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Air India said the scrapped, deregistered plane had been sold off.

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Sarah, the first patient to try it, says it has allowed her to enjoy life again.

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Microsoft's latest operating system is being offered as a free upgrade from Tuesday.

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The announcement comes days after the firm shut down amid a scandal over its business practices.

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Antarctic snowfall two-and-half centuries old forms the basis of a new artwork by Wayne Binitie.

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Brian Houston is accused in Australia of concealing sexual abuse allegedly committed by his father.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger which all went down on Monday afternoon with users worldwide reporting the crashes, have now been restored.

SaharaReporters observed that the sites were restored around 10.45pm after about six hours of crash, cutting off billions of users around the world.

The online services all share an infrastructure and are owned by Facebook, which is owned by American billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the crash started around 16:41BST, according to the website Downdetector. While just two problems were reported at 16:26, the site says, this had jumped to more than 27,000 just fifteen minutes later.

According to The National, users attempting to access Facebook on their browser were shown a blank error page, while those using WhatsApp or Instagram mobile apps were able to view existing content, but nothing new has loaded.

“We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing Facebook app. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” Facebook had said via @facebookapp

Posting on Twitter, which has not seen any issues, the Facebook app had said it was aware of outages affecting "some people".

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Boko Haram insurgents are coercing residents of the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State to marry off their daughters at the age of 12 years.

Residents of the affected communities said the insurgents had ordered them not to recognise any constituted authority.

According to Daily Trust, a resident of the area, and Co-Convener of Concerned Shiroro Youths, Bello Ibrahim, said in an interview, “At a time, they were in Kawure, the village of former Senator Representing Niger East, David Umaru. But there was operation to dislodge them by the joint military task force.

“Fortunately they were dispatched but after a while, since military base is not stationed there, they reconvened. So now, they are not only in Kawure, they have also extended their tentacles to Communities like Kuregbe, Awulo, and host of other Communities.

“In Awulo and Kuregbe Communities, they assembled the locals, both Muslims and Christians, and gave them marching order that any girl that is 12 years old should be married off.

“There is no any form of law in the area, aside Boko Haram’s… If locals have any feud, either family issue of community problem, they report to them for resolution.

“No any case should be reported to police or court or any constituted authority for resolution.”

Another resident said the criminals operate freely.

He noted, “They are operating freely and mingling freely with the villagers. They have become constituted authority in those villages. And Kaure, Awulo and Kuregbe are their operational grounds. They coerce locals to obey them as their authority.

“In the entire Chukuba and Kuregbe ward, it is Boko Haram elements that are operating there not bandits that we know.”

The Chairman, Shiroro Local Government, Suleiman Chukuba confirmed the influx of Boko Haram elements, saying “On the issue of influx of Boko Haram in shiroro, only four wards have been affected.”

He said the residents were made to believe that they were Boko Haram elements because of their mode of preaching.

“They told villagers that they have money to help them and that they have guns to give them to fight Government. And that is the same doctrine we know Boko Haram elements promote,” he said.

But residents said they had not recruited the locals aside coercing them to do especially the issue of not reporting any case or feud to police or court and the marital age for girls.

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Why is Bollywood star son Aryan Khan's arrest bigger news than violence during farm protests?

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has described as unconstitutional and a political suicide moves by the Federal Government to support herders who are planning to challenge the anti-open grazing law in court.

Falana said this while reacting to a statement by Umar Gwandu, the Special Assistant (Media) to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, that the Federal Government supports moves by herders to sue the Southern Governors over the anti-open grazing bills they recently signed into law in their respective states.

Femi Falana (SAN)

Falana said the decision of the Federal Government to take sides in the dispute between the herders and the Southern Governors is a “constitutional aberration and political suicide”.

He added, “Specifically, it is a gross violation of Section 17 of the constitution which provides that the Nigerian people are entitled to equal rights and opportunities before the law and Section 42 thereof which has prohibited the Federal Government from conferring advantage on any group of citizens.

“Accordingly, the resources of the entire Nigerian people cannot be dissipated on defending herders against state governments.”

He further said the alliance between the herders and the Federal Government was at variance with the National Livestock Transformation Plan of the government which had adopted ranching.

“In defending the herders in the case, the Federal Government will certainly run into serious contradictions having made available the sum of N6.2billion to Katsina for ranching; the Federal Government will not be permitted to turn round to embrace open grazing. The court will not allow the Federal Government to approbate and reprobate at the same time,” he said.

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A group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has stated that some governors and the Nigerian Government’s officials may be behind the killings and security challenges ravaging the South-East region.

HURIWA alleged that political and public office holders responsible for the killings were making efforts to undermine the agitations of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-East.

File photo used to illustrate story.

The rights group made these statements while urging the Nigerian Army to respect human rights in the South-East region.

