251 now dead in Zamfara poison tragedy •Residents flee •Govt votes N240m to fight spread

This is coming a week after a similar incident in Kaduna led to over 500 people being hospitalised.

More dead bodies were discovered on Saturday as officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organisation stormed the small village of Yargalma in Zarumai district of Bukkuyum Local Government Area to rescue the victims of the mining disaster in the area.

Speaking in an interview, a journalist who resides in Bukkuyum but who pleaded for anonymity, said the situation was alarming and outrageous.

Narrating the incident to the Sunday Tribune, he disclosed that the situation started about a month ago “when several of our people who went to the mining sites in search of gold were killed as a result of the explosion of the landmines”.

According to him, “the landmines were buried in almost all the mining sites and these people suspected to be illegal miners just stepped on the landmines and it exploded with them”.

Other sources revealed that the emission coming from the explosion was so severe that children living at the vicinity of the sites gave up the ghost on inhaling it.

Sunday Tribune findings revealed that most of those that died at the mining scene were children between the ages of five years and 10 years.

The people of Bukkuyum according to Sunday Tribune investigations are now living in fear of the unknown.

As at the time of filing this report, people residing around the mining sites had started leaving to neighboring towns of Anka, Gummi and Jangebe.

When contacted, the state commissioner for information, Alh. Adamu Tsafe, remarked that government was aware of the situation stressing that “we will address you (press) on Sunday after we have gathered all the necessary information”

It would be recalled that recently a health official reported that about 163 people died as a result of inhaling poisonous substance from mining sites. According to the official, out of the number, 113 were children, while 350 were hospitalised.

Meanwhile, the Zamfara State government has voted about N240 million naira to control the ravaging spread of poisonous emissions that has so far killed about 250 people in the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Saiad Idris disclosed this at a press briefing in Gusau on Saturday.

He said the state government was being supported in curtailing the scourge by the Federal Government, World Health Organisation and development partners from the United States, Holland and others.

Get moved
We're not talking about packing up and renting a U-Haul. Dr. Fuhrman says that viewing beautiful art, watching a touching dramatic scene or even listening to an inspiring piece of music can produce endorphins. "A person who gets pleasure in life, from whatever source, will keep endorphins at a healthy level," he says.
Endorphin factor: 2, unless you're overwhelmed with emotion (think swooning, tear-filled eyes and a quickened heartbeat); that counts for 3.

Undergo acupuncture
"Putting needles into the body is a release," says Dr. Fuhrman, "and it may trigger endorphin production." Also, patients benefit from a placebo effect -- they believe that the process is working, so it really does, says Dr. Fuhrman. Talk about the brain's power.
Endorphin factor: 3. People who use acupuncture tend to be positive thinkers, which adds to the effects.

Chow chocolate
We knew that the cocoa bean had an addictive quality. "The food closest to a drug is chocolate," says Dr. Hirsch. "It actually has an impact on your brain that triggers an endorphin release." But there's no need to wolf down three bars in one sitting; a bite or two will cause the same response.
Endorphin factor: 1 -- but such a sweet one!

Be afraid
Ever hear friends say they like being scared? Whether you're watching a horror movie with your hand over your eyes or feeling a rush of wind in your hair as you plummet down a steep incline on a roller coaster, fear causes endorphin release. Why do you think extreme sports are so popular? No one wants to get hurt; it's just fun (in a twisted kind of way) to cheat death. "The thrill of a high-speed ride induces a positive mood state that can leave you giddy," says Dr. Hirsch. And Freddy Krueger can do it for you too. Who knew he was such a heartthrob?
Endorphin factor: 3 to 5, depending on the personal fear factor.

Catch a few rays
Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have found that ultraviolet (UV) light can trigger endorphin production, which may be why some bathing beauties are reluctant to give up their tanning time, even given the dangers of skin cancer. A few minutes of exposure is enough to harm your skin, so doctors recommend sunscreen. But with the placebo effect working for you, just knowing it's sunny outside can boost your endorphin production and your mood.

Endorphin factor: 2, because you know you're protecting your skin (and you're happy it's warm).

Have a giggle fit
Whether it's a quick joke that tickles your funny bone or a long, hilarious romantic comedy, having a laugh produces endorphins that will increase your immune function and make you more resistant to disease, according to Dr. Fuhrman.
Endorphin factor: 2 to 3. Ever hear the phrase "Laughter is the best medicine"? Get thee to a comedy show.

Finding Favor with the King, p.
75

"I'm spiritual but not religious."

A Tree and Its Fruit

15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

It's a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don't need organized religion to live a life of faith.

But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: egotism.

"Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness," says Martin, an editor at America, a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. "If it's just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?"

