GRAPHITTI
NEWS collates national and international highlights from late-breaking news,
upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Saturday:
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Rivers Commissioner for
Health, Dr Samson Parker (L), briefing newsmen on efforts to prevent Ebola
Virus in Port Harcourt on Thursday (21/8/14). With him is the chairman, Rivers
House Committee on Health, Mrs Irene Inimgba (R).
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1. EBOLA IN RIVERS, ECOWAS OFFICIAL MAY FACE MANSLAUGHTER
CHARGES
The Nigerian diplomat attached to the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Olubukun Koye who escaped from
quarantine in Lagos after testing positive to Ebola virus and travelled to Port
Harcourt for treatment, an action that resulted in the death of the doctor who
treated him (Ikechukwu Sam Enemuo) may face manslaughter charges.
This is coming on the heels of report that the number
of persons under surveillance in the state for Ebola Virus Disease has
increased from 100 to 160.
Sources told THISDAY that the issue of Koye (a primary
contact of the index case, late Liberian Partick Sawyer) who defied instruction
not to leave Lagos after being placed in the isolation unit, was discussed at
the Federal Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday and that the Minister of
Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Mohammed Adoke was directed to
look into the Nigerian laws and see how he could be sanctioned for his action
that resulted in the death of Enemuo.
The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samson
Parker while giving an update on the EVD in the state, after recording its
first death from Ebola last week Friday, disclosed that the surveillance list
had increased to 160.
He said the state’s contact tracing team was working
seriously to make sure that the spread of the EVD was contained in the state.
Parker also gave further insight into how the dreaded
EVD crept into the state and claimed its first victim.
He said the late Enemuo was aware that Koye, whom he
treated, had evaded the surveillance team in Lagos to travel to Port Harcourt.
Parker said: “He (Koye) had received the late Dr.
Patrick Sawyer in Lagos. Upon developing the symptom, he confided in a female
colleague, called Lillian, who contacted the late Dr. Enemuo. It was after
contact was established with Dr. Enemuo that Koye flew to Port Harcourt to see
Dr. Enemuo.
"To conceal his movement, Koye sneaked out of the
isolation unit where he was being observed and took a flight to Port Harcourt
and switched off his phone so that he cannot be reached or traced should he
answer a call.
“On arrival in Port Harcourt, Koye checked into a
local hotel called Mandate Hotel, around Rumuokoro in Obio/Akpor Local
Government Area of the city.”
The hotel, Parker said, was close to Enemuo's private
clinic, Sam Steel Clinic.
Parker continued: “From what we have gathered so far,
Dr. Enemuo, knowing full well that Koye was positive of the Ebola virus took
some measure of precaution to protect himself while treating Koye. Knowing the
enormity of what he was doing. Dr. Enemuo upon Koye’s departure for Lagos
poured bleach all over the room that Koye slept in order to sanitise the place.
“Upon developing the Ebola symptom, Dr. Enemuo
approached one of our colleagues for treatment at Green Heart Hospital, along
Evo Road, in G.R.A. Dr. Enemuo did not tell the doctor that was treating him
the truth. He merely told him that he had fever. He lied. He did not tell the
doctor that was treating him his full story.
"But the doctor, a nice and conscientious
professional suspected that Dr. Enemuo was either hiding something or was
suffering from a strange ailment because he proved negative to malaria, fever
and typhoid fever. To be sure of what he was doing, he spoke to other very
experienced doctors about the strange case he was handling in his hospital.
“He even invited some of his colleagues to come over
to his hospital to study Dr. Enemuo’s medical history. Of course, the news of
the Ebola virus was everywhere, so, they were afraid to go. None of them showed
up at the hospital where Dr. Enemuo was being treated. His condition continued
to deteriorate and he eventually died and his body was taken to the University
of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.”
Parker said Koye had returned to Lagos where the
surveillance group saw him and tested him of the EVD and that he had tested
negative.
He said Koye neither disclosed to the people that he
travelled to Port Harcourt nor that he had treated himself of the disease.
