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After hospital officials on Saturday said the condition of the lone Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States has worsened, the woman he came to Texas to visit said she is praying for his recovery, reports AP. Louise Troh said that she was not aware until a reporter told her that Thomas Eric Duncan's condition had been deemed critical and that she had not spoken with him Saturday. "I pray in Jesus' name that it will be all right," Troh said in a telephone interview from the home where she and three others are being isolated.

( Nigeria ) In continuation of humanitarian assistance to victims of insurgency in the North east, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the distribution of relief items worth N500 million to about 116, 000 internally displaced persons in Yobe State through the Presidential Committee on Relief Procurement and Distribution. Flagging off the relief distribution in Damaturu, Director General National Emergency Management Agency Muhammad Sani-Sidi, who is the chairman of the committee said the items were procured based on identified basic needs of the people and that proper arrangements have been made to ensure direct distribution to the target beneficiaries. 

  ( Nigeria ) The All Progressives Congress, APC, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to stop taking credit for the country's successful containment of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD) saying it amounts to sheer dishonesty for the duo to turn what was a collective effort to a PDP campaign issue. APC in a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that President Jonathan and his party were wrong to have appropriated the credit for the successful containment of the EVD without giving due credit to the real heroes of the successful battle: Dr. Stella Adadevoh and her colleagues at the First Consultant Hospital; officials of the Ministries of Health in Lagos and Rivers States and the patriotic Nigerian volunteers, among others.

No fewer than 1,300 people are considered missing in the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), head of the republic’s committee on refugees and prisoners of war Darya Morozova said on Saturday, rreports Tass.“Those are the people on who we have collected full data, they are on our database of missing persons,” she said.DPR’s First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin said about 1,500 were missing in the conflict.

A new United Nations human rights report will address the issue of mass burial sites near Donetsk, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday, reports Tass. The report will be released in Geneva on Friday, October 3, Dujarric said. This will be observers' regular report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, he said. According to earlier reports, the 6th monthly report on human rights in Ukraine will be presented in Geneva and in Kiev on October 3. The report will cover the period from August 18 to September 16, 2014.

The Liberian man infected with Ebola who brought the disease to the United States will be prosecuted when he returns home for lying on his airport screening questionnaire, Liberian authorities said Thursday, reports AP. With an Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa, passengers leaving Liberia are being screened for fever and are asked if they have had contact with anyone infected.

A block of flats in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine came under mortar shelling from Ukrainian troops besieged in the airport on the city outskirts, the press service of Interior Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Thursday, reports Tass. “We can confirm that a mortar hit a nine-storey block of flats in Universitetskaya Street,” the press service said adding that casualties have been reported.

( Nigeria ) The National Judicial Council, NCJ, has ordered the Inspector General of Police, to provide adequate security to judicial officers and the judiciary in Ekiti State . NJC in a statement on Thursday, after its meeting in Abuja , said “Following the recent unfortunate and worrisome incidents in Ekiti State Judiciary, particularly in the High Court Complex, Ado-Ekiti, the National Judicial Council held an emergency meeting on October 2, 2014, under the Chairmanship of Justice Aloma Mukhtar and considered the various complaints and petitions forwarded to it. 

( Nigeria ) Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Thursday in Abuja formally announced his defection from Labour Party, LP to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was received by Vice President Namadi Sambo on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan at a brief ceremony held inside the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa. Mimiko was joined by members of his cabinet, LP lawmakers from the state in the National Assembly and 25 members of the state House of Assembly.

( Nigeria )   The Nigerian media community on Thursday mourned the death of Mrs Oluremi Oyo, the immediate past Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, who died on Wednesday. Oyo, aged 61, died in the United Kingdom , where she was recuperating, after receiving treatment from an ailment. Reacting to the news, the President of Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, Mr Femi Adesina, said ``Nigerian editors have lost a pillar.

( Nigeria ) A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday, reserved judgment till next week in a suit filed by Mr Bala Ngilari, Adamawa ex-Deputy Governor under impeached Governor Murtala Nyako. Trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola reserved judgment after listening to the submissions of counsel to different parties in the suit, insisting that he would not give a definite date for the judgment. “Judgment is hereby reserved for next week Wednesday or Thursday, that is, after the Sallah break, and definitely before the by-election slated for October 11. We will, in due course, accordingly, inform all parties of the definite date for judgment,’’ Ademola said.

 ( Nigeria ) Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, the Minister of Health, on Thursday said Nigeria would train 15 health workers from three West African countries affected by the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD. Chukwu who spoke to NAN in Abuja while reacting to a recent request by the United Nations and World Health Organisation, WHO to offer the training as part of efforts to combat the disease. ``Nigeria will offer specialised training to the health personnel from the three severely affected West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia,’’ he said.

(Nigeria) Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has abolished the 35-year retirement policy for workers in Edo State as the state workers are now to retire at the age of sixty regardless of whether they have put in 35 years in the state civil service. Delivering the independence anniversary gift to the workers at a meeting with labour leaders at Government House on Thursday, Oshiomhole described the compulsory 35 years as obnoxious.

