Breaking News and Popular Issues Around the World: 2014-07-27

Friday, August 1, 2014

Police recover ex-gov’s stolen chicken, turkey

The Police in Delta State on Friday said they caught the armed robbers that invaded the poultry of a former Acting Governor of the state, Mr. Sam Obi, and carted away 500 turkeys, an unspecified number of chicken and other valuables.

A press statement issued by the Office of the Delta State Police

Ebola: Abia designates hospital wards for likely victims

As part of pro-active measures to contain the possible outbreak of the pandemic Ebola disease wrecking havoc in some West African countries, Abia State Government says it has designated some hospital wards across the state to handle patients with symptoms related to the ailment.

Fielding questions from journalists yesterday in Umuahia

Chinese Man’s Enormous Samsung Phone Stops Bullet Aimed at His Chest

You know what they say: Never bring a sickle to a gunfight. But if you do make sure you have an enormous phone in your front pocket.

Let us explain.

It's not just owning a smartphone that's expensive - it's the data plan.

Facebook introduced an app today that will give mobile users in Zambia free, limited access to the internet.

The app is part of Facebook's collaborative Internet.org initiative, which aims to bring internet access to the two out of three

Jose Mourinho is ‘so happy’ with the squad at his disposal, with Chelsea having acted quickly to get bodies on board.

Changes were inevitable at Stamford Bridge this summer, with Mourinho’s first season back at the helm having failed to deliver major silverware. That issue

Though Ebola was first discovered nearly four decades ago, there’s still no vaccine that’s regularly administered to humans to prevent it.

The discovery of a baby placenta in the residence of a man, identified simply as Alfa Gani, is causing confusion in the Laduba community, Ogidi area of Ilorin, Kwara State.

Our correspondent gathered on Thursday that the discovery was made when some volunteers went round the Laduba community to appeal for financial contributions from residents for the repair of a faulty transformer in the area.

It was said that the volunteers

In the wake of the Ebola virus attack in Liberia, the country’s deputy health minister, Bernice Dahn, warned in an emergency meeting in Ghana: “If we do not provide the support to stop the transmission, other countries will get infected as well.”

And that was what happened. According to reports, a Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, who travelled to Lagos by flight, had developed a fever, with vomiting and diarrhoea and

Video shows young girl learning her baby brother will grow up...

We're not evil. We don't

Are you a cat looking for a change? Are you eager to relocate to a feline-based community where you can lounge, rest, sleep and snooze, all with a minimum number of dogs sniffing about?

Allow us to humbly suggest the great state of Meowsachusetts.

Massachusetts is, according to

Oando Energy Resources Inc. a Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production firm, yesterday announced the completion of its acquisition of the Nigerian Upstream Oil and Gas Business of ConocoPhillips for a total cash consideration of US$1.5 billion after customary adjustments plus a deferred consideration of US$33 million.

The transaction entails the acquisition

Jonathan, Sambo, Mark others for Omisore

President Goodluck Jonathan will tomorrow lead other leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Osun State to drum up support for the party’s governorship candidate in the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore.

Other notable members of the PDP expected to join President Jonathan include, Vice President Namadi Sambo, senate President, David Mark and the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu to the state.

Others expected in the entourage of the President are

Russia warns sanctions will backfire on West

Moscow (AFP) - A defiant Russia said Wednesday that Western sanctions over Ukraine would backfire on the United States and lead to energy price hikes in Europe after Brussels and Washington unveiled the toughest punitive measures against Moscow since the Cold War.

Tricycle operators lament extortion, intimidation in Lagos

LAGOS— Tricycle operators at the PWD Park in Ikeja, GRA, Lagos State have called on the state government to come to their rescue over alleged extortion and intimidation by the chairman of the park.

Trouble, as gathered, started after the park, which was originally operated by commercial motorcycle riders, was allegedly hijacked, after the state government restricted their operation within Ikeja metropolis.

When some of the commercial motorcyclists who

Man Says Police Wouldn’t Let Him Help His Dog After They Shot It

A Georgia man says that he was threatened with jail time if he tried to treat his dog after a police officer shot the animal in the throat.

Tim Theall told NBC Atlanta that Doctor, his 9-year-old German Shepherd, ran to the front of his house after being let out of the back yard Thursday evening.

