Zamfara police spokesman who identity himself as Mohammed Shehu, said on Wednesday that the victims — most of whom are nursing mothers — were released on Monday after being held by their captors for six weeks. He said their release was “unconditional” and no ransom was paid by the state.
The victims were forcefully taken into captivity on June 8 by armed men who invaded Manawa Village, in Zamfara’s Mutunji District, Shehu said.
“The released victims who were in custody of their abductors for 42 days have been released without giving any financial or material gain,” the police official stated in an earlier statement.
“They will be medically checked and debriefed before reunited with their respective families,” he added.
Zamfara and other neighboring northwestern states have witnessed several mass kidnappings this year, as kidnapping for ransom intensifies in the region. Hundreds of schoolchildren have been abducted and subsequently released by ransom-seeking criminal gangs, but many state governments deny paying ransom to kidnappers.
Many abducted students are still being held in captivity by their kidnappers whose demand for ransom has not been met.
Armed gunmen have targeted schools in recent months, given their perceived vulnerability to attacks.
Some academic institutions in northern Nigeria have been temporarily closed down to prevent further raids.
It was reported that Sweden laid down an early marker in the women’s Olympic football competition, hammering the US Women’s National Team 3-0 on Wednesday.
Stina Blackstenius’ brace and Lina Hurtig’s thumping header gave Sweden a deserved victory, with the US looking a shadow of the side that won the World Cup two years ago.
Sweden was unquestionably the better team from the first whistle to the last and the USWNT, which came into this Olympics as a strong favorite, has much to improve on in the coming games against New Zealand and Australia should it want to win a fifth gold medal.
This historic result for Sweden will give the team confidence it can go one better than Rio 2016, where it fell to Germany at the final hurdle in the gold medal match.
For the US, the defeat ends a 44-game unbeaten run — 40 wins and four draws — that had stretched all the way back to January 2019 when it lost 3-1 to France in a friendly.
Scintillating Swedes
Sweden got the better of the US the last time these two teams met on the Olympic stage, coming out on top after a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals five years ago in Brazil.
Becky Sauerbrunn told the Guardian that defeat was “one of the worst results that the senior national team has had in a major tournament,” saying it provided extra motivation going into the victorious 2019 World Cup campaign and this Olympics.
However, there wasn’t much sign of that motivation during the opening exchanges of the match in Tokyo’s Ajinomoto Stadium — before which both teams took a knee in the empty arena — as Sweden exerted its dominance from the opening whistle.
The Swedes soon got the goal their early play deserved as Sofia Jakobsson’s whipped cross was glanced home brilliantly by Blackstenius at the near post after 25 minutes.
The US had barely managed to get out of its own half in this opening 45 minutes, much less get any sort of foothold in the game, with Sweden enjoying more than 60% of possession.
Blackstenius had a wonderful opportunity to double Sweden’s lead just before the break, controlling a long pass brilliantly on her chest but just getting the ball stuck under her feet to allow US keeper Alyssa Naeher to come out and smother the chance.
Given the extent of the talent in the US squad, however, it was always going to be unlikely Sweden could contain its opponents for the entire half. It was Rose Lavelle who had the chance to equalize, but her header from a long ball into the box crashed against the outside of the post.
That it was the reigning world champion’s only real chance of note in the first half was a testament to Sweden’s superiority, the yellow shirts swarming the US players in midfield and not allowing them a moment to relax on the ball.
The only negative from Sweden’s perspective was that it had only managed to open up a one-goal lead — would the team rue that profligacy in front of goal?
USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski made two substitutions at the start of the second half, with the vastly experienced Carli Lloyd and Julie Ertz coming on to replace Alex Morgan and Samantha Mewis.
Ertz seemed to immediately breath new life into the US team, but just when it looked like the momentum of the game was shifting, Sweden doubled its advantage.
Blackstenius this time picked up the scraps at the far post after a Swedish corner caused mayhem in the US box and poked the ball past Naeher into the roof of the net. From there, it only got worse for the US team.
After substitute Megan Rapinoe hit the post when she perhaps she should have scored, Sweden put an exclamation mark next to its performance as Hurtig rose high in the box to head home from Hanna Glas’ cross.
The incident happened during prayers at the Grand Mosque in the capital Bamako to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
“Attempted stabbing attack against the President of the Transition, Colonel Assimi Goita at the Grande Mosque of Bamako. The attacker was immediately subdued by close security. Investigations are ongoing,” the presidency said in a statement posted on its official Twitter account.
