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The Governor is currently in Abuja. Police begin search for lady who allegedly posted the death rumour on internet For the second time in five months, the Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, was rumoured dead on Thursday, causing panic among his relatives, residents of the state and political associates. The rumours reportedly emanated from a “breaking news” story posted on an Internet Website, saying the governor passed away in an Indian Hospital where he was allegedly receiving treatment

  The University of Iowa study of hundreds of people age 50 and older found that those who played a videogame were able to improve a range of cognitive skills, and reverse up to seven years of age-related declines.WASHINGTON, May 2 — Playing videogames can prevent and even reverse deteriorating brain functions such as memory, reasoning and visual processing, according to a study released Wednesday.

Over the past two decades, the mix of diseases and disabilities affecting the health of Ghanaians has transformed. Despite global decreases, infectious diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS continue to kill thousands, while heart disease and stroke are beginning to take a greater toll on the health of citizens. These are some of the findings from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study (GBD 2010), a collaborative project led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Country-specific findings, including for many countries in East Africa, were announced in March, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, by IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray and Foundation Co-chair and Trustee Bill Gates.

A new camera is breaking barriers A new digital camera designed by a team of scientists literally sees what bugs see. The camera’s design recreates the structure of insects’ eyes to project a fuller, wider, and more focused view than is possible with even the best conventional digital cameras today. Fire ants and bark beetles were the specific model for this camera, according to a report that the researchers, one of whom is John Rogers, a University of Illinois chemistry and physics professor, published in the May 2 edition of Nature . The report explains that the eye of one of these bugs consists of 200-500 long, cylindrical units called omatidia, each of which includes a cornea connected to a photosensitive organ and surrounded by dark pigment to keep light on one lens from leaking into another lens. All of these omatidia cluster together, with the lens facing outward, to form the bulging multicellular eye shape that we all associate with the insect kingdom. The only key differenc...

Skype for Windows 8 gets a video messaging feature SOFTWARE HOUSE Microsoft has updated its Skype application on Windows 8 with a video messaging feature, for those who can't be bothered to type. Unsurprisingly, this new Skype feature, which is available now in Preview form , lets the handful of Windows 8 owners in the wild record a message to send to a friend. Video messages can be sent even if the recipient is unavailable, so you can give your friends a surprise when they return online.

  Twenty years ago this week the World Wide Web's technology became publicly available. To mark the event, the first-ever website has been recreated and republished. The web began at CERN, a research facility for particle physics in Switzerland. In recent years it has become well known for housing the Large Hadron Collider instrument used to hunt down the Higgs Boson, a previously undetected particle that could help explain how the universe works.

The latest iteration of Microsoft Office for the small enterprise, Microsoft Office 365 for small business, is according to value-added distributor Comztek, fast levelling the playing field in applications as a service and cloud computing. Microsoft Office 365 for small business is fast levelling the playing field in applications as a service and cloud computing (image: Microsoft) According to David Caygill, business unit director at Comztek, the new software is an easy-to-use set of web-enabled tools that let you access your email, important documents, contacts, and calendar from almost anywhere and any device. The real benefit of this new platform is that it is hardware agnostic, and by any device they simply mean you can now access all your documents from your PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, or BlackBerry smartphones. “Office 365 is as intuitive as it is easy to deploy. It integrates seamlessly with the programmes you already know, such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Micro...

A Karu, Abuja, Upper Area Court has remanded 42-year-old Rufua Alabi in prison custody after he was arraigned for impregnating his 16-year-old daughter. The prosecutor, Cpl Pascal Njoku told the court that Alabi of Kurudu Village, Abuja, committed the offence sometime last year, following which the daughter was carrying a six-months-old pregnancy for him. He said that the girl’s mother, Bose reported the matter at the Jikwoyi Police Station, after she found out that her daughter was pregnant and that Bose took her daughter to the hospital where a doctor confirmed that she was pregnant. He said the victim confessed to her mother and the elder brother that her father was responsible for her pregnancy. “My father on many occasions, had sexual intercourse with me when nobody was at home and warned me never to tell anybody about the affair,” the girl [name withheld] revealed. The offence is contrary to the Penal Code. The presiding judge, Alhaji Umar Kagarko ordered that Alabi’s bail appl...

