councils.The communique issued by the sub-Committee of Federation Accounts Allocation Committee {FAAC} of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation,at the end of the meeting held in Abuja on May 23,2017,indicated that the gross statutory revenue received for the Month is N248.110 billion,which is lower than the N331.583 billion received in the previous months by N54.473 billion.The shared amount comprised the Month's Statutory distributable revenue of N272.115 billion,Value Added Tax of N81.286 billion,Exchange gain of N38.517 billion and Excess PPT Account of N20.425 billion.There was also a N6.330 billion refund to the Federal Government by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation {NNPC}.Accordingly,from Net Statutory Allocation,the Federal Government received N124.444 billion representing {52.68%}; States received N63.119 billion {26.72%}; Local Government Councils received N48.662 billion representing {20.60%}; while the oil producing States received N22.640 billion as 13% derivation revenue.Furthermore,from the Revenue available from the Value Added Tax {VAT},Federal Government received N12.193 {15%}; States received N40.643 billion {50%} while the Local Goverment Councils received N28.450 {35%}.The Communique further explained that there was a significant increase in Export Sales revenue by about $63.69 million due to increase in average unit price of crude oil export volume by 1.07 million There was however,a decrease in the average price of Cruude oil production during the period under review.This was largely due to a shut in and shut-down of pipelines due to the activities of vandals,as well as for maintenance which impacted negatively on production.Furthermore,the Force Majeure declared at the Forcadose terminal since February,2016 was still in place.The balance on the Excess Crude Account is $2.299billion USD,while the balance in the Excess PPT Account is $67M US Dollar.
Comments
Post a Comment