Religious debates erupt over everything from doctrine to fashion. Martin has jumped into a running debate over the "I'm spiritual but not religious" phrase.Photo:Being "spiritual but not religious" means you do not need a church or a community, some say. A beach will do.

The "I'm spiritual but not religious" community is growing so much that one pastor compared it to a movement. In a 2009 survey by the research firm LifeWay Christian Resources, 72 percent of millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) said they're "more spiritual than religious." The phrase is now so commonplace that it's spawned its own acronym ("I'm SBNR") and Facebook page: SBNR.org.

But what exactly does being "spiritual but not religious" mean, and could there be hidden dangers in living such a life?

Did you choose "Burger King Spirituality"?

Heather Cariou, a New York City-based author who calls herself spiritual instead of religious, doesn't think so. She's adopted a spirituality that blends Buddhism, Judaism and other beliefs.

"I don't need to define myself to any community by putting myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim," she says. "When I die, I believe all my accounting will be done to God, and that when I enter the eternal realm, I will not walk though a door with a label on it."

People seem not to have the time nor the energy or interest to delve deeply into any one faith or religious tradition.

--June-Ann Greeley, theology professor

RELATED TOPICS

Religion

The Roman Catholic Church

BJ Gallagher, a Huffington Post blogger who writes about spirituality, says she's SBNR because organized religion inevitably degenerates into tussles over power, ego and money.

Gallagher tells a parable to illustrate her point:

"God and the devil were walking down a path one day when God spotted something sparkling by the side of the path. He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand.

"Ah, Truth," he said.

"Here, give it to me," the devil said. "I'll organize it."

Gallagher says there's nothing wrong with people blending insights from different faith traditions to create what she calls a "Burger King Spirituality -- have it your way."

She disputes the notion that spiritual people shun being accountable to a community.

"Twelve-step people have a brilliant spiritual community that avoids all the pitfalls of organized religion," says Gallagher, author of "The Best Way Out is Always Through."

"Each recovering addict has a 'god of our own understanding,' and there are no priests or intermediaries between you and your god. It's a spiritual community that works.''

Nazli Ekim, who works in public relations in New York City, says calling herself spiritual instead of religious is her way of taking responsibility for herself.

Ekim was born in a Muslim family and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. She prayed to Allah every night, until she was 13 and had to take religion classes in high school.Then one day, she says she had to take charge of her own beliefs.

"I had this revelation that I bow to no one, and I've been spiritually a much happier person," says Ekim, who describers herself now as a Taoist, a religious practice from ancient China that emphasizes the unity of humanity and the universe.

"I make my own mistakes and take responsibility for them. I've lied, cheated, hurt people -- sometimes on purpose. Did I ever think I will burn in hell for all eternity? I didn't. Did I feel bad and made up for my mistakes? I certainly did, but not out of fear of God."

Going on a spiritual walkabout

The debate over being spiritual rather than religious is not just about semantics. It's about survival.

Numerous surveys show the number of Americans who do not identify themselves as religious has been increasing and likely will continue to grow.

A 2008 survey conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, dubbed these Americans who don't identify with any religion as "Nones."

"I don't need to define myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim."

--Heather Cariou, a spiritual but not religious seeker

Seminaries, churches, mosques and other institutions will struggle for survival if they don't somehow convince future generations that being religious isn't so bad after all, religion scholars warn.

Jennifer Walters, dean of religious life at Smith College in Massachusetts, says there's a lot of good in old-time religion.

Religious communities excel at caring for members in difficult times, encouraging members to serve others and teaching religious practices that have been tested and wrestled with for centuries, Walters says.

"Hymn-singing, forms of prayer and worship, teachings about social justice and forgiveness -- all these things are valuable elements of religious wisdom," Walters says. "Piecing it together by yourself can be done, but with great difficulty."

Being a spiritual Lone Ranger fits the tenor of our times, says June-Ann Greeley, a theology and philosophy professor.

"Religion demands that we accord to human existence some absolutes and eternal truths, and in a post-modern culture, that becomes all but impossible," says Greeley, who teaches at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

It's much easier for "spiritual" people to go on "spiritual walkabouts," Greeley says.

"People seem not to have the time nor the energy or interest to delve deeply into any one faith or religious tradition," Greeley says. "So they move through, collecting ideas and practices and tenets that most appeal to the self, but making no connections to groups or communities."

Being spiritual instead of religious may sound sophisticated, but the choice may ultimately come down to pettiness, says Martin, the Jesuit priest, who writes about the phrase in his book, "The Jesuit Guide to (Almost Everything)."

"Religion is hard," he says. "Sometimes it's just too much work. People don't feel like it. I have better things to do with my time. It's plain old laziness."

Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA is banking all his hopes that the world icon Nelson Mandela will be in good health to open the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this summer.

