Officials
Ukrainian president tests positive for coronavirus
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he tested positive for the novel coronavirus but felt fine as infections surged in the country. “Despite all quarantine measures, I also had a positive test,” Zelensky said on Facebook. The 42-year-old leader said that his temperature was 37.5C but that he felt “good”. He will self-isolate and continue to perform his duties, he added. “Most people overcome Covid-19. And I will get through this too,” he said. The head of Zelensky’s office Andriy Yermak also said that he had contracted the coronavirus. In June, Zelensky’s wife Olena Zelenska was hospitalized after contracting the virus but has recovered. On Saturday, the ex-Soviet country of 40 million people reported a record of 10,746 new coronavirus infections. Ukraine, one of Europe’s po...
Donald Trump will lose special Twitter protections when Joe Biden takes office
U.S. President Donald Trump will be subject to the same Twitter rules as any other user when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20, the social media company confirmed this week. Twitter places “public interest” notices on some rule-breaking tweets from “world leaders” that would otherwise be removed. Such tweets from political candidates and elected or government officials are instead hidden by a warning and Twitter takes actions to restrict their reach. But the company said this treatment does not apply to former office holders. “This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement. It has added multiple warnings and labels to tweets from the...
Kaduna loses 124 children to malnutrition in 9 months
No fewer than 124 children have died of malnutrition in Kaduna State between January and September with 15,329 cured of the diseases within the same period. The State Nutrition Officer, Mrs Ramatu Musa, made this known in Kaduna on Thursday, while presenting the nutrition situation in the state at a two-day meeting organised by Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN). The meeting was organised to strengthen advocacy skills and capacity of health and nutrition CSOs, media and government officials, to identify areas of priorities in nutrition interventions. Musa, who was represented by Mr Jibril Isah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Board (SPHCDB), said that a total of 21,265 malnourished children under five years were admitted....
Top Turkish officials close to President Erdogan test positive for coronavirus
Two top Turkish officials who work closely with Turkey’s president have said they tested positive for COVID-19. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Saturday he had light COVID-19 symptoms and was nearing the end of treatment. He did not say how long he has been sick. His comments came hours after Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said he, his wife and daughter all tested positive after feeling unwell on Monday. They are being treated in a hospital. “Thankfully we are a bit better,” he said. Soylu was criticised in April for announcing Turkey’s first weekend-long coronavirus lockdown just two hours before it went into effect, leading to scenes of chaos at markets. The president rejected his resignation. Both men routinely meet Erdogan, who was travelling on Sat...
NLC demands end to medical tourism by government officials
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Thursday called for an end to all forms of medical tourism especially by elected and appointed government officials. The NLC also said that with the quantum of resources available to government, Nigeria can afford to build and effectively equip some of the best hospitals in the world, with global best practices and personnel. President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, stated this in Abuja in his address on this year’s Global Day of Action on Care. Briefing, Wabba reiterated that the government must be ready to invest heavily in the health sector, saying no country survives without effective health care. He lamented that apart from the open fact that the country’s health care sector has been neglected for too long, health care workers have been subjected...
European Union backs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for WTO role
The European Union has endorsed former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation, Bloomberg reported. The business news outlet cited anonymous officials familiar with the matter that all the 27 EU member countries agreed on Monday in Brussels to support Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala. Bloomberg also reported that the United States has decided to back Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade minister, for the role. The position has been fiercely contested amongst candidates of different countries since Roberto Azevedo resigned in August. Last month, Okonjo-Iweala and Myung-hee were selected as the last two candidates in the contest. The EU’s endorsement is seen as a significant boost for Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy, with the final winner expected...
Nigeria seeks to halt looting amid fury over ‘food warehouses’
Nigerian security forces are struggling to contain increasing cases of looting on government-run warehouses across the country, in the latest incident of unrest following widespread, youth-led protests against police brutality. The storage facilities hold tonnes of relief materials including food meant for distribution during lockdowns previously enforced to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. While the distribution programme had been temporarily halted across several states in the country in recent months, it emerged this week relief items were still stored in some of these facilities, as well as the private homes of politicians. The news angered many in the country with the biggest number of people living in extreme poverty globally. “The food items belong to Nigerians. Why are the...
Foundation trains NIS, NAPTIP, Police on strategies to fight traffickers
The International Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) on Tuesday began a three-day training for officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on strategies to fight human trafficking. The Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) are participating in the training. The training was tagged: “Identification of perpetrators of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants in Nigeria’’. Rafael-Rios Molina, the team leader for Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrant (A-TIPSOM) in Nigeria said that the training was to enhance of knowledge frontline officers on trafficking issues. Malina said that it was also organised to improve the knowledge of ...
Cross River rice farmers protest unpaid salaries
At least, 300 youths engaged as Rice farmers by the Cross River State Government protested on Monday over the non-payment of three months salaries. The workers, who protested with placards at the Ministry of Agriculture in Calabar, said they worked at the state rice farm and they could no longer continue working everyday without being paid at the end of the month. According to one of the workers, they have started harvesting the rice, which they planted three months ago, yet they have not been paid their salaries. The worker said, “We are some of the people who worked in the Cross River State rice farm at the time. We resumed on May 4, this year. “We worked and they paid us salaries on the 6th of June. But they did not pay everybody because they left that day when the governor personally c...
Jordan’s monarch dissolves parliament ahead of November election
Election comes amid popular discontent over economic woes worsened by COVID-19 and corruption allegations. Jordan’s King Abdullah has dissolved parliament, paving the way for an election in November. Under constitutional rules, the government must resign within a week. In July, Jordan’s electoral commission set November 10 as the date for a parliamentary election after the monarch called for countrywide polls to be held at the end of the parliament’s four-year term. The king issued a royal edict ordering the dissolution of parliament effective on Sunday. The assembly comprises 130 legislators, mainly pro-government tribal officials, businessmen and ex-security officials. The move is likely to be followed by a wider government shake-up to ward off popular disenchantment over economic hardsh...
Rivers government reopens NLC secretariat as labour suspends rally
The Officials of the Rivers Government, on Tuesday, unsealed the Nigeria Labour Congress secretariat in Port Harcourt, following collective bargaining agreement signed with the union. Newsmen report that the state government had sealed the NLC secretariat in March for correction of structural deficit. Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, on Sept. 4, issued a notice to hold mass rally over the sealed secretariat among other lingering industrial dispute. However, after a six hour deliberation on Monday, the organised labour reached an agreement with the state government to address all contending issues and for the protest to be called off. Government officials arrived at the secretariat at about 7.00 a.m. and remove the seal to fulfil part of the agreement. Wabba, who addressed workers of the affi...
Tens of thousands in Belarus protest President’s 6th term re-election
Demonstrators massed in central Minsk on Sunday after opposition leaders called for a huge rally to demand the resignation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the latest in a wave of protests against his disputed re-election. The authoritarian leader dispatched his notorious riot police to disperse spontaneous rallies that erupted after he claimed a sixth presidential term in an election two weeks ago that critics say was rigged. Tens of thousands of demonstrators draped in the red-and-white flags of the opposition flooded Independence Square and marched through the capital chanting “freedom” and “we will not forget, we will not forgive” as passing cars honked in support. “We have just two demands: fair elections and stop the violence,” 32-year-old Igor told AFP. Officials issued...
