The Nigerian Army has cancelled the remaining activities in the ongoing Chief of Army Staff’s annual conference 2020 after a participant died in Abuja, on Tuesday.
The victim, identified as Maj. Gen. John Irefin, the General Officer Commanding, 6 Division, Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, reportedly died of complications from COVID-19.
A senior military officer confirmed Irefin’s death to The PUNCH on Thursday, describing it as devastating.
The acting Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Sagir Musa, in a statement on Thursday, said all the conference participants had been directed to immediately proceed on self-isolation in line with the protocol for COVID- 19.
The annual conference which started on Monday had the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and some dignitaries as virtual participants while the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi and a few others participated physically.
Those who attended the event physically including senior military officers, GOCs, principal military officers and guests were expected to go into self-isolation.
The statement read, “All the participants have been mandated to immediately proceed on self-isolation in line with the Federal Government’s protocol for COVID- 19 and to prevent any further spread of the disease.”
“However, due to the resurgence of the pandemic in the FCT, General Buratai will be unable to personally attend to, receive or meet you at the event. All inconveniences hereby regretted please,” the statement added.
The army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Sagir Musa, failed to confirm the demise of Irefin as calls to his phone rang out.He had yet to respond to a WhatsApp message as of the time of filing this report.
New York(CNN Business)Time magazine has named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris 2020’s Person of the Year.
The two made history on November 7 when they beat Donald Trump in a bitter election that put him in a small club of presidents who served only one term. Harris on that day became the country’s first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president-elect.
“For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are TIME’s 2020 Person of the Year,” wrote Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan was named Businessperson of the Year. The video chat service spiked in popularity amid a health crisis that forced people to work and learn from home.
In the category of Guardians of the Year, Time named activists Assa Traoré, Porche Bennett-Bey and racial-justice organizers; frontline health workers fighting the pandemic; and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Time magazine’s tradition of singling out an especially influential person started in 1927, launching as Man of the Year. The name was later changed to Person of the Year, which is bestowed on an individual, a group, a movement or an idea that had the most influence in the past year. In 2006, Time named “You” as Person of the Year to recognize the millions of people who contribute to content on the internet. Not everyone who made the cut wielded positive influence. Adolf Hitler, for example, was Man of the Year in 1938. In 2019, Time picked young climate activist, Greta Thunberg.
The shortlist unveiled earlier Thursday was a clear reflection of the year’s most dramatic events. Biden, Trump, Frontline Health Care Workers and Dr. Fauci and the Movement for Racial Justice were all major characters in a tumultuous year that included a deadly pandemic, social unrest over racial injustices and a contentious election.
NBA star LeBron James was named Athlete of the Year and Korean pop group BTS was Entertainer of the Year, both of which were revealed on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday morning. The Person of the Year was introduced in a special prime time broadcast on the network, marking the first time that NBC has partnered with the magazine’s Emmy-winning Time Studios on coverage of this scale for Person of the Year.
Actors Issa Rae and Matthew McConaughey kicked off the hour-long, star-studded event that included appearances by Vanessa Bryant, John Cena, Yo Yo Ma, BTS and H.E.R. Bruce Springsteen presented the Person of the Year.
Time expanded its Person of the Year franchise last year by introducing four additional categories including Businessperson of the Year. The decision came after Salesforce (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff bought Time in 2018 from magazine conglomerate Meredith Corp (MDP), which had acquired Time Inc. in 2017.
Time’s cover for Athlete of the Year features a painting of LeBron James by 14-year-old Tyler Gordon
The TV event is the third such broadcast partnership for Time Studios this year. In place of its annual TIME100 gala, Time revealed its list of the 100 most influential people in September with a TV special on ABC. Last week, Time named its first-ever Kid of the Year on a TV special that aired on Nickelodeon and CBS.
The former dictator, whose election defeat to Adama Barrow in December 2016 forced him to flee, was one of three from the West African nation on an updated list targeting ten people across the globe.
Britain on Thursday slapped sanctions on The Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh as it widened travel bans and economic sanctions for human rights abuses worldwide, AFP reports.
