Herbal tea to treat malaria heads for clinical trial   A herbal tea that could combat malaria is due to start its first clinical trial in July, researchers have announced. The brew, called Saye, will be trialled against the conventional malaria drug artemisinin with funding from the Ministry of Health in Burkina Faso. The Saye tea has been used in the country for more than 30 years. Saye is a mixture of three plants, including the root of the local N’Dribala plant ( Cochlospermum planchonii ), and was first licensed as a herbal medicine in Burkina Faso ten years ago. But the compounds it contains that might act against malaria have yet to be identified. An article published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine last week (15 April) explores the anecdotal and laboratory results for Saye ahead of the clinical trial in humans. “It’s not good enough just to reduce parasites in the blood. You really need to clear malaria completely”  Davi...

Reported by our correspondent Niger Republic, one of Nigeria’s allies in the ongoing war against Boko Haram in the North East, yesterday suffered a devastating attack as Boko Haram insurgents attacked its Army base. Niger’s defense ministry was said to have confirmed the attack which sources said the army may have suffered “heavy losses” in the attack on Karamga Island. However, casualty figures were not provided in the confirmation by the Nigerien defence ministry. A similar attack on Karamga Island in February killed seven Niger soldiers, and 14 Boko Haram fighters were also killed, military officials said at the time. In the latest attack, the assailants were said to have approached at dawn in about 10 motorised canoes. Niger had joined in the offensive earlier this year and has been very supportive in the reclaim of large swaths of territory in Nigeria from Boko Haram.   Sources at Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters, DHQ, said Boko Haram insurgents w...

Eranga Isaac, reporting Toxicology reports have confirmed that the mysterious deaths at Ode Irele in Irele Local Government Area of Ondo State were not caused by viral infection but by ethanol poison from a local gin popularly called ‘Ogogoro’ in pidgin English parlance. Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dayo Adeyanju, disclosed this yesterday while briefing journalists in Akure. Adeyanju said: “Our clinical analysis reveals that there were no known viruses, while toxicology reports have confirmed our prime suspicion of methanol poisoning.” The commissioner further disclosed that heavy concentration of ethanol of about 16.3 per cent was found in the system of the affected victims. Adeyanju, who said the death toll had risen to 23, added that 10 survivors were recorded and that two of the victims had regained their sights. To prevent such deaths, he announced the state government’s decision to ban production, sale and consumption of ...

Buhari’s wife to Patience: Don’t be afraid of jail By Eranga Isaac, +2348059233001 Hajia Aishat Buhari, wife of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari has replied the wife President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Jonathan who has been campaigning that General Buhari will jail his political opponents if elected President in the March 28 election, saying Patience Jonathan needs not fear as Nigerians only want a change in the way Nigeria is being run presently . Speaking at a mega rally where she interacted with Women in Edo State Thursday, Hajia Buhari said  the PDP’s attempt to paint her husband black ith the tar of religion is a desperate attempt to hoodwink the people, saying only those who want to loot the treasury campaign with religion which is at variance with politics. She said: “each zone of the country has its peculiar problems. For me in this zone, girl-child trafficking should be considered one...

Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) | credits: igbofocus.co.uk The All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State on Tuesday said the Kaduna State government denied the party’s presidential candidate, Maj. Gen Muhammmadu Buhari (retd.), access to the Murtala Mohammed Square, Kaduna, for his North-West zonal rally ahead of the rescheduled March 28 and April 11 general elections. Our correspondent learnt that preparation for the rally, which is expected hold today (Wednesday), had reached an advanced stage when the zonal office of the party was informed that the state had refused the party the permit to use the facility. “The PDP is jittery already. They are simply afraid of the popularity strength of the APC in the state and indeed the northern part of the state,” a party official, who asked not to be named, said. The spokesman for Governor Mukhtar Yero, Malam Ahmed Mayaki neither picked calls to his mobile nor respond to a text message sent to his phone on the develo...

No fewer than five persons were inured on Wednesday when some Hausa youths at Sabo area of Osogbo allegedly attacked some Yoruba living in their midst. Residents of the area told our correspondent that trouble started around 1am when some hoodlums, suspected to be of Hausa extraction, stormed residences of Yoruba in the area and attacked them. A resident of the area, who identified himself as Goke Ogunseye, told our correspondent at the scene of the crisis that some Hausa youths were allegedly smoking Indian hemp around midnight and somebody flashed a torch light on the smokers. This, he claimed, angered the hoodlums, who started vandalising shops and houses, belonging to Yoruba people in the area. But the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, when contacted on the telephone on Wednesday, said there was no crisis between Yoruba and Hausa anywhere in the state. The PPRO said, ” There was no crisis between Yoruba and Hasua. I don’t know wh...

By Michael D. Evans Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped into the biggest travesty in the history of his nation. He will address a joint session of the United States Congress on Tuesday, March 3, for the third time as did only Netanyahu’s greatest hero, Winston Churchill before him. The invitation to Netanyahu has created a firestorm. The Obama administration has marched out all its big guns to attack the prime minister—from John Kerry to Susan Rice to President Obama himself. Protocol in politics is driving the controversy. Mr. Netanyahu has been accused of using this opportunity as nothing more than a gimmick to drive votes in Israel for the upcoming elections on March 17--elections which were called by the prime minister. The absurdity of this accusation is that Iran is not an election issue. Israeli elections will be decided by economic issues. Before making that move, the prime minister had dismissed Justice Minister Tzipi L...