CNN News anchor, Anderson Cooper has welcomed a baby boy. The 52 year old who came out as a gay in 2012, welcomed his son, Wyatt Morgan Cooper, via surrogate on Tuesday April 28. The elated new dad shared the news of his son's birth on Instagram on Thursday April 30, alongside a slideshow of photos of the newborn. Cooper shared that he never thought fatherhood would be a possibility for him while he was growing up. He added that he wishes his parents and brother were alive to meet Wyatt who he says is named after his father."I want to share with you some joyful news. On Monday, I became a father. This is Wyatt Cooper. He is three days old. He is named after my father, who died when I was ten. I hope I can be as good a dad as he was. My son's middle name is Morgan. It's a family name on my mom's side. I know my mom and dad liked the name morgan because I recently found a list they made 52 years ago when they were trying to think of names for me. Wyatt Morgan Cooper. My son. He was 7.2 lbs at birth, and he is sweet, and soft, and healthy and I am beyond happy.
As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child, and I’m grateful for all those who have paved the way, and for the doctors and nurses and everyone involved in my son's birth. Most of all, I am grateful to a remarkable surrogate who carried Wyatt, and watched over him lovingly, and tenderly, and gave birth to him. It is an extraordinary blessing - what she, and all surrogates give to families who cant have children. My surrogate has a beautiful family of her own, a wonderfully supportive husband, and kids, and I am incredibly thankful for all the support they have given Wyatt and me. My family is blessed to have this family in our lives I do wish my mom and dad and my brother, Carter, were alive to meet Wyatt, but I like to believe they can see him. I imagine them all together, arms around each other, smiling and laughing, happy to know that their love is alive in me and in Wyatt, and that our family continues." he wrote
The post CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper, welcomes baby boy via surrogate (photos) appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.source http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2020/5/cnn-anchor-anderson-cooper-welcomes-baby-boy-via-surrogate-photos.html
Nigerians are reacting on Twitter after the highest number of Coronavirus cases were recorded in Kano State in a single day.As at Thusday 30th April, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 204 new cases of Coronavirus, with 80 of the new infections recorded in Kano, while 45 was from Lagos. Read previous report here. 
According to the breakdown of COVID-19 cases recorded by states in Nigeria, Kano has 219 cases in total, while Lagos remains the epicenter of Coronavirus with 976 infections. Kano topping the day's count for the first time didn't come as a surprise following reports of strange deaths in the state. See Twitter reaction below. 
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Tony Allen, the pioneering drummer who was a member of Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s band, Africa 70, has died. Allen died in Paris, France, on Thursday, April 30. The cause of his death has not been revealed. Tony Allen was a drummer, composer and also a songwriter for Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. He was born in Lagos in 1940 and was regarded as one of the founders of Afrobeat. Fela once stated that, "Without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat." In 2017, Fela's son, Femi Kuti said to Rolling Stone: "There was no band like the Africa 70 and there is no drummer like Tony Allen." Allen has also been described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who ever lived". Allen’s career and life story have been documented in his 2013 autobiography Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat, co-written with author/musician Michael E. Veal, who previously wrote a comprehensive biography of Fela Kuti. The post 
President Buhari has directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and the Head of Service, Folashade Mejabi Yemi-Esan, to begin the restructuring and rationalization of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies. This directive comes after he approved the adoption of the Steve Oransaye Committee report. The Oronsaye committee was constituted during the Goodluck Jonathan administration to seek ways of cutting cost of governance in the country. After several deliberations, the committee came up with an 800-paged report, recommending the abolishment and merging of 102 government agencies and parastatals. Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, was on Channels TV where she disclosed that President Buhari has approved the adoption of the report. “The president has approved that this administration should implement the Oransanye report. It has reviewed the whole of the size of government and has made very significant recommendations in terms of reducing the number of agencies and that would mean merging some agencies.This is a report that has been in place for a long time and there hasn’t been implementation but the president has approved that this should be implemented and we have conveyed Mr President’s approval to the arms of government that are responsible for this and that will be the office of the secretary of government and the head of civil service of the federation.” Zainab says The post 
Goods and properties worth millions of Naira have been destroyed in a fire outbreak in Kaduna. Several shops and a pharmacy situated along Constitution road in Kaduna state were engulfed in an intense fire last night Wednesday, April 29. The cause of the fire is yet unknown. Unfortunately, most of the shop owners were not around to salvage their goods due the lockdown imposed on the state as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. See more photos from the incident below 
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The presumptive Democratic nominee for the US Presidential elections, Joe Biden, has said he is in support of sexual assaulters in the military being brought to book while survivors be supported, days after new evidence erupted alleging he sexually assaulted former Senate staffer Tara Reade in 1993 while she worked for him. 