“And before I turned the

Ebola patient coming to U.S. as aid workers' health worsens

CHICAGO/WINSTON-SALEM N.C. (Reuters) - A U.S. aid worker who was infected with the deadly Ebola virus while working in West Africa will be flown to the United States to be treated in a high-security ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, hospital officials said on Thursday. The aid worker, whose name has not been released, will be moved in the next several days to a special isolation unit at Emory. The unit was set up in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said her agency was working with the U.S. State Department to facilitate the transfer.

Reynolds said the CDC was not aware of any Ebola patient ever being treated in the United States, but five people in the past decade have entered the country with either Lassa Fever or Marburg Fever, hemorrhagic fevers similar to Ebola.

News of the transfer follows reports of the declining health of two infected U.S. aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, who

Nigerians spend N1.8bn on sports betting daily – investigation

About 60 million Nigerians between 18 and 40 years of age may be spending up to N1.8 billion on sports betting daily, investigation by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reveals.

The investigation showed that they commit on the average N3,000 on sports betting daily.

Dotun Ajekigbe, a sport betting analyst, said that sport betting though risky was also rewarding.

Ajekigbe said that about 60 million Nigerians placed bets on different matches daily across the country.

He said that most unemployed youths have taken to online and other forms of sports betting to make a living.

According to him

Tech transfer holds key to national development — General Electric

President and Chief Executive Officer of General Electric GE, Mr. Lazarus Angbazo last week said that keying into the federal government’s transformation agenda has helped his company build blocks that would soon become the pillar of national development.

Part of the building blocks according to Angbazo included an appreciable technology transfer system and local content initiatives which have seen Nigerians doing at a cheaper rate, what ordinarily would have required expatriates, at a huge cost.

Angbazo said

Fighting Ebola with technology

Think about the first time you heard about the Ebola Outbreak? It was probably on social media. Or at least some sort of media. What does that tell you? Technology has got a part to play in fighting Ebola. It may not be as easy as curing a person with the click of a mouse, but here are some

Man kills lover in Lagos, flees to Ghana

LAGOS — The Lagos State Police Command, yesterday, disclosed that it was close to apprehending the 33-year-old man who allegedly strangled his lover, a 39-year-old mother of four in her apartment at Green Estate, Amuwo Odofin area of

•DIGs, AIGs, CPs to go

Following the appointment of former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Sulaiman Abba, as the acting Inspector General of Police, there are indications that heads will roll in the police, as some senior police officers would be retired.Abba was yesterday, announced as acting Inspector-General of Police, to succeed Mohammed Abubakar, who has formally retired, having put in 35 years of service in the police.

In expected mass retirement,

Nigerian business owners, tourists and top government officials have commended indigenous airline, Arik Air for the launch of its scheduled flight operations from Nigeria into the United Arab Emirates (UAE), noting that besides breaking the many years of the monopoly of Arab airlines (Emirates and Etihad) on the Lagos-Dubai route, it will go a long way in cutting down the huge capital flight the country loses to foreign airlines operating the country’s routes.

Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mrs. Sally Mbanefo, who spoke shortly before the commencement of the inaugural flight from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, said

Nigeria’s civil aviation authority (NCAA) said on Thursday it had started temperature screening passengers arriving from places at risk from Ebola and had suspended pan-African airline, Asky, for bringing the first case to Lagos.

Ebola has been blamed for 729 deaths in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. One died in Lagos, a crowded city of 21 million

Teacher caught in hotel room with her student

Parents of Oklahoma, are very angry that a teacher took their son to a hotel room to have sex.

The English teacher at the Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, was caught in the hotel room with her student.

However, the boy’s parents,

The police in Bauchi State yesterday, uncovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) buried inside a building in Azare, Katagum Local Government Area of the state.

The command’s Public Relations Officer,

Ex-militants warn against termination of amnesty programme

Yenagoa—Ex-militants in the Niger Delta have said that termination of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in 2015 could trigger fresh crisis in the region.

Coordinator of the ex-militants under

Benue State Police Command has launched a manhunt for gunmen, who killed a policeman, Sergeant Bawa Ekoja, attached to ‘Operation Dzenda’ in Makurdi, the state capital.

