Hoodlums kill two policemen in Lagos

Some suspected hoodlums, killed two policemen and injured several others in Imowo Nla community in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

One of the policemen was said to have been ambushed by some hoodlums from Ikorodu in the early hours of Wednesday.

The other policeman, who died on Thursday, was cut with machete on Tuesday, when the hoodlums numbering over 100 invaded the community.

Japan hospital tests powerful breast cancer therapy

A Japanese cancer specialist said Wednesday she has started the world’s first clinical trial of a powerful, non-surgical, short-term radiation therapy for breast cancer.

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences has begun the trial using “heavy ion radiotherapy” which emits a pinpoint beam that can be accurately directed at malignant cells, said Kumiko Karasawa, radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist.

The study was launched amid renewed global interest in breast cancer and its treatment after Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie revealed she had undergone a preventative double mastectomy.

Heavy ion radiotherapy has proved effective in combating other forms of cancer that have not spread, Karasawa said.

“We are able to conduct this trial because we have greater understanding of what types of breast cancer can benefit from this pinpoint treatment,” Karasawa told AFP.

Kumiko Karasawa: new therapy for breast cancer

Development of medical apparatus that keeps soft breast tissue immobile for this treatment has also helped, she added.

Japan is a leader in the technology used in the treatment, and is home to three of the world’s six medical centres that have the gigantic 10-billion-yen ($97.2 million) facilities, Karasawa said.

The therapy has proved its worth on other forms of cancer, including prostate and lung, Kyodo News said, but has never before been used on breast cancer. Conventional radiotherapy uses X-rays and gamma rays that are most potent at the surface of the body, but weaken as they travel deeper into the tissue.

Heavy ion particle beams maintain their strength to a much greater depth. In the trial, Karasawa will treat a total of 20 patients aged at least 60 and with small tumours that have not spread.
The patients will go through an hour of therapy per day for four days, much shorter than conventional radiation therapy that may last for months, Karasawa said.

The trial will follow the patients for five years to assess the outcome, she said. “Ultimately, this could provide an option for patients who do not want surgery and who cannot go through (common radiation therapy) requiring regular visits to clinics for months,” she said.
Japan, which has a high-quality medical system, has a good track record with breast cancer, giving patients a 90 percent five-year survival rate.

Localised and less invasive medical treatments are increasingly important as ageing Japan tries to reduce the physical burden for patients, the national institute said in a statement.

Anambra traders protest tax hike

More than 500 women on stormed the Government House, Awka, to protest the hike in the tax payable by them to the Anambra State Government.

The women, who also rejected paying tax at all, asked government to collect tax from their husbands.

The traders, who protested under the name of Eke Awka Market Women Association, were led by Mrs. Ifeoma Ezenwa.

They first marched through major streets in Awka before getting to the Government House.

They carried placards with inscriptions like ‘Eke Awka Market women say no to tax’, ‘why should women pay tax’.

They were however disallowed from entering the Government House by security men. The irate women nearly mobbed one of te security men.

A spokeswoman for the group, Mrs. Praise Muoneke, said they were protesting against the imposition of tax insisting that market women had resolved not to pay the N6,600 tax. Muoneke said, “Yesterday, task force men invaded Eke Awka  Market, destroyed market wares and commodities, seized some goods and locked up many stalls as they demanded N6,600 as tax.

“We want this N6,600 tax cancelled now. We have paid N2,000 earlier for electricity to Eke Awka Market Authority last two years.”

 

The Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Robert Okonkwo, said the tax would be paid by traders who owned shops in the market.

He said the total amount expected from each trader was N6000.

Man tells how he killed Cape Town mom

A roof repair man has told a Cape Town court that he stabbed a Claremont mother because she wouldn't pay him the money she owed him.

Moegamat Salie, 31, told the Western Cape High Court that he went to Anzunette du Plessis’s house on 4 October 2012 to check on work he and his father had done to the roof of her house, reported the Cape Argus.

Although Salie pleaded guilty to murder, he denied the murder was premeditated as the prosecution claimed. His plea was then rejected by the judge.

Salie told the court when Du Plessis told him she didn’t have the money for some extra work he had done fixing door locks and the gate, he told her he would take some of her possessions and return them once he had been paid.

“As this was the second or third time I’d requested my money, I intended to keep the goods until she paid me. I took a camera and BlackBerry cellphone in the lounge and iPod in the kitchen.”
He said she started arguing with him and hit him from behind, at which point he took out a knife and stabbed her several times. 