According to the commissioner, “When news got to Koye
that the doctor that treated him in Port Harcourt had died, he collapsed. It
was then he opened up and confessed that Dr. Enemuo had treated him when he
travelled to Port Harcourt. He confessed that he sneaked out of Lagos to Port
Harcourt”.
However, the authorities of the isolation centre in
Lagos never disclosed to the public that an ebola positive patient had escaped
from the centre when the incident occured. This information is only just coming
to light following the death of a doctor in Port Harcourt.
2. EBOLA: EXPERIMENTAL DRUG ZMAPP IS '100% EFFECTIVE' IN
ANIMAL TRIALS
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Screengrab
from BBC video. Pictures by curtesy of NAIDA/GSK
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The
only clinical trial data on the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp shows it is 100%
effective in monkey studies, even in later stages of the infection.
The
researchers, publishing theirdata in Nature, said it was a "very important step forward".
Yet
the limited supplies will not help the 20,000 people predicted to be infected
during the outbreak in West Africa.
And
two out of seven people given the drug, have later died from the disease.
ZMapp
has been dubbed the "secret serum" as it is still in the experimental
stages of drug development with, until now, no public data on effectiveness.
Doctors have turned to it
as there is no cure for Ebola, which has killed more than 1,500 people since it
started in Guinea.3. FIFA SACKS GIWA
FIFA Secretary General Jerome
Valke, FIFA warned Giwa and his executives to stop parading themselves as NFF
officials, stating that they do not recognise their election of Tuesday even
though FIFA also reported “it appears the ministry of sports has recognised
them”.
“We will not recognise
the outcome of the above mentioned elections and should there still be persons
claiming to have been elected and occupying the NFF offices at midnight on
Monday 1 September 2014, we will bring the case to the appropriate FIFA body
for sanctions, which may include the suspension of the NFF,” read the letter
addressed to NFF secretary general Musa Amadu.
Giwa and his executives
resumed office on Wednesday and the following day paid a courtesy call to
sports minister Tammy Danagogo, who promptly endorsed their election.
The immediate consequence of a FIFA ban on Nigeria
would be the African champions forfeiting the two 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
qualifiers fixed for September 6 against Congo in Calabar and September 10
against South Africa in Cape Town.
The crisis caused by the purported election has meant
league matches will not be played across the country as scheduled this weekend
after referees, club managers and players staged a boycott until the situation
was resolved.
Two months ago, Nigeria was suspended by FIFA
following direct government interference in the running of the game in the
country when a court sacked the duly elected NFF executive committee led by
Aminu Maigari and the sports minister appointed a civil servant to head the
NFF.
In Friday’s letter, FIFA have also accepted the
decision of the majority congress where 39 of the 44 members resolved at an ad
hoc general assembly for executive committee elections to now take place on
September 4.
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FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valke |
4. PARENTS WANT KANO, YOLA LAW SCHOOL CAMPUSES CLOSED
The authorities at the
Nigerian Law School (NLS) have been called upon to close down the NLS campuses
in Kano and Yola.
The call is coming on the
heels of the unabating attacks by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents.
This was disclosed yesterday by NLS director general, Olanrewaju Onadeko, at the annual general meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which took place in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
This was disclosed yesterday by NLS director general, Olanrewaju Onadeko, at the annual general meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which took place in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
“Since assumption of
office, I have been inundated with calls for us to close down our Kano and Yola
campuses because of the security challenges posed by insurgents in those parts
of the country,” Onadeko said.
He however, mentioned
that the school has embarked on the immediate fencing of the Yola and Kano
campuses to check their apparent vulnerability.
The director general
added that although the project was capital intensive, the school authority has
no option as a responsive and responsible management.
He informed the meeting
that the school has secured the support of the Inspector General of Police, the
Chief of Defence Staff and the Department of State Security for the deployment
of plain clothed officers and men to the precincts of all NLS campuses.
He said modern security
gadgets have been deployed to all campuses. “We also have in place CCTV cameras
at strategic locations to aid the operation of our security personnel,” Onadeko
said.
