Politics
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FDA: Independent committee recommends authorization of coronavirus vaccine
An independent committee of experts recommended Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 16. Now, the FDA will decide whether to follow that recommendation. The agency could announce a decision within days. If they do authorize the vaccine, health care workers could begin receiving the shots almost immediately. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met all day to review data on the vaccine, discuss plans for distribution, and outline plans for continued research. FDA scientists published a report about the vaccine on Tuesday, which analyzed data from the pharmaceutical companies and found that the vaccine was safe and 95 percent at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. Data fro...
NCDC: Many health workers still doubt existence of coronavirus
Oladipo Ogunbode, assistant director, department of prevention programmes and management, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says it is surprising that health workers still doubt the existence of COVID-19. According to newsmen, Ogunbode stated this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at a conference to mark the 2020 health week, themed: “Outbreak of Disease in Nigeria: Are We Ready?” Ogunbode said it is hard to understand how health workers who had come in contact with victims of COVID-19 in the line of duty, still doubted the existence of the virus. “Health workers should create awareness on COVID-19, but many of them still doubt its existence. We must work hard to remove such doubt,” he said. “It’s amazing and inexplicable for medics to doubt the fact that the pandemic was a real...
Appeal court upholds Brazil striker Robinho’s rape conviction
Veteran Brazil international striker Robinho on Thursday had a nine-year sentence for the rape of a young woman upheld by a court in Italy. Judges of the Milan Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence for both Robinho and one of his friends for group sexual violence dating back to January 2013. Robinho was playing for AC Milan at the time of the attack and was tried in absentia in November 2017. The pair were among a group of six men accused of taking part in the gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman in a Milan nightclub. They were both ordered to jointly pay the woman damages of 60,000 euros ($ 73,000). The case against the four other accused has been suspended. Robinho, 36, who has denied the charges, has the right to again appeal the sentence within 90 days. Robinho was forced to pull...
Profit taking persist on NSE, market capitalisation loses N232 billion
Nigerian stock market closed on a negative note for the fourth straight session on Thursday with the market capitalisation losing N232 billion. Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N18.304 trillion dipped N232 billion to close at N18.072 trillion. Also, the All-Share Index lost 464.00 points or 1.32 per cent to close at 34,557.26 compared with 35,021.26 achieved on Wednesday. Accordingly, month-to-date loss increased to 1.3 per cent, while year-to-date gain moderated to 28.8 per cent. The downward trend was also driven by price depreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks amongst which are; Lafarge Africa, Guinness Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Dangote Sugar Refinery and MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN). Market breadth was strongly negative with 40 laggards, in relative ...
Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal transfer European form into Premier League
Mikel Arteta has demanded Arsenal transfer their Europa League form into the Premier League, where he says his side need to start winning matches “immediately”. Goals from Eddie Nketiah, Mohamed Elneny, Joe Willock and Folarin Balogun helped the Gunners ease past Irish side Dundalk 4-2 in Dublin on Thursday to finish top of Group B with a 100 per cent record – the first time they have won six successive European matches since 2005. That fine European form is in sharp contrast to their domestic struggles, where the club have lost six out of their last nine matches to slump to 15th in the table. With the Europa League now finished with until February, Arsenal can focus all their attention on domestic competition, with Arteta stressing the urgent need to pick up positive results, starting wit...
NHRC: Ending gender-based violence is responsibility of all
In commemoration of the International Human Rights Day, the National Human Rights Commission, Ebonyi State Chapter, Thursday, called on all citizens to join hands to put an end to all forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, SGBV. The Commission in collaboration with other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO)/Community and Social Organizations (CSOs) made this call at a seminar organized at Pinnacle Hotels, Abakaliki, to mark the world’s Human Rights Day and the end of the 16 days of activism of campaign against violation of human rights. Speaking on the year’s theme “Recover better – Stand Up for Human Rights,” the National Executive Secretary of the Commission, Tony Ojukwu (Esq) said the selection was made considering the need to recover fully from COVID-19 pandemic and restore the sit...
