Welcome to Olamama's blog!!!: April 2020

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Coronavirus ‘currently eliminated’ in New Zealand

New Zealand says it has stopped community transmission of Covid-19, effectively eliminating the virus. With new cases in single figures for several days – one on Sunday – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the virus was “currently” eliminated.
But officials have warned against complacency, saying it does not mean a total end to new coronavirus cases.
The news comes hours before New Zealand moves out of its toughest level of social restrictions.
From Tuesday, some non-essential business, healthcare and education activity will be able to resume.
Most people will still be required to remain at home at all times and avoid all social interactions.
“We are opening up the economy, but we’re not opening up people’s social lives,” Ms Ardern said at the daily government briefing.
New Zealand has reported fewer than 1,500 confirmed or probable cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths.

Notre-Dame repairs restart amid lockdown

Repair work has restarted at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris after halting during France's coronavirus lockdown. A fire tore through the iconic medieval building last April, destroying its roof and spire but leaving its structure intact. President Emmanuel Macron later vowed to restore the building within five years.
The global coronavirus pandemic forced officials to delay the planned start of reconstruction on 23 March.
But on Monday, workers returned to the construction site to make it compliant with new social distancing rules.

The city of Miami in the US, has reportedly gone six weeks without a murder, the very first time that has happened since 1957. According to the Miami Herald, Miami, once dubbed as America's 'murder capital,' did not report a homicide from February 17 to April 12 and the Miami police say there has been a 33 percent decrease in homicides since March 17, when Miami county Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a stay-at-home order to reduce Coronavirus spread.
But Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina has warned that these numbers are hypothetical and not an accurate representation of crime in Miami.
According to Colina, there are unreported domestic violence and child abuse cases going on now that the city is in quarantine.

Japanese mayor says only men should be allowed to go grocery shopping during Coronavirus crisis because women take too long

Ichiro Matsui, the Mayor of Osaka has sparked a backlash for saying only men should be allowed to go grocery shopping during the Coronavirus crisis because women take too long. Mayor Ichiro was speaking on the importance of social distancing in other to halt the spread of Coronavirus when he made the statement.
'When a woman goes... it will take time,' Matsui said when asked by a male reporter about possibly reducing shoppers' entry to supermarkets to lower the risk of coronavirus infections.

Two Chinese men have been arrested by the police in Zamfara State for their alleged involvement in illegal mining of Gold. The suspects identified as Wang and Chu were apprehended on Sunday by a team led by Commission of Police (CP) Usman Nagogo at Nasarawa Burkullu village in Kwali, Bukkuyum Local Government Area (LGA).
It was gathered that their arrests followed a tip-off received by the police on April 19 that some persons including foreigners were engaged in illegal mining despite federal government’s ban on all mining activities.

The South Korea Government has denied that North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, is dead, saying that the dictator of the hermit nation is 'alive and well'
There have been media reports in Chinese, Korean and American outlets that Kim was in a very poor state physically after undergoing heart surgery last week.
Reports of Kim's poor health emanated after he missed the celebration of his grandfather's birthday on April 15, a very important celebration that he never misses. He had been seen four days before that at a politburo meeting, according to North Korean state media, KCNA.

RB, the manufacturer of Lysol and Dettol disinfectants, has issued a statement warning against any internal use of its cleaning products after President Donald Trump suggested that people could get an "injection" of "the disinfectant that knocks (coronavirus) out in a minute."
Reckitt Benckiser, the United Kingdom-based owner of Lysol, posted the statement to its website shortly after Trump made the dangerous suggestion about injecting disinfectants into COVID-19 patients (read here).

Sen. Tom Cotton has suggested that Chinese students should be banned from studying technology and science in the US and said he has “little doubt” that Beijing is trying to steal a coronavirus vaccine from America.
“In the middle of a pandemic, what’s the most valuable intellectual property in the world? It’s the research that our great laboratories and life science companies are doing on prophylactic drugs, therapeutic drugs, and ultimately a vaccine,” Cotton of Arkansas said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

There may not be any red-billed queleas in your neighborhood, but that's not because there aren't an abundance of them. These birds, which live in sub-Saharan Africa, are considered "agricultural pests" because their massive flocks can obliterate entire crops. Although their numbers fluctuate, there are around 1 to 10 billion queleas, which leads scientists to believe that there are more of them than any other bird on Earth, according to Audobon.