The former South African President is 91 years old and was last seen by the public on 11^thFebruary. It was the 20^th anniversary of his prison release, the day from which he was set free and was inspired to work with more vigour for his country.

Blatter earlier stated while talking to the media, “We cross fingers that Nelson Mandela can realise this dream. And his dream would be to be at the opening of the World Cup. For the time being, he is doing well and we hope that he can do it”.

He then added, “It will be his World Cup”.

Blatter has been riddled with critics who constantly question about the success of the World Cup in South Africa. South Africa was eager to have the world wide event on its turf while Blatter said they would have his full co-operation. Though there have been setbacks in the selection of major players and injuries, the tournament nevertheless looks to be a stunner despite a lesser number of predicted tickets being sold.

In fact the board is so convinced about its success that FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, the man whose neck is on the line for the preparations, claims that the tournament could have started weeks ago.

There has been a large drop in the amount of tickets being sold this year for two reasons. The first is a massive drop in ticket sales from Europe. A majority of the tickets used to be sold from the United Kingdom but as Valcke has correctly noted, the new internet-based system of ticket sales for this World Cup hasn’t been quite a success. One reason is the locals of Africa which have a low percentage of internet penetration and online banking facilities. Still, it’s predicted by Valcke and Blatter that the stadiums will be full to a 95 percent capacity.

The start of the internet campaign was pretty impressive and the sales reached a new record. However, a sudden rush was met with a surprising retreat. Valcke said, “I think we should have opened ticketing centres in the country before. Yes, we have to think about our ticketing policies and maybe review the policy which limits people to buying four tickets for one game. We will learn for 2014”.

There was fear that there might be a lot of unoccupied seats, a fear that Blatter had constantly took notice of but Valcke has affirmed, “We’re very confident of having a high number of people attending all 64 matches. The only World Cup with 100 per cent occupancy was in 1994 in the United States, but we will have at least 95 per cent occupancy of all stadiums.”

Now that Makhenkesi Stofile, the Minister of Sport and Recreation has confirmed that Nelson Mandela will be arriving at the Soccer City for the World Cup’s opening ceremony, there is bound to more joy and attendance from the local as well as international fans.

The former Nobel Prize winner, in spite of his poor health, has confirmed that he will be fit enough to come. Stofile told that Madiba has asked the FIFA 2010 World Cup board for four tickets which have been honoured to them.

Mandela will be participating in the opener between Bafana Bafana (South Africa) and Mexico on the 11^th of June, along with the final that is due on the 11^th of July at the Soccer City Stadium.

Please Let these South Africans realise this is the World Cup for Soccer and not Stealing or Sex Scandals! Cmon President has sex with

Angry SA president calls for family summit after reports that second wife is pregnant by bodyguard

A furious South African President Jacob Zuma has called an urgent family meeting at his family homestead in Nkandla, in rural KwaZulu-Natal, this weekend to deal with a letter that alleges infidelity by his second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli.On Thursday, the Durban newspaper Ilanga reported that it had received a letter from "concerned family members" in which MaNtuli is accused of cheating on the president with her bodyguard, Phinda Thomo, who reportedly committed suicide earlier this year.

Recent media reports have suggested that MaNtuli, who has two children, is pregnant again - and the paternity of the unborn child is being questioned by the "concerned family members".

The letter reads: "... what is the mystery now and talked about by the family is whose child is it that she is carrying. Is it ubaba's (Zuma's) child or the ex-private bodyguard?"

The letter says that MaNtuli became pregnant when she and Zuma "were apart and not talking to each other".

Zuma, 68, returned last night from an official trip to India with MaNtuli, 35. The Presidency released a statement on Friday saying Zuma would not dignify "gossip" with a response.

The statement reads: "The Presidency has noted with great concern reports that violate the privacy of President Jacob Zuma and his wife, Mrs Nompumelelo Zuma. The reports appear to be part of an ongoing and malicious campaign to undermine the right of the president and his family to privacy and dignity."

The president's businessman nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, denied that the letter was written by members of the family.

"It is particularly shameful and alarming that the president's political enemies have now taken to masquerading as members of his family to spread malicious innuendo about him and his family," he said.

He said that the family "is united" in distancing itself from the letter.

But, according to insiders, an angry Zuma wants answers from members of his family and has convened an urgent meeting for late on Sunday or on Monday, at which the allegations will be discussed.

"The president is deeply concerned about these allegations," said an insider. "That is why the intelligence (services) and the police are now on this matter.

"He wants to know about the letter and how it ended up in the press."

The latest controversy is further evidence that not all is well in the president's polygamous family.

The first signs of a fissure emerged soon after Zuma's election as president, when MaNtuli and Zuma's third wife, Thobeka Madiba, were caught on camera shoving each other in what appeared to be a fight over who should stand next to him.

