THAILAND MASS SHOOTING: ATTACK BEGINS AT DAYCARE CENTER WITH GUNMAN KILLING 35 PEOPLE, INCLUDING 22 CHILDREN

More than 30 people were killed on Thursday, including two dozen children, according to authorities. The shooter opened fire on a child care center in Thailand before reloading his weapon and driving away.

In the history of the nation, it was the deadliest mass shooting. The attacker, a former police officer, murdered his wife and child before killing himself.

Online images and videos of the daycare showed sleeping mats strewn about and the floor of one room covered in blood. The walls were decorated with colorful pictures of the alphabet and other objects.

Videos showed distressed family members crying outside the structure. Police officers and medical professionals moved about as ambulances waited.

When they saw the suspect approaching with a handgun, they locked the building's door, but he shot through it, a witness at the scene told Thailand's Kom Chad Leuk television.

The unnamed woman said, "The teacher who passed away, she had a child in her arms." "He shot at the door and shot right through it," the witness said, "but I didn't think he would kill kids."

Authorities in the northeastern Thai town of Nongbua Lamphu said the attacker, a former police officer, entered the daycare center after noon.

Twenty-two children and two adults were killed in the building before the attacker fled, according to a police statement. Panya Kamrap, a former police officer, was named as the suspect. However, police Maj. Gen. Paisal Luesomboon told The Associated Press that he kept shooting at people while driving.

The suspect was identified by police as Panya Kamrap, a former police officer, age 34. Paisel claimed in an interview with PPTV that drug-related offenses caused his dismissal from the force earlier this year.

According to Paisel, the attacker employed several weapons, including a handgun, a shotgun, and a knife.

He killed his wife, child, and himself after getting home, according to the police.

Police reported that he also killed his wife and son outside the daycare center, along with two more kids and nine adults.

Thailand has a higher rate of firearm-related fatalities than nations with stricter gun control laws, like Japan and Singapore, but much lower rates than nations like the US and Brazil. In 2019, there were roughly 4 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people, compared to nearly 23 per 100,000 in Brazil and about 11 per 100,000 in the United States.

The Reason Why World Teachers’ Day is celebrated on October 5?

World Teachers Day 2022, World Teachers day History & Significance: Since 1994, World Teachers' Day identifies, celebrates and motivates the accomplishments, contributions and efforts of teachers all around the world on this day.

World teachers Day 2022, Why World Teachers Day Celebrated: World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers’ Day, is celebrated on October 5 every year. This is a day to celebrate, thank and honour teachers for their contributions to their students. On this day, many also come together and organise meetings, conferences and such to identify problems being faced by teachers of the country as well as globally and find solutions to those issues.

Theme of 2022

This year’s theme for World Teachers’ Day is “the transformation of education begins with teachers”.

“Today, on World Teachers’ Day, we celebrate the critical role of teachers in transforming learners’ potential by ensuring they have the tools they need to take responsibility for themselves, for others and for the planet. We call on countries to ensure that teachers are trusted and recognised as knowledge producers, reflective practitioners, and policy partners,” reads a joint message from officials of UNESCO, ILO and Education International.

In 2022, UNESCO will “address the commitments and calls for action made at the Transforming Education Summit, in September 2022, and analyse the implications they have for teachers and teaching,” an official statement from the organisation states.

Origin of World Teachers’ Day

October 5 was proclaimed as World Teachers’ Day by UNESCO in 1994, with the aim of honouring the adoption of UNESCO/ILO Recommendation. This was a part of the intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris that recognised the status of teachers in cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO).

After the adoption of this recommendation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared October 5 to be World Teachers’ Day.

Significance and celebrations 

World Teachers’ Day identifies, celebrates and motivates the accomplishments, contributions and efforts of teachers all around the world on this day. Policymakers and experts around the globe also use this day as an opportunity to identify and resolve issues involving the teaching profession.

