The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) will collaborate with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through education.

This partnership was signed by Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, ACU Chief Executive and Secretary General, Dr Joanna Newman, and COL President and Chief Executive Officer Professor Asha Kanwar at the 20th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers.

Ministers of Education from Commonwealth countries and other stakeholders witnessed the event.

At the signing, Scotland acknowledged the increased collaboration between Commonwealth education organisations, adding that even closer partnership would deliver concrete outcomes for member states.

On her part, Kanwar welcomed the partnership saying it would synergise the specific strengths of the three organisations for greater impact in member states.

Speaking, Newman expressed delight in working with the Commonwealth Secretariat and COL to achieve the SDGs through education.

The Commonwealth Education Partnership for Sustainable Development will see the three organisations working together to support member states to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Through this partnership, the three organisations will develop joint programmes and support policy development across the Commonwealth, in response to the evolving needs of member states.

Source: NAN

Up to 134 flights have been rescheduled as Phuket International Airport in Thailand closed a cracked runway for urgent repairs, airport officials said on Monday.

The decision to close a runway during the early hours of Monday and Tuesday followed reports of cracks late Sunday, said the Aiport Director, Phet Chancharoen.

Chancharoen blamed heavy air traffic during the high tourism season for wear and tear on the runway, while the Tourism Authority of Thailand estimated that 300,000 tourists travelled from China on Feb. 16 for Lunar New Year alone.

A total of 75 flights were rescheduled on Monday, while at least 59 others will be cancelled due to repairs on Tuesday.

Most of the flights cancelled were for international routes.

Runway closure for maintenance is conducted four times a year at the airport and airlines and passengers are informed months in advance.

This weeks sudden closure, however, was unavoidable after cracks covering almost 100 square metres were discovered, Chancharoen said.

Phuket, an island in the Andaman Sea popular among international tourists, is located 840 kilometres south of Bangkok.

Its airport manages up to 300 flights daily.

Source: NAN

The newly elected Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Sen. Aliyu Wamakko, has sponsored 52 indigent students to two Universities in Kwara state.

According to a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Bashir Rabe Mani, the students are to attend Al -Hikmah and Crown Hill Universities.

The students were drawn from the twenty three local governments in all the three Senatorial Zones of the state.

This gesture is coming after another batch of 40 undergraduate students were sponsored by the senator to attend the Maryam Abacha American University in Maradi, Niger republic.

The new batch of 52 lucky students who are set to depart Sokoto for Ilorin on Sunday are to study different courses in Humanities, Medicine and other Sciences.

Addressing the students at his Gawon Nama residence in Sokoto, the Senator who represents Sokoto North Senatorial District said that more opportunity was given to educationally disadvantaged local governments of Gudu, Silame and Illela.

The former Governor of the state, who is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, said: the gesture is in continuation of my undying commitment to ensure that, poverty does not inhibit indigent youths from across the state from acquiring education at all levels.

The gesture is also aimed at bolstering the religious, scientific, technological and socioeconomic developments of the state and Nigeria in general.

It will further bridge the existing wide religious and cultural gaps between the Muslims in the core north and their brothers in other parts of the country, especially the north central states, he said.

Senator Wamakko admonished the students to shun all acts capable of jeopardizing their students, warning that any indolent and lazy student will be withdrawn and replaced with a more serious one.

He further urged them to be good Ambassadors of their respective families, local governments and the state, in general.

Source: NAN

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is preparing to name her ministerial team for a new German government, to give a new face to her administration.

This is coming amid reports that she had planed to promote an ambitious conservative critic.

Merkel had signaled she would put fresh faces in her Cabinet after a coalition deal with the center-left Social Democrats, who won the powerful finance ministry, drew criticism.

She pledged to name her Christian Democratic Unions proposed ministers Sunday, a day before a party congress considers the coalition accord.

The deal must still be approved in a ballot of the Social Democrats members to take effect.

Much attention had focused on whether Merkel give a Cabinet job to 37-year-old Jens Spahn, a leading advocate of a more conservative approach.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper and the news agency dpa reported she will name him health minister.

Source: Washington Post

The Segun Oni-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on Kaduna Chapter Crisis has given an assurance that the different factions will soon reconcile their differences as it begins a fact finding mission to the state on Sunday.

Oni, the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the APC, gave the assurance, when he addressed newsmen shortly after he led other committee members to the site of the demolished factional secretariat of the party at 11B, Sambo Road, in Kaduna.

The APC stalwart said the committee was on a fact finding mission and its report would be used by the Bola Tinubu Presidential Committee to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Let me say that we are here on a fact finding mission; the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party is very concerned with the crisis rocking the party in the state.

We do not want acrimony within our family and we dont want a situation where some members will feel bad and aggrieved. That is why we are here.

