The Gambia eligible for additional Commonwealth-funded scholarship places

PHOTO BY M.S.JOOF/TNBES/2013

The Gambia, a least developed West African country which withdrew its membership of the Commonwealth in October 2013, is eligible for additional Commonwealth-funded scholarship places.   

The British Embassy in Banjul today April 9 announced the tripling of Chevening scholarships for the 2015-16 academic year. 

It said the decision was reached by the UK Budget on 19 March. The scholarships are the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s flagship global scholarship programme aimed at future leaders, influencers and decision-makers.

The UK Budget stated that additional funding will bring over 1,000 more potential future leaders to study in UK universities, meaning in the 2015-16 academic year, there will be more than 1,500 Chevening Scholars.  

All countries on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) list of Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipients [The Gambia included] will be eligible for additional scholarship places. 

ONLINE SECURITY, PRIVACY COMPROMISED

If You Want Privacy or Anonymity or Security, Stay Off the Internet This Week

Written by

Meghan Neal

@meghanneal meghan.neal@vice.com

April 8, 2014 // 11:30 AM EST

Security holes are par for the course on the web today, but a new, massive bug dubbed "Heartbleed” is particularly nasty, and widespread: Experts say that two-thirds of websites and probably everyone that’s used the internet in the last two years could be affected.

The irony is, those who have put the most effort into privacy and security are the most vulnerable. 

The bug exposes the popular cryptographic software, OpenSSL, a mainstay web encryption. Heartbleed makes it possible for anyone to eavesdrop on encrypted sites and access the sensitive data they’re supposed to be protecting, all without leaving any trace on the site’s server. Even worse, attackers can also retrieve cryptographic keys and passwords and use that info to decrypt any past or future web traffic.

IMF says Gambia’s policy implementation gone off-track

Projections of The Gambia’s economic growth are usually not representative of citizens’ socioeconomic status.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has on April 7 stated The Gambia’s implementation of [financial] policies during the first quarter of 2014 has “gone off-track”.

“[This is] mainly because spending significantly exceeded agreed targets following completion of the first review in May 2013,” it says after assessing the authorities’ progress in implementing [monetary] policies to bring their reform programme back on track.

Gambia’s reform programme is supported by an IMF Extended Credit Facility arrangement.

Gambia should quickly finalise national anti-money laundering strategy

GIABA’s director of research, Mr Mu’Azu Umaru speaking on behalf on director general of GIABA, Adama Coulibaly - Photo Credit: MSJoof/TNBES/GNJaML

The director general of the Inter-governmental action group against money laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Adama Coulibaly, has advised The Gambia to “quickly finalise” its national anti-money laundering and counter-financing terrorism (AML/CFT) strategy.
 

Gambia has chosen to develop a national strategy that will serve as a driving force for deepening of its AML/CFT system.

In a statement read on his behalf during an April 1-3 “stakeholders workshop to develop the strategy” at a local hotel in Kololi, The Gambia, Mr Coulibaly said the timing is auspicious as the second round of evaluations for GIABA member states is set to begin in the last quarter of 2015.

MSF: Guinea Ebola ‘Unprecedented Epidemic’

Ebola virus virion. Created by CDC microbiologist Cynthia Goldsmith, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion. (Photo taken from Wikipedia)

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) has announced on Monday it is facing an unprecedented epidemic in terms of the distribution of [Ebola] cases now scattered in several locations in Guinea.

MSF announcement followed eight confirmed cases of Ebola reported in the capital Conakry.  78 people have been confirmed death already as a result of the disease.

“We are facing an epidemic of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution of cases in the country: Gueckedou, Macenta Kissidougou, Nzerekore, and now Conakry,” says Mariano Lugli, coordinator of MSF’s project in Conakry.