France hostage crisis: Three persons killed in suspected Islamic State attack; PM Edouard Philippe says it is 'terror attack'

No less than three persons were killed Friday in a shooting binge and hostage attack in southern France by a man asserting faithfulness to the Islamic State gathering, security sources told AFP.

                                                File image of the super U Super Market

A security source said the three were killed in the attack at a Super U store in the town of Trebes.

Outfitted police were additionally reacting to the prior shooting of a policeman in the town of Carcassonne, 15 minutes head out, which occurred at around 11 am (1000 GMT). 


It was hazy if the two incidents were connected.

In Trebes, a pleasant medieval town of around 5,000 people, the man "entered the Super U store at around 11.15 am and shots were heard," a source told AFP on state of anonymity.

According to an eye witness  account  he (the gunman) shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) before going into the premises, the source added.

The gunman claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, the local prosecutor's office said, and the incident was being treated as a terror attack.

Local authorities tweeted that the area around the supermarket was off-limits to the public, while Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said it was a "serious" incident.

The shootings come with France still on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015, starting in January that year with the assault on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

France also suffered major attacks in Paris in November 2015 when Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in bombings and shootings at bars, restaurants, the Bataclan concert venue and the national stadium.

In July 2016, in another attack claimed by Islamic State, a man drove a truck through revellers celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera resort of Nice, killing 84 people.

On the off chance that the connection to Islamic State is affirmed, the prisoner taking would be the principal lethal assault in France since October, when two young ladies were cut to death outside Marseille's fundamental prepare station.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb was heading to the scene, he wrote on Twitter.

The area of southwest France where today's shootings took place has been scarred by Islamic extremism before.

In 2012, Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people including three Jewish schoolchildren in the nearby city of Toulouse.

Read More

Amaechi urges states to key into FG’s transport development policies

 The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has called on states to key into the programmes and policies of the Federal Government in developing the nation’s transportation sector. Amaechi made the call at the ongoing meeting of Nigerian Transportation Commissioners Forum on Friday in Abuja.

The Minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Sabiu Zakari, said that the Forum would offer the vehicle segment the much required between legislative association for defining and executing master individuals arrangements, projects and undertakings.

He included that the service had created and would keep on developing a few tasks and projects that would require coordinated effort with the States so as to guarantee successful usage. Amaechi recorded a portion of the projects to incorporate advancement of Road Transport Operators Manual, Road Crime Control System (RCCS), Introduction of Truck Transit Parks (TTPs) and Development of Urban Mass Transit Transportation.

"There is additionally the presentation of Green Transportation and Amphibious vehicles. "I am cheerful that this will remain a stage for collaboration, for age, mix and harmonization of arrangements, projects, and activities equipped towards propelling transportation. "I need to express that your objectives must be accomplished in the event that you support the gathering as a group. "As you understand, the coherence of this stage would to a great extent rely upon the level of collaboration and forfeit you will make for its prosperity," he said.

The minister said that the arrangement of a consistent transportation framework for Nigerians was long late, including that the gathering would accomplish agreement in key zones towards the improvement of the street transport subsector. He said that the street segment was a protected duty of states, including that the gathering was a veritable organization for peer-audit and in addition stage for sharing goals for the vehicle division. "For us in the Ministry, it offers a decent road for trading the order mission, vision, and focal point of the Federal Government in the continuous changes in the rail, oceanic, Aviation, Mass Transit and Road activities Administration sub-division of Transportation," he said.

The Chairman Senate Committee on Land Transport, Sen. Gbenga Ashafa, recognized the State Commissioners for Transport for their drive to frame an impressive group to change the country's vehicle area. Ashafa, who was spoken to by Sen. Victor Umeh, Anambra Central, unveiled that the senate had as of late passed the National Transport Commission Bill in accordance with the senate's take steps to change the division. He guaranteed that the senate would dependably be accessible to offer parliamentary help to the discussion as far as bills and proposition.

