AU Chairperson Conde, calls Buhari, wishes him speedy recovery (Read full details)

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African Union (AU), President Alpha Conde of Guinea

The Chairperson of the African Union (AU), President Alpha Conde of Guinea on Friday initiated a phone call to President Muhammadu Buhari in London, to wish him good health and speedy recovery.

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday by Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President. Adesina said that President Conde called on behalf of leaders of member countries of the AU.

The AU chairperson assured the Nigerian president that all African leaders stand with him in prayers at a time like this.

Buhari thanked Conde for the telephone call, and congratulated him on his election as AU chairperson during the 28th Ordinary Summit of the continental body held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2017.

The Nigerian president, who could not attend the AU Summit, wished his Guinean counterpart a successful tenure. Buhari also expressed confidence that Africa would witness improved political stability, security and economic growth during Conde’s tenure.

It would be recalled that King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Wednesday had a telephone conversation with Buhari in London, where the Nigerian president is on vacation, to wish him good health.

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The Biography Of Okezie Ikpeazu [Age, Life Profile, History & Net Worth]

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Okezie Victor Ikpeazu (born October 18, 1964) is a Nigerian politician and the ninth Governor of Abia State. He was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu was born on October 18, 1964, to the family of late Pa Ishmael and Deaconess Bessie Ikpeazu of Umuebere in Umuobiakwa village, Isialaukwu, Mbato Autonomous Community in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria.

Dr. Ikpeazu attended Amaise Central Primary School, Umuobiakwa. In 1973, while in primary five, he gained admission into Eziama High School, Aba and later moved to Ihie High School, Isiala Ngwa where he took his School certificate examination in 1979. In 1980, at the age of 16, he gained admission into the University of Maiduguri to study Clinical Biochemistry and graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons.) Second Class Upper Division in
August, 1984.

From August 1984 to August 1985, Dr. Ikpeazu served as a clinical biochemist in the medical laboratory of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt for his National youth service. He returned to the University of Maiduguri for an M.Sc degree in Biochemical Toxicology and graduated in 1990. In 1994, at the age of 30, he obtained a doctorate degree, Ph.D in Biochemical Pharmacology from the University of Calabar.

Before joining politics, Ikpeazu had been a lecturer in several Nigerian educational institutions.

On December 31, 2015, a Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri sacked Okezie as Governor and declaring Alex Otti as the winner of the 2015 gubernatorial election held in April 11 and April 25, 2015.

On 27 June 2016, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja ordered Ikpeazu to vacate his office as governor upon allegations of false information and forgery of documents prior to the 2015 gubernatorial election. The suit was however dismissed by a Federal High Court in Owerri.

* An Uzomedia Biography

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Djokovic knocked out of Acapulco ATP event by Kyrgios…See full details

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Serbia's Novak Djokovic smiles against to Australia's Nick Kyrgios during the fourth day of the Mexican Tennis Open, in Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, on March 2, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / ALFREDO ESTRELLA

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic was sent crashing out of the ATP Mexico Open on Thursday after being upset in straight sets by sixth seeded Nick Kyrgios in the first ever meeting between the two.

The top-seeded Djokovic, who was back in action this week for the first time since his shock second-round exit at the Australian Open in January, looked rusty in losing 7-6 (11/9), 7-5 in the quarter-finals of the hardcourt tournament.

The 21-year-old Kyrgios kept Djokovic off his game with an overpowering serve and precision groundstrokes as he blasted 25 aces and won 81 percent of his first-serve points in the one hour, 47 minute match.

Kyrgios will meet big-serving American Sam Querrey for a place in the final.

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New Music: Falz – Baby Boy [Mp3 + Lyrics]

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Falz the Bad Guy Bounces back with another banging single titled ”BABY BOY”.

Will Baby Boy be the new wave? Download and share your thoughts.

Lyrics loading…

DOWNLOAD

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FG evacuates 41 Nigerian girls from Mali, arrests 6 suspected human traffickers

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The Federal Government on Monday evacuated 41 Nigerian girls who were trafficked to Mali for forced labour and sexual exploitation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that six persons, alledged to be human traffickers, were also arrested and brought back to the country alongside their victims.

The Hercules C-130 military aircraft, with registration number NAF 913, conveying the returnees landed at 7:45 pm at the Airforce Base of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

They were brought back by the Nigeria Air Force in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant, Diaspora and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

They were received at the Hajj Camp area of the airport by officers of the NAPTIP and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

Addressing newsmen, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, commended the Chief Of Defence Staff, for facilitating the return of the victims to the country.

“We want to thank the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, and the Chief of Defence Staff, Maj Gen. Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, for making the return of the girls possible, otherwise they would have still be there.