To celebrate this day, several schools around the world organise cultural programmes for teachers, or even organise relaxing days for teachers. Some policymakers and education experts organise conferences and meetings to identify problems being faced by teachers around the world and try to brainstorm solutions to these issues. The day can also be used to highlight the importance of quality teachers and guide or motivate future aspirants of this profession.

Nigerian presidential candidates in tight race as 2023 vote campaign opens

With Nigeria's economy struggling and insecurity rife, four top presidential candidates start campaigning this week for next February's election in an open race to replace President Muhammadu Buhari.

Less than five months before the ballot, no clear frontrunner has emerged with major candidates all confronting challenges on their path to the top political seat in Africa's most populous country.

After two terms, Buhari steps down with Nigeria battling high inflation, oil production at record lows and security forces battling jihadists, separatist gunmen and criminal gangs across the country.

Top candidates lining up are Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos governor and stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress or APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party or PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president on his sixth bid.

Two other candidates are challenging the dominance of the APC and PDP: Peter Obi, a former state governor generating a following among young Nigerians and another ex-state governor and former minister Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Campaigning starts officially on Wednesday, but five months is an unusually long time for Nigeria, analysts say, increasing risks that party infighting and the north-south ethnic and religious divides will complicate the election buildup.

Since returning to democracy after military rule in 1999, Nigerian elections have been marked by violence, delays, fraud claims and court challenges.

Voter turnout has also been generally low in Nigeria -- 33 percent in 2019 -- and the two main parties have fielded older candidates seen by many younger Nigerians as offering little change.

That has left room for third party candidates to tap into growing anti-establishment feeling in what analysts see as a highly competitive electoral race.

There are 18 presidential candidates, including one woman. Voters will also elect Senate and Congress lawmakers in the February 25 ballot.

"Unlike the previous six election cycles, the 2023 vote is not likely to be the usual two-horse race," said Dapo Thomas, history and political science teacher at Lagos university.

Divisions and splits

Nigeria's constitution requires candidates to win a simple majority and 25 percent of the vote in two-thirds of the country, a nod to the ethnic and religious makeup.

North Nigeria is predominantly Muslim, the south is mostly Christain and there are more than 200 ethnicities, the largest being Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani and Igbo.

In an unwritten, power-sharing agreement known as "zoning", the presidency has also traditionally rotated between north and south.

After two terms under Buhari, a Muslim from the northwest, it was widely expected major parties would select a presidential candidate from the south.

But the PDP broke with zoning by naming Abubakar, a northern Muslim. APC also broke with practice by going with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Tinubu is a southern Muslim and his vice president candidate Kashim Shettima is also a Muslim.

The APC says Tinubu's time as Lagos governor shows his political experience. But the ruling party must contend with discontent over management of the economy and tensions over its Muslim-only candidates.

"Strong anti-establishment sentiment will lend opposition candidates Atiku and Obi strong momentum at the start," Eurasia Group said in a research note.

PDP's team says Abubakar has the public office experience and the business acumen to tackle Nigeria's economy.

But the PDP is struggling with a major split. Abubakar's victory has upset a core part of southern supporters, including Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, an influential PDP stakeholder who has broken ranks.

PDP and APC "are dealing with quasi existential issues of their own, and important political and vote mobilisation blocks which are disaffected," SBM Intelligence analyst Ikemesit Effiong said.

Obi's campaign hopes their candidate can keep up his early momentum as an alternative. But his Labour Party does not have the political structure to match the APC and PDP nationwide.

"The 2023 general election will be a really difficult but seminal point in Nigeria's evolving experiment with democracy," SBM's Effiong said.

"It has the hallmarks of ending well or ending really badly."

Source 

BREAKING! Unknown Gunmen Strike Again, Attack Bullion Van in Delta, Kill Police Officer, Loot Cash

 About ten unknown gunmen attacked a bullion van conveying unspecified amount of cash to a new generation bank, kill a policeman, two women and made away with unspecified cash amount, gatewaycommunications has learned.

The sad incident occured at Ubulu-Okiti, along the Benin-Asaba expressway, Aniocha South local government area of Delta State.

