The glamorous lovers’ day celebration on Monday turned bloody at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) when gunmen killed two students. Daily Sun gathered that the clash was between two rival cult groups, namely, Black Axe and the Buccaneers,’ over a female student allegedly snatched by the Capone of the Black Axe for Valentine celebration.

The action of the Capone , the source said did not go down well with the other group leading to the clash.
A student who witnessed the shooting said besides the two cult members who were shot dead, about four others sustained injuries and were ferried out of the campus by their leaders to shield their identity.

The sources said the cult members who carried out the attack were not UNILAG students but members from another campus, adding that the attack was carried out in a commando style with sporadic shooting.
An undergraduate student of English Department told Daily Sun that the Buccaneers’ group attacked the Black Axe members while another student returning from the Mosque said those who carried out the killing were not from UNILAG because they did not cover their faces.

It was learnt that as soon the shooting started, students scampered for safety while others took cover behind the wall and under cars packed around, while others ran into the halls to avoid being hit by stray bullets. 
A senior lecturer who confirmed the killings said the university management had met to curtail any reprisal attack while security personnel had taken over the investigation of the deadly cult clash.
When Daily Sun visited the troubled institution yesterday, there was uneasy calm, as most staff and students rebuffed efforts made by the reporters to get their comments.

However, one of the students who resides at Sodeinde Hall, said there was sporadic gunshots outside the premises which caused panic everywhere. 
It was gathered that the crisis, which erupted when the students were at the peak of lovers’ day celebration, created stampede on the campus as people ran for safety.

One of the victims of the attack reportedly ran into Sodeinde Hall for help, from where he was taken to the hospital.
Although the Hall Master of Sodeinde Hall declined comments on the issue, one of the officials, who wouldn’t want his name published, said the attack could not be linked to any cult group. He said there was increasing speculation that the perpetrators of the attack could be fighting for love. Efforts made by Daily Sun our reporter to ascertain the identities of the victims were unsuccessful.
The news bulletin of the university, Information Flash (ISSN 08195540) also captured the incident, while assuring the staff and students of the university of adequate security.

“The attention of the universities authorities has been drawn to the incident which occurred in one of the Halls of Residence in the late hours of Monday, February 14, 2011 where two persons were reportedly injured in fracas. The university management has commenced investigation into the unusual incident, in particular at a time when preparation for the first semester examinations due to commence on February 21, 2011 are in top gear. Security has been intensified to ensure safety of life and property on campus. Law enforcement agents have been involved to assist the university in this respect,” it said. 
Daily Sun learnt that students are leaving the campus because of the fear of reprisal attack while some parents called their wards on phone to return home until the situation is brought under control. 

The Deputy Registrar Information of UNILAG, Mr. Dare Adebisi refused to pick his calls or replied to text message sent to his phone.
When the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Samuel Jinadu (DSP) was called thrice, he promised to contact the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the area and did not call back as at the press time....

The Dubai-based Nigerian family reported missing while travelling from Lagos to Asaba last week has been found at last.

•The lucky kids, the doctor and the father of kids (standing). PHOTO: Emmanuel Osodi.

However, it was a tale of tragedy as three of the travellers – the mother, Edna, a Dubai-based staff of Standard Chartered Bank, her cousin, Chinyere, who had lost her only daughter last December, and the driver of the chartered Toyota Camry saloon car, Godfrey Inalegwu – were found dead in a village near Okada after their car plunged into a river, while trying to avoid a pothole. Only the three children – Loveth, 11, Precious 8 and Golden 6 – were rescued and taken to a private hospital in Ofumwegbe town, near Benin City, Edo State, Southsouth Nigeria. Their escape was simply miraculous, according to the rescuers.

P.M.NEWS in its Wednesday, 2 February 2011 edition, reported that the family was missing last week Wednesday during their trip from Lagos to Asaba in a Toyota Camry saloon car with registration number Lagos KU 108 EKY.

The husband of the Dubai banker, himself an accountant, Mr. Ugochukwu Onyeocha had told P.M.NEWS that when his family left Lagos about 10.00 a.m in the car, he communicated with his wife on phone twice, about 11 in the morning and 3 p.m.

He sensed something was wrong after he lost contact thereafter, believing that the wife was in an area where there was no phone network or that her phone was switched off. In the morning, he was awoken by a phone call from his mother-in-law that his wife and the children were yet to arrive Asaba. This prompted Onyeocha to involve the police. His report to the police at the State Criminal .Investigation Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos however yielded no immediate clue as to the whereabouts of his family.