Joe Biden was part of a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday evening, and he notably was not asked about the sexual assault allegation made by Reade. 
But a woman named Nancy Parrish, who is an advocate of combating sexual assault in the military, asked the former Vice President what he would do about sexual assault in the military. She asked Biden, if he will support “moving the military justice system into the 21st century by empowering experienced military prosecutors to make prosecution decisions for non-military crimes -- serious felonies like rape, murder, and child abuse.” To which Biden responded;"The answer is yes, yes, yes," "When I was vice president, that was my position as well.'As a matter of fact, I had a real run-in with one of the members of the Joint Chiefs in the Cabinet Room on that issue. Look, we have to change the culture of abuse in this country, especially in armed services." Biden promised that "survivors" of sexual assault in the military will be "supported" and "abusers" will be "held accountable for their crimes." "Number one: I will order the Defense Department to take urgent and aggressive action to make sure survivors are in fact supported and abusers are held accountable for their crimes.''Independently, I’d immediately appoint a commission of current and former military leaders, sexual-assault survivors and their advocates and sexual-assault experts, and give them 90 days to make concrete recommendations to me, including on prosecution decisions.”The post 
Two COVID-19 related deaths have been recorded in Kano state. The state Ministry of Health disclosed this via its Twitter handle on Thursday morning, April 30. The Ministry also confirmed 24 new cases of COVID-19 in the state. The state now has 139 cases with a total of 5 confirmed deaths. 
President Buhari on Monday April 27, announced a two week lockdown in Kano state following the increase in mysterious deaths recorded in the state. The post 
Humanitarian minister, Sadiya Farouq and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Admininstration Control (NAFDAC) have both issued differing statements on how some states in the country received expired rice as Coronavirus palliatives. Recall that the expired bags of rice some states received from the federal government has led to a heated contention both offline and online in the last few days. Ms Farouq who commented on dispute the expired bags of rice ignited before now, had said that the food items were "handed over by the Nigerian Customs Service after being assessed by NAFDAC“. She said; “As you may recall, we mentioned here that we distributed the rice relief to the states. The rice was handed over to us by the Nigerian Customs Service and it was assessed by NAFDAC, who issued a clearance before the goods were released for onward distribution to the states.“So, as far as we are concerned, the rice was certified fit for human consumption." Director-General of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye however countered the claim in an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday April 28. Adeyeye stated that NAFDAC was not invited “to test the rice” distributed to Oyo State as claimed by the minister, but was only invited to take samples of rice from Idi-Iroko, Ikeja, and Ogun state. She added that the agency “was not asked to test and certify the ones in Ibadan from where other South-west states got their allocations.” NAFDAC DG said; “We got an invitation to sample rice from Idi-Iroko from Ogun and Ikeja Customs. Our staff went to Idi-Iroko and Ogun to sample the rice and they also went to Ikeja to sample rice, some of the samples are still in our lab in Oshodi. We tested the samples and they passed.“The one for Oyo State, I cannot say anything because NAFDAC was not called by the Ibadan Command or the South-west command of customs to come and check samples in Ibadan.”So, I cannot say anything about the Ibadan Command rice that went to Oyo and possibly to Osun State." Mrs Farouq who challenged Adeyeye's comment while speaking at the daily Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday April 29, insisted that officials of the minstry she heads got a certificate “issued by NAFDAC”. She further disclosed that the Customs and NAFDAC will be sorting out their communication gap later. Farouq said; “We still stand by what we said because this was what was conveyed to us by Customs and we have a certificate to that effect.“The certificate indicated that the rice given to us is fit for human consumption and that was before I even flagged-off the distribution in Lagos state. We will make that certificate available later today. “Let me also remind us that NAFDAC, Customs, and the ministry respect each other’s mandate while carrying out our respective responsibilities.“So Nigerian Customs Service and NAFDAC, I am sure will sort the communication gap and we will report back to this platform once that is done."The post 
An experimental drug, Remdesvir, has proved effective against the new Coronavirus in a major study done by the National Institutes of Health, the US Government have announced . White House health advisor and top US infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci has revealed that data collected from the Coronavirus drug trial testing with the antiviral drug Remdesivir showed 'quite good news' and has set a new standard of care for COVID-19 patients. 
