THE INTENSIFIED REPORT

Nigerian actor Alex Ekubo has vowed to bring home an Oscar Academy Award. Ekubo made this known while congratulating Wizkid and Burna Boy who recently won the Grammy Award for Best music video and world music album respectively.

Prince Philip, 99, has undergone heart surgery for a pre-existing condition. Buckingham Palace says the op was successful and he will remain in hospital while he recuperates. More to follow....

 A prominent Saudi Muslim cleric has said that divorce alerts made via WhastApp, or short text messages, comply with the Islamic Sharia. “Divorce made through WhatsApp, text messages or on phone is valid because divorce takes place in writing as well as verbally,” said Sheikh Abdullah Al Mutlaq, a member of the Committee of Senior Scholars, Saudi Arabia’s top Islamic body. “Accordingly, if the husband makes the divorce oath via WhatsApp, the divorce takes place,” Al Mutlaq told a fatwa programme on the Saudi state television Al Saudia. Muslim men traditionally use verbal divorce to end marriages by telling their wives: “I hereby divorce you”. There has been an increase in divorce rates in Saudi Arabia in recent years. Three out of every 10 marriages end in divorce in the kingdom, according to official statistics.

A Paris court found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling on Monday and sentenced him to a year in prison. He can ask to serve that time at home and also plans to appeal. The 66-year-old, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated. He will remain free while he appeals, but it was a blow to the retired politician who still plays an influential role in French conservative politics. It’s not the end of his legal troubles either: He faces another trial later this month and is also under investigation in a third case. The ruling marks the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption — and given a prison term. His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was found guilty in 2011 of misuse of public money during his time as Paris mayor — not considered a corruption offense — and was giv