Suspects Arrested As Madagascar Foils Assassination Attempt On President Rajoelina

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July 22, 2021

The prosecutor general’s office in Madagascar says it foiled an assassination attempt on President Andry Rajoelina, and arrested several “foreign and Malagasy” suspects.

Two French people are among several arrested in the Indian Ocean island nation on Tuesday “as part of an investigation for undermining state security”, diplomatic sources said.

“Several foreign and Madagascar nationals were arrested on Tuesday, July 20, as part of an investigation into an attack on state security,” said prosecutor Berthine Razafiarivony, in a statement released overnight.

According to Radio France Internationale, the foreigners detained were Paul Rafanoharana, a Franco-Malagasy, and Philippe Francois, a Frenchman.

Rafanoharana was arrested at his house Tuesday evening, according to the media outlet’s unidentified source, while Francois was stopped at Ivato Airport as he was preparing to leave for France.

Olympic Football Opener: Mexico Defeats France As Egypt Holds Spain

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Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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France’s bid for men’s Olympic football glory got off to a nightmare start with a 4-1 defeat by Mexico on Thursday, while a strong Spain side stuttered to a goalless stalemate with Egypt.

Sylvain Ripoll’s France are looking for a first Olympic medal since winning gold in 1984, but collapsed in the second half at the Tokyo Stadium.

Mexico took the lead less than two minutes after the break at the Tokyo Stadium through Alexis Vega, before Sebastian Cordova doubled the advantage in the 55th minute.

The 35-year-old captain Andre-Pierre Gignac, whose last game for the French senior team was the Euro 2016 final loss to Portugal, pulled one back from the penalty spot with 21 minutes remaining.

But any thoughts of a comeback were quashed as Uriel Antuna and Eduardo Aguirre netted late on for 2012 champions Mexico.

France now face a tough task to get out of Group A with a top-two finish, ahead of games against Covid-hit South Africa on Sunday and hosts Japan on July 28.

Spain also struggled in Sapporo, as a team featuring six players who reached the Euro 2020 semi-finals dominated possession but created few chances against Egypt.

The closest they came to a goal was when Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos, who recently spent two seasons on loan at Arsenal, crashed a first-half shot against the post.

Spain, winners on home soil in 1992, next take on Australia in three days’ time before their final Group C match with Argentina.

New Zealand made a successful start in Group B as Burnley striker Chris Wood, one of the three over-age players in the squad, secured a 1-0 victory over South Korea in Kashima with his 72nd-minute winner.

Reigning champions Brazil get their campaign underway later on Thursday against Germany.

Plane Crash: Russia Takes Ukraine To European Court

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Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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Russia said Thursday it had filed a complaint against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights, blaming Kiev for the 2014 crash of a Malaysian airliner and civilian deaths in Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has sent the Strasbourg-based court an “inter-state complaint against Ukraine in accordance with Article 33 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement.

The Russian prosecutors unfurled a litany of Ukraine’s alleged transgressions, blaming Kiev authorities for civilian deaths during a popular uprising in 2014 and a conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.

Moscow also said that shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces had killed and wounded people in southern Russia.

“Ukraine’s armed forces are carrying out hostilities that pose a real threat to the life and health of Russian citizens who live in border regions, and force thousands of Ukrainian citizens to seek refuge in Russia,” the statement said.

In the complaint, Moscow blamed Ukrainian authorities for the deaths of 298 people aboard a Boeing 777 which was taken out of the sky by a ground-air missile system in July 2014, saying Kiev refused to close airspace over war-torn eastern Ukraine.

An international investigation concluded that the BUK missile that shot down the plane had originally come from the Russian army’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade based in the city of Kursk.

The Russian prosecutors accused Kiev of discriminating against Russian speakers and companies as well as cutting fresh water supplies to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Ties between Ukraine and Russia were shredded after Kiev’s 2014 pro-Western uprising that ousted a Kremlin-backed regime.