The former dictator, whose election defeat to Adama Barrow in December 2016 forced him to flee, was one of three from the West African nation on an updated list targeting ten people across the globe.
Jammeh, his wife Zineb, and the former director-general of the country’s National Intelligence Agency, Yankuba Badjie, are all now subject to asset freezes and a UK travel ban.
London said Jammeh was behind “inciting, promoting, ordering and being directly involved in extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, kidnappings, torture, rape, as well as wider human rights violations” after he seized power in a coup in 1994.
Zineb Jammeh was sanctioned for the same reason, and for using charities as a cover for the illicit transfer of funds between herself and her husband. Both are already under similar sanctions from the United States.
Others on the list include three members of the Venezuelan military, and the speaker of the parliament of the Russian region of Chechnya as well as the region’s Terek Special Rapid Response Unit.
It is accused of extrajudicial killings and torture, and a crackdown on gay men that drew international condemnation.
In Pakistan, Anwar Ahmed Khan, a former Karachi police “encounter specialist” suspected of being behind more than 190 “hits” that led to more than 400 deaths, also faces restrictions.
“Today’s sanctions send a clear message to human rights violations that the UK will hold them to account,” said UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
Britain, which left the European Union in January, introduced its own sanctions regime in July, identifying 49 “notorious” individuals and organisations accused of human rights abuses.
The first included 25 Russians allegedly involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and 20 Saudis suspected of involvement in the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was sanctioned in September in response to the disputed recent elections and crackdown on protesters.
There are now 65 people on the UK sanctions list and three organisations.
The government is coming under pressure to impose similar sanctions on Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam over abuses by the police against pro-democracy protesters, AFP reports.
New Hampshire House Speaker Dick Hinch (R) died due to coronavirus complications, a medical examiner ruled Thursday, with the 71-year-old state lawmaker dying one week after being sworn in as Speaker.
Attorney General Gordon MacDonald (R) announced that the state’s chief medical examiner had determined “the cause of Speaker Hinch’s death was COVID-19.”
Hinch died on Wednesday, though the cause of his death was not initially revealed. The attorney general released the results of the autopsy after receiving authorization from the lawmaker’s next of kin.
Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has ordered flags in the state to fly at half-staff. “Speaker Hinch was a fierce defender of the New Hampshire Advantage, a close friend, and a respected public servant,” Sununu said in a statement. “His loss will be greatly felt by the people of this state, and I ask Granite Staters to join me in praying for his family during this incredibly difficult time.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) also mourned Hinch’s death while highlighting his record of public service. The New Hampshire Republican was starting his seventh two-year term when he died.
“Serving in our legislature – and especially in leadership positions as Speaker Hinch did – requires tremendous effort, all in essentially a volunteer capacity,” Hassan said in a statement. “Speaker Hinch was deeply committed to this service, and I am grateful for all he gave to our state and our country. I join all Granite Staters in mourning his loss.”
Hinch’s office announced the state lawmaker’s death on Wednesday night but did not give details, calling it an “unexpected tragedy,” local media reported. Further details on his diagnosis were not immediately available.
New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services said last week that it was investigating after several GOP lawmakers tested positive for COVID-19 after an indoor caucus meeting held on Nov. 20, the Concord Monitor reported at the time.
Hinch at the time confirmed “a very small number of people” tested positive, according to the newspaper, but did not specify how many or go into detail on which members had tested positive. Sununu later said that the meeting was “horribly managed,” according to a local NBC affiliate. He noted that “a lot” of attendees were not wearing masks or socially distanced.
The news of the meeting came just a day before the new legislature-comprising of 400 House members and 24 senators-was to be sworn in at an outdoor event. As a result, a number of lawmakers skipped the outdoor ceremony, The Associated Press reported.
The Netherlands has expelled two alleged Russian spies who were working in the country as diplomats, its intelligence service says.
They are accused of targeting the high-tech sector and building a “substantial network of sources” in the industry.
