Thousands in Egypt attacked by stray dogs: Ministry

CAIRO: There have been 6,241 cases of people being hospitalized after being attacked by stray dogs in Egypt’s Menoufia governorate during the past four months, the Ministry of Health and Population said in a report.

Ahmed Kamel, one of those injured, said the dogs are everywhere, but no action has been taken by the authorities despite complaints from residents.

“We fear street dogs for our children. They’re attacking us ferociously. A dog attacked me after I left my house,” he added.

“I defended myself and tried to hit him with a stone, but he sank his teeth into my feet. I had to go to the health center and they gave me a vaccine.”
 

Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad has said the ministry is ready to address the crisis of stray dogs.

Meanwhile, a report by the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Directorate of Health Affairs in Menoufia revealed that 759 people have been hospitalized due to rat bites so far this year.

Dr. Hassan Shafiq, deputy head of the Egyptian Veterinary Service, said rat bites can transmit deadly diseases.

Rats “live next to ponds, marshes and plantations, and feed mainly on … grains, fruits and vegetables, so they are often responsible for crop damage,” he added.

Egypt in $500m settlement with Israel Electric Corp

Egypt has signed a $500m settlement with state-owned Israel Electric Corp over a defunct natural gas deal, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Egyptian Natural Gas (EGAS) said in a statement.

The statement said that under the agreement signed on Sunday, Egypt will pay the amount over a period of eight-and-a-half years in exchange for the Israeli company dropping all other claims resulting from a 2015 arbitration decision.

The International Chamber of Commerce in 2015 ordered Egypt to pay Israel Electric about $1.8bn in compensation after a deal to export gas to Israel via a pipeline collapsed in 2012 after attacks by fighters in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt appealed the decision and began discussions on a settlement. The EGPC and EGAS statement said the agreement was reached with government support and as part of efforts to ensure a "conducive investment environment".

Israel's Delek Drilling and its partner Noble Energy signed a landmark deal early last year to export $15bn in natural gas from Israeli offshore fields Tamar and Leviathan to a customer in Egypt.

A Delek Drilling executive said on June 2 that the company hopes to begin commercial sales of natural gas to Egypt by the end of this month. Israeli officials called it the most significant deal to emerge since the neighbours made peace in 1979. 

New beginning that is different from the immediate past - Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari congratulate the newly elected leaders of the 9th National Assembly.

The president describe the election by lawmakers as "new beginning that is different from the immediate past." He also encouraged people that lose the election to join hands with the winners and not to be attacking themselves.

 

Who is Femi Gbajabiamila?

On Tuesday, lawmakers for Nigeria House of Representatives elect Femi Gbajabiamila as their speaker from 2019 to 2023.

Abdulmumin Jibrin, nominated the former Majority Leader of the eight House of Representatives that represents Surulere constituency and go up against Umar Bago who also is in APC.

The candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) get 281 votes to defeat Umaru Bago who contested against him.  Bago get 76 votes.

Gbajabiamila declared his intention to be speaker in March with the support of his party.

Profile of Femi Gbajabiamila?

He was born on 25 June 1962 and a lawyer from Lagos State.

He was called to Nigerian bar in 1984, after he graduated from University of Lagos in 1983 with law degree.

He worked for Bentley Edu & Co, which is the first law firm in Nigeria before he open his own;  Femi Gbaja and Co. He attended John Marshall Law School, Atlanta, Georgia in America, and he got degree to practice law.

Political Career

Femi Gbajabiamila enter politics under the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD).

He has been in the House of Representatives since 2003 representing Surulere Federal Constituency of Lagos State.

He was nominated for National Honour in 2011 but turned the nomination down.  He has pushed major bills for the house like the Employee Rights Bill, Central Bank of Nigeria (Amendment) Bill and the Bill for Electric Power Reform Act which will stop and criminalise estimated billing by Electricity Distribution Companies. He has also head the House of Representatives Committee on Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.

Congratulations to him.

Mexico 'has 45 days to curb migrant flow to US SOIL'

The foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard said if troop reinforcements on its southern borders did not work, "additional measures" would need to be discussed.

He also
said this might mean a "regional solution" involving other nations.
But the US is also likely to require Mexico to process the asylum claims of migrants on its own soil.
He held a press conference which seemed to suggest a difference of opinion about what was actually in the deal announced between the US and Mexico last Friday.

In a tweet, US President Donald Trump said there was a "very important part" of the deal that had been "fully signed and documented" but not yet announced that would give the US what it had been asking for "for many years".
"It will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico's legislative body", the president tweeted, adding that if the vote failed "tariffs will be reinstated".
Commentators suggest this is the "safe third country" arrangement, under which migrants would have to apply first for asylum in Mexico, rather than the US, and be turned away if they do not.
Mr Ebrard said the US had been insistent on this measure.
But he said: "We told them - I think it was the most important achievement of the negotiations - 'let's set a time period to see if what Mexico is proposing will work, and if not, we'll sit down and see what additional measures'" are needed.
"They wanted something else totally different to be signed. But that is what there is here. There is no other thing," he said.
Mr Ebrard also said US negotiators had wanted Mexico to commit to "zero migrants" crossing its territory, but that was "mission impossible".
President Trump has also said Mexico will soon make "large" agricultural purchases from the US.

But Mr Ebrard said there had been no additional agreement with the US and that the American president was probably referring to expected growth in trade following the migration deal.