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Canadian authorities are investigating an "unbelievable" incident in

which a passenger boarded an Air Canada flight disguised as an ..elderly man, according to a confidential alert obtained by CNN.

The incident occurred on October 29 on Air Canada flight AC018 to Vancouver originating in Hong Kong. An intelligence alert from the Canada Border Services Agency describes the incident as an "unbelievable case of concealment."

"Information was received from Air Canada Corporate Security regarding a possible imposter on a flight originating from Hong Kong," the alert says. "The passenger in question was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young looking hands. During the flight the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian looking male that appeared to be in his early 20s."...

After landing in Canada, Border Services Officers (BSOs) escorted the man off the plane where he "proceeded to make a claim for refugee protection," the alert says.

"The subject initially claimed to be in possession of one bag; however, flight crew approached the BSOs with two additional pieces of luggage which were believed to belong to the subject. One bag contained the subject's personal clothing items while the second contained a pair of gloves. The third contained a 'disguise kit' which consisted of a silicone type head and neck mask of an elderly Caucasian male, a brown leather cap, glasses and a thin brown cardigan."

The man put on the disguise for the officers who "noted he very much resembled an elderly Caucasian man, complete with mimicking the movements of an elderly person. The subject admitted at this time that he had boarded the flight with the mask on and had removed it several hours later," according to the alert.

Read the intelligence alert

"We can confirm that officials from the CBSA met a passenger arriving off AC018 Hong Kong to Vancouver on October 29 and the matter is still under investigation," said Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick, who noted that "there are multiple identity checks before departure at the Hong Kong international airport, including Chinese government-run Hong Kong passport control, which Hong Kong originating passengers must undergo."

Hong Kong officials said they are aware of the incident and would call back with more information later.

Jennifer Bourque, regional communications officer for the CBSA, confirmed that "we intercepted an individual, on October 29, attempting to enter Canada under false pretenses on-board an Air Canada flight."

"CBSA can confirm that the foreign national is currently in CBSA detention," she said. "The individual will present before an IRB hearing. The officials of the CBSA will not disclose further information on this file."

Because of Privacy Act regulations, she said, she cannot provide details about specific cases.

"However, I can tell you that CBSA officers examine all passengers arriving on international flights at Vancouver International Airport," she said. "CBSA works closely with air carriers and local, national and international law enforcement partners, to ensure the safety of our borders and our communities. Getting the right information at the right time is a key element in keeping Canada's border closed to safety and security threats."

The agency would not discuss when or why the man put on the disguise or details about how he boarded the plane. But the alert indicated that the suspect boarded the plane with a board pass belonging to another passenger.

"It is believed that the subject and the actual United States Citizen passenger (whose date of birth is 1955) performed a boarding pass swap, with the subject using an Aeroplan card as identification to board the flight," the alert said.

Aeroplan is a credit card where card holders can earn frequent flyer miles.

Ex Plantashun Boiz member, Faze has featured his former band mates 2face and Blackface on a track Best of the Best.The song which was produced by Spankie will be included in his forthcoming album titled Relate due for release next month.

A few months back Faze had dropped singles Relate and Gear one as a build up to his album release. The Plantashun Boiz was one of Nigeria’s foremost boy band who held sway in the 1990’s.They have been dubbed as the foundation of modern-day Nigerian music; serving as the bridge between the older and newer generations..

Provabs drops new single

Provabs follows up his previous single - Hope. Aina Olasubomi Anthony a.k.a PROVABS is a song writer and rapper who has infused rap into different genres of music, ranging from classical to hardcore, hiphop and jazz. Having collaborated with several artists like Jedi, Ige, Dekunle Fuji, Contemporary urban Gospel artist, Provabs is set to launch out on his own and he does that with a brand new single titled Bless Me (Dey Go). The single is a follow up to his previous single Ko Si and Swagger.

Tyler Perry tests box office draw with ‘Colored Girls’

Filmmaker Tyler Perry has had no trouble claiming financial success when audiences flock to his comedies, but this week his box office pull will be tested with the dark drama, ‘For Colored Girls’. Currently America’s most successful African American film director who often attaches his name to movies adapted from his own stage plays, Perry has raked in more than $450 million at box offices, mostly in the United States. But his new movie, ‘For Colored Girls’, opening on Friday, is far removed from the comedic fare for which he first gained fame, including ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman’ and ‘Madea’s Family Reunion’. ‘For Colored Girls’ tackles issues such as abuse and abortion, and is adapted from poet and playwright Ntozake Shange’s,

‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf’. “This was the most intimidating work I have ever taken on,” Perry told reporters in a recent news conference. “I walked away from it many times.” Yet the intertwining stories of nine women facing trials in their everyday lives kept pulling him back, and for his adaptation, Perry has updated the 1970s-era play with a film presentation of modern black women living in New York City who face troubling dilemmas and decisions.

