The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Rattled Johnson sends police after social distancing, mask wearing violators

    Rattled Johnson sends police after social distancing, mask wearing violators

    Agency Reporter

    British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, confirmed on Friday that coronavirus case numbers were ‘creeping up’ and he was determined to slam the brake pedal on easing lockdown.

    Accordingly, the lockdown loosening planned for today has been pushed back to August 15 “at the earliest” while mandatory wearing of face coverings will be extended in England to include galleries, cinemas and places of worship.

    There will also now be a greater police presence to ensure people wear masks and comply with social distancing.

    Read Also: Violators of safety protocols at airport risk jail term, says Fed Govt

    The Office for National Statistics estimates there are now 4,200 new infections every day, up from 2,000 per day at the end of June – and as a result, the government had no choice but to delay the further reopening of the economy.

    The PM said: “until August 15 at the earliest casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and the remaining close contact services must remain closed, indoor performances will not resume, pilots of larger crowds in sports venues and conference centres will not take place and wedding receptions of up to 30 people will not be permitted but ceremonies of course can continue to take place in line with Covid secure guidelines.”

  • Vietnam records first COVID-19 death

    Vietnam records first COVID-19 death

    Vietnam has recorded its first death from Covid-19, state media has reported.

    The 70-year-old man was from the central city of Hoi An.

    No new infections had been reported for more than three months before an outbreak was reported in the nearby resort of Da Nang earlier this week.

    Vietnam, which has a population of around 95 million, has reported just several hundred coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.

    From mid-April, the country had reported no new local transmissions.

    Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Wednesday warned that every province and city in the country was at high risk of infections after the cases in Da Nang emerged.

    “We have to act more swiftly and more fiercely in order to control the outbreak,” state media quoted him as saying.

    The government initially closed the city to tourists, before ordering a total lockdown of the city on Wednesday.

    Unlike many other countries, Vietnam acted before it even had confirmed cases, closing its borders early to almost all travellers, except returning citizens.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • US national shot dead in Pakistan courtroom during blasphemy trial

    US national shot dead in Pakistan courtroom during blasphemy trial

    A United States citizen on trial for blasphemy in Pakistan has been shot dead while appearing in court, in the latest act of violence connected to the controversial legislation.

    Tahir Ahmed Naseem, 47, died on Wednesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar, after a member of the public walked into the courtroom and opened fire in front of the judge, according to officials. His attacker was arrested at the scene.

    Naseem was on trial on charges of blasphemy after allegedly claiming to be a prophet, a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment under the Pakistan penal code.

    In a statement, the US State Department said officials were “shocked, saddened, and outraged” by Naseem’s death. The statement said that Naseem had been “lured to Pakistan from his home in Illinois by individuals who then used Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to entrap him.” It didn’t offer any further detail. Naseem had been receiving consular assistance since his arrest in 2018.

    “We extend our condolences to the family of Tahir Naseem, the American citizen who was killed today inside a courtroom in Pakistan,” the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs said in a separate statement posted online Thursday. “We urge Pakistan to take immediate action and pursue reforms that will prevent such a shameful tragedy from happening again.”

    According to a spokesperson for Peshawar police, the alleged killer told Naseem that he was an “enemy of religion” and deserved to be killed before opening fire.

    Police are investigating how the suspect was able to enter the court room with a loaded weapon.
    Security guards are typically stationed outside court buildings and police officers guard individual court rooms.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • UN at 75: Minister, resident coordinator, others advise youths on nation-building

    UN at 75: Minister, resident coordinator, others advise youths on nation-building

    By Bola Olajuwon, Assistant Editor

     

    Youth and Sports Development Minister Sunday Dare, United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Nigeria Mr. Edward Kallon and youth leaders have urged youths to keep their voices roaring even though they may not get responses to issues raised as they expected.

    Dare, Kallon and a panel of youth leaders spoke at a virtual consultation organised by the United Nations Association of Nigeria (UNAN) in collaboration with the Nigeria Youth SDGs and other youth civil society groups.

    The event, “Shaping the Nigeria we want”, held in Lagos and supported by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), was aimed at enabling youths to share their aspirations for the country and also have an opportunity to interact with the Resident Co-ordinator in celebration of UN at 75.

    The minister, who was represented by Mr. Adedayo Bamigboye, congratulated the UN for the 75th year of existence and praised effort of youth SDGs and other organisers of the day’s event.