We are also here to appeal to both sides or all the sides that you should sheathe your swords and give us time to put this report together, Oni said.

Oni, who apologised to the factional party leaders led by Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi and owner of the demolished Secretariat building for arriving at the venue behind schedule, agreed to hold the meeting behind closed doorsat 8 p.m. on Sunday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee billed to meet with the leadership of the Danladi Wada faction of the APC at its demolished secretariat by 11:00 a.m., arrived the venue at 3:41 p.m.

It would be recalled that the national headquarters of the APC had set up the committee following the demolition of the Kaduna APC factional office which was trailed by public outcry.

The committee chaired by Onihas asmembers the partys National Auditor, George Moghalu, and National Woman Leader, Rahmatu Alliyu.

Oni said on arrival that the committee would meet with Gov. Nasir el-Rufai and later proceed to the residence of the partys National Chairman, Northwest Zone, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, whose house was also demolished by el-Rufai on April 6, 2017.

He appealed to the aggrieved party leadersto allow peace to reign in the state.

Hunkuyi, who received the committee on arrival, told members of the committee how leaders of the party had waited for six hours before leaving the venue of the interface.

The federal lawmaker also informed the committee that while the chairman of the other faction was invited by the NWC for the next National Executive Committeemeeting, its own chairman (Danladi Wada) was not invited.

If there will be reconciliation, there should fairness and justice shown to all, Hunkyi said.

Earlier, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC,Kaduna Central) had addressed newsmen on behalf of the group, insisting that the factional APC chairman, Wada,remains the authentic acting party chairman in the state.

Sani, who passed a vote of confidence on the Oni-led committee, however, left with other leaders of the party before the arrival of the visiting reconciliation team.

The notice was that they would here by 11:00 a.m.,but all communication to hear from them has remained futile.

We still have confidence in the committee, Sani said.

Source: NAN

UN staff in Geneva are planning a half-day strike on Tuesday , as dozens of ministers and other dignitaries attend high-level events at the organisations European headquarters.

The strike is over pay cut.

We have tried other forms of protest before, to no avail They have left us no choice, Ian Richards, who heads the UN staff unions association in Geneva, said onSunday.

He said it remained unclear how many of some 9,500 UN staff members in Geneva would participate in Tuesdays work stoppage, or what impact it would have, pointing out that this is not like a bus company where the buses just stop.

But we certainly expect this to have an impact, Richards said.

The half-day work stoppage will come during what is arguably one of the busiest weeks of the year at the UN in Geneva, with around 100 heads of state, government ministers and country representatives from around the world set to attend the main annual sessions of the UNs top human rights and disarmament bodies.

Speaking on behalf of the UN in Geneva, spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told AFP in an email that staff should be reminded that actions which disrupt or interfere with official activity of the Organisation may be considered contravening staff obligations.

She stressed though that UN Geneva recognises and respects the right of staff to freedom of association and acknowledges the dissatisfaction of staff linked to pay cuts.

She said contingency plans had been put in place to minimise the consequences of the possible work stoppage in a period of intense diplomatic activity at the UN in Geneva.

According to a letter sent to all UN agency chiefs late last week, Tuesday will mark only a first day of action, (and will) be followed by others.

The letter, sent by the unions and representatives of civil servants working for the UN, went out as staff received their first pay slips showing a 3.5-percent salary cut, and with the knowledge that the cut will swell to five percent by June, Richards said.

The signatories said staff had lost confidence in the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) a body appointed by the UN General Assembly to govern UN employees which has ordered deep cuts to pay and benefits for many staff around the globe.

Source: NAN

The Federal Government has confirmed that 110 students of theGovernment Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, are sofar unaccounted for, after insurgents believed to be from a faction ofBoko Haram invaded their school on 19 Feb.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,announced the figure after a meeting in Damaturu between a Federal GovernmentDelegation and representatives of Yobe state government,the college, the parents, security agencies andBursari local government, where Dapchi is situated.

He said, based on the briefings from the Principal of the College,Hajia Adama Abdulkarim, and the state Commissioner for Education, Mohammed Lami, 110 out of 906 students, have not been accounted
for. All the students were in the school on the day of the attack

Alhaji Mohammed also announced that the Federal Government hasdirected the police and civil defence authorities in Yobe State toimmediately deploy their personnel to all the schools in the state inorder to ensure the security and safety of the students and theirstaffers.

The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government has stepped upefforts to rescue the girls and return them safely to their parents,saying the security agencies are working on many leads regarding the
whereabouts of the girls.

This is the second time in four days that a Federal Governmentdelegation would visit Yobe State since the unfortunate incident. Thisis a measure of the seriousness with which we are addressing theissue. The security forces are leaving no stone unturned in theirsearch for the girls.

