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Four days after the shocking shelling of the South Korean island Yeonpyeong by the North Korean militia and the resultant retaliation, the tension in the region has no signs of waning. In the attacks aftermath, news has emerged that the onslaught was prophesied some weeks earlier by Nigerian Prophet T.B. Joshua.

“There will be a disagreement between two countries,” T.B. Joshua said during a Sunday service at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations, broadcast live on the television station Emmanuel TV. “One will cause the disagreement. The other will retaliate. What is the cause of this? Power.” He elaborated further on the revelation in subsequent services, singling out the nation Korea, specifying Tuesday as a day of prayer and stating that the incident would affect nations known as ‘superpowers’. “Pray for the nation called Korea. The Bible says love your neighbor as yourself – we must pray for them… Remember the message I gave concerning the countries that will have a clash… I am seeing this clash will threaten the security of each country. On Tuesday remember to pray for the whole world.”

The incident on Tuesday 23 November 2010, where 80 shells were unexpectedly fired by North Korea on the Yeonpyeong Island leaving 70% of the island’s forests and fields in flames, caused an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula, the United Nations declaring it one of the most serious events since the end of the Korean War. Lee Hong-gi of the JCS told the media that the attack had been a “premeditated, intentional illegal … violation of the U.N. Convention, the Armistice Agreement and the inter-Korean non-aggression accord. It is also an inhumane atrocity, in which [North Korea] indiscriminately fired shells into unarmed civilian residential areas.”..

The international community strongly condemned the attack on Yeonpyeong Island and the United States affirmed its military commitments to South Korea by sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to join South Korea’s forces near the coasts of China and North Korea in a four-day drill. However, despite strong denunciations to the attack which left four South Koreans dead and dozens more injured, North Korean authorities appear undaunted, stating that the US and South Korea joint military drill was ‘recklessly pushing the Korean peninsula toward war’. The act further fuelled tensions in the area, provoking the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei to respond: “We oppose any party to take any military acts in our exclusive economic zone without permission.”

The prophetic message from Joshua involving Korea comes on the heels of a number of accurate prophetic messages, the most recent involving the Cambodian stampede that left close to 350 people dead. “By Monday, Tuesday pray,” Joshua stated during a Sunday Service in November. “I keep asking God – what is happening? I see people – they were marching on people. People were on the floor – dead people. They were counting the number of people who died. They entered water – I am seeing a lot of people dying.” The stampede occurred on Monday 22nd November 2010 during the traditional Khmer Water Festival celebrations in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The stampede occurred on a bridge across the river, leaving 347 people dead and upwards of 755 more injured, some seriously.

Late in October, Prophet T.B. Joshua had also prophesied about a calamity in the nation of Kenya. “We have to pray for the nation Kenya. A situation where there will be an attack where people gather, that will affect humans, kill people. It is a place where people go for show, coming together. People should be very careful now.” On 6th November 2010, a Kenyan police officer who said he was looking for a woman who infected him with HIV rampaged through three bars in a central Kenyan town and killed 10 people, including two fellow police officers. The shooting spree happened in Siakago, 90 miles north-east of the capital, Nairobi.
Source: African News

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Prostitutes Strangle Prostitute

Detectives at the Delta State command of the Nigeria Police Force in Asaba have arrested some prostitutes who “reportedly strangled their 'business partner” to death.

The deceased, identified as May-May, operated as a commercial sex worker in one of the brothels around Cable Point, Asaba, alongside her assailants who were said to have cello-taped her mouth during the process of her killing.

On Wednesday, commercial activities at the popular brothel where the prostitutes earn their living were paralyzed. The suspects were said to have been jealous because May-May had more customers than her colleagues. She was allegedly killed inside her room in the brothel where teenage girls positioned themselves to woo sex-hungry men.

May-May, sources said, wooed more patrons because of her humility and skimpy dress sense. Police sources informed that her assailants descended on her when they could no longer bear the drought of customers on their side.

According to ASP Charles Muka, the police spokesman in the state, May-May was strangled with a cable from her fan by her assailants, among whom was the ‘chairlady’ of the brothel, who claimed that one of the deceased’s customers perpetrated the act that night.

She said May-May was last seen entering her room with the customer but was found dead the following morning with the fan cable tied around her neck...

Following a report lodged at the police station, the manager of the brothel was arrested while the prostitutes took to their heels. But a few days later, two of the fleeing commercial sex workers were arrested by a mob as they attempted to board a taxi to escape from Asaba.

It was further gathered that the 'chairlady' has made useful statements to the police who are now working on her revelations.

A neighbour who pleaded anonymity told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that although May-May was the newest entrant to the brothel, in barely two months, she had attracted many customers due to her beauty.

The brothel has been deserted, as are some houses in the neighbourhood for people feared arrest by the police.
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TB Joshua Escapes Death

Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua, founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations, yesterday escaped death inside his church.The clergyman was said to be preaching to a multitude of congregation both within and outside when a young man rushed out among the crowd with a dagger in his hand and charged towards the preacher.

It took the intervention of the some church workers to rescue the man of God.

Though the intention of the man is not known yet, it was learnt that he came prepared. He was also able to beat the heavy security details within the church to hatch the plan.

Immediately he was apprehended, he was quickly handed over to the men of the mobile police within the church premises.


There was panic at the Ikotun, Lagos-based Synagogue Church of All Nations last Sunday when a man with a knife forced himself through the crowd of worshippers and attempted to stab the controversial pastor, Prophet T.B. Joshua, on the pulpit while he was preaching.


The 43-year old intruder, identified as Louise Mberi,, armed himself with a knife and attempted to stab the prophet during a church service but was stopped by ushers and other security personnel before he could reach T.B. Joshua.

Louise allegedly hid the knife in his waist and was heading for the altar where T.B. Joshua was preaching when vigilant ushers suspected his moves and stopped him.

When he was searched by the security men, a sharp knife was found on him and was promptly handed over to policemen.

The discovery cause panic in the church as security was beefed up around the prophet who continued his sermon despite the development.


When he was interrogated by policemen at the Ikotun station, Louise claimed that he was going to the altar to seek prayers from T.B. Joshua for his poor health. He could not, however, explain why he armed himself with a knife.

The police later charged him before the Ejigbo Magistrate’s Court, Ikotun, for an attempt to stab and distrupt service at the Synagogue Church of All Nations.

The charge sheet reads: “That you, the defendant on the same date, time and place did attempt to stab by concealing a knife in your waist in order to cause havoc, panic and disturb peace during the church service at the Synagogue Church of All Nations,” an offence contrary to Sections 508 and 80 of the Criminal Code, Cap. 17, Vol.2, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge and the magistrate, Mrs. M. B. Folami, granted him bail in the sum of N25,000 with two sureties.

The court ordered that the sureties must be a blood relation of the accused.

The magistrate also ordered that the defendant must be taken to a psychiatric hospital for mental evaluation.

The matter has been adjourned till 20 December, 2010.

The defendant was later remanded in prison custody at Apapa, Lagos, pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions.

A member of the Synagogue Church of All Nations who spoke on the incident expressed shock at the incident and wondered why anyone would want to harm the prophet he described as a philantropist.