    He said the dialogue is considered very important and it was an opportunity for enlightenment to the youths

    According to him, there was a need for youths to keep their voices active on national issues and matter affecting them.

    Read Also: Community seeks Fed Govt’s intervention for growth

     

    “There is currently proliferation of youth organisations in Nigeria and there is a need for coming together with a view to polling resources together. The ministry has a register of credible youth organisations and youths need to make effort at getting more united ,” Dare said.

    The minister urged young Nigerians currently found in crimes and other vices to look beyond their certificates and explore other ways of utilising their talents’

    Kallon, after congratulating UNAN (a member of World Federation of United Nations Associations) and other organisations for organising the day’s event as part of UN@75, said the youth’s voice counts.

    He reaffirmed the UN faith in fundamental human rights, in dignity and worth of human person, equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, stablishment of conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.

    However, a panel of youth champions including Sani Muhammad (Bridge Connect Africa Initiative); Wadi Ben-Hirki (Wadi Ben-Hirki Foundation); Saied Tafida (Follow Taxes) and Goodness Odey (Nigeria Youth SDGs), in their observations, comments and recommendations, said a limiting factor to young people most times centres on inability to get productive engagement with government agencies.

     

  • U.S. 2020: Trump raises possibility of delaying presidential election

    U.S. 2020: Trump raises possibility of delaying presidential election

    UNITED States (U.S.) President Donald Trump yesterday said that the November presidential election might have to be delayed, citing unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting could result in fraud.

    “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most inaccurate & fraudulent election in history.

    “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Trump tweeted.

    Read Also: Trump to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany

     

    It was the first time Trump has floated the idea of postponing the election, though he does not have the power to do so unilaterally.

    The president has been pushing hard to block the expansion of postal voting in states around the country.

    The movement was growing, as part of an effort to making voting easier, but gained momentum amid fears about coronavirus spreading as people gather at polling stations.

    There is no evidence to support the idea that either absentee or mail-in ballots contribute to voter fraud.

  • Trump to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany

    Trump to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany

    Our Reporter

    The United States military on Wednesday unveiled plans to withdraw about 12,000 troops from Germany, but said it will keep nearly half of them in Europe to address tension with Russia.

    Germany hosts more US troops than any other country in Europe.

    Trump last month ordered the US military to remove 9,500 troops from Germany, cutting the number from 34,500 to 25,000.

    Trump cited Germany’s failure to meet NATO’s defence spending target as a reason.

    He also accused Germany of taking advantage of the US on trade. The White House has insisted the move would “enhance Russian deterrence, strengthen NATO, reassure Allies”.

    READ ALSO: Germany introduces localised lockdowns to contain COVID-19 outbreaks

    “We’re reducing the force because they’re not paying their bills; it’s very simple”, Trump said on Wednesday. “We’re moving forces out of central Europe, Germany, where they’ve been since the Cold War, defence secretary Mark Esper said, adding that it will shift US forces east, closer to Russia, “where our newest allies are”.

    NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in a Wednesday statement that the plan “underlines the continued commitment by the United States to NATO and to European security”. German officials have condemned the troop cuts.

    5,400 troops of the 12,000 leaving Germany are expected to remain in other locations in Europe, including at NATO bases in Belgium and Italy.
    Some 6,400 forces will be based in the US but will rotate into Europe for temporary deployments without their families.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • Nigeria contributed $1.17b to ECOWAS in 16 years

    Nigeria contributed $1.17b to ECOWAS in 16 years

    Nigeria has paid more than $1,177 billion dollars to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as its Community Levy contribution in the last 16 years.

    According to documents from a presentation by the ECOWAS Commission to Parliament at Plenary during its Virtual Second Extraordinary Session, Nigeria paid 853,310,564 UA (West Africa Unit of Account) for the period under review.

    The West African Unit of Account (WAUA) is the authorised currency used in ECOWAS. The exchange rate for July obtained from ECOWAS shows that one Unit of Account equals 1.3799633 dollars.

    Nigeria’s payment represents 40.42 per cent of the total payment of 2,913,088,908 dollars payment made by all the 15 member states, and is higher than payments made by 12 other countries put together except Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

    Ghana paid about 508,577 million dollars, Cote d’Ivoire 347,262 million dollars, while Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo paid a total of 879,711 million dollars.

