News recap

It was a tale of two elections this week, one concluded, the other is slated for November 8. But both had, at least, one thing in common: controversies.

The Edo state governorship election held on Wednesday is being dogged by allegations of malpractices with a number of opposition parties calling for it to be cancelled. The American presidential election is wallowing in its cesspit of controversies, more so, after the first presidential debate between two leading candidates – Democratic Party’s nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican’s Donald Trump.

A summary of these news items and more are in our news recap for this week.

An Emirates Airlines aircraft

Will the naira rise anytime soon? Authorities at Emirates Airlines were not confident it would. The airline has rejected the Nigerian currency, naira, for payment by travellers to Brazil.The Dubai-based airline is rather demanding a credit card mode of payment from passengers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

Governor Rochas Okorocha

While Emirates Airlines has rejected the naira, a Nigerian governor wants more of it. The Guardian reported earlier in the week that the Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha directed all taxable adults in the 27 local councils in the state to pay N3,000 as development levy.

And barely five months after a currency swap deal between Nigeria and China was enmeshed in controversy, the country’s import profile from the Far-East Asian nation has remained high and mediated by the dollar.

Obaseki

In Edo State, Godwin Obaseki of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the governor-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission. But oppositions such PDP, LP, SDP and YDP said the election was marred by irregularities and called for it to be cancelled.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton (R) shakes hands with Republican nominee Donald Trump after the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on September 26, 2016. PHOTO: AFP / Timothy A. CLARY

Fighting to win their election as the president of, arguably, the most powerful country in the world, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took to a  stage on Monday to present their plans to America in a fiery televised debate watched by about 88 million Americans.

Whoever wins the November 8 election between the two candidates will have to deal with the ghost of racial tensions the country faces. However, in Finland, the people are trying to rein in the spectre of racism. Around 15,000 people marched in central Helsinki, the capital city of the country,  to protest against rising racism and violent right-wing extremism, police said, following the recent death of a man allegedly attacked by a neo-Nazi leader.

Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo / AFP PHOTO / Odd ANDERSEN

In sport, Real Madrid and Portugal’s star striker have been told by Coach Zinedine Zidane he has to deal with playing second fiddle after sulking off the field visibly frustrated in the European champions’ 2-2 draw at Las Palmas. And that’s not a cheering news to the footballer.

Mark Zuckerberg

WhatsApp and Facebook also received a not-so-cheerful news during the week. German data protection authorities on Tuesday said they had blocked Facebook from collecting subscriber data from its subsidiary WhatsApp, citing privacy concerns.

However, the founder of Facebook, the company which owns WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg, is among the three men looking to find alien life. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking have revealed exclusively to MailOnline that they will be listening to signals from ‘Earth 2.0’.

Zobo drink available locally in Nigeria is considered a diuretic

To something a bit cheerful, The Guardian’s health correspondents reported during the week that seven natural diuretics that people with high blood pressure, heart failure, swollen tissues, and kidney disease can use to treat their  conditions.

And that’s all for this week. You can read past editions of news recap here.