Mr Orman Esin, Chairman of the gathering and Commissioner for Transport and Petroleum Resources, Akwa Ibom State, said the discussion was set up in light of the proposals of the National Council on Transportation in 2017. Esim said the lady meeting was intended to conceptualize on issues influencing the vehicle part and formally set the gathering on solid balance. He said the gathering was likewise to guarantee that there was consistency in benefit conveyance by state governments on the streets, for example, the issue of various charges and assessments even inside a state.

Read More

NEW ANTI CANCER PROTEIN DISCOVERED BY RESEARCHERS

 NEW ANTI CANCER PROTEIN DISCOVERED BY RESEARCHERS

A team of international researchers has discovered a new anti-cancer protein that not only prevents the uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells in the liver, yet in addition fills in as a biomarker for the finding and forecast of liver cancer.

As per an announcement discharged by the University of Basel, liver tumors create from transformed cells that develop and multiply wildly.

 Anti cancer proteins, so called  tumor silencers or supressors, forestall uncontrolled cell development, yet are frequently faulty in cancer cells.


 The researchers have discovered a new, so far unknown tumor suppressor, the protein LHPP.

They have shown that the loss of LHPP promotes tumor growth and reduces the chance of survival of cancer patients. LHPP could therefore potentially be used as a prognostic biomarker. “It is striking that LHPP is present in healthy tissue and completely absent in tumor tissue,” says first author Sravanth Hindupur.

Re-introduction of the genetic information for LHPP by the researchers prevents the formation of tumors and maintains liver function. Additionally, both disease severity and life expectancy correlate with LHPP levels.

With complete loss of the tumour suppressor, cancer patients die on average two years earlier. LHPP is useful as a biomarker to classify tumors.

 The research has been published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature.(Xinhua/NAN)

Anti-cancer proteins, so-called tumor suppressors, prevent uncontrolled cell growth, but are often defective in cancer cells.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/researchers-discover-new-anti-cancer-protein-2/

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/researchers-discover-new-anti-cancer-protein-2/

Read More

If you politicize abductions, you ‘ll face serious action, Buhari tells politicians

 If you politicize abductions, you ‘ll face serious action, Buhari tells politicians

 PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari today in Abuja cautioned politicians against politicizing kidnapping of school young ladies in the nation, saying security organizations will bargain extremely with individuals influencing political money to out of it.

President Buhari who gave the notice while accepting 105 school young ladies and two grade school understudies from Dapchi, Yobe State, at the presidential Villa in Abuja, additionally debilitated that any security boss that permitted passes in his activity would be managed.

 Also, he guaranteed to give genuine pardon to any Boko Haram extremists that sets down arms and grasp peace. The president confirmed that Boko Haram extremists discharged the Dapchi school young ladies last Wednesday genuinely in the wake of meticulous back channel transactions.

 He said government selected transactions since it didn't need any of the prisoners to be harmed Speaking at the event, the Director General of State Security Services, DSS, Lawan Daura, revealed to President Buhari that four of the discharged Dapchi young ladies managed broken appendages.


While formally giving over the young ladies to the President, the DSS supervisor said all the discharged understudies have skin contaminations that were being dealt with. He additionally asserted that the articulations of some administration operators who are not authoritatively allowed to represent government relatively defaced have transaction process.

Read More

NUCLEAR REACTOR: JAPAN RESURRECTS AFTER TSUNAMI

 NUCLEAR REACTOR: JAPAN RESURRECTS AFTER TSUNAMI

A Nuclear reactor in south-western Japan was brought back online on Friday without precedent for over seven years, in demonstrate hatred for tenacious neighborhood resistance, the administrator said. Reactor III at the Genkai Nuclear Power Station in Saga prefecture on the island of Kyushu has been restarted, Kyushu Electric Power president Michiaki Uriu said in an announcement.

Uriu said the administrator has begun to haul out control poles at the unit. 

