Accra, Ghana – An 18-year-old girl, Mary, has been washed away by raging flood waters at Tesano in Accra, one of the challenges facing many cities in African continent.
The incident happened after a heaving downpour which lasted for about two hours hit the area on Sunday evening, 5th June 2022.
According to eyewitnesses, the girl was trying to salvage her slippers, which fell into a small drain when she was swept away into a drain.
The girl, who was the fourth of four children, is reported to have been lying down, when a vehicle stopped to buy corn from her.
So she served the person, but while going back to sit down, her slippers fell off into the gutter, so when she bent down to pick it, the floods swept her away.
After several attempts and rescue, she was later found dead, in the drain after the rains.
In a bid to come in term with victory, the Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country won’t stop its resistance against Russia’s invasion.
Volodymyr Zelensky (Wiki)
This week he said that enemy forces now control almost one-fifth of the country’s territory. But in his video message on Friday marking the war’s first 100 days, he made it clear Ukraine will not submit easily.
“Our team is much larger,” said Zelenskyy in a defiant statement. “The Ukrainian Armed Forces are here. Most importantly, our people are here.”
We have defended Ukraine for 100 days already,” he adds.” Victory will be ours!
According to the Ukrainian president, without the help of western advanced weapons, it will be very difficult to regain the lost ground.
Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February, the Russian president vowed his forces would not occupy the country. But now Moscow seems increasingly unlikely to relinquish the territory it has taken in the war.
Since Russia withdrew from northern Ukraine its troops are slowly but inexorably advancing in the east of the country on the Donbass region (east) and its strategic city of Severodonetsk.
Russian troops have not taken full control of Severodonetsk. According to Zelenskyy, it was “80 per cent occupied” by Russian forces and fighting is still raging in the streets.
The Kremlin has largely kept quiet about its plans for the cities, towns and villages it has bombarded, encircled and finally captured. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said it will be up to the people living in seized areas to decide their status.
“Quite a number of localities have been cleared from the pro-Nazi Ukrainian armed forces, and people there can start bringing their lives back to normal now. These efforts will be continued until all goals have been attained in the special military operation,” said Dimitry Peskov, official spokesperson of the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has been conducting intense, low-key negotiations to free up tens of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and prevent a global food crisis.
Russia is blocking Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and thus preventing the export of this grain, which fed 400 million people last year. The situation is all the more urgent as the next harvest is about to arrive.
The UN has so far been extremely quiet about these efforts but on Friday, UN humanitarians issued a fresh alert about the rising and alarming levels of food insecurity.
“The impact of the war across the region and the world is profound. There are 1.4 billion people that can be affected because of the shortage of wheat and other grains,” said Amin Awad, UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine.
“The transport of food from Ukraine and fertilizer from Russia impacted the world negatively and created inflation, food crisis, especially for third party states in a state of transition, in the Sahel of Africa, in the horn of Africa, but also in populous nations.”
The conflict involving the two agricultural superpowers that used to account for 30% of global wheat exports, immediately led to a spike in prices, which have already surpassed those that triggered the Arab Spring of 2011 and the food riots of 2008.
The UN fears “a hurricane of famines”, mainly in African countries that imported more than half their wheat from Ukraine or Russia.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader and presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that he has high regard and respect for Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief.
Ahmed Tinubu
The party leader who has come under scathing criticism for his comment on the President in Abeokuta on Thursday, said “I shall never denigrate him. I certainly did not do so in Abeokuta. We have been political partners for a long time and I hope that our partnership continues well into the future.
“I would do nothing to jeopardise it. I believe our party is the best hope for the nation to right itself. I believe I have a future role larger than the one I now have. I also believe President Buhari has a continuing and important role to play even after his tenure as president is over,” he explained in a statement he personally signed on Friday evening, Daily Independent reports.
Tinubu said there have been gross misinterpretations in some sectors of the media regarding the comments he made on Thursday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
He said that to a degree, the erroneous interpretations may be somewhat innocent given that he spoke in Yoruba. “Those who do not understand the nuances of this richly layered and subtly language may have inadvertently yet erroneously missed the true meaning of what I said while attempting to translate my statement.
