Oil prices rose up on Tuesday, supported by concerns that tensions in the Middle East could lead to supply disruptions. Hopes that behind-the-scenes talks between the United States and China will prevent a looming trade war between the world’s two biggest economies also supported global markets, including crude oil futures. Brent sweet crude futures were at 70.20 dollars per barrel while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at 65.69 dollars a barrel . James Mick, Managing Director and Energy Portfolio Manager with asset management firm Tortoise, said “rising geopolitical tensions” were driving up oil prices. The biggest risk…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
By Abdulrazak Ibrahim The Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating a new era, fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds. Breakthroughs in different fields – including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and gene editing – are creating waves of disruption, forcing politicians, business leaders and regulators around the world to react to paradigm shifts created by these technologies. Perhaps none of them is more significant than the gene editing technology known as CRISPR, recognized as a game changer for the biotechnology industry. And although the various breakthroughs have emerged primarily in the US and Europe, Nigeria is a strategic destination and market…
Kano government said it has dispatched a Rapid Response Team to check the authenticity of a reported case of a strange killer disease in Dawakin Tofa Local Government area of the state The state Commissioner of Health, Dr Kabiru Getso made this known through the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Alhaji Isma’il Gwammaja on Tuesday in Kano. He said that the story of the reported outbreak of the strange disease was reported through the media and that prompted the Commissioner to direct the rapid response team to swing into action with a view to ascertaining the veracity of the…
The Country Director of WaterAid, Dr ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye said in Abuja on Tuesday that shrinking of Lake Chad would threating livelihoods of people in the region and raises the need for improved strategies to manage the water resource to remedy losses, WaterAid has said. “Lake Chad, the largest fresh water reservoir, is an important resource shared by Nigeria and other benefiting countries within the region. The lake sustains a lot of people, who are largely farmers, fishermen and livestock breeders. The speedy shrinking of the basin is threatening the resources and livelihoods of millions of people who are living there.…
China has met its 2020 carbon intensity target three years ahead of schedule last year, the official Media agency reported on Tuesday, citing the country’s top climate official Xie Zhenhua. China cuts its 2005 carbon intensity level, or the amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide it produces per unit of economic growth, by 46 per cent in 2017, Xie told forum in Shanghai on Tuesday. China is the world’s biggest energy consumer. Carbon intensity fell 5.1 per cent in 2017 compared to the previous year, the media said, suggesting that China’s war on pollution also helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions. China…
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted partly cloudy weather conditions over the central states of the country on Tuesday morning with sunny and hazy conditions over Yola. The Agency’s Weather Outlook by its Central Forecast Office in Abuja on Monday also predicted day and night temperatures in the range of 31 to 38 and 21 to 24 degrees Celsius respectively. According to the agency, the southern states would experience partly cloudy to cloudy morning with day and night temperatures in the range of 31 to 36 and 22 to 26 degrees Celsius respectively. It also predicted prospect of localised…
The Kano state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Kabiru Getso said on Monday that the state recorded over 7,000 cases of Tuberclosis (TB) with 21 deaths in 2017. He revealed at a Press conference to mark the World Tuberclosis Day in Kano that the state government had every plan to reduce TB burden in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “With the support of development partners, the state was able to expand DOTs centres from 381 in 2016 to over 500 in 2017,” he said adding that the state government had increased access to diagnostic equipment and services from 86 to 199…
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja inaugurated the National Food Security Council with a pledge to develop new programmes that would create more jobs in the agricultural sector. Pledging that his administration would remain focused in securing the nation’s food requirements and employment for the people especially the youths, he added that the country’s exploitation of critical job-creating sectors, which had been ignored for decades, was beginning to yield results as his administration had introduced the National Social Investment Programme. “We shall also develop new programmes and projects that will protect and indeed, create more jobs in farming, fisheries, animal…
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja presided over the meeting of the National Food Security Council preparatory to its inauguration by him later in the day. Those in attendance at the meeting include the governors of Kebbi, Taraba, Plateau, Lagos, Ebonyi and Delta states. Others were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha; the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari; the National Security Adviser, retired Babagana Monguno and seven ministers; the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olanisakin; governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); directors-general of the Department of State…
An inferno on Monday razed down a multi-million Naira Reference Laboratory Centre at the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training Centre ( NTBLC) in Zaria, Kaduna State. The burnt reference centre is one of the best in Africa fully equipped with functional facilities for the test of HIV, leprosy and malaria among other diseases. The fire which lasted for about three hours was later brought under control by fire fighters. However, the cause of the fire was not yet ascertained. When contacted, the Principal of the centre, Dr Labaran Shehu declined to comment, saying, “the cause of the fire is yet…