Helping the movie’s box office potential is its long roster of high-profile female actors and performers, including Janet Jackson,

Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, Kerry Washington, Thandie Newton and Macy Gray. But Carl DiOrio, a box office analyst for The Hollywood Reporter, said while pre-release interest was “high”, the actresses alone were not enough to guarantee popularity. “It’s a solid cast but the cast itself won’t necessarily drive the opening. If there is a star in the mix it’s Tyler Perry,” he said. “There is no doubt that he delivers a fan base. (But) because of the turn into much grittier fare that he takes with this film, it remains to be seen how it plays over subsequent weekends.”

The film is projected to make Perry’s usual opening haul of around $20 million based on tracking surveys, said DiOrio, but the long-term box office was unclear as “it’s hard to market this like a typical Tyler Perry movie.” Adding to that are questions over whether Perry can handle translating Shange’s poetic monologues and capture her feminist sensibilities. Early critical reaction has been mixed.

“While Perry’s craft has slowly but surely improved with each successive film, this latest project seems to fall beyond his reach,” said Variety in its review. Shange, who met with Perry several times to discuss his script, has said she is “75 percent” happy with the screen adaptation, after becoming used to various adaptations.

“This is an opportunity for her work to be presented to a much wider audience,” her associate Claude Sloan told Reuters. “She looks at that as a benefit, but she has trepidation as any artist would at being at the hands of another artist.” Perry, who produced, directed and wrote the film told reporters he was satisfied with the end result: “I did the best work I could do at this time in my life.”

Taylor Swift pays tribute to fans for record sales Country-pop singer

Taylor Swift thanked her fans on Wednesday for buying more than one million copies of her new album ‘Speak Now’, making it the biggest first week seller in five years. “I... Can’t... Believe... This... You guys have absolutely lit up my world. Thank you,” Swift said in Twitter message. Official Nielsen SoundScan figures showed that ‘Speak Now’ sold 1,047,000 copies in the United States during the week ended October 31.

It was the biggest sales week for an album since rapper 50 Cent’s 2005 album ‘The Massacre’ sold 1,141,000. The critically well-praised album --the third from the 20 year-old singer-songwriter --also notched up the second-largest sales week of any country album since 1991.

The bumper numbers, helped by a massive promotional push including TV appearances, advance digital releases of some of the new songs and free concerts by Swift, came after years of music industry gloom over declining album sales and piracy. Swift, who won four Grammys earlier this year, has carved out a distinctive niche over the past two years for songs that address adolescent heart-break and the social perils of high-school. Her album ‘Fearless’ was the biggest selling record of 2009.

In ‘Speak Now’, she delivers a forthright commentary on several men who have broken or messed with her heart. The album includes songs widely believed to refer to singer John Mayer, pop star Joe Jonas, rapper Kanye West, ‘Twilight’ actor Taylor Lautner, and music industry critics who slammed her shaky vocal performance at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

Nashville music industry writer David Ross, editor of MusicRow, said Swift’s success flies in the face of conventional wisdom about the dire state of the recording industry. “Unlike many of the top-charting female artists of today, Ms Swift eschews tabloid behaviour and asks fans to focus on her music,” Ross said on Wednesday. “In some universal way, her life contests connect with similar moments that have brushed the fabric of others as well,” Ross added.

HAVING LUNCH WITH GOD

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer (iron brew in SA context) and started his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her some chips. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.

Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.

As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied! "I ate potato chips in the park with God." However, before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime! Embrace all equally!

Have lunch with God ....... bring chips.

Send this to people who have touched your life in a special way. Let them know how important they are.

I did!!!!

You may be going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can. Keep the faith.

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown how stem cells, together with other cells, repair damaged tissue in the mouse spinal cord. The results are of potential significance to the development of therapies for spinal cord injury.

There is hope that damage to the spinal cord and brain will one day be treatable using stem cells (i.e. immature cells that can develop into different cell types). Stem cell-like cells have been found in most parts of the adult human nervous system, although it is still unclear how much they contribute to the formation of new, functioning cells in adult individuals.

