US, Britain, Nigeria, others review counter-terrorism war Sept. 3

A one-day ministerial meeting to review the war against the Boko Haram insurgency has been scheduled for Wednesday in Abuja.

The parley would also evaluate the extent of delivery of foreign assistance, including efforts by the Federal Government in the continued fight to end terrorism in the country and the sub-region.

The meeting, which would be attended by the foreign ministers of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, is a follow-up to the earlier conference held at the summit level in Paris, France, on May 17, the London ministerial on June 12 and the meeting held on the margins of the recently concluded Africa-United States Summit in Washington.

The meeting, according to the statement by the Director, Crisis Monitoring and Public Communication Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, in Abuja on Monday, would also be attended by the Foreign ministers of Canada, China, France, United Kingdom and the US.

Also invited to the parley are the Economic Community of West African States, African Union, United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

Some foreign countries, including the United States, Britain, France and China, had offered technical assistance to Nigeria as part of efforts to rescue the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in April, 2014. But nothing had been heard on the progress so far recorded.

The US and Britain had also deployed surveillance aircraft and other equipment to locate the girls, but the mission had yet to relate any progress to the public.

Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode added the Abuja meeting was aimed at reviewing progress in the implementation of the outcome of the earlier meetings. CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR SITE FOR MORE NEWS

Ebola: The magic of early detection

TO many across the world today, the Ebola Virus Disease is a death sentence. But it is not.

In recent times, pictures of survivors of the EVD from Liberia and Sierra Leone have graced the pages of the Nigerian media. Babies, teenagers and the elderly who have been through the glass pose for the camera in a well- earned victory dance.

The EVD may have killed more than 1,500 people since its latest outbreak but the glistening faces of the survivors are proof that the disease is not a death sentence.

This has been a key message from government officials since July 20 when the index case, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, arrived in Lagos from Monrovia, Liberia.

Nigeria has recorded six deaths so far but there have also been a number of survivors.

While addressing the press recently, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, had advised Nigerians exhibiting symptoms consistent with the EVD to report early to the Infectious Disease Unit of the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.

According to him, the chances of surviving the disease are higher when the disease is tackled early with intensive supportive care..........................click for more on this news

Japan tackles first dengue fever outbreak in 70 years

Japan is battling its first outbreak of dengue fever in almost 70 years, with at least 22 people confirmed as being infected.

The health ministry said the cases were believed to have been contracted by visitors to Tokyo’s popular Yoyogi Park.

An outbreak of dengue fever was last recorded in Japan in 1945.

The tropical disease, which is spread by mosquitoes, causes symptoms like high fever and severe joint pain.

Severe cases may require hospital treatment and can occasionally develop into a potentially lethal complication called severe dengue, according to the World Health Organisation.

Japan sees imported cases of dengue fever each year, mostly from tourists who catch it while travelling to tropical regions, its health ministry said.

Domestic mosquitoes could have also picked up the dengue virus from tourists and passed it on, the ministry said.

Now the government is working to tackle the park thought to be the focus of the outbreak.

New warning signs have been put up and teams of workers in white overalls and masks have descended to spray insecticide and drain its ornamental ponds, says the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo..................... read more here...

Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘open aggression’ as rebels advance

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accusedRussia on Monday of “direct and open aggression” which he said had radically changed the battlefield balance as Kiev’s forces suffer major reverses in the war with pro-Moscow separatists.

Ukraine’s military said its forces had been ordered to pull back from a vital airport in the east of the country, near the city of Luhansk, where they had been battling a Russian tank battalion.

Poroshenko said in a speech there would be high-level personnel changes in the Ukrainian armed forces, whose troops fled a new rebel advance in the south which Kiev’s Western allies say has been backed up by Russian armoured columns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called on Sunday for immediate negotiations on the “statehood” of southern and eastern Ukraine, blamed Kiev’s leadership for refusing to enter into direct political talks with the separatists.

Putin also hoped “common sense” would prevail in the West over the possibility of imposing additional economic sanctions, despite Moscow’s denials that it is helping the rebels....,...FOR MORE ON THIS