Tell a Tale

Scores of members from Turkish armed forces were arrested across the country after a coup attempt blamed by the government on supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. 754 members of Turkish armed forces were arrested for involvement in the coup, the agency said. A Turkish official added that 29 colonels and 5 generals had been removed from their posts. At least 60 people were killed in the turmoil. However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday returned to Istanbul defiantly claiming to have regained control. Soldiers and tanks took to the streets late on Friday and multiple explosions rang out throughout the night in Ankara and Istanbul, the two biggest cities of the strategic NATO country of 80 million people. With officials insisting the takeover bid was falling apart, officials said 60 people have been killed and 754 detained in a night of violence in Turkey’s major cities. Dozens of soldiers backing the cou...

Prof John Idoko Scientists are getting close to ending the scourge of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) with the announcement that male circumcision and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs “significantly reduced new infections by over 90 per cent.” Encouraged by the findings, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is already planning to circumcise 80 per cent of men in the Sub-Saharan Africa to beat the disease. The findings, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) revealed two prevention strategies – male circumcision and antiretroviral drugs – helped reduce new HIV infections in Uganda. Earlier studies had shown that circumcision reduces infection, by removing the foreskin – where there are a high number of HIV-target cells. Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Prof. John Idoko, reacting to the study, said: “ARV drugs are now recommended to be prescribe...

Commercial activities were again shut down in Owerri yesterday, as more people joined the protest against the continued demolition of buildings by the state government.  The protest march, which was started Wednesday, by scores of artisans from the Orji Mechanic Village in Owerri North local government area, attracted more aggrieved people yesterday.  At the Eke Ukwu Owerri Market, scores of angry women were seen spotting black blouses and uniformed wrappers, protesting the planned demolition of the ancestral market.  Some of the women lamented that Governor Rochas Okorocha was stretching his anger against Owerri people too far.  “There is no doubt that the Governor is dragging his hatred against Owerri people too far. It was under his regime that our late royal father, Eze Emmanuel Njemanze, was suspended for no just cause. Government never withdrew that suspension until he died,” an angry woman said.  Continuing, the woman said that Owerri indigenes ...