In their reaction, some lawyers said that the measures put in place should be investigated and should the measures be found to be inadequate, the two campuses should be closed down.
5. HEART FOR AFRICA: HOW
DORIS LESSING BEQUEATHED PERSONAL LIBRARY TO ZIMBABWE In their reaction, some lawyers said that the measures put in place should be investigated and should the measures be found to be inadequate, the two campuses should be closed down.
The British Nobel laureate, Doris Lessing, left an
unusual instruction before her death in November, 2013. She wanted her
collection of over 3, 000 books to be sent to the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
Why Zimbabwe of all places?
Lessing’s executors, reports the New Zimbabwe website,
informed that Book Aid International, a charity that Lessing supported, has
been asked to help transport the donation to a leading public library in the
country. In her lifetime, Lessing fostered several programmes in Zimbabwe to
aid literacy through libraries and studying.
Books are priceless to writers, even after death,
which is why Lessing’s death wish was rather a rarity. No wonder, Harare mayor,
Bernard Manyenyeni, described it as a “magnificent gesture” from a writer who
had taken “her love for this country beyond her death”.
“We have every reason to feel special to have earned
this much in her wishes. We are delighted and grateful as any city would be,”
he enthused.
Lessing’s
romance with Zimbabwe dates back to the colonial times when the country was
known as Southern Rhodesia. In fact, she lived in Zimbabwe from 1924-1949 and
returned in 1956, but was declared a “prohibited migrant” by the government for
her anti-settler sentiments and left-wing political views.
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British Nobel laureate,
Doris Lessing
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6. EU LEADERS TO PICK NEW
FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF
European Union leaders
will pick the 28-nation bloc's foreign policy chief for the next five years at
a summit Saturday, with Italy's top diplomat Federica Mogherini widely seen as
the front-runner for the prestigious job.
The decision on incumbent
Catherine Ashton's successor comes as the crisis at the EU's eastern border
pitting Ukraine against Russia poses one of the biggest foreign policy
challenges for the bloc in decades.
Ashton, whose term ends in
October, has been a frequent interlocutor for U.S. secretaries of state and
chairs the negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
The 41-year-old
center-left politician Mogherini, in turn, has been Italy's foreign minister
only since February, drawing criticism that she lacks experience.
"No one claims that
Mogherini is the best person to deal with Russia," said Thomas Wright of
the Brookings Institute think-tank. "Foreign policy is almost entirely
absent from the discussion."
Mogherini's appointment
would be part of a deal that includes dishing out other top EU jobs, with
leaders seeking to agree on a package that reflects Europe's political
landscape, geographical diversity and gender balance.
A first attempt to secure
Mogherini's nomination in June failed amid resistance from eastern European
leaders. But on Saturday, her boss, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, said
"there is, I'd say, unanimous consensus." on Mogherini's being
tapped.
"Our support for Ms.
Mogherini is a given," concurred French President Francois Hollande as he
arrived in Brussels.
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Italy Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini smiles
as she meets the media during an informal meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs
Ministers, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014. European Union foreign
ministers on Friday were set to weigh adopting a tougher stance on the Ukraine crisis amid increasing
calls to beef up economic sanctions against Russia. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
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The highly visible job as
EU foreign policy chief entails flying across the world and hobnobbing with the
great and powerful to deal with anything from the fighting in eastern Ukraine
to the crises in the Middle East. However, the EU's top diplomat often has had
little leeway because the bloc's member nations jealously guarded foreign
policy as a national matter, leaving the foreign policy chief the role to
hammer out compromise positions.
7. INTERNATIONAL GROUP
SAYS GAZA HOUSING RECONSTRUCTION TO TAKE 20 YEARS
An international
organization involved in assessing post-conflict reconstruction says it will
take 20 years for Gaza's battered and neglected housing stock to be rebuilt
following the war between Hamas and Israel.