Mobile number portability (MNP) is a customer's strongest weapon in the telecommunications industry, because it strengthens the customer's ability to choose any network operator without losing his or her telecommunications 'identity'. MNP enables a user to switch from the current network service provider to another network operator without losing his or her telephone number, which to some extent is the customer's identity as it is unique to him or her and is a common means by which the customer is known and can be contacted. Technorati Tags: MTN , communication , NCC Some stakeholders see MNP as a revolutionary measure that leads to better service provision and improved customer satisfaction. Others opine that on its own, MNP does not guarantee a better quality of service, because if the original problem with the first operator was an overloaded network (ie, too many customers for the available network capacity), the same problem could afflict the new network if ...

Satellite images reveal that 2,275 homes were destroyed during a military raid to hunt down militant Islamists in the northern Nigerian town of Baga last month, a rights group has said. Close-up satellite images of Baga. The one on the left taken on 6 April 2013 and the one on the right on 26 April 2013, following the violence. (Source: Astrium) Human Rights Watch said soldiers “engaged more in destruction than in protection” after Boko Haram fighters attacked a military patrol. The army has not commented on the latest allegations. It has said 37 people were killed; others say more than 180 died. Community leaders dispute the army’s version of events. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Nigerian authorities to impartially investigate and prosecute soldiers responsible for recent violence in Baga. It said satellite images it had analysed undermined the military’s assertion that only 30 houses were destroyed during the fighting in Baga, a remote fishing community on the sh...

A 25-year-old man, David Nnebong was on Monday arrested for sexually abusing a 2-year-old girl, put under his care. Nneobong was said to have been living with the little girl’s grandmother, Iya Wura, who resides at 18 Awoseyin Street, Somolu. The victim’s grandmother was said to have left the victim in Nnebong’s care, but came back around 3pm and met the child crying and kept pointing at her private part; a gesture which ignited Iya’s suspicion. Reports say the victim’s mother currently resides in Calabar, Crosss River state, while the toddler is Nnebong’s cousin. A neighbour, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was the girl’s cries that created the air of suspicion. He said, “It was the child who actually made Iya Wura know that David had raped her. The grandmother raised the alarm and all the neighbours pounced on David. “Although she was upset with David, Iya Wura and other relatives, who were present, did not want to get him arrested. “They only wanted him to leave th...

Nigeria’s ruling party said the opposition governor begged to join its fold.   The spokesperson of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party , PDP, Olisa Metuh, has claimed that the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole , on several occasions, begged the leadership of the party to let him decamp to the PDP. He said the governor was consistently turned down by the Nigerian ruling party. Mr. Metuh, who spoke via a statement on Wednesday, “urged the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to be bold enough to tell Nigerians how many times he begged to join the PDP but was turned down”. ” The same PDP which Adams went on all fours, begging to join on several occasions has suddenly become the ” party of rogues” because of his desperation to justify the massive rigging and democratic aberration that was local government elections in Edo state. ” In 2007, Adams (Oshiomhole) begged to be given an opportunity under the Umbrella but we considered his governorship aspiration an assault...

The family of late Big Brother Africa housemate and Hip hop star, Goldie Harvey on will on Wednesday auction all her belongings. The family said this in a statement on Tuesday. The statement signed by the family representative, Deji Adetayo, stated that although the singer did not leave a will, she had had an agreement with her husband, Leonard Harvey to auction her remaining items. Mr Adetayo said the proceeds from the sales would be donated to charity. He said, “There will be a garage sale at Goldie’s house located at 30B, Ologunkutere Street, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos on May 1, 2013. Culled from  ChannelsTV

Local growers of rice and importers of the commodity have cried out for government help against smugglers who they allege have overrun the customs at the boarder entry points. A new group of local growers and importers of the commodity calling themselves the “Patriotic Rice Association of Nigeria, PRAN” said in Abuja on Monday that “massive and incessant smuggling of Nigeria had thrown the rice industry into turmoil with severe consequences for government revenues, the economy and future plans for rice self-sufficiency.” The statement jointly signed by Alhaji Habibu Maishinkafa, Chairman and Mr. Martins Okereke, Secretary said given the free reign enjoyed by rice smugglers, “a bleak future lies ahead of local rice growers and traders legitimately involved in rice trade.” Tracing the origin of this sorry state of affairs in the country, the association said, “the Nigerian rice industry seems to have been thrown into a turmoil since the import tariffs were increased exponentially...