“The girls came back voluntarily. Some of these girls are between 15 and 17 years old who thought they were being taken to Europe for greener pastures but ended up with traumatic experiences in the hands of their traffickers and their madam.

“So they should not be ashamed of themselves because they are victims. We are going to rehabilitate them through skills acquisition programmes. I am therefore calling on non-governmental organisations to join us in this regard,” she said.

Dabiri-Erewa advised Nigerian parents to watch their children carefully and ensure that they don’t succumb to peer pressure and other activities that could exposed them to traffickers.

She confirmed that six of the alleged traffickers, who were arrested and brought back to the country, would be handed over to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.

According to her, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration remains committed to the welfare of Nigerians all over the world, hence this intervention.

Also speaking, Mr Joseph Famakinwa, Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, South-West Zone, said 512 victims were returned to the zone in 2016.

Famakinwa said Nigerians needed to go back to the basics of bringing up their children uprightly and discouraging the ‘get rich quick’ syndrome.

He said poverty was not solely responsible for the increase in the human trafficking, stressing that other factors such as negligence, peer pressure and greed were also responsible.

“Once the girls have been rescued, we take them to our shelter houses where they are received by trained counselors who assist them in overcoming their trauma.

“After counseling, for those who don’t want to go back to school, we give them a vocational training of their choice and also assist them to set up their businesses.

“We also meet with their families to let them know that being victims of human trafficking is not the end of the world and advised them on how to render support to the girls,” Famakinwa said.

He said NAPTIP would reveal the identities of the suspected traffickers in due course and ensure that they are brought to justice.

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SpaceX to send two tourists around the Moon in 2018

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Russia on Wednesday successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft taking food and equipment to the International Space Station after the previous such ship crashed to Earth shortly after launch in December.

SpaceX said Monday two private citizens have paid money to be sent around the Moon in what would mark the farthest humans have ever traveled to deep space.

The United States has not sent astronauts to the Moon since NASA’s Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s.

“We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year,” said a statement by CEO Elon Musk.

“This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them.”

The tourists, who were not named, “have already paid a significant deposit,” Musk’s statement added.

Health tests and training are to begin this year.

“Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results,” Musk said.

The tourists will ride aboard the California-based company’s Crew Dragon capsule, which is scheduled for its first unmanned test flight later this year.

It is based on the design currently used to send cargo to the International Space Station, with upgrades to allow for human transport.

The capsule will launch atop SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which is scheduled for its first test flight this summer.

The rocket “will be the most powerful vehicle to reach orbit after the Saturn V moon rocket,” Musk said.

“At five million pounds of liftoff thrust, Falcon Heavy is two-thirds the thrust of Saturn V and more than double the thrust of the next largest launch vehicle currently flying.”

– Commercial space race –
Musk — who co-founded PayPal and also heads Tesla Motors — is seen as the emerging leader of the modern commercial space industry, after becoming the first to send a private cargo carrier to the International Space Station in 2010.

The 45-year-old native of South Africa is a long-time space enthusiast, who is also outspoken about his vision to colonize Mars.

Last September he unveiled ambitious plans to establish a colony on the Red Planet by sending 100 humans at a time — starting in 2024.

SpaceX also plans to send an unmanned Dragon cargo capsule as early as 2018.

In the same month Blue Origin, founded by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, unveiled plans to build a massive rocket called New Glenn to launch people to space, but the company’s president said going to Mars could take decades.

And on the space tourism front, Virgin Galactic, led by British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, has set a goal of taking people to the edge of space, more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth.

Despite the hefty $250,000 price tag, more than 600 would-be astronauts have already signed up, including actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Ashton Kutcher.

Meanwhile, if all goes as planned, lift-off for Musk’s two moon tourists will occur next year from the same launch pad near Cape Canaveral that the Apollo program used for its lunar missions.

Musk posted the company’s announcement on Twitter by stating: “Fly me to the moon … Ok.”

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Just In: Fire guts Banky W’ s Lekki home

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A property located along Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos where popular singer, Banky W, lives has been destroyed by fire, Punch reports.

A neighbour to the artiste said on the telephone that the fire was caused by a faulty air conditioner.

The fire was believed to have started around 6am.

A resident said,
“The fire started around 6am and all of us came out to assist Banky in putting out the fire. However, Fire service officials arrived around 7.30.

So many items were destroyed including Banky’s awards.”
but officials of the fire service arrived over an hour late.

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Algeria president ‘doing well’ after health scare…Read full details

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PHOTO:AFP

Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika is “doing well” despite a health scare last week which forced him to postpone a meeting with the German Chancellor, the general secretary of his party said.