The command’s image-maker, Daniel Ezeala (SP), in a telephone chat with Daily Sun, said Ekoja was going back home after closing from night duty at a hotel located in Ankpa Quarters, Makurdi, when the assailants in an ash

Britain to map 100,000 DNA code sequences

LONDON (AFP) – British scientists are to map 100,000 complete DNA code sequences in a project that will make the country a world leader in genetic research on cancer and rare diseases, the prime minister said on Friday.

David Cameron announced £300 million ($507 million, 378 million euros) in deals to fund the mapping project, predicted to be complete by 2017.

The project will sequence the genetic codes of

•US withdraws Peace Corps volunteers as Ghana introduces isolation centers

•Africa leaders summit to discuss problem

The World Health Organization and leaders of West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak are set to announce a joint $100m (£59m; 75m euro) response plan.

They will meet in Guinea today to launch the initiative aimed at tackling a virus which has claimed 729 lives.

The disease

Ebola Scare in Anambra: Govt detains corpse from Liberia

AWKA —A CORPSE of an Anambra State indigene brought from Liberia, yesterday, caused scare of the dreaded Ebola disease in the state, with officials of the state ministry of health directing security operatives to cordon off the mortuary where the body was deposited pending investigations by experts from the Federal Ministry of Health.

The corpse was brought into the country as a cargo and was taken straight to Apex Hospital and Mortuary at Nkwelle Ezunaka in Oyi Local Government Area of the state, apparently by his relations and waiting for burial.

However, somebody from the community, who knew

Boko Haram razes churches, issues threat letter

MaidugurI —No fewer than five churches in Kwajaffa, Tashan Alade and other communities in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno were on Wednesday set ablaze by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

Hawul, a predominantly Christian community in southern part of the state also shares local boundary with Garkida town of

Ebola: Edo calls for vigilance

Edo State government has announced that there is no trace of the deadly Ebola disease in the state. The government, however, advised the people to remain vigilant and report any suspicious case to the nearest health facility.

The state Commissioner for Health,

Village head commits suicide 4 days to daughter’s wedding

ABA—The immediate family and relations of Chief Samuel Omeonu Ezengwa, a village head in Umunkita, Nenu Autonomous Community in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, have been thrown into shock after the head of the family and a village head in the community allegedly committed suicide by hanging four days to the daughter’s traditional wedding.
A source in the area said

Oshiomhole wades into Oredo council crisis; new Leader sworn in

BENIN— FOLLOWING the intervention of Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State in the crisis rocking the legislative arm of Oredo Local Government Area, the new Leader of the House, Mr. Nohayi Obaseki, was sworn-in yesterday.

Suspected thugs had invaded the

Ebola: Living in bondage

AKINGBOLA Adebiyi operates a first class boutique in Lagos. He specialises in hand-picked materials imported from neighbouring African countries and Europe. His boutique also boasts of original Italian clothes, suits, shoes and handbags.

His personal dress sense is mesmerising. He travels frequently across the world to pick clothing materials for his boutique but Akingbola is not too keen about travelling anywhere for now. Even the clothes he imported recently are still at the airport awaiting clearance. His delay in getting his goods cleared is not far-fetched.

Fear of Ebola: In his business plaza located somewhere at Isolo, Akingbola told some of his customers that he is not too keen about travelling to any country

Turkish PM slams Israel for ‘Hitler-like fascism’

AFP) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday launched one of his strongest attacks yet on Israel over its offensive in the Gaza Strip, accusing the Jewish state of showing “Hitler-like fascism” against the Palestinians.

Speaking at a mass rally in eastern Turkey to promote his candidacy in presidential elections, Erdogan said he was happy to give back an award that was bestowed upon him by an American Jewish Group in 2004.

The American Jewish Congress wants the

Most bush meat vendors in Abidjan, have closed shops following the fear of outbreak of the dreaded Ebola virus, the News of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The closure was ordered by Cote d’Iviore government as a precautionary measure against the spread of the virus.

NAN survey at Abobo Palmerer, an Abidjan settlement that hosts several bush meat and palm wine spots, showed that most of them have closed down.

Abobo Palmerer, for instance, which used to be a beehive of activities before the outbreak of Ebola, is currently a shadow of its self.

Bush meat which used to be a common

Pilot Pulled From Crash as Flames Burn Seat Behind Her

The pilot who crashed into a San Diego parking lot after clipping a Target store was pulled from the plane's wreckage by a civilian rescuer as flames had gotten as close as the seat right behind her, her rescuer told ABC News.

