Suspected Boko Haram Suicide Bomb Attack Kills 38 In Chad

People and soldiers stand outside a market in N'Djamena following a suicide bomb attack on July 11, 2015 where at least 14 people were killed (AFP Photo/Brahim Adji)

Thirty-eight people, including five attackers, were killed and another 51 were wounded on Saturday in a series of suicide bombings in a town in Chad suspected to be the work of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militant group, a local government official said.

Witnesses in Baga Sola, a border town on Lake Chad, reported three explosions in the town's market and a refugee camp. A hospital source confirmed the death toll given by local sub-prefect Dimoya Souapebe.

Ex-Bayelsa Gov Alamieyeseigha Dies

Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha

A former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has died of hypertension.

Former State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Ebitimi Agary, confirmed this to our correspondent on Saturday.

1,453 People Died In Mecca’s Hajj Stampede – Media Toll

© Ahmad Masood / Reuters

Mecca’s Hajj stampede death toll has surpassed 1,450 people, AP reported, citing the sum-up of official figures from 19 of the nations affected. The tally, reported by Saudi Arabia as 769, makes it the deadliest-ever incident during the annual pilgrimage.

Hundreds of people are still presumed missing weeks after the deadly September 24 stampede, but the number of victims has been steadily growing with the release of new statements by countries whose citizens were killed.

The new death toll collected by AP, which is based on such official publications, is nearly double Riyadh’s latest figures.

Pigs Get Closer To Becoming Organ Donors For Humans After New Gene Modification

Harvard Medical School, Boston

Researchers in the US have modified dozens of pig genes to enable their organs to be transplanted into humans. The viruses embedded in the pig genome, which have been feared to cause diseases in human recipients, have now reportedly been disabled.

In what is believed to be a big step forward in cross-species transplantation, a common pig virus that could invade human cells and cause disease has been dealt with. Called porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), the molecules responsible for the disease were identified in pigs over a decade ago, creating a problem for using pigs – whose organs including hearts, kidneys and livers are close in size to human body parts – for transplants.

FOR THE RECORD: Africa's Nobel Peace Prize Winners; A Glance At The Nobel Prizes In 2015

Albert Lutuli receiving his award. Getty Images

Albert Lutuli was the first African peace laureate for advocating non-violent resistance to racial discrimination in South Africa

• 1960 South Africa's Albert Lutuli, president of the African National Congress: "The Nobel Committee for the second time chose a prize-winner who was being persecuted by his own authorities"

Sepp Blatter Appeals FIFA Suspension - NYT

Blatter was suspended for 90 days by FIFA's ethics committee

Sepp Blatter has filed an official appeal against his suspension from soccer by FIFA's ethics committee, the New York Times reported. Blatter, the Swiss who has been president of the global soccer body FIFA since 1998, was suspended on Thursday by the association's ethics committee. The 79-year-old is currently facing a Swiss criminal investigation.

The New York Times said it had obtained a copy of Blatter's appeal against the suspension.

In it, the paper reported that Blatter objected to brusque and unfair treatment. Blatter's legal team also demanded to see the ethics committee's case file and sought a hearing to argue their case in full.

FOR THE RECORD: Chevening Scholarship Removes Diezani From Honours List

DELISTED BY CHEVENING: Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

The United Kingdom-based Chevening Scholarship has removed the embattled former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, from its list of female achievers, according to a report by Sahara Reporters. Chevening is an international scholarship scheme which enables students with leadership qualities from 144 countries and territories to undertake postgraduate study or courses in universities in the UK.

After receiving a Chevening scholarship in 2002, Diezani attended Cambridge University for her MBA and then returned to Nigeria where she became the first female Executive Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company.

After emerging as the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria and the first female President of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Chevening on its website, listed her as one of its best female alumni in commemoration of the March 8 International Women’s Day.

Justice Not Done For Sierra Leone War Victims: Activist

Liberia's Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee, pictured on March 8, 2015, called for former president Charles Taylor's assets to be sold off to help the victims of Sierra Leone's civil war ©Mark Sagliocco (Getty/AFP)

Liberian rights activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee on Friday called for former president Charles Taylor's assets to be sold off to help the victims of Sierra Leone's civil war.

"Justice will finally be served if all of his assets are sold off and some of the proceeds given to these people," Gbowee said at "Women in the World", a forum organized by British-American journalist Tina Brown.

Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for leading a women's movement in Liberia that demanded an end to the brutal 1991-2002 war that left tens of thousands dead.

EBOLA OUTBREAK: Johnson & Johnson Starts Ebola Vaccine Trial In Sierra Leone

Johnson & Johnson has begun clinical trials for an Ebola vaccine in Sierra Leone. The vaccine regimen is part of a new study being conducted in Sierra Leone's Kambia district, where some of the country's most recent Ebola cases have been reported.

Associated Press report that the study, in development at subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos., will evaluate safety and immune response within Sierra Leone's general population.

