THE VATICAN-CITY: An Overview

-     It is the Seat of Roman Catholic Church; the worlds headquarter of the Roman Catholic Church.

-     A country enclaved in Rome.

-     It is the World’s smallest fully independent nation-state.

-     The government of the Roman Catholic Church is named the ‘Holy See’. It has resided in Vatican since 1929.

-     The Holy See is led by the Pope, who holds the absolute executive, legislative and judicial powers.

-     The executive powers are delegated to a governor, who is responsible to the Pope.

-     In the exercise of the Pope’s legislative powers, the Pope is advised and assisted by the sacred congregation.

-     The judicial powers are exercised by tribunals.

-     The secretariat of state represents the Holy See in international relations, and it sends diplomatic representatives to countries around the world.

-     The Official languages are Italian, Latin.

-     The Vatican has its own internal security known as contingent of Swiss guards. They have been responsible for the personal safety of the Pope since 1506.  Saint peter’s square, which opens to the city of Rome, is subject to the authority of the Italian police.

-     Food, water, electricity and gas must be imported. There is no restriction on the import or export of funds and no income tax.

-     Income is derived from the voluntary contributions of more than one billion Roman Catholics worldwide, as well as interest in investments and sale of stamps, coins and publications.

-     The major inhabitants of Vatican City are priests and nuns, others are laypersons engaged in secretariat, domestic, trade and service occupations.

-     Monetary unit in the Vatican City is the European Union (EU) single currency, euro (€), consisting of 100 cents.

Australian Aborigines: The Original Australians

They are indigenous Australians, believed to have migrated from Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago. They are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aborigines arrived Australia around 50,000 years ago.

The coined word “Aboriginal Australians” came into existence when the British began colonizing Australia in 1788. The coined word was used to refer collectively to all people the British found already inhabiting the continent and later to the descendants of any of those people. Not until 1980s, when the sole legal and administrative criterion for inclusion in this category was race. This was classified according to visible physical characters or known ancestors. Children’s status during the colonial era was determined by that of their mothers, this meant that if born to aboriginal mothers, children were considered Aboriginal, regardless of their paternity.

More than 200 different Aboriginal languages were spoken, and most Aborigines were bilingual or multilingual. Both languages (dialects) and groups of people were associated with stretches of territory.

The Aborigines were hunter-gatherers who grew no crops and did not domesticate animals (apart from the dingo), so they were directly dependent on their natural environment.

Different study on Aboriginal Australians makes them one of the oldest living populations of the world and possibly the oldest outside of Africa, confirming they may also have the oldest continuous culture on the planet.

The Aboriginal race were deprived the power to legislate and were not to be counted according to the references sited in the original form of the constitution of Australia in 1901, but both references were removed by 1967 referendum.

In the late 20th century, there were growing calls for the Australian government to apologize to Aborigines for abuses they suffered under earlier administrations. For decades the government resisted releasing such a statement, but in February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology for the past mistreatment of Aborigines.

4ICU: University of Lagos the best in Nigeria

The University of Lagos has emerged the first and best in Nigeria, in the latest web ranking of universities across the world released by 4 International Colleges & Universities (4icu) organization.

The latest ranking released by the web-based body at http://www.4icu.org placed the University in the 1st position in Nigeria and 20^th in Africa.

The 4icu ranking is a measure of an institution’s presence on the web. It is computed using a number of parameters that revolve round the quantum and quality of electronic resources on a website as well as access to such resources.

Call for Nyerere Scholarships: The Intra--African Carribean Academic mobility scheme

This notice was brought to notice by the Nigerian University Commission to all the Nigerian Universities
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USAID Awards Partnership Research Grant to the University of Benin

In recognition of its leading role in research and capacity building in Africa, the University of Benin has been awarded a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) research grant of about 5.7 million naira to conduct research in antimalarial drug discovery from local plants and herbal resources. The award represents a part of the larger Africa-U.S. Higher Education Partnership program of USAID that is administered by Higher Education for Development (HED), a division of the American Council on Education. 

This award puts UNIBEN in partnership with The University of Mississippi, affectionately known as “Ole-Miss” and a leading United States research university founded in 1848. The partnership project will also engage two other West African higher education and research institutions; the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE) in Burkina Faso, and the Federal University of Technology (FUT-Minna) in Minna, Nigeria.

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The most ethically responsible federal university in Nigeria

Yet another honour rolled in for the University of Ilorin last Wednesday (March 11, 2015) as the better by far institution was named the “Most Ethically Responsible Federal University” in Nigeria in the year 2014.

The institution's Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali (OON), was also honoured with the Award of “Ambassador of Ethics and Conscience” in recognition of his sterling performance at the helm of the University.

The Centre for Ethics and Self Value Orientation (CESVO),which gave the two awards, also named the Registrar of the University, Mr. Emmanuel Obafemi, as one of the “200 Most Ethically Responsible Civil Servants in Nigeria”.

While presenting the awards, the Executive Director of CESVO, Prince Salih Musa Yakubu, commended the Vice-Chancellor for the wisdom with which he has been propelling the University forward.

Prince Yakubu disclosed that his group had heard so much about the University of Ilorin and that it therefore decided to carry out a secret and independent investigation to verify the claims of the University. 

He said that the group was not disappointed, as the University scored 87% in the public administration appraisal score card, noting that this prompted the Gold Medal award to the Vice-Chancellor for his good work in public administration.

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The Number One scientist in Nigeria

Prof. Olatunde Farombi of the University of Ibadan has been ranked the number one scientist in Nigerian Institutions according to Google Scholar Citation (GSC).
Congratulations Prof! !! !!!
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