Newscast - Africa

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, says the ongoing 895 contracts and 795 infrastructural projects nationwide were part of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
The minister argued that embarking on building massive infrastructure remained the quickest way to create wealth worldwide.
He maintained that nations that are richer than Nigeria have more infrastructure than the country, stressing that in order to bridge the gap there must be a deliberate investment plan.
He says no nation would be able to grow bigger than its stock of infrastructure.

The European Union and UNICEF are working together to provide community-based psychosocial services aimed at improving children’s mental health as children continue to bear the brunt of the 12-year conflict in North-East Nigeria,
The project will supports vulnerable children across Borno with protection and health services, vocational and basic literacy skills, and access to justice and security.
They said under a holistic humanitarian intervention that has so far provided 15,552 out-of-school children with vocational training; 1,610 out-of-school children with literacy and numeracy skills and 5,194 children enrolled into integrated Qur’anic schools across focus LGAs.

The United Nations Children’s Fund has revealed that more than 300,000 children lost their lives in the last 12 years because of the insurgency ravaging the North East region.
UNICEF in its latest statistics disclosed that over one million people have been displaced within the period under review.
The agency further divulged that no fewer than 5,129 out-of-school children were currently battling mental health challenges as a result of the conflict in the North.

Members of the House of Representatives have raised an alarm over the trend of Nigerians being illegally detained in prisons in foreign lands and asked the Federal Government to secure their release.
They urged the Federal Government to intervene and secure the release of Nigerians being held illegally in prisons abroad.
They noted that Nigerians were in almost all countries of the world, making exploits in sports, technology, business, education, and politics, and have been ranked as one of the highest educated immigrants in foreign countries.

The Federal Government says it is making efforts to get justice in the case involving Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo.
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami,
they are doing the needful in terms of looking at the law as it exists, and then working within the context of the law in ensuring that justice is done as far as the contending issues between the parties are concerned,” States.
Igboho’s lawyer, Yomi Alliyu, argued that the action of the security outfit was a violation of Igboho’s fundamental right to peacefully own property and wealth.

The US House of Representatives is moving to approve $6.3bn in emergency assistance to help resettle Afghan refugees in the United States after the country’s evacuation operation from Kabul last month.
The funds are part of a larger $28.6bn disaster relief and stopgap government funding bill expected to be passed in the House.
Representative Deborah Ross, a House Democrat says the funding will ensure the government agencies involved in the resettlement process have the capacity necessary to help our Afghan allies build new lives in safety in the United States.

Chinese President Xi Jinping says that China would no longer fund the construction of new coal-fired power projects overseas, surprising the world on climate for the second straight year at the United Nations General Assembly.
China has supported coal projects in developing countries including Indonesia and Bangladesh and has been under heavy diplomatic pressure to put an end to the financing to help the world meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
Xi’s announcement on Tuesday followed similar moves by South Korea and Japan earlier this year.

New data released by Johnson & Johnson says the COVID vaccine is more effective when given as a two-dose regime,.
A second shot is given 56 days after the first provided 75 per cent protection against symptomatic Covid in a global clinical trial, with that level rising to 94 per cent in the United States.
It was 94 per cent effective in preventing severe or critical Covid at least 14 days post final vaccination in America.
The data is positive news for the almost 15 million Americans who received one dose of the J&J vaccine but have been left in the dark about if and when they might need a booster.

President Joe Biden told the world that the United States is not seeking a new Cold War with China as he vowed to pivot from post-9/11 conflicts and take a global leadership role on crises from climate to Covid.
Biden promised to work to advance democracy and alliances, despite friction with Europe over France’s loss of a mega-contract.
The Biden administration has identified a rising and authoritarian China as the paramount challenge of the 21st century, but in his United Nations debut, he made clear he was not trying to sow divisions.

Reuters reports that Oil and gas firm Neptune Energy has written to Britain’s energy minister asking for a change in regulation to allow it to produce more domestic gas from its North Sea field amid record gas prices.
Neptune says a change in regulations that determine the way gas was blended would allow the company to safely produce 13% more gas at its Cygnus gas field in the North Sea.
Neptune Executive Chairman Sam Laidlaw says enabling the proposed relaxation of the specification immediately under emergency powers would allow the use of gas at a lower calorific value.