Twitter on Thursday urged its more than 300 million users to change their passwords, saying they had been unintentionally unmasked inside the company by a software bug.

The social media site said it found no sign that hackers accessed the exposed data, but advised users to change their passwords to be safe.

Twitter practice is to store passwords encrypted, or hashed, so they are masked to even people inside the company, Twitter chief technology officer Parag Agrawal explained in a blog post.

Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process, he said.

We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again.

The San Francisco-based internet company did not specify how many passwords were exposed or how long the glitch made data vulnerable to snooping.

Out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you consider changing your password on all services where youve used this password, Agrawal told users.

We are very sorry this happened, he said.

The stumble comes as the sector faces intense scrutiny over the protection of personal data online, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw information from tens of millions of Facebook users hijacked and misused.

Twitter shares ebbed about a percent to $30.36 in after-market trades that followed word of the password mishap.

Going public with a security slip and getting users to take precautions is preferable to remaining mum and hoping no data was taken, according to independent technology industry analyst Rob Enderle.

When in doubt, it is better to have people change passwords than to be wrong, Enderle said.

With security, it is always better to err on the side of caution.

The analyst thought it unlikely people would abandon Twitter simply for being asked to change passwords.

Openly admitting our mistakes quickly, learning, and moving on, Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey said in a tweet that including a link to Agrawals blog post.

I love my teammates.

Twitter last week reported its second consecutive quarterly profit, boosting the outlook for the platform after years in the red.

The social network earned $61 million in the first three months of the year, helped by strong growth in advertising revenue and modest gains in users.

First quarter revenues rose 21 percent from a year ago to $665 million, and the key metric of monthly active users increased by six million from late last year to 336 million.

Source: NAN

As reactions continue to trail the controversial comments made earlier this week by U.S. rapper Kanye West, that slaverywas a choice, a Detroit radio station has said it will ban his music.

Hosts Shay Shay and BiGG of 105.1 the Morning Bounce made the announcement on Facebook with the hashtag Mute Kanye.

Kanye has gone too far with his latest comments, they said. They wrote that they are refusing to give him a platform, according toNew York Post.

We dont want to hear Kanyes music, we dont want to play Kanye on our show, we dont want to talk about Kanye anymore, the post read.

So we are taking a stand and we arent playing his music anymore; we just are refusing to give him a platform.

The ban will be for the entire hip-hop station and will include tracks that West produced or is featured in as well, theDetroit Free Pressreported.

West faced swift backlash following an interview withTMZon Tuesday, where he said when you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice.

The music mogul took to twitter shortly after to try and walk back his comments and compared himself to both Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman.

If this was 148 years ago I would have been more like Harriet or Nat, West tweeted, before clarifying the reason he brought up the 400 years point is because we cant be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years.

We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thoughtIt was just an idea.

The two morning DJs didnt announce how long the ban will last, and left it open to a gut feeling.

Thats what it is right now. We need a break, Shay Shay, told thepaper. I think its a gut feeling of when well be able to feel comfortable playing it again, when well want to hear it again, and more importantly, when will our listeners want to hear it again.

West was banned from a Hot 103.5 in Sacramento in 2016 after he attacked radio stations and fellow artists during a concert for his Saint Pablo Tour.

Source: NAN

David Goodall, a 104-year-old Australian scientist who committed assisted suicide in Switzerland today left some parting shots, saying choosing how and when to die should be a right.

Speaking to reporters at a hotel near Spalentor Gate in Basel on Wednesday, Goodall stressed he was happy to have the chance to end his life in Switzerland but would have preferred to do so back home.

Everyone over middle age should have the right unquestioned to end their lives as and when they choose, but we have quite a way to go in Australia for that, he said.

Asked by reporters what would be his last meal, the centenarian wryly noted that he is rather limited in his culinary enjoyments these days.

Goodall said he had no doubts over his chosen course of action and was grateful for the opportunity to come to an end gracefully.

There are many things I would like to do, but its too late.Im content to leave them undone.

My abilities have been in decline over the past year or two, my eyesight over the past six years.I no longer want to continue life. I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it, he said.

Goodall died today after taking a fatal sleeping drug and was surrounded by four family members and a close friend.

