Nigeria // Current

Facebook friends could be Nigerian princes

Looks like those 'Nigerian prince' scammers have gotten wise to the social networking phenomenon that is Facebook. MSN... more

purplefox
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Orrore in una "clinica" nigeriana

Raccapricciante: in una clinica per maternità ragazze schiave e violentate costrette a portare avanti la gravidanza e... more

Livia
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'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge

Children from Crarn accused of being witches and wizards, protesting outside the Governor's headquarters. Photo: Mags Gavan,... more

Vierotchka
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Democracy Now!

Drilling and Killing: Landmark Trial Against Chevron Begins Over Its Role in the Niger Delta. A landmark trial has begun against... more

pokesmot
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Chevron faces suit over Nigerian violence

Larry Bowoto's left arm is still scarred and numb where a soldier's bullet struck it in 1998 while he was aboard a... more

dirtyemowords
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Nigerian man with 86 wives faces a 'fatwa'

Bida, Nigeria - He's not what most women might describe as a "good catch." Mohammed Bello Masaba, from a small... more

bedeboop
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US blogger in Nigerian custody

Jonathan Elendu, a US-based news blogger, has been taken into custody by Nigeria's secret service. The man behind... more

ClareW
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Innocent' Nigerians on death row

Hundreds of prisoners on Nigeria's death rows did not have a fair trial and may be innocent, rights group Amnesty... more

goldenways
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Father takes son to court for idleness

A father took his 20-year old son to an Islamic court in northern Nigeria for idleness, asking that he be sent to prison for... more

dirtyemowords
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Caro Benzina: ma a chi vanno i nostri soldi? E che cos'è il Mend?

La benzina costa, non è una novità. Ma a chi vanno i nostri soldi? In questo articolo, una panoramica sulla... more

maurop
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Vaccine 'could end Nigeria polio'

Polio could be wiped out in Nigeria - one of the world's last blackspots of the disease - thanks to an improved vaccine,... more

jmromana
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How to say I Luv U in Nigeria

Your mobile phone beeps, you have received a text message. It begins: "I swear, I will make sure I give you HIV..." ... more

TravG73
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Nigeria: Shell to Face Trial in U.S. Over Saro-Wiwa

Oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum, will go on trial in the United States on February 9, 2009 for alleged complicity in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, THISDAY has learned.

The case entitled Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Shell and Wiwa v Anderson concerns the November 10, 1995 hangings of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Movement of the Emancipation of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) known as "Ogoni Nine" and the shooting of a woman protesting the bulldozing of her farm by Shell in preparation for a pipeline project.

After several years of litigation, Judge Kimba Wood ruled that the trial would he held next year.

According to documents made available by EarthRights International, one of the counsel, Shell was engaged in "acts of oppression" against peaceful opposition to the company's environmental damage and human rights abuses in the Ogoni area.

THISDAY gathered that the plaintiff's action was brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and alleges violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO).

The defendants dismissed the complaints on grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction over Royal Dutch/Shell and lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

According to the defendants, ACTA did not apply to a corporation and the claim was precluded by the political questions and act of state doctrines as well as Nigerian law on corporate liability. They also argued that the case should be heard in the Netherlands or England.

But on September 25, 1998, Judge Wood ruled that personal jurisdiction was appropriate in New York but also ruled that England was a more convenient forum and therefore that the defendant's motion to dismiss should be granted for forum non conveniens (Latin for "inconvenient forum" or "inappropriate forum").

Plaintiffs appealed to the US Court of Appeals for Second Circuit, arguing that a forum non conveniens dismissal would vitiate Congressional intent to allow plaintiffs claims to be heard in US courts.

Defendants cross-appealed the ruling personal jurisdiction. And the Court of Appeal on September 15, 2000 reversed the district court's forum non conveniens dismal, thereby concluding that the US was the proper forum.

The court further upheld the district court's ruling that jurisdiction over the defendants was proper.

Oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum, will go on trial in the United States on February 9, 2009 for alleged complicity in human... more

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1 month ago

US financial turmoil ripples felt in Africa

African stock markets are feeling the heat of the world financial crises created in the United States. At the Nairobi Stock Exchange of Kenya (NSE), the share price fell to a new historical low of Sh4.30 on Tuesday.

