₦airaland Forum

[b]IPhone Gets Its Upgrade, All Under the Hood

By NICK WINGFIELD


CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple introduced its long-awaited new iPhone on Tuesday. But it wasn’t an iPhone 5. That will have to wait.

Instead, the company unveiled something that looks an awful lot like an iPhone 4 on the outside, with an innovative feature that turns the device into a voice-activated mobile assistant for scheduling appointments and performing other tasks.

It’s a measure of how Apple has habituated its legions of fans to regular, eye-catching design changes that the news about the latest version of the iPhone qualified as a disappointment for some. Grumbling about the announcement of the new phone, the iPhone 4S, spread on Twitter throughout the day and the company’s shares fell as much as 5 percent, though they regained most of those losses by the end of trading.

“At the end of the day, there are still going to be long lines for this,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “They could have been even longer if they’d changed the hardware more.”

The new model of the iPhone, which will go on sale Oct. 14, with preorders starting Friday, is virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor on the outside. But beneath its skin Apple made big changes, packing it with a better camera that shoots crisper pictures and video. The device also includes a more powerful chip, the A5, the same microprocessor that is the brains of the iPad, for producing better graphics and other improvements.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, presided over the event just as Steven P. Jobs had on similar occasions before he left the top job in August. Mr. Cook said that although the iPhone 4 is the best-selling smartphone in the world, Apple believes that the company still has plenty of people it wants to convert.

“We believe over time all handsets become smartphones,” he said. “This market is 1.5 billion units annually. It’s an enormous opportunity for Apple.”

Mr. Cook and other Apple executives also highlighted an array of supporting products for the new phone, but the centerpiece of the presentation, and of the new device, is the “virtual assistant” feature, Siri, named after a company Apple acquired last year that originally developed the technology. While the iPhone 4 already responds to some basic voice commands — to make phone calls, for example — Siri is designed to comprehend a much broader range of instructions in natural language.

For example, Apple executives demonstrated the technology by asking an iPhone, “Do I need a raincoat today?” to which the device responded, “It sure looks like rain today.”

While Apple’s decision not to call its new phone the iPhone 5, as many expected, raised some eyebrows, it has some precedent. A couple of years ago the company introduced the iPhone 3GS, which made modest improvements over the iPhone 3G. Michael Mace, the chief executive of a mobile application start-up and a former Apple and Palm executive, said Apple most likely wanted to telegraph that the iPhone 4S was an incremental change to the product, rather than a big redesign denoted by a change in the model number.

“You don’t want to oversell what you’re doing so you hurt your credibility,” Mr. Mace said.

Even incremental changes to the iPhone can help sales. Mr. Munster of Piper Jaffray said the annual growth rate in the number of iPhones that Apple sold during the fiscal year the iPhone 3GS was introduced was 93 percent, compared with 78 percent when the iPhone 3G came out.

With the new phone, Apple is taking on a growing challenge in the mobile market from the Android operating system made by Google. Smartphones powered by Android now outsell iPhones by more than two to one. While Android phones also let people use basic voice commands to do simple tasks, Apple is betting that the more sophisticated capabilities of Siri will make it stand out.

Many of the best minds in technology in the last several decades have been stymied by how to decipher speech, given variations in how people talk. Mr. Mace called what Apple is doing the “holy grail” for mobile devices; voice recognition could make it much easier for people to use them on the go without having to peck words into a keyboard. But he said the technology needed to be accurate or users would ignore it.

“When you start talking to a computer you expect it to really understand you, and if it doesn’t, you get really frustrated,” he said. “If Siri is like that, forget about it.”

Using Siri, the phone can set an alarm clock with the command “Wake me up tomorrow at 6 a.m.” or provide a stock market quote if a user asks, “How’s the Nasdaq doing today?” The command “Remind me to call my wife when I leave work” will result in such a reminder on the phone, requiring a user to identify the geographic boundaries of their office on the device through its location technology.

In some ways, Siri is reminiscent of Hal 9000, the intelligent computer system in the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” though the iPhone presumably won’t be able to turn on its users the way its fictional counterpart did. In one demonstration, Apple’s senior vice president, Scott Forstall, asked Siri, “Who are you?”

“I am a humble personal assistant,” the phone responded, in an awkward synthesized voice.