The two individuals were working for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Dutch officials said.
Russia described the accusations as “unfounded” and said the decision to expel its citizens was “provocative”.
The expelled Russians were accredited diplomats working from the country’s embassy in The Hague, Dutch officials said on Thursday. They have been declared persona non grata and must now leave the Netherlands.
Both were part of a “substantial espionage network” that was “recently rolled up”, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said in a statement.
One of the individuals had “built a substantial network of sources, all of which are or have been active in the Dutch high-tech sector,” the AIVD said.
They targeted companies dealing with artificial intelligence, semi-conductors and nanotechnology, the statement added. Nanotechnology is a field of research that involves studying and building things at the atomic and molecule scale, sometimes for use in the military.
Shortly after the announcement, Dutch Interior Minister Karin Ollongren said the Russian ambassador had been summoned to the foreign ministry.
Ms Ollongren said the newly uncovered spy network had “likely caused damage to the organisations where the sources are or were active and thus possibly also to the Dutch economy and national security
With President-elect Joe Biden set to be sworn into office in 41 days, precautions are being taken to prevent any infections among new White House staff.
Dozens of cases have been tied to the White House or people who spent time near President Trump over the past several months.The General Services Administration will deploy a team to “thoroughly clean and disinfect” every part of the White House before Biden settles into the Oval Office, Politico reports.A private contractor will also provide “disinfectant misting services” to remove any lingering droplets.
The White House will be thoroughly disinfected following President Trump’s exit in January and before the incoming Biden administration moves in to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The Trump administration has seen its fair share of COVID-19 infections as it has continued to hold events amid a global pandemic that often disregard its own public health guidance on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Our country is in a historic fight against the Coronavirus. Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
Dozens of cases have been tied to the White House or people who spent time near President Trump over the past several months, including members of Trump’s family, campaign, administration and staff. The president himself announced in October he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19, and he was treated at Walter Reed Medical Center.
The virus that causes COVID-19 mostly spreads through respiratory droplets or small particles produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks or breathes. Droplets can also land on surfaces and objects and be transferred by touch, although it’s not the primary way the virus spreads, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The virus can survive on surfaces for hours and possibly days.
With President-elect Joe Biden set to be sworn into office in 41 days, precautions are being taken to prevent any infections among the new White House staff.
The General Services Administration will deploy a team that will “thoroughly clean and disinfect” every part of the White House touched by human hands, including furniture, doorknobs, handrails and light switches, before Biden settles into the Oval Office, Politico reports.
A private contractor will also provide “disinfectant misting services” to remove any lingering droplets.
The Biden team also plans to have a skeleton staff working onsite with the majority of staff working remotely from home.
Biden has made an effort to strictly adhere to public health guidelines outlined by the CDC over the course of the campaign and following his victory in the presidential election. He has consistently stressed the importance of social distancing and mask-wearing to the public as the outbreak in the U.S. continues to rage on.
Incoming second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, is set to join the faculty of Georgetown Law in January.
The law school, the nation’s largest, announced that Emhoff will serve as a distinguished visitor from practice, “drawing in part on his deep expertise in media and entertainment matters to teach related coursework, starting with ‘Entertainment Law Disputes’ in the upcoming spring semester.” He will also serve as a distinguished fellow of Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy.
“I am delighted that Douglas Emhoff will be joining our faculty,” said Georgetown Law Dean William M. Treanor. “Doug is one of the nation’s leading intellectual property and business litigators, and he has a strong commitment to social justice. I know our students will greatly benefit from his experience and insight, and I am eagerly looking forward to his arrival.”
Emhoff is an entertainment litigator with decades of legal experience. He became a partner at DLA Piper in 2017, though he took a leave of absence from the firm after Harris was tapped as President-elect Joe Biden’s running mate and will permanently leave the firm prior to Inauguration Day. “I’ve long wanted to teach and serve the next generation of young lawyers,” Emhoff said. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the Georgetown community.”
The Biden transition did not respond to a request for comment regarding the Emhoff’s role.