Strong indications have emerged that the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may have made headway in its efforts to bail out the nation's stock from its lingering slide. By the end of last week, foreign investors had reduced their South African equity holdings by R24bn this year, compared to net purchases of almost R60bn over the same period last year.

All these and recent trends show that finally, the global financial crises has begun hitting African continent. On Monday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga joined world leaders in warning that the financial crisis on Wall Street would inflict significant damage on African economies, including Kenya's.

Speaking on the sidelines of an international development conference in France, Odinga told Reuters that the turmoil in world markets “will impact very negatively on the Kenyan economy in the short and medium term.”

"They say that when America sneezes, Europe catches a cold, Asia develops pneumonia and Africa's tuberculosis gets worse. This is what we are beginning to see,” Odinga added.

World Bank and United Nations officials also spoke about Africa's prospects for continued economic growth. Panic on Wall Street and in other financial centres could cause Western investors to reduce their stakes in African businesses, Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank's top economist for Africa, said in Washington on Monday.

“Now there is a risk that if there is a really difficult financial crisis in the United States and Europe and risk aversion rises, it is possible these capital flows which have fuelled growth in Africa will fall,” Devarajan said.

In the case of Kenya, the NSE 20 share index, a key performance indicator, has over the past 12 months dropped by about 1,000 points, washing away about a quarter in returns. That means an investor who bought shares on all the 20 counters included on the NSE 20 index in October 2007 has by now lost a quarter of his investment.African stock markets are feeling the heat of the world financial crises created in the United States. At the Nairobi Stock... more

khromadjo
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1 month ago

Police raid Nigeria 'baby farm'

The shocking news that Nigerian police have raided a hospital where they believe that newborns were being sold off to traffickers.

rwylie
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1 month ago

Nigerian oil rebels release 19 hostages

LAGOS (AFP) - Militants behind a recent "oil war" in Nigeria's Delta region on Sunday freed 19 local hostages but... more

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1 month ago

"Homosexuals must die"

Furious over what seems a bourgeoning community of homosexuals in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric, Professor Is-haq Akintola, has... more

mcamca
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1 month ago

Nigerian consortium in for Newcaste United

Newcastle United chairman looks like getting his wish of selling up as fast as possible. A Nigerian consortium hoping to buy... more

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1 month ago

Gates gives $168 mln for malaria vaccines research

Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave $168.7 million to develop vaccines for malaria, part of $3 billion in funding announced on Thursday to tackle Africa's biggest killer disease.

Gates said the funding for the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, in conjunction with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, will support "next-generation" vaccines research to find longer-lasting protection against the mosquito-borne disease.

The funding was announced on the sidelines of a special poverty summit organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to assess the Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015, including by tackling malaria.

"I'm very hopeful that the malaria vaccine currently in advanced testing will be proven effective, but that will just be the first step," said Gates, who stepped down from his duties at Microsoft in June to focus on philanthropy.

"Now it's time to develop a new generation of vaccines that are even more effective, and could someday help eradicate malaria altogether."

Experts agree that a vaccine is the best way to fight the disease, but this has proven nearly impossible. The Plasmodium falciparum parasite has a complex life cycle inside mosquitoes and the human body, which helps it evade the immune system.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has reported that its experimental vaccine had protected 65 percent of infants from infection, but it reduced illness by just 35 percent after six months.

An international health consortium, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, comprising U.N. agencies, leading drugmakers and aid experts, said on Thursday the world should spend more than $5 billion a year to prevent deaths from malaria, nearly five times current spending.

The World Bank said on Thursday it will increase spending on fighting malaria in Africa by $1.1 billion, and focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, which account for 30 percent to 40 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zambia had made progress in cutting malaria deaths through the distribution of bed nets and more access to low-cost, effective drugs for treating the disease.

In other funding announced, the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it would give $1.62 billion in grants over the next two years for malaria; Britain pledged $40 million; and Houston-based Marathon Oil pledged $28 million for Equatorial Guinea over five years. Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it would give $2 million for insecticide-treated bed nets to refugees in Africa.Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave $168.7 million to develop vaccines for malaria, part of $3 billion in funding announced on... more