US President Donald Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus, the White House physician has said.
"This evening I received confirmation that the test is negative," Sean Conley said in a statement on Saturday.
Mr Trump underwent a test days after hosting a meeting at his Florida resort with a Brazilian delegation, some of whom have tested positive.
Fabio Wajngarten, an aide to the Brazilian president, was among those later confirmed to have the disease.
"One week after having dinner with the Brazilian delegation in Mar-a-Lago, the president remains symptom-free," Mr Conley said.
Mr Trump, aged 73, did not self-isolate after that meeting, saying he had no symptoms.
But after a barrage of further questions during a new conference at the White House, he said he would get tested.
He was checked on Friday, the White House physician said.
Beautiful and talented actress, Monalisa Chinda has been dominating the movie scene ever since her debut in Pregnant Virgin. Having experienced a bad marriage to a label owner, she bounced back and now enjoying her second marriage to Victor Tonye Coker.
In this interview, the mother of one shares her marital regrets. Read the excerpt..... Looking back, do you have a regret or mistake you made?
Maybe five years ago, I would say yes but now, no. Everything that has happened to me in the past has been a blessing that has built me to be a better person. It’s an eye-opener, which has made me wiser. I didn’t kill anybody neither did I steal, it’s just flesh.
Sometimes you think you are taking the right decision for yourself, not knowing it is a grievous mistake. Don’t stew in your juice, if you have made a mistake in life, move on, don’t try to carry out revenge or get angry over what you couldn’t control. My advice is, let your hurt go so that you can be a better person. Let love lead and find you again. Do you see your past marriage as a mistake or regret ever taking such decision?
No, I don’t see it as a mistake. I was just young and naive. I met the wrong person at the right time. The person was wrong for me, so what I did was to dust the dirt off my body and move on. What’s your advice for some of your colleagues suffering from heartbreak, failed marriages?
Every individual has his or her way of dealing with emotions. It is very difficult I must confess, but when you keep speaking positivity into your life, that helped me a lot. I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself that I am better than before. I had a child who was 16 months old at that time. I told myself, I must move forward. I must look after my child.
Fill yourself with positivity. Surround yourself with people that are supportive. I had a fantastic support system, my family and very few of my colleagues. They knew how I started from day one with the person in question. So, find yourself among people who would take you to light. I prayed a lot, put my situations in the hands of God and He helped me. That’s why I said it’s not a mistake; it only shaped me and made me a better person. Then, I had wanted to marry because every other person was getting married.
A Canadian woman and her Italian partner kidnapped in Burkina Faso in December 2018 have been released to the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in neighbouring Mali and they appear to be in good health, a mission spokesman has said.
Edith Blais and Italian Luca Tacchetto went missing while travelling through Burkina Faso, where armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group are active and have kidnapped Westerners in the past.
A security official from the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, told AFP news agency on Saturday that peacekeepers found the pair near the northern town of Kidal.
"Both are well. They are under our protection. They will be transferred to Bamako on Saturday and then flown to their respective countries," the security official said.
It is not known who was responsible for Blais and Tacchetto's kidnapping or if any ransom was paid.
UN mission spokesman Olivier Salgado told Reuters news agency that the two were received by peacekeepers on Friday evening and would be handed over to Malian authorities later on Saturday.
He shared a photo of Blais and Tacchetto wearing UN human rights T-shirts and sweatpants. Both are grinning in the photo and appear to be healthy.
No information was immediately available about the circumstances in which the two were found.
Blais, from Quebec, and her partner Tacchetto, from Venice, disappeared in mid-December 2018 while travelling through the west African country.
The couple, who are in their 30s, were driving by car to Ouagadougou from Bobo-Dioulasso, more than 360km (224 miles) west of the capital, when all trace of them was lost, according to Blais's family.
They had been planning to go to Togo to work on a humanitarian project.
Spain will be in a state of emergency for the next 15 days to better combat the coronavirus, a dramatic increase to the policy response that will allow authorities to confine people and ration goods.
The state of emergency, which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Friday and will formally be decided by a cabinet meeting, will give the government power to take wide-ranging measures, including temporarily occupying factories or any other premises except private homes.
Spain has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe after Italy.
The current Spanish tally stands at 4,209, up by about 1,000 cases from Thursday and seven times as much as on Sunday. About 120 people have died.
"The government of Spain will protect all its citizens and will guarantee the right life conditions to slow the pandemic with as little inconvenience as possible," Sanchez said.