Emhoff will not be the only White House spouse to hold a teaching job during the new administration. Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, is set to continue teaching classes at Northern Virginia Community College.
Prominent Black Lives Matters activists and celebrities have written to Nigeria’s president demanding justice over the treatment of people during protests against police brutality.
The group, which includes singer Alicia Keys and campaigner Greta Thunberg, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to free jailed protesters.
They also called for a “transparent investigation” into the alleged killing of protesters by armed forces.
“We cannot stay silent,” they said.
Witnesses say they saw soldiers open fire on protesters in Lagos on 20 October after weeks of protests, which began against the much-hated police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars), but then morphed into greater calls for better governance.
“In the midst of a global pandemic, your people sought to bring peace and justice to their land, and they made Africa and its diaspora proud in doing so,” the letter to President Buhari said.
“Yet their peaceful requests were met with state-sanctioned violence and suppression, as your administration meted out unwarranted force against its own unarmed citizens.”
The letter was organised by #BlackLivesMatter movement co-founder Opal Tometi, and timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day.
Other signatories included actors Kerry Washington, Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo, as well as writers Afua Hirsch, Reni Eddo-Lodge and Naomi Klein.
“As people who have supported the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and throughout the diaspora, we cannot be silent when similar atrocities take place in African countries,” the letter said.
“We demand respect for the Nigerian people, especially as they engage in their constitutional right to protest grave injustices.”
As well as demanding the release of all jailed protesters, activists and journalists, the signatories demand that all soldiers and security officials responsible for the alleged shooting at Lekki Toll Gate on 20 October are held to account, and that the ban on peaceful protests is lifted.
A judicial panel has been set up in Lagos to investigate both events at Lekki and the activities of Sars. While it promises neutrality and justice, some protesters say they fear government retribution if they speak out.
Since the protests, a number of activists say they have been targeted by the authorities, the BBC’s Mayeni Jones reports. Some have had their bank accounts frozen by the Nigerian Central Bank and some have been detained without charge, before being eventually released.
A former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Force Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, collapsed during the resumed hearing in his N2bn money laundering trial on Thursday, at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The sitting was scheduled for the hearing of the defendant’s no-case submission, following the close of the prosecution’s case with nine witnesses on Wednesday.
The defence elawyer, Anayo Adibe, was briefing the judge, Justice Okon Abang, that his team was yet to receive the records of proceedings requested from the court’s registry when Maina’s collapse attracted attention from from the dock.
Prison officials immediately rushed to attend to him.
Justice Abang said the court would rise for about five minutes.
Canada’s health regulator has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, the day after the UK became the first country in the world to roll it out.
Health Canada called the authorisation a “milestone” in the country’s fight against coronavirus.
The agency said the vaccine met its “stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements”.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is set to receive up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine this month.
In total, the Canadian government has purchased 20 million doses of the vaccine – enough to inoculate 10 million people – with the option to buy 56 million more.
Health Canada said it approved the vaccine on Wednesday “after a thorough, independent review of the evidence”.
The announcement clears the way for doses to be delivered and administered across the country. Officials say Canada has 14 distribution sites equipped with the necessary cold storage for the vaccine.
Healthcare workers and vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, will be among the first to receive it.
The vaccine has initially been authorised for use on people aged 16 and over.
Pfizer Canada said the approval marked “a historic step forward in our efforts to reduce the number of Canadians suffering from this devastating virus”.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford reacted to the news on Twitter, saying the province would be ready to deliver and administer doses “as soon as vaccines arrive on Ontario soil”.
“Friends, the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter,” he wrote.
An official with Health Canada said the regulator was looking into reports of allergic reactions to the vaccine in Britain, to see if there were any implications for Canada, according to Reuters news agency.
Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for the NHS in England, said this was “common with new vaccines”, describing it as a precautionary measure.
Canada also has contracts with several other vaccine manufacturers.
