Blog

Tanzania earthquake kills 10 people

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Earthquake
Dar es Salaam, Sept. 10, 2016 (dpa/NAN) Ten people were killed Saturday when a 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit north-western Tanzania, police said.

More than 100 people were injured in the quake, which hit Kagera region on the western shore of Lake Victoria, regional police commander Augustine Ollomi said.

Widespread damage was reported following the quake, which also rocked the neighbouring regions of Mwanza, Mara and Simiyu.

The quake had its epicentre in Tanzania, according to sources at a volcanic observatory in the Congolese city of Goma, where the quake was also felt.

Goma residents said it occurred at about 1230 GMT.

Augustino Nduganda from the Tanzania Meteorological Agency said it was too early to give a detailed report.

Emelensiana Benjamin from Bukoba town said houses there had cracked so badly residents were afraid to enter them. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Felix Ajide
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Donation
By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria (Kaduna State), Sep. 10, 2016 (NAN) The Kaduna State Government on Saturday donated 85 laptops to teachers in Barewa College after a five-day capacity building workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was organised by Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA).

Distributing the laptops in Zaria, Gov. Nasir El-Rufa’i said the gesture was part of state government’s efforts toward enhancing the capacity of teachers.

El-Rufa’i, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Andrew Knok, said the facility would enhance the teachers’ skills and knowledge.

According to him, the just concluded workshop is in line with the present administration strive towards improving the skills of teachers in the state.

While applauding the efforts of BOBA for what he described as a laudable initiative, the governor charged the benefitting teachers to make judicious use of the knowledge acquired by producing students with better grades.

Earlier, the BOBA Sectary-General, Dr Ahmed Tijjani-Mora said the workshop was targeted at making students score 80 per cent and above in both WAEC and NECO examinations.

He said: “Our target is to hit more than 80 per cent success by the totality of the final year students in externally conducted examinations by WAEC and NECO by year 2018 with credits in at least five subjects, including English and Mathematics.

“It is possible and doable. If it happened during our times as students, we see no reason why it cannot happen now.’’

Tijjani-Mora said the association as a pioneer Old Students Association in Northern Nigeria aimed at raising the level of teaching and learning in their alma-mater.

He, however, noted that since this could not be achieved at the association’s level, hence it involved full and active participation of the teachers in training.

He lauded Gov. El-Rufai for the donation and charged the teachers to reciprocate the gesture by impacting on the students the needed knowledge to succeed. (NAN)
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Edited by Johnson Eyiangho/Felix Ajide
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Rescue
Asaba, Sept. 10, 2016 (NAN) The Delta Police Command has confirmed the arrest of an Asaba-based businesswoman suspected to be a ringleader of a child theft syndicate.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Zanna Ibrahim, made the confirmation on Saturday in Asaba at a press briefing and parade of 43 suspects arrested over various crimes.

Ibrahim said that the businesswomen, who operates a popular drinking joint in Asaba, was stealing children and selling them in neighbouring Anambra State.

“On Sept. 1, 2016, one Aisha Yahaya reported to the police that two ladies who she was able to identify, came to her house and introduced themselves as SARS operatives and told her that her husband sent them to her.

“The complainant said that she followed them to a junction where they met the businesswoman, and  she gave her N3,500.00 to alleviate her poverty, and then asked her to go and buy clothes for her baby.

“She said that the syndicate took her baby, Fatima Yahaya, who is a year old. This prompted her to raise alarm that led to the immediate arrest of two of the suspects,” Ibrahim said.

According to him, detectives also arrested the businesswoman’s daughter, while in possession of the stolen child.

The police boss further said that the businesswoman and another member of the syndicate were nabbed the following day at their hideout in Okpanam, a suburb of the state.

He said: “Following their arrest, the suspects confessed to the crime and led detectives to Ogidi Town in Anambra State where 12 suspected stolen children were recovered from one pastor.

“The syndicate specialises in buying and selling children. It is revealed that the pastor paid N400,000 for each child sold to him.”

Ibrahim further said that two of the recovered children had since been handed over to their parents, while the remaining ten – whose ages range from six months to two years – were kept at St. Barnabas Orphanage, Asaba.

“The children are kept pending identification by their families.

“Meanwhile, efforts are on to apprehend other members of the syndicate who are still at large,” he said. (NAN)
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(Edited by Muhyideen Jimoh and Controlled by Ijeoma Popoola)

Death toll from Tel Aviv building collapse rises to 5

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Death
Jerusalem, Sept. 10, 2016 (Xinhua/NAN) Israeli police said Saturday that two more bodies were pulled from a collapsed construction site in Tel Aviv, five days after the incident, bringing the death toll to five.

“Overnight, two bodies were extracted from the site of collapsed car garage,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

“The bodies were transferred to the national forensic institute to ascertain their identity,” she added.

Dozens of Home Front Command soldiers were conducting searches for one last body believed to be buried below the four-story car park, which collapsed on Monday in Tel Aviv.