The police investigators told Onyeocha that the tracker in the Toyota car had shown that the car and the occupants got missing in a village called Otu Costain in Edo State.

The missing car was located at Okada, near Benin City.

It was discovered that the family had an accident and their vehicle plunged into a river. The survivors were later taken to Emiloju Medical Centre, in Ofumwegbe town, near Benin City, Edo State.

The Medical Director of the centre, Dr. Mohammed Yakubu, treated the three children.

According to him, “On 26 January, 2011 at about 7.30 p.m, these three children were brought here by kind-hearted villagers. They were unconscious. The villagers said the car in which they were travelling skidded into a river as the driver tried to manoeuvre a pothole on the road,” Mohammed said.

The doctor stated that the villagers with the help of policemen from a nearby police station were able to recover the car. But their mother, her cousin and the driver were dead. Only the three children were grasping for breath.

Dr. Mohammed said he was able to revive the three children and they were recuperating in his hospital, this morning.

The doctor added that the villagers with the help of policemen from Iguobazuwa Divisional Headquarters, Edo State, moved the three corpses to the mortuary of another hospital near the village.

As at the time of going to press, the father, Onyeocha, P.M.NEWS correspondent and Dr. Mohammed were on their way to the hospital where the corpses were kept.

The tragedy has confirmed the fears of Nigerians abroad, wary of returning home because of the epidemic of armed robbery, fraudsters, political violence and carnage on the roads.

—Oluwole Adeboye/Okada

what if my girl was called aharit instead of arit



My girl has always been my closest friend but not one day has she ever told me her

real name . She said her name is arit and many times i go Aight ? and she says Right

. Not one day has she dared to put it all together and say AHARIT !

I wondered why she would never tell me her real name . I wondered not for long as I

asked her to marry me . to which she immediately agreed . She had been waiting for

this for ages .


Now we are about to get married it is just a few days or even weeks away .



And I asked her for the last time What is your name Arit

And she said AHARIT and I looked at her and understood . AHA RIGHT !


He sold his birthright for a meal of porridge He ignored the 'Aharit' . That which

comes After . Show me Temptations and I will ask for the AHARIT .

Now we shall soon be together for ever even after the AHARIT !

Happy Valentine

Ephesians 4:2

Despite brutal questioning by a Senate select committee, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday stood by his comments that the National Assembly’s budget for overhead is 25.4% of the nation’s total..

Mr Sanusi withstood strong attempts to browbeat him into admitting that the figures were at least lower than that, or that he was misquoted by the media.

The public hearing convened by the Senate followed newspaper publications quoting the Central Bank governor as saying that the nation spends one-quarter of its funds on running the National Assembly, and a subsequent publication quoting the finance minster as saying he would cut the budgetary allocation to the assembly.

Mr Sanusi had at a lecture delivered at the eighth convocation of the Igbinedion University , Okada, Edo State, said 25% of the nation’s resources are spent on the lawmakers. This annoyed the Senators who ordered him to appear before them and defend his statement.

The Central Bank governor appeared on Wednesday before the Senate committee alongside the finance minister, Olusegun Aganga. However, unlike the finance minister who quickly dissociated himself from the statement that he intended cutting allocation to the assembly, Mr. Sanusi admitted saying that 25.4% of the nation’s overhead cost is spent on the National Assembly...

He held his grounds, backing his statements with records from other national dailies which quoted him correctly, and with statistics from the budget office.

Mr. Aganga who later assumed the role of an umpire told the Senators that the CBN governor’s figures were correct although they may appear wrong in another context.

The minister argued that overhead cost figures which include Service Wide Votes (money spent on maintenance of government facilities), are as legitimate those which do not include the votes.

Rage

Evidently angry, Iyiola Omisore (PDP Osun State) who led the Senate panel alleged that the CBN governor had chosen to deliberately incite Nigerians against the Assembly. He asked Mr. Aganga to state categorically whether Mr. Sanusi’s statement was right or wrong. The minister again said the statement depends on context or the way one chooses to use statistics.

Members of the Senate panel made up of four different committees could not hold back their rage against the unyielding CBN governor and frequently compared him to the more amenable finance minister, trying to coax him into some form of apology.

The Senators made no effort to hide their bias and blatantly refused to give any room to the Central Bank governor, to defend his figures and the context in which they were used.