The renowned ecologist had flown to the clinic from his home in Australia where euthanasia is illegal.

He was not terminally ill but said he had grown tired of living with deteriorating health.

Dr Goodall had arrived at the clinic just before 11am on Thursday morning and enjoyed a final meal of fish and chips and cheesecake, which was his favourite.

Beethovens 9th Symphony was played in the room at the suicide clinic in Liestal, near Basel, as he took the fatal overdose of the sleeping drug.

Goodall arrived in Switzerland on May 7, after visiting relatives in the French city of Bordeaux.

He celebrated his 104th birthday on April 4. The scientist was granted a fast-track appointment at the Life Circle clinic in Basel.

Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world to allow assisted suicide, in which a person is given a lethal drug to administer themselves.

Assisted dying is illegal in Australia. except for one state, Victoria, which in November 2017 voted to legalize euthanasia in some cases.

That law doesnt come into effect until mid-2019 and would not benefit Goodall because he is not terminally ill or suffering from an incurable disease.

Born in London in 1914, he went to Australia in 1948 to teach at the University of Melbourne.

He married three times, has four children and twelve grandchildren. The family is scattered around the world.

By his bedside Thursday will be one of the scientists sons along with some grandchildren, who came from the United States and France respectively.

Goodall is a veteran member of Exit International, an end-of-life choices information and advocacy organisation.

He unsuccessfully tried to take his life earlier this year and had a fall at his home in Perth.

The organization arranged his appointment at Life Circle and raised funds for the scientist to travel business class from Australia to Switzerland.

In the vanguard
Exit International director Philip Nitschke says there is a growing generation of older people who are living longer than ever before, who are not ill, and who are demanding end of life choices.

Professor David Goodall is at the vanguard of this generational change in deciding when and how to die, he said, urging more countries to adopt laws similar to those of Switzerland.

The scientist will take the drug Nembutal, a barbiturate, intravenously. He will turn a knob that will allow a saline solution mixed with the drug to flow into his system.

He will go to sleep within a minute or two and be dead within the hour, says Dr. Fiona Stewart, publisher and co-author of the The Peaceful Pill Handbook.

Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe overdosed on barbiturates in 1962 in a death characterized as a probable suicide. American guitarist Jimi Hendrix died of a similar overdose in 1970.

Stewart says more than 30 Australians have made the trip to Switzerland since the 1998 foundation of Dignitas in Zurich. The number is at least ten times higher for Britons.

The Alpine nation has three assisted suicide organizations catering to foreigners: Dignitas, Basels Life Circle and Ex International in Bern (no relation to Exit International).

Assisted suicide and euthanasia, where the lethal drug is adminsitered by a doctor or medical staff, is at the heart of heated ethical debates that touch on religious, medical, legal and ethical questions.

Goodall, a botanist and ecologist, said he would quite like to be remembered as an instrument of freeing the elderly from the need to pursue their life irrespectively.

Source: NAN

A stunning nude paint that is the largest produced by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani sold for $157.2 million in New York on Monday night, becoming the fourth most expensive work of art sold at auction.

Painted a century ago, Modiglianis masterpiece Nu couche (sur le cote gauche) fetched the highest price in Sothebys history and was the star single lot in the May art auction season in New York.

Modigliani follows Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso as the third highest-selling artist at auction. Mondays sale failed to eclipse the $170.4 million paid for another Modigliani nude at Christies in 2015.

Nearly 58 inches (147 centimeters) wide, the picture was the cover star of a recent retrospective at the Tate Modern gallery in London.

Modigliani reinvented the nude for the modern era, and when his series of paintings were first exhibited in 1917, they were considered so shocking that police closed the show in Paris.

Bidding was restrained, lasting three to four minutes and opening at $125 million before auctioneer Helena Newman brought the hammer down at $139 million. The final price includes a buyers premium.

The price chalks up a healthy profit for its seller, who acquired the picture in 2003 for $26.9 million.

Modigliani completed 22 reclining nudes and 13 seated nudes between 1916 and 1919. Most of the former are found in museums, such as The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Simon Shaw, co-head of impressionist and modern art at Sothebys, said the painting sold Monday, while rooted in tradition, reflected the changing status of women during World War I.