He slit her throat as she reached for the telephone. Salie took a camera, laptop, iPhone, iPod, flat-screen TV and four diamonds.

The murder happened during the 45 minutes that Du Plessis's child minder had taken her 2-year-old daughter to the park.

Ibeto begins payment of Nigercem workers’ retirement benefits

Ibeto Cement Company has announced the commencement of payment of the outstanding retirement benefits for former employees of the Nigerian Cement Company Plc.

The company said in a statement made available to our correspondent on Monday the was sequel to its emergence as the core investor and majority shareholder in Nigercem Plc.

 It said, “The company has commenced the payment of final withdrawals payment, being retirement benefit scheme due to 72 staff members of Nigercem Plc from their contribution and that of the Company from Crusader Life Insurance Limited.”

It added that the payment would last from Monday, May 20, 2013 to Wednesday, May 22, 2013.

Stressing that it had faced several challenges in fulfilling its obligations, the company said, “The foregoing welfare initiative by Ibeto, no doubt, is in consonance with its avowed aim and objective to resuscitate and revamp the moribund cement company despite unlawful challenges by Chief Martin Elechi, Governor Ebonyi State.

“However Ibeto Cement Company Limited is undeterred in its determination to resuscitate the company, and improve the socio-economic well-being and welfare of staff of Nigercem Plc, its host communities and Ebonyi State, South-East geo-political region and Nigeria in general.”

FUNAAB fires prof, lecturer over alleged plagiarism

The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has sacked an Associate Professor, Dr. Bamgbose Titilayo, and an Assistant Lecturer, Bamigbade Adesina, over alleged plagiarism.

The FUNAAB Governing Council also demoted two other lecturers in the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Nkiko Olubunmi, and Dr. Ahmed Akinyeye, from Lecturer 1 to Lecturer 2 over the same alleged offence.

The institution’s Governing Council took the decision to sanction the errant lecturers and approve the promotion of others at its recently concluded 76th Statutory Council Meeting.

The decisions of the FUNAAB Governing Council were contained in the university’s publication, News Flash, published by the Public Relations Directorate of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, and dated May 10, 2013.

The university also dismissed a Senior Clerical Officer, Mr. Adebisi Isaac, over alleged non-remittance of journal page charges due to the institution, while one Mrs. Banjo Omolola, an engineer, was suspended from duty without pay for three months over “conduct prejudicial to discipline and good governance.”

The council also warned and surcharged for the period of alleged absence from work two Chief Technical Assistants, Chukwu Vitus and Akinbola Oluwasina, of the Works Department, alleged to have been “engaging personally in trade and business without permission.” Twelve other lecturers were however promoted as professors, while 25 others were elevated to the position of Reader (Associate Professor) in various departments in the institution.

But FUNAAB Registrar, Matthew Ayoola, declined comments on the matter when contacted by our correspondent.

Ayoola said he was not competent to speak on the issue, adding that only the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Olusola Oyewole, could comment on the matter.

“Please, speak with the Vice Chancellor. How did you get my own contact? Use the same method you have used in getting my own contact to get that of the VC. I’m a public servant; I don’t have the competence to speak to the press,” he said.

Apparently referring to the situation in the institution, Oyewole had, at a recent function, lamented the declining standard in FUNAAB and vowed to correct the anomalies. Oyewole had said, “Injustice has been done in the past. I made a statement that I’m going to bring the case before you. I have an assignment and a vision and I’m committed to that vision. I’m not going to relent on that vision but if anything crops up from behind to stop my advance movement, I will deal with it. 

“There was a council meeting just some few days ago and at that council meeting we were surprised that within seven months, we had been able to assess 37 professorial candidates and then we presented them. And I told them that the issue of somebody being assessed for professorial position for one years, two years will not happen in my time.”

14-Year-Old Boy Hires Prostitute For Sèx

A teenage boy who used an iPad to arrange a meeting with an alleged prostitute ended up with a different experience than he’d intended.

The boy, 14, from the Chicago suburb Prospect Heights, set up the intended encounter using a website for sexual liaisons, police say.

CBS Chicago reports when the woman arrived at the teenager’s home Wednesday, she allegedly sprayed him with pepper spray, stole the iPad, a piggy-bank and a jar full of money.

Police were able to track the suspect when she later used the iPad.

Dareka Brooks, 22, of Milwaukee, was charged with one count of armed robbery. Her bond was set at $10,000. Her next court appearance is set for May 31.

The teenage victim is safe, police said