"Unfortunately, we cannot rule out that over the next week we could reach more than 10,000 infections."
He did not spell out what specific measures the government will take.
Schools have already shut down across the country, with many cinemas, theatres or playgrounds also closing and trials suspended in several regions as normal life came to a halt in the euro zone's fourth-largest economy.
Sanchez said he was confident the country would defeat the virus, urging all citizens to do their part.
"Heroism is also washing your hands and staying home," he said, referring to health advice to slow the propagation of the coronavirus.
Catalonia, Spain's second-richest region, ordered on Friday the closure of shopping centres with the exception of those selling food or essential goods, as well as gyms and nightclubs, a senior official said.
The Madrid region - Spain's wealthiest - has also decided to close restaurants, bars and shops from Saturday, media including Efe news agency said, with only supermarkets and pharmacies allowed to remain open.
Spain joins Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Bulgaria in declaring a state of emergency over coronavirus.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to stem the infection as the death toll in his country rose to 41.
A fresh spate of rockets targeted an Iraqi base north of Baghdad on Saturday where foreign troops are deployed, Iraqi and US security sources told AFP, in a rare daytime attack.
It was the 23rd such attack since late October on installations across Iraq where US troops and diplomats are based, with the latest rounds growing deadlier.
None of the attacks have ever been claimed but the US has blamed hardline elements of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of armed groups incorporated into the Iraqi state.
At least 33 rockets hit Iraqi air defence units at the Taji air base on Saturday, the country's military said, in one of the largest such volleys yet.
"The initial toll is two wounded Iraqi Air Defence personnel who are in very critical condition," said Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command.
The US-led coalition said three of its members were also wounded in the attack.
Iraq's military said it had found another 24 missiles at a nearby launching site and had detained the owner of the plot of land as well as security forces from an adjacent checkpoint for questioning.
The US-led coalition's surveillance capabilities have been impaired by cloudy weather in recent days, which a US official said may have contributed to the attackers' readiness to launch the rockets during the day instead of under the cover of night.
Taji is overcrowded with members of the US-led coalition helping Iraq fight jihadist remnants, after units were moved to the air base from other installations.
It came three days after a similar attack on the base killed two American military personnel and a British soldier - the deadliest such incident at an Iraqi base in years.
The US responded Friday with air strikes on arms depots it said were used by Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned faction within the Hashed.
At least five members of Iraq's security forces and one civilian were killed, none of them members of the Hashed, according to Iraq's military.
"Since then we've heard widespread condemnation by many sides here in Iraq," Al Jazeera's Simona Foltyn, reporting from Baghdad, said. "We've also heard some of these Iranian-backed groups once again promising to retaliate against US positions herein Iraq."
Iraq has long feared it would get caught in the spiralling tensions between Iran and the US, its two main allies.
They dramatically spiked in late 2019 when a US contractor was killed in a rocket attack on a separate base in northern Iraq, leading to retaliatory American strikes on Kataeb Hezbollah.
Days later, a US drone strike killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Iran launched ballistic missiles at US troops in Iraq while the Iraqi parliament voted to expel all foreign soldiers from its soil, a decision that has yet to be implemented.
Some 5,200 American troops are based in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition helping local troops root out the remnants of the Islamic State group.
Top US military and civilian officials had long expressed frustration that Iraq's government was not doing enough to prevent rocket attacks targeting US troops and diplomats.
Suspected cult members were reported to have killed three people and dumped their corpse close to the main gate of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, in the early hours of Friday.
It was gathered that the assailants after hacking the three victims to death set their corpses ablaze.
A source explained that the killing may not be unconnected with the Thursday’s cult killing of a final year student of Political Science at the Benue State University.
The source said those who struck were on a reprisal to avenge the death of their member.
The varsity’s Public Relations Officer, Dr Joseph Fanafa, who confirmed the incident, noted that those killed were not students of the institution, noting that no student was missing.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Catherine Anene, said suspected armed robbers were lynched in the area and that two locally-made pistols were recovered at the scene.
The 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination started nationwide on a poor note on Saturday, particularly in some centres in Lagos and Abuja due to power and network failures, investigations by Punch revealed.
Some candidates in a few Computer-Based Test centres in Lagos State, scheduled for 7am, were seen crying as they could not take the exam until 1pm.
They became more tearful, after they went in and reportedly wrote two or three papers, during which some of the computers went off.
