Sierra Leone doctor tests positive for Ebola

Authorities in Sierra Leone say
another doctor there has tested positive for Ebola, marking a setback for efforts to keep desperately needed health care workers safe.

Government Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo confirmed on Sunday that a fifth doctor has tested positive. The other four all have died from the virus that has killed nearly 5,000 across
West Africa.

The sick physician has been identified as Dr. Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone. He
was driven to the capital of Freetown after reporting he wasn't feeling well.
Doctors and nurses have been the most
vulnerable to contracting Ebola, as the virus is spread through bodily fluids. Some 523 health workers have contracted Ebola, and about half of
them have died.

- AP

Jonathan named most performing president since independence

Dr Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, said on Friday that President Goodluck Jonathan, remains the most performing president the country has had since independence.

Okupe said this at the Public Affairs Forum held in Abuja.
The four-day forum was organised under the auspices of Okupe’s office to highlight the achievements of the Jonathan-led administration.

Okupe said that although previous Nigerian leaders performed well within the circumstances they found themselves, none of them achieved
half of what President Jonathan have achieved in four years.

The presidential aide described as "nonsense" claims that the Transformation Agenda of the
President existed only in the media.

"It is nonsense to say that the Transformation Agenda of Jonathan existed in the television. We have not spoken about what he has done. We are
going to overwhelm Nigerians during the.
He said it was regrettable that not much had been done to sell the good performance of the Jonathan`s administration to Nigerians.

Okupe, however, held that past Nigerian leaders contributed immensely to the development of the country to their best abilities as each of them recorded his own achievement.

He said that the Jonathan-led Federal
Government would showcase its achievements to Nigerians during the presidential campaign for 2015.

This, he said, would convince the people that Jonathan remains the best option for the country in the years to come.

He, however, advised Nigerians to shun the antics of the opposition, saying that in spite of their criticism, they had not told Nigerians what they would offer, if given the opportunity to govern.

"This election will be a ‘no contest’ affair. We are telling the world what Jonathan has done. We will
not stop until well beyond February. 2015," he said.

Also speaking, the Minister of Transport, Sen. Idris Umar, presented the ministry's achievements in the last four years during the event with the theme "Jonathan`s administration: Four impactful years''.

He said the resuscitation and modernisation of the Nigerian Railway system had reached an advance stage.

The minister highlighted various stages of work on new and existing rail lines in different parts of the country, many of which, he said, would be completed by the end of the year.

He stated that the Jonathan-led administration had repositioned the Nigerian port system in line with global best practices.

The administration, he said, had also increased the use of inland waterways and enhanced maritime safety and security.

The minister said that the administration had also improved the inter-model coordination of the Nigerian transport system and enhanced privatebsector participation in transportation in the
country.

"These achievements have certainly impacted positively on the actualisation of the Transformation Agenda of Mr. President to the overall benefit of the Nigerian economy and the citizens," he said.

- NAN

Shekau claims kidnapped Chibok girls married

The leader
of Nigeria's Islamic extremists, tells the world that more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have all been converted to Islam and married off, dashing
hopes for their freedom.

"If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you ... to die from grief," Abubakar Shekau sneers, addressing the parents of the girls and young women kidnapped
from a remote boarding school more than six months ago.

In a new video released late Friday night, the Boko Haram leader also denies there is a cease- fire with the Nigerian government and threatens
to kill an unidentified German hostage.

"Don't you know we are still holding your German hostage (who is) always crying," he taunts. "If we want, we will hack him or slaughter him or shoot him."

A German development worker was kidnapped at gunpoint in Gombi in July. Police reported he was ambushed as he drove to work.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier last week told reporters in Abuja that he had no new information about a German abductee.

In the new video, Shekau wears a camouflage tunic and pants and the black and white flag of al-Qaida is by his side. He is flanked by masked
and armed fighters standing in front of four military pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

The military has several times claimed to have killed Shekau, and says any new videos are made by a look-alike. But the United States has not removed a $7 million ransom on the head of the
extremist leader.

On Oct. 17, military chief Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, announced that Boko Haram had agreed to an immediate cease-fire to end a 5-year
insurgency in which thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have been driven from homes in northeast Nigeria. And government officials said they expected the Chibok girls to be
released any day.

But Shekau denies in the video that he has agreed to any truce and says he is dedicated to fighting and dying a martyr's death to guarantee him a
place in paradise.

"You people should understand that we only obey Allah, we tread the path of the Prophet. We hope to die on this path ... Our goal is the garden of eternal bliss," he says.

He said Boko Haram is interested only in "battle, hitting, striking and killing with the gun, which we look forward to like a tasty meal," he said.

The fighting and abductions have continued, with Boko Haram seizing the commercial center of Mubi this week and fighting raging Friday around
nearby Vimtin, the village where Badeh was born.

And the only news of the girls has come from Shekau, who appeared to dash hopes that they would be released in an exchange for detained Boko Haram fighters.

"The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long ago married them off," Shekau says with a chortle. The extremist fighters havebordered girls to stay out of Western-style schools
and get married.

An earlier video in May showed some of the kidnapped girls, including two explaining why they had converted to Islam. Unconfirmed reports have
indicated the girls have been divided into groups and that some have been carried across borders, into Cameroon and Chad. There also have been
reports that they were forced to marry fighters who paid a nominal bride price equivalent to $12.

- AP