Author: Opalim Lifted

Seven board members for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses have been sworn in by President Muhammadu Buhari (ICPC). At the State House in Abuja on Wednesday, the swearing-in took place just before the start of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting. Retired Justice Adamu Bello (Katsina), Hannatu Mohammed (Jigwa), Olubukola Balogun (Lagos), Obiora Samuel Igwedibia (Anambra), Abdullahi Saidu (Niger), Yahaya Umar Dauda (Nasarawa), and Grace Chinyere are among the reappointed ICPC board members that the President swore in (Rivers). This is the first FEC meeting since the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections that led to…

Nigeria and 54 other nations are listed on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List 2023. The countries have the most urgent workforce issues related to universal health coverage, according to the international health organization. “In particular, these countries have: 1) a density of doctors, nurses and midwives below the global median (i.e., 49 per 10 000 population); and 2) a universal health coverage service coverage index below a certain threshold,” WHO said in the report released March 8. “To account for the disruptions caused to health services by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects on…

North Korea’s latest missile launches were a military drill designed to train crews to carry out their mission at any time and “annihilate the enemy” if necessary, according to the country’s state media, KCNA. North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s military, the latest of several weapons tests as the South and the US conduct their largest joint military exercises in years. The launch was a “demonstration drill,” with two surface-to-surface tactical ballistic missiles fired from near the west coast of South Hwanghae province, flying 611 kilometers…

A federal court in Texas will hear arguments on Wednesday in an anti-abortion group’s bid to prohibit the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone across the country, including in states where abortion is legal, as they challenge regulatory approval granted more than two decades ago. The groups, led by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine in Texas, have asked conservative US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo for a preliminary order halting sales of the drug while their lawsuit is pending. The groups filed a lawsuit against the FDA in November, claiming that the agency used an improper process when it…

The US government announced on Wednesday that 27 drugs will be subject to inflation penalties, which means that people on Medicare will pay less out-of-pocket starting April 1st, ranging from $2 to $390 per average dose. President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes a provision that penalizes drugmakers for charging prices that rise faster than inflation for people with disabilities or age 65 and older on the government’s Medicare healthcare programme. “Beginning April 1, Medicare beneficiaries will pay lower coinsurance for Part B drugs whose prices rise faster than inflation,” said White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan…

OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it is beginning to release a powerful artificial intelligence model known as GPT-4, paving the way for more competition between its backer Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google. OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot sensation ChatGPT, stated in a blog post that its latest technology is “multimodal,” which means it can generate content in response to both image and text prompts. The text-input feature will be available with a waitlist to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and software developers, while the image-input capability will remain a preview of its research. The eagerly anticipated launch foreshadows…

Ojo Akerele, 45, was detained by the Ondo State Police Command in the Idoani community of the state’s Ose Local Government Area for allegedly defiling a 10-year-old girl. This was revealed in an interview with journalists on Tuesday in Akure, the state capital police public relations officer Funmi Odunlami. She said, “A case of defilement was reported against one Ojo Akerele, 45, and he was subsequently arrested by security operatives. School bus driver defiles four-year-old pupil “The victim,10, was lured to an uncompleted building by the suspect where he had carnal knowledge of her after giving her N100. “The suspect…

The taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in Nigeria, according to the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), is a win-win strategy for public health. In an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, Ms. Veronica Schoj, Vice President, Food and Nutrition, GHAI, made the observation. She added that combating dietary-related illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity was also a matter of public health. “Drinking sugary drinks increases the likelihood of being overweight and excessive sugar intake causes increased risk of diabetes, liver and kidney damage, heart disease and some cancers. “So, taxing sugary drinks to increase their prices are effective ways to…

The Department of State Services (DSS) has been questioned by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which claims that Nnamdi Kanu is ill with heart problems and nutrient deficiencies. The group issued a statement on Tuesday through its spokesperson, Emma Powerful, challenging the DSS to disprove them by allowing Kanu’s doctor to treat him. Powerful also urged the general public to ignore one Adeyemi Olumide’s assertions that Kanu’s health condition is normal, noting that they are a cover-up. “A common sense question for the DSS is whether anyone is ever fine in their solitary confinement facility, especially someone they have…

Authorities in Pakistan have apprehended a gang involved in the illegal transplant of kidneys to wealthy foreigners, a practice that is flourishing in the impoverished country amid an economic crisis. On Monday night, police and health department rangers raided a hidden clinic in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, arresting ten people, including doctors and nurses. According to Hassan Akhtar, head of the Punjab Human Organ and Transplant Authority’s team, three suspected donors and two recipients, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Afghanistan, were also arrested. The team’s leader, Akhtar, stated that more raids would be conducted on Tuesday to apprehend the…