The Virtual Private Network, which transmits the questions from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, failed in a handful of those centres, leading to anxiety among candidates and parents.
At the Darman Model College, Satellite Town area of Lagos, candidates said about 31 of them affected by the network failure were asked to write down their names and that the board would get back to them.
The candidates, some having written only two papers, expressed fears that they might suffer for what was not their making.
A candidate, Abdulaziz Shuaibu, said, “I was supposed to write my paper by 7am, but I started after 1pm. And when we started, the system shut down halfway. About 31 of us were affected. Kindly help us to intervene in this matter.”
A parent, Mr Akinboyegbe Marcus, said he left Ikotun area of Lagos as early as 6am but that his son, scheduled to take the exam by 9am, had not taken it as of 2pm when he spoke with punch correspondent.
He said, “My son was supposed to sit the exam by 9am, but as I speak with you, he hadn’t started. Those scheduled for 7am had not written. There is anxiety as I speak with you. About 215 of them had not written as of 2pm that I am talking to you.
“Parents are very worried because nobody is talking to us. Some of the candidates cry out of the CBT hall, saying they were not able to take all the papers before the computers went off. Some did two; some three and some took one.
“I don’t know how JAMB approved this centre. Inside the rain, we came here for the exam. It is very bad.”
Former Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has faulted the Kano State government over the issuance of his dethronement letter.
Sanusi in a video circulating online said he is moving on and doesn’t want to go back to the throne following his banishment.
According to the deposed Emir, his removal was so badly done that he could have challenged it in court if he wanted the throne back.
“I have done what I could in six years, I’m moving on. I don’t want to go back. The truth is, if I had wanted to go back, the dethronement letter was so badly written, it was not done professionally. The easiest thing is just to go to court.
“It’s a simple, fair hearing, ‘did you query him? Did you ask him to defend himself? Did you even call him to ask him any question?’ That’s all but I think we should go on to a new phase in life,” he said.
Denmark on Saturday recorded its first coronavirus death as it closed its borders to foreigners in order to slow the spread of the disease.
The fatality “was a person aged 81 years who was hospitalized for other serious illnesses,” said officials at the hospital where the patient was treated.
The death is the fifth COVID-19 fatality in the Nordic countries. Two people have already died in Sweden and two in Norway.
Denmark also became the latest country to take dramatic steps to stop the spread of the COVID-19 disease, closing its borders to all non-resident foreigners for a month.
“All tourists and foreigners who cannot prove that they have a valid reason to come to Denmark will not be allowed to enter,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Friday when the ban was announced.
Police said that around 20 people were refused entry after the measure came into effect at noon Saturday (1100 GMT).
At Copenhagen airport, passengers said that strict controls were in place for those entering the country.
Only Danes and other permanent residents were let through, as well as others with a “compelling reason” to come into the country.
Trade imports and exports are not affected.
The government on Wednesday unveiled a string of measures to limit the impact of the pandemic, which has now seen more than 150,000 worldwide infected with COVID-19 and caused over 5,000 deaths.
Schools, universities and libraries have been closed in Denmark and civil servants have been asked to stay at home.
Former BBA star, Beverly Osu has said she is not getting married anytime soon and she just wants to be great.
Speaking with Punch the dark-skinned actress cum video vixen said; “I am not thinking about marriage at the moment. I just want to be great.”
She also recounted the day she got physical with a fan in Ghana. Hear her;
“There was a day I got very angry in a club in Ghana. A fan had walked up to me and asked for a stick of cigarette because back then, I used to smoke. I told the person I couldn’t spare one because that was the last stick I had. She then said ‘That’s why nobody likes you’. It was bad because that statement got to me. She messed with me at the wrong time because I dragged her by the hair,”
The Academic staff Union of Universities, Kano zone, has called on the Federal Government to declare a five-year state of emergency in the education sector by allocating 26 percent of the Federal and state governments budget to education.
The ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Prof Mahmoud Lawan made the call in a press conference in Kano.
He said the zone firmly believe that the measures would go a long way in tackling some of the challenges bedeviling the education sector in the country.
Lawan urged the Federal Government to accept the ASUU ongoing innovation of a more robust system of human resource management and compensation, called the University Transparency and
Accountability Solution (UTAS).
The London marathon was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a statement Friday.
The race was due to take place April 26 and will now be held Oct. 4. The event was expected to draw 43,000 participants.
