Afghanistan have appealed for international support, as the country deals with the aftermath of a devastating 6.1 magnitude earthquake.
More than 1,000 people have died and at least 1,500 were injured, a local official said.
Paktika province in the south-east has been the most affected.
The UN is scrambling to provide emergency shelter and food aid.
The rescue efforts are being hampered by heavy rain and hail.
The deadliest earthquake to strike the country in two decades is a major challenge for the Taliban, the Islamist movement which regained power last year after the Western-backedi government collapsed.
The earthquake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the city of Khost and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.
Witnesses reported feeling the quake in both Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
The World Health Organisation and British health officials said, Wednesday that a type of poliovirus derived from vaccines has been detected in London sewage samples, adding that more analysis was underway.
No human cases of polio have been found in Britain, where the crippling disease was fully eradicated two decades ago.
The WHO said in a statement that “type 2 vaccine-derived polio virus (VDPV2)” had been found in environmental samples in the British capital.
“It is important to note that the virus has been isolated from environmental samples only,” it said, stressing that “no associated cases of paralysis have been detected.”
But it warned, “any form of poliovirus anywhere is a threat to children everywhere.”
A massive global effort has in recent decades come close to wiping out polio, a crippling and potentially fatal viral disease that mainly affects children under the age of five.
Cases have decreased by 99 percent since 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries and 350,000 cases were recorded worldwide.
The wild version of the virus now exists only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but a type of vaccine that contains small amounts of weakened but live polio still causes occasional outbreaks elsewhere.
Oral polio vaccine (OPV) replicates in the gut and can be passed to others through faecal-contaminated water – meaning it won’t hurt the child who has been vaccinated, but could infect their neighbours in places where hygiene and immunisation levels are low.
While weaker than wild polio virus, this variant can cause serious illness and paralysis in people not vaccinated against the disease.
Polio immunisation coverage in London stands at nearly 87 percent, the WHO said.
Polio Virus
Globally, there were 959 confirmed cases of VDPV2 in 2020, according to the WHO.
The UN’s health agency has called for OPV to be phased out worldwide and replaced with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).
Britain stopped using OPV in 2004, and British health authorities said it was likely that the virus found in the sewage samples had been imported by someone who was recently vaccinated with it abroad.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the virus isolates had been found in “multiple sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works between February and June 2022.”
The plant covers a large swathe of north and east London that is home to around four million people.
A couple of poliovirus isolates are detected each year on average in UK sewage samples, but they tend to be unrelated, health authorities said, warning that in this case the isolates were “genetically related”.
“This has prompted the need to investigate the extent of transmission of this virus in northeast London,” UKHSA said.
“The environmental surveillance is being enhanced in an attempt to assess the extent of VDPV2 transmission and identify areas for targeted action.”
Amid the runaway housing prices, South Korea is rolling out measures to stabilize house rent.
Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, during his first government meeting on the property market, said benefits will be provided to landlords who raise rent by less than 5 percent.
The benefits include an exemption from capital gains tax on single homeowners selling their homes.
There is also special deduction for long-term property owners even if they have lived in their property for less than two years.
Also, to ease the burden on tenants, the tax credit rate on rent will be raised from the current 12 percent to 15 percent.
To get more people on the property ladder, the government will exempt first time buyers from up to 2 million won, or about 15-hundred U.S. dollars of acquisition tax.
Mission accomplished.
South Korea has become the seventh country in the world to be independently capable of sending a satellite weighing over a ton into orbit using domestic technology.
At 4 PM on Tuesday, the nation’s first homegrown space rocket Nuri soared into the skies for the second time and didn’t disappoint.
“The three-stage space rocket, after reaching its target altitude of 700 kilometers, placed both its performance verification satellite including four functioning mini cube satellites and its 1.3-ton dummy satellite into orbit seventy seconds apart at around four fifteen PM.”
As confirmed by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s joint presser at the Naro Space Center about an hour after the launch.
“Nuri reached its target altitude and successfully placed the performance satellite into orbit.”
“Like Minister Lee Jong-ho just said, we have successfully carried out Nuri’s second launch.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol wasn’t present on site for the event but watched it from his office in Yongsan-gu District and later exclaimed that the “way to space had opened” calling the launch a product of thirty years of effort and also promised the country’s aerospace officials boosted support.
