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Eight Medical Doctors Test Positive For COVID-19 In Zamfara Nigeria
The Nigeria Medical Association in Zamfara state has recorded that eight of its members have tested positive for Corona Virus.
The vice-chairman of the association in the state, Mannir Bature told Channels Television that the eight medical doctors who are among the recently recorded cases of COVID-19 are in Zamfara state and were infected in the line of duty at various public hospitals in the state.
Dr Bature also said that the doctors got the infection while attending to patients at hospitals who were already confirmed with the virus.
He, further, urged on the Zamfara State Ministry of Health to provide medical workers in all the public hospitals in the state with personal protective equipment to help them from contracting the virus.
He also pledged for improved risk allowances for medical doctors and other health workers that are tangled in the management of the coronavirus pandemic in Zamfara state in Nigeria.
Source___Channels TV
Ex-Footballer Fred Kanoute raises $1m to build Seville’s first mosque in 700 years
Former football star Fred Oumar Kanoute has put forward a sum of $1m in an online endowing campaign to build the first purpose-built mosque and cultural centre in Seville, Spain, in atop 700 years.
Kanoute, a French-born Muslim with a Malian background who formerly played for Sevilla FC, started the campaign a year ago on LaunchGood, a crowdfunding platform focused on the global Muslim community.
“Thank you and may Allah reward for you for all those who participated in the campaign,” Kanoute tweeted on Tuesday.
Olga Torres, a member of the Arab and Islamic Studies department at the University of Seville, make known to Al Jazeera that there had not been a basis-built mosque in the city in “almost 800 years”.
Source___Aljazeera
US Senate put forward bills that could reject some Chinese firms
The US Senate has passed a bill that could reject some Chinese companies from putting up for sales shares on American stock exchanges.
It would require foreign firms to follow US ways for audits and other financial management.
The procedure now has to be passed by the House of Representatives before being signed into law by President Trump.
It comes as US-China agitation increases over the virus pandemic and after the Luckin Coffee accounting rumours.
The planned legislation would also require publicly traded companies to reveal whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government.
The bill applies to all foreign companies, but is targeted at China, and follows intense criticism of Beijing by Mr Trump and other US politicians.
Mr Trump and officials in his administration argue that China mishandled the coronavirus outbreak in its early stages.
The escalation has now getting out of hand to become a pandemic that has killed almost 330,000 people worldwide and crippled the global economy.
*US-listed Chinese companies have already come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks after Luckin Coffee revealed that an internal investigation found hundreds of millions of dollars of its sales last year were “fabricated”.*
The company said its own findings had found that fabricated sales from the second quarter of last year to the fourth quarter amounted to about 2.2bn yuan ($310m; £254m). That equates to about 40% of its real gained annual sales.
The Chinese coffee chain has since ceased its chief executive and chief operating officer, while six other employees who were told to have been involved in or known about the transactions have been taken back or put on leave.
Source___BBC News
‘APP calls for prosecution of corrupt officials’
All People’s Party (APP) has called for the taken into custody and punishment of officials involved in corrupt misconduct at the Ministry of Health.
“At a time of national emergency on covid-19, when every Gambian life is at stake, is it not criminal when some officials of government are engaged in thievery. We believe that those dishonest officials need to be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.
Health Minister Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh recently give a sparse awareness into the country’s Health Ministry, citing a string of atrocities haopening due to the bad system take back by the current government.
In a feedback sent to this medium and signed by the party interim leader, Alhagie Gumbo Ali Touray said “The APP has been following proceedings of the National Assembly sessions on the extension of the State of Public Emergency on the covid-19 pandemic held on Friday, 15 May 2020.”
The release further added: “Our party is particularly disturbed by revelation of the Minister of Health Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, accusing his own government of rampant malpractices in the usage of public funds meant for the corona pandemic rather than addressing the problem.”
Looking at it in a broder angle, the party said, the revelation is ‘damming, shameful and degrading’ for a government. “It clearly shows the type of wrong leadership, unpatriotic government and how ignorant cronies are derailing Gambia’s road to development.”
The party said: “It is our firm belief that the APP will do things differently and we will never tolerate any abuse of public funds especially in times of a crisis. The APP applauds the minister for bravely coming out to inform Gambian people and we encourage other Gambians to follow this example in order for this nation to root out this scourge of corruption affecting the country.”
Source___The Point
‘Payment of teachers should be safeguard’
Marie Antoinette Corr-Jack, the Secretary General of the Gambia Teachers’ Union (GTU), has said that payment of teachers should be safeguarded.
Madam Corr-Jack made these disclos lately during a press release put forwaby the Union’s board.
“The salaries, terms and conditions of teachers and education support personnel at all levels should be protected at all times during and after the covid-19 crisis”, said the union, which added that teachers must be rewarded as usual during closure periods.
*The union further called on government to ensure the provision of psychosocial support, including counseling services offered to all affected students, teachers and education support personnel in order to ensure their well-being as the trauma associated with Covid-19 can be devastating to students and educators who lost loved ones.*
The union went on to appeal government to assist private schools badly hit by the pandemic, saying they are at the apex of total collapse without government’s support or bail out.
Additionally, the union call out to the ministries of health and education come together to build and communicate well-defined time line to the resuming of schools.
*It said as a union there are lots of things they are doing in collaboration with the Ministry of Education which they hope will bear positive fruits soon enough.
It also called on education authorities to ensure regular and timely information and updates to all employees in the sector aiming to minimize uncertainty and related stress and anxiety.*
A UNESCO findings have shown a disastrous impact of over 1.5 billion students being affected due to school closures in 165 countries as of March 26th 2020.
This is not less than 87% of all registered students, over 63 million teachers with a giant number of education support personnel also being highly-flown by the pandemic.
