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HONG KONG — Two boats carrying tourists off the coast of Thailand capsized in 16-foot waves near the resort island of Phuket, killing at least 33 people and leaving more than 20 missing, officials said Friday.
One of the boats, the double-decker cruise ship Phoenix PC Diving, was carrying 105 passengers — including 93 tourists, all from China — when it capsized Thursday after leaving Koh Racha, a popular snorkeling spot.
Phuket officials said Friday evening that 33 bodies had been recovered so far, all of them Chinese nationals. Twenty-three other people were missing.
The second boat, the Serenita, sank Thursday off Koh Mai Thon, a small resort island off the coast of Phuket. There were 42 people aboard, all of whom were rescued, officials said.
The boats had gone out to sea despite a severe weather warning.
Somjing Boontham, who said he was the captain of the Phoenix, said he had urged passengers to put on life jackets while crew members frantically lowered lifeboats as huge waves slammed and tilted the boat. Pictures from the scene showed lifeboats carrying up to 20 people, some of them children.
The capsizings came as Thailand has been transfixed by the efforts to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from the flooded Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand.
Wang Xudong, who is with a private search-and-rescue group from China, had been assisting at the cave, but on Friday he was preparing to search for his countrymen lost at sea instead.
“I never expected to be here in Phuket for something like this,” he said. “We had good news at the cave, and I hope we can have some good news in Phuket, too. I want to help out any way I can, either for Thai people or Chinese people.”
The Chinese state news media said a total of 127 Chinese tourists were involved in the two episodes, including 37 people on one boat who worked for a furniture company in Zhejiang. Many of the tourists on the Phoenix were staying at major international resorts on Phuket.
On Friday morning, helicopters, police officers and fishing boats were swarming the area in search of survivors. The Phoenix PC was believed to be 120 feet below the surface of the water.
“We will conduct air searches and send divers to check inside the sunken Phoenix boat,” Phuket’s governor, Noraphat Plothong, said Friday morning. “Police investigators said most of the tourists were wearing life jackets. I assume they are trapped inside the boat,” he said, adding that he hoped some had survived.
More than a quarter of the foreign tourists who go to Thailand are Chinese, according to government data. More than 10 percent of Thailand’s economy depends on tourism.
A Chinese movie, “Lost in Thailand,” helped to drive the Southeast Asian country’s popularity as a holiday destination for Chinese visitors.
On June 28, a Chinese tourist drowned at Karon Beach on Phuket. Red flags, indicating that the water was not safe to swim in because of rip currents, had been placed on the beach.
Phuket, one of Thailand’s most popular destinations, was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which killed hundreds of people on the island. In the years since, Chinese and Russian tourists have flocked to Phuket, changing the character of tourism there. Many signs in Phuket are now in Chinese and Cyrillic, in addition to English.
The tourism infrastructure on Phuket and on nearby Andaman Sea islands has been strained by the influx. Maya Bay, famous for appearing in the Leonardo DiCaprio film “The Beach,” was ordered closed on June 1 by Thailand’s Department of National Parks in order to give the bay’s coastal and coral-reef ecosystems time to recover from the onslaught of day-trippers. The beach is on Koh Phi Phi Leh, not far from Phuket.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Angie Chan and Hannah Beech © 2018 The New York Times
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There should be a mass movement to educate both young and old about consent, coercion and rape culture.
On Tuesday, July 3, 2018, the winds of #MeToo swept in on the timelines of Naija Twitter.
#MeToo is an international female-centric movement against the sexual assault and harassment of women. It went viral late 2017 knocking down key figures in Hollywood most notably movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
While #MeToo has spread worldwide it has failed to have a firm footing in Nigeria. There have been pockets of accusations within the year but a wholesale outing hasn't been witnessed until now.
The purge took place in the wokest spot in Nigeria, Twitter. Rape accusations are not new on Naija Twitter but when the lady with the handle @Mayowade encouraged women who have been victims of sexual assault and harassment to share their stories anonymously via her DM, a storm was unleashed.
@Mayowade would share the sexual assault and harassment stories from these anonymous women which mentioned their molesters. The confessions came in thick and fast and sooner than you could think, rape, consent and sexual harassment became the prevailing topics on timelines.
The stories are horrible. Young women raped or forcefully coerced to have sex with monsters. Others were stalked by psychopaths and predators. If the screenshots of our Twitter #MeToo movement tells us anything is that rape culture and sexual assault are very strong in Nigeria. It also means a lot of strong women are suffering in silence because they have no one to share their stories with and who they can turn to enforce justice.
The movement sparked by @Mayowade must have been cathartic for the women who decided to share their stories. After carrying a burden for so long they had a means to express themselves.
The expository tweets came with some backlash. Those who doubted the authenticity of the allegations saw it as witch hunting and a smear campaign. Sorry guys, this is not female toxicity at play but a day of reckoning for staying silent and allowing rape culture prevail.
