Grammy-winning 1970s soul singer Betty Wright dies at 66

 

Betty Wright, the Grammy-winning soul singer and songwriter whose influential 1970s hits included “Clean Up Woman" and “Where is the Love,” has died at age 66.

Wright died at her home in Miami on Sunday, several media outlets reported. Steve Greenberg of S-Curve Records told the New York Times Wright had been diagnosed with cancer in the fall.

Wright had her breakthrough with 1971's “Clean Up Woman,” which combined elements of funk, soul and R&B.

Recorded when Wright was just 17, the song would be a top 10 hit on both the Billboard R&B and pop charts, and its familiar grooves would be used and reused in the sampling era of future decades.

The youngest of seven children, Wright was born Bessie Regina Norris in 1953 in Miami, the city whose funk and soul sounds her music would always be identified with.

Georgia Eases Anti-virus Restrictions

Georgia on Monday lifted most of the restrictions on economic activity that were imposed as part of measures to contain the coronavirus spread.

Industrial production and trade were allowed to resume, with the exception of large shopping malls and clothing retailers.

Georgians celebrated the decision, with many saying opening up the economy was a matter of survival for them.

“One or two more weeks of closed business and my family would have had no money for food,” said Kote Lagidze, owner of a car service station in Tbilisi.

The Georgian capital also lifted the ban on entry and exit to the city, in place since mid-April.

People queued up outside reopened shops observing measures limiting the number of people inside closed spaces.

Niko Avaliani, one of the shoppers waiting for his turn to enter a bookstore, said ending the lockdown was long overdue.

“There were no reasons for keeping the economy on hold any longer,” the 29-year-old historian told AFP. Each day contributed “more poverty,” he said.

“We have all been waiting desperately for the return to some kind of normalcy,” bookshop assistant Lamara Sordia said.

“It’s great that people can now indulge in little pleasures such as buying books.”

The government has said the country will reopen to foreign tourists as of July 1, while domestic tourism is set to resume in mid-June.

However, restaurants, cafes, and educational institutions remain closed for the time being and public transport operations are halted.

The Black Sea country of 3.7 million in March closed all non-essential businesses, declared a state of emergency and a night curfew, which will remain in place until May 22.

The restrictions have hit Georgia’s economy which is expected to shrink by four percent this year instead of the previously projected four-and-a-half percent expansion.

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Alleged Missing N19.63bn: Ihedioha Asks Court To Stop Probe By Imo Assembly

The immediate past governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, has filed a suit to stop the Imo State House of Assembly from investigating him over allegations of missing funds.

He filed the suit at the State High Court sitting in Owerri, the state capital.

In his prayers, the former governor sought a perpetual injunction restraining the lawmakers from probing him over the sum of N19.63 billion said to be missing from the Local Government account during his seven-month tenure.

Ihedioha, through an originating summon, also urged the court to grant him a perpetual injunction restraining the Imo State House of Assembly from inviting him and questioning him about the alleged missing fund.

Listed as defendants in the suit are the Imo State House of Assembly, the Speaker, and the Clerk of the House of Assembly.

The former governor filed the suit weeks after the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, announced that the sum of N19.63 billion was missing from the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) of the 27 Local Governments Areas of the state.

Governor Uzodinma had alleged that the money got missing under the watch of the immediate past administration led by Ihedioha.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo had, however, described the allegation by the governor as mischievous and a deliberate scheme of his administration to loot the resources of the state.

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British PM Issues New COVID-19 Guidelines Ahead Of Lockdown Plan

 

 

  Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued new public advice on the coronavirus on Sunday ahead of his announcement on how to ease a nationwide lockdown, but warned he would proceed cautiously as the death toll in Britain, already the highest in Europe, continues to mount.

In a televised address to the nation at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), Johnson is expected to extend most of the stay-at-home orders imposed in late March, although garden centres are set to reopen.

But in a sign of a gradual shift towards getting the country moving again, he tweeted new public advice for people to “stay alert”, to replace the current slogan to “stay home, save lives”.

It urges people to stay at home “as much as possible” and limit contact with others, a more lenient message than previous rules to only go outside where necessary and to meet nobody outside your household.

Johnson, who himself spent a week in hospital with coronavirus last month, has made clear he will proceed with “maximum caution” in easing the lockdown.

He is looking at a plan to contain infection rates in the longer term, with ministers considering imposing a 14-day quarantine on anyone coming into the country from abroad.

An alert system is also being developed to monitor the outbreak, which will inform when and how lockdown measures might be lifted — or tightened — at a national and local level.

– Don’t run too fast –

Johnson has been criticised for failing to take the outbreak seriously enough at the start, still shaking hands in early March and delaying the imposition of a lockdown.

Britain has now recorded more than 31,500 deaths among people who have tested positive for COVID-19 — the second highest figure in the world after the United States.

There are growing demands from his own MPs to lift the lockdown as it wreaks economic havoc — the Bank of England this week predicted a 14-percent slump in British GDP this year.  But in an interview with the Sun on Sunday newspaper, Johnson warned that now was “the most dangerous bit”.

“We’re past the peak now but we’ll have to work even harder to get every step right,” he said.

“Mountaineers always say that coming down from the peak is the most dangerous bit. That’s when you’re liable to be over-confident and make mistakes.

“You have very few options on the climb up, but it’s on the descent you have to make sure you don’t run too fast, lose control and stumble.”

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Governor Wike personally supervises demolition of Prodest Hotel, Eleme LGA

  

   Governor Wike personally supervises the demolition of Prodest Hotel, Eleme LGA, for violating a communicated order on hotel closure in Rivers.

Stay home and obey the orders!