This is a nude of a very self-possessed, sexually confident woman who is not looking out from a distance. Shes absolutely meeting our gaze, he told AFP prior to the sale.

Modiglianis dealer Leopold Zborowski gave him a stipend of 15 francs a day and paid the models five francs to pose in a Paris apartment.

Source: NAN

The Jigawa Primary Healthcare Development Agency (JSPHCDA) says it is targeting 1.6 million children for immunisation against polio in the state.

Dr Kabiru Ibrahim, the Executive Secretary of the agency, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Sunday at the sideline of the ongoing exercise in the state.

Ibrahim said enough personnel had been engaged to conduct the exercise simultaneously across the 27 local government areas in order to ensure that all children under five years are immunised against the diseases.

He said the agency had received enough Oral Polio Vaccines (OPVs) from the Federal Government for the smooth conduct of the exercise.

The executive secretary said all necessary arrangements had been concluded for smooth conduct of the exercise.

Ibrahim sought the support and cooperation of traditional and religious leaders as well as other stakeholders towards the successful conduct of the exercise.

He urged parents to present their children for the immunisation at designated centres in their respective communities for the exercise.

He commended the traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders for their cooperation in ensuring the smooth conduct of the immunisation.

The executive secretary, who expressed satisfaction at the level of compliance by parents, also appealed to them to cooperate with immunisation officials for a hitch-free exercise.

I personally inspected the exercise in many centres and I was impressed with the level of turnout of children.

So far, the exercise is going on smoothly across the state.

We thanked all stakeholders for the successes recorded in the exercise so far, Ibrahim said. (NAN)

Source: NAN

The lingering nationwide strike embarked upon by health workers may suffered a set-back following resolve by doctors to render services and kick against the demands of the health workers.

The National Chairman of JOHESU, Mr Biobebelemoye Josiah, has therefore alerted of efforts by the doctors to frustrate ongoing talks to end the four-week-old strike.

Josiah raised the alarm when he fielded questions from newsmen in Abuja, and also accused the Ministry of Health of collaborating with the doctors in suppressing JOHESUs legitimate demands from the government.

JOHESU had on April 17 embarked on industrial action to press home its demands bordering on improved healthcare facilities and welfare.

The strike by the union has so far crippled healthcare delivery in public health institutions across the country but the doctors render service.

Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, had confirmed that negotiations were on with JOHESU to end the strike.

Negotiations are still on with JOHESU and the Minister of Labour is leading the negotiation, and we expect that we will conclude on all issues very soon.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) had in a statement threatened to withdraw their services across health institutions in the country if the federal government acceded to the demands of JOHESU and other health workers.

The NMA wishes to draw the attention of the Federal Government to our correspondence of April 21, 2014, on the above, in which we reminded Government of the collective bargaining agreement we had with the Federal Government of Nigeria in January 2014.

The doctors drew the attention of government to the concluding part of their letter no. NMA/PRE/SG/03/0751 of 21st March 2014.

It states: In view of the above, the NMA painfully wishes to inform the Federal Government of Nigeria that any award to the non-medically qualified health professionals that violates the January and July agreements of 2014 shall result in the resumption of the suspended withdrawal of service of 2014. Please take this as a notice.

The above reminder is predicated on the extension of the ongoing strike action embarked upon by the amorphous body called `JOHESU.

The basis of the strike is callous and ill motivated for pay parity between her members and doctors with the resultant erosion of relativity and further hierarchical distortion in the health sector vis--vis her clandestine romance with some top government officials.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Nigerian Medical Association wishes to restate her positions on the various demands of JOHESU:

We oppose vehemently, any adjustment in CONHESS SALARY SCALE with resultant pay parity between doctors and healthcare professionals allied to medicine, and hereby reaffirm that relativity is sacrosanct, the statement read in part.

The president of JOHESU, however, alleged that the two ministers of health were not serious in ending the strike in view of their position in support of the demands of the doctors at the detriment of JOHESU.

He said: This very agreement was entered into and then a memo was made to Mr President as they claimed even though they gave us a copy later.

When they made this memo it was in December and the ministry of health defended her budget in February, but did not deem it to include that the amount it worked for the payment or settlement of this very issue.