“The world is in an unprecedented situation grappling with a global pandemic of Covid-19 and public health is everyone’s priority,” said race director Hugh Brasher. “We know how disappointing this news will be for so many – the runners who have trained for many months, the thousands of charities for which they are raising funds and the millions who watch the race every year.”
Brasher promised to post "regular updates" on the race website and social media channels.
After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the virus has spread to at least 123 countries and territories.
The global death toll nears 5,000, with more than 132,500 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization, which declared the outbreak a pandemic.
Sudan's Health Ministry on Friday reported the first coronavirus case and and his death.
The ministry identified the case as a "50-year-old man who lived in the capital Khartoum, and died on Thursday.”
He had visited the United Arab Emirates, which confirmed 74 cases on Tuesday, in the first week of March, the ministry noted.
On Thursday, Sudan started closing its border with Egypt and barred entry of citizens from eight countries amid measures to stem the spread of the virus.
After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the virus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 123 countries and territories.
The global death toll is now nearly 5,000, with more than 132,500 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization, which declared the outbreak a pandemic.
A 33-year-old housewife, Salami Ruth, was beaten to coma by her husband, Salami Olajide (a.k.a Stubborn) at their home on Ijede Road, Ikorodu on Saturday, 7 March, 2020.
The fight followed Ruth’s pronouncement of her resolve to quit the distressed marriage. This however did not go down well with Olajide who allegedly rained blows and even attempted to force sniper, an insecticide down her throat.
P.M. Express learnt that the duo got married about six years ago with three children . The woman who is nursing a six-month-old baby was taken to Ajayi Hospital within the community where she is receiving treatment.
The landlord, Alhaji Lawal Tanimola, who reported the case to the police, told our correspondent on Monday that he was observing his prayer when he heard Ruth’s continuous screaming and also calling his name. He had to discontinue his prayers, called other tenants with whom they forced the door open.
According to him, Olajide would have succeeded in his evil plans but for their prompt intervention. There has never been a week in their nearly-two-years’ stay in his house without turmoil. The couple had a fight when the wife was heavily pregnant and everyone thought the woman was dead as she was grasping for breathe.
‘’We tried to intervene, but the husband stopped us, warning us to back off as we are not party to their marriage. Just like ever before, he was arrested and we all heaved a sigh of relief. But we were stunned to see the man released the next day on the order from above as it was a pure family affair.’’
Another neighbour who spoke to P.M. EXPRESS on the condition of anonymity disclosed that the decision of the wife to decide to call it quit with her aggressor-husband is the best thing that would happen to her; lest she would be found dead sooner than later.
She disclosed that nothing would come out of it if she was killed by “Stubborn” (her husband).
Algeria and Morocco have suspended flights between the two countries to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
A statement from the Algerian president’s office said an agreement had been reached with the Moroccan government to suspend flights between the two countries to help fight Covid-19.
On Thursday, Algeria announced a second death from coronavirus in the country and a total of 26 confirmed cases.
Morocco's health authorities announced on Friday that it had a new case, the 7th in total.
The latest case is a 39-year-old man from Spain who had symptoms of Covid-19 and was being treated in the city of Casablanca.
A 22-year-old man, Sunday Ogaji, who allegedly r.a.p.e.d a she-goat, on Friday appeared in an Ado-Ekiti Magistrates’ Court.
The police charged Mr Ogaji, whose address was not given, with “unnatural offence.”
The prosecution counsel, Olubu Apata, a police sergeant, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on March 4 at about 2. 30 pm at Basiri area in Ado-Ekiti.
He alleged that the defendant r.a.p.e.d the she–goat and she died on the spot.
Mr Apata said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 214(2) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
The prosecutor asked the court for an adjournment to enable him to present his witnesses.
The defendant pleaded not guilty.
His counsel, Timi Omotosho, prayed the court to admit his client in the most liberal terms.
The Magistrate, Kehinde Awosika, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N50,000 with one surety in like sum.
She adjourned the case until March 31 for hearing.
A woman was left red-faced when a giant s.e.x toy gifted by her friends as a joke came back to haunt her.
Jem Calvert was cleaning her bathroom one night and came across the s.e.x toy she had forgotten about – so decided to stick it on the wall.
After completing her chores, Jem, who lives in Belfast, went to bed and then headed off to work the next morning without giving it a second thought.
But it wasn't until the civil servant had a visit from a handyman who couldn't help but spot the giant phallus hanging on her wall when he had to use her loo that she remembered her mistake, reports the Daily Star.