The president’s office said he could not meet Angela Merkel in Algeria last Monday because he was suffering from bronchitis, but the 79-year-old has had persistent health woes leading to several periods in hospital over the past decade.

“The president is doing well and is carrying out his engagements as usual,” Djamel Ould Abbes of the National Liberation Front said in remarks carried by the press agency APS on Sunday.

Bouteflika, Algeria’s longest-serving leader, suffered a mini-stroke in 2013 that affected his mobility and speech.

The 79-year-old has since appeared in public on only a handful of occasions and has travelled several times to France for medical treatment.

Algerians had expected Bouteflika — the North African country’s longest-serving leader — to step down at the end of his third term, but instead he won re-election in 2014, despite his frail health.

He has been confined to a wheelchair since his stroke, entertaining foreign guests at his home in Zeralda west of the capital and making few public appearances.

Bouteflika travelled to France in November for what the presidential office said was “periodic medical checks”, but in recent months Abbes had said his health was improving — even mentioning a possible fifth term in 2019.

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ADHD a ‘brain disorder’, not just bad behaviour

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AFP Photo / Mauricio Lima / AFP<br />

People with ADHD have slightly smaller brains than those without the condition, according to a study released Thursday which insisted it is a physical disorder and not just bad behaviour.

The largest analysis to date of the brains of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder found “structural differences” and evidence of delayed development compared with non-sufferers, researchers reported.

“The results from our study confirm that people with ADHD have differences in their brain structure and therefore suggest that ADHD is a disorder of the brain,” said the study’s lead author, Martine Hoogman of Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

“We hope that this will help to reduce stigma that ADHD is ‘just a label’ for difficult children or caused by poor parenting,” she said in a statement.

The results of the study, which involved 1,713 people with ADHD and 1,529 people without the condition, were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Most often diagnosed in children, ADHD is blamed for severe and repeated bouts of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsiveness that can cause problems at school or home.

The symptoms can persist into adulthood.

The causes remain in dispute, and some specialists say ADHD is nothing but an excuse for using drugs to subdue children with difficult personalities or bad parents.

Drugs for treating ADHD, such as Ritalin, have been blamed for side effects including weight loss or gain, liver damage and suicidal thoughts.

For the latest study, Hoogman and a team analysed the MRI scans of people aged four to 63, suffering from ADHD or not.

– Emotional control –
They measured overall brain volume as well as the size of seven regions thought to be linked to the disorder.

The volume overall was smaller in people diagnosed with ADHD, as were five of the brain regions, the team said.

“These differences are very small — in the range of a few percent — so the unprecedented size of our study was crucial to help identify these,” Hoogman said.

“Similar differences in brain volume are also seen in other psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorder.”

The regions affected included the amygdala, which is involved in the regulation of emotion.

Previous studies which associated changes in brain volume with ADHD had been too small to be conclusive, the team said.

The differences observed in their study were most prominent in children, but also present in adults with the condition.

The findings suggest that delays in the development of several brain regions were characteristic of ADHD, the researchers said.

They found no difference between people who were taking or had taken ADHD drugs, and those who had never taken such medications — suggesting that the brain changes were not caused by psychostimulants.

In a comment on the study, Jonathan Posner of Columbia University said it was an “important contribution” to the field of ADHD science.

He said further research was needed to determine the effects of medication on the brains of people with ADHD, and how they develop as people get older.

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India arrests Nigerian Okonkwo with ingested cocaine (Read full details)

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Monday Tony Okonkwo

India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has recovered 1.3 kilograms of fine quality Colombian cocaine stashed in 90 capsules from the stomach of a Nigerian , who had come to Delhi from Lome, Togo.

According to The Times of India, the accused was taken to hospital where an X-ray confirmed the presence of foreign bodies in his stomach. He was kept in the hospital for two days during which he expelled 90 capsules containing 1.3kg cocaine.

The Nigerian was identified as Monday Tony Okonkwo. He arrived IGI airport in an Ethiopian Airlines plane on February 6.

“When we conducted a thorough search of his body and baggage, he denied having any drugs or banned substance with him. However, the NCB team got suspicious when he said that he had come to India regarding his business of wigs and hair, but was found travelling on a tourist visa,” said Rajender Pal Singh, deputy director general, NCB.

Tony was taken to Safdarjung hospital where an X-ray confirmed the presence of foreign bodies in his stomach. During interrogation, the man revealed that he had ingested the drug capsules at a guesthouse in Lagos.

“The accused said he took around three hours to ingest the capsules and then took a flight to Lome. He then travelled to Addis Ababa from where he boarded a flight to New Delhi. His passport has corroborated the claims,” Singh said.

Monday Tony Okonkwo was supposed to deliver the drugs to another distributor who would have contacted him once his Indian number was active. “We are on the lookout for his handlers based in India and Nigeria,” Singh added.

