Ghana’s navy has foiled an attack on a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Guinea, a statement from the armed forces said.
It took place about 170km (105 miles) from the Ghanaian coast where pirates in two speedboats attempted to board a tuna fishing boat.
The navy patrol successfully intervened and there were no casualties, the authorities said.
In the statement, the armed forces also said that the navy had decided to deploy armed personnel on fishing vessels that operate off its coast in an effort to curb piracy.
The idea is aimed at “ensuring a safe and secure maritime environment for the smooth operations of fishing and commercial vessels”, it said.
The navy has also recently doubled its patrols to deal with a growing number of pirate attacks.
Authorities in Nigeria have announced that government workers who have not received Covid-19 jabs will not be allowed into their offices from December despite resistance and outrage from Nigerians.
This effectively makes covid vaccines mandatory for federal civil servants across the country – a policy The government has been considering for several months.
Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on Covid-19 Boss Mustapha said proof of a negative Covid test done within 72 hours will be the only other option for government employees.
This is despite proven calls by medical scientists that the vaccines have made people more vulnerable to the variants recently discovered.
Many anti-vaxers have raised alarm over the side effects encountered by the jabs. Recently a bank worker is said to have died from the jab in Delta state south south Nigeria raising concerns and questions why government is insistent on forcing workers to take the jab.
Reigning US Open champion Daniil Medvedev joined the growing list of top-seed casualties at the ATP/WTA Indian Wells on Wednesday, losing in the fourth round to world No. 28 Grigor Dimitrov 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Medvedev, who won his first Grand Slam title last month at Flushing Meadows, had not lost a set heading into the fourth round but dropped eight straight games, and had his serve broken six times against Dimitrov, en route to a stunning early exit for the top seed.
“I don’t remember myself losing three service games, even four service games ever on hard courts,” Medvedev said.
“That shows how slow this court is and the conditions, more like clay, which I don’t like. To lose four times the serve is just unacceptable. That’s why I lost the (second) set.”
World No. 2 Medvedev did not take a break after his emotional US Open victory and said his busy schedule may have finally caught up with him.
“I did feel exhausted in this tournament. Now I can say it. I couldn’t say it before my matches. There are a few physical things that have come up,” said Medvedev, who is hoping to eventually overtake world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Medvedev won the first set, was up 4-1 in the second and appeared to be cruising to another easy victory when the wheels came off: his unforced errors mounted and service game fell flat.
Medvedev had no answers for the way Dimitrov was playing and predicted the Bulgarian would likely go on to capture the title.
“If he plays like this, like the way he played me from 4-1, then he is going to win the tournament,” Medvedev said.
“He played the second half of the match better than anyone did against me at the US Open. It is not like I gave him the match.”
The match turned in the sixth game of the second set as Dimitrov broke Medvedev’s serve for the second time in the set to cut the Russian’s lead to 4-2.
Dimitrov held serve in the next game and then broke Medvedev’s serve twice more to take the set and lay the foundation for a dominating performance in the third.
The Bulgarian closed out the match on the first match point, when Medvedev blasted a forehand long.
“Been watching quite a bit of his matches,” Dimitrov said of Medvedev. “I really wanted to play this match to be completely honest. What he has been able to accomplish this past year and a half is pretty amazing. I think it really pushes me also to do better.”
Dimitrov will face Polish eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz, who rolled over Russian Aslan Karatsev 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday in the quarter-finals.
Minor setback The 25-year-old Medvedev beat Djokovic in the US Open final last month to prevent the Serbian star from becoming the first man since the legendary Rod Laver in the 1960s to win all four Grand Slams in the same year.
On Wednesday, Medvedev made six double faults in the two hour, 15 minute match in the main stadium.
Medvedev, who has won 50 matches in 2021, described this as a minor setback because this event is not a Grand Slam.
“I don’t see this as the end of the world. I don’t think this would happen in a Grand Slam,” he said.
This is the second time Dimitrov has beaten Medvedev in five career meetings. The last time was a three-set win in their first encounter in 2017 in London.
In other men’s fourth-round matches on Wednesday, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Australian Alex De Minaur 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 and third-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany overpowered France’s Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-3 in just 61 minutes.