Another angle poked at the grey areas of consent with regards to coercion. Like most feminist discussions on Twitter, it became a shouting match, a battle of the sexes.
Some of the young men who were accused threatened to clear their names by exposing their accusers as liars in the court of law. The counter accusations became too much that @Mayowade had to make her Twitter account private. Pulse has reached out to her for an interview. She is yet to respond.
This #MeToo incident has however raised a concern. If you have been accused of rape, do you have the right to make a counter-accusation and deny or roll over and let the court of public opinion bury you as a rapist and or a molester?
This problem is not only unique to Nigerian millennials who are having this conversation on Twitter. In America, it is a concern too where certain famous men who have been acquitted of rape charges are still hounded by past allegations.
In the Nigerian context, this grey area is made more grey because women who are victims of sexual assault cannot trust law enforcement to help them seek justice. Also, there isn't a wide array of support systems for victims of rape and sexual assault. Apart from the cultures of fear and shame, these are the reasons why it takes a while for rape victims to come out. And when a rape victim comes out, months or years after the incident, it's her word against his.
A week before the #MeToo storm, a true life story that touched on sexual harassment, coercion and consent trended on Twitter. It started out as a rape accusation only for it to seemingly morph into a case of (alleged?) coercion.
Now let's make this clear. In a country that has an embarrassingly wrong attitude towards rape and sexual assault, the burden of proof should be with the rape accused and not the victim. We have to understand this. The patriarchal system is already against the woman already. The burden of proof shouldn't fall on her but rather the alleged molester or rapist.
ALSO READ: In Sweden, sex without consent is rape
This means instead of poking holes at the statement of the rape of the victim, the accused should be the one to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he is innocent of the charges against him.
We also should do away with the mob mentality that an individual who has been accused of sexual assault, harassment has no right to defend himself. He has a right to. We are in a modern society and not in the dark ages. If you call someone a rapist it is his God-given right to seek redress legally.
Our attention and energy should be focused on creating a healthy system where victims shouldn't hide in fear and shame to point fingers at their alleged molester.s This is what we should be trying to do. The back and forth on Twitter is just a battle of the sexes and who will come out on top.
Until we 'all' do this, our #MeToo movements will make a lot of noise and make no impact.
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The association said it'll take a lot of deliberate planning to make ranching become the sole option of livestock production.
The Secretary-General of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Saleh Alhassan, has warned that it will take a minimum of 25 years to transition from open grazing method of cattle rearing to ranching in Nigeria.
Open grazing has been publicly condemned and blamed as the reason why cattle herders clash with local farming communities over the control of lands, with such clashes leading to the death of hundreds over many years.
To stem the wave of violence, the federal government has presented the National Livestock Transformation Plan, a N179 billion 10-year initiative targeted at putting an end to the agelong herders-farmers crisis, and to massively improve the livestock industry. The initiative stipulates that ranching is the way forward for cattle rearing in the country.
While addressing issues around the plan during an interview with The Punch, Alhassan, said it'll take a lot of deliberate planning to make ranching become the sole option of livestock production in the country.
He assured that his organisation is fully committed to supporting the federal government's plan by sensitising herders to sign up for it so as to develop livestock farming in Nigeria.
He further urged the federal government to provide security for herders in ranches so that they're not attacked by cattle rustlers.
He said, "First and foremost, access to the land must be made flexible, even for small scale herdsmen. Then, we must have research into livestock production. It's not that this thing has not been done before, it has but it failed, principally because there were no planning and adequate institutional framework for it.
"What we are saying is that for ranching to become the sole option of livestock production, it takes a period of time, but the period that we need is at least 10 years, looking at the one stated in the National Livestock Development Plan.
"If we want to completely transform from open grazing to highly mechanised form of livestock production, which is ranching, we need a period of not less than 25 years. This is the reality. This is for you to be able to change the stock, acquire the right varieties and develop them. And let me tell you something, the gestation period of any ranch to give you profit is not less than six years.
"Whether you're going into dairy or meat production, that is the period it takes for you to make profit. We are willing to support government initiatives that will bring any development to livestock farming, because you must start from somewhere to get to another level. So, we are fully in support of this policy.
"When they roll out the pilot ranches, we will cooperate and sensitise our people to be part of it. And when the ranching takes effect, you must have watering point that will serve a large number of herders and then you must have security, so you don't develop the ranches and then you have criminals and cattle rustlers raid the ranches and kill the herders."
ALSO READ: How FG wants to put a permanent end to herders-farmers crisis with N179bn plan
Alhassan further warned that if the government is not allowed to implement the plan, Nigerians will not be able to afford beef as ranching is too costly for the average cattle herder.
He said, "We must understand the contribution of livestock to our national development. Today, if you destroy pastoralism or open grazing, I'm telling you Nigerians cannot afford beef.
