A fierce furnace last Saturday night wiped out parts of the warehouse of the Nigerian Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, with just two weeks to the country’s Presidential Election on March 28.
The fire which lasted well over four hours was brought under control by fire fighters at the ware house which is located at INEC’S Electoral Institute on the airport road in federal capital.
Although eye witnesses who got to the scene before security personnel cordoned off the area claimed that the fire consumed electoral materials, the commission insists that the materials were those used for the 2012 elections.
Briefing Graphiconline, the Director of Security at the institute, Shettima Ngilladar blamed the fire on the country’s version of “dumsor dumsor”.
He explained that the fire started immediately after restoration of light to the area following one of the usual unannounced power outages, adding that “the incidence occurred immediately after power was restored, leading up to the sudden sound from an electric panel within one of the warehouses”.
Assurance
Before announcing the February postponement, the Chairman of the Commission, Prof Attahiru Jega assured the country that all sensitive electoral materials that have been secured and others on their way would be secured in vaults of the nation’s central bank.
On his part Mr Ngilladar assured the electorate and the international community that the fire would not have any negative effect on the upcoming elections since almost all materials for the elections needed at the various states have been dispatched.
Responding to queries from journalists, Mr Ngilladar ruled out any political machination regarding the fire, insisting that it was purely an electrical issue.
“These are non-sensitive materials that have been banned in the warehouse. You will see it yourself. It is not hidden. It is something clear, these banned non-sensitive materials have nothing to do with the elections.
“They are old materials in store that have not been evacuated. These are old stock of non-sensitive materials, like bags, envelopes, election forms which were used in the 2011 elections. They won’t be used for the 2015 elections. Everything here is non-sensitive,” Mr Ngilladar told reporters.
The Department for Energy & Climate Change has approved Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) to build a £750m power project in Knottingley, Yorkshire.
The state-owned electricity company in Ireland will develop a 1,500MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station at the site of the former Oxiris Chemical works in Knottingley.
The project will be developed by Knottingley Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), and will create approximately 1,000 construction jobs.
The ESB project comprises the 3rd CCGT power station examined by the Planning Inspectorate to gain development consent.
Planning Inspectorate chief executive Simon Ridley said: "This is the 36th application for a nationally significant infrastructure project to be examined by The Planning Inspectorate. The examination, recommendation and decision have been within the statutory timescales laid down in the Planning Act 2008."
South Africa's power utility Eskom has ordered four of its executives to step aside while it investigates the problems at the firm.
They include Eskom's chief executive officer Tshediso Matona - appointed less than eight months ago.
"This was done in the best interests of our stakeholders," said Chairman Zola Tsotsi.
South Africa has faced severe power cuts in recent months, leading to widespread criticism of Eskom.
"The inquiry will look into poor generation capacity, cash-flow issues and other problems," Mr Tsotsi told journalists in Johannesburg.
He said the investigation would last up to three months.
Eskom, which provides almost all of the electricity in Africa's most developed economy, has also come under fire in recent months over a seeming lack of maintenance at the country's power plants.
Economists warn that if the energy problems are not resolved, it could further stunt the country's growth prospects.
Eskom says it needs an estimated $20bn (£13bn) to solve its problems.
The government has offered an initial bailout of $2bn, which will be paid out in tranches.
The rest of the money may have to come from the international markets, but with South Africa's credit ratings down, Eskom may find it hard to raise funds elsewhere, says the BBC's Lerato Mbele in Johannesburg.
In the meantime, ordinary South Africans and business want assurances that whatever changes occur within Eskom, the lights will stay on in the country, our correspondent says.
Nigerian troops discovered a Boko Haram bomb factory this week after they seized a northern town from the extremists, the military said.
The factory was tucked inside a fertilizer company in Buni Yadi town in Yobe state, according to officials.
Islamist fighters took over the town in August, one of many seized in the troubled northeast. Troops have battled the militants for months to regain control, and said they recaptured it last week.
Militants planted explosive devices along the highway on their way out, which delayed the soldiers' advance. Four soldiers were killed during the operation.
Soldiers have been scouring the factory and have found suicide bomber vests and improvised explosive devices, the military said Friday.
"Troops are still evacuating the materials ... a large quantity of improvised explosive devices, including those commonly used by suicide bombers, were recovered from the site," the military said in a statement.