“Like I promised in my pledge, the South Korean government will establish a national aerospace agency and systematically grow the industry. Thank you so much. Fantastic job, everyone.”
During U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Seoul last month, President Yoon vowed to strengthen bilateral cooperation on space development particularly the Artemis Program a U.S.-led, international space exploration endeavor that aims to make manned lunar exploration possible by 2025, construct a manned lunar base by 2028.. and in the long term, even prepare for missions to Mars.
The Abiodun Essiet Initiative for Girls, a Non-Governmental Organisation, has urged students to end the culture of silence when faced with any form of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).
The Executive Director of the organisation, Abiodun Essiet, gave the advice at a sensitisation seminar, organised for students of government secondary school, gwagwalada in Abuja.
Essiet, who was represented by Josephine Emeghoghena, the Project Officer of the organisation, said the seminar was to motivate the students to speak out against SGBV and break the culture of silence.
She explained that the sensitisation was also aimed at increasing student ambassadors willing to champion the campaign against SGBV in schools, homes and their various communities.
She added that, “we intend to achieve a society where there will be minimal stories of sexual and gender based violence at home, in schools and in our communities.
“We also intend to curb cases of bullying in schools, we want students to take the message home, their classrooms and we want them to be watch dogs for us.
“We have selected Anti-SGBV ambassadors in this school and their mandate is to report such cases to us and we will know how to follow up from there, she added.
“To the parents, we want them to watch what their children are doing, watch who they mingle with, what they watch on their phones and so on.
“Do not leave it to teachers alone, let them see you as their friends, so that they can feel free to open up to you.”
The Vice Principal, Administration of the school, Anze Vincent appreciated the NGO for bringing the sensitisation to the students.
He urged the students to take the message learnt to their colleagues and friends at home.
He said, “don’t allow anybody to jeopardise your life, nobody should influence you to do what will endanger your life because it will remain a stigma in your life.
“You can also help someone else by reporting whatever you see, do not be afraid to speak out.”
Five Anti-SGBV ambassadors were appointed at the end of the sensitisation, one of the ambassadors, Afodia Allahnana, said the seminar had made her bold to speak out against sexual and gender based violence.
She thanked the NGO for bringing the awareness to students of the school.
They were successful in launching an entirely domestically developed space rocket.
They were also successful in placing satellites into orbit after reaching the target altitude of 700 kilometers.
Another success confirmed on Wednesday early morning.
Two-way communication has been established between the performance verification satellite and the ground station in Daejeon.
“On the very day of the launch, we received the basic information on performance verification satellite’s condition through King Sejong Station in Antarctica and Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s ground station in Daejeon.
On Wednesday early morning, two-way communication has been made, completely confirming space rocket Nuri’s capacity of putting satellite into an orbit.”
With two-way communication successfully made at around 3AM on Wednesday morning, South Korea has fully confirmed its capability to deploy self-powered satellites using homegrown space rockets.
During the communication, engineers on the ground sent a command for the satellite to sync its clock with that of the ground station and to activate the GPS transmitter.
After a one-week monitoring period, four mini cube satellites will be released one by one.
“We will monitor the satellite for seven days and stabilize its position.
After that, starting June 29th, we will release each cube satellite made by domestic universities one by one, each two days apart.”
The performance verification satellite has its own camera, which will film the cube satellites’ detaching process.
That visual data will then be transmitted to the ground station.
President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday announced it would develop a new policy requiring cigarette producers to reduce nicotine to non-addictive levels – a move that would deal a powerful blow to the tobacco industry.
If successful in its aims, the new US standard could save millions of lives by the end of the century, and shape a future where cigarettes are no longer responsible for addiction and debilitating diseases.
The initiative requires the Food and Drug Administration to develop and then publish a rule, which will likely be contested by industry.
“Nicotine is powerfully addictive,” said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in a statement. “Making cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products minimally addictive or non-addictive would help save lives.”
The process is expected to take several years and could be delayed or derailed by litigation, or reversed by a future administration sympathetic to the tobacco lobby.
