The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) on Monday said it was ready to organise a science competition that would identify and celebrate the best young Nigerian scientists.
The FMST Minister, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, made this known during the official commissioning of the Abuja Office of the Nigerian Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT).
“The ministry will play an important role in helping to promote science and technology culture among our young people. By organising scientific competitions, our young people will benefit tremendously from a new scientific thinking that is needed to increase the awareness of our people for the role of science and technology in nation-building.
“FMST will organise a science competition that will identify and celebration the best among young scientists from all the 774 Local Government Areas in the country,” he said.
According to him, the NISLT building will serve as a reference centre for scientific equipment needs assessment as well as certification of laboratories for analysis and training.
Onu said that he was deeply concerned about the need to diversify national economy, pointing out that the problems facing the nation since independence had been essentially a mono-product economy.
“The fragility of our economy had been exposed with attendant consequences of the high rate of high unemployment and undue pressure on our economy.
“Nigeria must rise up and employ science and technology as the suitable instrument to help us diversify and strengthen our economy.
“I am happy that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to using Science and Technology to diversify our economy,“ he said.
Earlier, the FMST Permanent Secretary, Mrs Habiba Lawal stressed that the NISLT would be used by Nigeria scientists and technologies for further greatness of the nation.
“Today’s event started in 2003 when the Act formally establishing the institute was enacted by the National Assembly. This was after a period of about 30 years of struggle to have an indigenous regulatory professional body of science laboratory technologies,’’ she added.
The NISLT Director-General, Mr Ighodalo Ijagbone, commended the entire management team of the ministry on commissioning of the first office building on the premises.
“The next major stage is to put in place appropriate infrastructure to provide the enabling space in carrying out the statutory duties and function as assigned to the institute by the Act,“ he said.
NAN
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iPhone SE: Apple launches smaller, cheaper smartphone
Apple has bucked the bigger-is-better phone trend and released a revamped version of its 4in iPhone 5S, the new iPhone SE.
It will be the smallest smartphone in Apple’s current lineup and the first smartphone to be released with a screen smaller than 4.7in since the iPhone 6 was released in September 2014.
Greg Joswiak, VP of product marketing for Apple said: “Some people simply love smaller phones. And the 4in phone is often their first iPhone. Some people asked and pleaded with us. So we’re calling it, the iPhone SE. Our most powerful ”
The iPhone SE – possibly harking back in name to the Macintosh SE computer, which was released in 1987 – has a similar form-factor to 2013’s iPhone 5S. It has a metal body, 4in screen, Touch ID fingerprint scanner and a flush camera lens, unlike Apple’s most recent iPhones. The phone will be available in black, white, gold and rose gold.
The outside of the device resembles an iPhone 5S but the inside will be similar to the iPhone 6S, using Apple’s A9 processor, an NFC chip with support for Apple Pay and a better 12-megapixel camera, in line with Apple’s 2015 iPhones.
The iPhone 5S, launched in 2013
The iPhone 5S, launched in 2013. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
The iPhone SE has double the processing power and four times the graphics performance of the iPhone 5S, as well as longer battery life.
Apple hopes that the smaller smartphone will convince those still using an iPhone 5, 5S or 5C that do not want a larger phone of the size of the 4.7in iPhone 6S or 5.5in 6S Plus to upgrade. Cook estimates that 60% of those using Apple’s smaller iPhones have not yet upgraded to an iPhone 6 or newer, meaning there is a large potential market waiting to be tapped.
Larger smartphone screens have proved popular and have allowed manufacturers to add more features supported by larger batteries, Apple’s iPhone with its 4.7in screen is remained one of the smallest.
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As a smaller, premium smartphone the new iPhone SE has little in the way of competition. Only Sony produces a widely available flagship smartphone with a smaller screen with the 4.6in Xperia Z5 Compact. Other smaller phones made by Motorola, HTC and Samsung are cut-down, cheaper versions with poorer components that target a more budget-conscious section of the market.
Whether there is still demand for a smaller premium-priced smartphone remains to be seen. The downward pressure on price has meant decent smartphones now cost as little as £130 with features similar to top-end models costing four times their price.
For Apple, the iPhone SE represents a way to target a more cost-sensitive market without stooping to budget levels. In the past the company has used older models of the iPhone, maintaining the 2012 iPhone 4S for sale until the release of the iPhone 6 in 2014, and previous models before that. But selling older smartphones concurrently with new models has added to the company’s burden to maintain smartphone updates for longer, which it typically does for at least three years after release.
The iPhone SE, with internals similar to an iPhone 6S at a lower price, is easier to cater for with software updates because it reduces the number of hardware variants Apple has to support.
The iPhone SE will be released on 31 March with pre-orders starting 24 March costing from $399 in the US, or £359 in the UK, for 16GB of storage, $499 in the US, or £439 in the UK, with 64GB of storage in the US.