FOR THE RECORD: UK Election Fraud Committed By Immigrants, Claims Ex-Attorney General

Britain's Attorney General Dominic Grieve © Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve has claimed election fraud is on the rise and blamed immigrants from countries “in which there is a tradition of electoral corruption and fraud” for perpetuating the practice. Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference on combatting extremism he warned of the risk posed to the Conservatives by fraud. 

“The more successful the Tory party is, the more risk it will affect us and if we lay down the ground rules now we will be thanked, particularly by those people who have come from countries where I am afraid there is an endemic tradition of corruption,” he said on Tuesday.

Grieve, who has recently been appointed chair of the British parliament’s intelligence and security committee, proposed increasing security and controls to crackdown on voter fraud, including a thorough system of identity verification for those who want to vote by post.

Notorious Chinese 'Ivory Queen' Charged With Smuggling 706 Elephant Tusks

Yang Feng Glan, centre, is escorted by police from Kisutu Resident's Magistrate Court in Dar es Salam

Yang Feng Glan, kingpin between east African poaching syndicates and Chinese buyers, accused in Tanzania of smuggling ivory worth £1.62m

A Chinese woman dubbed the “ivory queen” for her alleged leadership of one of Africa’s biggest ivory smuggling rings has been captured and charged. Yang Feng Glan is accused of smuggling 706 elephant tusks worth £1.62m from Tanzania to the Far East. The Elephant Action League, a US-based campaign group, described her as “the most important ivory trafficker ever arrested in the country”.

The 66-year-old is said to have been a crucial link between east African poaching syndicates and buyers in China, where ivory is prized for ornamental use, for over 14 years. Tanzania’s national and transnational serious crimes investigation unit had been tracking Glan for more than a year, according to the Elephant Action League.

Perm Sec, Fed Min Of Health: Calabar Case “Not” Ebola

The ministry of health says there is no resurgence of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country following reports of a likely outbreak of the disease in Calabar, capital of Cross River state. At a news conference in Abuja on Friday, Linus Awute, permanent secretary of the ministry, said the country remained Ebola-free.

Awute explained that the case of a suspect who died after exhibiting symptoms of the disease, caused panic at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, where he was receiving treatment.

He said‎ the suspected case was admitted to the hospital at 1am on Wednesday and died seven hours later, forcing the medical workers who attended to him to quarantine themselves.

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded To Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet

“After the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2010-11, the Quartet paved the way for a peaceful dialogue between citizens,” said Kaci Kullmann Five, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The National Dialogue Quartet are four civil society organizations, the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

The Quartet was awarded “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011,” the chairperson of the Norwegian Nobel Committee added.

Fulani Invasion: Yoruba Leaders Threaten Secession

Following alleged incessant and unprovoked attacks and invasion of their farmlands by some Fulani herdsmen, notable Yoruba leaders held an emergency summit in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday threatening to review its status in the Nigerian federation.

The summit was entitled, National Insecurity and the Menace of Fulani Herdsmen in Yorubaland.

The meeting, presided over by former Governor of the Western Region, General Adeyinka Adebayo, warned that the Yoruba will no longer tolerate the present structure of the country, which they claim undermine self-actualization of the people of the South West.

Uganda Celebrates 53rd Independence Anniversary

Image source: Yoweri K. Museveni on Twitter

Independence Day is a good time to remember who we are and how we got here. God bless Uganda. Happy Independence Day --- Yoweri K. Museveni

FOR THE RECORD: Falana Drags Swaziland’s King Mswati III To UN Over Killing Of Girls En Route Virgin Dance Festival

Mswati III, King of Swaziland to marry his 15th wife | Africa | News | The Independent

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN has sent petition to UN Special Rapporteurs requesting them to use their “positions and mandates to thoroughly investigate reports of the unnecessary deaths of at least 60 girls and young women in Swaziland killed in bus crash on their way to dance festival where King of Swaziland, King Mswati III picks one of thousands of topless virgins as his new wife.”

The petition dated 2 October 2015 was sent to Mr Juan Ernesto Mendez Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Ms. Dubravka Simonovic Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and Mr Christof Heyns Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The petition reads in part: “According to reports, a car or a van hit the back of one truck which resulted in a pileup. The dead were reportedly thrown from the back of the truck which was usually used for transporting building materials and some were said to have been hit by on-coming cars. The festival still went ahead despite reports on the deaths.”

Grace Mugabe Hits Out At Political Rivals

Grace Mugabe is head of the ruling Zanu-PF's women's league (Photo: AFP)

Grace Mugabe did not hold back at her rally in Zimbabwe's eastern Chimanimani province. The first lady attacked her political rivals, but without naming names.

It was broadcast live and attended by Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko, at least six ministers and thousands of party supporters - as well as a police band to provide the music.

Clad in the yellow ruling party regalia, which had pictures of her husband printed on them, she spoke for about two hours articulating government policy positions on energy, land, local government and empowerment programmes.

