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Swiss museums return 18 Benin artefacts to Nigeria

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Nigeria has received 23 looted Benin Kingdom artefacts from Switzerland, marking another milestone in the country’s efforts to recover its stolen cultural heritage.

The collection includes 18 Benin artefacts returned by three Swiss museums, alongside five additional cultural objects that were previously seized by Swiss authorities.

The artefacts, commonly known as the Benin Bronzes, were looted during the 1897 British invasion of the Benin Kingdom. They include metal and ivory objects created at the royal court of Benin. The handover took place at the National Museum in Lagos, where the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) formally received the artefacts on behalf of the Federal Government.

During the ceremony, Switzerland’s Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Nigeria’s Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, signed an agreement on the transfer of cultural property, reinforcing cooperation between both countries to combat illicit trafficking and facilitate the return of stolen cultural items.

Of the 18 Benin artefacts, 14 were returned by the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich, two by Museum Rietberg Zurich, and two by the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève (MEG). The restitution followed years of provenance research under the Benin Initiative Switzerland, which confirmed the objects had been looted during the 1897 expedition.

Also returned were a bronze bracelet and four archaeological monoliths from Nigeria’s Niger Delta that had been confiscated during criminal investigations in Switzerland. The new bilateral agreement establishes a legal framework for cooperation on the import, export and repatriation of cultural property, while strengthening efforts to protect cultural heritage and prevent illegal trafficking.

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Nigerian authorities said the returned artefacts represent an important part of the country’s history, identity and cultural heritage. Some will be displayed at the National Museum in Lagos, while most will eventually be returned to their place of origin in Edo State.

The restitution ceremony was attended by NCMM Director-General Olugbile Holloway, officials from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, and directors of the three Swiss museums involved in the return of the artefacts.

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Death row inmate Christa Pike scores legal win as judge reopens her case against execution by lethal injection

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Death row inmate, Christa Pike has scored a legal victory after a judge reopened her case against being put to death by lethal injection following her botched execution.

The convicted murderer, 50, was due to be the first woman put to death in Tennessee for over 200 years on Sept. 30 but instead became the country’s first death row inmate ever to survive the lethal injection.

In January, her legal team filed a complaint in court challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol, which was later dismissed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in May, according to court documents obtained by The Post.

In an order issued on Thursday, Judge I’Ashea Myles ruled that the case should be reopened in the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville.

Myles wrote that Pike had established “extreme, unique, exceptional, or extraordinary circumstances” allowing her to seek relief from the court.

The original complaint filed in January called for the court to stop the use of the lethal injection against Pike, arguing that in her case it was unconstitutional.

“Tennessee’s new lethal injection protocol, calling for a single drug (pentobarbital), is plagued with the same issues that have marked botched executions for decades: secrecy, intentional omission, inattention to detail, and untrained and unlicensed prison personnel attempting to fill medical role,” Pike’s lawyers wrote.

“As the State of Tennessee seeks to execute its first woman in 250 years, and the only woman on Tennessee’s death row ––- Christa Gail Pike –– those problems have come to head.

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“The new protocol, as applied to the Plaintiff and her unique medical conditions, is unconstitutional under the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution.”

The attorneys also argued that Pike’s “physical characteristics,” including small veins, made insertion with a needle difficult.

Pike was sentenced to death for the sadistic murder of her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in Jan. 1995, when she was 18.

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PHOTOS: Russian bus stop bombing k!lls at least 33 in Ukraine

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ussia has continued its invasion against Ukraine for more than four years and is showing no signs of backing down.

At leaat 33 people were k!lled when Russia carried out a bomb attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, authorities said on ​Thursday, October 8.

The Ukrainian authorities described the latest bombing as a targeted strike on civilians in the key ‌stronghold sought by Moscow.

Another 18 people were wounded in one of the largest single attacks this year, which took place on a street where police said two city buses were operating at the time of the strike.

President Volodymyr ​Zelensky described it as a bus stop.

Images posted by police showed bodies ​strewn across a street littered with debris, as well as a ⁠charred shell of what appeared to be a bus.

“For them (the Russians), a ​bus with passengers is an attractive target precisely because one strike can kill as ​many people as possible,” regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram app.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the attack.

Russia denies targeting civilians, though it has regularly pounded ​Ukrainian cities, towns and other targets during its full-scale invasion that began in ​February 2022.

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Man decries absence of emergency workers as car burns on Third Mainland Bridge

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A Nigerian man has called out the Lagos State Government over the absence of emergency workers on the Third Mainland Bridge.

The man said he.was driving on the bridge when he spotted a vehicle that had overturned and burst into flames.

He further explained that what shocked him the most was that the burning vehicle was just a stone’s throw away from the Lagos State Emergency unit stationed on the bridge, but not a single official was in sight to handle the situation.

Lamenting the situation in the viral video, the man could be heard saying: “Imagine, Lagos State Emergency — nobody is here.”

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