A joint study by Professor Jonas FrisA©n’s research group at Karolinska Institutet and their colleagues from France and Japan, and published in Cell Stem Cell, shows how stem cells and several other cell types contribute to the formation of new spinal cord cells in mice and how this changes dramatically after trauma. The research group has identified a type of stem cell, called an ependymal cell, in the spinal cord. They show that these cells are inactive in the healthy spinal cord, and that the cell formation that takes place does so mainly through the division of more mature cells. When the spinal cord is injured, however, these stem cells are activated to become the dominant source of new cells.

The stem cells then give rise to cells that form scar tissue and to a type of support cell that is an important component of spinal cord functionality. The scientists also show that a certain family of mature cells known as astrocytes produce large numbers of scar-forming cells after injury.

“The stem cells have a certain positive effect following injury, but not enough for spinal cord functionality to be restored,” says Jonas FrisA©n. “One interesting question now is whether pharmaceutical compounds can be identified to stimulate the cells to form more support cells in order to improve functional recovery after a spinal trauma.”

Publication: “Origin of new glial cells in the intact and injured adult spinal cord”, Fanie BarnabA©-Heider, Christian GA¶ritz, Hanna SabelstrA¶m, Hirohide Takebayashi, Frank W. Pfrieger, Konstantinos Meletis & Jonas FrisA©n, Cell Stem Cell, print issue 8 October 2010.

(Extracted from http://www.breakthroughdigest.com )

Garlic has “significant” potential for preventing cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease that is a leading cause of death in people with diabetes, scientists have concluded in a new study. Their report, which also explains why people with diabetes are at high risk for diabetic cardiomyopathy, appears in ACS’ bi-weeklyJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Wei-Wen Kuo and colleagues note that people with diabetes have at least twice the risk of death from heart disease as others, with heart disease accounting for 80 percent of all diabetes-related deaths. They are especially vulnerable to a form of heart disease termed diabetic cardiomyopathy, which inflames and weakens the heart’s muscle tissue. Kuo’s group had hints from past studies that garlic might protect against heart disease in general and also help control the abnormally high blood sugar levels that occur in diabetes. But they realized that few studies had been done specifically on garlic’s effects on diabetic cardiomyopathy.

The scientists fed either garlic oil or corn oil to laboratory rats with diabetes. Animals given garlic oil experienced beneficial changes associated with protection against heart damage. The changes appeared to be associated with the potent antioxidant properties of garlic oil, the scientists say, adding that they identified more than 20 substances in garlic oil that may contribute to the effect. “In conclusion, garlic oil possesses significant potential for protecting hearts from diabetes-induced cardiomyopathy,” the report notes.

Article extracted from ; http://www.breakthroughdigest.com

SINGAPORE — A Qantas Airways jet was forced to make an emergency landing after an engine appeared to explode Thursday — showering debris onto houses and a shopping mall below — shortly after take-off from Singapore.

Qantas said the Airbus A380 — which had stopped off en route from London, U.K., to Sydney, Australia — suffered a "significant engine failure" and grounded its fleet of six A380s.

The carrier said there had not been any explosion and landed safely with no injuries. Australian officials said no one on board was injured.

However, passengers among the 459 people on board variously reported hearing a "massive bang" or a "loud boom," with one describing the incident as "the scariest thing I had seen." The giant jet was forced to return to Singapore to make an emergency landing.

Witnesses on the western Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore, reported hearing a large blast and seeing pieces of debris — including panels painted white and red — falling onto houses and a nearby shopping mall...

Pictures of metal, some the size of a door, were shown on Indonesia's MetroTV broadcaster, with people milling around.

"I heard a big explosion at around 9:15 a.m. and saw a commercial passenger plane flying low in the distance with smoke on one of its wings," Rusdi, a local resident, told MetroTV. "The debris started falling on my house."

'Like a shotgun'
The A380 has four engines and passengers said while the incident was frightening, the plane coped remarkably well...

"I just heard this massive bang, like a shotgun going off," Tyler Wooster told Australia's Network Nine television. "Part of the skin had peeled off and you could see the foam underneath, pieces of broken wires sticking out."

"My whole body just went to jelly and I didn't know what was going to happen as we were going down, if we were going to be OK," he added.

"I was sitting over the wing, where the No. 2 engine is. I was looking out of the window on the tarmac as we took off," Ulf Waschbusch, another passenger, told Reuters.

"Five minutes after take-off there was a loud boom, small pieces flying around (outside), it was the scariest thing I had seen. The plane was surprisingly stable all through. There was no panic," he said.

