06:52 24/07/2015
London - Nigeria marked its first year without a single case of
polio on Friday, reaching a milestone many experts had thought would
elude it as internal conflict hampered the battle against the crippling
disease.
It means the country could come off the list of countries
where polio is endemic in a few weeks, once the World Health
Organization (WHO) can confirm that the last few samples taken from
people in previously affected areas are free of the virus.
This achievement turns up the pressure on Pakistan, where most of the few polio cases in the world remain, to follow suit.
Nigeria's
polio-free period, dating from July 24, 2014, is the longest it has
gone without recording a case. The hope is that next month the entire
African continent will have gone a full year without a polio infection,
with the last case recorded in Somalia on August 11, 2014.
All
this brings tantalisingly closer the prospect that polio will soon
become only the second human infectious disease after smallpox to be
eradicated.
"It's an extraordinary achievement. It really shows
the value of government leadership and taking ownership of the
programme," said Carol Pandak, the director of Rotary International's
polio program.
A disease that until the 1950s crippled thousands
of people a year in rich and poor nations alike, the poliomyelitis virus
attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within
hours of infection.
It often spreads among young children and in
areas with poor sanitation - a factor that gives it freedom in areas of
conflict and unrest. But it can be halted with comprehensive,
population-wide vaccination.
Nigeria had struggled to contain
polio since some northern states imposed a year-long vaccine ban in
mid-2003. Some state governors and religious leaders in the
predominantly Islamic north alleged the vaccines were contaminated by
Western powers to spread sterility and HIV/AIDS among Muslims.
Traditional
leaders throughout the country pledged in January 2009 to support
immunisation campaigns and push parents to have their children
vaccinated. But at about the same time Boko Haram militants began a
bloody insurgency to carve out an Islamist state in the northeast.
Driving the project
In 2012, Nigeria still seemed to be losing the battle against polio, recording more than half of all the world's cases.
But
Oyewale Tomori, Nigeria's chairman of the Expert Review Committee on
Polio Eradication says Abuja's prioritisation of the polio fight,
including establishing emergency operations centres to coordinate
vaccination campaigns and reach children in previously inaccessible
areas, helped drive the project on.
Tactics such as engaging the
traditional and religious leaders, and polio survivors in immunisation
campaigns and using thousands of voluntary workers to build trust, were
also vital, as will be the continuation of high levels of vaccine
coverage to keep the virus at bay.
"We're well on the way," Tomori told Reuters. "It's a time of great happiness, but we don't want to celebrate prematurely."
Since
the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, there has
been a more than 99 percent reduction in polio cases worldwide.
Back
then the disease was endemic in 125 countries and caused paralysis in
nearly 1,000 children a day. By contrast, so far in 2015, there were
only 33 new cases worldwide - 28 of them in Pakistan, with the rest in
Afghanistan.
Nigeria
still has two more years before it, along with the whole of Africa, can
be certified officially polio-free by WHO, but health experts say its
achievement bodes well for wiping the disease out. Global health experts
still hold out hope for an end to polio worldwide by 2018.
Pandak
says it's now Islamabad's turn to feel the huge international pressure
Abuja came under to commit itself to finding every last polio case and
vaccinating every last child.
"When you're the last country in a
region to still have polio, there's a lot of pressure from the global
community and from your neighbours," she said.
"Everybody spurs
you on, polio gets talked about at the highest levels of government, and
that pressure is something Pakistan is acutely politically aware of."
While
Pakistan has more polio cases than anywhere else this year -
neighbouring Afghanistan has recorded five - it is doing better, with 70
percent fewer cases this year than last.
News, Events, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Fashion, Beauty, Inspiration and yes... Gossip! *Wink*
Friday, 24 July 2015
Union decries killing of Nigerian in South Africa
08:46 24/07/2015
Johannesburg - The President of Nigeria Union in South Africa, Ikechukwu Anyene, on Thursday, decried the killing of a Nigerian in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
The Nigerian, Nonso Odo (30), from Amangwu-Nkwerre in Imo state, was allegedly tortured to death by South African Police officers on Thursday.
Emeka Ezinteje, Public Relations Officer of the union, disclosed in Johannesburg that the union decried the incident after receiving the report.