"For instance, if you have 40 cows you want to ranch, you need not less than N4m for that. How many herdsmen have that? So, as you push us to do ranching, you must do mechanised agriculture so that we can minimise the quantity of land that we use for cultivation."
National Livestock Transformation Plan
Under the federal government's plan, cattle herders are expected to be registered and recognised with cooperatives for the purpose of the ranching scheme. These cooperatives will then be able to get rental agreements for land from state governments and also benefit from ranch resources on several terms including loans, grants, and subsidies.
The funding of the plan from the federal government and state governments is expected to last for the first three years in the pilot phase for a total of N70 billion while private sector interests and investment between the third and tenth year is expected to be in excess of N100 billion.
The proposed ranch size models, according to the plan, is a cluster of 30, 60, 150 and 300 cows ranched in a location within the donated reserves.
Adamawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Edo, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, and Zamfara have been selected as the pilot states to launch the plan, with 94 ranches to be established and operational in clusters of 4 ranches in 24 locations in those states.
Of the 10 states designated as pilot states, the governments of Benue State and Ebonyi State have publicly denied agreeing to provide land for the federal government's initiative.
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Adeosun reportedly failed to participate in the mandatory service scheme after completion of her university education in London.
There is a report that Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, skipped the compulsory one-year national youth service with a forged exemption certification.
Premium Times reports that Adeosun failed to participate in the mandatory service scheme after completion of her university education in London.
Nigeria's 23rd Finance minister earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of East London and a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Financial Management from the University of London.
She allegedly forged an exemption certificate many years after her graduation from the University of East London, Premium Times reports.
It was also alleged in the report that Adeosun’s official credentials show that she parades a purported NYSC exemption certificate, which was issued in September 2009, granting her exemption from the mandatory service on account of age.
ALSO READ: Adeosun reportedly stops $17m dubious payment to lawyers hired by Malami
Meanwhile, Adeosun qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1994.
The National Youths Service Corps, NYSC
The National Youths Service Corps coordinates the National Youths service, a one-year-long service compulsory for all Nigerians who graduate from universities or equivalent institutions and are below the age of 30.
The service is a requirement for government and private sector jobs in Nigeria. The Nigerian law prescribes punishment for anyone who absconds from the scheme or forges its certificates.
ALSO READ: Why NYSC remains relevant — Commissioner
The Section 13 of the NYSC law states that eligible Nigerians who skipped the service are liable to be sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and/or N2,000 fine.
Subsection 3 of the same section of the NYSC law also prescribes three-year jail term or option of N5,000 fine for anyone who contravenes the provision of the law.
In subsection 4 of the same section, giving false information or obtaining the agency’s certificate illegally is criminal with a jail sentence of up to three-years.
Pulse reached out to Special Adviser Media and Communication to the Minister, Mr Akintunde, for a response but got none as the calls made to his mobile phone were not answered. A text message was sent to him and he is yet to respond as at the time of filing this report.
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A dancer emerged from the crowd, tipping an imaginary hat to the lead drummer. It’s a gesture that says the bomba has begun.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Drummers beat the goatskin covers of rum barrels while a singer led a chorus in call and response.
A dancer emerged from the crowd, tipping an imaginary hat to the lead drummer. It’s a gesture that says the bomba has begun.
This playful exchange between dancers, singers and drummers is the rhythmic backbone of Afro-Boricuas here. Developed in the 17th century, when the Spanish were still in control, it is one of the oldest musical traditions on the island. Some of its earliest practitioners were West Africans working on sugar plantations; their bomba dances offered a means of social connection and catharsis, and, according to the ethnomusicologist Salvador E. Ferreras, sometimes helped them to disguise revolts.
These days, bomba offers a different kind of diversion. The mayor of San Juan danced the bomba with Ricky Martin. And recently, filmmaker Spike Lee was here filming bomba scenes for the second season of “She’s Gotta Have It.” It’s an art form on the verge of becoming mainstream.
For generations of Afro-Boricua workers and families, bomba has remained central to community, with the drum acting as an instrument of political power, entertainment and spiritual release. Some may even call bomba the soundtrack of Puerto Rican resistance. At this year’s May Day march in San Juan, its lyrics and drumbeats echoed through the crowds airing their opposition to austerity measures, including school closures and university tuition hikes, before police fired pepper spray and tear gas to end the protest.
Bomba’s resilient spirit has become more pronounced in the face of the island’s economic crisis and the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.
At La Terraza de Bonanza, any given bomba night is bound to be packed with young people. Some dance with exaggerated technique, their faces pinched tight with discipline. Traditionalists flick a fan or a skirt to mark their control over the physical space. Others are more avant-garde and incorporate acrobatic moves, or an arrhythmic dance known as flossing.