“Instead of weighing what I said carefully, they translated so quickly and thus inaccurately in an attempt to meet media deadlines. Of course, there are also those who knew better but they conveyed these inaccuracies because the sensationalism suits their political purposes.
“Again, such propaganda and misinformation become daily fare in the heat of the political season. Let’s just state what needs to be stated. My opponents want to present a narrative that I made comments disrespectful of President Muhammadu Buhari in hopes that such a narrative would convince President Buhari to oppose my aspirations regarding the approaching primary. President Buhari is an experienced and accomplished leader. I do not believe he will be taken by the tricks of such people.
“Indeed, I consistently supported the president and his administration. Even when the administration has come under intense criticism, my feet have always been planted solidly in defence of the president. The president personally nominated me to coordinate his re-election campaign in 2019.
“He did this not because I opposed him or because I was indifferent. He did so because I was firm with him in 2015 and has stood firmly beside him ever since. When I publicly announced my aspiration to seek the party nomination for the upcoming presidential election, I stressed that my strategic objective was to build on the foundation laid by the Buhari administration.
“In fact, I believe I was the first aspirant to inform President Buhari of this presidential intention. It was a sign of the respect I have for him and his office. It is unthinkable that I would asperse the leader of the party for which I hope to be the next flag bearer. It makes no sense at all to do such an indelicate, unseemly thing”.
The Executive Governor of Ogun State, Mr. Dapo Abiodun has said Friday that he is not a political emperor with entitlement mentality.
The statement, he made on his official twitter page is said to be a reaction from the humiliation directed at him by Mr. Bola Tinubu, during his visit to the state capital on Thursday 2nd May, 2022.
Mr. Abiodun’s comment was an apparent shade at Mr. Tinubu, who said in Abeokuta on Thursday that the Governor won’t be governor today but for his benevolence.
“I am not an emperor by any chance and this is not my family inheritance,” the Ogun governor tweeted on Friday morning. “I am holding this position in trust for all the people of this state and I have vowed to be fair, just and equitable and this is the solemn agreement I made between the Almighty God and myself.” Mr. Abiodun Tweeted.
While meeting with the All Progress Congress (APC) party delegates, Mr. Tinubu insisted that he has to be the next president of Nigeria.
“This one sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he could have become a governor but for me?” Mr. Tinubu said while pointing at Mr. Abiodun, who was sitting close to the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
However, the governor did not fire back at the event, but he appeared visibly humiliated and decided to use this twitter account to prove some point, few hours ago.
I am not an emperor by any chance and this is not my family inheritance.
I am holding this position in trust for all the people of this state and I have vowed to be fair, just and equitable and this is the solemn agreement I made between the Almighty God and myself. pic.twitter.com/QnC5hltZHU
— Prince Dr. Dapo Abiodun – MFR (@dabiodunMFR) June 3, 2022
A formal request from Ankara to the United Nations has affirmed that Turkey will now, going forward be called Türkiye as a rebranded nation.
According to report at Newswebbs disposal, several international bodies will be asked to make the name change as part of a rebranding campaign launched by the Turkish president late last year.
“Türkiye is the best representation and expression of the Turkish people’s culture, civilization, and values,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in December.
The UN says it made the change as soon as it received the request this week.
Most Turks already know their country as Türkiye. However the anglicised form Turkey is widely used, even within the country.
State broadcaster TRT was quick to make the change as soon as it was announced last year, explaining that among the reasons for the image rebrand was the association with the bird traditionally associated with Christmas, New Year or Thanksgiving.
It also pointed out the Cambridge English Dictionary’s definition of one of the meanings of the word as “something that fails badly” or “a stupid or silly person”.
As part of the re-branding, “Made in Türkiye” will feature on all exported products, and in January a tourism campaign was launched with the catch-phrase “Hello Türkiye”.
