BILLION

It will be recalled that the UK government has given a green light on professional sport returning as from the first of June, the exact date for the Premier League is yet to be known. According to the secretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sports Oliver Dowden revealed that the government wants some of the games shown on free TV as well as the league’s broadcasters Sky Sports and BT Sports as reported by Sport Bible. He added that airing some of the fixtures on BBC or ITV can help reach a bigger audience thereby stopping them from going to the stadium on matchdays. “ We are working hard with them to try and get it back, I am aiming for mid-June ,” he told Sky News. “ The number one test is public safety. I’m hoping that we can have something a bit more ambitious with some more free-to-air matches available so people can watch from home because that would be helpful in terms of discouraging people from leaving their homes . PAY ATTENTION:  Become a mem...

University Of Nigeria Nsukka released her 2019 supplementary admission list after  JAMB conducts her 2020 examination for the admission process. This is coming four months after the school released her merit list on the month of November 2019, and also after three months of intensive lectures by the freshmen. The school is yet to conduct her 2019/2020 matriculation ceremony. Click here to download the supplementary list ii

Tired of washing your hands for 20 seconds each time? Fingers starting to prune or feel like sandpaper? Please don't stop. Take heart that while you're scrubbing, you're also killing off a host of other nasty bacteria and potentially lethal viruses that have plagued humans for centuries -- including influenza and a number of different coronaviruses. How did such a simple thing as soap and warm water -- and alcohol-based sanitizers -- obtain such power over these parasites? The answer lies in their "skin" and your scrubbing technique. Under the microscope, coronaviruses appear to be covered with pointy spires, giving them the appearance of having a crown or "corona" -- hence the name. Beneath the crown is the outer layer of the virus, which is made up of lipids, or what you and I would call fat. Now imagine that coronavirus is your butter dish, covered with buttery fat.  "You try to wash your butter dish with water alone, but that ...

The Australian state of New South Wales reported that it identified 149 new novel coronavirus cases from 8 p.m. local time Sunday until 8 p.m. local time Monday, according to a statement from the state's Department of Health. Those new patients include 107 cases related to the Ruby Princess cruise ship, authorities said. Public health officials were forced to track down nearly 2,647 people who disembarked from the ship in Sydney  following revelations that four onboard had tested positive for the virus .  A woman passenger in her 70s, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 onboard the ship, died on Tuesday morning, authorities said.  Total cases:  As of Monday, Australia had reported 1,709 cases of novel coronavirus. New South Wales has reported 818 cases, more patients than any other state or territory in Australia.  Restricting movement:  Several Australian states are implementing new restrictions on interstate travel in order to slow the virus' spre...

Hundreds of millions of people across India have been placed under lockdown until the end of the month as efforts to  halt the spread  of the  novel coronavirus  in the country intensify. Thirty of India's 37 states and union territories have enacted lockdowns, affecting some two thirds of the 1.34 billion people who live in the country. The most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has still not announced a complete state lockdown but has implemented it across more than a dozen districts. The lockdown includes the shutdown of all non-essential services like public transport, malls and markets, among others. Residents living in 548 districts across the country -- including in major cities such as the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata -- now face travel, work and  movement restrictions  until March 31. India has also essentially cut off the country to outsiders -- all 107 of the country's airport, seaport and land por...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is going to hold a phone call with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at 8 p.m. Tokyo time, Abe's office said, as calls for both the IOC and Japanese government to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo grow louder. Abe and his ministers had previously resisted calls to either cancel or delay the Games, which are scheduled to start on July 24. But as other major sports leagues and events worldwide canceled and postponed tournaments and games, pressure has mounted for the IOC to do the same for the quadrennial competition. Abe told lawmakers Monday  that postponing the Games is a possibility, the first time he has publicly taken such a position. Japan and the IOC have faced calls to postpone the Games in recent days from several athletes and countries. The IOC said a final decision on postponement will be made within four weeks, due to the vast complexities of rescheduling a massive global sporting event like the ...