This goes a long way to show that there was dishonesty, insincerity from the beginning on the part of the ministry (Federal Ministry of Health) because most probably the minister is a doctor; minister of state (Health) is a doctor and minister of labour who is supposed to be the chief negotiator, is also a medical doctor. (NAN)

Source: NAN

Yogurt might help lessen chronic inflammation linked to bowel disease, arthritis and asthma, a study by researchers has revealed.

According to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, inflammation is the bodys first line of defense against illness and injury.

However, it could also wreak biological havoc on organs and systems and is associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases.

The new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that yogurt can reduce inflammation by improving the integrity of the intestinal lining, thus preventing endotoxins, the pro-inflammatory molecules produced by gut microbes, from crossing into the blood stream.

The researchers enrolled 120 premenopausal women, half obese and half non-obese.

Half of the participants were assigned to eat 12 ounces of low-fat yogurt every day for nine weeks while a control group ate non-dairy pudding for nine weeks.

Brad Bolling, assistant professor of food science at Wisconsin-Madison, and his team took fasting blood samples from participants at various points during the study and evaluated an assortment of biomarkers that scientists have used to measure endotoxin exposure and inflammation.

The results showed that while some of the biomarkers remained steady over time, the yogurt-eaters experienced significant improvements in certain key markers, such as tumor necrosis factor or TNF, an important inflammation-activating protein.

The results indicate that ongoing consumption of yogurt may be having a general anti-inflammatory effect, said Bolling.

In the study, participants were also involved in a high-calorie meal challenge at the beginning and end of their nine-week dietary intervention.

The challenge, meant to stress an individuals metabolism, started with either a serving of yogurt or non-dairy pudding followed by a large high-fat, high-carb breakfast meal.

The blood work showed that the yogurt appetizer helped reduce endotoxins and inflammation as participants digested the meal over the ensuing hours.

It also helped improve glucose metabolism in obese participants, by speeding the reduction of post-meal blood glucose levels.

Bollings study doesnt identify which compounds in yogurt are responsible for the shift in biomarkers associated with the health-promoting effect or how they act in the body.

Bolling said solving that piece of the puzzle will require more research.(Xinhua/NAN)

Source: NAN

By Mustapha Yauri

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has cautioned that striking Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) have no constitutional right to harass other health workers not on strike or lock government facilities.

The minister gave the caution in a statement issued by Mr Oshundun Olajide, Deputy Director, Media and Public Relations of the ministry, on Tuesday in Abuja.

Olajide said the minister said this while reacting to a news briefing by the President, National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Ugochukwu Chinaka.

He noted that the resident doctors accused JOHESU members of harassing and molesting members of NARD and other medical officers at their respective duty posts.

The minister was also informed that JOHESU members were accused of locking-up government health facilities to prevent access to those who are not on strike.

Olajide also quoted the minister as saying that the federal government would not accept nor condone any act of irresponsibility and disobedience to constituted authorities.

The minister also directed that all locked health facilities should be re-opened immediately to enable them provide required services while negotiation continues.

It added that Adewole re-iterated that all heads of medical institutions should urgently provide adequate security for the working members of staff.

It warned that any person found disturbing the peace in any health facility should be made to face the law.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the First Vice President of NARD, Dr Ganiyu Ahmed, had earlier accused JOHESU members of becoming increasingly aggressive towards other health professional particularly doctors, who are not on strike.

Ahmed told newsmen on April 28 that JOHESU members at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Awka, manhandled a resident doctor on duty.

Source: NAN

Dozens of Women demonstrated in Kenyas Capital on Tuesday protested against what they say is discrimination against mothers who breastfeed in public.

The demonstration was prompted by a Facebook post on May 4, that saw user Betty Kim accused an up market Nairobi restaurant of discrimination after she was asked by a waiter to cover up as she was breastfeeding her baby.

Womens groups and mothers with babies participated in the march on Tuesday, with some carrying placards reading Respect nursing mothers and Breastfeeding mothers have a right.

Activist Mildred Awiso said restaurant case was not an isolated incident, and called for punitive measures to ensure that there is action taken against those infringing the breastfeeding right.