Mr. Omisore pointedly told the harassed CBN governor at one point that the committee was not prepared to listen to him and that he must direct his responses through the finance minister. Mr Sanusi, however, occasionally barged in to make the point that his figures were right and that he got them from the director of budget’s office.

No apology

He said he would only apologise if the figures from the budget office were wrong. He insisted that, “Total Federal Government Overhead is over N500 billion and the Overhead of the National Assembly is N136.2 billion. This is exactly 25.1 per cent of total government overhead. I am quoting from the figure I got from the Budget Office. If you like, you can invite the Director-General of the Budget Office.’’ When told by Mr. Omisore, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, that the figure was wrong following a clarification by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Sanusi replied: “I don’t know where the minister got his figures.” To the calls on him to apologise, he said, “By my nature, if I do not believe that I am wrong, I do not apologise.” He urged the Senators to examine the context under which he made his statement which was actually in a lecture about factors that fuel inflationary trends.

Staking his job

After hours of fruitless attempts to get the CBN governor to admit wrongdoing and apologise to the Senators, the lawmakers seemed to deviate from the matter and begin to question the character of the governor and the annual budget of the CBN.

“We really need to be sure that the CBN governor has the character to stay in that office,” Heineken Lokpobiri (PDP Bayelsa State) said.

Other Senators took turns to tongue lash the CBN governor. They accused him of speaking too much and asked him questions like “do you enjoy your job? Do you feel like quitting?’’ And if he thinks democracy is too expensive.

“My name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (my name is) not Central Bank Governor. I enjoy my job but if you want me to quit, I will honourably quit,” Mr Sanusi replied before a cheering crowd of spectators.

The unwavering Central Bank governor told the Senators that the survival of democracy is dependent on allowing people the freedom to speak. He added that he had always been involved in the fight for democracy way back to the time of June 12 and that even if the military takes over now, he will still fight them off.

The issue remained unresolved as both sides disagreed with each other’s figures. However, Mr. Omisore gave the CBN governor a stern warning not to use such figures in comments about the National Assembly anymore.

Mr. Sanusi is also expected to appear before the entire House of Representatives today to defend his statement.

closest associate from the north, Hassan Tukur, who appears to have gained his absolute confidence, may be covertly working against his ambition to become President. Our checks reveals that Hassan Tukur, who has been a friend to the President for a very long time and currently works as his principal secretary, may be a “Frenemy” (one who pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy).

Mr. Tukur is a diplomat and technocrat par excellence. His friendship with President Jonathan dates back to pre-Aso Villa days. He was President Yar’Adua’s special assistant on Petroleum Resources. Tukur is assumed to be the president’s closest associate from the North and is alleged to have single-handedly picked most of the regime’s political appointees that were employed from the north by Goodluck Jonathan. According to sources who have had contact with him, Tukur does not hesitate to inform you that “he can get the President to do anything”, and really in most cases he delivers; a source added.

However, Hassan Tukur, Huhuonline.com learnt is torn between his loyalty to his boss and his kinsmen from the north, who are vehemently opposed to the President`s 2011 presidential ambition. To this end, Tukur is alleged to have asked the President not to contest the 2011 election. But his advice has not been heeded.

It should be recalled that in his inaugural speech, President Jonathan promised that “the war against corruption will be prosecuted more robustly,” and his aides, particularly Hassan Tukur, pencilled in the name of his bosom friend, Nuhu Ribadu, the country’s former anticorruption czar, to lead the war. Mr Ribadu was considered robust and effective in his position until he was forced out by Yar’Adua’s government.

Mr. Tukur was very instrumental in the return of Nuhu Ribadu, whom he had convinced the president to appoint as his special adviser on anti-corruption and other related matters, but as soon Nuhu returned to Nigeria, the goal posts began to move. Hassan Tukur began to lobby the President to appoint Nuhu Ribadu as vice president, which in itself was not a bad idea as Nuhu Ribadu was viewed as a man of impeccable character, capable bringing credibility to any government. But this was not to be.

However, Nuhu Ribadu and Hassan Tukur, Huhuonline.com gathered were looking beyond the vice presidential position, their eyes were set on the plum job of president. Had President Jonathan given in to the plot, the duo would have covertly disclosed his flaws by releasing embarrassing details of the President to the media, which could portray him as inexperienced and incompetent for the office of President..

