China sentences 81 in Xinjiang for terrorism

Chinese authorities sentenced 81 people on terror-related charges — nine of them to death — and made 29 new arrests in a huge crackdown in the far west following deadly attacks blamed on Muslim extremists, state media and officials said Thursday.

Four high-profile attacks on civilians since late October have handed a major security challenge to President Xi Jinping during his first 15 months in office. The attacks have been blamed on extremists from the Xinjiang region's native Turkic-speaking Uighurs seeking to overthrow Chinese rule and inspired by global jihadi ideology.

Everybody wants University place

The Joint Admission Matriculation Board, JAMB, has decided that candidates in the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME, would compulsorily register only one university, one polytechnic, one college of education and one innovative enterprise institute. 

"From our experience, universities refuse to take students who make them a second choice. Last year, vice chancellors of universities, rectors or polytechnics decided that students should only pick one university, one polytechnic, one college of education and one innovative enterprise institute when applying to write the UTME. If they do not follow these instructions, they cannot apply," explained Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB Registrar.