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Pfizer, BioNTech to limit delays of vaccine shipments to one week
Pfizer and BioNTech said Saturday they will limit the delays of their vaccine deliveries to just one week, after fears in Europe that shipments of the jabs could be slowed for up to a month. The US drugmaker and its German partner “have developed a plan that will allow the scale-up of manufacturing capacities in Europe and deliver significantly more doses in the second quarter,” they said in a joint statement. “As a result, our facility in Puurs, Belgium will experience a temporary reduction in the number of doses delivered in the upcoming week.” Pfizer and BioNTech pledged that deliveries would be back to the original schedule to the European Union from the week of January 25, with increased delivery from the week of February 15. “To accomplish this, certain modifications of production pr...
Joe Biden nominates veteran diplomats for top State posts
Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday nominated U.S. foreign policy veteran Wendy Sherman, a key negotiator of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, to be the No. 2 official at the State Department. Biden also nominated Victoria Nuland, a retired career foreign service officer who was the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, NATO ambassador and State Department spokeswoman, to be Under Secretary for Political Affairs, effectively the third-ranking U.S. diplomat. Sherman, who has a masters degree in social work, was the State Department counselor from 1997 to 2001, a period when she was also policy coordinator on North Korea. From 1993 to 1996 she served as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. Because of her association with the Iran deal, which was fiercely opposed by Repub...
Nigerian government seizes bank’s assets over Shell’s N183 billion debt
File Photo Nigerian government have moved to sequester the assets of the country’s premier lender First Bank of Nigeria Limited in an effort to recover the damages oil major Royal Dutch Shell owed the Ejama Ebubu community of Rivers State in a legal contest spanning many decades, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Police operatives and court officials arrived the bank’s main branch in Port Harcourt on Tuesday to execute an order to seize the lender’s asset, FirstBank said in a statement. The bank said the incident leading to the confiscation of its properties was “unjustified, illegal and a reckless misuse of the machinery of justice.” Lagos-headquartered FirstBank resolved to guarantee the damages awarded against Shell by a Rivers State high court judge a decade ago. According to the estimation...
Derby County unable to pay first team in full amid takeover doubts
Derby County’s chief executive has told the first-team squad that the club is unable to currently afford to pay them their outstanding wages from December, but is working to address the problem. Most of Derby’s first-team squad were only paid 50 per cent of the money that was due to them on December 15 and were told the rest would be paid in full, together with their current month’s wages, on January 15. But, repeated delays in the protracted takeover by Sheikh Khaled’s Derventio Holdings has meant the club has a major cash flow problem. After a number of missed deadlines, it had been hoped that the deal would be concluded on Tuesday night, but the purchase of the club remains incomplete. Sky Sports News has been told that there is a legally binding agreement between the two parties for th...
Iran’s smog, blackouts made worse by power-sapping crypto mining
Outages have been compounded by cryptocurrency mining, which uses banks of high-powered computers. Cities across Iran have been cloaked in thick layers of toxic smog and darkened by blackouts, as the alleged use of low-quality fuel and power-sucking cryptocurrency mining deepen the country’s hardships. Tehran’s Hamshahri newspaper, the country’s most-read daily, ran the headline, “20 Days Living in Smoke,” on Wednesday over a photo of the capital covered in smog. Power plants have been forced to switch to burning low-grade fuel oils to generate electricity because high levels of domestic consumption have led to natural-gas shortages, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh denied earlier this week that any of Iran’s power stations are us...
Aston Villa winger Trezeguet tests positive for coronavirus
Mahmoud Hassan ‘Trezeguet’ has tested positive for coronavirus, the Aston Villa star has confirmed. Since his head injury during an English top-flight game where the Claret and Blue Army stuttered to a 2-1 defeat by West Ham United in November 2020, the Egyptian is yet to feature for the Villa Park giants. The 26-year-old went down under the challenge of Declan Rice while trying to connect to Douglas Luiz’s flick in the 71st minute. Upon his return to first-team training at their Bodymoor Health training ground on Thursday, Trezeguet contracted the virus alongside several first-team players and staff. “After being hit in the head with six stitches, I was exposed to a tear and a hindquarter and I was not able to play for a month, then after rehabilitation and the beginning of the return to ...