Mr Trudeau has said most Canadians should be vaccinated by September 2021.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance – a network of organisations including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Global Justice Now – claims Canada has ordered enough vaccines to protect each Canadian five times, if all the vaccines are approved for use
Four Lions at Barcelona Zoo in Spain have tested positive for coronavirus, veterinary officials say.
Three females named Zala, Nima and Run Run and one male called Kiumbe were tested after displaying mild symptoms.
Two staff members also tested positive for the virus, the zoo said.
An investigation is under way to establish how the animals became infected, but it is thought they may have been in contact with an asymptomatic member of staff.
Zookeepers reportedly carried out a standard PCR swab test on the four lions – the same method used on humans – because they are comfortable having close contact with staff.
The animals had been showing upper respiratory symptoms, according to an earlier statement from the zoo. Most symptoms have disappeared other than minor coughing and sneezing.
They are being treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and monitored closely. “The lions were given veterinary care for their mild clinical condition – similar to a very mild flu condition – and [they] responded well,” a statement said. Some of the famous zoo’s animals have begun to notice the lack of visitors
It is only the second known case in which large felines have contracted coronavirus.
One of the tigers, Nadia, is believed to be the first known case of an animal becoming infected with Covid-19 in the US.
All of the animals at the Bronx Zoo made a full recovery.
The risk of infection between zoo animals and visitors, meanwhile, is low became of a lack of proximity. “Simply, no one who comes to see [the lions] gets close enough,” the Barcelona Zoo statement said.
A UK grandmother has become the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid-19 jab as part of a mass vaccination programme.
Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, said it was the “best early birthday present”.
She was given the injection at 06:31 GMT – the first of 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that will be dispensed in the coming weeks.
Up to four million more are expected by the end of the month.
Hubs in the UK will vaccinate over-80s and some health and care staff – the programme aims to protect the most vulnerable and return life to normal.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has dubbed Tuesday V-day, said he was thrilled to see the first vaccinations take place but urged people to keep their resolve and stick to the rules for the next few months.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said viewing footage of the moment gave her “a lump in the throat”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on a visit to a London hospital to see some of the first people getting the jab, said getting vaccinated was “good for you and good for the whole country”
At University Hospital, Coventry, matron May Parsons administered the very first jab to Ms Keenan.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19,” Ms Keenan, who is originally from Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, said.
“It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year.
“My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it. If I can have it at 90, then you can have it too,” she added.
The second person vaccinated in Coventry was William Shakespeare, 81, from Warwickshire, who said he was “pleased” to be given the jab and hospital staff had been “wonderful”.
image captionSecond in line for the jab at University Hospital in Coventry was 81-year-old William Shakespeare from Warwickshire
Throughout the morning, patients and health workers at some 50 hospitals around the UK, have been getting the jab:
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast there was a “long march ahead of us but this marks the way out” Matt Hancock says he is thrilled but warns that people must still stick to the rules
While pleased to see the first jabs being given, he said the “virus is deadly” and “we’ve got to stick by the rules”.
More than 60,000 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a Covid-19 test, but there are signs the UK could be at the peak of the pandemic’s second wave.
New data released by national statisticians for the week ending 27 November showed that of the 14,106 deaths registered, nearly 3,400 involved Covid.
This is 20% higher than the five-year average but is similar to the percentages seen in the past two weeks.
image caption81-year-old Lyn Wheeler tells the prime minister she’s doing it for Britain
On a visit to London’s Guy’s Hospital, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to 81-year-old Lyn Wheeler, who was the first to receive the vaccine there.
“It is really very moving to hear her say she is doing it for Britain, which is exactly right – she is protecting herself but also helping to protect the entire country,” Mr Johnson said.
Earlier, the prime minister thanked the NHS and “all of the scientists who worked so hard to develop this vaccine”, the volunteers and “everyone who has been following the rules to protect others”.
Nigerian government, on Tuesday, refuted claims by the United States of America, that the country abuses religious freedom, insisting that both Christians and Muslims are victims of terrorism in the country.
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, made the remark in a statement made available to DAILY POST.
Mohammed described the allegation as a case of honest disagreement between the two nations on the causes of violence in Nigeria.