HURIWA asked the Nigerian Army to probe the killings in the South-East because some officials of the Nigerian Government might be responsible for insecurity in the Southeast.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said the Nigerian Army must work with the mindset that members of IPOB might not be responsible for the killings in the region.

HURIWA said, “Following report that the Nigerian Army has launched multiple military exercises covering the South-East region of Nigeria aimed at checking the excessive cases of attacks targeting strategic national security institutions, personnel and the killing of civilians by unknown gunmen, the military high command should abide by rules of engagement, respect for Human Rights of civilians and adherence to the principles of the rule of law.

“The Nigerian Army should not work under a bandwagon conspiratorial plots that the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra carry out the attacks and killings but the army must be open-minded, look inwards and investigate the possibility that these attacks may have been masterminded by federal government officials and some governors of the South-East of Nigeria who may want to undermine the public acceptance and popularity of the agitation for self-determination as canvassed by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.

“In the past few months, many Igbo youths have been killed, arrested, incarcerated and tortured by the security forces under the guise that all Igbo youths are members of IPOB.”

The group, however, revealed that all its members and its militia wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) should be protected.

“Members of IPOB or ESN are entitled to the full protection of the law and therefore must never be killed extra-legally by the armed forces of Nigeria which is an institution created by the ground norm,” he said.

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Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has fallen by nearly $7 billion in a few hours, knocking him down a notch on the list of the world’s richest people, after a whistleblower came forward and outages took Facebook Inc.’s flagship products offline.

This is just as Facebook's co-messaging apps, WhatsApp and Instagaram remained down after four hours of global outage which has upset businesses and disconnected billions of people around the world. 

According to Bloomberg, a selloff sent the social-media giant’s stock plummeting around 5% on Monday, adding to a drop of about 15% since mid-September.

The stock slide on Monday sent Zuckerberg’s worth down to $120.9 billion, dropping him below Bill Gates to No. 5 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’s lost about $19 billion of wealth since September 13, when he was worth nearly $140 billion, according to the index.

On September 13, the Wall Street Journal began publishing a series of stories based on a cache of internal documents, revealing that Facebook knew about a wide range of problems with its products — such as Instagram’s harm to teenage girls’ mental health and misinformation about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots — while downplaying the issues in public. The reports have drawn the attention of government officials, and on Monday, the whistleblower revealed herself.

In response, Facebook has emphasized that the issues facing its products, including political polarization, are complex and not caused by technology alone.

“I think it gives people comfort to assume that there must be a technological or a technical explanation for the issues of political polarization in the United States,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, told CNN.

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Thousands of Haitian migrants have returned to the island after being deported by the US.

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A home Copa America in 1989 became a flashpoint in north-eastern Brazil's persistent struggles with prejudice and poverty.

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Tourists pay good money to see a kill, but this obsession could be damaging the ecosystem.

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Film maker Julien Goudichaud follows young migrants as they go to extreme lengths to try to reach the UK.

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Key maps and charts explaining how the virus has spread around the world.

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Frances Haugen tells CBS that changing the algorithm would mean people spending less time on the site.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has enjoined other agitators for self-determination from other ethnic nationalities in the country to join its one-month sit-at-home protest commencing on October 21.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Media and Public Secretary of the separatist group, Emma Powerful, on Sunday.

 

According to him, the one-month protest would be subject to the refusal of the Directorate of State Services to bring its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, to court on the said date.

The group alleged that it had learnt that there was a plan by the Nigerian Government not to bring Kanu to court on that day as a ploy to continue to incarcerate him. File photo used to illustrate story.

The statement read in part, “Following our earlier declaration of one-month lockdown of Biafra land should the Nigeria Government fail to bring our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to the court on October 21, we, the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra request our brothers and sisters in Oduduwa republic and Middle Belt, including Igbo and Biafra businessmen and women, traders who are doing business outside Biafra land, to shut down their businesses to demonstrate our resolve for the emergence of our new nation, Biafra, and support for our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and others who are facing a similar fate with us to join us in sympathy protest.

“We need to put our differences behind us and rise as one people to defend our ancestral land against our common enemy and show Fulani and their cohorts that Nigeria belongs to all of us and any Biafra man residents in Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Jigawa, and other parts of North and western parts of Nigeria must shut down their shops in support of this fight for freedom and release of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“We cannot afford to abandon him at this point after sacrificing so much for us all. We must not fail to understand that the Federal Government dread Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho; two heroes of freedom, and that is why it wants to keep them out of circulation. But we must resist the evil plot.”

In June, the IPOB leader was arrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria to face treason charges.

He was subsequently arraigned and brought before Binta Nyako, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who asked him to be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to his agitation for the Republic of Biafra.

The scheduled trial in July suffered a setback, with the judge adjourning till October 21.

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The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended its nationwide strike. 