The plane went down in a fireball in a shopping center parking lot around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday after a bounced landing at the nearby Montgomery Field municipal airport caused the plane to crash in the parking lot, according to authorities.

An 80-year-old passenger in the plane later died of her injuries in a hospital.

The plane's 52-year-old pilot, who

U.S. doctor, missionary with Ebola show improvement

Two American aid workers infected with Ebola in Africa while responding to an outbreak of the deadly virus have shown slight improvement but remain in serious condition, a relief organization said on Wednesday.

Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol were part of a team in Liberia from two North Carolina-based Christian relief groups, Samaritan's

Death toll from Ebola outbreak rises to 729: WHO

DAKAR (Reuters) - The death toll from an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has risen to 729, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday, after 57 deaths were reported between July 24 and 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

The WHO also said Nigerian authorities had so far identified 59

How DOD’s $1.5 Trillion F-35 Broke the Air Force

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive, and possible the most error ridden, project in the history of the United States military. But DOD has sunk so much money into the F-35 - which is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over the 55-year life of the program - that the Pentagon deemed it “too big to fail” in 2010.

Now, the Air Force has taken steps to make sure that the unmitigated disaster that the F-35 has become does not happen again.

The Air Force, in its 20-year strategic forecast entitled “America’s Air Force: A Call to the Future,”has called for an end to big-ticket programs like the F-35. Instead, it plans to invest in what DOD officials have called more “agile” weapons that can be adapted for multiple uses.

Related: The Pentagon’s Incredible $1.5 Trillion Mistake

The report paints a future of the Air Force that

MH17 black box reveals last seconds for Malaysia Airlines passengers

MH17 black box data reveals that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17was hit by shrapnel from a missile explosion. In regard to the passengers of Flight MH17, the black box data indicates that the plane experienced a “massive explosive decompression.” Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's Security Council, said in a news conference in Kiev that the unofficial information released about the black box data of MH17 came from experts analyzing the recorders, reports The Telegraph on July 28.

The black box recorders from MH17 flight were

Remember that classic Simpsons episode where Homer got tossed out of the “all-you-can-eat” seafood restaurant because he ate its entire supply of shrimp and two plastic lobster decorations? Well that’s the sort of situation that Verizon is claiming its in with some of its customers who subscribe to its nominally unlimited data plans.

The catastrophic Ebola outbreak in West Africa may be spreading faster than health experts previously believed. Yesterday, officials in Nigeria said that they were looking for up to 59 people who may have been exposed to the lethal virus by flying on a plane with Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, who died soon after getting off a flight in Lagos.

On Wednesday, the health authorities there said that they have expanded their search from 59 people — to 30,000.

And those 30,000

Israel vows to crush Gaza tunnels, snubs UN

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel said Thursday it would not pull troops from Gaza until they finish destroying a network of cross-border tunnels, despite sharp United Nations criticism over the Palestinian civilian death toll.

Speaking at a special cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not accept any ceasefire that did not allow troops to continue destroying tunnels used by militants to attack Israel.

"Until now, we have destroyed dozens of terror tunnels and we are determined to finish this mission -- with or without a ceasefire," he said at the start of the meeting.

"So I will not accept any (truce) proposal that does not allow the IDF (army) to complete this work for the security of Israel's citizens."

A 24-Year-Old Man Stole $309,768 From Apple With An Unbelievably Simple Scam

In an age of extremely complex cyber attacks, carefully coordinated scams and millions of dollars spent on security, one man managed to scam Apple out of $300,000 in the most low-tech way imaginable.

Earlier this week the Tampa Bay Times reported that East Tampa resident Sharron Parrish managed to find a way of overriding payment terminals when his card was declined.

He allegedly did this 42 times in 16 different

New Infrared iPhone 5 Case Lets You See Behind Walls

The smartphone case industry is beginning to move away from bling-encrusted cheap tat and into the realms of ‘useful accessory’.

FLIR systems has done just that and invented a case forApple's iPhone with thermal-imaging capabilities, which it revealed at CES earlier this year but

World’s Most Expensive RV Sold in Dubai [w/Video]

Not all rides need to be powerful to be bold. Some are bold just for their design and, in the case of one RV that recently sold in Dubai, for being the world’s most expensive.