Israeli authorities have identified three bodies, so far: Ahed Rimawi, 34, from Beit Rima, a Palestinian village outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Other identified include Denis Dianchko, 28, a citizen of Ukraine; and Oleg Yakobov, 60, an Israeli citizen from Tel Aviv.

All of the victims were construction workers at the site, which was still under construction at the time of the incident.

Dozens of workers at the site were injured. The car park was supposed to become usable in two weeks, with about 600 parking slots.

The reasons for the collapse were unclear. The police have launched an investigation into the collapse.

The car park was constructed by Africa-Israel, a construction company based in Israel that won a tender from the Tel Aviv municipality to build the site.

Israel has a high number of construction accidents, compared to other developed countries.

According to figures from the Economy and Industry Ministry, 30 workers were killed in construction sites since the beginning of 2016.(Xinhua/NAN)
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Edited By Isaac Aregbesola/Felix Ajide
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South Sudan faces cash crisis at its foreign embassies – Official

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Eviction
Juba, Sept. 10, 2016 (Xinhua/NAN) South Sudan says it’s facing cash crisis at its foreign embassies stemming from salary delays as well risk eviction for failure to pay rents.

Philip Thon leek, Chairperson of Specialised Committee for Foreign Relations in transitional Parliament, told Xinhua in an interview in Juba.

He said that the government was making frantic efforts to rescue the diplomats who may be at risk of eviction due to rental dues.

“The diplomats have been going without salaries for about five months, and some of them are being threatened to be dragged to court for failing to pay rents by their landlords,” Leek said.

In March, South Sudan said it would downsize the number of staff in its embassies across the world in order to cut costs due to economic slump stemming from a two-year civil war.

The move comes amid unconfirmed reports that some of the foreign missions have been served with eviction orders for not paying rent while some staff have not been paid for months due to economic crisis.

“Our diplomats don’t get their salaries regularly because scarcity of hard currency has disadvantaged them from paying their house rents abroad,” Leek stressed.

The lawmaker explained that the situation has been exacerbated by the current economic crisis that has made foreign currencies to be very scarce, coupled with the large number of diplomats deployed in foreign missions abroad.

Since South Sudan gained its independence from Khartoum in 2011, the world youngest nation has so far opened 32 missions worldwide.

Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Mawien Makol said that the delays were due to economic crisis, coupled with recent fighting that forced former first vice president Riek Machar to flee the country.

“We have some economic problems at the moment, but we are trying our best, and also to reduce the number of officials in some of those embassies,” Makol said.(Xinhua/NAN)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Felix Ajide
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Fire

Dhaka, Sept. 10, 2016 (Xinhua/NAN)  Bangladesh fire fighters, Saturday put out the blaze at a packaging factory where an explosion earlier in the day triggered a massive fire, which led to the collapse of its three-story building.

At least 24 workers were killed while scores injured on Saturday in an explosion that triggered a massive fire leading to collapse of a three-story of a packaging factory in Bangladesh

Officials said the incident happened in the Tampaco Foils Ltd at Tongi on the outskirts of Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Saturday at about 6:00 a.m. ( local time).

Officials said that Bangladesh fire fighters, after hectic efforts of eight hours, managed to put out the blaze, which was spreading to other adjacent buildings Saturday at around 3p.m. local time.

They said the fire triggered by the blast spread quickly because flammable chemicals were stored at the factory building which collapsed like a sandwich just in several minutes.

It is the biggest industrial disaster since 2013 when the Rana Plaza building collapsed.

“We’ve also come to know that at least 24 people were killed in the devastating fire caused by a boiler explosion,” a Tongi police official said.

Scores of the injured people were rushed to different hospitals in Dhaka and Tongi where many were said to be in critical condition.

The official who would not like to be named said the death toll may go up as many people have sustained critical injuries.

Nearly 70 people were injured in the fire triggered by explosion, said the official.

The Bangladesh authorities have already formed a five-member investigation committee which will submit its report in 15 working days.

A worker, who survived the tragedy, said many of them were inside the factory during the explosion because that was the time for morning shift workers to take the charges from their night shift colleagues.

Bangladeshi State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu said families of those killed in the explosion will get 200,000 taka each as compensation.

The tragedy once again revived questions about the commitments of the sector insiders to providing safe working conditions for the workers in the largest export sector in Bangladesh.

The sector comprises about 5,000 factories employing more than 4 million workers, 80 per cent of whom are women. (Xinhua/NAN)
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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola/Felix Ajide
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Rehabilitation
Damaturu, Sept. 10, 2016 (NAN) Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe has expressed the readiness of his government to partner with Federal Ministry of Women Affairs on resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation of women displaced by insurgency.

Gaidam stated this on Saturday when the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan, paid him a courtesy visit in Damaturu.

He said the task of reconstructing structures destroyed by insurgency was capital intensive and solicited the support of Federal Government and groups to rebuild the structures.

