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Four prisoners were reported dead and another six injured in an artillery attack on a penal colony in the town of Makeyevka, Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, on Thursday, State Penitentiary Service spokesperson Yekaterina Denisyuk said, reports Itar-Tas. “Yesterday artillery fire killed two prisoners and wounded eight. The injured were taken to hospital. Two of them were in critical condition and doctors could not to save their lives,” Denisyuk said.

Guatemalan army chief of staff Rudy Ortiz and four other military officers died Wednesday when their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region where drug traffickers operate, the government said. According to AFP, the crash occurred in the Huehuetenango department on the Mexican border as the officers carried out a routine inspection of the area, where unrest has also erupted over hydroelectric dams and mining projects, said Defense Minister Manuel Lopez.

( Nigeria ) The Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, Operation Pulo Shield, on Wednesday said it foiled an oil theft incident in Ukwa-West Local Government Area of Abia State. Lt.-Col. Mustapha Anka, Media Coordinator of the Task Force in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State , said two trucks siphoning Automated Gas Oil, AGO, at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, pipeline which runs through Imo-Uzoakpo Community, in the area were seized during the raid.

( Nigeria ) Nigeria ’s Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu on Wedneday, said that at present, Nigeria has only two confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease. The minister in a statement by Mr Dan Nwomeh, his Special Assistant on Media and Communication, said “This clarification follows media reports of five new cases in Lagos State . This report should be disregarded.

( Nigeria ) The Central Bank of Nigeria , CBN, has said that the reintroduction of charges on Automated Teller Machines, ATMs Transaction was to encourage better services to customers. Mr Ibrahim Muazu, Director Corporate Communications of the bank in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, said  that the charges on ATM were reintroduced to ensure that customers get better services and to increase healthy competition among the banks.

( Nigeria ) Governor-elect of Ekiti State , Mr Ayodele Fayose on Wednesday inaugurated a nine-man Transition Committee for the smooth take off of his administration on October 16, lamenting the debt profile of the state. Members of the committee include: Mr Dipo Anisulowo (Chairman), Mrs Modupe Alade (Secretary), Pastor Kola Oluwawole, Mr Owoseeni Ajayi and Rev. Wale Komolafe. Others are: Mr Biodun Alasoluyi, Mr Benjamin Komolafe, Mr Seye Alade and Mr Dayo.

( Nigeria ) Sen. Smart Adeyemi (PDP Kogi West), has called on the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to be prepared to receive more members of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Adeyemi, Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, made the call when he led senators from Kogi on a courtesy call on Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, PDP National Chairman, in Abuja on Wednesday. He said the visit was to drum support for the PDP and to commend Mu`azu for his achievements since he assumed office.

( Nigeria ) An Abuja High Court on Wednesday refused the bail application of the two suspected terrorist who alleged  hijacked ``The Vine International Academy, Nyanya, school bus. The suspects are Victor Essein, 39, of Udobana Street , Uyo, Akwa Ibom, and  Bassey Uboh, 49, of Iwuru Village , Akankpa Local Government Area of Cross River.  

( Nigeria ) The Police Service Commission, PSC on Wednesday approved the elevation of 19 Commissioners of Police to Assistant Inspector-Generals of Police, AIGs. Those promoted were: Mr Joseph Mbu, FCT Commissioner of Police,  Ambrose Aisibor, Adebayo Ajileye, Umaru Manko, Joel Theophilus, Wilfred  Obute, Felix Uyanna, A. J. Abakasanga, Jubril  Adeniji, and Ibrahim Maishanu.

The first eight trucks with Russian humanitarian aid for south-eastern regions of Ukraine have begun customs clearance procedures at the border crossing point with Ukraine in the southern Rostov region, a customs official said on Wednesday, reports Itar-Tass. “The first eight vehicles from the convoy entered the Donetsk border crossing point of the Millerovo customs department at 20:25 Moscow time. They are undergoing customs procedures now,” Rayan Farukshin, spokesperson for the Southern Customs Department,” said.

Almost 3,000 policemen have left the Ukrainian Interior Ministry lately, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister, said, the UNN news agency reported on Wednesday. According to Gerashchenko, 1,490 policemen were dismissed in eastern Ukraine for “betrayal of the oath” and 1,227 policemen had quite service of their free will. In late July, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov called for replacing about 20,000 policemen who had “deserted or discredited themselves”. Avakov also voiced concern about the policemen who had failed the polygraph test. In early March 2014, Avakov said 90 percent of Interior Ministry senior officers had been dismissed over the last three months.

