The Kaduna Court of Appeal has ruled that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) cannot seize foreign rice from markets or highways, limiting their enforcement authority to land borders only.

The December 6 judgment, delivered by a three-member panel led by Justice Ntong Ntong, upheld a lower court's decision that acquitted businessman Suleiman Mohammed of illegal rice importation charges.

The case stemmed from a 2019 incident where customs officials seized Mohammed's truck containing 613 bags of foreign rice and 80 bags of millet on the Kaduna-Zaria expressway. The federal high court initially acquitted Mohammed in 2021, ruling that customs failed to prove illegal importation and noting that foreign rice imports are only banned through land borders, not seaports.

In dismissing the NCS appeal, Justice Ntong criticized customs for targeting traders instead of actual importers, stating "How can a fowl leave to attack who killed it to pursue who is de-feathering it?" The justice emphasized that the Kaduna-Zaria expressway is not a land border and that Mohammed was merely a purchaser, not an importer.

The court ordered customs to either return the seized goods to Mohammed or pay him their current market value. This ruling effectively restricts the NCS's authority to confiscate foreign rice to land border areas only, not within domestic markets or highways.

The judgment clarifies that while importing foreign rice through land borders remains prohibited, importation through seaports is legal, and customs cannot seize such products once they are being traded in local markets.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Putin challenges West to ‘technological duel’ with Oreshnik

Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged Western leaders to put ther modern air defense systems up against Moscow’s new hypersonic Oreshnik missile in what would be a “technological duel.” 

During his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin was asked to comment on opinions expressed by some foreign military experts suggesting that the Oreshnik can easily be shot down by Western missile defense systems.

“Well, if those Western experts you mentioned believe that, they should suggest to their employers in the West and the US to conduct a technological experiment. For instance, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them identify a target in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense systems there, and then we will strike it with an Oreshnik. Let’s see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. Is the other side ready?” Putin asked.

The president explained that given the technical characteristics of the Oreshnik and the current missile defense systems deployed by the West, it would be impossible to stop the missile or its hypersonic warheads after it had been launched.

Putin suggested that the results of such a “duel” would be of great interest to both Russia and the US, whose air defense systems are currently operating in Ukraine. Putin was also asked why the Oreshnik is named the way it is, to which he confessed that he doesn’t actually know.

The Russian military carried out the first-ever combat test of the Oreshnik on November 21, using it to destroy a Ukrainian military industrial facility in Dnepr with multiple hypersonic warheads. Putin said at the time that the decision to unveil the Oreshnik was made in response to Ukraine's long-range strikes on internationally recognized Russian territory made with Western permission.

Putin had previously explained that the Oreshnik can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads, which travel at ten times the speed of sound, making it impossible for Western air-defense systems to intercept them.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Six killed in Ukrainian missile attack on Russia's Kursk region, acting governor says

Six people, including one child, were killed on Friday in a Ukrainian missile attack on the town of Rylsk in Russia's Kursk region, the acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein, said.

Ten wounded people, including a 13-year-old, were taken to hospital with minor injuries, Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.

"What happened today is a huge tragedy for all of us," he said. "We grieve together with the families of the victims. No one will be left without support."

Those responsible would receive "well-deserved retribution", he said.

Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, later told a session of the Security Council that Moscow would be quick to respond to the "unambiguous move by the Kyiv regime".

"As you can well understand, our response to this targeted crime against peaceful Russian citizens will not be long in coming," he told the session.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the incident.

Khinshtein said Ukraine had fired U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets, damaging several buildings including a school, recreation centre and private residences in Rylsk, some 16 miles (26 km) from the border with Ukraine's Sumy region.

An unconfirmed earlier report by the Mash Telegram channel, which is close to Russian law enforcement, put the death toll at seven.

The channel published unverified video showing damaged buildings and cars on fire in a city street.

Khinshtein, posting later on Telegram, said the attack had also disrupted heating and gas networks and work was under way to restore supplies to more than 80 residences.