However, Mohammed, in a statement by his Media Aide, Segun Adeyemi said: ”Nigeria does not engage in religious freedom violation, neither does it have a policy of religious persecution. Victims of insecurity and terrorism in the country are adherents of Christianity, Islam and other religions.”
He said Nigeria jealously protects religious freedom as enshrined in the country’s constitution and takes seriously any infringements in this regard.
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is being treated in hospital.
The president wrote in a tweet: “Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!”
Mr Giuliani, who has led the Trump campaign’s legal challenges to the election results, is the latest person close to the president to be infected.
The president and his team have been criticised for shunning safety guidance. Mr Trump was ill in October.
Mr Giuliani, 76, was admitted to the Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC on Sunday, according to US media reports.
Following news of Mr Giuliani’s diagnosis, the Arizona legislature announced sudden plans to shut down for one week. Several Republican lawmakers in the state had spent hours with the former New York mayor last week discussing election results.
In a tweet, Mr Giuliani thanked well-wishers for their messages, and said he was “recovering quickly”.
His son, Andrew Giuliani, who works at the White House and tested positive for the virus last month, tweeted that his father was “resting, getting great care and feeling well”.
It is not clear if Mr Giuliani is experiencing symptoms or when he caught the virus.
Nearly 14.6 million people have been infected with Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University, and 281,234 people have died – the highest figures of any country in the world.
On Sunday, Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force co-ordinator, criticised the Trump administration for flouting guidelines and peddling “myths” about the pandemic.
“I hear community members parroting back those situations, parroting back that masks don’t work, parroting back that we should work towards herd immunity,” Dr Birx told NBC.
“This is the worst event that this country will face,” she said
In April 2018, Giuliani joined President Donald Trump‘s personal legal team. His activities as Trump’s attorney have drawn renewed media scrutiny, including allegations that he is engaged in corruption and profiteering. In late 2019, Giuliani was reportedly under federal investigation for violating lobbying laws, and possibly several other charges, as a central figure in the Trump–Ukraine scandal, which resulted in Trump’s impeachment.
Following the 2020 election, he represented Trump in many lawsuits attempting to overturn the election results, making false and debunked allegations about rigged voting machines, polling place fraud, and an international Communist conspiracy.
A satellite-controlled machine-gun with “artificial intelligence” was used to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist, a Revolutionary Guards commander says.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was shot dead in a convoy outside Tehran on 27 November.
On Sunday, Brig-Gen Ali Fadavi told local media the weapon, mounted in a pick-up truck, had been able to fire several rounds at Fakhrizadeh without hitting his wife beside him.
Iran has blamed Israel and an exiled opposition group for the attack.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
How was Fakhrizadeh killed?
The Iranian authorities have put out conflicting accounts of how the scientist was gunned down as he travelled in a car through the town of Absard.
One Iranian report quoted witnesses as saying that “three to four individuals, who are said to have been terrorists, were killed”. A Nissan pick-up was also said to have exploded at the scene.
In a speech at Fakhrizadeh’s funeral, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it was actually a remote attack, using “special methods” and “electronic equipment”. But he provided no further details.
Gen Fadavi, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, told a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday that a machine-gun mounted on the Nissan pick-up was “equipped with an intelligent satellite system which zoomed in on martyr Fakhrizadeh” and “was using artificial intelligence”.
image captionA remote-controlled machine-gun fired 13 bullets at Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s car, according to Brig-Gen Ali Fadavi
The machine-gun “focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh’s face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25cm [10 inches] away, was not shot”, he said.
The general reiterated that no human assailants had been present at the scene, saying that “in total 13 bullets were fired and all of them were shot from the [weapon] in the Nissan”. Four bullets struck Fakhrizadeh’s head of security “as he threw himself” on the scientist, he added.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed to avenge the assassination, demanding the “definitive punishment” of those behind it.media captionMohsen Fakhrizadeh was buried in Tehran following his assassination on Friday
On Friday, Israeli public radio reported that Israeli security officials had warned some former nuclear scientists to be cautious. The experts used to work at the reactor in Dimona, a top secret nuclear site deep in the Negev desert.
