World

(FILES) This file photograph taken on February 20, 2008, shows Slovenia’s only nuclear power plant at Krsko, some 10 kilometers from the border with Croatia. – Slovenia’s Krsko nuclear power plant has been shut down as a precaution after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake was registered in neighbouring Croatia, the plant’s spokeswoman said December 29, 2020. (Photo by Matej Leskovsek / AFP) Slovenia’s Krsko nuclear power plant has been shut down as a precaution after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake was registered in neighbouring Croatia, the plant’s spokeswoman said Tuesday. “Due to today’s earthquake, the Nuclear Power Plant of Krsko automatically shut…

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 26, 2019, Sudanese protesters wave national flags as they chant slogans during an a sit-in outside the army headquarters in the capital Khartoum. – Sudan has experienced a whirlwind of change since its popular revolution kicked off two years ago, bringing an end to the three-decade reign of strongman Omar al-Bashir. But experts warn the country is now at a critical juncture as tensions have flared between the military and civilian leaders who share power in a fragile transitional government. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) Hundreds of Sudanese protested Tuesday against…

A Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officer gestures to a group of believers that, according to stage 3 lockdown national regulation, they are not allowed to gather for ceremony in the West Park Cemetery, in Montgomery Park, Johannesburg, on December 29, 2020. (Photo by Luca Sola / AFP) South Africa banned alcohol sales and made masks mandatory in public from Tuesday after a surge in coronavirus cases, as the World Health Organization warned that pandemics far more deadly than Covid-19 may lie ahead. Nations around the world are struggling with winter spikes in infections that have pushed the global caseload…

Widow of the Chairman of Leadership Group Limited, Zainab Nda-Isaiah (second left), with her children and other family members laying wreath at the grave of the late publisher during his burial in Abuja…yesterday<br />PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Bello gave this description during the Night of Tributes for Nda-Isaiah in Abuja on Sunday.“In November, I was down with COVID-19, and Uncle Sam kept calling to encourage and guide me. Little did I know that COVID-19 will lead to his death,” the governor said.He prayed to God to give the bereaved family the fortitude to bear the…

[FILES] South Africa is the hardest-hit country in Africa with infections. (AFP Photo/Luca Sola)<br />President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a new ban on alcohol sales and said mask-wearing will be mandatory in public after South Africa became the continent’s first to record one million coronavirus cases. Ramaphosa justified a raft of new measures by a “rapid rise” in infections, most by a new strain of the virus feared to be more contagious. He pointed the finger at “super-spreader” social events and an “extreme lack of vigilance over the holiday period”. “We have let down our guard, and unfortunately we…

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, yesterday, urged the world to start thinking about the next pandemic as it strives to recover from the current one. In a message to mark the maiden International Epidemic Preparedness Day, Guterres stressed the need for countries to strengthen disease prevention capacities. His words: “With COVID-19 having now killed more than 1.7 million people, devastated economies, upended societies and exposed the world’s vulnerabilities in the starkest ways, the value of health emergency preparedness has hit homes like never before. “Unfortunately, it is easy to imagine a virus just as infectious but even more lethal. We…