Ukrainian troops still hold part of Kursk region after bursting across the border in a surprise incursion on Aug. 6. Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual press conference on Thursday that they would be expelled, but declined to set a date for when this would happen.

Khinshtein, who served as a State Duma deputy until he was appointed acting governor of Kursk by Putin earlier this month, accused Kyiv of deliberating targeting civilians in the strike.

Both Ukraine and Russia regularly accuse the other of attacking non-combatants, and both deny it.

Tensions between the warring sides have ratcheted up since Tuesday, when a top Russian general, Igor Kirillov, was killed by a bomb in Moscow. Ukraine's SBU intelligence service claimed responsibility for the assassination.

RT/Reuters

Israel keeps up Gaza bombardment as ceasefire talks intensify

U.S. and Arab mediators are working around the clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks said, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 44 Palestinians on Thursday.

The mediators, at talks in Egypt and Qatar, are trying to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old war in the Hamas-ruled enclave that would include a release of hostages seized from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Mediators had managed to narrow some gaps on previous sticking points but differences remained, the sources said.

In Gaza, medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed overnight in separate Israeli airstrikes, including on two houses in Gaza City and a central camp.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed nine people near Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, while another killed four others at a housing project near Beit Lahiya in the north. There was no Israeli comment.

Later on Thursday, airstrikes killed at least 15 Palestinians in two shelters housing displaced families in eastern Gaza City's suburb of Tuffah, medics said.

Another Israeli airstrike killed at least three people after targeting a residential house in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, medics said, bringing Thursday's death toll to 44.

The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating in command and control complexes in areas that were previously used as the Al-Karama and Sha'ban Schools in Tuffah. It said Hamas used the complexes to plan and execute attacks against its forces.

Residents of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army has operated since October, said forces blew up clusters of houses overnight.

"The longer those talks last, the more destruction and death takes place in Gaza. Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya are being wiped out, Rafah too," said Adel, 60, a resident of Jabalia, who is now displaced in Gaza City.

A report published by Medecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) on Thursday said there were clear signs of ethnic cleansing in Israel's offensive as Palestinians were forcibly displaced and bombed.

"The signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation —including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment — are undeniable," the aid group's head Christopher Lockyear said in the report.

"Palestinians have been killed in their homes and in hospital beds... People cannot find even the most basic necessities like food, clean water, medicines, and soap amid a punishing siege and blockade," MSF said.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the MSF report but Israel has previously denied carrying out ethnic cleansing and says its campaign aims to wipe out Hamas and prevent it from regrouping.

Israel accuses the militant group of exploiting civilian infrastructure and the population as a human shield. Hamas denies this.

PHASED OR COMPREHENSIVE?

Sources close to the mediation efforts said Hamas had pushed for a one-package deal but Israel wanted a phased one. Talks are focused on a first-phase release of hostages, dead or alive, as well as a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.

On Tuesday, the sides discussed the numbers and categories of those to be released, but things have yet to be finalized, said a source who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the talks.

The source said one issue was Israel's demand to retain the right to act against any possible military threat from Gaza and the stationing of Israeli forces during phases of the deal.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas.

Israel started its air and ground assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel says about 100 hostages are still being held, but it is unclear how many are alive.

Israel's campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said Israel had killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.

Israel's foreign ministry accused the rights group of lying, saying Israel had facilitated the continuous flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza since the start of the war despite constant attacks by Hamas.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin says Russia is ready to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

Trump, a self-styled master of brokering agreements and author of the 1987 book "Trump: the Art of the Deal", has vowed to swiftly end the conflict, but has not yet given any details on how he might achieve that.

Putin, fielding questions on state TV during his annual question and answer session with Russians, told a reporter for a U.S. news channel that he was ready to meet Trump, whom he said he had not spoken to for years.

Asked what he might be able to offer Trump, Putin dismissed an assertion that Russia was in a weak position, saying that Russia had got much stronger since he ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022.

