Asylum-seeking Djibouti footballer spends week in airport

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September 10, 2021

A member of Djibouti’s national football team has spent a week in transit at an international airport in France after seeking asylum in the European country.

Nassrodin Aptidon is one of three asylum-seeking Djibouti internationals who went missing at Paris’s Orly airport last Friday as the team travelled for a 2022 World Cup qualifier viaFrance.

Aptidon’s two colleagues – Bilal Hassan and Aboubakar Elmi – received clearance to leave the airport from French authorities on Wednesday following a meeting the goalkeeper had to miss because of a short illness.

He is expecting to hear shortly if he can leave the transit zone at the airport, where he has spent the last seven days and nights.

Upside-down rhino research wins Ig Nobel Prize

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Henry Williams

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September 10, 2021

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An experiment that hung rhinoceroses upside down to see what effect it had on the animals has been awarded one of this year’s Ig Nobel prizes.

Other recipients included teams that studied the bacteria in chewing gum stuck to pavements, and how to control cockroaches on submarines.

The spoof prizes are not as famous as the “real” Nobels – not quite.

The ceremony couldn’t take place at its usual home of Harvard University in the US because of Covid restrictions.

All the fun occurred online instead.
The science humour magazine, Annals of Improbable Research, says its Ig Nobel awards should first make you laugh but then make you think.

Gambia reconciliation chief critical of Jammeh alliance

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Henry Williams

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September 10, 2021

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The head of Gambia’s reconciliation commission has expressed disappointment at the political alliance between the parties of President Adama Barrow and former long-serving leader Yahya Jammeh

They have teamed up ahead of elections in December.

The Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) was established after Mr Jammeh fled the country in 2017 following his election defeat

Testimony has revealed that the former president oversaw murders, torture, targeting of opponents and sexual assault among other crimes during his two-decade long rule.

Attacks on schools must stop, says UN chief

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Henry Williams

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September 10, 2021

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday call on the global community to say with one voice that “attacks on schools must stop’’ and that schools be safe for schooling.

Guterres made the call at a virtual event to commemorate the International Day to Protect Education from Attack globally celebrated on Sept. 9.

Nevertheless, he added, “year after year, this fundamental right comes under attack”.
The top UN official encouraged the participants to imagine being a child in a classroom eager to learn, or a teacher dedicated to shaping the minds of the next generation.

Nigeria extends northern telecoms blackout as military hits bandits

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Henry Williams

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September 10, 2021

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Nigerian local authorities have extended a telecom shutdown in northwest Zamfara state to a neighbouring state as part of an ongoing military crackdown on gangs behind a series of mass kidnappings, an official said Friday.

Nigerian security forces in Zamfara last week began one of their largest recent operations against the armed gangs, known locally as bandits, in an attempt to halt the surge in violence.

Looking to disrupt the armed groups’ communications, the country’s telecoms regulator also ordered operators to shut their towers in Zamfara as the military began raids and air strikes on bandit hideouts.

A security aide to Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari said telecommunication services were now also shut in 13 of that state’s 34 districts on the border with Zamfara.

North Wales Medical School Plan Pushes Ahead

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Precious Obazee

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September 10, 2021

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More students will be able to undertake their entire training in North Wales as plans push ahead to establish a medical school.

The North Wales Chronicle reported earlier this year that the medical school could be ready by 2025.

The C21 North Wales programme, which is delivered in partnership by Bangor and Cardiff Universities, allows students to study for all of their medical degree in North Wales, with a greater focus on community medicine and a wide range of placements including a full year at a GP surgery.

This year, the programme will be expanded from 20 students to 25 and to 40 students in next year’s intake.

Swansea University’s Graduate entry medicine programme will also be funded to offer an extra 25 students in 2021.

Nasarawa State Tertiary Institutions Begin Indefinite Strike

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Precious Obazee

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September 10, 2021

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The members of staff of the three tertiary institutions in Nasarawa State have embarked on an indefinite strike.

The schools are the College of Education Akwanga; Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic, Lafia and College of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Lafia.

The institutions’ workers decried their exclusion from the ongoing implementation of promotions and annual increment of workers’ salaries across the state.