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Gay Church in Anambra

Its real name is Day Spring Assembly, but the host community of Umunze in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State nicknamed it ‘Skirt Church’.
This is because the entire community had watched with utter astonishment as the pastor and members of the Church indulge in bizarre style of worship.
The pastors and their flock had allegedly gone round the community, including the Nkwo market square preaching that there is nothing wrong in men having sexual intercourse with fellow men, even in the open.
Aside that, the church members had, while mounting the rostrum, preached that any man was free to take another person's wife to bed, provided the woman gave her consent.
To crown it all, the community has been embarrassed by the mode of dressing of the church members. They say male members of the church dress in women’s attires such as skirts, blouses, ear rings and wigs, while their female counterparts wear men’s attires.
The church, it was further learnt, encourages members to go on a drinking spree, and worship all through the night, beginning from evening till day break (TDB).
Not comfortable with the situation, women in the area had staged a protest at the church warning the congregation against what they called obnoxious religious worship. According to them, the practice is capable of promoting sexual promiscuity, particularly among the youths in the area.
As the congregation ignored the women's warning and allegedly continued with their preaching mode, which attracted more members on a daily basis, the women marched to the church premises, demolished the entire structure and ordered the members to leave the area.
A visit to the community during the week, National LIFE learnt that members of the church might have ignored the quit notice issued them by the community, as they have since regrouped, and even making plans to rebuild their demolished church building.
Now the battle line seems to have been drawn between the worshippers and their host community.
As at the time of filing this report, the church members had started moulding blocks in readiness to rebuild the church, even as they spread tarpaulin over the demolished structure to provide shelter for their normal practice.
At the Church premises last Tuesday, National LIFE sighted a members sitting under the tarpaulin quietly. None of them was willing to be drawn into any dialogue.
By Wednesday afternoon, no member of the church was around, as the entire premises was deserted. However, a neighbour who spoke to National LIFE on anonymous condition, said they usually gathered during evening hours anyday they want to worship and remained till the next day.
When contacted, a member of the church who identified himself as Silas Nwafor, a petty trader at the Nkwo Market, Umunze, said he is an ordinary member of the church. According to him, he is not competent to comment on the matter without first obtaining clearance from their pastor who he said lives in Aba, Abia State.
Nwafor, however, promised to contact their pastor and get back to our reporter. He never did! Another worshipper complained that the church is not in need of publicity.
Yet members of the community complained that an indigene of the community who lives in Aba brought the church to the area, adding that the land on which the church was built was equally procured from an indigene of the community.
Lady Okeke, wife of former chairman of Orumba South Council Area, late Chief Emma Okeke (Ide Umune), confirmed the incident but declined further comments.
A community leader from Lomu village, who simply identified himself as Dr. Uduwa, a traditional medical practitioner, said the mistake the church members made was to have come out openly to make such promiscuous pronouncements.
Uduwa said it is obvious that some other churches might be committing similar atrocities but they do not come out openly to preach it in order not to incur the wrath of the law or the people.
"Some churches or societies commit all sorts of atrocities to the extent that they even kill for rituals but they hide it under their roof. But here, this members of this church make a big mistake of coming to Nkwo market to tell the people that there is nothing wrong in having sexual relationship with peoples’ wives and all sorts of things," Uduwa lamented.
He feared that young people might be taken in by their preachments.
The women group led by Madam Agnes Mgboyibo had demonstrated within the community against the existence of the "Skirt Church". The protesters reportedly carried their anger to the palace of the traditional ruler, Igwe Promise Eze.
Igwe Promise Eze on his part condemned the congregation’s pattern of worship. The monarch contended that though the protests and demolition were carried out by the women, the entire community will not condone the promotion of sexual promiscuity in the town. Therefore, he said the Church should relocate elsewhere if they want to continue to preach such messages.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) at Umunze, Mr. Mohammed Zannah who confirmed the demolition of the church, however said he was in far away Saudi Arabia for this year's Hajj when the incident took place. He emphasized that there was no loss of life during the encounter...
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Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has circulated across the internet an encrypted “poison pill” cache of uncensored documents suspected to include files on BP and Guantanamo Bay.

One of the files identified this weekend by The Sunday Times — called the “insurance” file — has been downloaded from the WikiLeaks website by tens of thousands of supporters, from America to Australia.

Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.

The military papers on Guantanamo Bay, yet to be published, have been supplied by Bradley Manning, Assange’s primary source until his arrest in May. Other documents that Assange is confirmed to possess include an aerial video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan that killed civilians, BP files and Bank of America documents...

One of the key files available for download — named insurance.aes256 — appears to be encrypted with a 256-digit key. Experts said last week it was virtually unbreakable.

The U.S. Department of Defense says it is aware of the WikiLeaks insurance file, but has been unable to establish its contents. It has been available for download since July.

Assange has warned he can divulge the classified documents in the insurance file and similar backups if he is detained or the WikiLeaks website is permanently removed from the internet. He has suggested the contents are unredacted, posing a possible security risk for coalition partners around the world.

Assange warned: “We have over a long period of time distributed encrypted backups of material we have yet to release. All we have to do is release the password to that material, and it is instantly available.”

The “doomsday files” are part of a contingency plan drawn up by Assange and his supporters as they face a legal threat. He is wanted in Sweden over sexual assault allegations, and the US administration is reviewing the possibility of legal action after the release of 250,000 diplomatic cables.

Ben Laurie, a London-based computer security expert who has advised WikiLeaks, said: “Julian’s a smart guy and this is an interesting tactic. He will hope it deters anyone from acting against him.”

Nigel Smart, professor of cryptology at the U.K.'s Bristol University, said even powerful military computers would be unable to crack the encryption. He said: “This isn’t something that can be broken with a modern computer. You need the key to open it.”

The file is 1.4 gigabytes in size, which would be big enough for a compressed version of all the files released this year and additional data.

Assange said last year that he had been leaked a computer hard drive from an executive at Bank of America and warned this month he was planning a major release on a large American bank. He also claims to have confidential files on BP and other energy companies. Tens of millions of personal computers were hijacked last week in an act of sabotage that crippled the WikiLeaks website. WikiLeaks revealed that a “denial of service” attack that temporarily shut down the website used a network of “zombie” computers, which were infiltrated by the hackers.

WikiLeaks is now battling for its survival. Amazon, which hosted the website, refused further access to its servers last week. A site that provided WikiLeaks with its domain name, EveryDNS.net, also cut off its service because it said it was being inundated with sabotage attacks.

Some of the contingency plans were revealed when the site re-emerged on Friday with a Swiss address, WikiLeaks.ch. The new name was provided by the Swiss Pirate party, which champions internet freedom. Assange has also set up contingency servers in Sweden.



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2010 Soul Train Awards

Legend Awards: Anita Baker and Ron Isley

Best New Artist: Melanie Fiona

Best Female R&B/Soul Artist: Alicia Keys

Best Male R&B/Soul Artist: Trey Songz and Usher (tie)

Song of the year: “Nothin’ on You” - B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars

Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year: “Love the Way You Lie” - Eminem ft. Rihanna

Album of the Year: “Raymond vs. Raymond” - Usher

Record of the Year: “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)” - Alicia Keys,

Aubrey Graham (Drake), Kerry Brothers Jr., and Noah “40” Shebib

Best Reggae Artist: Gyptian

Centric Award: Janelle Monae

Best Gospel Performance: Marvin Sapp

Best Dance Performance: Ciara - “Ride”

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Casey wins Naija Sings

Diploma in Music holder, Casey, wins.. the second instalment of the musical talent reality television show, Naija Sings....

