Worldwide Updates

The Southwest zonal office of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday upturned the suspension of the Chairman of the party in Ibadan North East Local Government of Oyo State, Taiwo Iyiola, over alleged anti-party activities.  It said the suspension of Iyiola by the State Working Committee (SWC) was arbitrarily without any preliminary hearing as demanded by the party’s constitution.  PDP spokesman in Oyo State Akeem Olatunji said on the phone that the Zonal Secretary, Daisi Akintan, who signed the letter reinstating the suspended chairman, lacked power to act without the consent of the Zonal Chairman, Dayo Ogunbenro. He said the purported letter was null and void.

Lowering the coffin of a person who died from a virus-related illness during a funeral in New Delhi in August. Credit...Xavier Galiana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images NEW DELHI — Mayandi Soundara Raj, an engineer pictured astride a motorcycle, was “a perfect husband” to his wife. He died on July 10. Arkadipta Basu, who died on Sept. 17, showered her family with “love and affection,” according to Anindya Basu, her husband. “I couldn’t keep my promise to be with you forever,” he writes under a photograph of her in a bright red sari. Mr. Raj and Ms. Basu are among those memorialized on a new website dedicated to people in India who have died of virus-related illnesses, who number more than 154,000. At the height of India’s outbreak last fall, more than 1,000 people were dying every day. As in many other places, pandemic restrictions often meant that friends and family members were unable to attend funerals or be present for last rites. “As a society, we probably couldn’t provide them

A medical worker preparing a syringe with the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot at a vaccination center in a public hospital in Brasília on Tuesday. Credit: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca not only protects people from serious illness and death but also substantially slows the transmission of the virus, according to a new study — a finding that underscores the importance of mass vaccination as a path out of the pandemic. The study by researchers at the University of Oxford is the first to document evidence that any coronavirus vaccine can reduce transmission of the virus. Researchers measured the impact on transmission by swabbing participants every week seeking to detect signs of the virus. If there is no virus present, even if someone is infected, it cannot be spread. And they found a 67 percent reduction in positive swabs among those vaccinated. The results, detailed by Oxford and AstraZeneca researchers in a manuscript that has not b

The newly elected Chairman of Tarauni Local Government Area of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Zakari, says he will adopt community consultation strategy to move the council to greater heights. The newly elected Chairman stated this while inaugurating members of his inauguration transition committee on Tuesday in Kano. He said that various committees were set-up to conduct research on all aspects of societal development and submit the reports to him to serve as guide in solving the challenges of the local government. He said that the committees’ reports would serve as a blueprint for discharging his duties of moving the local Government forward, adding that the new constituted committees should ensure they fulfill their mandates. According to him, it was a responsibility given to them to also contribute towards the development of the Local Government.

Neymar has agreed a four-year contract extension with Paris Saint-Germain after negotiations started a few months ago, sources have told ESPN.   The Brazil international’s contract was due to expire in June 2022, and his new deal will keep him in the French capital until 2026. PSG made Neymar’s extension a priority and the player was very keen to remain longer at the Parc des Princes. Neymar, who turns 29 on Friday, is delighted to continue his career in Paris and could sign very soon his new contract. Ideally, the club would like it all done before the Champions League round-of-16 first leg against Barcelona on Feb. 15.Since arriving at the Parc des Princes in August 201 on a world-record €222 million deal from Barcelona, Neymar has won three Ligue 1 titles, to go with two Coupes de France, two Coupes de la Ligue and two Trophees des Champions.   He also finished Champions League runner-up last season, losing to Bayern Munich in Lisbon (1-0).He reached the 100 games milestone for the

American lawyer and judge Alberto R. Gonzales was sworn in as the attorney general of the United States, becoming the first Hispanic to occupy the post.

District councilors typically tended to mundane matters like pest control and new bus stops. Now, they’re the last line of defense in keeping the city’s pro-democracy opposition alive. HONG KONG — Some days, Cathy Yau wanders down dark alleys looking for rats to poison. Other days, she helps food banks deliver meals to older people. Often her phone rings with calls from constituents: neighbors asking about their rights during a police stop-and-frisk, or how to best navigate the city’s welfare bureaucracy. Such is life for a Hong Kong district councilor. “I do things that nobody’s directed you to do, but which no one else would do if I didn’t,” she said. Ms. Yau, a 37-year-old former police officer, is among the hundreds of pro-democracy candidates who were elected to local government offices in Hong Kong in November 2019 on a wave of anti-establishment sentiment that followed months of street protests. As the political climate in Hong Kong has rapidly changed, the councilors’ advocacy

It did not take long for Keith Reed, a deputy health commissioner in Oklahoma, to spot a big logistical problem with the state’s vaccination rollout. Week after week, Oklahoma was allocating thousands of precious doses to a federal program for nursing home patients that was not using them all. In fact, tens of thousands of doses were sitting untouched in freezers. So his department called an audible. It decided to stop allocating any more of Oklahoma’s vaccine supply to the federal program, a partnership with private pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens that is meant to immunize residents of long-term care facilities. Instead, they would go to distribution channels that would get them into people’s arms faster. A number of states have made similar moves to shift supplies away from the federal effort, known as the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, a telling example of how chaotic the inoculation effort in the U.S. has been so far. Some of the other states include Minnesota,