Ninety-seven soldiers tasked with fighting Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's far northeast appeared at a military court martial in Abuja on Thursday, facing a range of charges including mutiny, reports AFP. The hearing comes just weeks after a tribunal sentenced 12 soldiers to death following their conviction for shooting at their commanding officer in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri , in May. Court martial president Brigadier General Musa Yusuf did not immediately give details about what the charges related to in the latest trial.

( Nigeria ) The All Progressives Congress, APC, has insisted on the arrest and prosecution of Ekiti Governor-elect, Mr Ayodele Fayose for leading a band of thugs to attack Justice Adeyeye on the premises of the Ekiti State High Court on September 25, warning that failure to act decisively now would spell danger for judges and the nation's democracy. APC in a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said tht the issue of the security for judges and the unfettered administrative of justice transcends politics, hence no politician, no matter his status, must be allowed to go scot-free after attacking judges.

( Nigeria ) The Nigerian military on Thursday, reacted to a new video purportedly released by “Abubakar Shekau” wherein he denied his killing during a battle in Konduga on September 17. The military, meanwhile, insisted that  Shekau has indeed been killed. In it, military authorities insist that Bashir Mohammed alias Abubakar Shekau was actually eliminated as corroborated by still photographs, video evidence and surrendering and captured terrorists.

Two suicide car bombings near an eastern airport in Libya killed seven troops and wounded 12 people Thursday, a spokesman for a renegade general said, as fierce clashes erupted nearby between the general's forces and the extremist militias trying to take over the airfield, reports AP. Col. Mohammed Hegazi told The Associated Press that the bombers targeted checkpoints 1 kilometer (a half mile) away from the Benina airport in Benghazi.

(Nigeria) THE Ijaw Chapter of Host Communities of Nigeria, HOSTCOM, Oil and Gas, Delta State , has called on Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, to stop labeling host communities as vandals but rather hold their personnel responsible for the heinous act.  Ijaw HOSTCOM in a statement in Delta State by its Chairman, Mr Kingsley Ikiere, alleged that Shell was involved in the pipeline vandalisation in order to create jobs for its friends and cronies to get ‘kick-back. It alleged that Shell had embarked on another round of blackmail of some host communities in order to deprive them of their entitlement and benefit as host to the SPDC’s 43 inches Forcados Export Pipeline, especially Isiyayeigbene and Okuntu communities.

  Newly elected President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick has revealed that he will make serious efforts in reconciling with factional NFF President, Chris Giwa in an effort to reunite the stakeholders in the football family, reports SL10. Pinnick says in a bid to have one unified football house, it is imperative that he and his board reach out to all aggrieved parties in the process of electing a successor to Aminu Maigari as the NFF President.

China 's ruling Communist Party used an editorial published by its official newspaper on Thursday to stress that its confidence in Hong Kong 's leader remained unshaken despite days of protests demanding his resignation, reports DW. Meanwhile, Hong Kong police warned of serious consequences if pro-democracy protesters try to occupy government buildings, as they have threatened to do if the territory's leader didn't resign by Thursday.

Police suspected the brother of Oscar Pistorius of wiping data from the Olympian's phone in the days after he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a South African radio station claimed on Thursday, reports APF. Investigators believed Carl Pistorius synchronised his computer with his brother's iPhone, wiping out the entire call history and all WhatsApp messages, according to an investigation by Eyewitness News, EWN. Police "considered charging him with defeating the ends of justice but ultimately declined to proceed with a case against him," EWN said.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau dismissed Nigerian military claims of his death in a new video obtained by AFP on Thursday and said the militants had implemented strict Islamic law in captured towns. "Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath," Shekau said, adding that his group was "running our... Islamic caliphate" and administering strict sharia punishments. Boko Haram has shown images of extreme violence before but the latest video shows at length graphic scenes of an amputation and a stoning to death as well as a beheading.

At least seven people were killed and a number of others injured when a bomb hit a passenger van in Pakistan 's northwest city of Peshwar on Thursday afternoon, according to local media reports. Local Urdu TV channel Geo quoted bomb disposal squad officers as saying that it was a bomb blast and the bomb was planted inside a passenger van heading from Peshawar to its neighboring city of Hangu , reports Xinhua.

The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States told a nurse on his initial hospital visit that he had recently been in an area affected by the deadly disease, but that information was not widely shared, a hospital official said Wednesday, reports AP. Thomas Eric Duncan went to a Dallas emergency room Friday and explained that he was visiting the U.S. from Liberia. He was sent home with antibiotics, according to his sister, Mai Wureh.

Five elementary, middle and high school students who had contact with a man diagnosed in Dallas with Ebola are being monitored, Texas officials said Wednesday, reports McClatchy DC. The children, who attend four different schools, went to classes earlier in the week but show no symptoms of the deadly disease and will be monitored at home, officials said.

