Iran on Monday signaled a willingness to engage directly with the United States in ongoing discussions over the nuclear deal with world powers if it is necessary to reach a good agreement.
In 2018, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, banned any negotiations with the U.S. saying negotiations with the U.S. would harm Iran.
Earlier this month, however, Khamenei indirectly gave the green light to the Iranian negotiation team to talk with the U.S. and said negotiating and interacting with the enemy does not mean surrender.
IRNA quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying, “if we reach a stage in the negotiation process where the need for a good deal with a high guarantee is to have a dialogue with the Americans at some level, we will not ignore it.”
Iran and world powers have begun another round of nuclear talks in Vienna, Austria aimed at salvaging the tattered 2015 nuclear deal. The meetings include all the deal’s remaining signatories — Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
The U.S. has participated indirectly in the ongoing talks because it withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has signaled that he wants to rejoin the deal.
Trump later re-imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. Tehran has since started enriching uranium up to 60% purity — a short technical step from the 90% needed to make an atomic bomb
.Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful. But the country’s steps away from its obligations under the 2015 accord have alarmed Israel and other world powers.
Pakistan’s first female Supreme Court judge Ayesha Malik has been sworn in in the capital Islamabad.
Malik, aged 55, now sits on a bench with 16 other male colleagues in the Muslim-majority country’s top court. Lawyers and activists said it was a rare victory after decades of struggle to get representation for women in Pakistan’s male-dominated society.
Some lawyers and judges opposed Justice Malik’s appointment as she was seen to be less senior than other candidates.
Pakistan’s judiciary has been historically conservative and male-dominated.
It is the only South Asian country to have never had a female Supreme Court judge, according to Human Rights Watch. In addition, only 4% of Pakistan’s high court judges are women.
Justice Malik, who was educated at the Pakistan College of Law and Harvard University, has served as a high court judge in the city of Lahore in eastern Pakistan for the last two decades.
She is seen to have played an important role in challenging patriarchal legal mores in the province.
Last year, she outlawed the use of so-called “virginity tests” during rape examinations of sexual assault victims and some activists have hailed Justice Malik’s elevation as a historic appointment.
Justice Malik’s appointment has been criticised by some and last year her elevation to the same post was voted down.
Her appointment to the Supreme Court was hotly contested once again this time around, with the nine-member commission passing her appointment by five votes to four.
A volcanic eruption in Tonga that triggered a tsunami was hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima during World War Two.
This is according to NASA which says the eruption “obliterated” a volcanic island north of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa.
Tonga says more than four-fifths of the population has been affected by the tsunami and falling ash.
NASA says the eruption was so powerful all the new land is gone, along with “large chunks” of the two older islands.
Before the eruption, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic island was two separate islands joined by new land formed in 2015.
In the immediate aftermath of the eruption and tsunami, there were fears that water sources had been polluted by the thick blanket of ash, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and diarrhoea.
However, officials noted that testing in recent days had cleared ground water and rainwater as safe to drink.
But fine volcanic ash and emissions continue to pose a public health risk and exposure could potentially cause breathing difficulties, affect the cardiovascular system, and irritate the lungs, eyes and skin.
In an update, the government said 62 people on Mango, one of the worst-hit islands, had to be relocated to the outer island of Nomuka “after losing their homes and all of their personal belongings”.
The government added however, that many of those residents could be moved again to the main island Tongatapu due to a lack of food and supplies.
The Dutch military police have confirmed a stowaway found alive in a plane’s wheel section in Amsterdam on Sunday is a 22-year-old Kenyan man.
According to reports, He is conscious and able to communicate, and currently receiving medical treatment in hospital. He plans to apply for asylum in the Netherlands.
The Cargolux freight flight he was found on flew from Johannesburg, South Africa, to the Dutch capital, via Nairobi in Kenya and Dutch police are investigating whether he got on in South Africa or Kenya.
A spokesperson for the Dutch military police told Newsmen that It is expected he will apply for asylum in the Netherlands, but his medical treatment is the priority at the moment.”
It is very unusual for stowaways on long flights to survive, due to the cold and low oxygen at high altitudes but in the past five years, seven stowaways have been discovered on planes in the Netherlands, only two of them were alive.
Flights from Johannesburg to Amsterdam take about 11 hours, and would have been longer with one stop in Nairobi.
The military in Burkina Faso says it has seized power and overthrown President Roch Kaboré.
The announcement was made on state television by an army officer, who said both the government and parliament had been dissolved.
Kaboré’s whereabouts are unclear, but the officer said that all those detained were in a secure location. The coup comes a day after troops seized barracks, and gunshots were heard in the capital.
Earlier, the ruling People’s Movement for Progress (PMP) party said that both Kaboré and a government minister had survived an assassination attempt.
On Sunday, mutinying troops demanded the sacking of military chiefs and more resources to fight Islamist militants.
The army statement cited the worsening security situation and Mr Kaboré’s alleged inability to unite the nation as reasons for overthrowing him, AFP news agency reports.