In the women’s draw, two-time winner Victoria Azarenka punched her ticket to the semi-finals with a straight-sets win — 6-4, 6-2 — over Jessica Pegula.
Azarenka, who is the only player left in the women’s and men’s fields to have won in Indian Wells, captured the title in 2012 and 2016.
The 32-year-old from Belarus needed 94 minutes to end the run of American Pegula and reach the final four of this event for the fourth time in her career.
“I really played well in the crucial moments,” Azarenka said. “I felt like I stepped up to the occasion a lot. That’s what I’m really happy with today.”
Azarenka will next face Jelena Ostapenko for a spot in the women’s final.
Arsene Wenger, full of revolutionary zeal in his role as FIFA’s development director, believes an automated, electronic offside system could be in place at next year’s World Cup finals in Qatar.
The former Arsenal manager, who is promoting a reconditioned international calendar built around a World Cup every two years, revealed football’s next step into the brave new high-tech world at a Paris media briefing.
Arsene Wenger, French revolutionary His suggestion confirmed the increasing pace of the world federation’s devouring of the law-making International Board. The process began under disgraced former president Sepp Blatter and has accelerated under successor Gianni Infantino. Wenger said: “There is a good chance that offside will be automated in 2022. I am obliged to keep the details a secret but it will be the next of the great evolutions in refereeing.”
Goal-line technology was introduced at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and then video assistant refereeing at the finals in 2018 in Russia. Experimentation with automated refereeing has been underway for some time after the controversies which arose over hairline decisions following the widespread introduction of VAR into domestic competitions.
FIFA announced in June 2020 that it was considering “developing semi-automated technology to signal offside, in order to provide the VAR with additional information that would simplify the referee’s decision-making and optimize image analysis.” The next World Cup finals, the first to be played in the northern hemisphere winter, will take place from November 21 to December 18, 2022.
European federation UEFA has told all its 55 member associations that players must be released by their clubs only one week ahead of the Opening Match. This means that national coaches, instead of having at least two weeks with their squads, will have little time at all. The only opportunity for pre-finals experimentation will be the UEFA Nations League international break in mid-September.
A toolkit to improve practice environments for women in pharmaceutical science and pharmacy education has been released by the International Pharmaceutical Federation.
According to a press statement issued by the federation on Wednesday and made available to Newsmen, the toolkit was developed by the FIP Women in Science and Education (FIPWiSE) Enabling Workplaces Working Group.
The toolkit, the statement says, builds on the federation’s collaborative work with the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) to ensure positive practice environments (PPEs) for healthcare professionals.
Based on the WHPA’s PPE campaign, literature, and experiences of women pharmaceutical scientists and educators, the toolkit raises awareness of areas that require attention.
These have been categorised into five key domains: Equal incentives for equal work; Work-life balance; Creating supportive and safe working environments; Opportunities for professional development, recognition, and empowerment; and Women in leadership.
The toolkit presents possible solutions that can be implemented by professionals, employers, and policymakers to generate and maintain supportive working environments, accompanied by case studies.
It contains materials that can be used to raise awareness on PPEs for women in science and education and includes interviews on PPEs with Dr. Roopa Dhatt, executive director, Women in Global Health, and Mr. Howard Catton, 2021 chair, WHPA, and CEO of the International Council of Nurses.
Although women comprise the majority of the health and care workforce, they are underrepresented in the science, technology, and education workforce.
In addition, when it comes to career progression, there are significant differences between genders in these fields. For example, there is evidence that women have fewer papers published, the toolkit notes.
“We see women making an extraordinary contribution to global health, but not yet being rewarded equally with men in pay, leadership or career progression.
“By creating and maintaining positive practice environments we can help women to achieve their full potential in all sectors, including in education and science.
“The FIPWiSE toolkit focuses on education and science workplaces, but learnings can be expanded across the entire pharmaceutical workforce. When an environment is supportive, enabling, and collaborative, we can all thrive,” said FIP CEO, Dr. Catherine Duggan.