The 27 year old Warri indigene won the coveted $100, 000, a Toyota Rav4 SUV and he’s now an automatic Glo Ambassador. He beats the other finalists Rasineand Da brodas to the trophy on Friday at the grand finale which took place at the MNET Studios in Lagos.

“I intend to invest with the money and get back to school and take care of my family. I want to learn something in a music school. I just don’t want to win this money and disappear into thin air. I want to do something big in music that’s why I have a competition, challenge and serious work to do. I have to step up, from my packaging to the kind of music people want,” he told cp-africa.com after winning.

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New Music

Aspiring musician Kennedy Arohia who goes by the moniker K-Source, has released new singles, ‘Play Me’ and ‘Adamma’ under KD Records recently. The new tracks were presented to various media organisations and entertainment bloggers at Alalo Eatery, Ikeja GRA on Thursday 1 December 2010.

The singer cum producer, a graduate from the University of Benin, says making music has always been his dream. He said both singles were inspired by issues in his environment and hopes to release a full album within the first quarter of next year.

“I intend making my debut before February 14 next year since it’s the love season and my album would contain a couple of love songs,” the singer in his mid twenties said.

K-Source hopes to tread in the R&B and Pop genre in Nigerian mainstream music.

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Mel Gibson movie heads to theatres

Mel Gibson is headed back into movie theatres after months of damaging publicity over his tempestuous relationship with ex-lover Oksana Grigorieva and a domestic abuse investigation by Los Angeles authorities.

Movie studio Summit Entertainment on Friday released the first promotional trailer and a poster of Gibson’s long-delayed movie “The Beaver”, in which the Oscar-winning director plays “a man who has lost all hope.” Directed by actress Jodie Foster, who also co-stars with Gibson, the family drama is described as “coming soon” to movie theatres. According to the Internet Movie Database website, “The Beaver” will be released in the UK in February 2011. No date was given for a U.S. release.

In “The Beaver”, Gibson, 54, plays Walter Black, a man described in the trailer as “a hopelessly depressed individual” who finds solace and new hope by talking through a beaver hand-puppet.

Filming was completed earlier this year but the release was apparently put on hold after audio tapes were leaked in the summer of Gibson ranting at, and threatening Russian-born model Grigorieva as their brief relationship hit the rocks in January.

The “Braveheart” and “Passion of Christ” director has remained silent throughout the furor, which caused him to lose a cameo part in the upcoming sequel to the comedy “The Hangover” due to cast objections, and to be dumped by his long-time Hollywood talent agency.

Los Angeles police are investigating Gibson on suspicion of domestic abuse, and Grigorieva for possible extortion. Neither has been charged.

Gibson, once considered one of Hollywood’s most popular stars, made his last acting appearance in the thriller “Edge of Darkness” in January 2010, which made a lackluster $81 million at the global box office.

But according to an opinion poll in August, 76 percent of Americans questioned said the Gibson-Grigorieva scandal would have no effect on whether they would buy a ticket for a Gibson movie.

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Witness statements accuse Nigerian military commander of ordering killings and taking bribes



By Andy Rowell and Eveline Lubbers

Compelling new evidence suggests the Nigerian military killed four Ogoni elders whose murders led to the execution of the playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

The evidence also reveals that the notorious military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Okuntimo, whose troops were implicated in murder and rape, was in the pay of Shell at the time of the killings and was driven around in a Shell vehicle.

Since the time of Saro-Wiwa's death, Shell has insisted that it had no financial relationship with the Nigerian military, although it has admitted paying it "field allowances" on two occasions. It has consistently denied any widespread collusion and payments. However, The Independent on Sunday has gained exclusive access to witness accounts that were to be used in evidence in the case of Wiwa vs Shell, brought by Ken Saro-Wiwa's family. The case was settled last May for $15.5m, just days before it was due to start in New York. The settlement meant the testimonies were never made public.

They provide fresh insight into Shell's financial and logistical involvement with the Nigerian military and with Lt-Col Okuntimo.

One of the key witnesses due to testify was Boniface Ejiogu, Lt-Col Okuntimo's orderly in the Internal Security Task Force, a coalition of army, navy and police. Mr Ejiogu testified to standing guard as victims were raped and tortured while Lt-Col Okuntimo was in command. Asked if he ever saw his commander receive money from Shell, he said he witnessed it on two occasions..

Mr Ejiogu described in detail how, just days before the Ogoni elders were murdered, he drove with Lt-Col Okuntimo to Shell's base in Port Harcourt, where the officer received seven large bags of money. "I was there when other soldiers were carrying the Ghana Must Go bags," he testified. The bags were so heavy the soldiers had difficulty carrying them, and one fell open. "The thing opened," Mr Ejiogu said. "I saw it was money in bundles. He said, wow, this is money. I say, yes man, it is money."

On another occasion, Mr Ejiogu witnessed four bags being given by a Shell security official to Lt-Col Okuntimo at the official's house late at night.

Another witness, Raphael Kponee, also due to testify, was a policeman working for Shell. On a different occasion, he saw three bags being loaded into Lt-Col Okuntimo's pick-up truck by his driver and another driver in front of the security building at the Shell base. Shell officials have admitted that money was paid to the officer, but purely as field allowances for his men, who were protecting Shell property in Ogoniland.

MrEjiogu also offers compelling evidence as to who may have murdered the four Ogoni elders at a meeting on 21 May 1994. Saro-Wiwa was due to speak but was turned away by the military. Mr Ejiogu said he heard Lt-Col Okuntimo tell his task force commander to "waste them... in the army you waste them is when you are shooting rapidly".

Within 24 hours Saro-Wiwa was arrested and charged with the murders. It was implied that he had had the elders killed because of their moderate stance on Ogoni issues. Despite an international outcry, he was hanged in November 1995, following a sham trial described by the then British prime minister, John Major, as "judicial murder".

A Shell spokesman said yesterday: "Allegations concerning Okuntimo and Shell are not new. There is a lack of any credible evidence in support of these allegations. Shell Petroleum Development Corporation and Shell at the time spoke out frequently against violence and publicly condemned its use."





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ExxonMobil, others disown Emeagwali

The bottom has fallen out of Phillip Emeagwali's basket of false claims. American oil giant, ExxonMobil, has told NEXT exclusively that it hasnever dealt with the American-based Nigerian scientist, contrary to Mr.Emeagwali's repeated claim that he wrote the equations that the company used tosimulate the flow of oil, water, and gas inside its reservoirs...

Authorities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States Department of Energy laboratory, where Mr. Emeagwali claimed he sourcedthe Connection Machine for his award-winning experiment, also said they hadnever related with the Nigerian scientist.

Even the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the world's largest organisation of computer experts, has reacted to the scandalsurrounding Mr Emeagwali by removing the scientist's profile from its website.Mr. Emeagwali's bio on the site contained some contentious claims, includingone that he has a doctorate.