Consequently, they would have blackmailed him into resigning and returning to Bayelsa. Nuhu Ribadu is very familiar with this type of operation. Recall that Nuhu Ribadu blackmailed Obasanjo into dropping Peter Odili as running mate to Umaru Yar`adua in 2007.

Having failed in their plot, Nuhu Ribadu abandoned the PDP, and joined AC, where he is a presidential aspirant; While Hassan Tukur stayed put on his job as principal secretary to the president, and is currently amassing stupendous wealth for himself under the guise of raising funds for the Goodluck Jonathan 2011 Presidential campaign. However, it remains to be seen if Hassan Tukur’s loyalty lies with the President or the Northern Oligarchy.

Sources:

Time Magazine August 30, 2010

Clinical and Experimental Research November 2010; 34(11): 1-11

Medical Hypothesis March 2010; 74(3):493-6

SweetPoison.com -- Medical Hypothesis November 6, 2009 Prepublication copy (Full PDF)

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

This is not the first time we’ve been told that drinking alcohol is actually good for you. What’s surprising however, not to mentionpotentially troublesome, are the scientific claims that moderate andeven heavy drinking is beneficial – in this case, more beneficial for your longevity than abstaining from alcohol entirely!

It’s difficult to reconcile this claim with everything we already know about the devastating health effects of excessive alcoholconsumption and the fact that ethyl alcohol is neurotoxic..

However, I will offer one potential explanation for this oxymoron a bit later in this article.

Moderate Drinkers Live Longer than Non-Drinkers, Study Finds

According to the recent study published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Research, epidemiological research suggests that moderate to high alcohol consumption is associated with areduced overall mortality risk compared to non- and light drinkers.

Their study included over 1,800 people, aged 55 to 65 when the study began. Sixty-nine percent of the participants were men. The subjectswere followed for 20 years.

Surprisingly, the group with the lowest mortality rate was moderate drinkers, who had one to three alcoholic drinks per day, followed by heavy drinkers, and then light drinkers, while non-drinkers had the highest mortality rate of them all.

The study states:

“Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk,heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23%increased risk.

A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors,as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortalityeffect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers.

However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.”

Time Magazine writes that “moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice isred wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation andsociability.”

But is that enough to explain these findings?

I believe it’s unwise to ignore the big picture when it comes to health, and when it comes to alcohol, I’m just not convinced that thepotential benefits outweigh all the risks, particularly when it comes tohaving multiple drinks per day.

So I hope these latest findings will not be used as justification to further promote a dangerous and health-damaging habit that can easilylead to alcoholism.

The Health Hazards of Alcohol

Before we get into the potential benefits, it’s important to realize that alcohol is a neurotoxin that can poison your brain. It can alsodisrupt your hormonal balance, which could potentially explain why womendo not appear to reap the same health benefits from alcohol consumptionas men do.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, “moderate” consumption for women is just one drink per day, whereas“moderate” consumption for men is two drinks. Hence, women who consumetwo to three drinks a day will actually fall into the category of“heavy” drinkers.

Another important consideration is that wine or other alcoholic beverages will increase your insulin levels, which will eventually have a negative impact on your health. As I’ve stated on many previous occasions, insulin resistance is a hallmark of nearly every chronic disease there is.

Heavy drinkers also face increased risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cirrhosis of the liver.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, women who drink two or more drinks a day increase their risk of breast cancer by more than 40 percent!

Other types of cancer linked to excessive alcohol consumption include cancer of the:

• Mouth, larynx and esophagus
• Liver
• Colon
• Pancreas
• Lungs

Alcohol consumption also inhibits your body’s natural stress response by reducing a key stress hormone, known as corticotropin-releasingfactor (CRF). CRF is produced by your hypothalamus and helps triggeryour body's reaction to stress.

If your stress response is impaired, your immune system will also be inhibited, which can have any number of health implications, from reducing your ability to fight infections to increasing your cancer risk.

Alcohol also clearly needs to be avoided during pregnancy.

Beyond Resveratrol – Explaining the Health Benefits of Alcohol

One of the most widely accepted health benefits of alcohol comes from resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine, which acts as a:

• Cancer-preventing agent
• Blood thinner
• Vaso-expanding agent
• Blood pressure lowering compound
• Anti-aging chemical

But resveratrol cannot explain the health benefits ascribed to the moderate consumption of other types of alcohol (ethanol).

Interestingly, research into ethanol’s impact on dietary methanol may offer clues that could potentially rival the late breaking science into fructose and its devastating impact on health.