Shelter Cluster,
co-chaired by the U.N. refugee agency and the Red Cross, says 17,000 Gaza
housing units were destroyed or severely damaged during the war and 5,000 units
still need work after damage sustained in previous military campaigns. In
addition, it says, Gaza has a housing deficit of 75,000 units.
In a report circulated
late Friday, Shelter Cluster says its 20-year assessment is based on the
capacity of the main Israel-Gaza cargo crossing to handle 100 trucks of
construction materials daily.
Over 2,100 Palestinians,
most civilians, died in the war. Israel lost 71 people, all but six soldiers.
8. WINTER IS COMING:
UKRAINIANS EDUCATED IN ENERGY SAVING, ALTERNATIVE HEATING
With natural gas
shortages central heating may not be in place in Ukrainian flats for the cold
winter. While people are rushing to buy electric heaters, authorities have
issued brochures with advice on how to cope with freezing temperatures.
Recognizing that it is extremely hard to keep a city flat
warm with no central heating, Kiev authorities, for example, launched a
campaign aimed at informing citizens on tricks and methods they could use to
save energy and heat – at temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius and lower.
Firstly, the heat
insulation of windows and doors is strongly advised, as well as the purchase of
a personal boiler or energy-saving heating installation. In fact, people are
already starting to buy the boilers: shop owners in Kiev told TCH TV channel
that demand for such devices has increased at least threefold since the
beginning of the crisis.
Also, it is suggested in
the brochures that city residents should buy warm clothes made of natural
fabric, valenki, and headwear to protect themselves from freezing temperatures.
Where there is heating in
flats, the authorities advise to paint the radiators red or brown instead of
traditional white, in order to increase their heat output – or wrap them in
foil.
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Reuters / Konstantin Grishin
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With so many heating
devices power consumption will increase and may overload the grid, authorities
are also giving advice on electricity savings: from switching to lower wattage
light bulbs, to giving up on devices’ stand-by functions and instead unplugging
them completely.
9. NEW ZEALAND JUSTICE
MINISTER RESIGNS AMID SCANDAL
New Zealand's Justice
Minister Judith Collins resigned Saturday from her portfolios amid a scandal
about her ties to a controversial blogger.
The resignation comes
just three weeks before New Zealand's general election and could impact the
chances of center-right Prime Minister John Key returning for a third term in
office. Opposition parties will see the move as victory while Key will hope it
will bring closure to the scandal.
Collins was one of Key's
top ministers and observers had considered her a possible future prime
minister.
New Zealand freelance
investigative journalist and liberal activist Nicky Hager first detailed the
extent of Collins engagement with blogger Cameron Slater in a book he released
this month, "Dirty Politics," which was based on hacked emails from
Slater's Whale Oil blog that Hager had obtained.
The blog takes a
no-holds-barred approach to promoting Slater's conservative views and
mercilessly attacking opponents.
Key did not mention the
book in an announcement Saturday. He said Collins had resigned after he
received new information that raised questions about her conduct as a minister.
"This new
information suggests Ms Collins may have been engaged in discussions with a
blogger in 2011 aimed at undermining the then Director of the Serious Fraud
Office. Ms. Collins was the minister responsible for the SFO at the time,"
Key said in a statement.
Key also released a 2011
email written by Slater and addressed to several people in which Slater said
that he had spoken at length with Collins and she was "gunning" for
the director, Adam Feeley.
Collins said in a
statement she had nothing to do with the email and denied any inappropriate
behavior. She said she was resigning because she didn't want the matter to
become a distraction for Key or his National Party during the election
campaign.
She said that despite
resigning from her portfolios, she would remain a lawmaker and planned to
campaign for re-election.
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In
this Nov. 23, 2010 file photo, then New Zealand's Police Minister Judith
Collins speaks at the afternoon media briefing on the 29 miners and contractors
trapped in the Pike River mine, Greymouth, New Zealand. New Zealand's Justice
Minister Judith Collins has resigned from her portfolios amid a scandal about
her ties to a controversial blogger. The resignation Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014
comes just three weeks before New Zealand's general election and could impact
the chances of Prime Minister John Key returning for a third term in office.