The Israeli government did not comment on the report, which came a day after the Israeli foreign ministry told Israeli citizens travelling in the Middle East and Africa to be vigilant in light of what it called threats from “Iranian elements”.
A source who works in the Lekki area of Lagos, has confirmed the heavy presence of police and soldiers at the toll gate plaza.
In what appears to be an attempt to forestall another round of #EndSARS protests, armed police officers and soldiers were on Monday spotted at the Lekki toll gate, Lagos.
According to different Twitter users, the security operatives were deployed around midnight.
The Lagos State Police Command had on Sunday in a statement by its spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, threatened that “security agencies will not fold their arms” as youths plan fresh protests against police brutality and extortion.
The statement was issued after a poster, titled “#EndSARS reloaded phase II” went viral on social media.
It was stated in the poster that the “phase II” of the #EndSARS protest would begin on Monday, December 7 in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Delta, and Bayelsa.
The demands of the protesters are “Buhari, Buratai, Sanwo-Olu must resign and face ICC for killing innocent Nigerians at Lekki toll; free all #EndSARS protesters; unfreeze all bank accounts of #EndSARS protesters and referendum.”
In October, many citizens took to the streets across Nigeria to express their frustration against police harassment.
However, hoodlums hijacked the demonstrations to unleash violence on citizens. Public and private properties were looted and destroyed in the process.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have continued to tweet on #ENDSARS on social media, calling for an end to bad governance and police brutality. Old videos of the protests held in Abuja and Lagos are being circulated online with the hashtag.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said President-elect Joe Biden’s statement that there “is not plan” to deliver a vaccine for the coronavirus to people across the country “nonsense” during an appearance Sunday on “Fox News Sunday.”
“With all respect that’s just nonsense, we have comprehensive plans from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] working with 64 public health jurisdictions across the country,” Azar said after Fox’s Chris Wallace played a clip of Biden making the remark.
“There is no detailed plan, that we’ve seen anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody’s arm,” Biden said in the clip shown by Wallace.
Azar added that the administration was “leveraging our retail pharmacies, our public health departments, our community health centers,” to get a vaccine out.
He said the rollout was “being micromanaged and controlled by the United States military” as well as the private sector.
“We’re leveraging the systems that are known and that work within the United States,” he said.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that the number of vaccines being delivered by the end of year is now expected to fall far short of promises from the Trump administration that hundreds of millions of doses would come by the end of 2020.
Azar said he had also said tens of millions of doses would be delivered by the end of the year and that he had been consistent. He also said career scientists were working to make sure no “red flags” were found on the vaccines, but that he was hopeful approvals could be given in days, and that the vaccines could then be delivered across the country quickly.
Azar went on to say the vaccines represent “the light at the end of the tunnel” and are “why we need people to hang in there” as far as mitigation efforts such as mask-wearing anf social distancing.
Both Pfizer and Moderna are set to submit their vaccines for emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in the next two weeks. Azar said the first doses could be distributed within days of committee approval.
“Those bright days are ahead and want everyone to be there to get their vaccinations,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the Biden transition team for comment.
Jessica Case, a publisher with Pegasus Book who worked with him on his last book on President Trump, told the BBC: “His knowledge and insight into psychology were unmatched. He was endlessly curious.”
Bio critical information
Post, born in 1934 in New Haven, attended Yale University, where he did his undergraduate degree, before heading to medical school.
He then undertook his postgraduate psychiatric training at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Mental Health, according to the Washington Post.
Post spent more than 20 years working at the CIA. He set up the agency’s Centre for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behaviour in the early 1970s.
The unit analysed foreign leaders such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar al-Gaddafi. Their assessments enabled presidents and high-profile officials to prepare for negotiations and crisis situations.