One possible explanation for why mortality rates are higher for non-drinkers may be that low levels of ethanol (alcohol) in yourbloodstream helps prevent the formation of formaldehyde from dietarymethanol. (In fact, ethanol is used as the preferred antidote foraccidental methanol poisoning in an emergency for this reason.)

What is dietary methanol and how could this possibly have ANY significance?

New Concern in Your Food: Wood Alcohol (Methanol)

Fresh fruits and vegetables contain small amounts of naturally-occurring methanol, and the artificial sweetener aspartameconverts into methanol in your body.

Normally this is not a problem as the methanol is typically bound to pectin, and since your body has no enzyme to metabolize that bond it issimply excreted in your stool and none of the methanol is absorbed intoyour body.

However, the problem occurs when you can or bottle fruit- or vegetable juice, as the methanol tends to then dissociate from thepectin into free methanol, which you do absorb.

The methanol you absorb readily passes the blood brain barrier where it can be converted to form formaldehyde, which is a potent toxin thatactually causes most of the damage.

Why Ethanol May Protect You From Methanol

An exciting paper that delves into this topic is food scientist Woody Monte’s “Methanol: A chemical Trojan horse as the root of the inscrutable U,” published in the March, 2010 issue of Medical Hypotheses.

In it, he explains that:

“Very low levels of ethanol in your bloodstream would substantively prevent all formaldehyde production from dietary methanolanywhere in the body.

Protection from formaldehyde production may account for the yet unexplained dose region of apparent improvement in the U-shapedcurve of alcohol consumption.

Epidemiologic studies show moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with a reduced risk of myocardial infarction, dementia,lupus, and other diseases of civilization.

Low doses of ethanol appear to provide a preventative measure against the causes of diseases of civilization.

Recent studies of individuals who consumed at least one alcoholic drink per day show subjects had an additional 86 percent reduction inrisk of myocardial infarction if they were genetically endowed with agenotype of ADH I that was 2.5 times slower to metabolize ethanol thanthe control.

These findings were ‘‘consistent with the hypothesis that a slower rate of clearance of alcohol enhances the beneficial effect ofmoderate alcohol consumption on the risk of cardiovascular disease.””

It is important to understand that the primary treatment for methanol poisoning in the emergency room is to give them ethanol, for thereasons described above.

The ethanol will preferentially be broken down before the methanol. The methanol then remains unmetabolized, and in its base form it isrelatively nontoxic. It’s becomes a problem when your body breaks itdown to formaldehyde.

So while your body is breaking down the ethanol it has enough time to breathe out the methanol unchanged in your lungs and excrete itunchanged in your urine.

A Little Alcohol Might Be Good, But More is Definitely Dangerous

As I mentioned earlier, if this theory is correct, it could rival the scientific findings on fructose in terms of importance, and couldexplain not only the health benefits of low-to moderate alcoholconsumption, but also how aspartame affects some people more negativelythan others.

It may still be too early to draw definitive conclusions, but the arguments are compelling and I’ll be following this line of researchwith great interest in the years to come.

In his paper, Dr. Monte continues to connect the dots and shows how greater alcohol consumption ceases to be beneficial at a certain point, and instead starts to take its toll on your health:

“A compelling explanation of the dose region of adverse effects of the U-shaped curve with high ethanol consumption, which shows increased risk of these same diseases, could be themechanism by which humans habituate to high consumption of ethanol.

The induction of the P450 hepatic microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system results in a considerably higher clearance rate of ethanol fromthe bloodstream for an extended period of time, thus accounting for moreconsumption leading to statistically less time of protection.

Small amounts of supplemental alcohol not sufficient to induce P450 might be expected to prolong the residence time and avoid gaps inthe protection afforded by ethanol in preventing methanol-placedformaldehyde. “

P450 is a class, or family, of liver enzymes whose main functions include catalyzing the metabolism of drugs and the oxidation of organicsubstances.

In simplistic terms, higher alcohol consumption sends this system into high gear, and starts clearing ethanol from your system.

Again, a simplified explanation for how you become a habitual drinker (which also tends to lead to drinking increasing amounts of alcohol) isthat the more you drink, the more efficient this ethanol-clearingsystem becomes, and you begin to be able to drink more before you noticethe effects of the alcohol.

What this all means is that in order for the alcohol to provide you with the health benefit of preventing formaldehyde formation, it must below enough to not activate the P450 system.