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34-Ivory-Coast_509439t.jpgThe outcome of Ivory Coast's first presidential election in a decade was plunged into doubt yesterday as the constitutional council declared incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo the winner a day after the election chief handed victory to the opposition.

The new results released by a Gbagbo loyalist on national television directly contradicted those announced on Thursday, which were considered credible by the US, the African Union and the United Nations.

Ivory Coast's presidential election was meant to restore stability in the West African nation after a 2002-03 civil war destroyed the economy of one of the most affluent countries on the continent. Instead the poll is now casting a growing shadow. If Gbagbo refuses to step down, many fear the world's top cocoa producer could spiral into violence again.

The results announced on state television by constitutional council head Paul Yao N'Dre cancelled the votes from seven of the country's 19 voting districts, all opposition strongholds where the ruling party claims the vote was marred by violence and intimidation.

"The irregularities are of such a nature that they invalidate the vote (in those districts)," said N'Dre, who is also a senior member of Gbagbo's party.

Erasing those districts wiped out a significant share of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara's margin, resulting in a victory for Gbagbo. His five-year mandate officially expired in 2005. For five years he has repeatedly cancelled the date for this election, claiming the country was too volatile to assure security and later that polls were technically flawed. A 2007 peace deal broke years of political stalemate, leading to the dismantling of a UN-patrolled buffer zone.

The US has urged the parties to accept the election commission's results showing Mr Ouattara had won. "Credible, accredited electoral observers have characterised the balloting as free and fair, and no party should be allowed to obstruct further the electoral process," US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement.

The African Union said that Thursday's results were satisfactory and asked the country's leaders to put the interest of the Ivory Coast first.

"Any other approach risks plunging Côte d'Ivoire into a crisis with incalculable consequences for the country, as well as for the region and the continent as a whole," the AU said in a statement.

The country was isolated by the ruling elite immediately after Mr Ouattara's win was announced, with a decree read on state TV saying that the nation's air, sea and maritime borders had been closed....

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By Alfred Donovan and John Donovan

We have previously revealed how Royal Dutch Shell Group and its founder, Sir Henri Deterding, saved the Nazi Party when it was in danger of financial collapse.

After considerable further research, we are now ready to publish extensive information revealing the variety of ways Shell found to provide huge financial support to the most evil regime in history.

We also provide comprehensive information/evidence of how Royal Dutch Shell (and/or its German subsidiary): -

  • was arguably indirectly responsible for over 30 million deaths in World War 2
  • sold out its own Jewish employees to the Nazis, some of whom did not survive the war
  • instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant
  • engaged in anti-Semitic policies against Shell employees
  • financed the Nazis
  • appeased the Nazis
  • collaborated with the Nazis
  • used slave labor
  • conspired directly with Hitler
  • got into bed with I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children
  • continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri as the Chief Executive of the Royal Dutch Shell Group and even after his death

We also explain why these events still matter, despite the decades that have passed. Royal Dutch Shell was driven by greed then, just as it is today, in continuing to trade with another despotic regime in Iran.

All information is supported by independent verifiable evidence from reputable sources.

We will also publish stunning photographs as further evidence of the Royal Dutch Shell/Nazi association.

Today, we will make the draft article, including associated photographs/graphics, accessible to Royal Dutch Shell Plc in advance of publication, so that the company has the opportunity to correct any inaccurate information and supply any comment to be published alongside the article on an unedited basis.

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What if Facebook Goes Search While Google Struggles to Go Social?
Chris Crum | Staff Writer

Facebook Has a Lot of Pieces of the Puzzle in Place

Facebook and Google don't much acknowledge that they're direct competitors, though there's no question that in many ways they are. Eric Schmidt recently said Bing was it's main competitor, and Mark Zuckerberg said its new messaging system isn't an email killer and that "Gmail is a really good product."

It's true that Bing poses a significant threat to Google's search market share if Microsoft's stars align the right way (Windows Phone is a huge success, people search from within Facebook more, etc.), but it is Facebook that is practically omnipresent throughout the majority of the web. You'd be hard pressed to find many authoritative sites that don't have some kind of Facebook integration, even if it's just "like" buttons. It is all of these many, many integrations together that make Facebook a very dangerous opponent to Google.

More to Google Than Search

First off, it's worth noting that Google has its tentacles planted in many different spaces from search, to business productivity apps, advertising, social media, online video, email, and much more. But Facebook is growing into a monster that could potentially embody many of these same things, and do some of them better. Facebook is not there yet, but it hasn't been around that long yet either, and look how far it's already come. Out of all of Google's products, it's search and advertising that are the company's real bread and butter. Google has sat safely atop the search market for quite some time now, but the search landscape is shifting, largely in part to social media: people are connecting at levels never before possible, and these personal connections (new and existing) can be one of the most helpful indicators of search relevance - not necessarily for all types of queries, but for many of them.

Facebook as a Search Engine

Facebook, while not generally thought of as a search engine these days (with good reason), has the strongest collection of person-to-person interactions on the entire web. Google covets that, and is still trying to find its strategy to match or better Facebook's. According to Mashable, the "social layer" Google keeps talking about (aka: the "Google Me" initiative) has been pushed back to a possible Spring 2011 launch. On this fast-paced real-time web we have today, that's a long time, though we do see examples of Google tweaking products in this direction on a fairly regular basis already. Meanwhile, Facebook's head start in building this data with over half a billion people around the globe continues to grow. Ask yourself this: What if Facebook started putting the kind of emphasis on search that Google is currently putting on social? How much easier would it be for Facebook to develop a really useful search engine than it would be for Google to develop a really useful social network?

Consider that the relevancy of Google's results are often criticized as it is (with a recent New York Times story not helping their case), not to mention investigated for being anti-competitive.

One key point in the Google vs. Facebook conversation that often goes overlooked is that Facebook recently acquired search company Chai Labs, which was founded by a former Google exec. "Our semantic search platform uses proprietary crawling, artificial intelligence and data mining technologies to analyze and extract insights from millions of real-time data points across the web," the company explains. "Our goal is to give consumers the most comprehensive, unbiased, up-to-date information they need to make informed and confident purchase decisions. We are laser-focused on simplifying complexity due to over abundance of online sources about a specific topic, leading to information overload." So that's what they're about, and Facebook is ordinarily more focused on talent than products, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that this kind of thing might be integrated into Facebook itself.

So what if Facebook one day decides to make a big search announcement, promote its search feature as a "new and improved" alternative? Remember it still has Bing web results that can fill in the gaps left by its own offerings. Bing and Facebook have already cozied up to each other, and there's no telling just how deep their relationship will get. Bing will no doubt take any shot it can to crack into Google's market share.

Facebook has also been encouraging the addition of different types of information into its network with things like Facebook Questions and Wikipedia-like community pages. Answer site results and Wikipedia entries are incredibly common among the top results for Google queries. With Facebook search, Facebook would likely point you to its similar offerings directly in Facebook.

But would people use Facebook for search? They just might if Facebook promotes it right. They're already trying to get people to set their home pages as Facebook. What if they made the search box a little more prominent? It seems to have worked for Twitter to get people using Twitter search, which has proven to be quite useful for news-related queries.

