Sudan and Egypt have concluded military talks in Khartoum with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for joint cooperation between the two countries.
Sudanese Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohamed Osman El Hussein, and Egyptian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohamed Farid Hegazy, signed the MoU.
In a press release, El Hussein commended the remarkable development in relations between the two armies and thanked the Egyptian Armed Forces for their great support and cooperation.
His Egyptian counterpart asserted that relations between the countries are deep, indicating that the visit was a formal review of what had already been agreed upon.
Hegazy arrived at Khartoum airport on Thursday from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and resumed his trip immediately after signing the MoU.
The joint military cooperation between both countries comes in the wake of the unresolved Nile River row.
The AU has been sponsoring the stalled Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia since July last year.
Sudan and Egypt issued a joint statement on June 9 to express their concerns over unresolved issues regarding the GERD after a meeting between ministers of both countries.
This week, the European Union envoy to Ethiopia and Sudan, Beka Havistan, stressed the importance for Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt to reach an agreement, even if the agreement is transitional, on the issue of the GERD before Ethiopia starts the second filling in the current summer season.
Sudan, Egypt Sign Memorandum of Understanding for Joint Military Cooperation
Egypt Set To Receive 114 Looted Antiquities From France
A delegation from Egypt’s Public Prosecution Office has followed up on ongoing measures to ship 114 antiquities that had been looted and smuggled from the country to France.
Prosecutor-General Hamada el-Sawy arrived in Paris last week, along with Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Mostafa Waziri, for joint investigations to retrieve the looted artifacts in cooperation with French judicial authorities.
On Friday, Waziri revealed that the looted antiquities are due to return home on Sunday, after the successful joint investigations launched by Egypt’s Prosecution and French judicial bodies.
The investigations were aimed at stopping all attempts to sell the smuggled antiquities.
The artifacts, dating back to various eras of the Pharaonic history and Greek age, were smuggled out of Egypt and are not registered in the storehouses of the SCA.
Standards Organisation To Boost Nigeria’s Maintenance Culture
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), through its National Mirror Committee on Facility Management is making plans to boost Nigeria’s maintenance culture to ensure quality and safety of public and private facilities.
Chairman of the committee which is also known as ISO/TC267NMC, Collins Osayamwen, made the disclosure in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
According to Osayamwen, no fewer than 10 professional associations, including the Association of Facility Global fISO/TC267, International Facilities Services, among others, will share experiences and ideas that will be beneficial to Nigerians.
He said that the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Tunde Ayeye, the Group Managing Director, International Facilities Services and other stakeholders would attend the event.
According to him, the event which will be held virtually on June 29, will enlighten the audience on how the new ISO41000 standard will be a game-changer to the facility management sector.
He added that ISO/TC267 would also collaborate with the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) as well as the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors.
Nigeria Targets Trans-Saharan, European Markets With $2.8 Billion Ajaokuta, Kaduna, Kano Gas Project
The Federal Government says it is targeting Trans-Saharan and European markets with the ongoing construction of the Ajaokuta, Kaduna, Kano Gas Pipeline, popularly known as AKK Gas Pipeline.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, told a forum of journalists that plan is to get the gas pipeline to Kano, then all the way to Algeria at the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline and then link up with the Algerian pipeline and then to Europe.
Sylva said that when completed, the gas pipeline would also serve as a development backbone along the Southern-Northern corridors of the country.
He said : “AKK gas pipeline is good for producers and the market because we have a lot of situations where gas is capped in the South and not produced because there is no market.
“But what we want to do now is to bring the gas across Nigeria, so that when you are now moving gas from South to North, all the people along that corridor can key into that pipeline.
“What that means is that people will have access to gas anywhere in Nigeria. It will also enable Nigerians to invest in a gas-based industry anywhere in Nigeria.
He added: This is also good for the producer because he now has incentives to produce more. Before now, the gas in the South was capped but with this backbone, anybody can produce and link up with the AKK pipeline.”
According to him, the construction of the AKK Gas Pipeline will eliminate gas flaring completely in the country as it will absorb the remaining eight per cent currently being flared.