Kiev and its Western allies have accused Moscow of sending troops and weapons across the border to support Ukraine’s separatists.

After a largely respected truce in the second half of 2020, tensions have risen again this year, especially after Moscow deployed around 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s borders in the spring.

Forest Evacuation: Taraba Emir Issues 30-Day Ultimatum To Herders

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Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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The Emir of Muri Empire in Taraba State, Abbas Tafida, has issued a 30-day ultimatum to herders terrorising residents of the state to vacate forests within the state or be forced to do so.

The Emir gave the ultimatum on Tuesday.

This follows a rising spate of kidnappings, killings, and attacks in the state by criminals suspected to be herders.

He claimed that Fulani herders are responsible for perpetrating crimes in the state and should therefore vacate forests in the state within 30 days or be forced out.

The Emir, who spoke in the Hausa language, urged the leadership of Fulani herdsmen to fish out the bad eggs among them.

“Our Fulani herdsmen in the forests, you came into this state and we accepted you, why then will you be coming to towns and villages to kidnap residents, even up to the extent of raping our women?

“Because of this unending menace, every Fulani herdsman in this state have been given 30 days ultimatum to vacate the forests. We are tired of having sleepless nights and the hunger alone in the land is enormous and we will not allow it to continue,” the Emir said.

Taraba, located in the Northeast, is faced with heinous crimes ranging from kidnapping to bandit attacks.

Basketball: Bucks Power To First NBA Title Since 1971

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Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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Giannis Antetokounmpo delivered a historic 50-point performance when it mattered most in leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA title since 1971 by defeating the Phoenix Suns 105-98 on Tuesday.

The Bucks captured the best-of-seven NBA Finals by four games to two, becoming only the fifth team to claim the crown after dropping the first two contests.

Antetokounmpo, only the seventh player in finals history with a 50-point game, made 17-of-19 free throws while adding 14 rebounds and five blocked shots as the Bucks went an NBA-best 10-1 at home in the playoffs to end a half-century title drought.

“I want to thank Milwaukee for believing in me. I want to thank my teammates for playing hard with me,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m thankful I was able to get it done.”

The 26-year-old Greek forward matched the greatest scoring night in a close-out game in finals history, the 50-point effort by Bob Pettit in 1958 for the St. Louis Hawks over Boston.

“He put us on his back. When we needed him, he told us to just feed him,” Bucks guard Khris Middleton said. “It’s amazing to be on this journey with him.”

Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Antetokounmpo, who had been questionable for the opener with a hyperextended knee, also equaled Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to take NBA Finals MVP and NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season.

“He’s a special human being. I’ve learned so much from him. He’s a special leader,” said Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer. “These players are champions every day. They’ve embraced getting better every day.”

An expanded “Deer District” party zone outside the sold-out 20,000-seat arena welcomed 65,000 people watching on videoscreens and they had the celebration they had hoped to enjoy.

“I’m happy I was able to do it with this team for Milwaukee,” said Antetokounmpo. “And Coach Bud says we have to do it again.”

The Suns were foiled in their bid for the first crown in their 53-year history. Phoenix guard Chris Paul, playing in the first NBA Finals of his 16-year at age 36, led the Suns with 26 points.

“It hurts. Badly,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “But I’m also grateful we had this chance to play for a championship. The fourth quarter, it was pretty evident we just couldn’t score enough. We just couldn’t convert.”

Relentless Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 20 third-quarter points in a 16-8 Bucks run that gave Milwaukee a 58-55 lead only 4:34 into the second half.

He was the first with a 20-point quarter in the finals since Jordan and the game hung on a knife’s edge, deadlocked at 77-77 entering the fourth quarter.

Antetokounmpo scored eight for the Bucks in a 10-6 Milwaukee run for a 94-88 lead midway into the fourth quarter and time and again he would drive to the basket when the Suns cut into the Bucks’ lead.