When Zuma married KaMadiba, in January, MaNtuli was conspicuous by her absence.

The letter alleges that she has had run-ins with the president's first wife, Sizakele Khumalo, and that their conflict resulted in MaNtuli moving out of the homestead in Nkandla and settling in Durban.

"We, as family, truly believe that ubaba made the biggest mistake of his life by taking MaNtuli as his second wife," the authors of the letter write. "As the family, we are all shocked because we don't know her ... We do feel embarrassed to be associated with somebody like MaNtuli and feel sorry for ubaba, who has to live with her for the rest of his life."

It was reported that MaNtuli paid a fine of a goat in April this year as a punishment for her alleged cheating.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times has established that a top South African actor's previous relationship with MaNtuli has come back to haunt her.

Although the two were an item before she became involved with Zuma, the married actor has confirmed that they have a child together - although this is something he has yet to tell his wife.

Earlier this year, Zuma was embroiled in controversy when the Sunday Times revealed that he had fathered an illegitimate child with a daughter of South African soccer boss Irvin Khoza.

STATE VISIT: Jacob Zuma and his second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli, place a wreath at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial in New Delhi this week during a state visit to India Picture: REUTERS

John Mikel Obi is out of the World Cup. Brown Ideye has been called up to replace him.

Mikel quit the Nigerian World Cup team so he would not aggravate his knee injury. The Chelsea midfielder told team officials that ‘he did not want to put his career at risk as his knee injury 'has yet to fully heal after a recent surgery'. Emmanuel Attah, a team official said on Saturday morning.

The 23-year-old is among the final 23-man squad drafted by Nigerian coach Lars Lagerback who had earlier assured that Mikel will play a part of Sunday's warm-up game against North Korea.

Mikel is the latest Chelsea player to experience a last minute miss out of the World Cup with Michael Ballack, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba who is currently in pain after an elbow fracture. The Ivory Coast star may yet appear in the World Cup if an emergency surgery goes well.

Also England has lost Rio Ferdinand and Beckham with Theo Walcott's shoulder injury still lingering he is not even in the British Squad .

People who experience taste with greater intensity than the rest of the population are called supertasters. Having extra fungiform papillae (the mushroom shaped bumps on the tongue that are covered in taste buds) is thought to be the reason why these people have a stronger response to the sensation of taste. Of the five types of taste, sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami, a supertaster generally finds bitterness to be the most perceptible.

Scientists first noticed the differing abilities of people to taste a known compound when a DuPont chemist called Arthur Fox asked people to taste Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Some people could taste its bitterness; some couldn’t – whether people could depended on their genetic make-up (a variant of this test is now one of the most common genetic tests on humans). While about 70% of people can taste PTC, two thirds of them are rated as medium and only one third (approximately 25% of the wider population) are supertasters.

Supertasters will often dislike certain foods, particularly bitter ones, such as brussel sprouts, cabbage, coffee, and grapefruit juice. Women, Asians, and Africans are most likely to have the increased number of fungiform papillae that make them supertasters.

People with absolute pitch are capable of identifying and reproducing a tone without needing a known reference. It is not simply a better ability to hear but the ability to mentally class sounds into remembered categories. Examples of this include identifying the pitch of everyday noises (e.g. horns, sirens, and engines), being able to sing a named note without hearing a reference, naming the tones of a chord, or naming the key signature of a song. Doing any of these is a cognitive act – it requires one to remember the frequency of each tone, be able to label it (e.g. ‘A’, ‘C#’, or ‘F-flat’), and sufficient exposure to the range of sound within each label. Opinions vary as to whether absolute pitch is genetic or a learned ability that is strongly influenced to one’s exposure to music at crucial developmental stages – much like how a child’s ability to identify colors by their frequency depends on the type and level of their exposure to it.

Estimates of the portion of the population having absolute pitch range from 3% of the general population in the US and Europe to 8% of those (from the same areas) who are semi-professional or professional musicians. In music conservatories in Japan however, about 70% of musicians have absolute pitch. Part of the reason for this significantly larger percentage may be because absolute pitch is more common among people who grew up in a tonal (Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese) or pitch accent (Japanese) language environment. Absolute pitch is also more common in those who are blind from birth, have William’s Syndrome, or have an autism spectrum disorder.

Tetrachromacy is the ability to see light from four distinct sources. An example of this in the animal kingdom is the zebrafish (Danio rerio), which can see light from the red, green, blue, and ultraviolet sections of the light spectrum. True tetrachromacy in humans is much rarer however – according to Wikipedia only two possible tetrachromats have been identified.

Humans are normally trichromats, having three types of cone cells that receive light from either the red, green, or blue part of the light spectrum. Each cone can pick up about 100 graduations of color and the brain combines colors and graduations so that there are about 1 million distinguishable hues coloring your world. A true tetrachromat with an extra type of cone between red and green (in the orange range) would, theoretically, be able to perceive 100 million colors.