A soldier who served in the same regiment as ¬Princes William and Harry has died of coronavirus. Ryan Cartwright, 36, who saw active service in a peacekeeping role in Bosnia, was working as a lorry driver when he fell ill with the virus. Mr Cartwright is not believed to had any underlying health conditions and leaves behind a daughter with partner Amy Potts.
He is thought to have been planning on rejoining the army, having spent four years in the Blues and Royals cavalry regiment.

Loads of people are using lockdown as an excuse to get creative and give their homes a DIY makeover – but these feature walls have to be one of the most creative transformations we have seen. Emma Cox, a mum of two and emergency dispatcher from Crowland, Lincolnshire, decided to transform the kitchen walls with the help of her husband Stuart. The 37-year-old created a truly unique wall by covering the surface in thousands of pennies, creating a gleaming, copper finish that is both quirky and really fun.

Sudanese Model Nyakim has entered the Guinness Book of Records for having the darkest skin tone on earth. Nyakim, a model in Sudan was recently awarded the crown.
Already dubbed the Queen of the Dark in her country, Nyakim in the past had self-esteem issues when people said unpleasant things about her skin.
Many also advised her to lighten up her skin a little bit. Today, Nyakim is proud of herself and carrying her beauty well.

Five former Osasuna directors and two ex-Real Betis players jailed for match-fixing

Five former directors of La Liga club Osasuna and two ex-Real Betis footballers have been handed prison sentences after being found guilty on a series of corruption charges including match-fixing in Spanish top-flight. Former Betis players, Antonio Amaya and Xavi Torres were handed prison sentences of one year each for sporting corruption. The fling also said this was the first time any convictions had been made in Spain for sporting corruption.

US President, Donald Trump, has unfollowed TV host and Daily Mail Columnist, Piers Morgan, after the Good Morning Britain programme host wrote a Daily Mail article telling Trump to 'shut the f**k up' while slamming his approach to the Coronavirus pandemic as 'batsh*t crazy'.
Piers' critical article against Trump came after the president in a Thursday press conference suggested tackling coronavirus with the use of 'powerful' UV light or even injecting patients with disinfectant, to which the US leader dismissed as a sarcastic statement on Friday after receiving lots of criticism from the medical community.

When Fatema Akther arrived for work at the Alif Casual Wear garment factory in Dhaka in late March, she had no idea it would be her last day.
"My line chief came and told me that I didn't have to work anymore," said Akther, 25, who had been employed there for five years. She said the company, which could not be reached for comment, decided to close the factory, leaving her without a source of income past March.
The coronavirus pandemic has led factories to furlough or lay off more than half of the country's nearly 4.1 million garment workers, according to estimates from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). Like Akther, most of them are women, and the roughly $110 they earn every month is often their families' only source of money.

A six-year-old girl was allegedly r.a.p.e.d and strangled to death by her own grandparents during the Covid-19 lockdown. The youngster's parents tragically thought the little girl would be safer at her grandparents home in Chihuahua, Northern Mexico, as they no longer worked, so wouldn't be mixing with others during the period of isolation.
She had lived with the couple identified as Miguel Angel Z. and Guadalupe M.P for 10 days before she died.

Greek giants, Olympiacos are reportedly facing relegation to the second tier following match-fixing allegations. According to Corriere dello sport, the club are on the precipice of free-falling down the divisions to the second tier after investigations into a February 2015 fixture against Atromitos were re-opened.
If found guilty, the club could be hit with a personal fine exceeding two-and-a-half million and a lifetime ban from football.

A South African man has been arrested by the police for trying to smuggle his girlfriend in the back of his car amidst a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID19. According to an official from the province of Gauteng, said the woman was found in the car booth during a stop and search at a roadblock in the province.
The driver who did not have a permit, was headed to the Eastern Mpumalanga province. Authorities say the woman was also arrested for consenting to be smuggled
South Africa government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24th for three weeks but the lockdown has been extended until the end of April.

Pictures of the day

Students of first grade in a school in Hangzhou, are wearing special headgear to abide by the rules of social distancing.

Russia’s confirmed cases of coronavirus surpassed 50,000 on Tuesday, according to the official daily statistics. The country has recorded more than 52,700 identified cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of more than 1,800 percent since April 1.
According to the Federal Monitoring Service, more than 450 people in Russia have died from complications connected with the virus, with about 10 percent of the death toll occurring over the past day.