These nights began with just a few friends getting together to play drums, said Otura Mun, the frontman of the Afro-Caribbean electronic band ÌFÉ, and grew through social media and word of mouth. Attendance really swelled after Hurricane Maria in September 2017; because Bonanza had a generator still on hand from Hurricane Irma, the no-frills, open-air bar was one of few places in the neighborhood with power. It opened for business just two days after the storm.
The resurgence of bomba owes something to formal experimentation. La Tribu de Abrante, a high-energy, 12-piece fusion orchestra, has blended the sounds of bomba with reggaeton, reggae and hip-hop. The openness to new sounds has helped expand bomba’s audience locally, through live performance and radio, and globally, by associating it with popular genres.
“When I traveled to other countries, people would say reggaeton is the traditional music of Puerto Rico,” recalled Hiram Abrante, the band’s frontman, who is from Loíza. “I’d say, ‘What? It’s bomba.’”
His goal has always been to make bomba more accessible to listeners around the world while maintaining respect for its traditions and history. At the recent Festival del Apio in Barranquitas, Abrante acknowledged bomba’s heritage by closing La Tribu’s set with a salute to two of San Juan’s oldest bomba families: the Cepedas and the Ayalas.
“With evolution, there is responsibility,” said Victor Emmanuelli, 41, a member of the musical group Bomba Evolución and a historian of the genre. “It’s important for young people to have the fundamentals in order for the genre to evolve.” He started playing bomba at age 8 in Carolina, a town between San Juan and Loíza.
Jerry Ferrao, who played with the Cepedas for 20 years, has noticed that some younger players seem overly concerned with playing fast, favoring the rhythm of the dance over the poetry of the songs.
Yet others regard the accelerating pace as only natural, even evolutionary. “Drivers from the 1960s can say 2018 drivers are going too fast, but cars are faster these days,” said Jose L. Elicier, 41, who plays with the group Majestad Negra.
But what do the first families of bomba make of all this change?
Jesús Cepeda was seated on a cot in the modest three-bedroom home where he was raised with 10 brothers and sisters and a few other relatives. The walls of the house, which once belonged to his father, the famous bombero Don Rafael Cepeda, are a monument to the family’s cultural legacy, filled end to end with commemorative plaques and sun-bleached certificates of recognition, including one signed by Ronald Reagan.
“Regarding the success of La Tribu, I want to be sincere,” said Cepeda, 68. “Mixing reggaeton and reggae with bomba — on the one hand, it’s good, it’s beautiful. Young people are representing the same idea that we are.”
“They’re helping bomba,” Cepeda said of La Tribu, “but I have 65 years of doing this, giving classes, direct from folklore. It’s not a mix. I can speak to the masters of generations before me, but they can’t. They’re not masters, they’re students.”
He remembers a time when Afro-Puerto Rican music wasn’t so popular, when bomba was dressed up differently to appeal to white audiences. “They put two white dancers on the cover of the album,” said Cepeda, laughing, describing Rafael Cortijo’s breakthrough album, “Rafael Cortijo y Su Combo Invites You to Dance.” His father played with the band.
“It was harder for us then, you know what I mean?” Cepeda said. “We were poor, we were black, we didn’t have a studio. All we had was bomba, nothing else.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Rose Marie Cromwell, Lauren Du Graf and Eve Lyons © 2018 The New York Times
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Robert Chikwanda from Lusaka, Zambia said teachers robbed his parents by making them pay for ‘irrelevant’ things such as X + Y = 23 which neither bring food to his table nor can be applied to solve any problem.
An unhappy man from Zambia has instructed his lawyers to file a suit against teachers of his former primary and secondary schools for teaching him things that are not useful to him in society currently.
27-year-old Robert Chikwanda from Lusaka, Zambia reportedly posted a video on social media in which he is heard ranting about how some of the things he suffered to learn and was even punished for by his former teachers are completely of no use in society.
He believes the teachers robbed his parents by making them pay for ‘irrelevant’ things such as X + Y = 23 which neither bring food to his table nor can be applied to solve any problem.
READ MORE: Man sues authorities over condom burst
Robert Chikwanda is quoted as saying: “To all my teachers who taught me I’m taking you to court for robbing my parents’ money.
“You were busy teaching me rewrites in English, Starch, X + Y = 23 when none of the above is applying in society.
“In banks we don’t use rewrites. I feel you taught me things that you knew could not add value in society”
Inasmuch as the intended suit might sound weird, almost everyone who has had the benefit of formal education would agree that, they had learn certain things in school that are completely irrelevant to their current profession or societal problems.
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It’s an unexpected rallying cry for stiletto-shod passers-by, a jarring sight on an ornate temple of consumerism.
The Dior boutique on Avenue Montaigne, the luxury shopping thoroughfare bookended by the Pont de l’Alma, near where Princess Diana died.
And the beginning of the Champs-Élysées, is currently wrapped in a bright red, green and blue mural of raw-edged 1960s protest posters blaring, “Women empowerment” and “C’est non, non et non.”