Posting on Facebook , Jem wrote: “So I have this hilarious dildo in my house because who doesn’t have one that one of your friends have bought for hilarious jokes."
She continued: "I was cleaning my bathroom last night and bleaching everything and this dildo has been in it for months so I took it out and stuck it on the wall while cleaning because why not.
“[So] I went to bed and then went to work. When I came home home there was a man at my door saying about checking my boiler."
She continued: “I let him in and he asked to use the toilet and I was like ‘yeah there’s loads of bags and rubbish in there so just move it out of the way’.
“I heard the door shut and then I realised about this stupid dildo stuck on the wall and I actually wanted to scream because there was no TV or anything on in my house, pure silence, just me and the dildo and my boiler man.
“This man obviously had to walk past this dildo with it brushing his leg to pee. Please I am so embarrassed and want to die 8 thousand deaths I thought sh*t like this only happened in f***ing movies.”
Jem continued to tell her Facebook friends that when he came out of the toilet, there was a complete silence between them.
Since she shared the hilarious story online, it secured more than 2,100 shares and 5,500 likes from amused pals.
One said: “I am crying.”
Another added: “Best thing I have ever read hahaha.”
It turns out Jem’s boiler man had the same idea, as one Facebook user shared a photo of him posing with the dildo.
He said: “The other day I was at a clients house fixing a boiler when I saw this absolute weapon on the wall.
“When I went out to talk to her she didn’t seem to give a flying f**k – just got tagged in this, turns out she actually did.”
Tunisia’s ministry of health has ordered all incoming travellers, regardless of where they have travelled from, to immediately self-isolate upon arrival to the country.
This latest preventative measure against the spread of Covid-19 is a step up from earlier in the week when this was only a requirement for those coming back from the worst-affected areas.
It is a move that puts a lot of faith in people complying, because in reality the authorities cannot monitor people's behaviour on this scale.
Breaking quarantine rules is a criminal offence here.
It appears the authorities are trying to strike a balance between prevention and containment, and avoiding more stringent measures like further suspension of flights to avoid the severe economic impact that comes with even tighter controls.
The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, has warned the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, against treating the traditional institution in Yorubaland with levity.
Alaafin said unlike in some tribes, where there was nothing attached to their traditional institutions, the Yoruba traditional institution was “ancestral and spiritual.”
The monarch stated this in a letter to the state governor dated March 12, 2020, following a query issued by Fayemi to some prominent traditional rulers in the state over alleged insubordination.
Fayemi, in the query issued individually to the affected traditional rulers by the Bureau on Chieftaincy Affairs dated March 11, gave the monarchs 72 hours within which to reply.
The query, which was entitled, “Re: Absence from State Functions and Council of Traditional Rulers’ Monthly Meetings,” was signed by A.O. Adeoye on behalf of the Permanent Secretary of the bureau.
However, in a letter reacting to the query, the Alaafin said he wrote on behalf of other prominent traditional rulers in Yorubaland, including the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona; and the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Gbadebo Adedotun.
The letter read in part, “Since the case is still in court, we will not want to comment further on it as law-abiding citizens. I, however, would have expected that Your Excellency waits till the end of the court process before acting on the matter.
“It is in this note that I, along with my fellow traditional rulers across Yorubaland feel very sad that Your Excellency issued a query to the 16 Ekiti crowned respected traditional rulers of high esteem in Yorubaland for not bowing their heads to their subordinate by not attending the council meeting under their subordinate. That exercise and without mincing words is to say the least subjudice.
“To some races, nothing outside the mundane is attached to their traditional institution. Whereas, that of Yoruba is beyond the mundane as it is also ancestral and spiritual. The Yoruba oba is the representative of the ancestors, the real owner of the land or ground.
“It is on this basis that we will advise against any attempt to treat traditional institution in Yorubaland with levity and to avoid any attempt of importing any subculture of traditional degradation into Yorubaland.
“It is ironic that while the predecessors in office and ancestors of these 16 crowned obas and their subjects displayed uncommon patriotism, courage and commitment to confront the intimidating military prowess of Ibadan Army for 16 years (1870-1886), Your Excellency as one of the beneficiaries of the legacy bequeathed by these Kings of Yoruba history is now embarking on an exercise that will rubbish the contributions of your ancestors.”
When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to Fayemi, Mr Yinka Oyebode, said he was not sure if the governor had received the letter.