"We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises," Putin said, after saying that Russian forces, advancing across the entire front, were moving towards achieving their primary goals in Ukraine.

"Soon, those Ukrainians who want to fight will run out, in my opinion, soon there will be no one left who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be ready for both negotiations and compromises."

Reuters reported last month that Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump, but ruled out making any major territorial concessions and insisted Kyiv abandon its ambitions to join NATO.

Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no conditions to start talks with Ukraine and was ready to negotiate with anyone, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But he said any deal could only be signed with Ukraine's legitimate authorities, which for now the Kremlin considered to be only the Ukrainian parliament.

Zelenskiy, whose term was due to expire earlier this year but has been extended due to martial law, would need to be re-elected for Moscow to consider him a legitimate signatory to any deal to ensure it was legally watertight, said Putin.

Putin dismissed the idea of agreeing a temporary truce with Kyiv, saying only a long-lasting peace deal with Ukraine would suffice.

Any talks should take as their starting point a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the early weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented, he added.

Some Ukrainian politicians regard that draft deal as akin to a capitulation which would have neutered Ukraine's military and political ambitions.

WAR

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russia, which casts the conflict as a defensive special military operation designed to stop dangerous NATO expansion to the east, controls around a fifth of Ukraine and has taken several thousand square kilometres of territory this year.

Determined to incorporate four Ukrainian regions into Russia, Moscow's forces have taken village after village in the east and are now threatening strategically important cities such as Pokrovsk, a major road and rail hub.

Putin said the fighting was complex, so it was "difficult and pointless to guess what lies ahead... (but) we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation."

Discussing the continued presence of Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region, Putin said Kyiv's troops would be forced out, but declined to say exactly when that would happen.

The war has transformed the Russian economy and Putin said it was showing signs of overheating which was stoking worryingly high inflation. But he said growth was higher than many other economies such as Britain.

Asked if he'd do anything differently, he said he should have sent troops into Ukraine sooner than 2022 and that Russia should have been better prepared for the conflict.

Asked by a BBC reporter if he'd looked after Russia, something that Boris Yeltsin had asked him to do before handing over the presidency at the end of 1999, Putin said he had.

"We have moved back from the edge of the abyss," Putin said.

"I have done everything to ensure that Russia is an independent and sovereign power that is able to make decisions in its own interests."

Russia, Putin said, had made proposals to Syria's new rulers about Russia's military bases there and most people that Moscow had spoken to on the issue favoured them staying.

Russia would need to think about whether the bases should remain or not, he added, but rumours about the death of Russian influence in the Middle East were exaggerated.

Putin touted what he said was the invincibility of the "Oreshnik" hypersonic missile that Russia has already test-fired at a Ukrainian military factory, saying he was ready to organise another launch at Ukraine and see if Western air defence systems could shoot it down.

In Brussels, Zelenskiy addressed Putin's missile suggestion during a press conference at a European Council meeting, remarking of Putin: "Do you think he is a sane person?"

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine uses US ATACMS to strike chemical plant in southern Russia – MOD

Ukraine has launched a missile attack against a large chemical plant in Russia’s southern Rostov Region, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported. According to the military, six American-made ATACMS tactical missiles and four air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used in Wednesday's assault.

Russian air defense units engaged the incoming missiles, successfully intercepting all ATACMS and three out of the four Storm Shadow missiles using S-400 and Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile systems, as well as the Pantsir air defense system. One of the Storm Shadows veered off course. However, it still impacted the facility, resulting in damage to a technical building on the premises, the ministry said.

Moscow has condemned the attack, declaring that the attack by the Kiev regime, supported by Western sponsors, would not go unanswered.

The Kamensky plant is one of the largest chemical enterprises in southern Russia. Established in 1939, the plant has been intensively developed, producing essential chemical products to address issues of national importance and strengthening the country’s defense capabilities.

Reuters/RT