Ezinteje said reports indicated that the deceased, who was a barber, quarreled with a fellow Nigerian in their business centre.
"After the quarrel, the fellow Nigerian stopped a police patrol team. The barber ran when he saw the patrol team."
According to Ezinteje, the police patrol went after Odo; 30 minutes later, the police brought back the lifeless body of the barber.
"Not satisfied with the police report, some members of the union went to see the corpse in hospital."
He said Sergeant Nengobeni, a South African police officer at the hospital, denied that the police killed him.
The officer said the police were flagged down by somebody while the victim took to his heels.
Nengobeni said by the time the police got to the victim, he was tired and gasping for breath and was pronounced dead on getting to the hospital.
Ezinteje said the union suspected foul play and would get to the root of the case.
"We have also received reports by eyewitnesses that Odo was beaten to death.
"We have ordered a post mortem to ascertain the cause of Odo's death. The union will also take this case to the Independent Police Investigative Department, for more investigation.
"The department is responsible for investigating wrong doings by police officers," he said.
He also said the incident had been reported to Nigeria's Consulate General in Johannesburg and Hillbrow Police Station, also in Johannesburg.
Johannesburg - The President of Nigeria Union in South Africa, Ikechukwu Anyene, on Thursday, decried the killing of a Nigerian in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
The Nigerian, Nonso Odo (30), from Amangwu-Nkwerre in Imo state, was allegedly tortured to death by South African Police officers on Thursday.
Emeka Ezinteje, Public Relations Officer of the union, disclosed in Johannesburg that the union decried the incident after receiving the report.
Ezinteje said reports indicated that the deceased, who was a barber, quarreled with a fellow Nigerian in their business centre.
"After the quarrel, the fellow Nigerian stopped a police patrol team. The barber ran when he saw the patrol team."
According to Ezinteje, the police patrol went after Odo; 30 minutes later, the police brought back the lifeless body of the barber.
"Not satisfied with the police report, some members of the union went to see the corpse in hospital."
He said Sergeant Nengobeni, a South African police officer at the hospital, denied that the police killed him.
The officer said the police were flagged down by somebody while the victim took to his heels.
Nengobeni said by the time the police got to the victim, he was tired and gasping for breath and was pronounced dead on getting to the hospital.
Ezinteje said the union suspected foul play and would get to the root of the case.
"We have also received reports by eyewitnesses that Odo was beaten to death.
"We have ordered a post mortem to ascertain the cause of Odo's death. The union will also take this case to the Independent Police Investigative Department, for more investigation.
"The department is responsible for investigating wrong doings by police officers," he said.
He also said the incident had been reported to Nigeria's Consulate General in Johannesburg and Hillbrow Police Station, also in Johannesburg.
Gunman kills 3 at a Louisiana cinema
08:46 24/07/2015
Washington - A shooting in a cinema in the southern US state of Louisiana left three people dead, late on Thursday, local media reported.
Police chief Jim Craft in the city of Lafayette said seven people were injured and three killed after a gunman opened fire in the Grand Theatre in the city of Lafayette, local newspaper The Advertiser reported.
The shooter had killed himself after shooting at others in the cinema, the report said.
The shooting in Louisiana comes as a jury in the state of Colorado deliberates on the verdict for James Holmes, who killed 12 people at a cinema in the state in 2012.
Washington - A shooting in a cinema in the southern US state of Louisiana left three people dead, late on Thursday, local media reported.
Police chief Jim Craft in the city of Lafayette said seven people were injured and three killed after a gunman opened fire in the Grand Theatre in the city of Lafayette, local newspaper The Advertiser reported.
The shooter had killed himself after shooting at others in the cinema, the report said.
The shooting in Louisiana comes as a jury in the state of Colorado deliberates on the verdict for James Holmes, who killed 12 people at a cinema in the state in 2012.
ISIL-linked blast kills troops in Egypt's Sinai
08:46 24/07/2015
Cairo - A roadside bomb has killed four Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, where the army is battling fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Egyptian military.
One officer and three soldiers died in the attack on their vehicle near the border town of Rafah, a military spokesman said on Facebook on Thursday.