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Breaking: Fire Outbreak Destroys Over 100 Structures In Kuramo, Lagos
No fewer than 100 shanties at Kuramo, Lekki area of Lagos, were on Monday destroyed by wild fire.
It was gathered that that fire started in the wee hours of the day and had killed two residents.
The cause of the wild fire is yet to be ascertained at press time.
In the meantime, rescue operations are ongoing, as men of the Lagos State fire service are combating the flames.
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UN Women's head: 'Historic shift' needed to find concrete ways to end gender inequality
The resolve of world leaders to end gender inequality will be tested at this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, the head of UN Women told delegates during the opening session on Monday.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the annual two-week meeting in New York would be critical in finding concrete ways to implement the ambitious sustainable development goals (SDGs), a blueprint for development to 2030 that member states adopted in September.
She urged leaders to make “an historic shift” in agreeing ways to implement the goals – specifically goal five, which promises to end gender inequality and empower women and girls.
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“This commission is the largest and most critical inter-governmental forum, with diverse women’s voices that can influence the road to 2030 … This session marks the beginning of the countdown to 2030, to the future we want, where no one is left behind, the future where we have substantive gender equality,” she said.
“This is not a moment to reopen what was already agreed to in 2015. CSW is the first test of our resolve and an opportunity to make an historic shift.”
She said efforts to close the gender pay gap and get more women in leadership positions must be accelerated.
Mlambo-Ngcuka paid tribute to Berta Cáceres, the feminist activist from Honduras who was murdered on 3 March. To applause from delegates, she said Cáceres, who won the Goldman environmental prize last year, had paid the highest price in her fight “to assert different values against the power structures that could compromise agenda 2030”.
Ban Ki-moon addresses the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
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Ban Ki-moon addresses the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
This year’s CSW is the first since leaders pledged to end extreme poverty, address inequality and conserve the environment over the next 15 years.
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For the first time, a youth forum of the CSW was held over the weekend, bringing together more than 300 young people from across the globe to discuss ways to achieve gender equality.
Concerted efforts are being made to get more young people engaged in the SDGs. There are about 1.8 billion 10- to 24-year-olds in the world. Mlambo-Ngcuka said the development agenda “is largely about them and for them”.
The CSW youth forum has called for education about gender equality and the rights of women and girls to start early.
Representing the forum, young activist Vanessa Anyoti told delegates: “The SDGs are about our lives now and our collective tomorrows. We stand with you in finding innovative and lasting solutions to achieve gender equality by 2030.”
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, pointed out in his speech to the commission that there are still five countries with no women in parliament and seven countries with no women in the cabinet.
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“I am not going to disclose the names of the countries today but I am urging them: they know who you are. I will be checking every day until the last day of my mandate as secretary general. I will keep pushing until the world has no parliaments and no cabinets without any women,” he said.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Haiti, Micronesia, Qatar, Tonga and Vanuatu have no female MPs.
Ahead of the CSW, campaigners said they want this year’s outcome agreement, signed by member states at the end of two weeks of negotiations, to show strong commitments on how governments plan to implement and finance the goals.
Although the draft outcome document was initially quite light on detail, member states have begun to firm it up with suggested inclusions, and strengthen some of the language to better reflect previous gender equality agreements, such as the Beijing platform for action. In light of Cáceres’s murder, several countries are trying to ensure strong language about protecting people who defend human rights.
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El-rufai’s Religious Bill Can Set Kaduna On Fire – PFN Declares
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) on Monday said Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s religious bill before Kaduna State House of Assembly is capable of setting Kaduna State on fire if it is not withdrawn.
Addressing journalists in Kaduna, Chairman of the PFN, Kaduna State chapter, Reverend Professor Femi Ehinmidu alongside representatives from churches within Kaduna metropolis said, the body will do everything legal to ensure that the rights of Christians to preach are not curtailed.
According to him, there is no basis for restricting and regulating religious activities.
“We expect the Government of Kaduna State instead of delving into sensitive religious matter should place priority on how to put food on the table of every family.
“It is unimaginable to see our erudite Governor exhuming a military era edit which came into being when the constitution was suspended. It smacks of mischief.
“Now with this bill that he has sent to the house, he is opening up new vistas of hostilities between Christians and Muslims when biased implementation is carried out if the bill is passed into law.”
He submitted that the bill is obnoxious and directly offends Christian faith.
While explaining that Bible commands Christians to, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and 1 Thesselonians 5 vs 29 also said “pray without ceasing” this is the life wire of the Christian religion” , Reverend Ehinmidu pointed out that taking away the rights to preach and evangelise is telling the Christians not to practise their religion as commanded by the Lord Jesus.
“There are many laws that legislate on trampling on the rights of other people. Let those laws take full course, the bill should not take Kaduna State backward. We oppose the bill in its entirety and we shall do everything legal to ensure that our rights as Christians are not curtailed.