EBOLA OUTBREAK: Ebola Detected Again In Scottish Nurse Pauline Cafferkey

Pauline Cafferkey thanked medical staff, who she said saved her life

Ebola has been detected in a Scottish nurse who first contracted the virus in December last year. Greater Glasgow health board has confirmed that the virus is present in Pauline Cafferkey but said it was left over from the original infection. It is not thought to be contagious.

The 39-year-old has been flown back to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Ebola Scare: FG Dispatches Medical Team To Calabar; Cross River Dismisses Ebola Rumour At UCTH

The Federal Government has dispatched a team of medical team to Calabar, Cross River state ascertain the suspected Ebola scare. The accident and emergency ward of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital has been shut down following an Ebola Virus scare.

The scare was as a result of the death of a patient, who died at about 2pm, after symptoms related to the deadly Ebola virus manifested before he finally passed away.

Has Ebola Resurfaced In Nigeria?

Stop Ebola campaign

One year after Nigeria got certified free of the highly-contagious Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), there are fears that the virus has resurfaced in the country. Already, 15 persons have been quarantined at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in Cross River state.

Queeneth Kalu, chairperson of the hospital’s medical advisory committee, told reporters on Thursday that blood samples of those in quarantine had been sent to Edo state for analysis.

Kalu said a patient of the hospital died after showing symptoms similar to hemorrhagic fever.

“On Wednesday, 7th October, 2015, we managed a patient who presented with symptoms mimicking viral hemorrhage (Ebola Virus) and have decided to take the necessary measures,” she said.

Michigan Farmer Finds Massive Mammoth Skeleton, Donates It To University (VIDEO)

An American farmer who excavated a mammoth skeleton from his land last week decided to donate the find to the University of Michigan. The mammoth’s bones could be up to 15,000 years old. The discovery was made during routine digging for drainage.

The mammoth’s remains were discovered as Jim Bristle was installing a drainage pipe at his Chelsea-area soybean farm in Michigan last Thursday. 

Daniel Fisher leads the dig near Chelsea, Michigan. Image: Daryl Marshke, Michigan Photography

At the beginning, giant ribs were dug up. After realizing the scale of the find, Bristle called the University of Michigan and Dan Fisher, a professor of paleontology and director of the University’s Museum of Paleontology.

Hayatou: 'I Am FIFA President'

Sepp Blatter and Issa Hayatou, who heads the Confederation of African Football, have worked closely for years (Photo: AFP)

Cameroonian football official Issa Hayatou has just released a statement confirming that he is the new FIFA boss, following the suspension of Sepp Blatter.

"I will serve only on an interim basis," he said.

Why UN Permanent Seat May Continue To Elude Nigeria — Gambari

L-R: Sen. Abdullahi Adamu; Nasarawa State Governor Tanko Al-Makura Receiving LEADERSHIP Politician of the Year Award from the Etsu Nupe HRH Yahaya Abubakar; and Emir of Lafia Alh. Isa Mustapha Agwa

Former Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, has said that Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council may remain elusive as long as the country was yet to overcome basic economic and security challenges. Gambari, who spoke at this year’s Leadership Award and Conference in Abuja, noted with dismay that Nigeria had not been able to overcome its basic challenges more than 100 years after its amalgamation.

The renowned diplomat, who is the founder of the Nigerian-based Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development, SCDDD, regretted that the nation was still grappling with nation-building when it should be consolidating on its growth and development as a leading black nation on earth.

"BETRAYAL!!!" - Ex-Militants Blast Clark, Say He Was Part Of Rot In Jonathan’s Administration

Chief Edwin Clark

Ex-militants under the auspices of Niger Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, Thursday, took a swipe at former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, who, Wednesday, deserted the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and accused ex-President Goodluck Jonathan of lacking the political will to fight corruption, saying the elder statesman should shut up.

Spokesman of the group, “Captain” Mark Anthony, in a statement, said, “Chief Edwin Clark has no moral justification to condemn former President Goodluck Jonathan by saying that GEJ lacked political will to fight corruption. We are surprised at the unguarded comments from a man who called himself elder statesman.”

ENYEAMA BREAKS HIS PROMISE: Enyeama Quits Super Eagles

Enyeama insisted he will not walk out on Nigeria THEN DID EXACTLY THAT!

Lille goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, has quit international football after a meeting with top official of the Nigeria Football Federation in Belgium Thursday. Enyeama’s decision did not come as a surprise after a major falling out with Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, on Tuesday night following the announcement of Ahmed Musa as new captain, africanFootball.com reports.

Court Stops Diezani From Leaving UK Till Next April

Diezani Alison-Madueke

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke will not be able to leave the United Kingdom (UK) until April, next year, The Nation learnt yesterday. That is when the investigations into allegations against her are expected to have been concluded, Judiciary sources said.

She is expected to be arraigned before the magistrate for alleged money laundering and bribery,

Mrs Alison-Madueke was arrested last week along with four others by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA). She was granted bail. Her international passport was, however, seized.