Gambia’s Education Minister Defends Extended School Days
The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), in Gambia, Claudiana Cole, advanced reasons for stretching School days from Monday to Saturday, when she appeared before the country’s National Assembly.
Cole appeared to give explanations in response to a question raised by the Member for Bakau, Assan Touray, who asked the Minister to inform Members of parliament of the modalities in place to support learning activities in bigger schools, adding that students have resumed in the midst of a pandemic with school days stretched from Monday to Saturday.
In her response, the Minister told the MPs that the Ministry developed modalities for the reopening of Schools to ensure continuity of learning during the pandemic.
She said the models are tailored to suit the needs of Schools with a target of achieving 200 days on the School calendar. She however said the modalities are not one size fits all; that hence based on simulation, only 23 Schools across the country were expected to alternate.
Cole also explained the reasons for stretching School days from Monday to Saturday for Primary Schools and for all categories of Schools as well.
She said considering the social distancing requirement in Classrooms, those that accommodate up to 45, will take half of that number.
She said the Ministry needed to double the number of Classrooms that are currently available to be able to accommodate students and to give them equal amount of contact time for the School year.
She said this is the reason why for Schools which did not have enough Classrooms, they had to use different models and the alternating model is one that they use for the big Schools.
The Minister said this will ensure that all students would have the opportunity to be in Schools for a certain number of days in a week.
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board Releases 2021 UTME Results
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says candidates who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) between June 19 and 22, can now access their results using the short USSD code of 55019.
A statement issued by the examination body and signed by its head, public affairs and protocol, Fabian Benjamin, hailed the adoption of the unique National Identification Number (NIN) for what he described as the sharp reduction in the incidence of malpractices during the examination.
He said that the Board noted with satisfaction that the utilisation of NIN (National Identification Number) has helped in curbing examination malpractices as the 2021 UTME has recorded the least incidence of irregularities since the inception of the CBT examinations in Nigeria.”
However, Benjamin noted that will continue its review of the CCTV footages and other technical gadgets for detection of possible examination misconducts.
The JAMB spokesman also revealed that few results are currently being withheld for further investigations, threatening that the board would not hesitate to withdraw the results of any candidate subsequently found to have committed any form of examination misconduct.
JAMB had commenced the ongoing examination on June 19 and said it would continue till July 3.
More than 1.3 million candidates are taking part in the examination across more than 700 computer based centres nationwide.
Due to what it described as their below standard performance, the examination body delisted a total of 30 centres and placed 53 on its watchlist.
Kanye & Yeezy Sue Walmart For Selling Fake Foam Runners
Kanye West and his Yeezy sneaker label are suing Walmart, accusing the retail giant of selling fake shoes.
The complaint which was filed Thursday in California court in Los Angeles, claims the giant discounter has been selling fake versions of his bizarre-looking Foam Runner slides.
Introduced last year at a retail price of $75, the genuine Yeezy slides initially drew unflattering comparisons to Crocs. Nevertheless, they “instantly” sold out, and now sell for upwards of three times that on the secondary market, according to the suit.
“Walmart is flagrantly trading off of his and Yeezy brand’s popularity by offering for sale an imitation version of the Yeezy Foam Runner,” according to the suit.
The document noted that “the Yeezy brand is worth ‘billions’ of dollars, and the potential loss from the imitation shoes in the ‘hundreds of millions.’”
It stated that celebrities are often seen photographed in the Yeezy brand, which in turn “enhances the brand’s popularity and appeal to the general public.”
According to the lawsuit, Yeezy is “losing market shares” with the imitation shoes allegedly harming the reputation and the goodwill of the rapper’s brand.
Walmart appears to have removed most of the counterfeit Foam Runners from its web site, though some could still be found in a search of its site on Thursday afternoon, Fox Business reported.
Walmart issued a statement to TMZ Thursday explaining that the product in question was being sold via their platform by a reseller, and not the company itself.
“The product referenced in the complaint is not sold by Walmart, but rather by third party Marketplace sellers,” a company rep told the outlet.