Germany’s Bundesliga has outlined new rules for players as they aim to restart on May 9. In a new document obtained by Mail Online Sport, the German FA and the DFL detailed how the game can return safely amid the Coronavirus crisis and how players will train and play matches before the season is finished.
According to the rules outlined in the document, players can live either in team hotels or at home but sex and kissing is banned if they or their partners show symptoms of the virus.

Scores of government officials, including 89 police officers, have been arrested for flouting South Africa’s coronavirus regulations, many of them for selling confiscated liquor, the police minister said on Wednesday.
“Altogether 131 people including officials, councillors, health officials, correctional services, have been arrested,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told the media in Durban.
“Out of those, 89 of them are South African Police Service members.” Cele said many of the officers had been arrested for selling liquor they had confiscated from members of the public.

Facebook has a long history of expanding its features to emulate major competitors. Now it's taking on platform-of-the-moment Zoom (ZM). The tech giant is creating a new video conference version of its Messenger app called Messenger Rooms, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday.
The new service will allow users to host a meeting with up to 50 people at once with no time limit, Zuckerberg said in a video announcement. (Zoom's free version allows up to 100 people together, but for a maximum of 40 minutes.) Facebook (FB) users can invite people to Messenger Rooms even if they don't have Facebook accounts.

A group of Nigerian lawyers have filed a class action suit against China, following the adverse effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on Nigerians. The lawyers who are demanding $200 billion as damages for the “loss of lives, economic strangulation, trauma, hardship, social disorientation, mental torture and disruption of normal daily existence of people in Nigeria", said they have concluded pleadings for the class action against the Chinese government.

The Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch soccer, has canceled its 2019-20 season and will not award the league title after the national government banned major events until Sept. 1 due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Ajax were in first place when the campaign was halted, level on 56 points with AZ Alkmaar but ahead thanks to their superior goal difference.
No teams will be relegated to the second tier, with promotion from that division also scrapped for the year.

'Ronaldo is a killer, but Messi will torture you before he kills you.- Wayne Rooney weighs in on world's best player debate

Manchester United and England's highest goalscorer, Wayne Roone, has given his input into the debate on who is the world's best player. Since 2007, Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi have gone on to win the World's Best Player prize 11 times between them, with Luka Modric the only player to snatch the award, and that was in 2018 following an extraordinary World Cup campaign in Russia
Rooney, who is friends with Ronaldo and was his former teammate at Manchester United says he believes Messi is better than Ronaldo and should be considered the best on the planet.

Seeking relief from a heat wave, thousands of people crowded beaches in Southern California this weekend amid the coronavirus pandemic, despite a statewide stay-at-home order implemented by the governor last month. While beaches in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties remained closed, they were open in Ventura and Orange Counties. However, beachgoers still had to adhere to a patchwork of guidelines and restrictions, including keeping parking lots closed to discourage outside visitors and limit crowds.
"It's a beautiful day," Frank Feerini, who was at Huntington Beach in Orange County, told CNN affiliate KABC Saturday. "How can you keep anybody in?"
The summer-like weather was a big draw for many who flocked to the beach.
More than 18 million under heat advisories issued on Friday. Temperatures reached 93 degrees in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Arsenal will become the first Premier League club to return to training since the suspension of the remaining league games due to the outbreak of Coronavirus. The Gunners’ squad will be allowed to return to train at the club's London Colney training ground from next week Monday. They will undertake some light running individually in order to maintain the government’s coronavirus regulations to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Everton football club of England, have condemned its £27m striker Moise Kean after he broke Coronavirus home lockdown rules by hosting a wild house party where several female guests were filmed giving lap dances. According to reports, Moise sent footage of himself partying at his Cheshire apartment to a private Snapchat group, a breach of the Government's and club's guidelines for the current pandemic.

Madagascar has launched a drink that it touts as a remedy to prevent coronavirus infection and cure it. President Andry Rajoelina launched the product in Antananarivo on Monday and drank a bottle of the drink called “Covid Organics” or CVO. The country’s Institut Malgache de Recherches Appliquées (IMRA) produced the drink from the local plant, Artemisia annua or sweet wormwood.
It is a green leafy plant that emits a striking odor and is also used for malaria.