Like supertasting, tetrachromacy is thought to be much more common in women than men – estimates range from 2 – 3% to 50% of women. Interestingly, colour-blindness in men (much more common than in women) may be inherited from women with tetrachromacy.

Echolocation is how bats fly around in dark forests – they emit a sound, wait for the echo to return, and use that sound of the echo in each ear plus the return time to work out where an object is and how far away. Surprisingly (well, maybe not on this list!), humans are also capable of using echolocation. Use of echolocation is probably restricted to blind people because it takes a long time to master and heightened sensitivity to reflected sound.

To navigate via echolocation a person actively creates a noise (e.g. tapping a cane or clicking the tongue) and determines from the echoes where objects are located around them. People skilled at this can often tell where an object is, what size it is, and its density. Because humans cannot make or hear the higher pitched frequencies that bats and dolphins use they can only picture objects that are comparatively larger than those ‘seen’ by echolocating animals.

People with the ability to echolocate include James Holman, Daniel Kish, and Ben Underwood. Perhaps the most remarkable and well-documented of cases is the story of Ben Underwood, who lost both his eyes to retinal cancer at the age of three. He is shown in the video above (warning: the scene where he puts in his prosthetic eyeballs may be a bit disturbing for some).

In the Iliad Homer described a creature having body parts from different animals, a chimera, from this mythological monster comes the name of the genetic equivalent – chimerism. Genetic chimerism, or tetragametism, in humans and other animals happens when two fertilized eggs or embryos fuse together early in pregnancy. Each zygote carries a copy of its parents DNA and thus a distinct genetic profile. When these merge, each population of cells retains its genetic character and the resulting embryo becomes a mixture of both. Essentially, a human chimera is their own twin...

Chimerism in humans is very rare; Wikipedia states that there are only about 40 reported cases. DNA testing is often used to establish whether a person is biologically related to their parents or children and can uncover cases of chimerism when DNA results show that children are not biologically related to their mothers – because the child inherited a different DNA profile to the one shown by a blood test. This is what happened in the case of Lydia Fairchild: DNA tests of herself and her children led the state to think that she was not actually their mother.

People born with chimerism typically have immune systems that make them tolerant to both genetically distinct populations of cells in their body. This means that a chimera has a much wider array of people to choose from should they need an organ transplant.

Imagine consistently associating numbers or letters with certain colours, or hearing a specific word which triggers a particular sensation of taste on your tongue. These are two forms of a neurological condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia is when stimulation of a particular sensory or cognitive pathway leads to an involuntary (i.e. synesthesia is not learnt) response in other sensory or cognitive pathways.

Synesthesia is most often genetic and the grapheme (letters, numbers, or other symbols) to colour form of synesthesia is the commonest. Other synesthetes can experience special-sequence synesthesia (e.g. where dates have a precise location in space), ordinal linguistic personification (when numbers have personalities), or sound to colour synesthesia (where tones are perceived as colours).

Although synesthesia is a neurological condition it shouldn’t be thought of as a disorder, because generally it does not interfere with a person’s ability to function. Most people are not even aware that their experiences of life elicit more sensory responses than other peoples might and the ones that are rarely consider synesthesia to have a negative impact on their lives.

Predictions of the percentage of people with synesthesia vary widely, from 1 in 20 to 1 in 20,000. Studies from 2005 and 2006, using a random population sample, suggested 1 in about 23 people have synesthesia. Examples of people with synesthesia include the author Vladimir Nabokov, composer Olivier Messiaen, and scientist Richard Feynman. Daniel Tammet, who is mentioned in the next section of this list, is a synesthete (in addition to being a mental calculator) who sees numbers with shapes and texture.

The most extraordinary group of people adept at performing complex mental calculations is those who are also autistic savants. While there are many trained people who can work out multiplications of large numbers (among other calculations) in their head extremely fast – mostly mathematicians, writers, and linguists – the untrained ability of autistic savants is the most interesting. The majority of these people are born with savant syndrome (only an estimated 50% of people with savantism are also autistic), which is still poorly understood, few develop it later in life, usually due to a head injury.

There are less than 100 recognised prodigious savants in the world and of the savants with autism who are capable of using mental calculation techniques there are even less. Recent research has suggested that a blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for mathematical calculations of six to seven times the normal rate is one of the factors that enables mental calculators to work out math much faster than the average person.

Examples of people with extraordinary calculation skills include Daniel McCartney, Salo Finkelstein, and Alexander Aitken. Daniel Tammet is one of few who are also autistic savants.