Christopher Lee told Australia's ABC radio the passengers heard a bang, and reported rattling in the cabin.

"Some of the passengers then alerted cabin staff that there was an explosion, there was smoke ... We circled in a holding pattern above Singapore for about an hour," he said. Passengers were kept informed at all times, he said.

Rosemary Hegardy, 60, of Sydney, told The Associated Press that she heard two bangs and saw yellow flames from her window.

"There was flames — yellow flames came out, and debris came off. ... You could see black things shooting through the smoke, like bits of debris," she said.

Investigation pending
The plane circled Singapore to burn fuel before making an emergency landing. Passengers evacuated andwere in Singapore's Changi airport. A Reuters reporter said the plane was surrounded on the ground by emergency vehicles, but there was no sign of smoke or fire.

Thursday's incident was one of most serious for the A380, the world's biggest passenger jet, in its three years of commercial flight.

Qantas said it was grounding its A380 fleet pending a full investigation.

A Qantas statement said the double-decker plane experienced an "engine issue" soon after taking off from Singapore for Sydney. It made a safe emergency landing in Singapore at 11:45 a.m. local time with 433 passengers and 26 crew on board, the statement said.

Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce told a news conference in Sydney that the suspension would remain in place until Qantas was satisfied that it was safe for its A380s to fly.

"We will suspend those A380 services until we are completely confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met," Joyce said.

"The A380 is a fantastic aircraft. This issue of an engine failure is one we have not seen before. We are obviously taking this very seriously, because it was a significant engine failure," he added.

Separately, Singapore's Changi airport said in a statement that flight QF 32 left for Sydney at 9:56 a.m., and "for technical reasons the aircraft turned back to Changi," landing safely one hour and 50 minutes later.

Qantas spokeswoman Emma Kearns in Sydney, Australia, said there were no reports of injuries or an explosion on board.

Did volcanic ash affect engine?
When asked if the engine trouble was related to ash hurled from the Mount Merapi volcano, which has been erupting since last week, Kearns said she had no further details.

There was confusion Tuesday at Okegbala, Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State as four year old Akin Akinola’s body was found hanging in his home with residents wondering what went wrong..

It was gathered that the mother of the boy, Mrs. Nike Akinola, had gone to the market earlier that day to buy fruits for sale at the Adeyemi College of Education, leaving the boy and her other children behind under the care of a lady.

Akin, a Primary 1 pupil of St Agnes Primary School, Okegbala, Ondo, was said to be later found hanging in his mother’s room. The boy, according to sources, did not go to school that day because he wanted to change his old school uniform. It was gathered that Akinola was said to have earlier that day bought a sachet of milk from a nearby shop. When he got home, he was said to have entered his mother’s room and did not come out until some people were said to have entered the room where they discovered his body hanging. An alarm was raised to attract other residents to the scene. Police Public Relations Officer for Ondo State Command Mr Aremu Adeniran vowed to uncover those behind the incident. He said some suspects had already been arrested over the incident by state CID. The house has in the meantime been sealed off by the police...

In a related development, five year old Feranmi Oloyede was also found hanging on a tree at the back of his home at Moferere in Ajilosun area of Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State Friday.

The St Louis Nursery and Primary School, Ikere-Ekiti primary one pupil was said to be playing with a rope tied to a tree branch, having climbed a table under the tree. The leg slipped and he got hanged, reports said.

More than 64 million Nigerians, constituting 46 per cent of the country’s 140 million population, are illiterate and cannot contribute to socio-economic development of the country.

The Board Chairman of the National Commission for Mass, Adult and Non-formal Education (NCME), Paschal Bafyau, said this yesterday when the Senate Committee on Education visited the commission’s headquarters yesterday.

Bafyau told the lawmakers who were on oversight visit that it was necessary for government to give an accelerated impetus in its annual budget to the commission in order to eliminate the problem.

He also said the commission needs a total of 200, 000 facilitators who will reach the target of at least 150,000 illiterates in each state of the federation...

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Alhaji Jibril Yusuf Paiko, said they were financially incapacitated to effectively meet their statutory mandate of ensuring Nigerians are educated at both formal an non formal sectors.

He also said apart from Lagos and FCT, other state governments have been failing to settle the N7,000 allowances to the facilitators, calling on the federal government to intervene by calling on governors to accomplish their promises.

Reacting, the Chairman Senate Committee on Education, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (PDP, Kebbi) said they were at the commission in order to ascertain whether they have received the monies appropriated to them in 2009 and 2010 and to assess the level of implementation as well as constraints the commission was facing.