According to The Guardian, the gunmen came out of a bush on sighting the bullion van and began shooting sporadically until the bullion van that was conveying the raw cash to a new generation bank and the escorts stopped.

Gatewaycommunications learnt that the gunmen had a gun-battle with security personnel attached to the van but overpowered them and succeeded in killing a police officer and two women close to the scene, before making away with cash running into millions of Naira. One of the women killed by stray bullet was a female passenger of a bus caught in the crossfire.

Plane that disappeared in Bermuda Triangle in 1945 lands in Florida, crew members remember nothing

 

One of a group of five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945, mysteriously reappeared this morning at the Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard, Florida.

Around 7:15 AM this morning, a single-engine propeller aircraft arrived in the vicinity of the United States Air Force restricted flight zone and used an abandoned military radio frequency to demand permission to land on the installation.

The pilot ignored several warnings from the tower operators, insisting that his obsolete aircraft was a military vehicle belonging to the U.S. Air Force.

The craft was finally escorted to the airfield by two F-14 jet fighters and landed on the airfield under close scrutiny.

The base’s security staff was extremely surprised to see two disoriented old men wearing WW2 uniforms come out of the cockpit, visibly confused.

According to U.S. Air Force spokesman, Colonel James Miller, the two men claimed to be have disappeared in 1945 and have no memory of what happened to them over the last 75 years.

“They asked us if the war with Japan was over and who had won. These old guys seemed visibly confused.”

Colonel Miller says the men’s fingerprints and teeth seem to match the military records of the men they claim to be, Lt. James Monroe and Captain David Smith Jr., but they seem to be much younger than they should.

“They look around 65 years old when they should be over 110 years old. It’s as if they had gotten lost in a type of warp zone where time is slowed.”

Both men will undergo a thorough medical examination and interrogation to try and determine the veracity of their story and what may have happened to them.

Colonel Miller says the aircraft is authentic and the crew’s story seems legitimate, but the U.S. Air Force will open an investigation to try and determine what really happened to them and their lost comrades in 1945.

The aircraft was authenticated as one of five planes part of Flight 19 which disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle in December 1945.

Flight 19 was taking part in routine navigation and combat training exercises in TBM-type aircraft when they lost radio contact and disappeared.

None of the planes were ever found, and another craft even disappeared while searching for them.

Unfortunately, the two men seem to have no memory of what happened to them during their ordeal, so the mystery remains total concerning the fate of the other aircrafts.

‘We Ate Only Once In Two Days, Defecated In The Same Place We Slept’ – Kankara Schoolboys

Some students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State have narrated their ordeal in the hands of their abductors.

The schoolboys returned to Katsina on Friday after being with their abductors since December 11.

They met with Governor Aminu Masari at the State House.

One of them told the news media that they were served mainly cassava and at irregular times.

“Sometimes it took two days before we ate in the bush,” the student said.

Another boy said they were made to defecate in the same place where they slept.

“In the night, the place where we sleep is the place we also defecate,” he said, adding “It is only in terms of security that we have problem. The school is far from the town so before the police and army could come, they had taken us away.”

The student said he was very happy when they arrived at the Katsina Government House.

Couple Married For 72 Years Die, Buried Same Day

 Pa Israel Akojede and his wife Esther Akojede who were married for 72 years and died few hours apart have been buried at the Apostolic Faith Church Cemetery, Ijeja in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

The couple died on October 30 at Gbonagun in Obantoko area of Abeokuta.  Pa Israel was 103 years at the time of his death while his wife who died shortly after receiving the news of her husband’s passing was aged 98.

Delivering a sermon on Friday at the funeral service for the couple at Apostolic Faith Church, Ogun Regional Headquarters, Abeokuta, Rev. Folorunsho Ajayi admonished couples to always pray together and believe in one another.

The oldest child of the late couple Joseph Akojede told NAN after the interment that his parents were loving, caring and prayer warriors.

“They were both great in life and in death. They were parents to all and not only the biological ones. They both exhibited parental care and were friends to all,” he said.

The first grandson Olanrewaju Akojede said he was grateful for the love and support he received from his grandparents.