“We call on well meaning Nigerians and relevant stakeholders to prevail on the Government of Kaduna State to withdraw that vexing bill before Kaduna State House of Assembly.
“The bill has latent explosive heat that can set Kaduna State on fire if not tamed with proper stakeholders engagements or better still withdraw the bill from being processed in the house of assembly and use existing laws to address the re-emerging religious challenges.”
According to him, the Nigeria constitution guarantees freedom of worship and rights to propagate religious beliefs. Adding that Kaduna State government is not wiser than the whole lot of eminent Nigerians, who gave the nation the constitution.
The executive bill on religious activities in Kaduna State seek to contain hate speeches, licenced preachers, contain use of loud speakers among others.
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Empowering women will mean little without decent jobs, UN panel warned
Bold promises to empower women economically will come to nothing if the structural barriers that prevent women from getting decent jobs are not removed, civil society groups have warned.
A high-level panel backed by the World Bank, UN Women, the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is producing an action plan to improve women’s economic opportunities over the next 15 years.
The panel, launched during the World Economic Forum in January, held its first consultative meeting at the UN on Wednesday during the annual Commission on the Status of Women. It includes business leaders, politicians, academics and civil society, and is chaired by Luis Guillermo Solis, the president of Costa Rica, and Simona Scarpaleggia, CEO of Ikea Switzerland.
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Campaigners said they were disappointed not to have heard more from panellists about women’s unpaid work, exploitative contracts that keep women poor, and dangerous working conditions
Chiara Capraro, gender policy adviser at Christian Aid, said empowering women is not just about getting more female CEOs.
“The ILO estimates that, by 2020, 80% of people across the world will be affected by austerity policies. When services are cut, women have to pick up the slack and that affects their ability to make a living and access decent work,” she said.
Many women work in special economic zones, or for companies that don’t pay tax, or a living wage, and are denied access to unions, she added. “It’s really essential to see these dimensions reflected [in the panel],” she said.
Rachel Noble, women’s rights policy adviser at ActionAid, said: “It’s absolutely critical they pay attention to the fundamental structural issues blocking women from participating in the economy.
“There’s not nearly enough recognition of the fact that this is about women’s human rights, not just about creating economic growth.
“The biggest role companies can play is ensuring women have access to decent work, paying a living wage, giving them secure contracts, and ensuring their right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.”
Ann Kargbo, head of Rehabilitation and Development Agency, a Sierra Leonean NGO working on gender equality in Bo county, added that women’s economic empowerment goes hand in hand with gender equality and will only be fully realised when women can take control of what they earn.
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“We need to know who owns the resources, who controls the resources and who makes decisions on the utilisation of resources.”
Allison Julien, from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, told the panel that the right to organise “has a profound impact on women’s ability to move from poverty and negotiate for a living wage and have access to social protection”.
“Unpaid care is the major structural barrier for women’s economic empowerment. Domestic work makes all other work possible. Without someone taking care of your home and children, people wouldn’t be able to take their jobs.”
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, if women in every country were to play an equal role to men in labour markets, up to $28tn could be added to the global annual GDP by 2025.
But women spend more than twice as much time as men doing unpaid care and domestic work, while earning on average 24% less than men for doing the same work. Women in poorer areas are more likely to work in informal unprotected jobs.
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The high-level panel will continue its consultations over the coming months before publishing the first of two reports in September. The report promises to include practical ways to improve women’s lives and “promote women’s leadership in driving economic growth”.
“I assure you, this panel is going to be bold, aim high and keep it focused,” said Solis. “We can’t afford to wait. It’s clear we need to move forward very fast and do everything that needs to be done to give more autonomy to women. We have to inspire.”
Justine Greening, the UK’s international development secretary, who sits on the panel but was not in New York for Wednesday’s meeting, said in a statement that the panel marked “a major step forward in the battle to close the gender gap in economies around the world. We now need to work hard to make sure it delivers real change for the world’s poorest women.”
Isis mortar kills at least 13 police at Egyptian checkpoint
At least 13 Egyptian policemen were killed in the Sinai peninsula when Islamic militants fired a mortar round at a security checkpoint in the city of Arish, security and medical sources said on Saturday.
Islamic State claimed responsibility on several websites for the attack and Egyptian state media later confirmed it.
Ambulances were subjected to heavy gunfire as they attempted to reach the wounded, sources said. Eyewitnesses reported hearing a massive explosion and said the city’s entrances and exits had been closed off by security forces.
Security sources said government forces later killed five of the militants who had carried out the attack.
Egypt is battling an insurgency that gained pace after its military overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule.
The insurgency, mounted by Isis’s Egyptian branch, Sinai Province, has killed hundreds of soldiers and police and started to attack western targets in the country.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who led the overthrow of Morsi, describes Islamic militancy as an existential threat to Egypt, which is an ally of the United States. Isis controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has a presence in Libya, which borders Egypt.
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