(Nigeria) The Secretariat of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA, was gutted by fire which destroyed the office of the Accountant and Secretary-General in Abuja on Wednesday. The fire, which started at about 9.30a.m., destroyed the left wing of the last floor of the building, which also housed the ICT Unit. Eight fire fighter trucks from the Federal and FCT Fire Service as well as one from Julius Berger battled for over two hours to put out the fire.

Dr David Nabarro, United Nations Special Envoy on Ebola virus, said in New York, that he would be traveling to West Africa with Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director of the UN's World Health Organisation, WHO, to assess the situation. He said he would start a programme in West Africa together with some of his colleagues that are working with governments and other establishment.

( Nigeria ) A laboratory technician, Modupe Ajayi, on Wednesday told an Igando Customary Court , Lagos , that she once caught her husband in bed with her best friend. Modupe, 40, was responding to Ajayi’s petition, urging the court to dissolve his 12 years marriage for alleged threat to life and lack of respect from the respondent.

( Nigeria ) An Ikorodu Magistrates’ Court sentenced two commercial bus drivers to five years imprisonment each for abducting and raping a 25-year-old woman on Wednesday. The convict, Cbibuike Amalu, 31, and Tony Umuaka, 27, were sentenced after they pleaded guilty to a four-count charge of abduction, assault, rape, battery and threat to life.

Thirty-four civilians have been killed and another 29 wounded in the Ukrainian army’s military operation in the Donetsk region over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to almost 1,000 people, the regional health department said on Wednesday. According to Itar-Tass, a total of 951 civilians have been killed and another 1,748 wounded since the start of the armed standoff in east Ukraine in mid-March 2014, the health department said. The Ukrainian army shelled the center of Donetsk on Wednesday, with several powerful explosions heard in the city, eyewitnesses said.

Israel’s new missile strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed 20 Palestinians after truce was disrupted in the enclave on Tuesday afternoon, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported on Wednesday. According to Itar-Tass, Israel has been delivering missile strikes against Gaza since Tuesday evening, mostly targeting the populated areas of Deir al-Balah and Beit Lahia, as well as districts in Gaza City.

( Nigeria ) The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PD, has said that the Governor Rotimi Amaechi has perfected plans to prolong the judiciary workers strike as long as he remains governor of the state. Mr Jerry Needam, Special Adviser, on Media to State PDP Chairman, Mr Felix Obuah, in a statement in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, said “As part of his clandestine schemes to concretize this arrangement following his successful secret accord with judiciary workers union leaders, he has distributed a total of 250 laptops to members of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA of the Bori, Ahoada, Isiokpo and Degema branches.

Poland’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday dismissed allegations that mercenaries from that country were fighting in east Ukraine, reports Itar-Tass. “The Polish Foreign Ministry dissociates itself from mass media speculation about alleged involvement of Polish mercenaries in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The information available to us disproves these suspicions,” ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski, said.

The Islamic State, IS, video that purportedly shows the beheading of United State journalist, James Foley appears to be genuine, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told BBC. Hammond said the man committing the killing in the video “on the face of it appears to have been a British person.”

( Nigeria ) The publisher/ editor in chief of Newsbearer Magazine, Chief Uche Aja, cheated death on Saturday, August 16, 2014 between Okigwe - Okwele Road on his way to Awka, Anambra State for South East rally for President Goodluck Jonathan. It was gathered that a tipper loaded with chippings rammed in his car, crushed it beyond recognition.

Nine Ukrainian servicemen were reported dead as a result of street clashes in the town of Ilovaisk, Donetsk region, on Wednesday, the Interior Minister’s adviser Anton Gerashchenko told the UNN (Ukrainian National News) agency. According to Itar-Tass, “The Donbas battalion is controlling a half of the town, which is divided by a railroad,” Gerashchenko said, adding that militias “have entrenched themselves in the other part of the city and fighting fiercely.”

Ukraine has provided guarantees of the safe passage of the Russian humanitarian convoy in areas controlled by the Ukrainian army, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevgeny Perebeinos said on Tuesday, reports Itar-Tass. At the same time, he said that “the route chosen for the humanitarian convoy lies outside the area controlled by our Armed Forces” and full responsibility for the safety of the convoy in these places would “rest with the militiamen themselves and Russia”.

( Nigeria ) The police in Enugu State on Tuesday confirmed that 10 people died in an auto crash on the Opi-Eha-Alumona-Obollo-Afor Road on Monday. A statement from the spokesman of the Enugu State Police Command, Mr Ebere Amaraizu, said the identity of the victims was yet to be established.