NCB believes the cartel is being run by a group based in Peru or Bolivia and is the same one that had employed a Brazilian woman earlier to carry the contraband in swallowed packs.

The consignments were first taken to Sao Paolo, Brazil and then distributed throughout west African countries through carriers. The drug was brought to India via Ethiopia or Abu Dhabi.

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Colombia’s Santos asks Trump to support peace process…Read full details

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Handout picture released by the Colombian presidency showing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (L) inspecting the new equipment for the National Police in Bogota, Colombia, on February 7, 2017. Colombia's Attorney General's Office said it was investigating whether money from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht was earmarked for the campaign for the re-election of President Juan Manuel Santos in 2014, which the government flatly rejected.<br />CESAR CARRION / PRESIDENCIA COLOMBIA / AFP

President Juan Manuel Santos spoke with US President Donald Trump on the phone Saturday and asked him to support Colombia’s peace plan with FARC rebels, the Latin American leader said on Twitter.

Santos, in a series of posts, described their conversation as “productive.” “@POTUS expressed his support for peace and desire to maintain the best relations with Colombia,” Santos said, referring to Trump by his Twitter handle.

He said he asked Trump to support approval of the Colombia peace plan in the US Congress.

“(Trump) said he was very interested and would take charge of it personally,” said Santos, who added that Trump extended an invitation for him to visit the White House.

The call lasted about 25 minutes, Santos’s office said.

The United States has pledged $450 million to support implementation of the peace agreement signed in November between Bogota and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), bringing an end to a 52-year conflict.

Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in negotiating an end to the conflict that grew out of a crushed uprising over land rights in the 1960s.

It killed more than 260,000 people and left 60,000 missing, according to authorities. As of early Sunday, the White House Press Office had yet to release a read-out of the call.

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Angola probes football stampede that killed 17

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PHOTO:AFP

Angola on Saturday announced an investigation into a stadium stampede that killed at least 17 and injured scores in what was described as the southern African country’s worst football tragedy.

The government set up a commission to probe Friday’s crush in the northern town of Uige, the national Angop news agency reported, with children among the victims.

Another body will be set up to help the families of the victims and assist in organising funerals after tragedy struck the domestic league match between host team Santa Rita de Cassia and Recreativo de Libolo on the opening day of the season.

“Several children have been killed,” police spokesman Orlando Bernardo told AFP.

“There was a blockage at the entrance to the January 4 stadium,” he said. “This obstruction caused multiple fatalities — 17 deaths, and there are 56 injured in the hospital.”

Police said hundreds of fans had tried to enter the already packed stadium to see the match, causing a crush that pushed some people to the ground.

Many of the dead were trampled to death or suffocated.

“While the players were on the field, outside fans were trying to get into the stadium and a gate probably gave way to the pressure of the crowd causing several people to fall who were literally trampled on by the crowd,” the Recreativo de Libolo club said in a statement on its website.

The club called it “a tragedy without precedent in the history of Angolan football”.

– Crowd control –
Some witnesses said many fans did not have tickets to the match.

Sergio Traguil, the host side’s coach, told the Diario de Noticias newspaper: “Nobody inside the stadium was aware of what was happening outside.”

Images shown on Angolan television backed up the claim, showing thousands of spectators sitting around the pitch in a stadium with no stands.

Oil-rich Angola is slowly rebuilding its skeletal infrastructure, ravaged by decades of civil war.

The Portuguese news agency Lusa reported that the president of the host team said security forces were to blame for not properly controlling the crowd.

“There was serious police error in letting the people so close to the field,” it quoted Pedro Nzolonzi as saying.

“Many of them did not want to pay and those who had tickets could not get in. Then the confusion began,” he said.

“It is all the fault of the police. It was easy to avoid. They just need to extend the safety cordon.”

Angola, ranked 148 in the FIFA world rankings, is a minor power in African football.

The country has been relatively closed to the outside world under the authoritarian President Jose Eduardo dos Santos who has ruled since 1979.

Football has a tragic history of stampedes and stadium deaths, often blamed on lack of crowd control, dangerous venues and spectator behaviour.

In 2009, poor crowd control in Abidjan caused 19 deaths before a 2010 World Cup qualifier between hosts Ivory Coast and Malawi.

A stampede at the Accra Sports Stadium in Ghana in 2001 resulted in 127 deaths.

At that game, supporters angered by their team’s defeat threw projectiles and broke chairs. Police threw tear gas grenades, triggering a stampede.

Britain renovated its football grounds after 56 people died in a fire in a wooden stand in 1985 and 96 Liverpool supporters died in a crush during an FA Cup semi-final in 1989.

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