That’s the claim being made for the 40-foot-long eleMMent Palazzo, from Austrian company Marchi Mobile. It sold for a purported asking price of

2015 Range Rover Sport SVR Claims Fastest Production SUV ‘Ring Time

Look out Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes—there’s a new king of the high-performance SUV hill, and it’s Land Rover.

With a documented lap time of 8 minutes, 14 seconds, the 2015 Range Rover Sport SVR lays claim to the title of the world’s fastest production SUV around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The new SUV will being reaching customers sometime in 2015.

With 550 horsepower on tap from its 5.0-liter supercharged V-8, and

A new study found that older adults with dementia and depression are more likely to have a faster cognitive decline.

"Later life dementia is a very complex disorder and there are many factors that contribute to it, and depression is one of those factors," Robert S. Wilson with the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago told Reuters. Researchers studied more than 1,700

An ax flew into a car's windshield on the highway and miraculously no one was hurt

I get really nervous driving behind trucks carrying cargo. What if that 8-foot wide pipe comes loose?

Is that double-wide trailer really secure? Is that ax even tied down?

Horrifyingly, that ax was not tied down, as one driver discovered Wednesday morning while driving

behind a landscape truck on a Massachusetts highway. An unsecured ax went flying from the truck's

load, crashing through the trailing car's passenger-side windshield.

That photo alone is a heart-stopper. I can't imagine being that poor passenger! Thankfully, the ax stopped

halfway through the glass and no one was physically injured. The landscape-truck driver

Meet the most ambitious spaceship NASA has ever built

In the August issue of Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine, Tom Vanderbilt tests outNASA's new Orion spaceship, which will go deeper into space than any spaceship has before.

Vanderbilt toured a "low-fidelity mockup" of Orion at Lockheed Martin's Exploration Development Laboratory in Houston, and he describes the spaceship as resembling a Star Wars Stormtrooper's helmet.

Despite massive NASA

Four suspected members of Boko Haram were arrested in Kano yesterday in connection with the recent multiple female suicide bombings that rocked the state capital in two days.

It was gathered that the arrest followed an operation conducted by officers of the Nigerian Army and the Directorate of State Security (DSS) in the early hours of the day.

Credible security sources in both establishments said that the insurgents were picked up in the course of different operations in Hotoro General Area and

•At 70, Pa Bamidele moves round Osun capital, selling honey

He’s a popular sight in Osogbo. And it couldn’t have been otherwise. It’s not everyday that you find a 70-year-old man hawking items on the streets.

Many stare at him as he moves about, a loaded tray on his head, hawking in the streets and roads of the Osun State capital. Meet Pa Azeez Bamidele, simply known as Baba Oloyin, the oldest street hawker in Osun State.

As the old man crossed the busy road at the Okefia Roundabout, he was nearly

Rosary child

Barely three months after the reported birth of a baby with a mini-Quran in Mushin area of Lagos State, another oddity has occurred in Sagamu, Ogun State as a woman was said to have delivered a baby boy with an Islamic rosary, otherwise known as Tesbeu.

Investigation by Sunday Sun revealed that the boy was delivered on Tuesday at Rotoluwa Maternity Home along Aiyepe Road at about 11.45pm.

Mrs. Gbemisola Hamsat, a 35-year-old mother o

… ‘We have upgraded to treat Ebola’

Lagoon Hospital in Apapa, Lagos State has become the first private hospital in the country to perform an open-heart surgery successfully. The surgery was performed by a team of home-based Nigerian health practitioners.

Besides, the hospital management also disclosed that its staff had been trained to handle any incident of Ebola virus, saying a good number of its clients were expatriates, adding that the hospital had upgraded its facilities to handle various cases.

The heart surgery was performed on a 59-year-old man, who

Female suicide bombers not Chibok girls — FG

By Caleb Ayansina

ABUJA — The Federal Government, Wednesday, took steps to douse anxiety over the possibility that Boko Haram insurgents are using the abducted Chibok girls as female suicide bombers.

Female bombers have carried out series of attacks on Kano city in the last five days, fuelling fears that those involved could be some of the girls being held by the terrorists.

Also, former education minister, and co-coordinator of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, Professor Oby Ezekwesili, has expressed fears that the abducted Chibok girls