Advertising

Former Google AdSense product manager Gokul Rajaram, who Facebook acquired with Chai Labs, is now in charge of the company's ad technology, according to Liz Gannes at All Things Digital. This is very interesting in itself and adds fuel to the fire of speculation that one day Facebook will unleash an AdSense-like network, which could be even more powerful than Google's own in terms of ad relevancy (being how targeting would be based on what users have already told Facebook they like). Facebook has made no indication that it will do this, but it's getting harder and harder to believe that they won't, with so many pieces of such a major puzzle seemingly falling into place, from the acquisition of Rajaram to the saturation of Facebook into the very fabric of the web (Facebook Connect and the Open Graph). Other Ways Facebook Competes with Google

Right now, Facebook isn't competing much with Google Search or with AdSense. This is all speculative. It's about the potential that is there. Very strong potential.

But there are other ways that Facebook is directly competing with Google already. For one, you have the whole Facebook as a center of communication thing. A couple weeks ago, Facebook announced its new messaging system and email addresses, while Zuckerberg may have downplayed it, this is clearly a competitor to Gmail. Some think Google should be worried about this. Beyond just email, Google has already been trying to transform Gmail into a broader communication center, adding things like chat, voice chat, etc.

Facebook competes with Google's YouTube and Picasa. People can upload videos and photos to Facebook just as easily as they can to YouTube or Picasa, and there's a better chance that their friends will see them if they post to Facebook because they'll go right to their news feeds. Facebook has a long way to go to get to YouTube's status in terms of video, but it's been moving up the charts in this category, and if Facebook were to place the emphasis on search I'm talking about, it could help video views tremendously. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine. Google has the browser and the mobile OS. Facebook doesn't need them. Facebook's already everywhere you go when you're using these devices. It's on Android (not to mention every other mobile OS). It's on practically the entire web (as mentioned). Newer browsers that may or may not catch on in the future are even heavily integrating Facebook into their functionality, and on the others, users can opt to do so themselves via add-ons.

Then you have Facebook's Notes to Googles' Blogger. Facebook's Payments to Google's Checkout. Facebook's Applications to Google's Chrome Web Apps. Facebook's Pages and Lists (and news feed) to Google's News. Facebook's News Feed to Google's Reader and Buzz. The list goes on. ....

Thoughts?

Update: Liz Gannes reports that Facebook Engineering Director Aditya Agarwal, whose projects included Facebook's newsfeed, search, and ads, is leaving the company. This could be significant in the company's approach to search and advertising.
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What has he sold to himself so far ?

The four people that make up the leadership of the National Assembly; Senate President David Mark, his deputy Ike Ekweremadu, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, and his deputy Usman Bayero Nafawa , will soon be owners of choice real estate in Abuja.

They are to benefit from the largesse of President Goodluck Jonathan who has given permission to the four men to purchase their current living quarters...

It is not clear what price has been put on the houses, but the commonwealth will pay for the president's generosity to the tune of N1.5 billion. This is the amount in the proposed 2011 budget - which NEXT got exclusive access to - that is to be spent on building new legislative quarters for the leadership of the Assembly.

At least one lawmaker is unhappy with Mr. Jonathan's decision and says it is a sign of how desperate the President has become, ahead of elections. "You know, there are so many things that he (Mr. Jonathan) wants from them (National Assembly leadership) so they are taking advantage of situation, '' the lawmaker said.