We are back here in Yobe as part of efforts to provide some succourto the parents of the girls, to let them know that they are not aloneand also to reassure them that we will not rest until we have foundthe girls. We will carry the parents along on the efforts we aremaking, he said.

For his part, the Minister of Interior, Lt. General Abdulrahman Danbazau said the delegation embarked onthe trip in order to get the facts right so that the approach to thesolution can be correct.

We must get back the girls and also ensure that this does not happenagain, he said.

The Federal Government delegation, which comprised the Ministers ofInformation and Culture as well as that of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retired), held an enlarged meeting that was attended by Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State; members of the state cabinet, the Principal and Vice Principal of the school, representatives of the parents of the missing girls and security agencies, among others.

Source: NAN

The Nigerian Army has postponed its 77 Regular Recruitment exercise earlier scheduled to hold from Feb. 26 to March 9 till further notice.

A statement issued by Col. Aliyu Yusuf on behalf of the Director of Army Public Relations on Sunday, said that a new date for the exercise would be communicated in due course through the media and Nigerian Army Recruitment Portal (recruitment.army.mil.ng).

Yusuf said the authority highly regretted inconveniences caused by the postponement.

Source: NAN

Manchester City won the Carabao Cup on Sunday, the first trophy of the Pep Guardiola, brushing Arsenal aside 3-0.

It was an impressive statement of intent from Guardiolas team at Wembley after a shock FA Cup defeat to lowly Wigan last week ended their bid for an unprecedented quadruple.

City opened the scoring in the 18th minute when a long punt upfield from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was controlled by Aguero, who coolly lifted the ball over a helpless David Ospina in the Arsenal goal.

Captain Vincent Kompany doubled the lead in the second half with just over half an hour to go and David Silva put the game out of the reach of Arsene Wengers team.

The runaway Premier League leaders will be hoping to use the victory as a springboard to greater glory as the season approaches its final stretch but defeat for Wenger means he has never lifted the League Cup.

On a bitterly cold, clear day in London, City, in their light blue kit, took control early, playing measured football and enjoying the lions share of possession against a side who have made Wembley a second home in recent years.

But Arsenal went closest to taking the lead within the first 10 minutes, with new signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seeing his scuffed shot saved by a sprawling Bravo.

Seconds later Aguero found the side netting after an incisive break from City, who looked short of their fluent best.

But it was Aguero who broke the deadlock, controlling the ball as Arsenals defence failed to deal with the danger, silencing the boisterous Arsenal fans.

The Argentine striker has scored in each of his past five games in all competitions against Arsenal and this was his 199th goal in City colours.

It was an unusual goal for Guardiolas team, who have been lauded for their silky passing game this season, which has already seen them hailed as one of the finest sides in Premier League history.

City made a bright start to the second half and captain Kompany was in the right place to steer home Ilkay Gundogans shot from the edge of the box after a Kevin De Bruyne corner in the 58th minute.

It was no more than City deserved against a lacklustre Arsenal and the Belgian celebrated wildly in front of his own fans.

Just seven minutes later Arsenal were left with a mountain to climb when Silva smashed the ball past Ospina into the far corner of the net to make it 3-0.

Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Guardiola kept faith with reserve goalkeeper Bravo for the Wembley showpiece ahead of first-choice Ederson. Bravo has played in every round of the competition so far.

Wenger also played his number two between the sticks, fielding Ospina ahead of Petr Cech.

City look nailed on to win the Premier League and have virtually guaranteed a place in the Champions League quarter-finals after a 4-0 first win in the first leg of their last-16 tie against Basel.

Source: NAN

The Police have confirmed that a man, Stephen Nnadiogo, committed suicide by drinking poison after stabbing his four children and sister-in-law to death at Awada area of Onitsha in Anambra.

The kids were aged two, six, eight and 10 years, neighbours said.

Confirming the incident on Sunday, the Divisional Police Officer of Awada, Mr Martin Chijioke, said the police command had begun investigation to unravel the circumstances that led to the multiple murder by the 48 year-old man.

Preliminary investigation reveals that the suspect, after committing the murder, took poison and died, Chijioke said.

Neighbours of the suspected killer said the incident occurred at about 8.00 p.m. on Saturday at the mans residence at 21B Ntueke street, Awada Obosi in Idemili North Local Government Area.

The source said the suspects wife was not at home when the killings occurred while the house maid reportedly ran away. Another report said the man sent the housemaid on an errand before he killed his victims.

It was the cry of the housemaid that alerted residents of the area. We have never seen this type of incident before, one neighbour said.

Another neighbour said the suspect had been taken to psychiatric hospital several times and had shown signs of recovery before the murder.

The police later took the bodies of the victims and the suspected murderer to a mortuary.

Source: NAN