Headline
180 Female Circumcision ‘Experts’ Get N43m After Surrendering ‘Tools’

Grants worth N42,500,000 have been handed out to 180 former practitioners of female circumcision by Ekiti State Government, as part of efforts to discourage Female Genital Mutilation, FGM, in the state.
The beneficiaries of the grants publicly handed over their trade tools to the wife of Governor of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, at the ‘Drop the Blade Initiative’, in Ado-Ekiti.
Addressing the beneficiaries, Erelu Fayemi said the grant was to discourage the former practitioners from returning to the harmful practice having denounced the trade.
Mrs Fayemi reiterated the State Government’s zero tolerance for gender-based violence and female genital mutilation.
She said the government would not hesitate to clamp down on people who still practise the trade which is seen as violence against girls.
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She said a minimum N250,000 grant given each of the former practitioners was a start-up capital for them to start a profitable business venture that would not be harmful to the society.
Mrs Fayemi charged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the money.
According to her, “this would be the second time government would empower former female circumcision practitioners in the State as part of efforts to discourage the dastardly act.
“We are empowering these women today to take them away from the illegal business.
“If what they were gaining from female circumcision was why they could not let go of the job, we are ready to empower them,” she said.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Alhaja Maryam Ogunlade reaffirmed the Government’s zero-tolerance for female genital mutilation and called for stakeholders involvement in stamping it out in all communities across the State.
Alhaja Ogunlade reminded the people of an existing law banning female circumcision in Ekiti State, adding that anyone caught will face legal action.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health and Human Services, Mr Akinjide Akinleye expressed displeasure that Ekiti State has the highest prevalence of FGM in Southern Nigeria.
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He urged the people to complement the synergy of the First Lady’s office to eradicate FGM practice in the State by not going back to the renounced unlawful act.
Also, the Director-General, Ekiti State Micro Finance and Enterprise Development Agency, Otunba Kayode Fasae advised the beneficiaries against frivolous spending but to engage in self-reliant businesses.
One of the beneficiaries who spoke on behalf of others, Mrs Funmilayo Adedeji, thanked the government for putting up such an initiative to assist them.
(VANGUARD)
Headline
Mosquitoes Discovered In Iceland For First Time

Mosquitoes have been discovered in Iceland in a first for the island nation, which has long been one of the world’s mosquito-free places, a researcher told AFP Monday.
Three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes, two females and one male, were sighted around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital Reykjavik, according to Matthias Alfredsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland.
“They were all collected from wine ropes… aimed at attracting moths,” the researcher said in an email, referring to a method of adding sugar to heated wine and dipping ropes or strips of fabric into the solution, which are then hung outside to entice the sweet-toothed insects.
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Along with Antarctica, Iceland has long been one of the few places on earth without a mosquito population.
“It is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland. A single Aedes nigripes specimen (arctic mosquito species) was collected many years ago from an airplane at Keflavik airport,” Alfredsson said, adding that “unfortunately, that specimen is lost”.
Their presence could “indicate a recent introduction to the country, possibly via ships or containers”, he said, but further monitoring in spring would be necessary to determine their further spread.
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Rising temperatures, longer summers, and milder winters, all brought on by climate change, create a more favourable environment for mosquitoes to thrive.
But Alfredsson did not believe that a warmer climate explained the discovery.
The species “appears to be well adapted to colder climates”, which “allows them to withstand long, harsh winters when temperatures drop below freezing”, he said.
He added that its “diverse breeding habitats… further enhances its ability to persist in Iceland’s challenging environment”.
AFP
Headline
Trump Urged Ukraine To Give Up Land In Peace Deal Talks — Official

United State President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to give up the eastern Donbas region in exchange for peace during “tense” talks last Friday in Washington, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.
The source added that the talks with Trump were “not easy”, and that diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war felt like they were being “dragged out” and “going in circles”.
Zelensky met Trump at the White House last week, hoping to capitalise on the US leader’s growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to accept a ceasefire.
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But he instead left empty-handed after Trump — who spoke with Putin the day before — denied his request for long-range Tomahawk missiles and pressured him into making a deal.
When asked if Trump urged Zelensky to pull out of land Ukraine still controlled — one of Putin’s key demands — the Ukrainian official told AFP: “Yes, that’s true.”
Following his meeting with Zelensky, Trump said on social media that their talks were “very interesting and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing and make a DEAL!”
READ ALSO:White House Slams Trump’s Nobel Prize Snub
Trump promised to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion within “24 hours” of his inauguration in January, but has failed to extract any concessions from Putin.
His position on the war has repeatedly shifted following his conversations with both Putin and Zelensky.
AFP
Headline
Voters In Turkish Cyprus Reject Erdogan-backed Leader In Presidential Election

The breakaway territory of northern Cyprus has voted overwhelmingly to replace its outgoing leader, who had the backing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, election officials said Sunday.
Almost 63 per cent of voters in the territory, whose claim to statehood is recognised only by Turkey, backed former prime minister Tufan Erhurman as next president at the expense of Turkey’s pick, Ersin Tatar, who polled 35 per cent.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Turkish invasion following a coup in Nicosia backed by Greece’s then-military junta eventually led to the creation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.
READ ALSO:US Imports Eggs From Korea, Turkey To Help Ease Prices
The internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, controls the island’s majority Greek Cypriot south.
While Tatar has toed the Turkish line of two separate states on Cyprus, Erhurman has indicated he favours a federal state that would include both sides of the island.
Erhurman said there were no losers in the election and that “the Turkish Cypriot people have won together”.
READ ALSO:Turkey Deports 103 Nigerians
“I will exercise my responsibilities, notably in terms of foreign policy, in consultation with the Republic of Turkey,” he said, trying to soothe concerns from Ankara that he may try to break away.
Erdogan congratulated Erhurman in a post on social media, adding that Turkey would “continue to defend the rights and sovereign interests” of the breakaway territory.
The last major round of peace talks to negotiate a settlement to the island’s divided status collapsed in Switzerland in 2017.
The leaders of both sides met in July at the UN headquarters in New York for talks that were hailed as “constructive” by UN chief Antonio Guterres.
AFP
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