According to the study led by the US National Institute of Health, the drug shortens the time it takes for patients to recover by four days on average, and it is the first drug treatment to pass such a strict test against the virus.Remdesivir, produced by Gilead Sciences was tested in 1,063 hospitalized Coronavirus patients around the world and according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the drug reduced the time it takes patients to recover by 31%, 11 days on average versus 15 days for those just given usual care. Fauci also said the drug led to fewer deaths among Covid-19 patients.“What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” Fauci said Wednesday night. “This will be the standard of care." Covid-19 has killed close to 300,000 people since it emerged late last year in China and a treatment that works against it could greatly slow down the death rate. A statement from the US Food and Drug Administration says that the agency has been talking with California-based Gilead “regarding making remdesivir available to patients as quickly as possible, as appropriate.”“We are excited and optimistic,” said one expert, Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Mark Denison whose laboratory first tested remdesivir against other coronaviruses in 2013 .“It’s active against every coronavirus that we’ve ever tested,” he said. “It was very hard for the virus to develop resistance to remdesivir. That means the drug would likely be effective over longer term use.” The company producing the drugs have revealed that it would publish it's results and findings in a medical journal soon.The post 
Veteran Bollywood actor, Rishi Kapoor has died. The award winning actor died in an Indian hospital in the early hours of today, April 30, after a two-year battle with leukemia. He was 67. Kapoor was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and returned to India last September following treatment in New York. He was recently admitted to a hospital in Mumbai for further treatment."The doctors and medical staff at the hospital said he kept them entertained to the last. He remained jovial and determined to live to the fullest right through two years of treatment across two continents. Family, friends, food and films remained his focus and everyone who met him during this time was amazed at how he did not let his illness get the better of him."He was grateful for the love of his fans that poured in from the world over. In his passing, they would all understand that he would like to be remembered with a smile and not with tears," a statement from his family read The statement also urged his fans and well-wishers to respect India's current lockdown restrictions, noting: "He would not have it any other way." Kapoor made his debut as a child actor in 1970 in his father Raj Kapoor's film "Mera Naam Joker" ("My Name is Joker"). His first lead role was in the 1973 romantic film "Bobby" and it won him the Filmfare Award, India's equivalent of the Oscars, for Best Actor. Over the course of his career, Kapoor acted in more than 100 films, playing both the romantic lead and character roles. He is survived by his wife, actress Neetu Singh and two children, including actor Ranbir Kapoor.The post 
According to Amnesty International, 19 Nigerians have so far been killed by security operatives during the lockdown to contain the spread of Coronavirus. The lockdown in Nigeria began in March in some states and in April in others and a task force was set up to ensure compliance. Unfortunately, in the course of carrying out their duties, some Nigerians were killed. Joseph Pessu was shot dead by a soldier in Warri on Thursday, April 2. His death sparked outrage and counter attacks as youths beat up soldiers and soldiers, in turn, threatened to deal with members of the community and rape their women. Also, a policewoman was shot dead by her male colleague who is a member of the Rivers state taskforce on the COVID-19 lockdown. The incident happened on April 23. Amnesty International puts the total number of those killed in Nigeria at 19. A tweet shared by Amnesty International Nigeria reads: "We have been monitoring human rights violation on lockdown in the fight against #COVID19: —So far 19 Nigerians have been killed by security personnel: #COVID19NIGERIA." 
They added: "On lockdown, in the fight against #COVID19 Nigerians have been experiencing human rights violations. This is unacceptable and must end:" 
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