Two Palestinian children were wounded on Tuesday as a result of new Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian coastal enclave’s health authorities reported. According to Itar-Tass, the authorities said the children received wounds of medium severity when an airport east of the city of Rafah in Gaza on the border with Egypt came under fire.

( Nigeria ) The Minister of State for Finance, Mr Bashir Yuguda, said N654.6 billion was shared among the Federal, States and Local Government Councils as revenue for the month of July. Yuguda disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday when he briefed newsmen on the outcome of the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC meeting, reports NAN.

( Nigeria ) President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday expressed concern at the increasing rate of violence against persons working as humanitarian personnel across the world. The President expressed the concern at a ceremony organised in the Presidential Villa, Abuja to mark the 2014 World Humanitarian Day. Jonathan, who was represented by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, expressed dissatisfaction that in spite their passion to save lives, humanitarian workers had become targets of hostilities.

( Nigeria ) The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, on Tuesday said that sustained shortage of gas had remained a major threat to sustainable electricity power supply in the country. The National President of IPMAN, Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo, who spoke to NAN in Lagos, said that power privatisation in the country would have yielded positive results if the various power plants had adequate gas supply.

( Nigeria ) The Police Service Commission, PSC on Tuesday approved the promotion of six Assistant Inspectors-General of Police,  AIGs and two Commissioners of Police to new ranks. The promotions were announced in a statement issued by the commission's spokesman, Mr Ferdinand Ekpe. According to the statement, the six AIGs promoted to DIGs are Messrs Dan’Azumi Doma; Mamman Tsafe; David Omojola; Solomon Arase; Christopher Katso and Salihu Hashidu.

South Africa ’s leading politicians on Tuesday paid tribute to former MP, Mario Ambrosini, who committed suicide in Cape Town at the Weekend after a long battle with cancer. The family of the 53 years old politician said "This is a positive and very conscious decision on his part. He did not want to suffer anymore, nor did his family too.

A Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday that a possibility was real for Russia’s ban on car, tobacco and wine imports from the European Union and the United States in response to the West’s sanctions policy. Vladimir Gutenev, who is first deputy chairman of the State Duma Industry Committee, first vice-president of the Russian Machine-Building Union and a deputy from the ruling United Russia party, told journalists on Tuesday that Russia could also switch to Asian industrial markets to secure reliable supplies for domestic producers.

( Nigeria ) The Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, on Tuesday said the nation had a housing deficit of 17 million. Mohammed said this at the commissioning of 49 mass housing units built by Abuja Investment Company Limited, AICL in Apo Dutse, Abuja .

The Israeli armed forces have been told to open fire on the Gaza Strip again following Tuesday’s rocket attacks on the Jewish state by radicals from the Palestinian coastal enclave, a government source in Jerusalem reported. “In response to violation by the Hamas movement of the ceasefire conditions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon gave the order to resume strikes against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip,” reports Itar-Tass.

The United States should take care of its own internal problems instead of intervening in other countries’ internal affairs on the pretext of protecting democracy, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights, democracy and rule of law commissioner, Konstantin Dolgov, said in a commentary on the situation in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, the US. “The tragic events in Ferguson that followed shortly after a police gunned down an unarmed 18-year-year-old Afro-American Michael Brown are clear evidence of the high degree of tensions in US society, which remains split along racial lines,” Dolgov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend a meeting of the heads of the Customs Union member states with Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko in Minsk on August 26, Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, reports Itar-Tass. Representatives of the European Commission will also take part in the meeting in the Belarusian capital, the Kremlin said. Putin will also hold several bilateral meetings in Minsk, the Kremlin added.

 Three people were killed and dozens injured as the east Ukraine's town of Makeyevka near Donetsk came under the Ukrainian military's artillery fire on Tuesday, eyewitnesses said. According to Itar-Tass, local authorities reported that a gas pipeline in Makeyevka was damaged in the attack and caught fire.

