Today In Hip Hop History
Mark Morales better known as Prince Markie Dee of The Fat Boys died February 18, 2021. R.I.P
Palestinian Authority: first batch of Covid-19 vaccines sent to Gaza
Palestinian Health Minister Mai AlKaila said the 2,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine were sent through the Beitunia crossing between the occupied West Bank and Israel and are en route to Gaza.
The first 2,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were sent to Hamas-ruled Gaza, the Palestinian Authority said, after being delayed by two days in Israel.
She said they would go to frontline medical workers.
An Israeli defence official confirmed that the vaccines were on their way to Gaza after approval, saying it was "not in Israel's interest to have a Gaza health crisis".
Israeli politicians had debated whether to allow the delivery of vaccines into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas, a militant group, seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the West Bank and co-ordinates with Israel on security and other matters.
Some legislators said the delivery should be linked to progress on the release of two Israeli captives held by Hamas and the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in 2014.
They also expressed concern that the first batch of vaccines would go to Hamas members rather than medical personnel.
Gaza is home to more than two million Palestinians, many of whom live in close confines, and has yet to receive any vaccines.
Authorities have reported more than 53,000 cases and at least 538 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Israel launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination programmes, inoculating more than a third of its population of 9.3 million since December.
Rights groups say it has an obligation as an occupying power to share its vaccines with the Palestinians. Israel denies such an obligation and says its priority is its own citizens.
Slovakia asks EU to send in medical workers
Slovakia is asking other European Union countries to deploy their medical personnel in the hard-hit country to help treat COVID-19 patients as its hospitals struggle under the load.
The government has initially requested a deployment of 10 doctors and 25 nurses to work in intensive care units for at least one month.
Slovakia has the most COVID-19 deaths by size of population in the world amid a surge of a highly contagious coronavirus variant first seen in the U.K. Acoording to report, another 105 people died Tuesday, giving the nation of 5.4 million a total of 6,168 confirmed virus deaths.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average of daily has risen over the past two weeks from 1.37 deaths per 100,000 people on Feb. 2 to 1.78 deaths per 100,000 people on Tuesday.
A total of 3,835 COVID-19 patients were in Slovak hospitals, about a hundred less than a record high recorded on Sunday.
UK police raid makeshift nightclub packed with 150 partygoers
British police has fined at least 70 people for breaking coronavirus restrictions after officers found 150 people packed into an illegal nightclub in England at the weekend.
Officers who forced their way into a building in the city of Birmingham on Saturday night discovered the makeshift club with a bar, VIP area and a dance floor with a DJ, West Midlands Police said.
About 150 people occupied two floors of the building, the police said.
A police video taken with drones showed people trying to flee from the rooftop early on Sunday.
Police said that dozens of people managed to get away but about 70 were given £200 ($278) fines. The DJ could face a £10,000 fine.
West Midlands Police on Saturday also discovered a garage workshop nearby that had been turned into a mini pub, with a sign on the wall calling it The Covid Arms.
About a dozen drinkers were allowed to leave but the owner was fined.
The department urged people to remember that England was in lockdown and that the virus was still a threat despite the progress of the UK’s vaccine programme.
Gunmen kidnap hundreds of students in Kagara in Niger state, Nigeria.
Heavily-armed gangs known locally as “bandits” in Niger state, north-west and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.
In a recent development, late on Tuesday large numbers of gunmen dressed in military uniforms stormed the Government Science College in the town of Kagara in Niger state before hauling students into a nearby forest, a government official and a security source said.
“Bandits went into GSC Kagara last night and kidnapped hundreds of students and their teachers,” said the official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
“One of the kidnapped staff and some students managed to escape. The staff confirmed a student was shot dead during the kidnap operation,” the official said.
Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman said he was aware of reports of students kidnapped from a school in Kagara and that a statement would be issued.
Only two months ago, more than 300 students were kidnapped in Kankara, in nearby Katsina state. The boys were later released but the incident sparked global outrage.
The school targeted on Tuesday has about 1,000 students and it was not immediately clear how many were taken.
“A head count is under way to establish how many students were kidnapped,” a security source said.
Troops with air support were tracking the bandits for a possible rescue operation, the source said.
On Tuesday, Niger state authorities reported that bandits also killed 10 people and kidnapped at least 23 others in attacks on two remote villages.
The region is increasingly a hub for criminal gangs who raid villages – killing and abducting residents after looting and torching homes.
Bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest, which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states. Despite the deployment of troops, deadly attacks persist. The gangs are largely driven by financial motives and have no known ideological leanings.
But there is growing concern they are being infiltrated by jihadists from the north-east who are waging a decade-old insurgency to establish an Islamic state.
The latest kidnapping incident comes nearly three years after 111 schoolgirls were kidnapped by jihadists in Dapchi, in the north, and six years after 276 girls were taken from Chibok, in the north-east, in a raid that shocked the world.
“Nigeria has to declare a state of emergency on insecurity,” said Idayat Hassan, director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development thinktank. “The government must secure the schools and urgently too, or else [the] Chibok, Dapchi and Kankara school raids will encourage others to do worse.”