Australian Regulator To Probe Amazon, ebay Among Online Markets

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Koko Lawrence

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July 22, 2021

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The Australian antitrust regulator on Thursday began an inquiry into the local units of Amazon.com Inc, eBay Inc and other online markets to ensure fairness in a sector where sales have soared through the pandemic.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which previously slapped the world’s toughest content licencing rules on Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, said it was now looking at retail as part of a wider examination of so-called Big Tech.

“Online marketplaces are an important and growing segment of the economy so it is important that we understand how online marketplaces operate and whether they are working effectively for consumers and businesses,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said in a statement.

“We want to be sure that the rules that apply to traditional retail are also complied with in the online context.”

The ACCC would take submissions until mid-August with a final report due in March 2022, the regulator said.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company looked “forward to engaging with the ACCC on these important topics in the coming months”, while an eBay representative was not immediately available for comment.

The Australian regulator said it would examine the relationships between large online markets and third-party sellers and shoppers, including competition impacts and handling of data, complaints and reviews.

Amazon has not reached the market dominance in Australia since launching in 2017 that it experiences elsewhere, but still doubled sales in calendar 2020, the ACCC said.

Overall, Australian online purchases jumped 57% in 2020 for a record $50.5 billion spend amid a series of coronavirus lockdowns, it added.

The ACCC said it had received wide-ranging complaints, including the “quality of goods sold on marketplaces, the timeliness of payment remittance to sellers, how goods are put on display on marketplaces, and the level of support provided by marketplaces to consumers when disputes arise”.

The ACCC has been conducting a series of investigations in recent months as part of a broader Digital Platform Services Inquiry.

Nigerian Scientist develops non-electric Ventilators

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Olasunbo Okoromi

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July 22, 2021

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Yusuf Bilesanmi has won the Africa Prize for Engineering for developing an efficient and working ventilator that does not require electricity and uses way less oxygen to carry out the same function as a regular ventilator.

The Lagos State University graduate owns Shifa Technology, the company that created the ShiVent system which allows non-specialized workers to treat patients with coronavirus.

The team comprising of Yusuf Bilesanmi, Ricardo Nascimento, Dr Yusuf Shittu, Gaurav Nanajkar and Pawel Nycz designed the ventilator with four key features: Simple to use- by the average health workers and takes only 30 minutes of training; Low-Cost, that is it can be produced at a very small fraction of the price of the average ventilator; Non-Electric, making it suitable for hospital settings with unreliable power supply; Oxygen-Efficient, requiring almost as little as a third of the average oxygen consumption of High Flow Oxygen systems.

ShiVent has been tested at Loughborough’s National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) and the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital.

It has also had a preliminary clinical functionality test at Glenfield Hospital.

A shipment of five units has been sent to Lagos, Nigeria, with more ventilators sent to Pune, in India. Following trials in Lagos and Pune, the team plans to roll out the system in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia and is in the process of exploring opportunities in South America as well.

ShiVent is designed for under-resourced areas where mechanical ventilators are scarce and expensive, with unreliable electricity supply and limited specialist knowledge.

The ShiVent is a simple, low-cost ventilatory alternative which does not depend on electricity and is widely replicable.

Russian Rocket Departs To Deliver New Science Module To International Space Station

By

Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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A Russian rocket has departed the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to deliver a new science module to the International space station (ISS).

The 13m-long, 20-tonne Nauka laboratory will go on the rear of the orbiting platform, connected to the other major Russian segments, Zvezda and Zarya.

The new module carries with it a large robotic arm (ERA) supplied by the European Space Agency (Esa).

Nauka is much delayed. It was originally supposed to launch in 2007.

But it suffered repeated slips in schedule, in part because of budget difficulties but also because engineers encountered a raft of technical problems during development.

The module will result in a significant boost inhabitable volume for the ISS, raising it by 70 cubic metres.

Cosmonauts will use the extra space to conduct experiments and store cargo. They’ll also use it as a rest area.

The last sizeable Russian segment sent to the station was Rassvet. This 6m-long storage unit was lifted into place in 2010 by one of the last US shuttle flights.

Nauka goes up just as Russia has been questioning its future role in the ISS project.