    Ghana’s payment represents 17.45 per cent of the total sum, Cote d’Ivoire 11.9 per cent, while the cumulative payment by the other 12 countries represents 30.1 per cent.

    Within the period under review, Guinea Bissau paid the lowest amount of 6, 204 million dollars, representing 0.2 per cent of total community levy proceeds in the 16 years under review.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Community levy was adopted in 1996 by the Authority of Heads of State as the major funding for ECOWAS after the initial contribution regime seemed ineffective.

  • Fed Govt, UNODC, others okay projects to fight human trafficking

    Fed Govt, UNODC, others okay projects to fight human trafficking

    By Bola Olajuwon, Assistant Editor

    THE International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and ARK and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have launched four new projects to strengthen the response to trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants in Nigeria.

    The projects, which are being carried out with the support of the governments of Canada and Switzerland and jointly with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), were inaugurated yesterday on the eve of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

    The three projects funded by Canada aim to strengthen the data and intelligence collection and analysis capabilities of NIS and NAPTIP, enhance border protection and management and bolster effective communications on the risks of irregular migration and trafficking in persons.

    With the support of Switzerland, UNODC and NAPTIP will seek to improve the national policy framework against trafficking in persons, through the development of new National Action Plan against Trafficking in Persons for the 2021-2025 period.

    The four projects were officially launched yesterday during an online event gathering, which include the Director-General of NAPTIP, the Comptroller-General of the NIS, high-level officials from the United Nations system in Nigeria, representatives from ARK and the governments of Canada and Switzerland. Other Nigerian ministries, departments and agencies active in the fight against trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants were also present, as well as members from the international community in Nigeria and civil society organizations.

    In his remarks, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon welcomed the upcoming projects.

    “We would like to thank the Governments of Canada, Nigeria and Switzerland on their cooperation in making these projects possible in a time when urgent action is required to pre-empt that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Nigerians choose the perilous path of irregular migration or fall prey to the false promises of human traffickers,” Kallon said.

     

     

  • 289 Nigerians stranded in U.S. arrive Abuja

    289 Nigerians stranded in U.S. arrive Abuja

    By Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

    About 289 Nigerians stranded in the United States of America (U.S.) arrived yesterday afternoon in abuja, The Nation learnt.

    The latest evacuees are the fourth batch to have arrived in the country from U.S. under the emergency evacuation process, which started on April 8, 2020, following the global lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The latest evacuation brings to 6,641 the number of Nigerians that have been successfully brought back home under the emergency arrangement.

    READ ALSO: 289 Nigerians stranded in US arrive today

    According to the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), the U.S. flight, which was the fourth batch, arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at exactly 1310HRS via Ethiopian Air.

    “All evacuees tested negative to COVID-19 before boarding and are now on a 14 day self-isolation as mandated by Presidential Task Force on COVID-19,” the commission stated.

    The Special Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sarah Sanda, announced the evacuation, earlier yesterday.

    The flight manifest, Sanda stated, includes 135 male, 142 female and 12 infants. Sanda said the evacuation flight departed Newark, New Jersey.

  • U.S. records 10,000 coronavirus deaths in 11 days

    U.S. records 10,000 coronavirus deaths in 11 days

    Our Reporter

    U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus were approaching 150,000 on Wednesday, the highest level in the world and rising by 10,000 in 11 days, according to a Reuters tally.

    This is the fastest increase in fatalities since the United States went from 100,000 cases to 110,000 cases in 11 days in early June, according to the tally.

    Nationally, COVID-19 deaths have risen for three weeks in a row while the number of new cases week-over-week recently fell for the first time since June.

    A spike in infections in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas this month has overwhelmed hospitals. The rise has forced states to make a U-turn on reopening economies that were restricted by lockdowns in March and April to slow the spread of the virus.

    READ ALSO: Virus has cure, says U.S.-based doctor

    Texas leads the nation with nearly 4,000 deaths so far this month, followed by Florida with 2,690 and California, the most populous state, with 2,500. The Texas figure includes a backlog of hundreds of deaths after the state changed the way it counted COVID-19 fatalities.

    While deaths have rapidly risen in July in these three states, New York and New Jersey still lead the nation in total lives lost and for deaths per capita, according to a Reuters tally.

    Of the 20 countries with the biggest outbreak, the United States ranks sixth for deaths per capita, at 4.5 fatalities per 10,000 people. It is exceeded by the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Peru and Chile.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)