Hence you get a U-shaped curve, where low- to moderate alcohol consumption gives you increasing amounts of health benefits, until youreach the “threshold,” at which point the more you drink, the more harmit causes.

It’s important to realize that formaldehyde is a class 1 carcinogen and a mutagen, and in the form of methanol, it can easily be transportedthroughout your entire body and brain.

Wherever you have a lot of ADH1 (the enzyme metabolizes methanol to formaldehyde), such as in your brain, methanol can be particularlytroublesome.

But as long as there’s just enough ethanol in your system to keep the methanol moving along, without ever being metabolized to formaldehyde,no damage is caused.

It’s worth noting here also that the average person typically has some naturally-occurring ethanol in their system, as it is also created through the fermentation process in your gut.

However, the addition of small amounts of ethanol in the form of alcohol may be able to more fully prevent formaldehyde from forming,which could explain why low- to moderate alcohol consumption appears tobe even more healthful than total abstinence…

How Can You Get the Same Benefits Without Drinking Alcohol?

It is not my recommendation to start drinking alcohol or to use this information as a justification to continue drinking alcohol. I am notconvinced it is physiologically beneficial for you in the long run.

The purpose of running this article was to merely inform you of a recent appreciation of methanol toxicity, and how ethanol can interactwith it. If this theory is true then the primary benefit of usingethanol would be to prevent methanol from converting to formaldehyde.

So what is the main source of methanol in your diet?

Remember that fresh fruits and vegetables have it but it’s harmless if you eat them fresh, as the methanol is then bound to pectin andcannot dissociate and cause you harm.

They key is to avoid ALL canned (or bottled) fruit or vegetable juices as they will have free methanol. Another large source of freemethanol would be aspartame which is 11 percent methanol by weight.

So if this theory is correct, you would likely receive very little benefit from consuming ethanol if you just avoid canned fruits andvegetables and asparatame….....

Do You Drink Too Much?

It’s dangerous to place too much weight on recommendations that include imbibing alcohol on a regular basis. And even if you do takethat recommendations to heart, it’s important to remember that healthbenefits have ONLY been found in people who drink small amounts ofalcohol on a daily basis, NOT a week’s worth of alcohol over theweekend...

This fact also further strengthens the theory that the benefit is derived from having low amounts of ethanol circulating almostcontinuously, or at least regularly, through your system, keepingformaldehyde from forming and doing any damage.

Unfortunately, alcohol abuse is a major problem in most countries, so I certainly hope you will not use this information as an excuse to hitthe bottle every day.

Most alcohol misuse and abuse stems from deep emotional challenges. Addressing these issues at a deep level is imperative to avoid thenegative health consequences--both physical and mental--that inevitablyresult from excessive drinking.

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be helpful if this is an issue for you. This psychologicalacupressure technique is routinely used in my clinic and it works betterthan any other traditional or alternative method I am currently awareof.

However, if you try the technique yourself and find that you are not improving, consider consulting a trained EFT therapist to facilitate theprocess. You can find a list of qualified EFT practitioners near you atthis link. For more information, feel free to review Pat Carrington’s site TappingCentral.

Five months ago, a friend of mine, who edits a national daily, sent me a text message agreeing substantially with my column, ‘The Punch and the rest of us’, except the generalised conclusion that “all (journalists) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the profession”. There are still some journalists, he submits, who toe the narrow path of integrity. Of course I knew where he was coming from, but I also knew the context in which I had made that statement.

I revisit that statement in light of the stories spewing out of the political beat, specifically on the race for the 2011 presidential elections and how it affects the integrity of news.

As part of the effort to sell his candidature for the presidency, former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) invited as many as 40 journalists to his Minna home on August 14 for an interview. I have heard questions asked about why he should invite journalists to his home instead of a public place if he didn’t have an ulterior motive, and why he should offer monetary gifts to the journalists in the name of paying for their transportation.

One news medium, which has championed this opposition in the open, is the online agency, Sahara Reporters. According to SR each of the journalists received N10 million for heeding Babangida’s call on his presidential ambition. That is N400 million just for one night’s interview from an aspirant yet to win his party’s nomination if it were true. But it was not. When some of the journalists complained about the fictional sum, SR changed the story on August 19, saying it was just “a paltry N250, 000 each”. Rather than admit its initial error SR simply said, “our accountants have told us that going by the number of 40 journalists in attendance, we are still around the same ballpark of N10 million”. So much for credible reporting!