It’s an unexpected rallying cry for stiletto-shod passers-by, a jarring sight on an ornate temple of consumerism.
Created to reflect Dior’s latest women’s ready-to-wear collection by designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, it is also symptomatic of an approach that has put activism at the heart of the maison, to the delight of some and the discomfort of others.
In the past, Chiuri’s cause of choice was women’s rights (hence the mural), but for the couture, she changed her target, creating an entire show in shades of nude and navy so impeccably invisible, it acted as an unmistakable riposte to the imperatives of the internet age.
You want clothes that shout through the small screen? Hah. She made clothes that whispered their way down the runway.
It turns out California is not the only place where people are speaking up about the digital era; gaming is not the only pressure point when it comes to issues of attention. Fashion, with its addiction to Instagram, to likes and followers, is fighting its own battle over first principles. And the couture, by definition an art of the hand and the inside, the one product unavailable to buy online, lies at the heart of the struggle.
John Galliano dramatized the tension in high definition with a riot of a Maison Margiela show that he called an “ongoing study of seductions in the millennial era.” This meant fashion’s ancestral antecedents — enveloping Poiret-like shawl collars; cocoon and trapeze volumes; molded corseted and peplum skirt suits — reinvented in entirely counterintuitive fabrics, including foam, nylon and what looked like insulation and mattress ticking.
Some of it was patched together from offcuts from other luxury houses (including silks used in Queen Elizabeth’s scarves); much of it was in “techno-pastels” derived from a Faye Dunaway lipstick shade; and the star accessory was not a handbag but rather a smartphone holster that could be strapped to the ankle or elbow.
It didn’t exactly reconcile the opposing poles, but it electrified the debate.
On one side of the tug of war are those designers who celebrate the performative aspect of clothing: Giambattista Valli, who can attach a statement-making train to seemingly any garment, including a sparkling tulle tube top paired with high-waist pants; Jean Paul Gaultier, who can mix elegance and visual puns in myriad Le Smokings as if he were doing “Saturday Night Live” in Versailles; and Schiaparelli, where Bertrand Guyon created a wearable jungle in leopard, zebra and flamingo. Sometimes all at the same time.
On the other side are designers like Chiuri, who insist on the primacy of the interior as opposed to the exterior. See, for example, Giorgio Armani’s 96 variations on champagne and black in lamé pantsuits, velvet columns and the occasional feathered fantasy.
The issue is one of values: Do you want your clothes to be a public pronouncement? Or an intimate conversation between you and yourself?
Only by getting up close, after all, would you understand Chanel, where Karl Lagerfeld strategically placed zippers along the seams of sleeves and skirts and suits to reveal a glinting, seductive underneath. Or Fendi (Lagerfeld again), where the magicians of the atelier played optical-illusion games with mink, ermine, chiffon and sequins so it was impossible to identify with the naked eye which was which in the slither of shine of a dancing dress or in the mosaic of colors in a coat.
Or Givenchy, where, in an ode to the house’s founder and namesake, Clare Waight Keller brought Audrey Hepburn history into the 21st century with caped, graphic silhouettes bathed in starlight, medieval and futuristic at the same time, and then brought the atelier out on the steps with her to take a bow.
Yet this kind of close is off limits to 99 percent of people. So what’s a brand to do? Accept the idea that its greatest work will lurk largely in the shadows instead of going viral on YouTube?
Perhaps the answer is to reframe the relationship. Last week, two designers did it in two very different ways, and each time the result was extraordinary no matter how you looked at it.
Iris Van Herpen, for example, for whom technology is not a platform but the atelier itself. Half the time what she makes doesn’t even resemble clothing but rather some form of undulating carapace: the 5G network made material, cast in the style of Arthurian legend, and encasing the body; sound-wave patterns laser-cut out of Mylar and black cotton and heat-bonded to acrylic cutouts in something resembling (kind of) a little black dress.
And Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino, who happily said before his show, “I was not at all interested in what is modern couture,” thus in one sentence rejecting the struggle that had defined almost every other collection.
Instead he paired prune-colored wool cropped trousers with a crepe shirt the color of a baby chick, tied with a gold lamé scarf at the neck and worn under a floor-sweeping cape covered in jade green ... sequins? It’s a combination that never should have worked, but absolutely did.
Opera coats and wrap trenches held entire mythologies in intarsia pictograms. A finale of luscious taffeta gowns in ever more extravagant expanses of saturated shades had the shrugged-on ease of a T-shirt and the pockets of a pair of jeans. They were entrance making, and at the same time laid so lightly on the body that it seemed as if you could crumple them up and hold them in one hand, virtual ballgown of the most human kind.