ISIL's affiliate group in Egypt claimed responsibility for the bombing, in a statement posted on one of its Twitter accounts.
The attack came a few days after seven soldiers died in an attack on a checkpoint.
Last week, ISIL-affiliate Sinai Province also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on an Egyptian naval vessel near the coast of Israel and Gaza, less than a week after claiming a bombing in Cairo that heavily damaged the Italian consulate.
Sinai Province earlier this month assaulted several military checkpoints in North Sinai, in what was the fiercest fighting in the region in years.
Fighters loyal to ISIL have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The military said it has killed more than 1,000 fighters in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said the group poses an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab country.
Cairo - A roadside bomb has killed four Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, where the army is battling fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Egyptian military.
One officer and three soldiers died in the attack on their vehicle near the border town of Rafah, a military spokesman said on Facebook on Thursday.
ISIL's affiliate group in Egypt claimed responsibility for the bombing, in a statement posted on one of its Twitter accounts.
The attack came a few days after seven soldiers died in an attack on a checkpoint.
Last week, ISIL-affiliate Sinai Province also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on an Egyptian naval vessel near the coast of Israel and Gaza, less than a week after claiming a bombing in Cairo that heavily damaged the Italian consulate.
Sinai Province earlier this month assaulted several military checkpoints in North Sinai, in what was the fiercest fighting in the region in years.
Fighters loyal to ISIL have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The military said it has killed more than 1,000 fighters in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said the group poses an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab country.
APC, PDP in new war of words over Amaechi
10:04 24/07/2015
Abuja - All Progressives Congress has hit back at the People’s Democratic Party after the latter alleged President Muhammadu Buhari was shielding former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, from prosecution.
PDP made the allegation through a statement by Felix Obua, Rivers State PDP Chairman, signed by his media assistant, Jerry Needam.
“An overview of the eight-paragraph gibberish write-up undeniably offers a pen picture of an unstable state of mind of the writer, his boss and political party. Indeed, it tells of a group of persons who are operating within the horribly pathetic world of full-blown lunacy,” Chris Finebone APC Rivers State Publicity Secretary, said.
He said the APC believed that the “obsession with Amaechi by Jerry Needam and his so-called sponsors was a testimony of a deliberate plot to discredit the former governor at all cost.
“It underscores the real reasons for the so-called judicial commission of inquiry set up by the Rivers State Governor, Barr. Nyesom Wike. The APC is sure that those who are digging ditches for former Governor Chibuike Amaechi will ultimately become victims of their own devices.”
Finebone insisted no amount of blackmail on Amaechi and the ongoing blackmail on President Muhammadu Buhari would stir up ill feelings between the duo.
“As many times as they try shall they fail,” Finebone said.
Abuja - All Progressives Congress has hit back at the People’s Democratic Party after the latter alleged President Muhammadu Buhari was shielding former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, from prosecution.
PDP made the allegation through a statement by Felix Obua, Rivers State PDP Chairman, signed by his media assistant, Jerry Needam.
“An overview of the eight-paragraph gibberish write-up undeniably offers a pen picture of an unstable state of mind of the writer, his boss and political party. Indeed, it tells of a group of persons who are operating within the horribly pathetic world of full-blown lunacy,” Chris Finebone APC Rivers State Publicity Secretary, said.
He said the APC believed that the “obsession with Amaechi by Jerry Needam and his so-called sponsors was a testimony of a deliberate plot to discredit the former governor at all cost.
“It underscores the real reasons for the so-called judicial commission of inquiry set up by the Rivers State Governor, Barr. Nyesom Wike. The APC is sure that those who are digging ditches for former Governor Chibuike Amaechi will ultimately become victims of their own devices.”
Finebone insisted no amount of blackmail on Amaechi and the ongoing blackmail on President Muhammadu Buhari would stir up ill feelings between the duo.
“As many times as they try shall they fail,” Finebone said.
Navy destroys 12 illegal refineries in Delta communities
10:04 24/07/2015
Warri - Commodore Aliyu Sule, Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Delta, on Thursday said it destroyed 12 illegal refineries in Egbokodo and Kantu communities of Delta.
