USA - United States of America has launched a comprehensive probe of the Nigerian oil industry over an alleged bribery scandal involving  a former Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, (KBR) and some unnamed Nigerian officials during negotiation for its work on a key Royal Dutch Shell project in Nigeria. The probe is to cover a period of 20 years.

Halliburton’s Nigerian scandal widened from accusations of bribery to accusations of embezzlement by senior executives. The company recently dismissed two of its most senior executives, Robert Stanley and William Chaudin, on suspicion of embezzling $5 million from a Nigerian energy project. The KBR is a leading global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, petrochemicals, government services and civil infrastructure sectors.

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Houston - By a unanimous vote, Houston City Council has reappointed for the fifth term, Nigerian-born US-based oil tycoon, Dr. Kase Lawal, as Commissioner of America’s largest port in foreign tonnage, and the sixth-largest port in the world.

Lawal, who hails from Ibadan, Oyo State, is the only black man on the Port of Houston Authority, Board of Commissioners, which controls the port.

He had also served as the first vice chairman of the Port Commission, where commissioners serve two-year terms without pay.

Lawal’s reappointment is now for a fifth term since June 1999, when he was initially named to the Port Commission.

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Abuja - Nigeria national carrier, Virgin Nigeria Airways, has finally secured the much awaited approval by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to commence direct commercial flights from Lagos to various destinations in America.

The airline is the first among the three Nigerian carriers, approved by the Federal Government to fly to the United States, to secure such approval. The other airlines are Arik Air and Bellview Airlines.

According to a statement made available by Virgin Nigeria, the approval was signed by the director, Office of International Aviation, Mr. Paul Gretch. The approval confirms that Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited (Virgin Nigeria) has formally been granted the foreign air carrier permit and is financially and operationally qualified to perform the services authorized”, the statement noted.

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California (USA) - Nigerian-born Justin Onwordi, who fought on the side of America and was killed in Iraq was among over 100 foreign-born American soldiers who earned post-humus American citizenship for dying in Iraq.

Onwordi died when his vehicle was blown up in Baghdad on August 2, 2004. He left behind a wife and baby boy.

Onwordi, who came to the US from Nigeria in July 2000, started his military training six months later. The 6-foot-4 Nigerian was later assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 12th Armoured Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division, and was stationed at Ford Hood Texas.

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Maryland (USA) - The United State government has named a Nigerian-born researcher, Dr. Dr. Charles N. Rotimi, as the first director of its new medical research centre for genomics and health disparities.

Dr. Charles N. Rotimi is a graduate of the University of Benin, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry in 1979, before traveling to the U.S. to earn a master’s degree in epidemiology at the University of Mississippi, 1983, and a second master’s degree in Public Health (M.P.H.) from the University of Alabama, at Birmingham, in 1988. In 1991, Rotimi completed a Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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