The United Nations said Wednesday a staff member in Liberia has died from "probable Ebola," while the World Health Organisation, WHO, said it was optimistic that an Ebola vaccine could be available for mass vaccination campaigns as early as 2015, reports AP. The spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the death of the Liberian national is the first of a UN staffer in the outbreak that he is aware of.

( Nigeria )  Alhaji Adamu Timta, Secretary of the Borno State , Amirul Hajj committee on Wednesday' confirmed the death of three pilgrims from Borno performing this years Hajj in Saudi Arabia . Timta, who made the disclosure in an interview with NAN in Makkah, said one of the pilgrims died before being airlifted at the Aminu Kano Internal Airport Kano, while the two others died in Saudi Arabia .

( Nigeria ) The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Osun State on Wednesday said it had displayed notice of the 2015 general elections in line with its timetable and schedule. A statement by Mrs Adenike Tadese, the Chief Public Affairs Officer of the commission, said the notice had been displayed at the headquarters and local government offices across the state.

The Palestinians are asking the United Nations Security Council to set a deadline of November 2016 for an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem , in a new push to achieve independence, reports Haaretz.  The circulation of the draft resolution to council members follows Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' announcement to the UN General Assembly last Friday that he would ask the council to set a deadline for a pullout and dictate the ground rules for any talks with Israel .

 ( Nigeria ) President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday called on terrorists and insurgents waging war against the Nigerian state to lay down their arms and embrace peace. In a broadcast to mark Nigeria 's 54th independence anniversary, Jonathan restated the commitment of his administration to bringing all terrorists to justice and making the country safe for all.

The Ukrainian authorities revised the plan for implementing the Wall project to reinforce the border with Russia, assistant to the head of Ukrainian Border Guard Service, Sergei Astakhov, said on Wednesday, reports Tass. The project will be controlled by the Ukrainian Border Guard Service to ease the procedure for putting the facility into operation, Astakhov said.

Sergei Litvinov, a private of the Dnieper battalion has admitted killing women and children in the Luhansk region for remuneration offered by tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskyi , Russia ’s Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Wednesday, reports Tass. The Russian Investigative Committee has brought official charges against Sergei Litvinov for murdering innocent civilians during the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Russia’s Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house, approved on Wednesday a bill imposing a 20 percent limit for foreign interest in the capital of mass media both directly and indirectly and banning foreigners from establishing mass media in the country, reports Tass. The existing law does not limit foreign ownership in printed and network editions, and a 50 percent threshold is stipulated for television and radio assets.

  The man with reddened eyes sat in his underwear outside his thatched home. He was weak from diarrhea, so his wife called the Ebola hotline for an ambulance. Now that it was here, though, he didn't want to go. "Have you been around someone who died? Ever been around any sick people?" asks Gordon Kamara, the first responder. "No sir," the sick man replies, as more than a dozen neighbors crowd around to see. More emerge on the porches of nearby homes in alarm at the site of first responders in gloves and face masks.

Russia cannot let crimes in south-eastern Ukraine remain unpunished, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and Supremacy of Law Konstantin Dolgov said on Wednesday, October 1, in Geneva, reports Tass . “We keep demanding that all attacks against civilians, all murders should be properly investigated under effective international control. We shall be demanding that all those responsible are identified and put on trial,” the diplomat said.

The United State is planning a new staging area for unmanned drones in Niger . Attacks against terror groups will be carried out from the city of Agadez , reports DW. The road to Agadez is long and treacherous. The city lies in the middle of the Sahara, about 900 kilometers away from the capital city of Niger , Niamey . Yet Agadez is strategically important to the United States . The American government plans to build a drone base in the former caravan city from which it can strike against Islamist groups in the Sahel region.

Twin bombings near a school in central Syria killed at least 17 people on Wednesday, including 10 children, as gruesome images appeared on social media networks purported to show Kurdish fighters slain at the hands of Islamic State militants during battles near Syria's border with Turkey, reports AP. The bombs went off in the city of Homs, in a neighborhood dominated by minority Alawities, a Shiite offshoot sect that President Bashar Assad also belongs to. It was one of the deadliest strikes to hit the government-controlled area in months.

Militias in eastern Ukraine appeared to be successfully closing in on the government-held airport in Donetsk Wednesday, a strategic victory for the pro-Russian separatists. No fewer than 10 people were killed as residential areas near the airport were caught in the crossfire, further undermining a shaky truce that was imposed last month and has been riddled by violations since, reports AP. Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev that the airport was still under control of government troops who were "brilliantly carrying out their duty" and holding ground there.

Taliban suicide bombers struck two buses carrying Afghan soldiers in Kabul early Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding 21, just a day after the signing of a key U.S.-Afghan security pact, reports AP. The long-awaited deal allows U.S. forces to remain in the country past the end of 2014, ending the uncertainty over the fate of foreign troops supporting Afghans as they take over the fight against the Taliban insurgency.