In 2017, the Kenyan parliament passed a health bill containing a clause stipulating that employers establish a lactation room for breastfeeding mothers and stating that women be allowed breastfeeding breaks every four hours.

In rural parts of Africa it is not uncommon to see women openly breastfeeding, but in westernised urban areas it has become somewhat taboo.

With infant mortality still a problem across the continent, the WHO proposes breastfeeding for the first six months in order to achieve optimal growth and development. (dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

Get up, stand up, dont give up the fight!

Preacher man, dont tell me

Heaven is under the earth

I know you dont know

What life is really worth

Its not all that glitters is gold

Alf the story has never been told

So now you see the light, eh!

Stand up for your rights. Come on!

The above excerpt from Bob Marleys song, `Stand up, Get up could not have been more propitious any other time than nowin a world replete with human rights abuses, racism, poverty among others.

No doubt, many reggae artists today draw their inspirations from the icon whose style of music continues to rub off on various genres of reggaeroots, rub-a-dub, ragamuffin, dancehall, lovers rock among others.

Bob Marley was the first third-world global superstar and the artist responsible for bringing reggae to mainstream audiences.

Marleys unforgettable music alone would have earned him a place in music history, but his status as a moral and religious compass to countless admirers and followers set him above many other such celebrities.

Robert Nesta Marley was born on Feb. 6, 1945 in Nine Mile, Saint Ann, Jamaica. His mother, Cedelia Booker, was an 18-year-old Jamaican girl and his father, the non-present Norval Sinclair Marley, was a much older white English sea captain.

Bob and his mother moved to the tough Trenchtown area of Kingstown when he was ten years old.

Music was already the focal point of Bobs life by the early 1960s. He was recording and playing gigs with friends Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, and they were enjoying moderate success in Jamaica. Marley was also writing original songs. Johnny Nash had a minor hit with Bobs Stir it Up while Eric Clapton later had a much bigger one with I Shot the Sheriff.

Success outside of Jamaica for Bob Marley and the Wailers, as they were now styling themselves, finally came in the mid-1970s, with hits including No Woman No Cry, Exodus, Waiting in Vain, Jamming, and Is This Love.

But Marley was much more than a Rastafarian Dylan writing catchy songs about the pressing issues of his times. During the late 70s, Jamaica was an island undergoing immense social and political upheaval.

Bob used his considerable influence in an effort to promote peace and find a middle ground between rival political factions in his country. He was the victim of an assassination attempt for his troubles.

He traveled the world, not only as a touring musician, but also as a goodwill ambassador for Jamaica and the Rastafarian religion. In 1978, he made his first trip to Ethiopia, the spiritual home of Rastafari, and stayed on a settlement donated by Emperor Haile Selassie I.

Two years later, Bob Marley and the Wailers were invited to perform at the Zimbabwe Independence concert by the brand new nations brand new president. Bobs song Zimbabwe had been an anthem for the soon-to-be-ex-colony of Rhodesia.

Marley was a hero to countless Africans and was seen as an inspirational and unifying figure.

In 1977, Marley learned that he had a type of melanoma in one of his toes. His doctors recommended amputation, but Bob refused for religious reasons and instead simply had the toe nail and nail bed removed in hopes that would remove all the cancer. It didnt. The disease metastasized throughout his body.

In 1980, he agreed to seek a somewhat controversial treatment at the clinic of Dr. Josef Issels in Germany. Issels Combination Therapy, which has been labeled ineffective by the American Cancer Society, was indeed ineffective in Marleys case.

Bob wanted to die at home in Jamaica, but the trip back was too much for him. He passed away in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981.

Bob Marleys death stopped Jamaica in its tracks. He was awarded the countrys Order of Merit, Jamaicas third highest honor, for outstanding contribution to his countrys culture.

The government provided him a state funeral ten days after his death as the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley O.M., with Prime Minister Edward Seaga and the Opposition Party Leader Michael Manley in attendance.

The streets were lined with countless thousands of mourners who watched Bobs funeral procession wind from Kingston to Marleys mausoleum in his birthplace of Nine Mile.

Bob Marley was laid to rest with a soccer ball, his Les Paul guitar, and a bud of marijuana.

Source: NAN