As The Holiday Season Kicks In - Holiday Flights Run Risk Of Jihadist Rocket Threat

Flight paths: The above map, which shows routes taken by major carriers this month, shows how planes are flying over dangerous areas of the world. Dotted lines are probable routes for which exact data is not available

• Hundreds of flights a day pass over territory held by likes of ISIS in Iraq
•  Major Europe-Asia flight path is directly above stronghold city of Mosul
•  Claims made it is 'perfectly possible' ISIS could have missiles to destroy jets
•  Scrutiny on flight paths comes after downing of MH17 in Ukraine last week
•  Flights over contested areas serve popular destinations like Johannesburg 

Hundreds of flights a day to destinations including South Africa and Dubai are flying over warzones occupied by terrorists who could have access to surface-to-air missiles, raising fears another aircraft could be shot down.

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Sallah: FRSC Deploys 15,000 Staff, 918 Vehicles

Ejike Ejike and Adebayo Waheed

Further to sustained efforts towards ensuring sanity on the highways during this year’s Eid-el- Fitri celebrations, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has deployed 15,000 personnel, 800 patrol vehicles, 60 motor bikes, 52 ambulances and 6 heavy duty tow trucks along critical sections of the highways as part of plans for a nationwide special patrol slated for 25th – 29th July, 2014, with the theme, ‘Attitude: The Change We Need On Our Roads’.

The exercise, which is in line with the corps’ continued drive to achieve its 2014 strategic goals of reducing road traffic crashes by 15% and fatalities by 25%, especially during the festive season, has also being designed to address the perennial rise in the violation of traffic rules and regulations during the Eid-el Fitri celebration.

According to the FRSC public education officer, ACM. Jonas Agwu, the special patrol is aimed at addressing the spate of avoidable road crashes usually associated with surge of human and vehicular traffic across the country and is an all-inclusive exercise which will witness intensive patrols, prompt rescue services, strict enforcement of traffic rules and robust public enlightenment campaigns across the country.

Aside from massive deployment of personnel and logistics along designated corridors and black spots, the FRSC has established 9 Help Areas along Hawa Kibo, Akwanga, Gwagwalada, Lokoja, Ore, Egbeda, Mowe, Oghere and Kakau highways, in addition to the establishment of mobile courts at specific locations across the country for quick dispensation with road traffic violations.

Meanwhile, the Oyo State police command has assured residents of the state that it has put in place security arrangements that will make this year Eid-el-Fitri celebration hitch-free.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor said in a statement in Ibadan on Friday that all policemen of the command have been deployed to all nooks and crannies of the state to ensure there is adequate security of lives and property before, during and after the Sallah celebration.

Culled From Leadership Newspaper

Isreal - Gaza War: Death Toll Tops 1,000

The death toll in Gaza has passed 1,000, Palestinian medical officials report, 19 days after Israel launched an offensive against Hamas militants who have continued to fire rockets into Israel.

It comes amid a 12-hour humanitarian truce, which Gaza residents have been using to gather essential supplies and retrieve bodies buried under rubble.

Thirty-nine Israelis have also been killed since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on 8 July.

International talks urging a longer truce were held in Paris on Saturday.

Africa: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

Agency Report

— Jul 26, 2014

While a number of African countries have recently made some progress in improving the quality of life of their people, nearly as many are backsliding, according to the latest United Nations statistics. And across the board, Africa continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in its levels of human development.

These are the broad conclusions that can be drawn from the snapshot provided by comparing country rankings for 2013 to those for the previous year, as published in the 2014 Human Development Index. The index, a project of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), measures quality of life by examining achievements in income, health and education.

The index shows that 11 African countries improved their rankings in 2013 over 2012, while the rankings of eight declined. Nevertheless, only five African countries appear in the “high human development” category, while 35 of the 43 countries whose development is categorised as “low” are African.

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Download 2014 HDI full report here