I AM writing these lines at the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris. I’m on transit to Abuja, after a troubling transatlantic flight which started from Los Angeles, California, through Atlanta and over the eastern part of the US, which was literally in lockdown as a result of the hurricane. News of that dominated the airwaves in my last two days in America.

Primate of Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, yesterday, called for seven days prayer and fasting with effect from November 12, in view of the present security situation in the country.

Experts have expressed concern over the inability of airlines in Nigeria to drive the tourism sector.

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has called for the amendment of pension laws, saying the management of pension funds should rest solely with the National Pension Commission.

FINANCIAL crisis rocking the National Secretariat of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, reared its head as cleaners down tool in protest over non-payment of salaries.

THE issue of poor and lack of access to quality healthcare services in Nigeria, especially for Nigerian workers and masses amidst increasing poverty, has remained a major topic for discourse at any healthcare forum. It appears the situation may not get better in 2013 if the view of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, MHWUN, is to be taking seriously.

Africa During the colonial period, a ‘priceless portion’ of the cultural heritage of many oppressed peoples was ‘robbed’, ‘plunder[ed]‘, ‘despoiled’ . Simultaneously, foreign, “civilising missions” destroyed non-Christian ritual objects.

THE family of Ijaw musician, Mr. Tony Moro, who was allegedly killed last week by soldiers of 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Effurun, near Warri, Delta State, on grounds that he was a suspected assassin and kidnapper, yesterday called on the Inspector General of Police, IGP, to probe his death, saying he was extra-judicially killed.

Gunmen,numbering about 20, have attacked Kaboro community in the Dansadau Emirate of Zamfara State, killing 18 people, including the village head.

Chief Medical Director,Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Professor Olusanya Adejuyigbe has called on the Federal government to increase budgetary funding to tertiary health institutions in the country.

You could be driving down the waterfront close of your estate, you pull over to the side to make a call and then the next thing, you are kidnapped; whisked away to an unknown location and a ransom of 10million naira is demanded to set you free!

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state yesterday said the visit of the Williams Sisters, Venus and Serena, will serve as a monumental inspiration to many young athletes in the country.

ABIA State House of Assembly has said local government council election in the state could no longer hold in January 2013 because the electoral commission, ABSIEC, was not prepared.

The battle for the ownership of five oil wells in Soku and Elem-Sangama communities, between Rivers and Bayelsa states, raged, yesterday, as both states talked tough. Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who fired the first shot warned Bayelsa to steer clear of the oil wells saying “we will not allow Bayelsa State Government to collect our oil wells.”

The national Women’s football team, the Super Falcons will today take on Ethiopia in the second group match of the 2013 African Women Championships going on in Equatorial Guinea. The match comes up 5.30 p.m in Bata.