The move has been met with a mixed reaction online. While government officials support it, others say it is an ineffective distraction as the president gears up for elections next year, amid an economic crisis.
It is not uncommon for countries to change their names.
In 2020, The Netherlands dropped Holland in a rebranding move. And before that, Macedonia changed its name to North Macedonia due to a political dispute with Greece, and Swaziland became Eswatini in 2018.
Further back in history, Iran used to be called Persia, Siam is now Thailand, and Rhodesia was changed to Zimbabwe.
The Ü may be tricky for most of the international audience who don’t have that letter in their alphabet but it’s the same as the German Ü, like the U in pure or cue. So for an English-speaker, changing the first vowel of Turkey to a Ü and adding an E to the end (as in pet) is enough to pronounce the new name perfectly.
But why was this necessary? President Erdogan was pushing for this move for years, arguing that the country would be better represented with the Turkish name instead of sharing the same word with a bird.
Turkey the bird is called by a different name in many languages, such as “peru” in Portuguese, while in Turkish it is “hindi”.
Many social media users refer to this fact to criticise the Turkish government’s move as absurd, while others agree that it was a necessary rebranding.
We have to wait and see if people around the world will accept Türkiye instead of Turkey, Turquie or Twrci.
Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has said that politics doesn’t always respect history and his assertion has generated conversations online.
Shehu Sani
Sani said this while reacting to the claim by Tinubu that President Muhammadu Buhari would not have emerged as the president in 2015 without his support.
Tinubu had yesterday claimed that without his support, President Buhari would not have won the 2015 election.
Speaking in Ogun State, Tinubu said, “If not for me that led the war from the front, Buhari would not have emerged as the president. He contested first, second and third times, but lost.
He even said on television that he won’t contest again.
“But I went to his home in Katsina, I told him you would contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matters of the Yorubas.
“Since he has emerged, I have not been appointed Minister. I didn’t get a contract.
“This time, it’s Yoruba’s turn and in Yoruba land, it’s my tenure.”
Reacting, Sani wrote on Twitter: “Actually, Jagaban has played a leading role in the emergence and victory of PMB in 2015; but politics doesn’t always respect or appreciate history.”
Ghana Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said that the Ministry would not extend the set deadline for the nationwide SIM card registration exercise, in the country.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
She iterated that all unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated by the end of July this year, and advised mobile phone users yet to register their SIM cards to do so to meet the deadline.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful gave the caution during the climax of the Ahafo Regional celebration of Girls-in-ICT Initiative held at Acherensua in the Asutifi South District on the theme “Access and safety”.
The Girls-in-ICT initiative, one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation (MoCD) was in line with the International Girls-in-ICT Day, an initiative introduced in 2012 and backed by all International Communications Unions (ITU) Member States.
It aimed at encouraging and empowering girls and young women to consider studies and careers in ICT in the growing fields of ICTs, enabled both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.
Under the initiative, 1,000 girls from selected basic schools in the Region had the opportunity to undergo a one-week intensive training in ICT in basic computing including programming, coding, gaming, scratch typing and mentorship programme.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said mobile phone subscribers and users in the country had been provided enough time and opportunity to register their SIM cards saying, “there is no way we are going to extend the deadline again”.
She explained the SIM card registration was essential because the exercise would greatly help the country in its efforts to prevent online and cybercrimes which had become more sophisticated. (GNA)
Vietnam has developed an African swine fever vaccine for pigs in partnership with the United States, and is aiming to become the first global commercial exporter, an official said.
The virus, harmless to humans, decimated hog populations in Asia after it was detected in Vietnam in 2019, with millions of the animals culled following outbreaks in Mongolia, Cambodia, Hong Kong and mainland China.
Pork prices rose dramatically as a result, devastating global food chains, with Vietnam among the worst hit in Southeast Asia.
“The production and commercial registration of the vaccine is a historic event,” deputy minister of agriculture and rural development Phung Duc Tien said Wednesday.