A group of 44 suspected members of Boko Haram, arrested during a recent operation against the terrorist group, have been found dead in their prison cell, Chad’s chief prosecutor announced Saturday. Speaking on national television, Youssouf Tom said the 44 prisoners had been found dead in their cell on Thursday. They were among a group of 58 suspects jailed during a recent army operation in the Lake Chad zone, he added.

Pescara football club adopts Italian boy's shirt design

A six-year-old boy in Italy is celebrating after his football shirt design was adopted by the professional team Pescara. Luigi D'Agostino beat other children in a competition, run by the club for young fans, aimed at easing the boredom of being stuck indoors during the country's coronavirus lockdown. The competition's motto was "give a kick to Covid-19".
The boy's dolphin design will be worn by the Serie B team next season.
The Pescara club - its full name is Pescara Calcio 1936 - played in the top Italian league, Serie A, for seven seasons in its history.

President Trump said Wednesday he has ordered the U.S. Navy to take action against Iranian vessels that "harass" U.S. ships at sea. "I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," Mr. Trump said in a tweet.
No further information was given by the president or the White House regarding his directive.
Mr. Trump's instruction, however, comes a week after 11 ships with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy "repeatedly conducted dangerous and harassing approaches" of U.S. ships in the North Arabian Gulf, according to the 5th Fleet.

American rapper, The Game has lost ownership of his own record label including royalties from his last album “Born 2 Rap” in a $7 million sexual assault case. Back in 2015, Priscilla Rainey, a former reality dating show contestant accused The Game of sexually assaulting her at a Chicago sports bar while taping his VH1 reality show “She’s Got Game.” She sued him for $10 million in 2015, but he didn’t show up to court and ignored the trial. As a result, the court ordered him to pay $7.13 million in damages to Rainey.

A middle-aged man from Kibwezi in Makueni County,Kenya drowned on Tuesday, April 21, while attempting to evade arrest for not wearing a face mask. The man was being chased by police officers at Kambu Market, when he jumped into a swollen fish pond and drowned, witnesses said.
“The police officers who were chasing him did not bother to rescue him. When they saw he had jumped into the pond, they walked away,” one of the eye witnesses told K24 Digital.

Canada mass shooting death toll rises to 22 as victims are identified

A veteran police officer, a teacher and two health care workers were among the victims of the worst mass shooting in Canadian history as the death toll rose to 22, not including the gunman. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Tuesday new human remains were discovered in homes and vehicles set ablaze by the suspect during the weekend killing spree in Nova Scotia.
The RCMP said in a statement that a 17-year-old girl was among the victims, and the other victims were both men and women.

'I have 300m in the bank and an island.. If anyone speaks I'll kill them!' - Footballer Pedro reveals how Zlatan Ibrahimovic threatened players during his time at LA Galaxy

Joao Pedro, a former teammate of football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has revealed the extent to which the former PSG, Man United and Barcelona striker could go, to instill a sense of fear while bragging to his teammates. Pedro played alongside Ibrahimovic at LA Galaxy in the US and during that time Ibrahimovic broke records, scoring 52 goals in 56 appearances during the two years he played in America after leaving Manchester United.
According to Pedro, there was a time his team suffered a painful loss, which made his Galaxy team-mates soon find out that Ibrahimovic was never afraid to say his mind

Two Chinese doctors in Wuhan who were critically ill with Coronavirus woke up to find that their skin turned dark after the virus damaged their livers. Dr. Yi Fan and Dr. Hu Weifeng, both 42, were diagnosed with the novel Coronavirus while treating patients at the Wuhan Central Hospital in January.
Their abnormal skin colour is caused by hormonal imbalances after their livers were damaged by the virus, their doctor told Chinese state media.

The Kenyan police have arrested a 36-year-old man from Bokisero-Nyabwari Village in Nyamira North Sub-County, for killing his younger brother whom he allegedly caught having sex with their biological mother on Thursday night. Evans Mamboleo Nyachuba had visited their mother at about 8:30pm when he reportedly caught his 31-year-old sibling, Fred Onsongo Nyachuba engaging in sexual intercourse with their 55-year-old mother Doria Moraa Nyachuba. He reportedly smashed his brother’s face and the back of his head with a plank, killing him at the spot.
Bokisaba Location chief, Philip Masenge who confirmed the incident said Mamboleo is being held at Ekerenyo police post. The body of the deceased has already been taken to Nyamira County Referral Hospital morgue.
The Police have also commenced an investigation into the matter.