The doctors went on strike on August 1 to protest against inadequate allowances, irregular payment of salaries, among others.

SaharaReporters Media

In a ruling on August 23, Justice John Targema, directed all parties in the suit to suspend all forms of hostilities and return to the status quo pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

Other efforts by different stakeholders, including President Muhammadu Buhari and the House of Representatives to ensure the resident doctors shelve the strike did not yield the desired result.

The National Industrial Court, in a ruling on a suit filed by the federal government, had asked the resident doctors to return to work.

However, the striking doctors faulted the court’s ruling, vowing to appeal the order.

On Monday, Godiya Ishaya, NARD president, said the association has officially called off the strike, Cable reports.

He said the decision to call off the strike was made in an emergency meeting with the association’s national executive council.

He added that the doctors will resume on Wednesday.

“We’ve officially suspended the strike to resume at 8:00 am on Wednesday. We made the decision in the wee hours of today. We held an emergency meeting from 5:30 pm on Sunday to the morning hours of today, and the NEC decided that having reviewed the progress made so far, the strike should be suspended,” he said.

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No fewer than 352 medical interns of the University Of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH are set to embark on a peaceful protest on Monday over the nonpayment of their 11 months' salaries.

SaharaReporters also gathered that the leaders of the interns planning the protest were invited on Sunday by the Department of State Services (DSS) over the planned protest.

File Photo

The medical interns accused the hospital management of owing them 11 months' salaries out of 12 months, which is the duration of the programme. 

The programme started on October 22, 2020, and December 1, 2020, for the first and second batches respectively. 

The interns said whenever they engage with the hospital management to discuss the non-payment of their salaries, they are threatened. 

Country Director, Citizens' Solution Network, Richard Friday Imoyo had posted on Facebook that indeed the representatives of the interns were again invited by the Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday for questioning regarding their planned protest. 

He wrote in part, "DSS has invited the leaders of interns in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to their office for 3 pm today (Sunday) over the interns' planned protest against the refusal of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to pay them their 11 months' salaries that run into half a billion naira.

"What these interns need are their 11 months' salaries and nothing more. The management should stop the intimidation, using DSS, and pay these interns.

"Those invited were Delphine Anusi, Nwogu Michael, Uneze Ibeakalam, and Atrogor Shadrack."

Atrogor Shadrack, one of those invited by the DSS, who later spoke to SaharaReporters said they were not intimidated by the DSS, but rather had a "fruitful discussion". 

"I was invited by DSS, we had a fruitful discussion and they said they are with us," he said. 

It was learnt that the Chief Medical Director (CMD) had issued all interns with appointment letters which they all accepted. 

They were required to pay N30,000.00 each to the hospital management.

The interns are from various departments including Pharmacy, 38; Nursing Science, 70; Optometry, 21; Dental Therapy, 29; Dental Technology, 38; Medical Laboratory Science, 130 and Radiography, 26.

According to their appointment letters, each intern is placed on a minimum salary of N135,000.00 each per month which amounts to N47,520,000.00 in all per month. 

However, in a memo obtained by SaharaReporters dated 2 August, 2021 with Ref: UCTH/DA/148/3090, the hospital management suspended the programme for one month.

The memo titled, 'Suspension of Internship Programme,' was signed by the Director of Administration, Ededet Eyoma on behalf of the Chief Medical Director.

The memo reads;

"I am directed to inform the Hospital Community that the Internship Programme of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital has been suspended for one month with effect from 2 August, 2021.

"This is consequent upon the security challenges experienced in recent times, occasioned by the activities of the current interns. The suspension follows a meeting of Management with the managers of the Internship Programme held on 2 August, 2021, and the approval of the Governing Board of the Hospital.

"The suspension will enable Management to evaluate the situation with a view to finding lasting solutions to the issues involved. Management hopes that normalcy will return within the shortest possible time. Heads of Departments are hereby directed to ensure compliance, please.

"In view of the above, security agencies have been engaged to ensure that no intern is found in the Hospital until the suspension is lifted."

The memo indicated that the interns were placed on a month suspension which has sadly turned out to be two months suspension now (August - September) simply because they asked for their payment.

SaharaReporters on Sunday obtained a flier saying the interns are planning to stage a protest on Monday in Calabar.

It reads, "UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR TEACHING HOSPITAL

11 MONTHS WITHOUT INTERNSHIP SALARY

PROF. IKPEME A. IKPEME END THIS SALARY INJUSTICE NOW!!!

WE ARE HUNGRY WE ARE FRUSTRATED OUR RENTS ARE EXPIRING

PAY INTERNS SALARY FROM (NOVEMBER 2020-SEPTEMBER 2021)

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH."

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Formula 1 is inching towards an agreement on a new engine design to be used from 2026 - and it could tempt the Volkswagen Group to join the grid.