When a person has photographic memory or total recall this is called eidetic memory. It is the ability to recall sounds, images, or objects from one’s memory with extreme accuracy. Examples of eidetic memory include the effort of Akira Haraguchi who recited from memory the first 100,000 decimal places of pi and the drawings of Stephen Wiltshire (who is also an autistic savant) – his recreation of Rome is shown in the video above. Kim Peek, the inspiration for the autistic (Peek is not actually autistic though) character of Raymond Babbit in the movie Rainman, also possesses eidetic memory – among other things he can recall some 12,000 books from memory.

Whether true photographic memory exists in adults is still a controversial issue, but it is accepted that eidetic abilities are distributed evenly between men and women. One also cannot become an eidetiker through practice.

There is only one known case of a person having immortal cells (cells that can divide indefinitely outside of the human body, defying the Hayflick Limit) and that is of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, 31 year old Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which she died from within the year. Unknown to her and her family (i.e. without informed consent) a surgeon took a tissue sample from her tumor that was passed on to a Dr. George Gey. A scientist for the John Hopkins University Tissue Culture Laboratory, Gey propagated Lacks’ tissue sample into an immortal cell line – the HeLa cell line (pictured above). The cells from Lacks’ tumour have an active version of the telomerase enzyme (telomerase is the mechanism by which cells age or are aged) and proliferate abnormally fast. On the day of Henrietta Lacks’ death, Dr. Gey announced to the world that a new age in medical research had begun – one that might provide a cure for cancer.

HeLa cells were utilised in 1954 by Jonas Salk to develop the cure for polio. Since then they’ve been used in researching cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, and for mapping genes, among other things.

Today, the HeLa cells are so common in laboratories that they contaminate many other cell cultures and have rendered some biological studies invalid through their presence. There are also more HeLa cells alive today than when Henrietta Lacks was alive – they outweigh her physical mass by many times. Tragically, Lacks was never told of the immensely valuable contribution her cells made to science and her family was not informed until many years later that her cells were being used for research purposes (a 1990 court ruling later verified Lacks’ hospital as the owner of her discarded tissue and cells). I highly recommend reading this story for a better picture of Henrietta Lacks’ life and the consequences of her cancer.

THEY KIDNAP LITTLE CHILDREN OF 2 YEARS AND ABOVE, LIKEWISE INDIVIDUALS.

THEY KIDNAP FROM ONE COUNTRY AND RUN TO ANOTHER AND DEMAND FOR RANSOME BEFORE THEY WOULD RELEASE THE KIDNAPPED PERSON.

MOST TIMES< THEY END UP KILLING THESE CHILDREN BY BOILING THEM UP AND RETURNING THEM TO THEIR PARENTS.

THIS IS VERY SAD!!!

Should you have any useful information about this matter, call the following numbers.

NIGERIA : +234-802 673 9534 or +234-806 450 7302

GHANA : +233-547 568531

REP.DU BENIN : +229 660 22442

EMAIL :Crimebusters1@gmail.com

ALL CALLS WILL BE TREATED THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE.

THIS GOES WITH A VERY BIG REWARD.

At least 114 people were killed in a fire that razed a crowded, centuries-old Dhaka neighbourhood overnight as rescue workers scrambled on Friday to pull bodies, many charred beyond recognition, from smouldering debris.

The blaze was the worst to sweep through the Bangladeshi capital in almost four decades.

"The confirmed death toll from the fire is now 114 and may rise," Muhibul Haque, district commissioner of Dhaka, told Reuters. He said more than 40 people were being treated for burns in hospital, with 12 in critical condition.

Fuelling the flames, which some witnesses said rose up to six-storeys high, were chemicals from illegal, home-based factories in the Kayettuli neighbourhood, one of the most densely populated in Dhaka and in the heart of the city.

"It seemed like hell broke loose," said a wailing woman, looking for her daughter and son in what remained of the area, home to several multi-storey blocks and tin-roofed dwellings. Some had been turned into chemical factories despite a law banning their presence in residential areas.

"Burning chemicals from stores within or beside the living quarters spewed on the streets like lava from a volcano. There was hardly any safe place to step out," added one survivor.

Television channels put the death toll at up to 150, including a dozen people who died in hospital.

The country's police chief, Nur Mohammad, said it was difficult to give an exact casualty toll until search and rescue operations were finished, likely on Friday afternoon.

RESIDENTS TRAPPED IN BURNING BUILDINGS

Some families lost up to eight members, witnesses said, and many residents were trapped trying to rush out of buildings.

"Flames leapt up to the sixth floor of buildings. It was a huge inferno," said a Reuters witness.

The blaze, believed to have been caused by an explosion at a electrical transformer, was the worst in the capital since 1971, the fire brigade said.

"I never have had such a harrowing experience in my 40 years here," said a doctor at the burns unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, as patients crammed the corridors and sobbing relatives searched for loved ones.