Three days later, SR followed up with ‘IBB and his Rogue Journalists’, accusing the journalists of roguery and professional misconduct; roguery, because they collected money from two sources—their employers who presumably authorised and funded the trip and their news source, IBB; misconduct because it is unethical for them to demand/receive gratification from news sources for their services.

And on August 23 in ‘IBB Nocturnal Press Parley: Punch fires Editorial board Chairman’, SR stayed on top of the story by reporting that Adebolu Arowolo, editorial board chairman of the Punch, had lost his job for going on that trip without his management’s approval..

"I took [President Obama] to various locations while he was looking for campaign funds. Vera accompanied him to each meeting.

"About 10:30 pm, I drove them to the hotel and they went in together. She didn't ask me to wait or to be taken back to her friend's home - or to her home"

Girl frozen in time may hold key to ageing

American scientists are keenly studying the DNA of a 17-year-old girl who still has the body and behaviour of a baby

This 21'st century Peter Pan has defied scientists .A genetic condition (Anageria) opposite to progeria which some speculate Paris Hilton and many other women and MEN will kill for ! Brooke Greenberg is a miracle.

Scientists are hoping to gain new insights into the mysteries of ageing by sequencing the genome of a 17-year-old girl who has the body and behaviour of a tiny toddler.

PHOTO:Brooke Greenberg "baby", then aged 9, with sister Carly who was 6

Brooke Greenberg is old enough to drive a car and next year will be old enough to vote — but at 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, she is still the size of a one-year-old.

Until recently she had been regarded as a medical oddity but a preliminary study of her DNA has suggested her failure to grow could be linked to defects in the genes that make the rest of humanity grow old.

If confirmed, the research could give scientists a fresh understanding of ageing and even suggest new therapies for diseases linked to old age.

“We think that Brooke’s condition presents us with a unique opportunity to understand the process of ageing,” said Richard Walker, a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, who is leading the research team.

“We think that she has a mutation in the genes that control her ageing and development so that she appears to have been frozen in time.

“If we can compare her genome to the normal version then we might be able to find those genes and see exactly what they do and how to control them.”

Such research will be the focus of a conference at the Royal Society in London this week to be attended by some of the world’s leading age researchers.

It follows a series of scientific breakthroughs showing that the life span of many animals can be dramatically extended by making minute changes in single genes.

The work began with tiny worms known as C elegans, which normally live for only about a fortnight. Researchers have been able to extend their life span by up to 10 weeks by making small changes in certain genes.

Scientists have gone on to discover that mutating the same genes in mice had the same effect.

“Mice are genetically very close to humans,” said Cynthia Kenyon, professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, who is a key speaker at the Royal Society.

“The implication is that ageing is controlled by a relatively small number of genes and that we might be able to target these with new therapies that would improve the quality and length of human life.”

The laboratory findings have been supported by research into humans, focusing on families whose members are long-lived. In one recent study Eline Slagboom, professor of molecular epidemiology at Leiden University, Holland, collected data on 30,500 people in 500 long-lived families to find the metabolic and genetic factors that make them special.

“Such people simply age slower than the rest of us,” she said. “Their skin is better, they have less risk of diseases of old age like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension and their ability to metabolise lipids and other nutrients is better. The question is: what is controlling all these different manifestations of slow ageing?

“So far, the evidence suggests that there could be just a few key genes in charge of it all. If we can find out where they are and how they work, it opens the way to new therapies against the diseases of ageing that could work in all of us.”

Walker and other researchers, including Kenyon, believe that finding the cause of Brooke Greenberg’s condition could be one way to pinpoint some of those genes.

Superficially, Brooke, who lives with her parents Howard and Melanie Greenberg and her three sisters in Reisterstown, a Baltimore suburb, is frozen in time. She looks and acts as if she were a small toddler — for 17 years her family has changed her nappies, rocked her to sleep and given her cuddles.

Brooke has shown some development, including crawling, smiling and giggling when tickled but she has never learnt to speak and still has her infant teeth.

But she has also suffered a succession of life-threatening health problems, including strokes, seizures, ulcers and breathing difficulties — almost as if she were growing old despite not growing up.

Howard Greenberg, Brooke's father, said he wanted the genome research carried out in the hope it might help others.

He said: "Brooke is just a wonderful child. She is very pure. She still babbles just like a 6 month old baby but she still communicates and we always know just what she means."

Walker and his colleagues, who are working with Brooke’s parents to ensure she benefits from any research findings, have just published a research paper which suggests that in reality some parts of her body have indeed aged — but slowly and all at different rates.

