Beyonce Loses Over A Million Dollar Worth Of Valuables

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March 30, 2021

Ethiopia’s unilateral actions over the filling and operation of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will have “massive negative repercussions,” Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati warned on Sunday.

Abdel-Ati gave the warning during his meeting in Cairo with the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Donald Booth and Marina Vraila, head of the political, press and information section of the European Union (EU) delegation to Cairo, Egypt’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said in a statement.

The minister and the U.S. and EU diplomats tackled the current position of the GERD negotiations and ways to restart the talks with the aim of reaching a fair and binding legal agreement for filling and operating the mega dam.

During the meeting, Abdel-Ati reviewed Egypt’s clear desire to complete the negotiations, emphasising his country’s determination to preserve of its water rights, according to the statement.

The minister also affirmed Egypt’s full support for the Sudanese proposal which calls for forming an international quartet led by the Democratic Republic of Congo, the current chair of the African Union (AU), that includes the AU, the United States, the EU and the United Nations.

Ethiopia, an upstream Nile basin country, unilaterally carried out the first phase of filling the dam in July 2020 and is planning to go ahead with the second phase in July this year in spite of the concerns of Egypt and Sudan, which have repeatedly called for a prior tripartite binding agreement on the rules of filling and operating the controversial dam.

Ethiopia started building the GERD in 2011, while Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the Nile water.

Sudan has recently been raising similar concerns over the 4-billion-U.S.-dollar dam.

Microsoft Reportedly Seeking To Invest Over $1 Billion In Israel

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March 30, 2021

Microsoft a US tech giant is reportedly planning to invest $1 billion to $1.5 billion in Israel through setting up a new data center locally and expanding its chip research and development activities.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month and informed him about the plans, Globes reported on Monday, without saying where it got the information.

Nadella told Netanyahu that Israel is “a very important development center for Microsoft,” Globes said, stating that the CEO has made no requests for government incentives for the investments and none were offered.

Spokespeople for Microsoft in Israel and for the Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report.

Microsoft benefits from a low tax rate of 6% on profits from the intellectual property generated in Israel, lower that the average corporate tax rate of 23%. Small tech firms pay a tax rate of 7.5% to 12%, Globes said.

The US tech giant said last year that it would set up its first cloud data center in Israel to offer services to Israeli customers, starting with Azure and following with Office 365, expected to be operational sometime this year.

The setting up of the center “marks a significant investment by Microsoft in the Israeli market,” the company said at the time.

Substandard Products: SON Warns Manufacturers Against Prosecution

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March 30, 2021

Coordinator, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), in-charge of Rivers and Bayelsa, has warned manufacturers against producing and trading in substandard products to avoid prosecution.

Ayuba gave the advice on Monday, in Port Harcourt, at the presentation of 31 certificates to 27 different manufacturing companies, tagged: “SON Certification, a stimulant to industrialization growth”.

He said that the significance of the certification was to provide guarantees of safety and confidence to manufacturers and consumers in Rivers and Bayelsa, as well as the country at large.

He urged consumers to express dissatisfaction, through consumer complaint desks, on any substandard products sold to them in stores, markets or companies.

According to him, this would enable SON to prosecute manufacturers who refused to produce standard products in the country.

“This is so important because we will use the distributors to reach the companies where these products are manufactured and prosecute them for not complying with the Nigerian manufacturing standards.

Pandemic Preparedness Treaty: Global Leaders Push For One Health Approach

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March 30, 2021

A call came in a joint article published in international newspapers on Tuesday, penned by leaders from five continents.

The signatories included Germany’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s Boris Johnson, France’s Emmanuel Macron, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and Chile’s Sebastian Pinera.

Leaders from 25 countries, the European Union and the World Health Organization (WHO) sought to get the ground rules down in writing to streamline and speed up the reaction to future global outbreaks.

The treaty would aim to ensure that information, virus pathogens, technology to tackle the pandemic and products such as vaccines are shared swiftly and equitably among nations.