“The serious problem facing us now is how to rehabilitate, resettle the affected victims and reconstruct their houses which were either destroyed or completely razed down by the insurgents.

“N12 billion will be required to reconstruct the structures destroyed by insurgency.

“The task of rebuilding the damaged structures is enormous and beyond the financial capacity of the state government alone.

“Most of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to their communities but we have about 3,000 IDPs being maintained in the official camp,’’ he said

Earlier, the minister said that she was in the state to sensitise women to their eligibility to access the Federal Government’s N1.6 billion micro-finance scheme. 

She said that Yobe was one of the eight pilot states selected for the social protection programme.

“We are here to educate and sensitise women to taking the opportunity of the programme and be self-reliant,’’ she said.

The minister said that she would also interact with women and girls at the Pompomari IDP camp to investigate alleged cases of violation reported in some camps in the north eastern part of the country.(NAN)
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(Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo, Kayode Olaitan)

Germany’s EU budget bill may rise by 4.5bn euros after Brexit, says report

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Brexit
Berlin, Sept. 10, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) Once Britain leaves the European Union, Germany may have to contribute an additional 4.5 billion euros per year in both 2019 and 2020 to the EU budget.

An internal Finance Ministry report by German published on Saturday stated.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, already makes the largest net contribution to the EU budget each year – more than 15 billion euros.

Der Spiegel news magazine reported that the looming “loss of the second-largest net contributor” – Britain, would mean Germany’s share of the EU’s gross domestic product would increase to 25 per cent from 21 currently.

“Brexit” would thus have a corresponding impact on net contributors like Germany, which in 2015 sent 15.6 billion euros more to the EU than it received back.

“Britain was number two with net contributions of 12.7 billion. The biggest recipient from the EU was Poland, which in 2015 got 10.4 billion euros.

The Finance Ministry’s paper, Der Spiegel said was drafted upon request by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

It noted that the added 4.5 billion euro figure does not contain “any conceivable compensation adjustments” to the budget that could possibly reduce the shortfall caused by Britain’s exit.

In June, Schaeuble’s ministry drafted a reform plan for stricter budget rules for EU states and a downsized European Commission as a result of the Brexit vote.

In a referendum in Britain on June 23, 51.9 percent voted to leave the EU while 48.1 percent voted to stay. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Aregbesola Isaac/Felix Ajide
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Police
By Aminu Ahmed Garko
Sokoto, Sept. 10 , 2016 (NAN) Alhaji Yakubu Usman, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 10 Sokoto, has assured people in the zone of adequate security during the forthcoming Eid el-Kabir.

Usman told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto on Saturday that Police was ready to provide peaceful atmosphere to ensure hitch-free celebrations.

According to him, various security measures had been put in place to ensure security of lives and property of residents during and after the celebrations.

He said already operational order had been issued to the three commissioners of Police in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states for implementation.

“We have put in place security measures against any form of security threats in our areas of jurisdictions,” he said.

Usman called on residents to cooperate with police and other security agents, especially at the praying grounds and public buildings.

He said that already uniform and plain clothes security personnel had since been deployed to motor parks, markets and recreation centres to monitor the conduct of the residents.

The AIG solicited the support of members of the public by coming forward with relevant information that could lead to the arrest and prosecution of criminals. (NAN)
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Edited by Felix Ajide
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By Awayi Kuje

Akun (Nasarawa), Sept. 10, 2016 (NAN) Prince Peter Angbazo, District Head of Wakama in Nasarawa, has urged Muslims to preach peace and pray for improved economy during the Eid-El-Kabir celebration.

Angbazo said on Saturday that peace would remain priceless and a major determinant of the progress of any society.

The monarch spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in his palace in Wakama, Akun Development Area of the state.

According to him, prayer is also a key to success; hence, there is the need for Muslims and other Nigerians to take advantage of the festival to pray for divine intervention in Nigeria.

He called on Muslim faithful to use the opportunity of the celebration to strengthen their relationship with God and their fellowmen for unity, love and peaceful co-existence.

“Our role is to preach and to ensure that peace and unity of the state and Nigeria at large are sustained.

“This is because no meaningful development can be achieved in any society without peace. Peace is priceless and non-negotiable.

“It is in view of this that I want to use this medium to call on the Muslim Ummah and other Nigerians to use the Eid-El-Kabir celebration to preach peace.

“They should pray fervently for an improved economy in order to improve the standard of living of the people

“Be tolerant of one another irrespective of ethnic, religious and political affiliation for the overall development of the country,’’ the monarch said.

He appealed to wealthy individuals to assist displaced and other less privileged Nigerians to give them hope.

Angbazo urged the youth to shun social vices during and after the festival in the interest of peace and national development, adding that all Nigerians should determine to be law-abiding and self-reliant. (NAN)

(Edited by Yetunde Bada and Controlled by Ijeoma Popoola)