ISIS welcomes Boko Haram
The discovery comes days after ISIS purportedly said it welcomed Boko Haram after the latter pledged allegiance to it.
In an audio message purportedly from an ISIS spokesman, the group announced that it had accepted a pledge of allegiance from Boko Haram.
ISIS supporters posted the audio online. CNN cannot independently verify the 28-minute message.
The message says that ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, has expanded to western Africa and congratulated "our jihadi brothers" there.
An ISIS spokesman encouraged people to join fighters in Africa if they cannot make it to Iraq or Syria.
Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, announced in an audio message last week that his terror group wanted to join ISIS.
Years of terror
Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches, mosques and civilians. It has also kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April and remain missing.
The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria.
Islamic State militants have destroyed ruins at the ancient city of Hatra, Iraqi officials say.
A tourism and antiquities ministry official said the extent of the damage at the Unesco world heritage site was unclear, but he had received reports that it had been demolished.
Hatra was founded in the days of the Parthian Empire over 2,000 years ago.
Militants have recently bulldozed ruins at the Assyrian city of Nimrud and destroyed museum artefacts in Mosul.
IS, which controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, says shrines and statues are "false idols" that have to be smashed.
Unesco condemned the destruction of the ancient city and said that it showed the "contempt" that IS has for the history and heritage of the Arab people.
"The destruction of Hatra marks a turning point in the appalling strategy of cultural cleansing under way in Iraq," said Unesco head Irina Bokova in a statement on Saturday.
Hatra, located about 110km (68 miles) south-west of Mosul, was a fortified city that withstood invasions by the Romans thanks to its thick walls reinforced by towers.
It is home to numerous temples and sculptures dedicated to gods including Apollo and Poseidon.
Said Mamuzini, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) local official, said the militants had used explosives to blow up buildings and were bulldozing other sections.
"The city of Hatra is very big and many artefacts of that era were protected inside the site," he said, adding that the militants had already taken away gold and silver.
One official told the Associated Press that residents in the area had heard two powerful explosions.
'War crime'
In a statement, the tourism and antiquities ministry blamed the international community for failing to help Iraq protect its ancient monuments.
It added: "The delay in international support for Iraq has encouraged terrorists to commit another crime of stealing and demolishing the remains of the city of Hatra."
Reports of the bulldozer attack in Nimrud, an Assyrian city founded in the 13th Century BC, emerged on Thursday.
On Friday Unesco head Irina Bokova condemned the "cultural cleansing" in Iraq as a "war crime".
"There is absolutely no political or religious justification for the destruction of humanity's cultural heritage."
Last week, IS released a video apparently showing militants with sledgehammers destroying statues and other artefacts in a museum in Mosul.
In the video, the objects are described as "false idols" and their destruction defended in religious terms.
IS has controlled Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and nearby areas since June 2014 - a region with nearly 1,800 of the country's 12,000 registered archaeological sites.
The Parthian Empire was a major political and cultural force in ancient Iran. At the height of its power in the second century AD, it extended from modern-day Pakistan to Syria.
Hatra later flourished under Arab rulers, and became a major trading-post on the Silk Road across the Asian continent.
The mega-project will have a three-storey, sub-sea tunnel under Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait, which will connect the city’s two sides with one railway and two highways.
The project was the main issue on the municipal council’s agenda this week and was approved after an hour-long discussion.
Abubekir Taşyürek, deputy chairman of political party AKP, said that the party was proud of the project, emphasising its compatibility with legal obligations and the environment. “There is no legal problem regarding the project,” said Taşyürek. “We did not rush anything. The Ministry of Transport & Communications, the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry, and experts from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality have been working on this project for months. It is also an environmentally-friendly project. According to calculations, fuel oil consumption will decrease by roughly 54 million litres due to the project and carbon emissions will decrease by 175t per year. The project will not damage the city’s silhouette either.”
The work is for nine 120MW and three 130MW power plants. The owner is Gulf MP and Pöyry was appointed by Toyo Engineering Corporation, the EPC contractor for the projects.
Pöyry's assignments include complete contractor's engineering services for the projects, including process and plant engineering, plant layout design, civil and structural design, mechanical and piping design, control and instrumentation design, electrical design, and procurement and tendering services.