Stating these unusual developments, and as such the union said the virus has become an educational catastrophe.
Source___Standard Newspaper
Former Gambia health minister Contradicts Ebola funds were mismanaged
Former Gambian health minister, Omar Sey has insistently contradicted Minister Dr Ahmadou Samateh’s allegations that funds that were meant to fight Ebola were mismanaged.
*Minister Samateh told lawmakers last Saturday during the debate on the extension of state of emergency that the Ebola funds were wasted and equipment which were said to be procured never reached the country.*
But Sey, who was the minister of health during the outbreak of the Ebola crisis, denied this: “The money never came to the ministry of health. It was all handled at the level of the UNDP and the procurement process was also done by the UNDP.We were just handed the materials and everything”.
Sey explained that, when the Ebola escalation was reported in the sub-region, the government put up an Ebola response task force but no money was taken from government because this was around end of year.
“We worked with the UNDP and there was a donor conference in Dakar which I attended with the finance minister and presented our plan. The plan attracted lot of interests from the UN and CSOs who really wanted to help,” he said.
He said the plan was then taken to the UN South-South Cooperation platform and the Japanese government decided to fund some of the activities.
“And all those funds came through the UNDP as the middle body responsible to build point of entries in the border villages, procurement of motor bicycles, ambulances, pickup trucks and some equipment including the ones at the airport”, Sey said.
“So based on the activity plan, funds are released from the WHO account at Standard Chartered Bank to the ministry of health account at the Standard Chartered in the name of the PS ministry of health. The PS will make a request and sign the cheque and give it to the subcommittee to go and implement their activities,” he explained.
Source___Standard Newspaper
Gunmen attack Afghanistan mosque Assassinating many Muslims
Gunmen have fired open a mosque in central Afghanistan, killing at least seven muslims and wounding five others, officials said.
Parwan province’s police chief Haroon Mubarez said on Tuesday, the gunmen strike their guns in the mosque when worshippers were offering evening prayers after breaking their Ramadan fast.
“Seven people have been killed and 12 wounded. The gunmen fled the area,” he told the AFP news agency.
It was not certain how many gunmen were part of the attack.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior make known Tuesday’s attack in Parwan’s capital Charekar, put blaims on the Taliban. The armed group declined responsibility.
The United Nations has notified of panicking uptick in violence against civilians in Afghanistan.
Source___Aljazeera
Premier League Clubs Records Six Positive COVID-19 Cases
Six positive cases for coronavirus have been discovered at three Premier League clubs after players and staff were tested ahead of a come back to training, England’s top-flight said on Tuesday.
“The Premier League can today confirm that, on Sunday 17 May and Monday 18 May, 748 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19,” the league said in a statement.
“Of these, six have tested positive from three clubs.”
No details is make known over which individuals or clubs recorded the cases.
“Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days,” added the league’s statement.
Premier League clubs began returning to their various training grounds in small groups on Tuesday after protocols on safety procedures were signed off on Monday.
*The number of positive cases represents just 0.8 per cent of those tested and is consistent with similar widespread testing conducted by other major leagues hoping to complete the season.*
Germany’s top two divisions confirmed 10 positive cases out of 1,724 tests two weeks ago ahead of their return to training last weekend.
Source___Channels TV
Nigerian Navy Take Into Custody 10 Pirates Who bombarded Chinese Vessel
The Nigerian Navy has taken into custody 10 pirates who were reported to have bombarded a Chinese Vessel, MV Hailufang (II).
This was make known in a statement issued by the Commander NNS BEECROFT, Commodore IA Shettima, on Monday.
As said by Shettima, the vessel was bombarded on May 15 by pirates of the coast of Cote de Vore.
Subsequently, they took control of the vessel which had 18 crew members consisting of Chinese, Ghanaians and Ivorians, and directed it towards Nigerian Waters.
“The Nigerian Navy was alerted of the pirate attack and immediately, the Nigerian Navy Ship NGURU was dispatched to intercept the vessel.
“On interception of the vessel at about 140nm south of Lagos Fairway Buoy, the pirates refused to comply to the orders of the Navy Ship, hence the Nigerian Navy had to conduct an opposed boarding of the vessel. All ship crew were safely rescued, while the 10 pirates were arrested,” the NNS Commander stated.
He added that it is relevant to note that the last five known or documented pirate bombards were outside of Nigerian waters, of which the Nigerian Navy has responded in the interest of Regional Security.
“This is aptly captured in the NN Total Spectrum Maritime Strategy ‘which covers Nigeria’s outermost maritime area of interest, encompassing the entire West African waters and the GoG,” Shettima said.
Meanwhile, he used the opportunity to alert the criminal elements that take part in any acts of maritime crime within the Gulf of Guinea to desist, noting that the Nigerian Navy has the capability and will power to deal with such offenders.
Source____Channels TV
Russian Military Helicopter Crashes Killing The Entire Crew
A Russian army Mi-8 helicopter bumps outside Moscow during a training flight on Tuesday, killing the entire crew, the defence ministry said. “As a result of a crash landing the crew of the helicopter died of their wounds,” the defence ministry said.
Defence ministry spokespeople, reached by AFP, refused to put forward how many crew members had died.
But Russian news agencies, citing emergencies services, said three people died. *The helicopter, which did not carry ammunition, crashed in a secluded area some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the town of Klin outside Moscow around 8 pm, the ministry said.* It added that a ministry commission had been send off to the scene to look into the causes of the crash.
Citing initial information, the ministry said that a “technical malfunction” was known to have caused the crash.
The Mi-8 is a Soviet-invented twin-turbine helicopter and is usually used to transport civilians or troops.
Source___Channels TV
D5 Creation