A dozen countries in the Middle East and Central Asia have reached out to the International Monetary Fund requesting financial support due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a  blog post  by the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department director, Jihad Azour. Azour said work is ongoing to “expedite approval” of requests for assistance, especially for countries already struggling with other issues. “This challenge will be especially daunting for the region’s fragile and conflict-torn states -- such as Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen -- where the difficulty of preparing weak health systems for the outbreak could be compounded by reduced imports due to disruptions in global trade, giving rise to shortages of medical supplies and other goods and resulting in substantial price increases,” he said.  Azour did not specify all of the countries that had requested support, but said the IMF's executive board will consider a request from the Kyrgyz Republic for eme...

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said that it caught 149 candidates for various examination malpractices in the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination which ended on Sunday, March 22. JAMB published the names and states of the 149 candidates in its weekly bulletin obtained by our correspondent with Imo, Anambra and Enugu States topping the list with 26, 12 and 12 candidates respectively. The offences included; examination by proxy, attempt to cheat, forceful entrance, tampering with examination documents, smuggling of mobile phones into the examination halls among others. Other states on the list included; Abia, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Ondo, Oyo, and Osun. The board said, “Examination Infraction in the UTME is declining with the 2020 experience. However, out of the 1,945,983 million candidates who sat the examination, prima facie cases of examination misconduct have been made against the following 149 candidates. “The board has su...

      Residents of China's Hubei province -- ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic -- received good news today when government officials announced the lockdown they have been living under for the past few months will be lifted on Wednesday. For those in Wuhan, where the virus was first discovered, those restrictions are set to remain in place until April 8.  The announcement follows news that part of a popular section of China's Great Wall will be reopened to the public.  Mainland China's coronavirus cases have slowed to a trickle. On Monday, the country reported the first case in Hubei province in six days. It was among 78 additional cases reported as of the end of day Monday -- 74 of them imported.   And while nearly 82,000 people have been infected, 3,277 of whom have died, more than 73,000 have recovered. But while restrictions may be easing on the mainland, the country and its semiautonomous territories are tightening their borde...

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the coronavirus “pandemic is accelerating,” in a tweet on Monday. There are more than 381,000 cases of  novel coronavirus  and over 16,500 deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking figures from the World Health Organization and additional sources.  Here's a rundown of countries that reported a spike in cases in the past 24 hours: United States:  More than 100 coronavirus-related deaths reported in a single day for the first time since the outbreak began. There are over 42,600 cases in the US -- 21,689 in New York state -- and at least 540 people have died.  Canada:  A significant increase in cases reported, especially in its largest provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. On Monday, new cases spiked by nearly a third. There are at least 2,000 cases and 23 deaths nationwide. Brazil:  The ministry of health reported 1...

China's Hubei province, ground zero for the worldwide novel coronavirus pandemic, is planning to lift nearly all lockdown restrictions across the province on Wednesday, authorities announced. Similar measures will remain in place in Wuhan, the provincial capital, until April 8, authorities said on microblogging platform Weibo. The mysterious illness that turned out to be Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan in December. Authorities responded by locking down the province and forcing millions to remain indoors.  As of the end of the day Monday, Hubei had reported 67,801 coronavirus cases and 3,160 virus-related fatalities.  However, the rate of new infections has been brought down significantly -- the province has only reported one new infection in the past six days.  Nearly 82,000 people across mainland China have been infected, 3,277 of whom have died. More than 73,000 have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

As grocery store shelves sit bare during the  coronavirus  pandemic, good Samaritans across the US are taking it upon themselves to turn "Little Free Libraries" into "Little Free Pantries."  Little Free Libraries  are public bookcases that allow for book-sharing within neighborhoods and communities. Anyone can take or leave a book. Now, many of these honor-system book cabinets are stocked with things like canned food, pasta and even toilet paper for those in need. Shelly Anderson filled a Little Free Pantry in Woodbury, Minnesota. For her, it was a chance to do something positive. "This is an uncertain time. I think being able to provide something to anyone is worth it," she said. She first heard about the idea from a friend and decided to ask her kids' elementary school about converting their Little Free Library into a free pantry. "After we got approval, we went through our pantry and found all the things that would be essential ...