( Nigeria ) Dr Prosper Igboeli, a former President of  Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has advocated  dialogue between the Federal Government and striking doctors to resolve the current dispute between them. Igboeli made the call in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Tuesday, saying both parties must have a rethink considering that the health system of the country was weak and vulnerable. “There is great need for the Federal Government to resume serious talks and dialogue with NMA to resolve the current impasse. The Nigerian health system is weak and vulnerable and sacking the doctors will greatly worsen the situation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered his country’s delegation at talks to settle the situation in the Gaza Strip to leave Cairo, the Haaretz newspaper reported citing government sources, reports Itar-Tass. The decision followed rocket shelling of Israel’s territory from the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday discussed a wide range of bilateral issues with a focus on the situation in Ukraine, reports Itar-Tass. In a telephone conversation the two leaders “paid serious attention to the situation in Ukraine”, the Belarusian president’s press service said. After recent consultations, the leaders of the Customs Union states and Ukraine agreed to gather in Minsk on August 26 to discuss the humanitarian catastrophe in eastern Ukraine. The meeting will be also attended by EU officials.

Russia has made a decision regarding the immediate future of all Ukrainians who have fled the areas of hostilities. By September 1, all temporary accommodation facilities in the 10 regions of Russia that have hosted most of the forced migrants will be closed down.  According to Itar-Tass, under a program proposed by the Federal Migration Service, all refugees will be resettled to permanent housing before the winter season sets in. Creating enough jobs is another aspect of the humanitarian effort. However, this may prove a daunting task as the flow of refugees from Ukraine’s south-east continues unabated.

A Nigerian human rights activist and lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, has called on British Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, to use United Kingdom ’s  presidency of the United Nations Security Council to persuade members to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court, ICC for unlawful killings and destruction of civilian property in the Gaza Strip and West Bank . Falana in the petition, said “I am writing to request that you use your good offices and position to urgently facilitate the referral of Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order for the court to investigate allegations of the unlawful killings and destruction of property perpetrated by Israel against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

( Nigeria ) The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has disowned a group called Rivers Mainstream Coalition. The party in a statement in Port Harcourt , Rivers State on Tuesday, by its state Chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah, said “A group known as Rivers Mainstream Coalition is not known to the party and is not one of the groups that has been collaborating and supporting the PDP in the state.

(Nigeria) The All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned against the plan by the Department of State Service, DSS, allegedly acting at the behest of some politicians, to arrest its Chairman in Borno State, Mr Ali Abubakar Dalori on trumped-up charges, noting that same was capable of precipitating a crisis in an already-volatile environment. APC in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  said the situation in Borno State is already very dire, hence no one should add fuel to a raging fire simply because of scorched-earth politics.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed on Monday to extend a temporary ceasefire in Gaza by 24 hours to conduct more talks on a long-term truce, a senior Palestinian official said. According to AFP, the current five-day ceasefire was set to expire at midnight local time (2100 GMT).

( Nigeria ) The Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH-ARD, Chapter, Idi-Araba, on Monday protested the suspension of residency training in all the federal teaching hospitals by the Federal Government. It will be recalled that the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, had on August 13, issued a directive terminating the residency training for doctors until further notice.

Russia will ask the UN Secretariat to brief the Security Council on the progress in the investigation of the MH17 crash in Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Monday. According to Itar-Tass, “We will request that the Secretariat hold a briefing on progress in the implementation of [UN Security Council] Resolution 2166 [which requires an independent investigation into the cause of the accident]. A month has passed since the Malaysian liner was destroyed. Paragraph 13 of the resolution requires the secretary-general to provide the Security Council with investigation progress reports. We hope that this will happen already today,” the diplomat said.

( Nigeria ) There were dramatic scenes at the secretariat of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA on Monday in Abuja as two men struggled for the leadership position of the body. Maigari, who was impeached by a two-thirds majority of the NFA board, had returned to office on Monday following a directive by the Sports Minister, Mr Tammy Danagogo.

( Nigeria ) A 37-year-old carpenter, Okechukwu Onyemachi, who allegedly bit off the upper lip of his lover, on Monday appeared before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates' Court, Lagos , reports NAN . Onyemachi, who resides at No. 80, Kadara St. , Ebute Meta, Lagos , is facing a two-count charge of assault occasioning harm and attempted suicide. The prosecutor, Sgt. Cousin Adams, told the court that the carpenter bit the lip of his lover of one and a half years.

( Nigeria ) Senate President David Mark  has appealed to the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, to end the current strike in the interest of all Nigerians, reports NAN . A statement issued by Mr Paul Mumeh, Mark's Chief Press Secretary, in Abuja on Monday, said that the Senate President made the appeal during a meeting with officials of the association.

The United States Government has announced the deployment of 100 medical personnel to help in the fight against the Ebola Virus outbreak in some parts of West Africa . U.S. Ambassador to the African Union, AU, Mr Reuben Brigety stated this on Monday in Addis Ababa at an information sharing session on Ebola at the AU Permanent Representatives Committee, PRC.