OUTBREAK OF ZIKA VIRUS CAUSES JITTERS IN THE UK

The re-occurrence of another deadly virus called Zika has been reported in some South American countries. And already three travellers who returned to the United Kingdom were said to have been been diagonied of having Zika virus in their system. The virus a mosquito-borne illness has been linked to brain deformities in babies.

Public Health England said in a statement on its website the three people had presented with the virus after travelling to Colombia, Suriname and Guyana, all countries which are experiencing Zika outbreaks.

The statement said Zika “does not occur naturally in the UK” and said it can be transmitted only from the bite of a mosquito or, in rare cases “through sexual transmission or by transmission from mother to foetus via the placenta”.

It does “not spread directly from person to person”, the statement said.

The three cases are believed to be the first to be confirmed inside the country.

They come as the US warned pregnant women against travel to 22 countries that are experiencing Zika outbreaks, most in Latin America and the Caribbean.

While the symptoms of Zika itself tend to be mild – they include joint pain and a rash – scientists believe it is linked to microcephaly, or abnormally small brains, in newborns. As a result, authorities in :Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador have advised women against becoming pregnant during the outbreak. 

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that was first isolated from a monkey in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947. The first outbreak outside of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands only occurred in May 2015, when a case was reported in Brazil. Since then the disease has spread to 18 other countries in south and central America and the Caribbean.

There is no vaccine to combat Zika, meaning the only way for travellers to protect themselves is to avoid getting bitten by a mosquito.

KENYANS HONOUR MUSLIM FOR SHIELDING CHRISTIANS DURING ATTACK

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyans are donating to the family of a Muslimman who was fatally wounded by Islamic extremists while shielding Christians during an attack on a bus.

On Twitter the hashtag HeroSalah has been trending as some Kenyans fundraise for the family of Salah Farah, who died Sunday in a Nairobi hospital. On Tuesday, his body was flown to the northeastern town of Mandera for burial.

"Salah's children and widow appreciate your support but that's not enough, his children need to go to school. Walk the talk," Mohamud Abbas said on Twitter.

Ann McCreath wrote: "Important to support this #HeroSalah is a symbol of the Kenya we want."

"Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet said: "He was a true hero. He died while protecting innocent Kenyans from terrorists."

Farah, who was a teacher in the coastal town of Malindi, was among passengers on a bus from Mandera to Nairobi in December when they were attacked by al-Shabab gunmen.

When they were ordered to separate according to religion, he was among the Muslims who refused, to protect the Christians. He was shot in the hip.

Kenyans are praising Farah on social media, saying his example should be emulated in a country facing a growing threat of Islamic extremism as Kenyans with ties to al-Shabab, a Somali group, launch attacks in this country.

In 2011, Kenya's government deployed peacekeepers to Somalia in part to stop al-Shabab members from crossing the border and launching attacks on Kenyan territory. Al-Shabab opposed the deployment and vowed to wage more attacks.

Last week al-Shabab attacked a camp for Kenyan peacekeepers in southwestern Somalia, killing an unknown number of Kenyan soldiers. Al-Shabab claimed it killed about 100 Kenyans in that attack, but Kenyan officials have refused to provide a death toll.

MORE AIRLINES DEATH CAUSED BY DELIBERATE ACTS IN 2015 RATHER THAN ACCIDENTAL

As originally reported on AP News, the highest factor in airline deaths worldwide in 2015 was deliberate acts, rather than from accidental air crashes. This is the second year in the row that reflects those results.

The data, which was compiled by Flightglobal, did however exclude the Germanwings airline that was deliberately flown into a mountainside in the French Alps last March and the Russian MetroJet A320 which exploded over Egypt last October. Those two incidents had a combined death toll of 374.

For 2015 there were only eight accidental airline crashes, which accounted for 161 passenger and crew deaths. Those numbers are both the fewest accidental crashes and deaths since 1946.

In recent years airline safety has improved, resulting in very few fatal accidents, but there are still some flight security concerns. The global fatal accident rate for all types of airline operations in 2015 was one per 5 million flights, which was the best year ever. 

The previous best year was 2014, with a fatal accident rate of 1 per 2.5 million flights. Airline operations are now about four or five times safer than they were 20 years ago. The data includes all types of airline flights, including cargo, positioning, training, and maintenance.

In 2015 there were just 98 paying passengers killed in accidental crashes compared to 790 in 2007. Looking back even further to the 1970s, the annual average of passengers killed in accidental crashes was 1,289.

One major reason attributed for lowering accidental fatalities is better engineering on today’s airliners and aircrafts. The added automation has reduced many common pilot errors and improved satellite-based navigation systems. What planes are constructed of has improved as well, they are made of stronger, lighter weight, less corrosive materials. And they're equipped with safety systems introduced in recent decades, and repeatedly improved over time, that have nearly eliminated mid-air collisions between airliners and controlled flight into terrain.