They also demanded the immediate removal of the state Head of Civil Service, Nicholas Abari Aboki, over their exclusion from the exercise.

Speaking at a press conference in Lafia, the state capital, the Chairman, Joint Union of Nasarawa State Tertiary Institutions, Dr Ada Benjamin, said the strike would continue until they were captured in the promotion exercise.

Benjamin said the issue of non-promotion and annual increment of workers’ salaries, which had lingered on for over ten years, involved all categories of workers in the state payroll.

He expressed dismay that the workers in the state-owned tertiary institutions were excluded from the implementation.

The state’s Head of Civil Service, while responding to the situation, said the strike was illegal as the workers did not follow the due process, adding that the workers’ letter containing their complaint was already before the state governor.

He was, however, silent on the call for his removal.

Kaduna Announces Fresh Resumption Dates For Schools

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Precious Obazee

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September 10, 2021

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The government of Kaduna State has released a new resumption schedule for its schools after months of disruption in the school calendar due to violent attacks by bandits in the state.

The state’s commissioner for education, Shehu Makarfi, disclosed this while taking part in a virtual workshop organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria.

The workshop which is organised as part of activities to mark the second anniversary of the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, was themed; “Consequences of Violent Attacks on Education in Nigeria.”

Makarfi says students are expected to resume on Sunday, September 12, 2021.

However, the commissioner said rather than resume for the third term that has been aborted, the schools will resume the first term for the 2021/2022 academic calendar.

He added that the state has worked out strategies towards ensuring the completion of the third term through online platforms

He said the resumption will be in phases.

Today in History – September 10 – American Naval Commander Perry Defeats The British In Battle Of Lake Erie

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Angel Gimalo

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September 10, 2021

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1776 George Washington asks for a spy volunteer, Nathan Hale volunteers1813 American Naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeats the British in Battle of Lake Erie1846 Elias Howe takes out a US patent for a lockstitch sewing machine1924 Leopold and Loeb found guilty of the murder of Robert Franks in Chicago in the “the crime of the century”1977 Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by Guillotine in France2008 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland2020 California’s August Complex wildfire becomes largest recorded in state history at 471,000 acres (736 square miles)Today in Film & TV
1993 “The X-Files”, created by Chris Carter and starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson debuts on FoxToday in Music
1991 Rock band Nirvana release their single “Smells like Teen Spirit”, often dubbed the anthem of Generation XToday in Sport
1972 American long distance runner Frank Shorter scores a famous win in the men’s marathon in 2:12:19.8 at the Munich OlympicsDo you know this fact about today? Did You Know?
London taxi driver George Smith is the first to be fined for drunk drivingWould you believe this fact about today? Would You Believe?
Mike the Headless Chicken is decapitated in Fruita, Colorado; he survives for another 18 months before choking to death.Famous Weddings1961 Nigerian novelist, critic and academic Chinua Achebe (“Things Fall Apart”) marries Christie Okoli

Mexico And U.S. Agree To Work On Supply Chains, Migration

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Zoe Maven

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September 9, 2021

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The United States and Mexico on Thursday agreed to work on making shared supply chains more competitive and invest in social programs to tackle migration, according to a joint statement released by Mexico after high-level economic talks.

The so-called High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) was held for the first time in several years and the two sides also signaled they need greater cooperation to combat challenges of climate change and workers’ rights.

The two countries will create a bilateral working group on supply chains, Mexico’s government said in the statement.

The working group will aim to increase the resilience of cross border trade and manufacturing in the face of disruption as well as to attract production lines from other parts of the world, the statement said.

The United States agreed to give technical support including collaborating with Mexico on tree-planting and student projects in Central America aimed at offering alternatives to migration, the statement said.

The talks in Washington came as the two sides seek to find solutions to a number of controversial issues, including automotive rules requiring certain amounts of parts to be sourced in North America and the court-ordered resumption of the “Stay in Mexico” program, which sends asylum seekers outside the United States while their cases are processed.

The two countries share a 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border and a commercial relationship that generates more than half a trillion dollars in annual bilateral trade, supporting millions of jobs in both countries.

Mexico and the United States have agreed on four pillars of focus for the high-level talks, and will approve an agenda on Thursday.