The statement was issued in the name of a group not heard of previously, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration or MPSR, its French acronym.
Before the announcement, the African Union and the West African bloc Ecowas condemned what they called an attempted coup in Burkina Faso and said they held the military responsible for Mr Kaboré’s safety.
Video from the capital appears to show armoured vehicles – reportedly used by the presidency – peppered with bullet holes and abandoned in the street.
Kaboré has not been seen in public since the crisis began but two posts appeared on his Twitter account before the officer announced he had been toppled.
The Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari to give assent to the Mental Health Bill, which it said had been passed by the National Assembly.
It described the increasing cases of mental illness among Nigerians as a national crisis and called for the incorporation of mental health into primary healthcare to improve access and address stigma
The President of the association, Prof Taiwo Obindo, who made the call in an interview with our correspondent on Friday, said the bill would regulate the practice of psychiatry, how people who are mentally ill would be handled humanely and would be an improvement on the one promulgated in 1902 and reviewed in 1958.
The House of Representatives had on Thursday directed its Committee on Health Institutions and Healthcare Services to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Health towards improving mental health facilities across Nigeria.
A member of the House, Uchechukwu Nnam-Obi, said the House was worried that Nigeria had only 130 psychiatrists with over 20 million citizens suffering from mental disorders, adding that the continued lack of a legal framework on mental health in the country would cause the situation to degenerate.
But Obindo said, “Surely, the issue of mental illness is a major challenge. Those figures (WHO figures) were actually obtained some years back before the recent incessant kidnapping, Boko Haram attacks and all that. You can be sure that the figure would be higher now.”
He said, “The Mental Health Bill is on his (the President’s) table and all we can do is to create awareness towards the signing of that bill. The law that governs mental health and practice is the one promulgated in 1902 and reviewed in 1958. So, that needs to be changed and we should have a new law that governs how, where and who will access the care.
Also speaking, a professor of Psychiatry at Ahmadu Bello University, Prof Taiwo Sheikh, and a consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Arit Esangbedo, identified brain drain, dearth of facilities, inequality in the health sector and insecurity as factors responsible for the lack of adequate manpower to provide mental health services in the country.
They also described the situation as a burden on the few mental health workers available across the country.
The Kano State Government, on Monday, revoked the Certificates of Operations of all private schools in the state.
The government has asked all the schools to come for revalidation of their certificates.
The measure was coming on the heels of the killing of a 5-year-old girl, Hanifa Abubakar, by her teacher and the proprietor of a private school, Noble Kids Academy.
The state Commissioner for Education, Sanusi Kiru, announced the decision on Monday at a news conference in Kano.
He said, “We are all aware of the ongoing case concerning Hanifa’s death as she was gruesomely murdered by a suspect called Abdulmalik Tanko who is the proprietor of Noble Kids Academy.
“In view of the sad incidence, especially regarding how she was murdered in the private school, the state government has decided to withdraw the certificate of all private schools for revalidation.”
He explained that the ministry of education would set the criteria for their recertification.
He noted that a panel had been constituted comprising of the Ministry of Justice, Department of State Service, Civil Defence, private school owners association, and other agencies to look into the revalidation of all private schools in Kano State.
The Commissioner said the revalidation exercise would be fast-tracked for smooth conduct.
Kiru noted that students in private schools, whose operational licenses would not be restored after the exercise, would be transferred to other schools.
“Presently we have seven directorates for private schools headed by a director and the 44 Local Government Areas of the state have been zoned to these directorates.
“If we discover that any private school not registered operating, after the exercise, the director in-charge of the zone would answer questions on that,” he added.
Medical experts say the inability of men to have a satisfying sex life as they age is often due to low testosterone, damage to the blood vessels and nerves in the male organs.
The experts noted that these challenges usually lead to a lack of sex drive and erectile dysfunction.
According to them, diabetes, hypertension, obesity can also negatively affect males’ sexual performance.
Speaking in an interview, a Consultant Urologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Dr. Oluwaseun Akinola said erectile dysfunction is common among men from age 50 but is hardly discussed because of stigmatisation.
Erectile dysfunction is the inability to attain or maintain penile erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual intercourse.
Explaining, he said, “There are three things that could affect a male’s sexual performance and they have equal importance. Number one is the hormone. The hormone of the male is testosterone that is responsible for the desire to have sex and maintain an erection.
“Secondly, we have the blood vessels in the male genital organ, with arteries and veins and you have the nerves which carry the signals and all these things need to be working perfectly for a man to have a good erection. But, if anything affects them, it can affect the sexual performance of a man.
“Whenever you have a combination of diabetes, high blood sugar, they can affect the function of the nerves in the genital organ and it could lead to erectile problems. If you have problems with the blood vessels, it can lead to problems with sexual performance. “The Urologist also noted that obesity can affect sexual performance by damaging the blood vessels and decreasing testosterone.