One issues that is still present is weeding out disturbed pilots and guard against acts of terrorism, experts said. In the case of the Germanwings crash, the pilot Andreas Lubitz managed to conceal his troubles even with airlines and other pilots continually evaluating pilots for signs of trouble.

Terrorism continues to be an issue as well, although security has increased, some manage to get through. Terrorists claimed credit for the bomb that was suspected of blowing apart the MetroJet A320 over Egypt. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile fired from rebel-held territory in Eastern Ukraine, according to Dutch crash investigators.

NDLEA Airport, Lagos Command arrest 577 drug suspects in 2015

SeizeD Drugs include-Indian Hemp 7,313. 06 kilo grams,Heroine 413.5 grams,Cannabis sativa 480 grams 

577 hard drug suspects were arrested by the two commands of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in 2015 in Lagos State.

While 438 drug suspects were arrested by the Lagos Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) between January and November 2015, the Murtala Mohammed Airport Command arrested 139 suspects during the same period.

The Lagos State Commander  of the NDLEA, Alhaji Aliyu Sule, who disclosed this in an interview in his office in Lagos on the activities of his command in 2015 further disclosed that a total of 7315 kilo grams (over 7 tonnes ) of various drugs were seized during the period.

The breakdown showed that Cannabis otherwise known as Indian Hemp 7313. 06 kilo grams, Heroine 413.5 grams, Cannabis sativa 480 grams were seized.

Alhaji Sule disclosed that there has been a drop in the number of arrest this year compared to the previous years adding that the command was becoming more pro active than before in trailing suspects.

According to him, the NDLEA Lagos command between 2011 and 2012 made a seizure of drugs between 10 tonnes and 8 tonnes compared to the 7 tonnes this year.

Alhaji Sule explained that the command has continued to swoop on the drugs suspects hide out and mount road blocks on the highways to arrest suspects, as parts of efforts aimed at stemming the tide of trafficking.

He appealed to Nigerians to cooperate with NDLEA as the war against drug trafficking was a collective responsibility.

Alhaji Sule who regretted various attacks on his men while carrying out their duties also appealed to well meaning Nigerians, Corporate bodies and the government to come to their aid by providing logistics for them to carry out their duties more effectively.

Meanwhile, the Murtala Muhammed Airport Command of the NDLEA said it also arrested 139 drug traffickers at the airport the period under review.

The airport commander of NDLEA, Garba Ahmadu also in an interview disclosed that out of the 139, suspects 119 were male while 20 female were apprehended.

According to Ahmadu, the command made 590.9 kilo grams of seizure while between 115 and 120 cases were before the Federal High Court and 17 convicted.

Ahmadu explained that the command last year made a seizure of 436,065kg while it increased this year to 590,9kg..

According to him 129 suspects were arrested last year while 139 suspects were arrested this year. He attributed the increase in arrest to officers more awareness to tricks employed by traffickers and trainings of officers .

Ahmadu enumerated means of drug concealment by drug traffickers to include, bags, shoes, injections adding that the more worrisome trend include the use of indomie pack and tomato paste to concealed drugs.

He said that officers of the agency were at alert at the airport putting their trainings and machines to practice.

Garba stressed the need for more training of officers and funding of the agency advising would be drug traffickers to steer clear of the airport.

FG FINALLY REMOVES SUBSIDY ON FUEL

The Federal Government has officially ended the subsidy on premium motor spirit, popularly known as petrol. The latest Petroleum Products Pricing template, issued by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency does not contain the usual subsidy component.

The PPPRA is the government agency that regulates the prices of petroleum products in the country and its template has always offered insights into how the pricing of these products are determined by the regulators.

As of December 28 last year, the official pricing template for petrol by the PPPRA showed that the Federal Government subsidised the product by N6.45 per litre. The Expected Open Market Price at that time was N93.45, which was N6.45 higher than the then retail price of N87 per litre.

On the revised template, the Estimated Open Market Price set by the regulator is now N84.78 for NNPC fuel stations and N85.1 for stations run by other oil marketer companies.

The EOMP is the summation of the landing cost of petrol and subtotal margins. Such margins include transporter’s cost, dealer’s charge, bridging fund, administrative charge, etc. Our correspondent said that the EOMP, therefore, is the true cost of the product.

Before the release of the revised template, the EOMP was usually higher than the retail/pump price of petrol at filling stations. The difference between the retail price and the EOMP was what the Federal Government paid as subsidy to oil marketers.

However, the new EOMP is lower than the retail price of N86.5, which was set by the Federal Government as the amount at which petrol should be sold nationwide. The implication is that Nigerians are paying an extra N1.4 for the commodity whenever they buy PMS at non-NNPC run petrol stations and N1.22 extra for every litre of petrol bought at NNPC-run filling stations.

