#HEADLINES

=The House of Representatives committee on Foreign Affairs will tomorrow start a probe into the alleged plans to sell the Nigeria House in New York which is the official residence of Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Counsel General.  

= A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala to disband the Tax Appeal Tribunals established by the Federal Inland Revenue Service to decide matters relating to federal taxes and related revenues.

= Also the Federal High Court in Lagos has dismissed an oral application made by counsel to Kazeem Adedeji, a former Commissioner for Trade, Investment and Cooperative in Oyo State to discharge him of an alleged N77 million fraud.

= Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, has pulled out of the ongoing strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). 

= Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State has said that upgrading of equipment and welfare of security agents are vital for the security personnel to counter the emerging insurgency in the country.

= A South African court has ordered that a Czech businessman accused of links to organised crime be moved from prison to hospital after claims he had been tortured by police with a Taser gun.

= The opposition mayor of the Ugandan capital Kampala has been voted out of office by councilors after a tribunal found him guilty of incompetence and abuse of office.

= UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says Syria's government and opposition will for the first time attend peace talks in Geneva on January 22nd.

= Muazu Suleiman, the Chairman, Referees Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has said match officials’ reports would henceforth be submitted online starting from the 2013/2014 season.

= Miley Cyrus and former basketball star Dennis Rodman have been named two of the Least Influential Celebrities of 2013 by America's GQ magazine.