At the end of the show, the house’s founder, Valentino Garavani, was on his feet and in tears. Piccioli had found the ultimate in connectivity, without ever mentioning the D(igital) word.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Vanessa Friedman © 2018 The New York Times
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HONG KONG — Two boats carrying tourists off the coast of Thailand capsized in 16-foot waves near the resort island of Phuket, killing at least 33 people and leaving more than 20 missing, officials said Friday.
One of the boats, the double-decker cruise ship Phoenix PC Diving, was carrying 105 passengers — including 93 tourists, all from China — when it capsized Thursday after leaving Koh Racha, a popular snorkeling spot.
Phuket officials said Friday evening that 33 bodies had been recovered so far, all of them Chinese nationals. Twenty-three other people were missing.
The second boat, the Serenita, sank Thursday off Koh Mai Thon, a small resort island off the coast of Phuket. There were 42 people aboard, all of whom were rescued, officials said.
The boats had gone out to sea despite a severe weather warning.
Somjing Boontham, who said he was the captain of the Phoenix, said he had urged passengers to put on life jackets while crew members frantically lowered lifeboats as huge waves slammed and tilted the boat. Pictures from the scene showed lifeboats carrying up to 20 people, some of them children.
The capsizings came as Thailand has been transfixed by the efforts to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from the flooded Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand.
Wang Xudong, who is with a private search-and-rescue group from China, had been assisting at the cave, but on Friday he was preparing to search for his countrymen lost at sea instead.
“I never expected to be here in Phuket for something like this,” he said. “We had good news at the cave, and I hope we can have some good news in Phuket, too. I want to help out any way I can, either for Thai people or Chinese people.”
The Chinese state news media said a total of 127 Chinese tourists were involved in the two episodes, including 37 people on one boat who worked for a furniture company in Zhejiang. Many of the tourists on the Phoenix were staying at major international resorts on Phuket.
On Friday morning, helicopters, police officers and fishing boats were swarming the area in search of survivors. The Phoenix PC was believed to be 120 feet below the surface of the water.
“We will conduct air searches and send divers to check inside the sunken Phoenix boat,” Phuket’s governor, Noraphat Plothong, said Friday morning. “Police investigators said most of the tourists were wearing life jackets. I assume they are trapped inside the boat,” he said, adding that he hoped some had survived.
More than a quarter of the foreign tourists who go to Thailand are Chinese, according to government data. More than 10 percent of Thailand’s economy depends on tourism.
A Chinese movie, “Lost in Thailand,” helped to drive the Southeast Asian country’s popularity as a holiday destination for Chinese visitors.
On June 28, a Chinese tourist drowned at Karon Beach on Phuket. Red flags, indicating that the water was not safe to swim in because of rip currents, had been placed on the beach.
Phuket, one of Thailand’s most popular destinations, was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which killed hundreds of people on the island. In the years since, Chinese and Russian tourists have flocked to Phuket, changing the character of tourism there. Many signs in Phuket are now in Chinese and Cyrillic, in addition to English.
The tourism infrastructure on Phuket and on nearby Andaman Sea islands has been strained by the influx. Maya Bay, famous for appearing in the Leonardo DiCaprio film “The Beach,” was ordered closed on June 1 by Thailand’s Department of National Parks in order to give the bay’s coastal and coral-reef ecosystems time to recover from the onslaught of day-trippers. The beach is on Koh Phi Phi Leh, not far from Phuket.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Angie Chan and Hannah Beech © 2018 The New York Times
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In a solidarity speech at the conference venue in Koforidua in the Eastern Region Saturday, the Conservative Party representative, John Mayor, cautioned that the display of opulence may cause disaffection for the party in the next polls.
The UK Conservative Party has slammed the governing New Patriotic Party's (NPP) lavish display of campaign posters at its delegates conference.
In a solidarity speech at the conference venue in Koforidua in the Eastern Region Saturday, the Conservative Party representative, John Mayor, cautioned that the display of opulence may cause disaffection for the party in the next polls.
READ MORE: NPP conference to elect new executives underway
He was emphatic that voters are less keen on political parties that focus on their internal processes other than the public interest.
"I came through the streets today and I saw so many posters ,posters of the wonderful candidates here in today's conference," he said.
"But I had to reflect. I think I saw more posters than there are delegates here in the conference I wondered, ‘is this really the best use of our resources?’" he quizzed.
"I have a lesson from the conservative party, which is voters like parties which focus on the voters. Voters are less keen on parties that focus on their internal processes."
The NPP is voting today to elect new executives of the party.
Keenly contested positions include the national chairman position and the youth organiser position.
READ MORE: Freddie Blay, from CPP MP to NPP chairman
Ahead of the vote, President Nana Akufo-Addo has called on the party delegates to consolidate the gains made in the 2016 polls.
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The Islamic scholar also said that he warned President Buhari not to take over from former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi has said that things have gotten worse under the administration of President Buhari.