Minister presents draft national biosecurity policy to stakeholders
The Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, formally presented zero draft National Biosecurity Policy to stakeholders. The Minister, who made the presentation in Abuja today, said the Zero draft National Biosecurity Policy has been developed with the full recognition of Biosecurity as a multi sectoral discipline, with all efforts geared towards a one health approach, collaborative approach and an understanding of the responsibilities of various sectors which include governments, NGOs, CSOs, communities and individuals. The honourable Minister said ” to maintain Biosecurity, significant attention should be paid to strategies for the prevention and early detection of, as well as rapid response to, harmful and potentially harmful organisms. She noted that to afford true protection,...
Rick Ross, Moneybagg Yo, And More To Perform For Georgia Runoff Voters
Despite the harrowing, end-of-days feeling that often surrounded the 2020 presidential election — what felt to many, and to one candidate in particular, as a battle for the very soul of the United States — New York City exploded with music. On a Manhattan street corner during Election Day, the singer Patti Smith apologized to a gathering crowd; she’d need to remove her mask to deliver a stripped-down performance of her song “People Have the Power” with the guitarist Lenny Kaye. Uptown, outside the Apollo Theater where Harlem residents arrived to cast their votes, the rapper Busta Rhymes zipped through a rowdy, two-song set in his characteristically high-speed flow. Videos of the performances shot through social media like fireworks, bright images of fun and play that cut through the partis...
Altron People Solutions to Empower Organisations to do Business through the Virtual Business Academy
When South Africa and the rest of the world went into lockdown, it was clear for organisations that they had to reinforce the way they work and do business. Crucial to the current situation was realising that having remote employees and policies in addition to technology was going to be the solution to keep the doors open. However, working remote may be isolated now and then with nobody nearby that you can immediately ask help. Also, some employees will not openly admit to needing help to finish a task nor reach out if they have issues with technology compared to a conventional office setting. On the opposite hand, employers face the dilemma of how to successfully support remote working and ensure business continuity through increased productivity and effectivity. It is against...
ProStream Boosts its Enterprise Portfolio through New Hitachi Vantara Partnership
Marcel Fouché, Networking and Storage General Manager at Networks Unlimited Africa Enterprise systems solutions expert ProStream has announced that it has become a member of the Hitachi Vantara Partner Program in order to strengthen its range of offerings. Hitachi Vantara offers storage solutions for enterprises and mid-sized organisations, as well as hardware, software, data analytics and consultation services for many areas of information technology (IT) and businesses. “Networks Unlimited became a proud distributor of Hitachi Vantara within sub-Saharan Africa during 2019,” says Marcel Fouché, Networking and Storage General Manager at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited Africa. “We pride ourselves on building supportive working relationships with our systems integrators and ...
Ghana election: President Akufo-Addo to soon start work in his second term – minister
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will start work in his second term in office after he was re-elected as president of Ghana in the December 7 general elections. Mr Akufo-Addo polled a total of 6,730,413 votes, representing 51.59 per cent to beat closest contender John Dramani Mahama, who polled a total of 6,214,889 votes, in Monday’s presidential elections. Returning Officer of the 2020 Presidential Elections, Jean Adukwei Mensa, who is also the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC), declared the incumbent president winner of the polls. In a tweet on Thursday December 10, Mr Oppong Nkrumah who was also re-elected Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi constituency said “The last 36hours have been hectic. In the end Ghana won. ...
Jurgen Klopp: I thought VAR was a good idea, but now I’m not so sure
Jurgen Klopp admits he may have changed his mind about the need for VAR in football, after another incident-filled match for his Liverpool side in the Champions League. The Reds’ 1-1 draw with Danish champions FC Midtjylland on Wednesday saw a number of interventions from the video assistant referee. First Midtjylland were awarded a penalty for a foul by Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher on Anders Dreyer. The forward had initially been flagged offside by the assistant referee but replays showed, eventually at least, that he had been onside, though there was a lengthy delay as the referee headed to the pitchside monitor to rule on Kelleher’s subsequent challenge. Andreas Scholz converted from the spot to equalise for the home side after Mohamed Salah had opened the scoring. There was m...
