LYTUMANIAC WORLD

A suspected pipeline vandal, Ismaila Sulaiman, has said rich Nigerian men are behind vandalisation of pipelines and theft of petroleum products. Sulaiman, a member of a gang that specialised in stealing petrol from vandalised pipelines in Ogun and Oyo states, said this when he was arrested with four others by policemen attached to the Force Headquarters. Explaining their modus operandi, Suleiman said as soon as a strategic NNPC pipeline was spotted, they would drill through the main pipeline and with the aid of valves easily transfer the petrol to their tankers. “It is a very big business sponsored by very rich Nigerians. We load more than 10 tankers before we relocate to another spot for fear that law enforcement agents might trace us. I do not know how they got wind of this deal because we normally have a very strong security arrangement,” he said. Sulaiman said they relocated to Oyo when the security in Lagos became too tight for them to operate freely. ...

The Barclays rate-rigging scandal is sending shockwaves through world finance, putting ethics and regulation under scrutiny, and raising the prospect of criminal charges in a sector-wide global probe. Britain's Serious Fraud Office said on Friday it will investigate the interbank rate manipulation scandal which has engulfed Barclays, forced three top resignations, tainted the City of London and sparked a political firestorm. Barclays was fined £290m by British and US regulators just over one week ago, for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank interest rates between 2005 and 2009. Barclays, which is the parent company of Absa Group [JSE:ASA], became the first bank to be fined as part of a global probe into suspected manipulation of the twin interest rates that are crucial to the operation of short-term financing and global markets. British lawmakers voted on Thursday to hold a parliamentary investigation into the scandal, instead of a full judicia...

The opening black-and-white looks in the spring Lanvin show on Sunday set a mood for the precise message that followed. White suits with paper-thin black leather vests or shirts, a sleek black suit in a slightly wrinkled fabric shown, sockless, with a narrow black tie against clean white cotton: Alber Elbaz and Lanvin’s men’s fashion director, Lucas Ossendrijver, meant business. They banished last season’s color, at least until a dash of pastel pink and blue at the end — and then not so very much. The suits were dead simple. The collection’s many renditions of full-cut trousers worn with blousy shirts — sleeves rolled up, some with sheer elements — looked at once macho and graceful. Military meets ballet. Mr. Ossendrijver also tackled the season’s themes of transparency and fabrics with glossy, crinkled surfaces. Indeed, few designers did them better.

Andy Murray vowed to come back stronger than ever after a heartbreaking four-set Wimbledon final defeat against Roger Federer left the distraught Scot crying tears of frustration on Centre Court. Murray had hoped to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, but his dreams were dashed as Federer recovered from a slow start to claim the seventh All England Club title of his magnificent career. It was a devastating blow for Murray, who has played some of the best tennis of his life over the last two weeks but is now on a miserable run of four defeats in his four Grand Slam final appearances. The 25-year-old, who broke down in tears during an emotional on-court interview immediately after the match, was still understandably sombre when he fulfilled his media commitments after briefly returning to the locker room. But, despite his obvious angst at falling short in his home Grand Slam, the world No 4 believes the way he took the fi...

Chelsea and England footballer John Terry is due to go on trial later accused of racially abusing fellow player Anton Ferdinand. Terry, 31, was charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence after allegedly shouting an offensive comment at Ferdinand during a Premier League match on October 23 last year. The comment was allegedly made, and seemingly caught on footage, to the Queens Park Rangers defender when the two teams met at Loftus Road. Terry's lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court in February. ...

RIM reported three pieces of awful news on Thursday as 5,000 staffs were laidoff, a giant quarterly loss and worst of all another delay to its next BlackBerry 10 operating system. RIM's shares plunged 18% Friday on the news. The company's BlackBerry 10 operating system meant to be the linchpin of RIM's turnaround won't hit the market until the first quarter of 2013. The news is so concerning that some critics don't think the company will even survive long enough to launch the OS. BlackBerry 10 (which RIM first announced in October as "BBX" before a lawsuit over the system's name) had previously been slated for release later this year. CEO Thorsten Heins was somber on a post-earnings conference on Thursday, saying that developers have been making progress on BlackBerry 10 but implementation is "more challenging than anticipated."

Last week, a U.S. District judge dealt a serious blow to Google and Samsung by slapping an injunction on the Galaxy Nexus phone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a patent infringement lawsuit. Although Judge Lucy Koh hasn't found Samsung guilty of patent infringement--not yet, anyway--she ruled that Apple would suffer irreparable harm if the two Android devices were found to infringe Apple patents and remained on sale during the trial. Per Apple request, judge orders Samsung to halg Galaxy tablet sales The Galaxy Nexus is Google's lead Android device, so Koh's ruling is the biggest patent setback for Android to date. (Samsung has appealed Koh's ruling.)