“We take allegations like this seriously and are reviewing the claim. We will respond in court as appropriate after we have been served with the complaint.”
US Holds First Meeting With Israel’s New FM Amid Iran Moves
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Israel’s new top diplomat Yair Lapid on Sunday, in the United States’ first face-to-face meeting with the recently installed government that seeks a less combative approach with its main ally Washington.
Lapid, a centrist who delayed his own plans to be prime minister as he masterminded a coalition to unseat veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is flying to Rome to see Blinken, who arrives in Italy on Sunday on a three-nation tour of Europe.
The meeting comes as President Joe Biden’s administration moves ahead with fresh talks on reviving a 2015 accord with Iran in which Tehran drastically scaled back nuclear work in return for promises of sanctions relief.
This move has been strongly opposed by Israel.
Biden and Blinken are also eager to preserve a fragile ceasefire that took effect on May 21 between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the worst fighting since 2014.
Lapid, who took office on June 13 under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a nationalist, has accused Netanyahu of jeopardizing Israel’s once rock-solid support in the United States by openly rallying behind former president Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
The new coalition government still sees Iran as the major threat to Israel, and has launched its own strikes on the Gaza Strip but has pledged to put the alliance with Washington first and to try to keep differences private.
After one of Lapid’s telephone conversations with Blinken, the Israeli foreign ministry said that the two agreed on no surprises in the relationship.
In his three days in Italy, Blinken will see Pope Francis on Monday which will be the pontiff’s first meeting with a high-ranking Biden administration official.
Blinken will also take part in meetings hosted by Italy of the Group of 20 major economies and of the coalition to defeat the Islamic State extremist group.
Blinken kicked off his trip to Europe in Berlin, where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Sudan Approves New Economic Reforms, Cuts Government Spending
Sudan cabinet says government will cut its spending and increase social spending, after completing a raft of rapid economic reforms this month that threaten to compound pressures on the majority of the population.
Earlier this month, Sudan fully removed subsidies on car petrol and diesel, and in February it devalued its currency and began a policy of a flexible managed float.
Last week it eliminated its customs exchange rate, used to calculate import duties, as the final step in a devaluation of its local currency.
The country will cut costs of external official trips by 50%, reduce fuel quotas for government vehicles by 20%, sell all surplus government vehicles and cut embassies’ budgets by 25% among other measures, the cabinet said on Saturday after three days of closed meetings.
Sudanese money – pound a business background
The government will expand the registration of a family support project called Thamarat or Fruits to include three million families or about 15 million people within two months.
Through the program financed by the World Bank and other donors, Sudan is paying out monthly cash allowances to these families to ease economic pain.
The new measures include increasing the budget of another program that was meant to provide cheap food commodities from two billion Sudanese pounds ($4.51 million) to 10 billion pounds ($22.54 million).
The government will pay a monthly grant of 10 billion pounds to all state workers, not subject to taxes, starting from July 1, most of which will be allocated to the lowest grades of workers.
It also promised to review the salary structure and to apply a new improved one starting from the fiscal year 2022.
Sudan is emerging from decades of economic sanctions and isolation under ousted former President Omar al-Bashir.
It had built up huge arrears on its debt, but has made rapid progress towards having much of it forgiven under the IMF and World Bank’s Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) scheme, which would reopen access to badly needed cheap international financing.
The IMF said on Tuesday it has secured sufficient financing pledges to allow it to provide comprehensive debt relief to Sudan, clearing a final hurdle towards wider relief on external debt of at least $50 billion.
Tanzania High Court Overturns Opposition Leader Mbowe’s Conviction
Tanzania’s High Court in Dar es Salaam has overturned a ruling that convicted Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and eight other party leaders of several charges.
Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in March found them guilty of the offences and ordered them to pay a total of Tsh350 million (about $150,955) in fines.
They had been charged with conspiracy to commit offences, unlawful assembly, rioting after proclamation, raising discontent and ill-will for unlawful purposes, sedition and inciting commission of offences committed between February 1 and 16, 2018 in Dar es Salaam.
However, party lawyer John Mallya said the High Court has ordered the reimbursement of Chadema leaders.