On the extra amount paid by consumers for the commodity, the Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy, NNPC, Mr. Bello Rabiu, while explaining the template, told our correspondent that the negative subsidy would be remitted to the Petroleum Support Fund in line with the PPPRA guidelines.

He said, “The savings under such a regime could be domiciled in the PSF as a buffer to fund future subsidy (if any) that may arise during high oil price regime or invested by the industry in supply and distribution efficiency improvement projects such as decongestion of Apapa area, Single Point Monitoring in Port Harcourt and Warri, complimentary rail services, inland waterways, etc.”

The PPPRA, after getting approval from the Federal Government, had announced last Tuesday that retail filling stations belonging to the NNPC would from Friday, January 1, 2016 sell petrol at N86 per litre, while other oil marketers would sell the commodity at N86.5 per litre.

The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, while announcing the new price of PMS in Abuja, had told journalists on Tuesday that the reduction in the price of the commodity was due to the implementation of the revised components of the petroleum products pricing template for PMS and House Hold Kerosene.

He said the template would be reviewed on a quarterly basis as it was geared towards ensuring an efficient and market-driven price that would reflect current realities.

Ahmed had said, “Since 2007, while crude oil price had been moving up and down, the template has remained the same. This made it necessary for us to introduce a mechanism whereby the template would be sensitive to the price of crude oil.

“However, the template is not static, as there would be a quarterly review and if there is any major shift, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources would be expected to call for a review, either upwards or downwards. If there is no major shift, the price would continue from January to March 2016. In addition, there would be a Product Pricing Advisory Committee that would be set up to advice the PPPRA concerning movements in the price of crude oil.”

On why the NNPC sold at a lower price than other oil marketers, Ahmed explained that it was due to the fact that it was cheaper for the corporation to import products, compared to the independent and major oil marketers.

Some oil marketers had told our correspondent that although it was possible to sell PMS at a “reduced price”, Nigerians might not be ready to absorb future fluctuations or modulations in the pump price of petrol.

The Corporate Affairs Manager, NIPCO PLC, an oil marketing firm, Mr. Lawal Taofeeq, said, “It is possible, but the issue that government needs to understand is that, should there be fluctuation in price, are Nigerians ready to absorb it? If the price of crude oil should go up again, will Nigerians be ready to pay the resultant increased cost for petrol? Thus, there is need for adequate education in this matter.”

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on December 27 last year, had told journalists in Kaduna that the government was currently not paying subsidy on petrol.

“Today, there is no subsidy; we are selling the product at N87; in January, we will look at what the trend is, we will announce (a new) price if that is less than N87; we will announce it and if it is more than that, we will have to announce it,” the minister, who also doubles as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, had said.

SAUDI EXECUTES 47 ON TERRORISM CHARGES, INCLUDING SHI'ITE CLERIC

Saudi Arabia says 47 executed on terrorism charges, including Shi'ite cleric

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric alongside dozens of al Qaeda members on today (Saturday), signaling intolerance of jihadism and minority Shi'ite Muslim violence and stirring a rise in sectarian tensions across the region.

Most of the 47 executed were convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago, but four, including prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, were Shi'ite Muslims accused of shooting policemen during anti-government protests in recent years.

The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The bodies were then hanged from gibbets in the most severe form of punishment available in the kingdom's Sharia Islamic law.

Riyadh's main regional rival Iran and its Shi'ite allies immediately reacted with vigorous condemnation of the execution of Nimr, and Saudi police raised security in a district where the sect is a majority in case of protests, residents said.

The executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging Saudis from jihadism after bombings and shootings by Sunni militants in Saudi Arabia over the past year killed dozens and Islamic State called on followers in the kingdom to stage attacks.

The simultaneous execution of 47 people on security grounds was the biggest mass execution for such offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979.

The 43 Sunni jihadists executed included several prominent al Qaeda figures, including those convicted of responsibility for attacks on Western compounds, government buildings and diplomatic missions that killed hundreds from 2003-06.

However, the execution of four Shi'ites, including Nimr, who were convicted of shooting and petrol bomb attacks that killed several policemen during anti-government protests in Qatif district from 2011-13, provoked an immediate response abroad.

A top Iranian cleric warned the kingdom's Al Saud ruling family would be "wiped from the pages of history", Yemen's Houthi group described Nimr as a "holy warrior" and Lebanese militia Hezbollah said Riyadh had made "a grave mistake".

Saudi police increased security in Qatif district of Eastern Province, residents said, a Shi'ite majority area and site of the protests from 2011-13 in which several police were shot dead as well as over 20 local demonstrators. Bahrain police fired tear gas at several dozen people protesting against the execution of Nimr, a witness said.