NAN News Highlights for Thurs. June 28, 2018
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1. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called for deeper business relations with the Peoples Republic of China on Information and Communication Technology to develop the Nigeria’s digital space.
Osinbajo said at a workshop on ‘‘Africa-China cooperation in Information Technology and Digital Economy: prospects and challenges’’ in Abuja, that Nigeria needed to harness the potential energy in ICT for its economic growth.
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- The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has resolved to meet with security chiefs to evolve a holistic solution to the security challenges before the country.
Chairman of the forum, Gov. Abdul’aziz Yari of Zamfara in Northwest Nigeria stated this while briefing newsmen after a meeting in Abuja.
Yari expressed the governors’ displeasure over Sunday’s killings in Plateau Northcentral Nigeria, and called for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.
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- Prof. Moji Adeyeye, the Director-General, National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control has advocated a national prescription policy aimed at tackling drug abuse in the country.
Adeyeye made the call at a news conference organised in Abuja to commemorate the 2018 World International Day Against Drug Abuse.
She also called for closer collaboration between the Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and NAFDAC to stop the importation, distribution, and use of illicit drugs.
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- The EU has agreed to work closely with Nigeria to find solutions to illegal migration.
Deputy Delegation to the EU, Mr Richard Young, made this known in his address at the ‘‘Abuja Policy Debate’’ organised by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation, an NGO handling the ongoing collaboration on migration between the EU, Germanys and Nigeria.
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- The World Health Organisation says a new drug – Carbetocin – has the potential to save the lives of thousands of women during childbirth annually.
The UN agency said Carbetocin, with improved benefits could compete with Oxytocin, a stand-by drug used to prevent potentially-fatal bleeding after childbirth.
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- Similarly, Australian scientists have taken a crucial step toward developing a new malaria vaccine by using a novel “atomic-scale” blueprint to track how the parasite invades human cells.
The group said that with the unprecedented level of detail on the blueprint, new therapies would be designed to target and disrupt malaria parasite and prevent it from hijacking human red blood cells spreading through the blood to infect others.
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