Hospitals, strained by the high casualty toll, began handing back corpses to relatives able to identify them. "Some of the bodies lying in the morgue are charred beyond identification," one police officer said..

Firefighters said narrow streets and the density of the buildings hampered access and the chemicals in the area helped the fire spread quickly.

The government has ordered an investigation to determine the exact cause of the fire.

Jahangir Kabir Nanak, State Minister for local government, said the lack of proper fire escapes in many buildings contributed to the high death toll. "We should have better planned homes and wider roads to save lives," he said.

The government declared Saturday a day of mourning and said it would pay 20,000 taka (197 pounds) towards the cost of each burial. "I have no words to console them," said Home Minister Sahara Khatun while visiting the hospital late on Thursday.

REUTERS

Barely 24 hours after his public brawl with a trenchant opponent, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, yesterday sacked the chairmen and deputy chairmen of some standing committees in the House and reassigned others.

Mr Bankole had on Wednesday been involved in a scuffle with his colleague, Independence Ogunewe, and it took the intervention of other members to stop the duo from coming to blows. Mr Ogunewe is said to have consistently opposed the Speaker since 2009 when Mr Bankole removed him from the chairmanship of the Aviation committee.

Those sacked include Gbenga Oduwaiye (chairman, Inter/Intra Party Affairs); Kayode Amusan (deputy chairman, Housing and Habitat); Gbenga Onigbogi (deputy chairman, Ministry of Niger Delta) and Asita Honourable (deputy chairman, Poverty Alleviation).

Both Messrs Oduwaiye and Amusan, like the Speaker, come from Ogun State but they are said to be strong supporters of the state governor,

Gbenga Daniel with whom the Speaker has had a running political battle. Mr Oduwaiye was removed as chairman of Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2008.

The new chairmen include Khadijat Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Privatisation and Commercialization); Chinedu Eluemonor (Cooperation and Integration); Patrick Ikhariale (Power); Umar Jubrin (Capital Market) and Onyema Chukwuka (Works). Others are Rufus Omeire (Inter/Intra Party Affairs) and Mohammed Tahir (Army).

Those redeployed are Mohammed Al'Makura, who moved from House Services to Urban Development; Abdullahi Umar Farouk from Urban Development to Customs and Excise; Aliyu Wadada from Capital Market to Information and National Orientation; and Yakubu Dogara from Customs and Excise to House Services.

Mr Bankole said the reconstitution of the committees will continue at a later date.

A surprise move

The exercise came only a day after Mr Bankole held a two hour closed-door meeting with the chairmen and deputy chairmen of the 84 standing committees. He reportedly assured them that although the leadership of some committees deserved to be overhauled for efficiency, he was not committed to carrying out the exercise.

Members were therefore shocked when he announced the new changes at the end of the plenary yesterday.

However, on March 31 this year, the leadership of the House had announced that it will appoint new heads for some committees.

The deputy speaker, Usman Nafada said at the end of that day's plenary that the Selection Committee, which includes all principal officers, would be called back during the recess to consider those to be appointed chairmen and deputy chairmen of the vacant committees.

"Let me inform members of the Selection Committee that their attention may be needed during the break for the reconstitution of the committees lying vacant. The leadership and membership of the committees may be reconstituted during the break. So, they (members of the Selection Committee) may be asked to come back for this purpose," the deputy speaker had said.

Although he did not name the committees, those without chairmen then were Information and National Orientation, Power, Privatisation and Commercialization, Lake Chad, Women in Parliament, Cooperation and Integration in Africa and Works. Their chairmen had either resigned, died or were removed.

Yesterday's exercise was the second time Mr Bankole would reconstitute standing committees since he assumed office in November 2007. He had, on October 9, 2008, reconstituted the 72 committees he inherited from his predecessor, Patricia Etteh. He had dissolved them on July 31, 2008.

During the 2008 exercise, he raised the number of the committees to 84 - apparently to compensate members of the Integrity Group who played a major role in his emergence as Speaker.

The composition, among the parties, showed that out of the 84 committees, PDP got 74 chairmanship slots; ANPP 7 and PPA 1. The Labour Party (LP) is the only party that did not secure any committee chair. Nine percent of the former chairmen and deputy chairmen were dropped, while 27 per cent were new chairmen and deputies and 60 percent were redeployed from the different committees to others. Six percent of them retained their seats as chairmen but not necessarily of the committees they headed before.

The Special Drug Court in Durban, South Africa sentenced one of the most wanted druglords, Ndudim Agoha to 20 years imprisonment.

NDUDIM AGOHA.

Ndudim Agoha is a Nigerian, and had been living in South Africa for eight years. Agoha will spend 16 years behind bars because four years of his sentence was suspended.