The Islamic scholar also said that he warned President Buhari not to take over from former President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to Daily Post, he said “Our criticism of Buhari is not about being a northerner or a Muslim . It has to do with what is in the best interest of Nigerians. A leader is like a blind man. People on the ground or on the field could see what he cannot see.
“Preachers of religions who are apolitical are the ones that are the eyes , telling the leadership what to do or where things are going wrong.
“We are like the press too, we are supposed to be neutral in our presentation of facts. Once things are not going on as they should be, it is our duty to come out to explain to the people and the government what is wrong and also proffer solutions.
“Even before Buhari came, I was one of the few people that advised him that the Nigerian situation at the end of Jonathan’s regime was not the best for him. He was going to make things worse, not better.
“If you are bringing in a patient who has broken all his limbs to the hospital , the doctor will be concerned about whether his blood is circulating and not about his broken bones.
“The doctor will not be looking at the protruding bones but those standing by will be looking and wondering why the doctor is not concerned about the bones.
ALSO READ: Nigerians are getting poorer under Buhari - IMF
“The doctor is concerned about how to save the life of the patient. That is how Nigeria is. When you are concerned and obsessed with what can be fixed later, you are rather killing Nigeria. That is what I see in the government.”
Buhari’s approval rating sinks to 38%
According to performance survey conducted by renowned agency, NOI Polls Limited recently, the President’s job approval rating has dropped to at 38% as at February 2018.
The president's disapproval rating stands at 44%, a 1-point increase from January, while 18% of survey participants were undecided.
The poll also showed that the president is most popular in the northeast zone with a 62% approval rating, a 4% drop from January, and least popular in the southeast zone with only 8% approval rating, worse than 12% from January.
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The trio, referred to as the ‘Chop life gang’, were accompanied by Tobi Bakre, BBNaija S3 finalist, Swanky Jerry, celebrity stylist and actress Daniella Okere and Movie producer Eniola Badmus and others.
Nollywood actors Alexx Ekubo, IK Ogbonna and fashion designer Yomi Casual led a group of young people to some voter registration centres in Lagos to raise greater awareness on the need to register and obtain the PVC.
The trio, referred to as the ‘Chop life gang’, were accompanied by Tobi Bakre, BBNaija S3 finalist, Swanky Jerry, celebrity stylist and actress Daniella Okere and Movie producer Eniola Badmus and others.
Ekubo who tagged the outing PVC Activation Drive’ shared this on his instagram page @alexxekubo.
The drive was aimed at using celebrity influence to get young people to register as eligible voters and obtain their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC).
He wrote, “Thanks to everyone who came out today to support the @choplifegang PVC activation drive, from entertainers to media houses.
“We had only one intent and that is to get more people involved in the decision making process of our dearly beloved country.
“This is not a political rally, nor an opposition group and definitely not a political party. It’s just three friends encouraging the youths to get involved and take advantage of the #nottooyoungtorun bill,” he said.
Ekubo also revealed that although the activation drive took place in Lekki, its success might lead to the extension of the programme to the mainland.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that several celebrities have also been leading the PVC registration campaign.
Recently, BBNaija alumnus Ifu Ennada joined Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ini Edo and others in the clamour for voter participation by encouraging people to obtain their voter cards.
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The APC chairman also said that Fayose has ordered civil servants in the state to surrender their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
The chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has alleged that Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state asked lecturers to award 20 marks to students who vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the upcoming governorship election slated for July 14, 2018.
The APC chairman also said that Fayose has ordered civil servants in the state to surrender their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
Oshiomhole also accused Fayose of acting desperately to ensure his candidate wins.
He said “I believe that the people of Ekiti State are very much aware of what the issues are. There is no better evidence of how prepared we are than the fact that the PDP is panicking.
“You must have read reports that in clear violation of the electoral act, the Governor Fayose has instructed the civil servants, principals of schools and headmasters to retrieve PVCs from civil servants because he is afraid that the civil servants and the people of Ekiti State will not vote for him and in demonstration of that, they are helping to educate the people on why they should not vote for his candidate.
“He has not paid salaries for one year despite the fact that the federal government gave him bailout which he chose to divert to other uses. So, they are panicking and while we are encouraging people to collect PVC, he is retrieving PVCs."
Fayose querying workers
The APC chairman also alleged that Governor Fayose has issued queries to civil servants who refused to submit their PVCs.
ALSO READ: Ekiti Election: INEC says it'll not let Nigerians down
“We heard that they have started issuing query to workers, including teachers for refusing to surrender their PVCs. I don’t think you need any other evidence that the governor is panicking and we can’t wait to have him swept away in a free and fair election on the basis of one man, one vote, one woman, one vote.
“We all know that Fayose was rigged into office and this is no secret because the military officers involved has since confessed to the role they played as well as those involved in the dollars that were withdrawn from the NNPC. These are no secrets anymore.
“I think that Fayose thinks that the very instrument he used to come to power will be used against him. This is a party of change and so, we are not about to copy the darkest side of the PDP," he added.
