Newscast - Africa

The Senate has condemned the unlawful encroachment and arrest of Nigerians by the authorities of the Republic of Benin.
This stance by the upper chamber followed a motion by Senator Tolu Odebiyi during the plenary on Tuesday.
The lawmaker drew the attention of lawmakers to reports of encroachments into Nigeria’s territory by authorities of the Republic of Benin.
Odebiyi noted that the arrest of these Nigerians is based on the allegation that they are resisting encroachment into Nigerian land through Igbokofi village in Yewa North LGA of Ogun State.

The Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has asked managers of higher institutions of learning in the country to draw knowledge from curricula that cater to the modern realities of the country.
The CBN boss emphasised the need for an enhanced learning experience for students as well as fostered innovation amongst faculty and staff in schools across the country.
Mr Emefiele says enhanced collaboration between universities and players in key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing and ICT is necessary to enable the implementation of sound ideas generated from our universities.
Emefiele advocated collaboration between institutions of higher learning and industry key players in key sectors of the economy.

President Muhammadu Buhari commended the nation’s security and intelligence agencies for their work in arresting secessionist Nnamdi Kanu and raiding the home of ‘Yoruba Nation’ activist Sunday Igboho.
The President in a statement says the security agencies demonstrated significant deftness, guile and secrecy in carrying out these missions.
He says the level of professionalism must be sustained and brought to bear as they focus on extracting from the society those who have found a new trade-in targeting students, rural dwellers and our citizens in the North-West.

Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, has brushed off a warning by major tech companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter that they may quit the Chinese-controlled city if authorities go ahead with plans to change privacy laws.
Lam told reporters on Tuesday that the proposed changes would only target illegal sharing of people’s private details online without their consent.
The practise came under scrutiny in Hong Kong during the anti-government protests of 2019, when police officers were targeted after their details were released online.
The Hong Kong government is now proposing changes to the city’s privacy laws, including imposing a one-year jail term and a maximum fine of one million Hong Kong dollars for offenders who disclose personal data without consent.

Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich says they expect the Covid-19 pandemic to cost them 150 million euros ($178 million) in lost match-day revenue.
Bayern president Herbert Hainer confirmed the forecasted loss after so many games behind closed doors but insisted their ambitions have not diminished.
Bayern hopes health regulations in Bavaria will allow a limited number of fans to watch their first home game against Cologne on August 21 at the 75,000-capacity stadium.
The club’s new chairman and CEO Oliver Kahn says they want fans back in the stadium as soon as possible but safety remains the priority.
Kahn also stated next season’s target is to win a tenth straight Bundesliga title.
Kahn also revealed the club is in contract-extension talks with midfielders Leon Goretzka and Kingsley Coman.

Hackers are demanding $70 million in bitcoin in exchange for data stolen during a gargantuan attack on a US IT company that has shuttered hundreds of Swedish supermarkets.
Researchers believe more than 1,000 companies could have been affected by the attack on Miami-based firm Kaseya, which provides IT services to some 40,000 businesses around the world.
Ciaran Martin, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Oxford says It’s probably the biggest ransomware attack of all time,”
He however added that because this was a supply chain attack and the total number of victims was potentially huge.
Cybersecurity firm ESET says it had identified victims of the hack in at least 17 countries, from South Africa to Britain to Mexico. New Zealand’s education ministry said at least two schools there had been affected.

South Africa’s police minister says he was awaiting court instructions on whether to arrest ex-president Jacob Zuma, who has been given a 15-month jail term for contempt.
The country’s top court last week convicted Zuma for contempt and ordered him to turn himself in by end of Sunday to start his sentence. If he failed to do so, the police would be told to arrest him within the following three days.
Police Minister Bheki Cele told reporters that they hope that they will be getting the clarification because when they were given the instruction there were no other legal activities taking place.

The UN's refugee agency says it is alarmed by reports of attacks on Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region.
A spokesperson for the UNHCR's Ethiopia office told the BBC they received reports, from online and other sources, that hundreds of Eritrean refugees in the western town of Shire have allegedly been killed".
Neven Crvenkovic said in an email to the BBC sys they have not been able to corroborate any of the allegations received but we continue collecting relevant information to help assess the veracity of these reports.
Rights activists say they have received reports that many refugees were brutally killed by local militias.

Egypt has denounced Ethiopia's decision to begin filling the reservoir behind its giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile for a second year.
The Egyptian irrigation minister, Mohamed Abdel Aty, says he'd received official notice of the filling from Ethiopia and had categorically rejected it.
He says that the unilateral move was a violation of international laws and norms that regulate projects built on the shared basins of international rivers, including the Nile River.
The minister has also written to the United Nations Security Council informing it of the latest measure by Ethiopia.
Egypt and Sudan had warned Ethiopia that it should wait until they'd all reached a legally binding agreement on the operation of the dam.

Data from the federal government shows that about 400,000 barrels of crude oil are lost daily to theft.
The Minister of Environment, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, says statistics had supported Nigeria as the most notorious nation in the world for oil theft.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said about N60 billion was being spent yearly by the federal government to repair vandalised pipelines
The minister also cited a report by Nigeria Natural Resources Charter, which estimated that approximately N4.75 trillion was lost by the country to oil theft between 2015 and 2018.
He considered sustained oil pipeline vandalism as one of the major problems that have contributed to environmental degradation in the Niger Delta.
He said the attack on oil facilities had become the innovation that replaced the agitation in the Niger Delta against the perceived poor governance and neglect of the region.