The overall schedule for all 12 projects is 53 months. The commercial operation date for the first project is scheduled for May 2017 and all the projects are scheduled to have been completed by July 2019. These cogeneration plants are being implemented under Thailand's Small Power Producer (SPP) scheme, whereby 90 MW of each plant are sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and electricity and steam to industrial users in each locality.
“In Thailand, Pöyry has been involved in more than half of the country's independent power producer and small power producer projects,” said Anja Silvennoinen, president of Pöyry's Energy Business Group.
Skanska, a multinational construction and development company, has reached financial close with the Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for the £165m new Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.
The public-private partnership contract includes design, build, finance, hard and soft facilities management of the new Papworth Hospital at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
The consortium consists of Skanska together with OCS, which will provide soft facilities management services.
Hard facilities management services at the hospital will be provided by Skanska for a 30-year post-completion period.
The construction contract for Skanska is valued at £140m and will be included in the order bookings for Skanska UK for the first quarter of 2015.
The new Papworth Hospital project will be completed in 2018 with Skanska commencing work on the site immediately.
The hospital will include 310 beds, most of which will be in single rooms, a 46-bed critical care area, seven operating theatres, six in-patient wards, a 24-bed day ward, an outpatient unit and diagnostic and treatment facilities.
Skanska UK managing director Terry Elphick said: "We will be consulting with all stakeholders throughout construction, an approach we like to take on our healthcare projects around the world, for example Barts and The Royal London, Derby City General Hospital, UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre, the Proton Therapeutical Centre Teaching Hospital in the Czech Republic and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in the USA."
MUNICH/GERMANY, MARCH 13, 2015 - Wacker Neuson revised its gasoline-driven floor saws which now offer additional benefits for end users and contractors. It was possible to further reduce the hand-arm vibrations (HAV), which makes longer operating times and fatigue-free working possible.
The new floor saw series from Wacker Neuson includes the four models BFS 735, BFS 940, BFS 1345 and BFS 1350 with blade diameters from 350 to 500 millimeters. They offer lower hand-arm vibrations (HAV) than previous models which are now below the exposure level of 5 m/s² specified by the EU. This value makes it possible to operate the equipment for up to 8 hours per day. Lower HAV values also make work easier for the operator. Besides cutting the HAV, the wheel base was also optimized: a wide track with a short wheel center distance offers optimal stability and good controllability. All models are equipped with Honda gasoline engines.
Low on maintenance: The new saws benefit from lifetime-lubricated bearings and double-face water sprinkling which make a long service life possible and reduce maintenance cost. | photo: Wacker Neuson
The gasoline-driven floor saws feature high cutting stability, yet are easy to guide. The chassis is constructed from high tensile strength steel leading to high rigidity without increasing the weight. The center of gravity is located precisely over the cutting axle and the cutting depth is adjustable infinitely from 120 to 195 millimeters. The cutting force of the blade is therefore maximized in combination with an optimal coordination of the torque. Wacker Neuson claims the performance of the floor saws is 20 per cent higher than the competition’s equipment. Wacker Neuson says the saws are ergonomic and comfortable to use. The handle grip can be adjusted to the size of the operator without using tools and therefore allows for less fatigue-prone work. Long wet cut phases are made possible by the water tank, which, with 20 liters for the smallest model BFS 735 or 32 liters for all other models, is the largest tank in this class of gasoline-driven floor saws, claims Wacker Neuson. At the same time, the manufacturer stresses, the models from Wacker Neuson are among the lightest equipment in its class, which additionally optimizes handling and transport.
BAKU/AZERBAIJAN, March 12, 2015 - The new terminal at Azerbaijan’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport recently opened its doors to travelers in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The landmark terminal features interior architecture and experiential design by the Istanbul-based Autoban studio, which has developed a reputation for its imaginative, human approach to design. The contemporary interiors overturn the traditional airport conventions of cavernous space and impersonal experience.