Moscow officials recently warned about the more-than-20-year age of some of their on-orbit hardware and intimated the country could pull out of the station in 2025. And Russia has shown little interest in joining the US-led lunar platform, known as the Gateway, which will be assembled this decade.

Nauka’s long gestation has severely impacted the schedule of its 11m-long European robotic arm (ERA).

The ERA was completed so long ago that it had to be put in storage.

Engineers would occasionally pull it out to test its systems.

The ERA will be able to operate all around the Russian end of the ISS. With the aid of an “elbow” joint, it will shift position by moving hand over hand.

It’s capable of grappling components of up to eight tonnes in mass with a precision of 5mm.

ISS crewmembers will also be able to use the arm to move themselves when on a spacewalk.

Nauka’s flight to the ISS will take just over the week.

Controllers need first to remove a freighter and an old docking port from the location where the new module will be linked to the station.

Final attachment is not expected until 29 July at the earliest.

Mars Rover: NASA’s Perseverance To Drill First Rock Sample

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Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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The US space agency’s Perseverance rover is getting ready to take its first sample of Mars rock.

The core, about the size of a finger, will be packaged in a sealed tube for eventual return to Earth.

Scientists say their best chance of determining whether Mars ever hosted life is to study its surface materials in sophisticated home laboratories.

Perseverance landed on the Red Planet in February, in a 45km-wide (30 miles) crater called Jezero.

Satellite images indicate this deep depression once held a lake, fed by a deltaic river.

As such, it is considered a great candidate for the preservation of ancient microbial organisms – if they ever existed.

The NASA robot has driven about 1km (3,000ft) south from where it touched down in dramatic fashion five months ago.

It’s now stopped at a location that’s been dubbed the “Paver Stones”, or “Fractured Rough”.

An area on Mars nicknamed the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough”

This is a collection of pale-coloured rocks that the mission team believes represents the base, or floor, of Jezero.

The scientists want to determine whether these Paver Stones are sedimentary or volcanic in origin. Either is interesting, but the special quality of volcanic rocks is that they can be dated with very high precision and accuracy in a lab, says chief scientist Ken Farley.

“That would really pin down the timing of many of the things we are looking at on Mars,” he told reporters.

Perseverance will first abrade the surface of a chosen section of Paver Stone, to remove Mars’ obscuring dust, and then examine the site with its powerful instruments.

China Flood: Train Carriage Submerged, Hundreds Saved

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Angel Gimalo

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July 22, 2021

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As floodwater crashed through a busy subway station in China on Tuesday, desperate passengers tried to flee while others were swept helplessly off platforms.

In one train carriage, water seeped in and rose from ankle, to waist, to neck-height. Panicked commuters stretched upwards to breathe, while others lifted shorter people into the shrinking air pocket above.

In terrifying videos shared on social media, some passengers can be seen standing on chairs and clinging to the ceiling as the floodwater creeps upwards. One tried to smash a window, before realising that there was even more water outside the carriage.

Some filmed the unfolding tragedy, while others called loved ones or posted pleas for help. “I can’t speak any more,” one woman wrote on the social media site Weibo. “If no rescue comes in 20 minutes, hundreds of us will lose our lives.”

“We were all standing on the seats, and the water was already on our knees,” a woman who gave her name as Ms Li said.

“Some shorter passengers had water up to their necks,” she said, adding that as time went on the air supply began to diminish.

After about an hour, the train carriage was plunged into darkness and the oxygen level waned further. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply,” one person told Reuters news agency.

Hundreds of people were eventually saved from the flooded subway tunnel in Zhengzhou, a city of 12 million people that sits on the banks of the Yellow River in central Henan province.

But at least 12 are known to have died and five were injured in the subway disaster, which came after the region saw more rainfall in three days than it usually would in a year.

This is a rainy time of year in China and floods happen annually. However, Chinese scientists say global warming has made the situation more dangerous and warn that extreme weather could become more frequent in the future.