Colonel Assimi Goita — the leader of two coups in nine months in Mali — was sworn in as transitional president on June 7.
Goita was initially interim vice president after leading the coup last August that overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
In May, he ordered the arrests of President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane who shortly resigned while in detention. The duo were later released.
In the same month, Mali’s constitutional court declared Goita to be the new interim president.
The court said in its ruling that Goita should fill the vacancy left by Ndaw’s resignation “to lead the transition process to its conclusion” and carry the title of “president of the transition, head of state”.
The ruling set Mali on a collision course with the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which insisted that the transition, which is due to end with elections in February, remain civilian-led.
The African Union (AU) also suspended the west African country in response to the military coup.
The AU called for “an unimpeded, transparent and swift return to the civilian-led transition … failing which, the Council will not hesitate to impose targeted sanctions,” the AU’s Peace and Security Council said.
Mali’s neighbors and international powers feared the revolt will jeopardize a commitment to hold a presidential election in February, and undermine a regional fight against Islamist militants, some of which are based in Mali’s desert north.
Bezos said that Jones and Andres were free to do “what they want” with the money.
“They can give it all to their own charity,” Bezos said at a press conference after his trip to space. “Or they can share the wealth. It is up to them.”
The money, Bezos said, was tied to a “surprise” philanthropic initiative he wanted to announce called the Courage and Civility Award.
The award aims to honor those who have “demonstrated courage” and tried to be a unifier in a divisive world, Bezos added.
“We need unifiers and not vilifiers,” Bezos said. “We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe. But they do that always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case. But we do have role models.”
Jones, accepting the award, said that “sometimes dreams come true.”
“You bet on me and I appreciate it,” Jones told Bezos, later adding that it was money for him to “give to others who have a similar spirit.”
Anderson Cooper, said on-air after Bezos announced the award that it was “quite a surprise.”
“None of us knew anything about it,” Cooper said.
The philanthropic initiative from Bezos comes as he and fellow billionaires such as Richard Branson, the Virgin Galactic investor, face criticism for spending their wealth on space tourism. Bezos has previously been criticized for not contributing more to philanthropy, but has donated billions of dollars in recent years to causes including climate change and food banks.
Critics have said that the world’s richest people should work to improve the conditions for people here on Earth, instead of flying off into space. Bezos and supporters of the space programs, however, have countered that both are possible.
“Well, I say they’re largely right. We have to do both,” he said in an interview on Monday. “You know, we have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those, and we always need to look to the future. We’ve always done that as a species, as a civilization. We have to do both.”
An Indonesian man is reportedly facing arrest after disguising himself as his wife in order to board a flight.
The man, who has been publicly identified only by the initials “DW,” boarded a Citilink domestic flight from Jakarta to Ternate while wearing a niqab that covered him from head to toe, reporters said.
The disguise was intended to enable the man to fly even though he had reportedly tested positive for Covid-19. His wife, however, had tested negative, so he used her ID and negative PCR test results in order to board the plane at Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport in Jakarta, says the report.
It’s unclear if the man would have been caught had he not given up on his ruse in mid-air.
A flight attendant reportedly told authorities that she saw “DW” go into an airplane bathroom, then come out wearing men’s clothes instead of the niqab — a full-face veil with an opening for the eyes. She notified airport authorities in Ternate, who detained the passenger upon disembarking from the plane.
An on-site health officer immediately tested the man for Covid-19, and the PCR test came back positive, according to officials.
After that, “the airport immediately contacted the Ternate City Covid-19 Handling Task Force team to evacuate the man while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and then taking him in an ambulance to his house (in Ternate City) to self-isolate, where he will be supervised by Task Force officers,” Ternate Covid-19 Task Force Operational Head Muhammad Arif Gani told reporters.
Once his self-isolation period is complete, local police have stated they intend to prosecute “DW.”
Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly across Indonesia. The fourth most populous country in the world is currently Asia’s hotspot for the disease, and many of the newest cases are confirmed to be the deadly Delta variant.
As of July 21, nearly three million cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in Indonesia, with 74,920 deaths recorded.
On top of that, vaccine rollout has been slow. Only about 6% of the total population is fully vaccinated so far.
A health survey published in early July revealed that close to half of the people tested in Jakarta had Covid antibodies, meaning the outbreak in the capital may have been much bigger than previously believed.
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