Oshiomhole also said that the APC will not allow any form of rigging in the upcoming Ekiti governorship election.
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The Senate President was invited to the state by the State Government to launch the Alternative Dual Carriage Way.
The President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, is in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on an official visit.
The Senate President was invited to the state by the State Government to launch the Alternative Dual Carriage Way from the Airport to Port Harcourt and East West Road.
Saraki will also commission the second train of the Indorama Eleme Fertilizer Plant project here in Eleme Local Government Area.
This was made known in a tweet from the handle: @SPNigeria.
ALSO READ: Senate to revisit calls for state police
The Senate President, in his speech, commended Governor Wike, who he described as his good friend, for his laudable initiatives.
He said "I must commend my good friend, the Executive Governor of the State, His Excellency Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, for always being at the vanguard of laudable initiatives in the state.
"It is therefore no surprise that this latest project is one that is not just economically viable in the state and the country but also export-inclined on completion.
" In a country with unprecedented poverty levels, the much needed emphasis on agriculture and agro-allied sector as a means of ensuring a trickledown effect of resources has been slow and far from forthcoming.
"Farmers do not have access to viable resources and lines of credit to grow their businesses and often times, the success and failure of such projects are heavily dependent on the availability of these core components.
"This is why building the right Public Private Partnership is advisable and important in order to limit the line and logistical access between famers and fertilizer producers/plant; ensure a standard can stand the test of time; and ensure a project that would be able to compete internationally. Building on the successes of the Train-1, it is obvious that this segment will go the long mile in empowering farmers, creating employment, creating wealth, reducing the cost of fertilizer and subsequently eliminating same.
ALSO READ: Senate president hails Supreme Court verdict, says trial politically-motivated
"It is my belief that the success of this project will lay the groundwork that other states can emulate across the agriculture value-chain, so as to not only strengthen their respective internally generated revenues but also create employment and support the agro movement in the country. Once again, my sincere appreciation goes to the Chief Executive of the State for the honour of having me. I also congratulate the community, the Eleme Local Government and indeed the entire Rivers State for this worthy project."
The Supreme Court on Friday, July 6, 2018, cleared Dr. Bukola Saraki, of the charges against him before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
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The state’s Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr Peter Oke, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Osogbo.
No fewer than 10 people lost their lives in 15 road traffic accidents in Osun last month, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) disclosed in Osogbo on Saturday.
The state’s Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr Peter Oke, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo.
He blamed the accidents on reckless driving, over-speeding and impatience by motorists.
“I want to also let you know that the numbers of people involved in the accidents were 211, which led to the death of 10 people.
“Our statistics in June showed that 111 people were unhurt out of the 211 people involved in the recorded accidents.
“We were able to educate 171 road users arrested for various offences while driving on the roads.”
Oke advised motorists to desist from making calls while driving and to also avoid drinking as well as to do away with other acts capable of leading to accidents.
He warned that the command would never allow traffic offenders to go unpunished.
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Alex was the special guest at the University of Benin for the launch of ‘My Paddi’, a web application that helps young people interact with experts and find answers to questions on sexual health and safe practices.
Alex Asogwa a.k.a Alex Unusual, 3rd runner- up BBNaija season 3, has commenced the campaign on sexual health and safe practices among young people in Benin, Edo State.
Alex was the special guest at the University of Benin for the launch of ‘My Paddi’, a web application that helps young people interact with experts and find answers to questions on sexual health and safe practices.
She encouraged young people to sign on the application in order to find the right answers and avoid making preventable mistakes.
The highlight of the launch was a question and answer session from and a dance off between Alex and the students, who were thrilled to have her at the school.
Alex impressed the audience with her version of the ‘Shaku shaku’ dance which is one of her best dance styles, much to a rousing applaud as she is very popular for her dance steps.
Meanwhile, a speedy painting of Alex was made and presented to her on the spot by a student artist known as @od.benzy_art.
The dancer, writer and speaker, known for her passion for kids, youth empowerment, self actualisation and education, recently urged women to pursue their dreams regardless of the hurdles they face.
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The song was produced by seasoned hit making Dj Coublon, mixed and mastered by swaps, visual directed by Paul Gambit.
Fanzy Papaya is dishing out hits back to back as he stakes his claim of being regarded as one of the best contemporary high life crooners in the music industry.
The Emvels entertainment Signee follows up his Patoranking assisted single ‘BlessMe’ (went viral with over 1 Million views on YouTube) with this newest banger ‘Love Me‘ featuring the delectable Yemi Alade,
The song was produced by seasoned hit making Dj Coublon, mixed and mastered by swaps, visual directed by Paul Gambit in a star studded skillful line up to come about this masterclass.
Watch below and spread the word!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMrERFE6rpk&t
DOWNLOAD MP3 - https://my.notjustok.com/track/download/id/343229
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