  The news was not good. Not only did Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire test positive for the coronavirus after a trip to the UK, but that meant the Canadian Prime Minister would have to quarantine immediately, along with his three children. Although huddled together in historic Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Gregoire would need to be isolated from her own family. And there would be no nanny, no grandparent, no cook, no one to help.  Trudeau has effectively taken on single parenthood, while leading Canada’s effort to battle a once-in-a century pandemic. “It’s an interesting challenge to run a G7 country in this situation, he’s doing it with kids running around in the background, they’re playing Lego, keeping busy. But you know it’s no different right now from what lots of other Canadians are doing, working from home right now,” said Cameron Ahmad, the Prime Minister’s communications director. “He’s on the phone all day long, he has to print his own speech...

New Zealand athletes have voiced their support for postponing the 2020 Olympic Games, and are backed by the country’s Olympic Committee, according to a statement today. The New Zealand Olympic Committee said its CEO, Kereyn Smith, surveyed Olympic and Paralympic athletes this morning and thanked them for their input. “Our focus is first and foremost the athletes," said Smith in the statement. “It has been important to us to give them the opportunity to talk to us. We value their resilience and flexibility and we know working through the changes won’t be easy.” “We support their position and will now share their views with the IOC as we advocate internationally on behalf of New Zealand athletes and sport. We reiterate the need for a swift decision.” More calls to postpone:  In recent days, a growing number of countries and athletes have called for the games to be postponed. Canada and Australia said they would not send any teams on Monday. Meanwhile, the US Olympi...

Albania began a strict 16-hour daily curfew today, which had been announced over the weekend by Prime Minister Edi Rama. Only essential staff are allowed to travel for work, and their commute is only allowed between the hours of 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. All citizens must be home by 1 p.m., and all travel must be via motor vehicles during those hours, according to a news release from the State Police. The curfew restrictions apply nationwide, and include the food and pharmaceutical industries.  Food distribution trucks are the only transport excluded, but food production and service establishments can only be open during the limited hours, according to State Police. Albania has 104 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and four deaths, according to the Ministry of Health's website. 

One of the most visited sections of China's Great Wall will be reopened for tourists Tuesday as the number of novel coronavirus cases in the country continues to drop. However, only a portion of the Badaling Great Wall is being reopened, according to a post by local officials on the microblogging platform Weibo. Other sites, like a museum, will remain closed. Visitors must reserve tickets online before visiting; present a QR code that confirms they are healthy; wear a face mask during their visit; and maintain a distance of at least 1 meter (3.3 feet) from others.

      Macao, a town in South China will ban most non-residents from entering the semiautonomous Chinese territory starting tomorrow, the city's leader said at a news conference Tuesday. All foreign nationals will be denied entry into the city, Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng said.  Visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who have not traveled to foreign countries can enter the city, but they will be required to undergo medical observation for 14 days. Macao residents who are returning from overseas will be required to undergo medical observation for 14 days, Ho said. The gambling mecca is one of Asia's most popular tourist destinations. Its economy is heavily reliant on gaming and tourist revenues, which have been severely impacted by coronavirus-related travel restrictions. Twenty-five people in the city have contracted the virus, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, 10 of whom have recovered.

  It’s no longer news that the Covid 19 virus is causing more harm to the general public and the world at large. Passenger were stranded at Peace park Nsukka, due to shortage of buses to their various destinations and this resulted to a hike in price to the available buses. The reason for the high population was due to  the quick notice issued to the occupants  of the University Of Nigeria Nsukka hostel.  Some passengers had no choice than to spent their night at the Peace pace in other to make book first bus tomorrow.

    One of the prominent Universities in Nigeria, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) has taken drastic measures to ensure that the pandemic Covid 19 known as Coronavirus does not spread among her campuses. Authorities were seen on the early hours of today chasing students out of the school hostel and premises due to, order of the federal government that all varsities nation wide should close down on 23th Of March. Some students were stranded and have no were to go to too, others were seen camping in some faculties lecture theatre.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has announced that his son tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). He made his known via his verified Twitter handle on Sunday. “My son has tested positive for coronavirus,” he tweeted. According to the former Vice-President of Nigeria, his son has been moved to Gwagwalada Specialist Teaching Hospital in Abuja for treatment. “The @NCDCGov (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control) has been duly informed, and he has been moved to Gwagwalada Specialist Teaching Hospital in Abuja for treatment and management. I will appreciate it if you have him in your prayers. Stay safe, coronavirus is real,” he added.