The commander made this known to newsmen at the Warri Naval Base in Warri Delta.
Egbokodo and Kantu communities are in Warri South and Warri South/West Local Government Areas of Delta State respectively.
"Two of the illegal refineries were destroyed in Egbokodo while others were ruined in Kantu," Sule said.
Sule addede that the command would continue to checkmate perpetrators of illegal bunkering until the criminal act was completely eradicated.
"In Kantu forest, we destroyed 10 illegal refineries and I understand there are more, so, we are going back to the place to destroy them.
"I understand that place is full of illegal refineries, that what we have just done was a tip of the iceberg, so we will not stop as long as they don’t stop," he said.
The commander said intelligence gathering was very vital in winning the war against oil theft.
He urged the public to always supply his personnel with useful information to stop the illegal bunkering in the state.
Sule, who decried the ecological effect of the illicit trade on the environment, said that destruction of the ill-gotten products was part of their regulations.
"We will carry out our mandate such that our environment and the people are winners against oil thieves," Sule said.
One wooden boat laden with a product suspected to be crude oil was burnt in Egbokodo.
Two pumping machines, five tents and over 20 metallic and plastic drums filled with illegally refined diesel and petrol were also destroyed in Kantu.
Sule said the command on Wednesday showed the media four suspected marketers of illegally-refined crude oil apprehended at the old Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) in Warri.
"The suspects, who are middle-aged men, are still under our custody.
"They were alleged to have been in possession of 33 drums and 254 jerry cans filled with diesel and other products.
"We will hand them over to the relevant authority for prosecution as soon as investigation is concluded," he said.
He advised parents to monitor their wards and know the kind of friends they fraternised with to discourage them from indulging in oil theft.
Warri - Commodore Aliyu Sule, Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Delta, on Thursday said it destroyed 12 illegal refineries in Egbokodo and Kantu communities of Delta.
The commander made this known to newsmen at the Warri Naval Base in Warri Delta.
Egbokodo and Kantu communities are in Warri South and Warri South/West Local Government Areas of Delta State respectively.
"Two of the illegal refineries were destroyed in Egbokodo while others were ruined in Kantu," Sule said.
Sule addede that the command would continue to checkmate perpetrators of illegal bunkering until the criminal act was completely eradicated.
"In Kantu forest, we destroyed 10 illegal refineries and I understand there are more, so, we are going back to the place to destroy them.
"I understand that place is full of illegal refineries, that what we have just done was a tip of the iceberg, so we will not stop as long as they don’t stop," he said.
The commander said intelligence gathering was very vital in winning the war against oil theft.
He urged the public to always supply his personnel with useful information to stop the illegal bunkering in the state.
Sule, who decried the ecological effect of the illicit trade on the environment, said that destruction of the ill-gotten products was part of their regulations.
"We will carry out our mandate such that our environment and the people are winners against oil thieves," Sule said.
One wooden boat laden with a product suspected to be crude oil was burnt in Egbokodo.
Two pumping machines, five tents and over 20 metallic and plastic drums filled with illegally refined diesel and petrol were also destroyed in Kantu.
Sule said the command on Wednesday showed the media four suspected marketers of illegally-refined crude oil apprehended at the old Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) in Warri.
"The suspects, who are middle-aged men, are still under our custody.
"They were alleged to have been in possession of 33 drums and 254 jerry cans filled with diesel and other products.
"We will hand them over to the relevant authority for prosecution as soon as investigation is concluded," he said.
He advised parents to monitor their wards and know the kind of friends they fraternised with to discourage them from indulging in oil theft.
Louisiana cinema shooting: Victims were teachers
10:05 24/07/2015
Louisiana - A lone gunman opened fire inside a crowded movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Thursday evening, killing two people and injuring seven others before taking his own life, police said.
The gunfire erupted during a 19:00 showing of the film Trainwreck and took place almost three years to the day after a massacre at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, that killed 12 people.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said two people died in the hail of bullets before the 58-year-old suspect killed himself with a handgun as officers rushed to the scene shortly after 19:30.
Seven people suffered injuries ranging from non life-threatening to critical, Craft said.