The business magnate was arrested in May last year after polce found cocaine and ecstacy at his home. The druglord was convicted of dealing in cocaine and ecstacy with a street value of a R100,000.

He reportedly has assets in the plush Sunningdale suburb of Durban, and described flashy and a lavish spender. Equipment and quantity of drugs found in his home, convinced the court that he was higher up in the city's underground drug syndicates hierarchy. Durban is a city plagued by drugs and rising crime.

"He was cought dealing in over R100 000 cocaine and ecstacy, and therefore his involvement in manufacture and distribution is obviously of much larger scale than your average drug dealer," Mark Dyson, the senior public prosecutor, said.

Defence argued in court that the lavish spending Nigerian was a legitimate businessman who traveiied to Nigeria and US regularly.

Magistrate Mervin Maistry said he viewed drug dealing as serious as murder, his reason for the stiff sentence.

He said Agoha would have received lesser sentence had he assisted the police in identifying other people involved in the drug network.

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Main Article

The Senate, on Thursday, significantly advanced legislation on a new bill seeking to establish a social security system for Nigerian unemployed and aged..

The bill is sponsored by Anyim Ude (PDP, Ebonyi State). The bill proposes to set up a social security system that will enable the government pay out N15 000 or at least N10 000 monthly to unemployed graduates and persons above 60 in Nigeria.Photos: Youths Working on Rubbish heap Markets in Lagos.

Mr Ude, 69, was inspired to draft the bill after listening to contributions of a Senate motion on the corruption of the National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP) in February last year..

"It is estimated that over 70 per cent of our people live below poverty level and that is why I agree with the passionate suggestion -- that day ...that the Senate should devote one week of its session to address the issue of poverty and corruption in this country." Mr Ude said.

"This bill is another opportunity to put smiles on the faces of the aged and unemployed.

"Our children have no access to basic health care and education, unless their parents have money. Our system has made no provision backed by law for the unemployed, the destitute, the poor, and the aged. These crops of people are on their own, without hope or future. Some of them take their frustration out on the society by engaging in social vices and the society pays dearly for this," Mr Ude argued in his debate.

He added that even though it will cost the nation money, Nigeria will be better off as exemplified by the benefits other countries are reaping from similar systems.

He cited African countries benefiting from the scheme to include: Malawai, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Botswana, Republic of Seychelles, and Libya.

The bill proposes that the beneficiaries of the system will be unemployed graduates of the colleges of education, polytechnics, and the universities, and people above 60 years.

The cost

The bill suggests two wages scenarios: a minimum of N10 000 and a maximum of N15 000 monthly. According to Mr Ude's estimations, based on a population growth rate of 2.5 per cent per annum, the scheme would cost the nation N77 billion in the next five years, starting from January next year, if the government decided to pay every beneficiary N10 000.

If the government decides to pay the maximum N15 000, it will cost the government N111.6 billion for five years.

He estimated that in 2011, it will cost the government N12.6 billion or N17.7 billion if they pay out N10 000 or N15 000 respectively. In 2012, it will cost 13.4 billion or 19.0 billion. In 2013, the scheme will cost 15.1 billion or 22.0 billion. In 2014 it will cost 17.05 billion or 24.96 billion. Arguing in favour of the bill, Uche Chukwumerije (PPA Abia State) said that it will require only a fraction of the loot politicians and past leaders robbed the nation of to run the scheme.

Pessimistic senators

Although the bill was accepted by majority of the senators, some were pessimistic and sceptic about the practicability of the recommendations of the bill.

Kabiru Gaya (ANPP Kano State) argued that it is too expensive for the nation. He said that considering that Nigeria produces about 70 000 graduates annually from the three categories of tertiary institutions in the country, the expenses will be too much.Photos:Vocal Slender of the "Illfated" BBC Welcome to Lagos Documentary.Who was billed to perform at the Indigo O2 Arena London.

Nicholas Ugbane (PDP Kogi State) argued that although the idea is good, it might be very difficult to distinguish the intended beneficiaries of the scheme.

"Do we have a reliable and dependable statistics of the unemployed? Can we identify a Nigerian?" he asked. "The idea is laudable but the kind of system we have will make it difficult to run." Others, however, argued that the cost of not instituting the social security system is higher than the cost of running it. They also argued that the possibility of corrupting the system should not deter the bill.

"You cannot rule out fraud, but the fear of fraud cannot overrule the importance of the bill." Bassey Ewa-Henshaw (PDP Cross River State) argued.

The bill was later committed to three Senate committees who would organise a public hearing on it and report back to the Senate for passage into law. It is, however, very unlikely that the bill will be passed into law before the expiration of the present Senate because the committees working on the bill were not given a time limit. High priority was not placed on the bill and the Senate has only one year left in their tenure.

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