Author: damazah@gmail.com

The YEAC said its network of volunteers and human rights defenders had reported that people in Okrika had died after inhaling what it locally known as “Indorama fuel”, which is a form of refined petrol known as PMS (Premium Motor Spirit).Nigeria’s Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has urged the public and media to rely on verified information as they work with other security agencies to establish what happened in the early hours of Thursday morning.It condemned illegal tapping and siphoning, warning that such activities put lives, the environment and the economy at risk.Similarly, many campaigners have also blamed the…

Real Betis’ Irish forward #19 Troy Parrott and Real Betis’ Spanish goalkeeper #01 Alvaro Valles (C) react after Real Madrid’s French forward #10 Kylian Mbappe failed a penalty kick during the Spanish league football match between Real Betis and Real Madrid CF at Benito Villamarin Stadium in Seville on September 4, 2026. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP) Kylian Mbappe missed a late penalty as Troy Parrott scored his first goal for Real Betis in a 1-0 win over Real Madrid on Friday, ending Jose Mourinho’s side’s perfect start to the La Liga season. Madrid had won each of their…

It’s hard to scroll social media at the moment without seeing Adults star Malik Elassal. The FX sitcom returned for its second season last week, and between some creative show marketing and meme-able scenes, Elassal and his costars are seemingly everywhere. Season two of Adults is just as funny as the first, if not more, and apparently just as delightful to make. “Seeing these people again is exciting,” Elassal tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Zoom. It’s late on a Friday and the 30-year-old’s fresh from a mid-press cycle nap — more on that later, though. He adds, “It just…

Doctors at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), Akwa Ibom State, have called off their strike over the alleged assault of a doctor at the facility. The Chairperson of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Akwa Ibom State, Tiemah Akpabio, confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday night. Ms Akpabio said the decision followed a meeting of the state executive council of the association on Friday, after the family of the woman accused of assaulting a doctor tendered an apology and the hospital management intervened in the dispute. She said the strike would officially end at 8 a.m. on Saturday,…

A federal judge on Friday again blocked Donald Trump’s executive order to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, the latest in a legal back-and-forth playing out less than two months before election day.US district court judge Indira Talwani initially placed a temporary order blocking the president’s mandate and has now extended that prohibition with a stronger preliminary injunction. The ruling comes hours after North Carolina became the first state to start sending out mail-in ballots for the 3 November midterm elections.Talwani referred to the tight timeline in her ruling.“Plaintiff States are required under state law to mail millions of ballots…

Germany is holding its breath this weekend as there is a seismic election in the country’s east.The Alternative für Deutschland party is aiming to secure a majority in the regional parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.An outright win would mark the first time a far-right party has held state-level power in the nation’s post-war era.For the AfD’s opponents, this is a point of serious peril. But the party sees it as a stepping stone towards its dreams of nationwide power.This is an election that could change German history.The result could also spell fresh trouble for embattled conservative (CDU) Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as rumours…

By Rosemary Iwunze Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, have pushed about N17.1 trillion from Nigerian pension monies to Federal Government, FG, securities. This amount represents 58.07 per cent of the N29.5 trillion pension industry’s Net Asset Value, NAV, in the first quarter of 2026. The National Pension Commission, PenCom, has now warned that such investments may not deliver inflation-beating returns over the long term. The warning comes against the continued concentration of pension assets in FG securities following the high yield environment in the money market. The Commission cautioned that while FG securities remain a major investment avenue for pension funds,…

A new report claims a swarm of AI agents, developed by OpenAI, hijacked a German website – months before the firm revealed its AI had hacked tech platform Hugging Face.The targeted website, DseWiki, is a Wikipedia-style site for programmers that its community can all contribute to.The report is from a group called Nightingale Collective and claims that in May OpenAI’s agents started using DseWiki as their own message board, shared tips on how to avoid being detected and made 15,000 edits to it. OpenAI said it could not “meaningfully respond” to Nightingale Collective’s findings because it hadn’t been allowed to…

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned healthcare professionals, importers, distributors, retailers, and the public against four medicines recalled by Pakistan’s drug regulatory authority due to quality concerns. The agency disclosed this in a public alert issued on Friday, following a recall by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) of specific batches of the medicines. The affected medicines are Nitras tablets, Kadin 2 tablets, Acefyl cough syrup and Loratadine 24 tablets. According to NAFDAC, the products were recalled after being found adulterated or substandard, with the regulatory findings linked to quality defects and…

The Bunsen burner’s future in modern microbiology labs is flickering, some scientists say. Credit: Alfonso Fabio Iozzino/AlamyThe Bunsen burner, a workhorse of biology and chemistry labs around the world for decades, might have been getting more credit than it deserves.Many scientists have long relied on Bunsen burners to decontaminate airspace and surfaces in labs. The burners’ flames were thought to create convection currents that carry microbe-containing particles away from the lab bench. Now, a study has found not only that the devices are ineffective at cleansing workspaces of bacteria-laden particles, but that they can even make contamination worse.The work was…