Countries

Countries seeking their own vaccine doses are making deals with drug companies that threaten the supply for the global COVAX programme for poor and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Nigeria is expecting its first 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines next week from the global COVAX vaccine programme for poor and middle-income countries, the head of the World Health Organization mission in Nigeria said on Friday.

The Commander, U.S. Africa Command, U General Stephen Townsend, wrapped up a three-day West African visit February 22-25, 2021, with a stopover in Nigeria to meet with the nation’s leaders and further the long-standing partnership and security cooperation between the two countries.

The deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa has accelerated amid the quest to contain the virus and reopen the continent’s economy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

A US intelligence report expected to be made public Friday will blame Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — a key figure in the US-Saudi relationship — for the murder and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, who allayed the fears of Nigerians on the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology in Nigeria, clarified that there is no known scientific evidence till date suggesting that 5G poses any risks to public health and safety.

National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has called for the establishment of a station in Kebbi State and a safe house where the rescued victims can be kept and taken care of.

Three murders and more than 20 arrests targeting LGBT+ people in Cameroon this month have raised fears of an upswing in homophobic persecution in the Central African country, rights campaigners and lawyers said on Friday.

The Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has unveiled a series of traditional medicines, made from local herbs, that boost the human’s immune system against infectious diseases, including the rampaging Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Israel is to put on hold its program to send COVID-19 vaccines abroad amid legal scrutiny, Israeli news media reports said on Thursday following criticism at home and abroad of what has been called ‘vaccine diplomacy’.

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, told Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman, defunct Pension Reformed Taskforce Team (PRTT), that he cannot be trusted with another bail after jumping the first granted him.

The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on Covid-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday.

Zimbabwe is set to receive a further 800,000 doses of the Covid-19 jab from China, indicating the “excellent relationship” between the two nations and the Asian giant’s willingness to give the southern African state “preferential treatment” amidst a global “stampede” for vaccines, Zimbabwe’s presidential spokesman George Charamba is quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper as saying.

The Norwegian Seafood Council has protested the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s inclusion of stockfish in the list of banned goods to be imported into the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa on Thursday discussed Iran and the possible involvement of the Gulf state in establishing a vaccine plant in Israel, the two countries said.

Australia’s parliament passed a law on Thursday to make Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc pay media companies for content on their platforms in reforms that countries such as Britain and Canada are looking to replicate.

The IOC is set to open exclusive negotiations – or “targeted dialogue” – with Australian officials over staging the Games in 11 years’ time following the Executive Board’s decision to approve a recommendation from the Future Host Summer Commission during its remote meeting.

Okoye, also known as Uche Parker, was accused by the Guyana police as being part of an international criminal organisation that has scammed unsuspecting Guyanese victims out of millions.

Mafia-type organisations, often based in eastern Europe, are likely to have been behind a recent wave of cyber attacks on French hospitals, rather than foreign powers, said the French minister for digital technology Cedric O on Thursday.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, has expressed delight that the first doses of the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India has been delivered.

The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Government to lift the embarg on employment into Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

A new global study on digital quality of life has ranked Nigeria as the country with the least affordable internet service in the world.