Creating a new terminal
The terminal building’s conceptual architecture was designed by Arup, whilst Autoban was responsible for all of the interior architecture. Commenting on the triangular structure of the building, which is also reflected in the entire interior, Seyhan Özdemir, Co-founder of Autoban, says: “Triangular geometry comes from the architecture scheme and structural design of the airport building, and we continued this throughout the interior to present one strong fluid design. We believe architecture and interior design should be coherent. Using triangular forms was a way of respecting the architecture and adopting it for us.” And with regards to the design, Özdemir explains it needed to reflect Azerbaijani culture, values, and its people. The client, Azerbaijan Airlines, wanted a space that evoked a feeling of warm hospitality and a contemporary presentation of traditional design touch points extended to a whole airport terminal. “As a result of globalization, our travelling habits are changing rapidly and airports are fast becoming destinations of their own within the tourism industry. They are the welcoming faces of the countries, where you get the first impression about its culture. Keeping this fact in mind, the new Heydar Aliyev International Airport terminal was designed as a forward-thinking, modern building that fits the new face of the modern city of Baku,” said Özdemir. Autoban’s Red Dot award-winning design spans the entirety of the terminal’s passenger spaces, and includes custom-made wooden ‘cocoons’, made using American white oak veneers The cocoons create a sense of welcome and discovery, and opportunities to either meet or retreat.
Design goal: warm hospitality
Explaining the design inspiration, Sefer Çağlar, Co-founder of Autoban adds: “The keyword for us was ‘warm hospitality’. To achieve this, we adopted the architectural structure of the terminal and played with micro-architecture within the cavernous space to bring it down to a more human scale, so that it felt like a cocoon. This is not an airport where the space dictates. Instead, the people are in control. Travelling has become a huge part of our lives. So as designers we believe it’s our goal to make it as enjoyable as possible for the public by changing the fundamentals of such transportation hubs.”
Wide use of wood materials
With regards to the extensive use of wood in the airport, Çağlar said: “There is a common belief that it is not suitable, and there are many other preconceptions about timber and airports that lead to a certain uniformity. We wanted to challenge this. Why not use wood at an airport? How can we incorporate wood into our design, and break away from the typology of conventional airports that overwhelm passengers with their scale, standards and technology? These were the questions. As a result, with the aid of innovative production technologies, wood became quite a practical material for the airport.”
"cocoons"
There are a total of 16 cocoons - 11 are solid in form and are clad in wooden panels while 5 have open frameworks. The cocoons have a variety of uses; there are two cafes, champagne and caviar bar, a play area for children, a spa and beauty shop, a music and bookstore, and some provide amenities such as luggage storage. The use of the cocoons is flexible and it is expected they will change over time as the airport terminal evolves. The cocoons were manufactured in Ankara with American white oak lumber and veneers, finished in a dark stain. In total, 10,000 square metres of American white oak veneer were used in the project. To make the cocoons, Autoban played with natural materials and worked with craftsmen, but also used CNC milling and laser-cutting. Autoban printed a 3D model of the open-framework cocoons and built a full-size mock-up in Ankara to test their functionality.
The completion of the whole project took just over two years with a design team of 15. Now spanning 65,000 square metres, more than six million passengers a year are expected to pass through the airport. “The response to the new terminal has been incredibly positive and the comment we hear over and over again is that it doesn’t feel like being in an airport, which we take as a great compliment” concluded Çağlar.
Mexican President signed a series of regional agreements with the leaders of Guatemala and Honduras.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has signed a series of regional agreements with the leaders of Guatemala and Honduras, which stipulate a commitment to the construction of a regional gas pipeline.
"To push forward development in Guatemala and Central America, there needs to be the identification, definition and advancement in making concrete a project that would mean transporting gas from Mexico for the whole region," Pena Nieto said on Friday, as quoted by the TeleSUR television network. The announcement was made after Pena Nieto's meeting with Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina and President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvarado, however, no details were given on the pipeline project and the date of the start of the construction remains unknown.
Mexico's presidential office has estimated that the project will cost at least $530 million. The new gas pipeline is expected to link Mexico's port city of Salina Cruz with Guatemala's Escuintla. The pipeline will stretch across 420 kilometres (261 miles) in Mexico, while its length in Guatemala will be around 180 kilometres (112 miles).
Russian energy giant Gazprom, as well as US, Spanish and Chinese companies are reportedly among the contenders for the construction of the new gas pipeline.
Mexico opened its nationalized oil and gas reserves to private companies in August, 2014, when Pena Nieto signed a relevant energy reform into law.