The International Pharmaceutical Federation is the global federation of national associations of pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, and pharmacy educators, and is in official relations with the World Health Organisation. Through its 147 member organisations, it represents over four million practitioners and scientists around the world.
The FIP launched its FIPWiSE initiative in 2020 to help women reach their fullest potential in fields of pharmaceutical science and education and to attract young women into these fields.
A public health expert, Dr. Tunji Akintade has warned that complications from untreated mumps infection can cause infertility in men, noting that those who have the viral infection should always ensure they seek proper treatment.
According to Akintade, if the viral infection is poorly treated or untreated, it could still resurface.
According to an article published by Healthline.com – an online medical site, mumps is a contagious disease caused by a virus that passes from one person to another through saliva, nasal secretions, and close personal contact.
The article further disclosed that “Females infected with mumps may experience swelling of the ovaries. The inflammation can be painful but doesn’t harm a woman’s eggs.
“However, if a woman contracts mumps during pregnancy, she has a higher-than-normal risk of experiencing a miscarriage,” it said.
According to Akintade, because the parotid gland is a lymphatic system the sufferer of mumps infection may have a lot of swelling, noting that it causes fever and pain because of the enlargement of the capsule.
Speaking in an interview with Newsmen, the former Chairman of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria noted that mumps is caused by a lack of good personal hygiene.
Explaining how the infection affects fertility, Akintade said, “Any infection that tends to cause infection and blockage of the duct can affect anything.
“It affects the vas deferens, yes it does. Once the infection blocks it, there will be a backflow, a retrogress ejaculation and all of that.
“It obviously affects fertility. Once something is causing the blockage of sperm cells obviously what that means is that you are not going to be getting the adequate number that you need to fertilize an egg and what that means is that there’s a challenge here.”
Anything that affects that traffic will affect reproduction, Akintade explained.
Akintade added that as the infection is caused by a virus, the sufferer may not know when it would affect the reproductive organ as the swelling does not appear in the testes.
He, however, pointed out that with proper treatment by experts the mumps virus can be cleared up from the human system, stressing that getting proper treatment is crucial to averting its complications.
Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician who has been president of Nigeria since 2015.
Buhari was born to a Fulani family on 17 December 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, his father was called Mallam Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chieftain, and his mother’s name was Zulaihat, who had Hausa and Kanuri ancestry.
He is the twenty-third child of his father.
President Buhari was raised by his mother.
He was about four years old when his father died.
He attended primary school in Daura and Mai’adua, in 1953, Katsina Middle School, and attended Katsina Provincial Secondary School from 1956 to 1961.
On today’s Throwback Thursday, these are pictures of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR in Katsina Provincial Secondary School from 1956 to 1961.
1066 Battle of Hastings: William, Duke of Normandy and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II who is killed in the battle
1322 Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence
1774 1st Continental Congress makes Declaration of Colonial Rights in Philadelphia
1776 Baptism of Benjamin Randall as an adult, having switched to Baptist views while in the Continental Army.
1867 15th and last Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigns in Japan
1884 George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
1886 The Presbyterian Synod of Michigan adopts a resolution that leads to the founding of Alma College, principally to educate ministerial students for the Presbyterian Church.
1898 Slaughter of French Catholic missionary Henri Chanes and eleven Chinese Christians at Boluo in Guangdong Province. The massacre comes at a time of growing anti-foreigner sentiment in China, owing to Western seizures of Chinese ports and one-sided treaties forced on the hapless nation.
1916 Razafindrasoa of Madagascar takes her vows as a nun. Her Protestant family had opposed the move, even with beatings, until the last moment. Sister Marie-Joseph (the name she takes) will work with children and as a family counselor.
1933 Nazi Germany announces its withdrawal from the League of Nations
1982 US President Reagan proclaims a war on drugs
Today in Film & TV
2007 “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” featuring Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney Kardashian premieres on the E! cable network in the US
Today in Sport
1991 NY Rangers right wing Mike Gartner becomes the first player to score 500th NHL goals
Do you know this fact about today? Did You Know?
Arthur Conan Doyle publishes “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” collection of 12 stories originally published serially in “The Strand Magazine”, on this day in 1892
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