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GOODLUCK JONATHANThe struggle for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party intensified within the week with most of the governors elected under the umbrella of the party declaring their support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition to secure the party’s ticket for the 2011 elections.SATURDAY PUNCH extensive investigations on the PDP race between Jonathan and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar showed that the President’s campaign team, led by Ambassador Dalhatu Tafida had made inroads into most of the states in the country.It was gathered that at the last count, 21 governors were supporting Jonathan’s presidential ambition.The breakdown shows that in the North-West, five governors are backing the Jonathan/Sambo ticket; North-Central, four; North-East, two; South-West, two; South-East, three; and South-South, five.SATURDAY PUNCH gathered that Jonathan had the support of virtually all the governors of the North-Western states except Sokoto and Zamfara.An official of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign team told SATURDAY PUNCH that the President’s men were putting pressure on Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State to make him change his opposition to Jonathan’s ambition.It was learnt that even in Sokoto, the deputy governor, Alhaji Muktah Shagari, a former Minister of Water Resources under President Olusegun Obasanjo, was working for the President.The official dismissed speculations that Wamakko had supported Jonathan because of the judgement delivered in his favour by the Supreme Court.He argued that Wamakko won his case on merit at the Supreme Court on November 26, 2010 as Jonathan had refused to be involved in the judicial process in pursuit of his desire to create an environment that is conducive to the growth of democracy.“In the North-West, I don’t think we have any problem. We are not sure of Governor Wamakko of Sokoto State, but we are working on him. That is the only governor I know that is giving some problems in that zone,” the official said. “But we are sure of the deputy governor, although the deputy doesn’t control the delegates. The governors have control over them.”In the South-West, the two surviving governors of Oyo and Ogun states, Adebayo Alao-Akala and Gbenga Daniel respectively, are known to be arch supporters of the President.Authoritative sources said that even in the remaining parts of the South-West, the party’s structures in those states had volunteered their support for the President.It was gathered that Jonathan had pacified some members of the PDP from the South-West during his multiple visits to the zone recently. During the visits, Jonathan met with stakeholders in the zone.SATURDAY PUNCH gathered that at the meetings, the President took his time to explain things to the stakeholders in the zone. He was said to have promised the stakeholders from the states which lost their governors to judicial pronouncements that their concerns would receive due attention at the federal level.This followed a recent decision of all the governors of the South-West to back the President for the 2011 elections.Our correspondent gathered that the decision of the South-West governors, which was announced by Alao-Akala, was taken after a series of meetings between Jonathan and the core power brokers in the zone.In the North-Central geopolitical zone, those in charge of the political machinery of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation are contending with fresh challenges that have emerged with the seeming withdrawal of former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, from the race.It was learnt that the Jonathan team was mounting pressure on Governor Aliyu Babangida of Niger State to reconsider his earlier decision after the exit of Babangida from the race.Aliyu was said to have told emissaries from the Jonathan team that it would be inconceivable for him to support any other aspirant apart from Babangida, who is from the state.With the present situation, Jonathan’s men are not sure of the Niger State governor and his Kwara counterpart, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who also lost the contest for the Northern consensus aspirant to Abubakar via the ruling of the Northern Political Leaders’ Forum.But SATURDAY PUNCH gathered authoritatively that the governors of Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa and Kogi states were frontline supporters of Jonathan’s aspiration.Also, the governor of Zamfara, Alhaji Aliu Shinkafi (North-West) and Danjuma Goje of Gombe (North-East), who were in the camp of IBB, were said to have told Jonathan’s men that their support for the former military president was not as a result of zoning or the NPLF, but for personal reasons.Jonathan is banking on the fact that Goje has always opposed Atiku and had been an Obasanjo supporter and a Minister of State for Power under the late Bola Ige.SATURDAY PUNCH investigations, however, showed that Jonathan had a lot more work to do in the South-East geopolitical zone in spite of the declaration of support for him by the governors.It was learnt that the zone was viewed as a major worrisome spot for the aspirants involved in the contest for the presidential ticket of the party.A source close to the Presidency, however, dismissed the fears, insisting that out of the four PDP governors of the South-East; Jonathan could count on the support of a minimum of three.In the South-South, all the four surviving governors of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers are believed to have given their support in the forthcoming contest for the presidential ticket of the party to the Jonathan/Sambo team.The only state where Jonathan does not seem to have a trusted support in the South-South is Delta, where the governor’s election was recently annulled by the Court of Appeal in Benin.Before the annulment, former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan was said to have given discreet support to IBB in spite of the fact that Jonathan had met his condition to get the Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, out of the governorship contest in the state.SATURDAY PUNCH investigations indicated that Uduaghan and the acting governor of the state, Sam Obi, had control over the party machinery in Delta.It was, however, said that Obi was somebody the President’s men could reach and hold fruitful talks with.In spite of the support for Jonathan by the governors, our correspondent gathered that Abubakar had been holding discussions with the delegates.“Our aspirant is an experienced politician. He has been meeting the delegates directly, not through the governors. Besides, many of these governors are deceiving Jonathan. When the time comes, we will know the winner,” said one of Abubakar’s aides.The presidential primaries of the PDP will hold in January 2011, a situation which still gives room for the two aspirants to forge alliances ahead of the ballot.Comments :
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A teenager, who found herself in Tripoli, Libya, narrates her tortuous journey through the Sahara Desert, and how some desperate groups recruit young Nigerian girls for prostitution in the North African country to Comfort OseghaleBola, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School pupil in Ikorodu, Lagos, has had her world turned around in one month without preparing for it. While her peers were taking summer classes last August, she was one of several girls who were being transported in trucks across the Sahara Desert to Libya. She is, however, lucky to still be alive to tell the story.As a pupil in boarding, Bola spends nearly all of her time at school. “I am on a scholarship; I have been on it since I was in Primary Four,” she says. The only child of divorced parents, she spends most of her holidays either at the boarding house or the home of her school proprietor, who lives within the school premises. Last August while the school session drew to a close, and her peers made plans for holiday lessons, Bola decided to take up a holiday job.“I told my mum that I wanted to get a job during the holidays; I wanted save some money before I gain admission into the university. My mum told me her pastor assists the members with jobs. I had to wait though for my aunt, Lola, who was at Ilesa, then trying to get admission into the university because my mother arranged that the pastor would help the two of us to get holiday jobs. A few days later, Lola joined Bola in Lagos and the girls went to Ikorodu to meet the pastor.A woman known to everyone as Mama Blessing showed up moments later. She is the pastor’s friend. And with this set-up, the journey of these girls to Tripoli, Libya, began. The prophet and Mama Blessing, it turned out, only tricked people to recruit young girls for a prostitution ring in the North African country.But in an interview with SATURDAY PUNCH at the office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Ikeja, Lagos, where she is currently being detained, Mama Blessing claimed ignorance of the trafficking trade. “I am just a trader and sell foodstuffs at the market. Pastor knew that my daughter Blessing had come in from Libya and she asked me to assist Bola and Lola in finding jobs in Libya. All I did was to hand them over to my daughter,” she claimed.As Bola recalled, the girls were taken to the Ogolonto, Ikorodu, Lagos, residence of Mama Blessing from where they were to take off days later to Kano in company with one Ibrahim, a friend of Blessing, while Bola and Lola were oblivious that the journey to Libya had begun. The young girls were joined by two other girls, who came with Ibrahim. “Ibrahim kept making calls during the journey. It seemed he was receiving directions from someone,” Bola said. At Kano, the group was met by a Hausa man driving a Golf car; they were to continue the next phase of their journey with him. After a while, two motorcycles trailed the Golf car. “I was scared when I noticed them. It was not until we stopped that I realised that the cyclists were meant for us,” she added. After three trips, everyone was ferried across safely into Niger Republic by the motorcyclists. “The network signal on my phone changed to an Orange symbol and I then realised that we were in another country. We were kept in a hut and warned not to make any noise,” Bola said.Shortly after, Bola and her fellow travellers were joined by a group of boys and girls, who were being led by Blessing and her accomplice. It was a congregation of various Nigerian tribes and African nations. “There were Igbo, Bini, Ishan and Yoruba. There were also Ghanaians,” Bola recalled. A few days later, they moved again, this time by bus: at night. Describing this journey as terrifying, Bola said the group encountered rebels on the way. She said, “At a point, some Nigerien rebels were shooting at the bus and trying to stop, but the driver continued moving. I was told that if we stopped, we would be robbed and all the girls raped.”Eventually, the bus made it to Dirkou, where the girls spent a few more days with their traffickers, sequestered from prying eyes. “We moved again from Dirkou to Agadez in an open-air pick-up truck. We were loaded into the back of the truck like animals and had to sit tightly packed together,”she said. The journey was more horrifying than the last for Bola. The sun was so hot that when the travellers stopped for a brief rest, their shoes almost melted ontheir feet in the hot sand. The desert route was littered with the bones of animals and dead travellers who had gone before them. The ride was bumpy and rough. Once, the truck in which Bola was loaded with others, had an accident; it fell on its side and turned again on its head, emptying its human cargo on top of the corpses that littered the desert.“I lost consciousness while the other girls screamed. My clothes were pulled from me and they poured water on me before I revived. Meanwhile, our Arab driver started beating us. He was angry because he had warned us earlier not to make any noise. With the help of fellow travellers who were coming behind us in pick-ups, we were able to bring up the fallen truck,” she said.At Agadez, all the girls were interviewed separately, “It was during the interview I was told we were being taken to Libya for prostitution; I refused and told my interviewer there was no way I would become a prostitute, that I was still a virgin,” Bola said. Unknown to her, one Ade, a member of the ring, who interviewed her, had contacted Bola’s prospective master in Libya, named Gani with the news. “It was later I discovered that Gani had ordered Ade to do what he could to deflower me,” said the teenager, who alleged that Ade raped her a few days after the interview. “I bled profusely, it was terrible.” she lamented.Not long after this, the contingent started the journey to their final destination in Libya. “We were loaded into about 16 trailers, girls and boys from various countries and all the vehicles moved in a convoy. The journey was rough because of the rocks and sand along the road. At times, some of us would be thrown into the air with each bump,” she said, recalling a moment when a young girl fell off one of the trucks. “We had to scream and shout for the driver to stop because he couldn’t speak English. Eventually, he stopped and went to get her.” According to Bola, it took three days to get to Libya by road from Agadez. “I later learnt that the trailer Blessing boarded took about two weeks to get to Libya because it broke down on the way.
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Senator Jubril Aminu on Friday said it would be dangerous to overrate or underrate the importance of former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the consensus aspirant of the Northern Political Leaders’ Forum.


The senator spoke during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja.


The NPLF, led by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, recently picked Abubakar as the consensus aspirant of the North after conducting a ballot for four Northern PDP presidential aspirants.


The politicians Abubakar floored to emerge as the consensus aspirant are former military ruler, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida; another retired General, Aliyu Gusau and Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki.


