Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (front row
C) and members of his government pose for a
group picture after the first meeting of the new
Cabinet in the parliament building in Athens,
Jan. 28, 2015.
New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says
he wants to reach a "fair, viable and mutually
beneficial solution" with its international
lenders as he begins to reverse the austerity
measures he says have led to a humanitarian
crisis in his country.
Tsipras said Wednesday in Athens during his
first meeting with his new Cabinet that he is
eager to avoid any destructive confrontations
with its creditors, but said Greece would no
longer blindly submit to the demands of the
European Union.
The new government is seeking to eliminate
some of Greece's massive debt and ease
austerity measures imposed on it in exchange
for more than $300 billion in loans, including
reversing sharp wage and pension cuts. It is
also canceling plans to privatize many of its
assets, including the sale of its main port of
Piraeus to Chinese shipping giant Cosco.
The recent moves sent Greece's financial
markets downward for a third straight day
Wednesday.
Tsipras officially took office Monday, a day after
leading his anti-austerity Syriza party to
sweeping victories in parliamentary elections,
and quickly joining with a smaller right-wing
anti-bailout party to form a government.
Greece's trio of international lenders - the
European Union, International Monetary Fund
and European Central Bank - has shown no
inclination it will renegotiate terms of the
bailouts. But the creditors said they will discuss
Greece's financial affairs with the new
government.
The leader of the eurozone's finance ministers,
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem,
said he would visit Athens on Friday to meet
with Prime Minister Tsipras.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Viola
Onwuliri, has said that President Goodluck
Jonathan will win in Imo State in the February
presidential election.
This was contained in a statement by the
minister’s assistant, Peter Osamgbi, on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the minister
addressed a group of professionals in Owerri,
the Imo State capital.
While fielding questions from the professionals,
Onwuliri said President Jonathan had fulfilled
his electoral promises to Nigerians through “his
lofty transformation programmes which Imo
State has immensely benefited from.”
Onwuliri,who is also the deputy coordinator of
the PDP presidential campaign in the state, said
that “aside reclaiming the Government House
from the APC government under Rochas
Okorocha on February 28, the Imo PDP shall
first and foremost deliver hundred percent
votes for President Goodluck Jonathan on
February 14 to further prove that Imo remains
a PDP stronghold.”
Source:punch
The University of Cambridge Local Examinations
Syndicate, now known as Cambridge
Assessment, on Wednesday confirmed that
African language papers, including Hausa, were
offered for the West African School Certificate
Examination in the Northern Region in 1961.
The UK examination body, in a statement on its
website, also said that the number of
candidates who sat for the WASSC Hausa
examination in 1961 was 152.
Cambridge was responding to allegations that
the results presented by the All Progressives
Congress Presidential Candidate, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) were fake as being
alleged in some quarters.
There had been reports that Hausa was not
part of the WASSCE of 1961 as claimed in the
results presented by Buhari.
The examination body said it will not declare
the results of the All Progressives Congress
presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), on the grounds that the Data
Protection Act of 1998 prevents the body from
declaring anybody’s result to the public.
“We only confirm or verify results at the direct
request of, or with the permission of a
candidate. This is in accordance with the
provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and
section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act
2000,” the statement said.
According to Cambridge, even if the body has
Buhari’s result or that of any other person’s, it
is a personal document kept in trust.
The statement read, “Examination results were
classed in grades by 1 to 9. 1,2,3,4,5 & 6
indicate a Pass with Credit; 7 & 8 indicate a
Pass; 9 indicates a Failure.
“To pass the School Certificate, candidates had
to pass examinations in a variety of groups. It
was compulsory to pass English Language, but
not Maths, in order to gain the Certificate.
“The number of candidates who sat for the
WASC Hausa examination in 1961 was 152. Our
records show that Hausa was set in the
Northern Region in 1961.”
Buhari had, at a news conference at the Kano
State Government House, dismissed the
controversy over his school certificate as a
mischief orchestrated by the Peoples
Democratic Party.
The Federal Government on Wednesday said
the H5N1 influenza virus, also known as bird
flu, is now present in 11 states in Nigeria.
It confirmed the presence of the virus in four
other states apart from the seven states earlier
reported on January 22, 2015.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, outlined
the additional states to include Oyo, Jigawa,
Gombe and Imo.
He said the total number of birds exposed had
risen to 232,385 with 51,444 mortalities
recorded.
Details soon.
Lamudi, the real-estate classifieds platform,
has launched in three more countries in
Africa; Gabon, Angola and the Republic of
Congo. This brings up the total number of
countries on Lamudi’s international network
to 52 spread across Asia, South America,
Africa and the Middle East.
Lamudi says the property sectors in the
countries are beginning to make the online
switch, creating demand for property listing
services like one offered by Lamudi.
Co-founder and Managing Director, Kian
Moini is upbeat about the firm’s progress.
“Since we launched in late 2013, Lamudi
has grown at breathtaking speed. The
website is now available in more than 30
countries in the emerging markets, offering
house-hunters from Mozambique to Mexico
access to over 800,000 global property
listings,” he says.
Lamudi is part of the Africa Internet
Holding – supported by Rocket Internet,
MTN and Millicom – same group behind
Jumia, Jovago, Easy Taxi and 2 other
startups.
A pple grossed $74.6bn in revenue,
and $18bn in profit in the first
quarter of 2015, the highest ever in
corporate history, smashing a record
previously held by Russia’s Gazprom
with $16.2bn.
According to a statement on Apple’s
website, the results were fueled by all-time
record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales
as well as record performance of the App
Store. Apple sold 74.5 million units of
iPhone in the last quarter of 2014.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO who himself earned
40% more in the past year says, “Our
revenue grew 30 percent over last year to
$74.6 billion, and the execution by our
teams to achieve these results was simply
phenomenal.”
Apparently, it’s been a good year at Apple
despite 22% drop in iPad sales. Apple will
ship its new Apple Watch wearable device
in April of this year. This may nudge up its
revenue even further in the new quarter
even as concerns are rife that it’s high-end
price may not be able to woo more than the
Apple faithful.
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