The crisis rocking the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a new twist as the party on Monday, suspended 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The party’s leadership also announced that it has given the state Governor; Rotimi Amaechi, 48 hours to “explain to Rivers people why the jet bought with the state government money is bearing a bank’s name on the documents.” The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Sunday  grounded the plane of River State governor for the  expiration of its operating license  while the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) claimed that the  plane belongs to the Bank of Salt Lake City USA and was brought into the country on chatter by Carverton Helicopters. The new chairman of the party in the state, Felix Obuah told journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital, that the suspension of the lawmakers was over their refusal to obey an order by the party to reinstate the suspe...

Oil magnate and business man, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah has denied claims of being arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mr. Ubah, who said he “honoured an invitation to answer questions on the investigations into the fuel subsidy” in a phone interview told Channels Television’s Judiciary Correspondent Shola Soyele that “I am home now”. The business man also volunteered to make available some information that will help the anti-graft agency in its investigation. He however didn’t state when he will report back to the agency for further questioning and submission of the “volunteered” information. The Public Relations Officer of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren said Mr. Ubah was arrested after failing to honour previous invitations by the agency. He also confirmed that Ubah has been “allowed” to go but will return, probably on Thursday, to answer further questions. Mr. Ubah was said to have been arrested by a team of EFCC operatives at his Maitama home in A...

A 31-year old  ex-policeman , Kelvin Ighodalo has been sentenced to 45-year imprisonment by an Osogbo High Court for stealing a N50,000 Sony Ericsson phone belonging to Governor Rauf Aregbesola. Mr Ighodalo had stolen the phone from the Governors pocket on November 27, 2010, when he was being inaugurated at Government Technical College, Osogbo. Justice Oyejide Falola, who precided over the case, found the accused guilty on six counts, which included conspiracy, stealing and fraud. Justice Falola thereafter sentenced Mr Ighodalo to 10-year imprisonment for the first three counts and five years for each of the last three which included impersonation, obtaining property by falsehood and collusion. The Judge explained that the convict deserved the sentence and held that the convict used the phone to obtain N500, 000 from the Owa of Ilesa, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, while he obtained N200, 000 from Shengen Rahman, an associate of the governor. Mr Ighodalo will run the jail term...

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has decried the pervading culture of political intolerance and impunity in the country despite the end of military rule over a decade ago. In his paper entitled “Deepening Democracy in Nigeria: Implications for Africa,” Mr Abubakar said as a result of such lip service to democratic principles, “disregard for rules and regulations and the utter impunity with which they are committed,” has led to what he called “the militarization of democracy.”The former Vice President, who was speaking in Switzerland as a Guest Speaker of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations on Monday, regretted that in Nigeria and other parts of Africa opposition members are treated as enemies of the state. According to him, many retired military chiefs, who came into power as politicians entered the democratic arena without being able to shed their military mind-sets, thereby exacerbating the culture of intolerance and entrenching impunity, which chara...

Pirates stormed a cargo ship off Nigeria's southern coast and kidnapped five foreign sailors, including three Sri Lankans, taking the total number of those abducted from the region within the last four days to 14, a military spokesman said today. Pirates operating in creeks and waterways of Nigeria's oil rich Niger Delta kidnapped the sailors in a raid, military spokesman Lt Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu said.  Nwachukwu said the sailors were aboard oil vessel, Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV City of Xiamen.  The sailors, included three from Sri Lanka, one from Russia and one from Myanmar, media reports said.  The abduction took place in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa state in the southern part of the oil rich African country.  On Friday, nine Nigerian sailors attached to two local oil servicing companies, Octopus Clan Nigerian Limited and the Deck Oil Services, were kidnapped by gunmen suspected to be renegade militants operating along ...

The controversial N4.5 billion Sunborn Yacht Hotel, brought from England and moored on the Lagos waters for over four years, has finally disappeared from the state after the controversies surrounding its ownership. It will be recalled that the custom built yacht, with 102 elegant suites, arrived the Lagos waters in November 2008  and instantly became a cynosure of all eyes. The yacht, expected to serve as a four_star hotel, was, however , bedeviled by controversies since its arrival which led to it abandonment and subsequent rusting away on the water-ways. When Vanguard visited the quay, by the Army Officers' Mess at Marina, Lagos Island Local Government Area, there was no sign that such expensive and eye catching structure ever berthed there. Enquiries from the state government and even residents of the state yielded no result as no one could  say specifically what happened to the multi_purpose built yacht that moored on the state water for over four years.Commissioner fo...