“We are confident to produce pig swine fever vaccine for domestic prevention and will also aim at export,” he said.
However, officials did not give a timeframe for the vaccine’s rollout or any indication of Vietnam’s capacity to produce it at scale.
From 2020, Vietnamese researchers worked with United States scientists on the NAVET-ASFVAC jab, Tien said.
He said the Agricultural Research Institute of the US Department of Agriculture had “sent an official letter to the Department of Animal Health of Vietnam confirming that the NAVET-ASFVAC vaccine is safe and effective”.
Reproductive health providers has sued Florida on Wednesday over a new law banning abortions after 15 weeks, one of numerous legal challenges to such laws passed across the country by Republican leaders in anticipation of a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision that would limit the procedure.
The filing in state court in Tallahassee from Planned Parenthood and other health centers alleges that the law violates a provision in the state constitution guaranteeing a person’s right to privacy, “including the right to abortion.”
“HB 5 radically curtails the ability of Floridians to make decisions about whether or not to continue a pregnancy and have a child, in violation of their rights under the Florida Constitution,” the filing reads.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the 15-week ban into law in April, as part of a growing conservative movement to restrict access to the procedure after a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion signaled it would uphold a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks.
The high court’s decision, expected this summer, could potentially weaken or overturn Roe v. Wade and make other legal challenges unlikely to succeed. Florida’s law, which is set to takes effect July 1, contains exceptions if the abortion is necessary to save a mother’s life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality.
It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape, incest or human trafficking. Under current law, Florida allows abortions up to 24 weeks. Get unlimited digital access Subscribe now for just $2 for 2 months.
CLAIM OFFER A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said about 2% of the nearly 72,000 abortions reported in Florida in 2019 were performed after 15 weeks. That same year, 2,256 out-of-state residents got abortions in Florida, with the majority — about 1,200 — coming from Georgia and more than 300 from Alabama, according to the CDC. The origin of the remaining patients was not clear.
Florida Republicans have said they want the state to be well placed to limit access to abortions if the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s law. If Roe is overturned, 26 states are certain or likely to quickly ban or severely restrict abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that supports abortion rights. Republican lawmakers in other states have introduced new abortion restrictions, some similar to a Texas law that bans the procedure after roughly six weeks and leaves enforcement up to private citizens.
In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a bill to make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to a decade in prison. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in March signed legislation to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court leaves Mississippi’s law in place.
Four persons have been killed on Thursday in Kenya after police opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Kajiado County, the eastern part of the country.
Mashuru police commander Charles Chepkong’a said seven others were injured and admitted to a local hospital following the fracas in the Masimba area, Africanews reported.
“Three were killed at the scene while the fourth died in hospital,” the police commander said.
Chepkong’a said the group was protesting against the persistent invasion by wildlife animals in the area. According to him, an elephant had apparently killed a teacher in the area and locals were angered by a lack of action from authorities.
The locals also said the perennial wildlife invasion had caused the destruction of property in the area.
“Elephants are causing destruction every day, and our children are not going to school as they are killed by elephants all the time and all the schools are closed due to the elephant invasion.” a Kajiado resident said.
The issue escalated with residents burning tires and barricading the busy Nairobi-Mombasa highway for hours, leading to major traffic that stretched for more than five kilometres and paralyzed operations.
The incident forced police to intervene using force after the group used stones to block the road as others sat there stalling operations along the busy highway.
Several women from the pastoral Maasai community flanked by other villagers carried banners and chanted slogans saying “we don’t want elephants” as they barricaded the road with stones and trees.
Motorists were forced to scamper for safety after the demonstrators turned chaotic.
“The police have killed us and we have suffered. Some women were pregnant, and are suffering from the tear gas used by the police. People are being killed.” one of the protesters lamented.
It would be recalled that in December last year, a pack of hyenas killed two people over a span of 24 hours in a village just 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
Due to this reoccurrences, residents have repeatedly called on the Kenya Wildlife Service to find a solution to the conflicts between people and animals.