In other words the treaty seeks to solve and address the problems of data sharing , techology sharing, and strenghtnening national capacity.

Leaders from key world powers including the United States, China, Russia and Japan are not among the signatories so far.

First proposed by European Council president Charles Michel at the United Nations in December, the notion of a treaty has since been endorsed by EU and G7 countries.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) lobby group said the importance of incentives to develop tests, treatments and vaccines should be reflected in the treaty.

“The biopharmaceutical industry and its supply chain is part of the solution for future pandemics and therefore should play a role in shaping an international pandemic treaty,” IFPMA chief Thomas Cueni said in a statement.

The joint article said the additional treaty should be aimed at “greatly enhancing international cooperation” on alert systems, data-sharing and research to help track rising threats and the production of vaccines, medicines and protective equipment to tackle diseases.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says, in May as Members States of World Health Assembly seats there will be a resolution on the Proposal.

Pandemic Preparedness Treaty is a global move to ratify one health system riding on the covid-19 vaccine equity drive to all nations of the world.

South Korea’s Biggest Automaker To Suspend Production In Ulsan

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March 30, 2021

The global shortage of semiconductors is forcing Hyundai Motor, to temporarily suspend production at its plant number one in Ulsan.

The nation’s biggest automaker is suspending production there from April 7th until the 14th.

The supply issue involves the front view camera systems for the Kona SUV and another part for the IONIQ-five, Hyundai’s first all-electric model.

The chip shortage slowed down the production of carmakers around the world, including GM, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Bushiri Wins Bid to Have South Africa Accusers Testify in Malawi Court

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Henry Williams

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March 30, 2021

Magistrate Court in Lilongwe has ruled that Prophet Shepherrd Bushiri’s South African accusers should come to Malawi to testify as part of authenticating their sworn affidavits.

Bushiri had asked the court to let his South African accusers appear before Malawi courts to be cross-examined by the defence.- The magistrate says, the law says, the court must receive evidence in the same way that a preliminary inquiry would.

In his ruling, magistrate Patrick Chirwa said that state argued that the court must interpret the law is wrong.

He said that the law as he reads it in section 9 of extradition act says the court must have same powers and jurisdiction as in a preliminary inquiry.

Chirwa noted that the court must rely on part 8 of the same section. He further said that he he agreed with defence that the state violated the law by not reading out charges, and not interviewing witnesses for evidence.

He also said the state cannot rely on statements taken by other people in some other places, adding that the law allows the accused people should be allowed to interview witnessed.

Magistrate further added that the Bushiri’s have a right to question all witnesses and that the state must allow the Bushiri’s the right to question witnesses.

He then ruled that witnesses must be present in Malawi and sign under oath in Malawi

U.S. Military Wraps Missile Defense Units Exercise In Indo-Pacific

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March 30, 2021

The U.S. military has completed a two-week training of its missile defense units in the Indo-Pacific region in an apparent move to better counter ballistic missile attacks from North Korea and China.

According to the U.S. Army website the “combined command post-training,” wrapped up on March 12th, and it involved the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do Province.

They are also in charge of operating the Patriot and the THAAD systems installed in Seongju base.

It’s speculated the exercise is held to test the improvements being made to integrate the THAAD and Patriot missile interceptor systems.

President Buhari Expected Back In Nigeria Second Week Of April

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March 30, 2021

President Muhammadu Buhari has presided over a security meeting at the State House in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

This took place hours before his scheduled trip to the United Kingdom today for a routine medical check-up.

Those in attendance Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor who arrived at the State House shortly before 10.00 am; the Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru; Chief of Naval Staff, Awwal Gambo, and the Chief of Air Staff, Marshal Isiaka Amao.

Others at the meeting include Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari; the National Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno; and the Inspector General Of Police, Mohammed Adamu.

The President is expected back in Nigeria during the second week of April 2021.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry Protests Japan’s Territorial Claims

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March 30, 2021