Nicotine is the “feel good” chemical that hooks people to cigarettes, chewing tobacco, vaping devices and other tobacco products.
“Addiction to nicotine in combusted products is the main driver of sustained use of these products,” the FDA added in its statement.
Thousands of other chemicals contained in tobacco and its smoke are responsible for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes and more.
smoked cigarettes
Though smoking is less prevalent in the United States than in Europe and has been declining for years, it is still responsible for 480,000 deaths a year in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some 12.5 percent of all US adults are current cigarette smokers, according to the FDA.
Meanwhile, the announcement was welcomed by tobacco control groups.
“The American Lung Association is pleased to hear that a proposal is coming to reduce the levels of addictive nicotine in cigarettes,” said the group’s CEO Harold Wimmer.
“Reducing nicotine to non-addictive levels in cigarettes is an important step forward for public health, and we urge FDA to extend this proposal to include all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.”
Reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes has been a topic under discussion for years among US authorities.
The FDA funded a randomized trial published in 2018 that found “reduced-nicotine cigarettes versus standard-nicotine cigarettes reduced nicotine exposure and dependence and the number of cigarettes smoked.”
Another FDA-funded study found that if a nicotine reduction policy were enacted in 2020, it could result in more than 33 million people not becoming regular smokers, and prevent more than eight million deaths from tobacco-related illnesses by 2100.
The tobacco industry rejects these studies and says people would in fact smoke more.
Biden has made a “cancer moonshot” a centerpiece of his agenda and the nicotine-reduction policy would fit within its goals, at minimal cost.
The total economic cost of smoking is more than $300 billion a year, according to US data, including more than $225 billion in direct medical care for adults, and more than $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke.
The Ongoing 32-metric ton per hour Rice Mill being constructed by Lagos State Government in Imota area of Ikorodu division of the State under the Leadership of Govenor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
There are 16 silos which have combined capacity of 40,000 metric tons. Each has 2,500 metric tons.
The two sections of the silos are already set. The storage has the capacity to take production up to three to six months.
The rice mill has been built with a capacity to produce 2.8 million bags of 50kg bags of rice yearly, while generating 1,500 direct jobs and 254,000 indirect jobs.
The State Government is also developing an industrial park adjacent to the mill.
The Governor said the park would have amenities that would make businesses thrive and bring returns on investment to business owners.
The Ondo State Government has kick-started a programme to plant about three million trees across the state.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Sunday Akinwalire, said at a ceremony in Oba Ile, that the project would beautify the state and secure its environment.
He said a safe environment was key to the continued survival of humanity, adding that the need to preserve the environment was not negotiable.
Akinwalire urged residents of the state to support the government’s effort to promote a cleaner and healthier environment.
”It is our duty to promote environmental cleanliness. We must do everything possible to make our environment neater and safer.
”It is environmentally unfriendly to dump refuse indiscriminately. We shouldn’t also block water channels. Let’s support the ongoing beautification project,” he said.
The commissioner commended the Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led government for its environment-friendly projects.
”The government has shown enough commitment towards a cleaner and safer environment,” he said.
Middlesbrough will be the first area to take part in a pilot scheme to combat low school attendance rates.
Mentors will give one-to-one support to pupils who are persistently absent or missing a lot of lessons and address why they are not coming to school.
The borough’s absence rate is higher than the national average.
Middlesbrough Council’s executive member for children’s services Mieka Smiles said “too many” children were “harming their life chances” by missing school.
Smiles said the council was happy to be working with the DfE [Department for Education] on the grprogramme that has the potential to shape lives for the better, not just in Middlesbrough but across the country”.
The borough had an absence rate of 5.7% and a persistent absence rate of 16.7% last year, compared with national averages of 4.6% and 12.1%.
The £5m DfE project will start in Middlesbrough for a year, roll out to four other areas in year two and continue in all five areas for a third year.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service, external said it will also provide retention payments to keep top teachers in high-priority subjects,
The Schools White Paper, external, published in March, said schools and local authorities should re-engage those children who were missing more than half their lessons.
The report said children who had no absence during the two years of GCSE study were almost twice as likely to achieve five or more than those who missed 10-15% of lessons.
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