(AP Photo/NZPA, Ross Setford, File) NEW ZEALAND OUT
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Recent opinion polls have
indicated Key remains a popular leader and the front-runner to win the
election. Under New Zealand's proportional voting system, parties typically
need to form alliances to govern.
On his blog Saturday,
Slater said he felt bad for Collins, who was a friend and the victim of
left-wing campaign to remove her.
"This game, this
beautiful game, this Dirty game, it is brutal," Slater wrote.
10. PUTIN 'IN STATE OF
WAR WITH EUROPE'
Vladimir Putin has been
warned that he is "practically in a state of war with Europe" as EU
leaders mull tougher sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
Lithuanian president
Dalia Grybauskaite delivered the dramatic message to Moscow as she arrived in
Brussels for a summit, Press Association reports.
Meanwhile, David Cameron
has insisted there must be "consequences" if an estimated 1,000
Russian troops are not withdrawn from the east of the country.
And outgoing European
commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the situation was in danger of
reaching "the point of no return".
The comments came after NATO
released images apparently showing Russian forces and an array of heavy
weaponry in Ukraine.
However, Mr Putin has
denied that his forces are in Ukraine - and upped his own rhetoric by reminding
critics that Russia has nuclear weapons.
Arriving at the summit in
Brussels, Ms Grybauskaite - whose own country used to be part of the Soviet
Union - suggested EU states should be supplying Kiev with military equipment.
"It is the fact that
Russia is in a war state against Ukraine," she told reporters in English.
"That means it is in
a state of war against a country which would like to be closely integrated with
the EU. Practically Russia is in a state of war against Europe.
"That means we need
to help Ukraine to ... defend its territory and its people and to help militarily,
especially with the military materials to help Ukraine to defend itself because
today Ukraine is fighting a war on behalf of all Europe."
Mr Cameron, who earlier
held talks with Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko at a nearby hotel, said:
"We have to address the completely unacceptable situation of having
Russian troops on Ukraine soil.
"Consequences must
follow if that situation continues and we will be discussing that as well
today."
11. INTELLIGENCE
NIGHTMARE: EXTREMISTS RETURNING HOME
The case of Mehdi
Nemmouche haunts U.S. intelligence officials.
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This March 23, 2008 photo provided by the
Hennepin County, Minn. Sheriff's Office shows Douglas McAuthur McCain. The
Obama administration has offered a wide range of assessments of the threat to
U.S. national security posed by Islamic State extremists in an area straddling
eastern Syrian and northern and western Iraq, and whose actions include last
week¿s beheading of American journalist James Foley. Some officials say the
group is more dangerous than al-Qaida. Yet intelligence assessments say it
currently couldn¿t pull off a complex, 9-11-style attack on the U.S. or Europe.
(AP Photo/Hennepin County, Minn. Sheriff's Office)
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Nemmouche is a Frenchman
who authorities say spent 11 months fighting with the Islamic State group in
Syria before returning to Europe to act out his rage. On May 24, prosecutors
say, he methodically shot four people at the Jewish Museum in central Brussels.
Three died instantly, one afterward. Nemmouche was arrested later, apparently
by chance.
For U.S. and European
counterterrorism officials, that 90-second spasm of violence is the kind of
attack they fear from thousands of Europeans and up to 100 Americans who have
gone to fight for extremist armies in Syria and now Iraq.
The Obama administration
has offered a wide range of assessments of the threat to U.S. national security
posed by the extremists who say they've established a caliphate, or Islamic
state, in an area straddling eastern Syrian and northern and western Iraq, and
whose actions include last week's beheading of American journalist James Foley.
Some officials say the group is more dangerous than al-Qaida. Yet intelligence
assessments say it currently couldn't pull off a complex, 9-11-style attack on
the U.S. or Europe.
12. EPL – SATURDAY, AUGUST
30, 2014 SCORE LINES |
| Source: BBC Sport |
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