Reacting to the development, Aminu, who, like Abubakar, is from Adamawa State, said it would be wrong to handle Abubakar with kid gloves.


He noted that the fact that the three other aspirants had honoured their commitment to pull out of the presidential race and support Abubakar meant that the consensus idea should be taken seriously.


The senator said, “There is danger in over-blowing the importance of the exercise and there is also danger in underrating it.


“Somehow in this world, in whatever you do, you must try to look at both sides of the coin.


“This did not involve any party; it did not involve any government, or any cultural or religious organisation.


“They did not even involve any economic sector or educational sector.


“We should therefore look at it as a private arrangement. We do not want to be seen to be cutting each other’s throats. They have their right to do so.”


The senator commented on the ongoing face-off between the federal lawmakers and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Lamido Sanusi, over the latter’s claim that 25 per cent of the nation‘s overhead was being spent on the National Assembly.


Aminu said the apex bank chief should not be blamed for his statements, and had no reason to apologise.


Rather, he noted that Sanusi relied on the information he obtained from a “supposedly competent” source, the Federal Ministry of Finance.


He said that it was not necessary for Sanusi to apologise for his statement.


“Sanusi is a very principled and logical person. Do you know the implication of apologising? You are tying yourself,” Aminu said.


“He felt he was using information given to him supposedly by a competent government source in the Ministry of Finance.


“So, you cannot crucify him for using the information from a competent source of government.


“He (Sanusi) is a victim of circumstances because he used the information from the best source available, how can he apologise?


“The National Assembly is a very reasonable body with people who will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.”


Aminu went ahead to raise the alarm that the legislative arm of government, particularly the National Assembly, was under attack from some people in the executive.


He hinted that some state governors were the principal elements involved in the campaign against the lawmakers.


Aminu, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, noted that the legislature’s stance on the amendment of the country’s electoral laws led to the attacks it was receiving from the people in the executive.







Comments :
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Eight people, mostly women and children, were killed in Rikwe Chongu village in Bass Local Government Area of Plateau State in another pre-dawn attack allegedly perpetrated by herdsmen.Our correspondent gathered that the herdsmen invaded the village at about 2.30 am on Friday morning, shooting sporadically in the air.The village is about 30km west of Jos, the state capital.The villagers, who recognised the style of previous attacks, refused to come out of their houses.However, in another attempt to lure the villagers out of their homes, the herdsmen set their houses ablaze and positioned themselves at the entrances so that anybody that came out was either gunned down or killed with a cutlass.The Commander of the Special Task Force on Jos crises, Brig.-Gen. Hassan Umoru, who confirmed the fresh attack to our correspondent, said, “The attack was carried out at about 02: 23 Hours of Friday, December 3, 2010. Seven people were killed and four others sustained injuries.”The spokesman for the STF, Lt. Jerry Ayim-Odu, said, “The four people injured are currently receiving treatment at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, while the corpses of the dead were deposited in the same hospital.“Among the seven victims are two men, the remaining five are women and children.“The Fulani are the suspects in this fresh attack, but that will be confirmed by the police investigation; we have already handed over the investigation to the police.”A former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Jonathan Asaki, who visited the scene, said, “This is another of the series of unprovoked attacks on the people. This is not crisis, but a deliberate plot to maim and kill mostly women and children.”
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50093_594750933_2799179_n.jpgThere are many stories in the bible that have become so popular among believers and unbelievers, to name a few Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Joseph and the colourful coat. The one that caught my attention this time was Noah and the Ark as i was read the story in Genesis 6 a few of the verses ministered to me. verse 9 says " This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man THE ONLY BLAMELESS person living on EARTH at the time and he walked in close fellowship with God". People this man was the ONLY blameless person on earth, now i thought of the world today it will be hard to find one blameless person in a family of four. I know it might sound funny, but it's the truth.

The world we have today no one wants to be the ONLY ONE when it comes to things that are righteous or holy. They are scared of been called names like slacker, I too know , sister/brother holier than thou and as the Nigerians will say over sabi or mugu ! We seem to forget that the only reason we talk about Noah today is because he was the ONLY ONE...

So why can’t you be the ONLY ONE

Among your friends/family/colleagues that decides to earn a honest living instead of duping people (yahoo yahoo/419)


Among your friends/family/colleagues that decides to wait till you get married before you sleep with that wife/husband


Among your friends/family/colleagues that remains faithful to that wife/husband that you asked God to give you


Among your friend/family/colleagues that decides to honour the vow you made to God/spouse instead of divorce


Among your friends/family/colleagues that decides to honour their father and mother no matter what


Among your friends/family/colleagues to tell the truth no matter


Among your friends/family/colleagues not to steal no matter the situation you find yourself


Among your friends/family/colleagues to enter/end a business transaction with integrity


Among your friends/family/colleagues to be forgiving because you know YOU have been forgiven so many times.

I say this because I myself never wanted to be the ONLY ONE, the world makes us feel out of place when we are the only ones, but really we have to put an END to it and realise that we are UNIQUE when we choose to be the only ones and it really is not a bad thing like the world is trying to make it seem it has its great rewards, we do not have to be part of the craze going on at the moment the divorce rate sky rocketing, adultery, fornication, killing, hatred all on the rise, all because people want to be part of it and not left behind on the trend. Forgetting that they will be left behind if they continue the way they do when our Saviour comes.

When Noah decided to be the ONLY ONE he was not disappointed and God never let him down, in fact he had what I will call extended favour, this is the favour that you posses that is then extended to your loved ones that probably don’t deserve that favour, think about it the Word did not say Noah and his family were blameless, he had 3 sons named Shem, Ham and Japheth the Word does not say they too were blameless, but when you go to chapter 9 it says " then God blessed Noah and his sons" extended favour and blessing, be careful what you decide to do now or decisions you make because they might have a negative effect on your generation. We need to make right decisions NOW so our generation will blessed by it.

Please have a think about it today and I pray as we do we all become ONLY ONES like Noah.

Have a blessed weekend people

Ese signing out.

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At least, 1,051 pregnant women have tested positive to the dreaded HIV disease in public hospitals in Lagos State, South West Nigeria in 10 months, says the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris.

