Doctor dies from Ebola in Nigerian oil city

Abuja - Nigeria on Thursday said that a doctor had died from Ebola in the south-eastern oil city of Port Harcourt in the first case of the deadly virus outside the financial hub, Lagos.

Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the medic died on 22 August after treating a patient who had contact with a Liberian-American man, who brought the virus into Nigeria and died in a Lagos hospital on 25 July.

Nigeria Ebola patient hid from government

A 43 year old Congolese patient, who has been confirmed to have Ebola hemorrhagic fever is comforted by a Medecins Sans Frontieres Doctor. 

Abuja - A man who contracted Ebola in Nigeria after coming into contact with a traveller from Liberia evaded surveillance and infected a doctor in southern Nigeria who later died, Nigerian health authorities announced on Thursday.

The death was the first in Nigeria outside Lagos, the commercial capital. The incident raises the number of confirmed cases in the country to 15, including six deaths.

Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told reporters the man who evaded surveillance has recovered and is now being watched in Lagos. The wife of the doctor who treated him in Port Harcourt is also now being quarantined after she developed symptoms of the deadly disease.

Ebola death toll passes 1 500 mark, says WHO

Sierra Leone government burial team members wearing protective clothing carry the coffin of Dr Modupeh Cole, Sierra Leone's second senior physician to die of Ebola

Geneva - The death toll from the Ebola outbreak tearing through West Africa has passed the 1 500 mark while the number of cases has soared past 3 000, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.

As of 26 August 26, 1 552 people had died from the murderous epidemic that reared its head at the beginning of the year, while 3 062 had become infected, the UN's health body said.

On 20 August, the toll stood at 1 427 deaths out of 2 600 cases.

 Nigeria on Thursday said that a doctor had died from Ebola in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt in the first case of the deadly virus outside of its biggest city, Lagos.

Stop attacking Mugabe’s wife, politicians warned

                                                                           Zimbabwe's First Lady Grace Mugabe

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party on Thursday warned party members against bad-mouthing the veteran leader's wife, following her shock entry into politics.

"I must warn the party leadership at every level, not to use the media to abuse the First Lady's name for whatever reason," Simon Khaya Moyo, Zanu-PF chairperson said in a statement.

"The First Family must be respected at all times."

Niger chief flees over baby-trafficking scandal

                                                                           Hama Amadou

Niamey - Niger's leader of the opposition and parliamentary speaker Hama Amadou has fled to neighbouring Burkina Faso after parliamentary leaders authorised his arrest on suspicion of involvement in a baby-trafficking network, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference where he announced Hama's departure, Mossi Boubacar accused the government of a "coup d'etat against democracy".

A source close to the Burkinabe presidency confirmed that Hama had arrived in the capital Ouagadougou. The source said neither Hama nor the Niger government had made any requests of the Burkinabe authorities.