                                  Reactor III at the Genkai Nuclear Power Station  



The move is thought to be a "critical advance during the time spent restarting the reactor." The reactor was closed down in December 2010 for a consistent investigation, three months previously the atomic calamity at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

 A gathering of nearby inhabitants had recorded claims to stop the Genkai plant's activity even before the atomic mishap at Fukushima. 


As of Thursday, just four of Japan's 42 working reactors were in activity. Atomic produced power used to represent around 30 for every penny of the nation's yield before the Fukushima emergency. On March 14, Kansai Electric Power reactivated Reactor III at the Oi Nuclear Power Station on the Sea of Japan drift, 400 km west of Tokyo. NAN

Uriu said the operator has started to pull out control rods at the unit. The move is considered to be an “important step in the process of restarting the reactor.” The reactor was shut down in December 2010 for a regular inspection, three months before the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. A group of local residents had filed lawsuits to stop the Genkai plant’s operation even before the nuclear accident at Fukushima. As of Thursday, only four of Japan’s 42 functioning reactors were in operation. Nuclear-generated electricity used to account for about 30 per cent of the country’s output before the Fukushima meltdown. On March 14, Kansai Electric Power reactivated Reactor III at the Oi Nuclear Power Station on the Sea of Japan coast, 400 km west of Tokyo. NAN

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/nuclear-power-station-japan-resurrects-tsunami/

Read More

2019 re-election bait and related issues

2019 re-election bait and related issues

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/2019-re-election-bait-related-issues/

 2019 re-election bait and related issues  by Kabril M.

Kabiru M. Gwangwazo

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/2019-re-election-bait-related-issues/

2019 re-election bait and related issues

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/2019-re-election-bait-related-issues/

2019 re-election bait and related issues

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/2019-re-election-bait-related-issues

Since the arrival of General Buhari healthy a year ago the political air has been revving up in front of the mother of all battles in 2019.

Despite the fact that the President has not yet affirmed he is challenging a moment term, his standard "body language" when elections are around the corner recommends he has officially tossed his cap into the ring.

I am of the gathering who still trust our same old GMB is the best alternative yet on the scene. However, unfortunately, his "body language" is utilized to bait him into some foolish political choices and engagements. On prolongation of the gathering administrators' residency the proposal is that it was done to the General's advantage, that it was the most secure choice for him to recover the ticket of the APC for 2019. This isn't disapproving of the numerous deficiencies of the exco at all levels; of which GMB, his handlers and state governors are the foremost engineers. On their maintenance, though illegally, GMB wound up spiting his very own wide swathe supporters, particularly that the augmentation of residency influenced all levels, down to LGs and wards.

This rebates the numerous wronged APC activists and stalwarts in the North bolted out of government and gathering since 2015. The lengthening rubbished the intense Tinubu Reconciliation Committee, a board of trustees in which trust hosted been contributed by most oppressed get-together men and ladies, in spite of the absence of lucidity of its enrollment. Indeed, even as a small time advisory group, Tinubu had given expectation that there would be a reasonable ear given for a certified politically-established compromise. He has gotten various requested and spontaneous exhort over the couple of weeks he had been on the turf as boss referee of APC's numerous inconveniences.

 However, another significant not well bitten choice that Mr. President has been tricked into is the dismissal of the National Assembly proposition on reordering of the decision grouping. There is no convincing purpose behind the Presidency to spike the Bill. He should best give the framework a chance to work and right itself; that is the place there are slip-ups to rectify. INEC has been maneuvered into this, working itself into a free for all to decipher expressions of the constitution that are not unequivocal. Just God comprehends what the legal is relied upon to do when the make a difference is raised to it.

 On the request of decisions, in 1979, the succession had the President as keep going on the line. It was the edginess of a disliked NPN Shagari government that reordered it, making Presidential first for the "fleeting trend" fixing expected to restore the NPN. That was a disagreeable non military personnel government that kept going just three months.It tragically prompted the putsch by GMB and his co-coupists in 1983. In IBB's third Republic, first were LG decisions, at that point state surveys. Presidential was kept for last before IBB moved to one side. Next is this fourth Republic. Decisions started with LGs, at that point states. Atiku Abubakar as PDP Governor-choose of Adamawa was elevated Vice President to General Obasanjo, leaving the state to Deputy, Bonnie Haruna.