According to the commissioner, the 10-month period is between January and October, 2010. He revealed that over 28,000 pregnant women were tested for HIV within the period and 1, 051 of them tested positive.
Dr. Idris butressed his claim from a survey carried out by National Sentinel Surveys which put the prevalent rate of HIV infection in the state at a staggering 5.1 percent.
“The sentinel surveys carried out in Lagos has confirmed a steady, though, inconsistent increase in the number of HIV infected people. While sharing the love and not the virus, let us all join hands together to achieve an HIV/AIDS free Lagos,” said Idris at a conference to mark the World’s AID Day in Lagos.
According to him, Lagos has almost one million people infected with HIV out of the estimated 18 million people in the state, adding that over 115,000 people were tested for HIV in various health facilities across the state between January and October 2010.
“Over 35,000 clients are enrolled into ART programme. The state government has significantly increased the service delivery points in the state in respect of HIV treatment, care, support and prevention services.
“Lagos State has taken the lead in the fight against discrimination with the passage of a law for the protection of Persons Living With HIV/AIDs, PLWHAs,” he added.
The commissioner disclosed that the state government has intensified efforts to ensure that access to HIV/AIDS preventive and curative services were improved throughout the state and the rights of PLWHAs were not infringed...
He noted that PLWHAs should be an integral part of the society with equal right as any other citizen without limitation and discrimination. He said there should be no discrimination at work places, public places; no travelling restriction and victims should have equal rights with people not affected.
The commissioner also revealed that government has put in place measures to enable people with HIV/AIDS have access to preventive and curative services as well as enhance the health of PLWHAs through nutritional programmes.
He described Lagos State as a trail blazer in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria as it was the first state in the country to recognize the epidemic impact of the disease in 1999 by setting up a foundation which later became the state’s AIDS Control Agency in 2002.
He explained that through the foundation’s efforts, the 2005 National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey showed that more than 97 percent of Lagosians have heard of HIV and AIDS and 94 percent of them had good knowledge of its prevention.
“Presently, there are 56 HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) sites spread across the State. There are 40 prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) sites, 29 adult antiretroviral therapy (ART) sites and 22 paediatrics ART sites. Several developmental partners are committed along with the state government towards improved access to HIV/AIDS services in the State.

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IF EVER a ruling elite seemed to justify the Bush-era doctrine of “pre-emption”, it is the Kim dynasty in North Korea. No government anywhere subjects its own people to such a barbarous regime of fear, repression and hunger. And the Kims are complicit in international outrages ranging from murderous terrorism and nuclear proliferation to drug-smuggling and currency-counterfeiting. The present dictator, Kim Jong Il, is apparently not long for this world, and seems to be boosting his 27-year-old son and anointed successor as a victorious warrior. When the elder Kim was himself dauphin, in the 1980s, he earned his spurs through international terrorism.

This week the North waged war for the second time this year with South Korea when it shelled a South Korean island near the disputed maritime boundary, killing two soldiers and two civilians, injuring others and burning a score of houses. In March, when one of its torpedoes sank the Cheonan, a naval vessel, killing 46, North Korea could, albeit implausibly, deny culpability. This time, though the North describes its aggression as retaliation (for a harmless South Korean military exercise), there is no gainsaying its responsibility for one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean war in 1953. To add to this dismal catalogue, the latest onslaught came just three days after the revelation that, in defiance of international efforts to curb its nuclear programme, North Korea has developed a sophisticated facility for enriching uranium. That gives it a further potential source of material for bombmaking.



The starting-point for answering the North’s aggression has to be that, in the most basic sense, the Kims will almost certainly get away with only a symbolic return of fire. It is entirely wrong for North Korea to act as it does. But punitive military reprisals against the North risk a spiral of escalation and catastrophic war. Deterrence works badly against a dictator who blithely imposes famine and gulags on his people during peacetime. Even if there are doubts about the efficacy of its tiny nuclear arsenal, North Korea has enough men under arms, and enough conventional ammunition within range of Seoul—just 35 miles (60km) from the frontier—to make war seem very much a last resort.

If war and the threat of war are hardly even options, what can the world do? The best card in a bad hand is to heal the divisions among other countries about how to handle North Korea. That means, in particular, making China see that a tinderbox it has long regarded as a strategic asset has become an appalling liability. China also struggles to control North Korea. But a united front would change the environment that encourages the rogue state’s bad behaviour.

China cannot be blind to the Kims’ bungling and bellicosity, nor welcome their nuclear ambitions. But it has had two worse fears. One is of a rekindled war on the peninsula, which would damage China. The other is of North Korean collapse, with millions of desperate refugees pouring into China and South Korea or even American troops on China’s border. It is as a bulwark against this “instability” that China cossets the Kims. It refused to condemn them even for the sinking of the Cheonan, and this week issued blandly even-handed calls for restraint. It apparently believes that if their only ally abandons them, the Kims might do something really rash..

But they already have. Whatever it says publicly, China must surely see that this regime flirts with war as an instrument of diplomacy and that its desire to shock the world into negotiating with it requires ever greater outrages. Ultimately, this pattern of behaviour threatens the very stability China craves. China’s alliance with North Korea thus undermines not just its image as a global power but also its own interests.

So how to nudge China in the right direction? One possibility is the revival of the six-party forum, chaired by China and involving Japan and Russia. Talks stalled after North Korea forged ahead with its nuclear programme. The Kims would regard a revival as a victory. But talks will eventually have to resume if North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are to be negotiated down. If they also help persuade China to rein in North Korea, that would be a double benefit.
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A Nigerian military attack using heavily armed soldiers and aerial bombing runs has killed as many as 150 people in the oil-rich southern delta, a human rights activist said Friday.

Oghebejabor Ikim, national coordinator for the Forum of Justice and Human Rights Defense, told The Associated Press civilians have suffered a heavy toll in the military operation that began Wednesday. He did not say how many of the 150 dead were civilians, but said militants left the area before the offensive began.

The attacks on a village in the Niger Delta continued Friday as the military tried to kill or capture a militant called John Togo who officials said gave up on a government-sponsored amnesty program. The amnesty program for militants brought an uneasy calm to a region vital to U.S. oil supplies, which is now threatened by new militant attacks and government offensives that put civilians at risk.

"I can describe it as a killing spree of innocent civilians," Ikim said. "Houses have been burnt. Women are raped. There are killings. Is that how to get at John Togo?"

A military spokesman said Friday that the operation was ongoing, but declined to comment further. The military has declined to offer a death toll for the operation targeting the village of Ayakoromo and surrounding communities.

An independent assessment of the damage and casualties from the attack has yet to be done. The Nigerian Red Cross and other activists have been unable to reach the targeted communities as the military has sealed off the winding muddy creeks that lead to the region. Activists say they continue to see smoke rising from the area and can hear gunfire.

Video aired Thursday afternoon on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority showed soldiers in flak jackets and helmets traveling by boat through the muddy creeks. The network also showed images of what appeared to be suspected militants in custody and of a soldier setting a hut ablaze with a lighter.

Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, a military spokesman, previously said soldiers recovered anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and dynamite from the three camps targeted in the attack.

However, it appears that soldiers have yet to apprehend Togo. Casely Omon-Irabor, a lawyer representing Togo, said Friday that the militant and his fighters were "far away in the high seas" and not in the region being attacked. The lawyer said the government had planned a meeting to negotiate a settlement with Togo, but instead launched a military operation against him.

"I do not see any reason why we are calling for truce and trying to get peace and yet a party for that peace has breached that agreement and gone into war again in the creeks," Omon-Irabor told the AP.

Militants in the Niger Delta have attacked pipelines, kidnapped petroleum company employees and fought government troops since an insurgency began in 2006. The attacks cut drastically into crude production in Nigeria, an OPEC-member nation that is one of the top suppliers of crude oil to the U.S. Production has risen back to 2.2 million barrels of oil a day, in part because many militant leaders and fighters accepted the amnesty deal. ..

But not all have been pacified. The main militant group in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, has promised to carry out new attacks after claiming responsibility for kidnapping seven expatriate workers in November from offshore oil rigs operated by London-based Afren PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. The group, known by the acronym MEND, also claimed a dual car bombing that killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more during an Oct. 1 independence celebration in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

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