Newly promoted AIG passes on
Less than one month after his promotion to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), former Benue State Commissioner of Police, who was later in charge of Armament, Omololu Bishi, has died. Bishi, a Lagos indigene, died yesterday after complaining of body ache. It was not clear if his death had anything to do with the ravaging coronavirus. Newsmen confirmed the death of Bishi through a police source, who said he was to be buried at the Ebony Vault in Lagos today. “Yes, he is dead. It’s unfortunate but true”, the source said. The late Bishi was among 13 AIGs promoted by the Police Service Commission (PSC) on December 18, 2020. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. I...
Joe Biden receives second dose of coronavirus vaccine on camera
Joe Biden on Monday received the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on camera, as part of an effort by the President-elect’s incoming administration to reassure the country of the safety of the vaccines. Biden was administered the shot in his left arm by Ric Cuming, chief nurse executive at ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, according to Biden’s transition team. The President-elect said he would be announcing his plan to “get the entire Covid operation up and running,” including the necessary costs, on Thursday. Biden said he had a meeting with members of his team later Monday afternoon. Biden said he was “not afraid of taking the oath outside,” and that his team has been getting briefed, when asked if he had any fears about taking the oath of office...
Uganda election: Will Bobi Wine derail Yoweri Museveni’s sixth term bid?
As millions of Ugandans prepare to pick the country’s president this week, the stakes could not be higher. The run-up to Thursday’s vote has been marred by restrictions on campaigning, arrests of opposition figures and deadly violence. At least 54 people were killed in November as security forces put down protests by opposition supporters. Longtime President Yoweri Museveni, 76, is facing a strong challenge from popular musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine in his bid to secure a sixth, five-year term in office. Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was just four years old when Museveni, a former rebel leader, came to power in 1986. In 2005, Uganda’s ruling-party-dominated parliament removed presidential term limits. And in 2017, lawmakers scrapped the age limit of 75 fo...
PHED: Why blackout persists in Rivers communities
File Photo The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company said five power towers were damaged by suspected vandals at the Elelenwo transmission substation in Obio/Apkor Local Government Area, plunging several communities in Rivers State into darkness. Acting Head, Corporate Communications, PHED, Ngozi Koroye, who disclosed this to newsmen in Port Harcourt, said the installation belongs to the Transmission Company of Nigeria. Koroye explained that the action of the hoodlums caused extensive damage to the facility, noting that the company felt the pains of residents in the affected areas who have been in darkness for over one month. “The outage though regrettable is as a result of extensive damage caused by the activities of electricity vandals to towers 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55. Five towe...
Nigerian government lists conditions for states to access coronavirus vaccines
The Federal Government has listed conditions for states to meet before the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine being expected wt the end of January would be released to them. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during a webinar tagged “Sensitisation Meeting with Media Gatekeepers on COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction”, at the weekend, said no vaccine will be release to states until facilities such as cold chains are in place. According to Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, NHPCDA, Kubura Daradara, the vaccine must be administered within five days of receipt for it to remain potent, and only the states that show commitment would receive the doses when available. She added that the 100,000 doses would be administered to 50,000 people, because each person has to take a secon...
Enugu: Police declare notorious robber wanted
The Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdulrahman, has, for the third time, declared wanted a suspected notorious armed robber, Valentine. Abdulrahman also ordered the traditional ruler of Akwuke community in Enugu South Local Government Area of the state, lgwe Benard Nwonye, to produce the fleeing suspect, who is an indigene of the community. In a statement made available to newsmen in Port Harcourt, Abdulrahman said the suspected armed robber, Valentine was allegedly wanted for several robbery incidents, including the killing of two policemen at a checkpoint in the New Haven axis of Enugu in 2016. The statement reads in part “Valentine was declared wanted in connection with the robbery incident that took place at the last bus stop axis of New Haven in the Enugu metropolis. “The f...