Authorities said they knew the gunman's identity but were not releasing his name during the early stage of the investigation. They offered no immediate motive and did not disclose any clues they might have found.
"The shooter is deceased. We may never know," Craft said, adding that the man appeared to have a criminal history that he described as "pretty old."
Batman
Police officials said that bomb-sniffing dogs had alerted on a backpack inside the theater and that they had also signaled "suspicious" items inside the suspect's car. A robot was being used to probe the vehicle further.
Investigators also headed to the gunman's home. His body remained inside the theater several hours later. None of the victims, who were described as ranging in age from teens to early 60s, were immediately identified by authorities.
Witnesses said the gunman abruptly stood up in the darkness of the theater about 20 minutes into the movie and began shooting.
"He wasn't saying anything. I didn't hear anybody screaming either," Katie Domingue, who was watching the film with her fiance, told the local Advertiser newspaper.
Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal traveled to Lafayette, a city of about 120 000 people roughly 90km southwest of Baton Rouge.
"As governor, as a father and as a husband, whenever we hear about these senseless acts of violence it makes us both furious and sad at the same time," he said at a briefing.
Jindal said that two of the wounded victims were teachers and that one of them managed to pull a fire alarm in the theater after being shot.
The shooting came three years after a gunman opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 people and wounding 70 others.
James Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student at the University of Colorado, was convicted last week on 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and explosives in the July 20, 2012, rampage.
Jurors in that case were trying to determine if Holmes should face the death penalty or life in prison during a penalty phase of that case.
The United States has witnessed several mass shootings in the last two months.
A gunman is accused of a racially motivated shooting at a black church in South Carolina that killed nine church members in June. More recently, a gunman attacked military offices in Tennessee last week, killing five US servicemen.
Jindal, who last month announced his candidacy for president, said he had ordered National Guard members at offices and other facilities to be armed in the wake of the Tennessee attack.
Louisiana - A lone gunman opened fire inside a crowded movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Thursday evening, killing two people and injuring seven others before taking his own life, police said.
The gunfire erupted during a 19:00 showing of the film Trainwreck and took place almost three years to the day after a massacre at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, that killed 12 people.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said two people died in the hail of bullets before the 58-year-old suspect killed himself with a handgun as officers rushed to the scene shortly after 19:30.
Seven people suffered injuries ranging from non life-threatening to critical, Craft said.
Authorities said they knew the gunman's identity but were not releasing his name during the early stage of the investigation. They offered no immediate motive and did not disclose any clues they might have found.
"The shooter is deceased. We may never know," Craft said, adding that the man appeared to have a criminal history that he described as "pretty old."
Batman
Police officials said that bomb-sniffing dogs had alerted on a backpack inside the theater and that they had also signaled "suspicious" items inside the suspect's car. A robot was being used to probe the vehicle further.
Investigators also headed to the gunman's home. His body remained inside the theater several hours later. None of the victims, who were described as ranging in age from teens to early 60s, were immediately identified by authorities.
Witnesses said the gunman abruptly stood up in the darkness of the theater about 20 minutes into the movie and began shooting.
"He wasn't saying anything. I didn't hear anybody screaming either," Katie Domingue, who was watching the film with her fiance, told the local Advertiser newspaper.
Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal traveled to Lafayette, a city of about 120 000 people roughly 90km southwest of Baton Rouge.
"As governor, as a father and as a husband, whenever we hear about these senseless acts of violence it makes us both furious and sad at the same time," he said at a briefing.
Jindal said that two of the wounded victims were teachers and that one of them managed to pull a fire alarm in the theater after being shot.
The shooting came three years after a gunman opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 people and wounding 70 others.
James Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student at the University of Colorado, was convicted last week on 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and explosives in the July 20, 2012, rampage.
Jurors in that case were trying to determine if Holmes should face the death penalty or life in prison during a penalty phase of that case.
The United States has witnessed several mass shootings in the last two months.
A gunman is accused of a racially motivated shooting at a black church in South Carolina that killed nine church members in June. More recently, a gunman attacked military offices in Tennessee last week, killing five US servicemen.
Jindal, who last month announced his candidacy for president, said he had ordered National Guard members at offices and other facilities to be armed in the wake of the Tennessee attack.
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