Post wrote the “Camp David Profiles” of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, which were said to have significantly influenced President Jimmy Carter’s strategy for negotiations at Camp David – the US presidential retreat in Maryland – in 1978. The ensuing accords, signed by the two leaders, led directly to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
In his book Keeping Faith, Post said: “After Camp David, there was scarcely a major summit without our being asked to prepare profiles and assessments of the foreign leaders.”
Post was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit in 1979.
He then went on to assume his position of director of the political-psychology programme at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
However, US government officials later called on Post again to help guide them in their decisions surrounding Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
Speaking to the BBC in 2002, Post said Hussein had a “traumatic upbringing”. Hussein fled his parent’s home, who refused to give him and education, and went to live with his uncle who “filled him with these dreams of glory”.
Post said this cultivation of grandiose fantasy turned him into a “malignant narcissist”.
Analysing the US president
Post wrote 14 books on a range of topics, from the mind of terrorists and the increase of politicians with narcissistic personalities.
He faced some criticism during his career for diverging from the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Goldwater Rule, which prohibits psychiatrists from commenting on the mental health of public figures, or diagnosing them, without examination and consent.
However, Post argued that it was sometimes unethical to stay quiet.
“I think there’s a duty to warn,” Post told The New Yorker in 2017. “Serious questions have been raised about the temperament and suitability of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” he said about President Trump.
In 2019, he took this idea further, co-writing a book with Stephanie Doucette titled: “Dangerous Charisma: The Political Psychology of Donald Trump and His Followers”.
“Should Trump win, as he did in 2016, he will make it a much bigger win and talking [sic] about the fraudulent election support on the Democratic side. But should Trump lose narrowly, I think we can be assured that he will not concede early.
“Trump may not even recognise the legitimacy of the election,” he said.
Following the book’s publication, Post’s health began to decline and he suffered a stroke in July.
He spent his final weeks at home and died on 22 November, a week after testing positive for coronavirus.
Police in Italy have arrested 19 people accused of running a smuggling ring bringing migrants to Europe.
The smugglers allegedly transported migrants from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan to Italy and then on to northern Europe.
Those arrested included Iraqi Kurds, Afghans and Italians, police said.
Police announced the findings following a two-year investigation that linked the suspects with smugglers in Turkey and Greece.
Investigators began looking into the alleged smuggling ring when ships carrying migrants began to arrive in the Sicilian city of Syracuse in 2018.
According to police, the migrants paid roughly €6,000 (£5,412).
Prosecutors said that the migrants were brought from Turkey and Greece to Italy in sailboats that were hired or stolen. Those who drove the boats were paid about €1,000.
They then travelled onward to northern Europe or were given the choice of remaining in Italy.
According to the investigation, specific groups across the country had their own special task.
Those in Bari, southern Italy, were responsible for finding the migrants accommodation and provided documents and residence permits that allowed the migrants to move around the country.
Senegalese football hero Papa Bouba Diop, who died in France last week aged 42, is being buried in a private ceremony at his birthplace near Dakar.
On Friday, President Macky Sall led tributes to him, saying the nation’s loss was “immense”.
Diop scored the only goal in the 2002 World Cup match which saw Senegal upset then reigning champions France.
Several of his former teammates, some overcome with emotion, attended Friday’s ceremony.
They wore the shirts of the national team bearing his name, and his number, 19.
image captionDiop’s former teammates comforted his widow, Marion
Striker El Hadji Diouf said Diop had been a model team-mate, while Henri Camara said he had lost his “twin brother”.
Diop’s body was flown back on Friday from Lens in northern France, where he died after a long illness.
‘The Wardrobe’
President Sall said that Diop’s goal against France meant Senegal would go down in the annals of global football.
After beating France, Senegal reached the quarter-finals. No African team has gone further.
image captionPresident Macky Sall (centre) led the tributes
The president announced that a museum at a 50,000-seater stadium being built outside the capital, Dakar, would be named after Diop, who has also been given a posthumous national award, the Knight of the National Order of Merit.
The highlight of his club career was winning the 2008 FA Cup with Portsmouth. He also played for Fulham, West Ham United, Birmingham City and French club Lens.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