“Obesity is related to poor management of sugar in the body, something we refer to as metabolic syndrome and can lead to diabetes which can affect the nerves.
“The important thing is for a man to see what can improve the functions of the hormones, nerves, veins and help reduce obesity. Things that will make you healthier are generally good for sexual health. So, weight loss, exercise, eating the right food can help. Exercise reduces obesity which can affect hormones as well.
“What happens in men that are fat is that testosterone produced by the body can be converted by the fat cells into estrogen and it can affect erectile function, even the desire to have sex.
“When a man presents with this problem, you have to find out what is causing the problem. Sometimes, you can reverse it and if addressed early enough,” he said.
Speaking further, Dr. Akinola said age is a risk factor for erectile dysfunction among men; “as the age increases, erectile dysfunction increases and several studies have confirmed this.”
A study published in the Turkish Journal of Urology shows that the severity of erectile dysfunction is directly related to vascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, smoking, dyslipidemia, and diabetes mellitus.
The study noted that the median prevalence of erectile dysfunction was calculated as 33 percent among all males greater than or equal to 40 years of age.
When subjects were stratified by age; median prevalence rates of erectile dysfunction were 17 percent for 40–49 years, 35.5 percent for 50–59 years, 68.8 percent for 60–69 years, and 82.9 percent for males greater than or equal to 70 years.
“We believe that a greater understanding of the epidemiological surveys of the prevalence of ED and its associations will help clinicians to look outside our specialty for strategies to improve male sexual function in order to improve their quality of life.
“It is crucial to take a more global approach to the management of ED, one that focuses not only on chronic diseases but also men’s sexual quality of life,” the researchers said.
Dr. Akinola added that 50 per cent of men aged 50 experience some degrees of erectile problems.
“It’s quite a common thing but to prevent it, you have to target what we refer to as modifiable risk factors. These are things that target your arteries, veins, and nerves. The important takeaway message for men trying to improve their sexual performance is the importance of being in good health and exercising,” Akinola said.
According to him, some common medications can also have negative effects on male libido and erection.
He said the sexual performance of a man may be decreased by drugs that block the testosterone.
“Any medication that will alter the hormones in the body can affect sexual function. Any medication that lowers testosterone can do that. Some other medications that can cause erectile dysfunction are common blood pressure medications such as beta-blockers.
“It is advisable to discuss with your doctor if you notice a decline in your erectile function after starting a new medicine,” he said.
A Florida House committee on Thursday passed a bill that aims to ban discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. The bill would stop educators from talking about LGBTQ+ topics that are not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students. An identical bill has also been introduced in Florida’s state Senate.
The Parental Rights in Education bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, was passed in the House Education and Employment Committee largely along party lines.
Florida state Rep. Joe Harding, who first introduced the bill, said This bill was about defending the most awesome responsibility a person can have, “being a parent, That job can only be given to you by above.”
According to the bill, parents can take legal action against their child’s school district and be awarded damages if they believe any of its policies infringe on their “fundamental right to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children.”
Now, parents can now be notified when issues with kids come up. School district personnel cannot discourage or prohibit parental notification and involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical well-being”.
Thousands of Sudanese protesters rallied Monday calling for civilian rule and demanding justice for those killed in crackdowns since a military coup nearly three months ago, according to correspondents.
Crowds in the capital Khartoum chanting slogans against the army headed toward the presidential palace, an area which security forces had sealed off ahead of the march.
Protests were also held in cities including Wad Madani, south of the capital, and the eastern state of Gedaref, according to witnesses.
“No, no to military rule,” and “civilian (rule) is the people’s choice” protesters shouted in Wad Madani, according to witness Emad Mohamed.
Sudan has been rocked by regular protests since the October 25 military power grab led by general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The coup derailed a civilian-military power-sharing deal painstakingly negotiated after the 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir and a planned for transition to civilian rule.
Anti-coup demonstrations have left at least 73 people killed and hundreds wounded, according to medics.
Sudan’s authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition against demonstrators, and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during protests.
A police general was stabbed to death during the unrest earlier this month.
Last week, senior US diplomats visited Sudan in a bid to bolster UN-led efforts to cajole the military into restoring a transition to full civilian rule.
UN envoy Volker Perthes earlier this month launched individual talks with various Sudanese factions in a push to resolve the crisis.
The ruling Sovereign Council formed by Burhan following the coup with himself as chairman has welcomed the UN-led dialogue, as have the United States, Britain, neighbouring Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The Forces for Freedom and Change, Sudan’s main civilian bloc, also joined consultations “to restore the democratic transition”.
Hundreds of pro-democracy activists have also been arrested in the crackdown on anti-coup activists.
On Saturday, a leading women rights activist Amira Othman was arrested following a raid by security forces on her home in Khartoum, according to a statement by the “No to Women’s Oppression” initiative which she leads.
Perthes slammed Othman’s arrest saying the “arrest and pattern of violence against women’s rights activists severely risks reducing their political participation in Sudan.”
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