 In 2003 the PDP needed to reorder the succession because of a paranoid fear of enormously prominent GMB riding the peak of the professional Shariah development in the North. The Presidential race and its peculiar fleeting trend reminiscent of the disagreeable NPN days was again conjured. The principal set of surveys in 2003 in this manner had President and National Assembly around the same time. Governors had their day later. It is basic learning Governors attracted GMB into a silly muscle flexing on the decision grouping with the lure of his own race.

 Thusly, they are implicitly saying the General is currently anxious of the mass base he has, that he needs governors to "fleeting trend" triumph for him. Actually it is governors and different competitors that are neither here nor there who still need the front of the GMB SAK fleeting trend The dread however is they might think the incomprehensible: fixing, with every one of its outcomes. Furthermore, it will have results, no uncertainty.

The evident repel of the Tinubu Committee by the residency prolongation is another territory where GMB has been so attracted by the goad of re-decision. In addition, there are a wide range of suppositions and examinations on what is entirely ground with respect to the legislative issues of APC states and their huge amounts of emergencies. A large portion of the examinations on the APC emergencies so far spotlight on regions that have gotten the most media buildup, notwithstanding when the certainties are not generally as sold on the media.


One that I read on an online post this week indicated about 14 liquid expresses that APC may lose. That post shows up by and large conceivable, regardless of whether the proposal that wherever APC loses, PDP will be the recipient is a foolish supposition with minimal logical premise.


A more discerning evaluation however ought to distinguish different gatherings in the states prone to profit by APC's misfortune, particularly if Tinubu, the APC Chief Reconciler is made to fizzle. Tinubu is no uncertainty the way to determination of the APC emergencies.


 After he completes his task, Tinubu ought to be made Chairman of the GMB 2019 Presidential Campaign. Kwankwaso ought to be influenced Vice-To director to pull in the regions he has made advances into in the North, while Amaechi remains DG of the Campaign. Tinubu as Vice President will guarantee Yorubaland votes to compensate for likely misfortunes in the North. What's more, there will be misfortunes whether the compromise works or not. APC won't get votes of most Christians in the North. This is evident with the progressing control of the security circumstance in the Middle Belt.


With this, the electoral value of Osinbajo is, no doubt, frail. All things considered, similar to General Buhari said in his 2018 New Year Address, Yorubas are more aware of their ethnic personality as opposed to the religious thought of other ethnic gatherings. The 2019 survey will most likely be hard-battled. Numerous voters excessively energetic in 2015 may not take an interest unless more work is done on them. APC voters in the center North who trooped out in 2015 did as such to spare themselves from the risk of BH let free by a free, or more terrible, complicit PDP focal government may not feel a similar desire in 2019.


 In Kano and Bauchi, officeholders at all levels are at genuine danger of losing, however not really to PDP. Groups of center Buharists sidelined in states and at the middle will without a doubt work with other estranged APC individuals and the individuals who miss out in PDP to shape the following administrations of Bauchi and Kano, and in numerous different emergencies swarmed states as well.

On voter demographics in Kano, the Buhari gather is comprised of professors in great administration. The Sharia-slanted mass base of the Talakawa political vision of NEPU and PRP of Malam Aminu Kano is the thing that Buhari acquired in Kano and all conditions of the North. This mass base of embittered Buharists have been spectators in the administration and APC. That is likewise what acquires in huge numbers of the 2019 liquid states. Such activists will figure out what occurs in Kano. Without a doubt, as most investigators recommend, Kano in 2019 is positively liquid. In any case, the APC issue here isn't just about Kwankwaso or Ganduje or even PDP, notwithstanding when both Kwankwaso and Ganduje are all PDP Graduates of APC.

Read More