Author: damazah@gmail.com

A spacecraft that was launched in July on a mission to rescue a decaying Nasa space observatory plunged back to Earth on Friday, concluding a failed mission that will be followed by the telescope’s own demise in several weeks’ time.Link, billed as “America’s first commercial space robot”, lifted off on 3 July from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific islands with the objective of lifting the orbit and prolonging the life of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a satellite that has studied gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic events for the last 22 years.It got as close as 7 to 9…

Government officials and policymakers from across Africa will be gathering in Kenya in November to discuss how intellectual property can support Africa’s trade and economic transformation. The discussion will take place at the 7th edition of the All Africa Intellectual Property Summit organised in collaboration with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. The All Africa Intellectual Property (IP) Summit is a premier Pan-African multi-stakeholder platform “dedicated to advancing the role of intellectual property in driving Africa’s economic transformation, innovation ecosystem, and global competitiveness.” The organisers, in a joint statement issued on Friday, said they are involved in a…

Health workers struggle as new Ebola cases are found in border regions of South Ubangi and Haut-Uele.The Ebola virus caused by the Bundibugyo strain has spread to two new health zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).New cases were found in Bulu in South Ubangi governorate on the border with the Central African Republic and Dungu in Haut-Uele province on the border with South Sudan, the WHO said on Friday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe additional cases bring the number of health zones affected to 63 across seven provinces as…

 * 7th edition to recognise outstanding entrepreneurs, business leaders, corporate brands and contributors to economic development The organisers of the Lagos Young Entrepreneur Awards (LAYEAWARDS) have announced the forthcoming seventh edition of the prestigious entrepreneurship and business recognition platform, scheduled to hold on November 27, 2026 at Swiss International Vistana Hotel and Resort, Victoria Garden City, Lekki, Lagos. The annual awards ceremony is designed to recognise, celebrate and promote outstanding entrepreneurs, business owners, corporate organisations, professionals, innovators and individuals whose contributions are creating value, generating employment, driving innovation and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lagos State and Nigeria. Now in…

Andy Burnham has said he will not call a general election before 2029, after days of speculation that Labour’s revival in the polls could tempt him to call an early contest.The prime minister was repeatedly questioned on the prospect during a round of broadcast interviews to regional media on Friday.He initially said he was “not particularly” tempted by the idea of an early election, but later became firmer, saying he would “knock that dead” and he was “not going to do that” because he was focused on getting on with the job.Asked by ITV Calendar whether the next election would…

Three years after medical doctor Vwaere Diaso died in an elevator accident at the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, the elevator is not yet operational, as rehabilitation work on the building continues. PREMIUM TIMES visited the facility on Wednesday and observed that construction work was still ongoing at the 10-storey House Officers’ Residence, where the fatal elevator accident occurred in August 2023. The elevator has been fixed, but doctors living in the building cannot use it because the rehabilitation of the building is still ongoing. The development comes as questions about the state of the facility and the replacement of…

From the moment scientists spotted plumes of water erupting from Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, it became the most tantalising place in the solar system to search for life beyond Earth.Now the case is even more compelling after researchers found that organisms that live in deep-sea waters off Japan can survive the harsh conditions expected in the briny ocean that lurks beneath Enceladus’s icy crust.The microbes, which thrive near hydrothermal vents on the seafloor by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane, survived in a brine that mimicked the Saturnian moon’s ocean. The work suggests the distant world may be…

By Omoyele Sowore Paul C Nwabuikwu, a longtime communications lieutenant of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has written a lengthy piece in thisdaylive.com attempting to explain why Nigerians supposedly do not take my presidential candidacy seriously.Before dealing with his arguments, however, readers deserve to know where this sermon is coming from. Nwabuikwu served twice as Special Adviser to two-time Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Bretton Woods lackey who, by the way, hates me with passion, to the extent that she wrote a book and made up lies about me just because I challenged her when she came to Nigeria as a…

Somehow, over the past decade or so, studying abroad stopped being an opportunity and started becoming an expectation. For many college students, “I studied abroad” is now less of an interesting fact and more of a box to check. You go abroad for a semester, travel to as many countries as possible, take an excessive number of pictures and come home and talk about how it was “the best semester of your life.” If you haven’t gone yet, someone will inevitably ask you where you’re planning to go. And if you say you’re not planning to study abroad? You might…

The presidential candidate of Accord Party, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, narrates how his Hausa origin was concealed from him for 27 years by his father who was an ex- Commissioner of Police, late Hashim Abdullahi Yauri. A residential candidate of the Accord Party, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has revealed the extraordinary family secret behind why his Hausa and royal identity remained concealed from him for almost three decades. Olawepo-Hashim, grandson of the 40th Seriki of Yauri, in a statement issued in Abuja, said his late father, Alhaji Hashim Abdullahi Yauri, deliberately kept his royal heritage away from him as a child after receiving a…