“Our hypothesis is that she is suffering from damage in the gene or genes that co-ordinate the way the body develops and ages,” he said.

“If we can use her DNA to find that mutant gene then we can test it in laboratory animals to see if we can switch if off and slow down the ageing process at will.

“Just possibly it could give us an opportunity to answer the question of why we are mortal.”

Jerly Lyngdoh: World’s oldest baby:

Surgeons and pediatricians in India have been puzzled after discovering a 26-year-old man trapped inside the body and mind of a child aged between one and two years.Jerly Lyngdoh – who is still dressed in baby clothes by his parents – has a head circumference that babies 9-12 months old have, measures 84 cm like any two-year-old and weighs 22 pounds.

“Jerly’s infantile features are remarkable, and the only things he shares with an adult are his teeth,” Dr. J. Ryndong told the Hindustan Times.

According to the pediatrician, Lyngdoh suffers from poor secretion of growth hormones from the pituitary gland.

“His is a case opposite to progeria, which means advanced ageing, and we have reasons to say Jerly is a rarity,” Ryndong added. He ruled out the genetic factor, since all six of Jerly’s siblings have no physical or mental disability.

“We also plan to seek expertise from the medical world beyond to crack Jerly’s case,” the doctor said.

NEW YORK – Police found an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said Sunday.

Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours after a T-shirt vendor alerted police to the suspicious vehicle, which contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

"We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

The bomb appeared to be starting to detonate but malfunctioned, top police spokesman Paul Browne said Sunday.

Firefighters who arrived shortly after the first call heard a popping sound, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who described the sound as not quite an explosion.

"I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said.

No suspects were in custody, though Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it parked between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Police were looking for more video from office buildings that weren't open at the time.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that officials are treating the incident as a potential terrorist attack. The mayor said earlier Sunday, "We have no idea who did this or why" but said it's not surprising the city is a frequent target of terrorism.

"These things invariably ... come back to New York," Bloomberg said.

The SUV was towed early Sunday to a forensic lab in Queens, where it was being "thoroughly checked for prints, hairs and fibers," Browne said Sunday. Napolitano said fingerprints had been recovered from the vehicle.

The T-shirt vendor alerted police at about 6:30 p.m, the height of dinner hour before theatergoers head to Saturday night shows..

Smoke was coming from the back of the dark-colored Pathfinder, its hazard lights were on and "it was just sitting there," said Rallis Gialaboukis, 37, another vendor who has hawked his wares for 20 years across the street.

A white robotic police arm broke windows of the SUV to remove any explosive materials. A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up, Bloomberg said. Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told them he had sent the plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said.

Heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city's busiest streets, choked with taxis and people on one of the first summer-like days of the year. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.

The car was parked on one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as "The Lion King" and "Billy Elliot."

The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half-hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown.

Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds.

"It was a mass of people running away from the scene," Neubauer said.

Said Saunders: "There were too many people, too many cops. I've never seen anything like it."

Bloomberg left early from the White House correspondent's dinner Saturday night. President Barack Obama, who attended the annual gala, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

He has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support.

Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation, Shapiro said.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York responded along with the NYPD, said agent Richard Kolko.

The latest terror threat in New York came last fall when air shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway system.

The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007. No one was injured when police discovered two Mercedes loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline.

Officials said the device found Saturday was crudely constructed, but Islamic militants have used propane and compressed gas for years to enhance the force of explosives. Those instances include the 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marines barracks at the Beirut airport that killed 241 U.S. service members, and the 2007 attack on the international airport in Glasgow, Scotland.

In 2007, the U.S. military announced that an al-Qaida front group was using propane to rig car bombs in Iraq.

Times Square has been a frequent target, if not for potential terrorists, then for rabble-rousers.

In December, a parked van without license plates led police to block off part of the area for about two hours. A police robot examined the vehicle, and clothes, racks and scarves were found inside.

In March 2008, a hooded bicyclist hurled an explosive device at a military recruiting center, producing a flash, smoke and full-scale emergency response. No suspect was ever identified.

Police have spent years trying to crack down on street hustlers and peddlers preying on tourists. But there have been two major gunfights in recent months. A street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December, shattering a Broadway theater ticket window, before police fatally shot him.

Four shootings and more than 50 arrests on a mile-long stretch of Manhattan last month around Times Square prompted the mayor to call the mayhem "wilding."