Italian football club president tests positive for Coronavirus

Italian football club, Brescia President, Massimo Cellino has tested positive for coronavirus. Italy has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, recording almost 176,000 positive tests and 23,227 deaths, which is second only to the United States.
The Lombardy region in the north of the country, where Brescia is situated, was at the centre of the outbreak in Italy and swiftly put on lockdown, but the virus has continued to wreak havoc.

Hundreds of people have been added to Egypt’s terrorism list in recent years. The decision, published in the official gazette, stated that their “placement on the terrorism list will be for a period of five years”.
Elaimy -- a key figure of Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak -- was arrested in June 2019.
Also put on the list was Ramy Shaath, a prominent activist and the son of veteran Palestinian politician Nabil Shaath, who holds Egyptian citizenship and was arrested two months after Elaimy.

Mayor Lenny Curry reopened beaches and parks in Jacksonville, Florida on Friday, after Governor Ron DeSantis gave the green light for them to reopen, despite the state hitting a record number of coronavirus cases. When they opened at 5 p.m., crowds flooded the area, ignoring social distancing warnings.
Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach are now open from 6-11 a.m. and 5-8 p.m. for "essential activities." They are closed during all other times.
More than 25,000 people in Florida have been infected with COVID-19, and schools, business and public events are all closed or canceled to try to slow its spread, according to the state Department of Health.

The Queen won't be holding any special occasion to mark her 94th birthday this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace today announced at the Queen’s request and for the first time during her 68-year reign, there will be no gun salutes in the royal parks this year.
The aide said: “Her Majesty was keen that no special measures were put in place to allow gun salutes as she did not feel it appropriate in the current circumstances.”

Pictures from a national park in South Africa show a pride of lions appearing to nap in the middle of a road as much of the world has come to a halt over the coronavirus pandemic. South Africa has been on lockdown since March 25. Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa, has been tweeting photos and videos of animals roaming the park without the intrusion of tourists. One set of photos showed lions lounging on a vacant stretch of road.
"Kruger visitors that tourists do not normally seen," the park tweeted earlier this week. "This lion pride are usually resident on Kempiana Contractual Park, an area Kruger tourists do not see. This afternoon they were lying on the tar road just outside of Orpen Rest Camp."

Broccoli only came about after years and years of selective breeding between wild cabbage plants that started around the 6th century BC.
In fact, the word “broccoli” comes from the Italian for “the flowering crest of a cabbage”.

DForce hacker returns $25m in 'stolen' crypto-currencies

A mystery hacker allegedly stole $25m (£20m) in crypto-currencies - and then returned the funds two days later. Records show that funds in a variety of crypto-currencies were withdrawn from the DForce platform based in China.
A sum of $10m was taken in Ethereum, for example, while a further $10m was taken in digital coins tied to the US dollar and $4m in other coins.

The late Gianna Bryant, Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester were named honorary draft picks by the WNBA on Friday. The three teenage teammates died in a helicopter crash in January, along with Bryant's dad, basketball legend Kobe Bryant. The WNBA draft event — which was held virtually this year due to the coronavirus pandemic — began with a tribute to Kobe, who was killed on January 26 along with Gianna, Alyssa, Payton, Sarah Chester, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan. They were heading to the girls' basketball game at Bryant's Mamba Sports Academy at the time of the crash.

As the world battles the Coronavirus pandemic, two Mozambican women said to be employed by a Chinese national, were recently caught washing used facemasks which they intended to resell to residents of Sofala province in the country. The facemasks were immediately confiscated and destroyed.
Mozambique currently has 39 confirmed cases of Coronavirus with 4 discharged patients and no death.
See more photos below

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have told the editors of British tabloid newspapers that they will never again deal with their outlets, in an unprecedented direct attack on a large part of the media that leaves little chance of repairing the relationship. The Guardian reports that on Sunday night, April 19, Prince Harry and Meghan sent a letter to the editors of the Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror and Express saying that from now on they would not respond to any inquiries from journalists working for the outlets. Instead there will be a policy of “zero engagement”, except when necessary through the couple’s lawyers.

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Monday 27 April 2020

Saturday 25 April 2020

Thursday 23 April 2020

Wednesday 22 April 2020