While the new iPhone was the headliner at the event, held at the company’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, the executives spent nearly as much time showcasing new features in an array of supporting products, including iCloud, which allows users of Apple mobile products to automatically back up from and synchronize information between devices.

Prices for the iPhone 4S start at $199 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage. Apple will continue to sell its older iPhone 4 through its wireless carrier partners, which will drop the price to $99 from $199 when customers commit to a two-year contract. An older model, the iPhone 3GS, will be free, instead of $49, with a two-year contract.

The new phone will be available on the AT&T, Verizon and Sprint networks and will also work internationally.

The event was a closely watched debut for Mr. Cook. Mr. Jobs was a master pitchman for Apple’s products, captivating audiences with introductions that seemed off the cuff but were always meticulously rehearsed. Mr. Jobs, the company’s founder, left for health reasons and became chairman of Apple’s board.

“It’s impossible to replace Steve Jobs, and you could feel that in the energy level in the room,” said Mr. Munster, though he said Mr. Cook “did an excellent job.”


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 4, 2011



An earlier version of this article misstated the previous price of the iPhone 3GS. It had been $49 (from AT&T), not $99. Because of an editing error, the article also misstated the day of the Apple announcement. It was Tuesday, not Wednesday. [/b]

good to see her getting movie work and vibbing with 9ja peeps!

Actress Juliet Ibrahim visits Dallas


http://trendyafrica.com/?p=5218


https://trendyafrica.com/wp-content/gallery/juliet-ibrahimdl11/ji-151.jpg


https://trendyafrica.com/wp-content/gallery/juliet-ibrahimdl11/ji-211.jpg




Juliet Ibrahim grabs big movie deal

http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/entertainment/celebrities/113736-juliet-ibrahim-grabs-big-movie-deal.html

Good info about western global banks.


Anonymous-The-Bankers-Are-The-Problem





http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=z1vpEcebYBg

[b]Stay away from the IMF and World Bank!



Malawi: Bingu's Malawi Spins Wildly Out of Control

29 September 2011

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Almost unnoticed outside its borders, Malawi is spinning politically out of control and teetering on the brink of financial collapse, as its access even to the IMF's agreed extended credit facility is cut.

The political temperature is at near-boiling point as pro-government attacks on extra-parliamentary opposition activists and leaders increase and UN officials struggle vainly to re-launch talks between President Bingu Mutharika's government and increasingly restive opposition movements.

Last weekend saw the first tit-for-tat attack on an apparent government target: arsonists destroyed a garage in the capital Lilongwe unfortunately named Home of DPP by the owners, sympathisers of Mutharika's ruling Democratic People's Party.

For the moment, popular attention is on the death of 25-year-old student Robert Chasowa, buried on Monday (26 September 2011) after what police insist was a suicide leap from the fifth floor of a building in the commercial capital, Blantyre. Chasowa had been in hiding since police brutally suppressed nationwide anti-government protests in July, killing 18. Police admitted they wanted to arrest Chasowa, but said he committed suicide before they found him - and produced a suicide note to back up their claim. But the handwriting is not confirmed as his and opposition activists say his injuries - massive head trauma, but no other broken bones - contradicts the official version.

Only days earlier a gang armed with pangas, claiming to be "thieves doing our job", attacked the homes of two members of the team set up to negotiate with Mutharika's government.

And at the weekend Catholic bishops meeting in Lilongwe complained of a heavy presence of government spies attempting to eavesdrop on their discussions.

Opposition representatives are boycotting a dialogue forum brokered by the UN for talks with Mutharika's government about opposition demands for government action over plummeting living standards, skyrocketing prices, and chronic fuel and medical drug shortages - and an end to Mutharika's increasing defiant breaches of the rule of law. The immediate trigger for the opposition walkout was the firebombing of a human rights NGO office and the home of an activist Anglican cleric.

The UN has flown in Nairobi office-head Sahle-Work Zewde to facilitate a resumption of talks, so far without success. Crucial to the problem is that opposition negotiators, with the religious community heavily represented, were out-manoeuvred by Mutharika.

Mutharika's government, meanwhile, with its foreign currency reserves down to the equivalent of less than two months' import cover and falling fast, is desperately casting about for additional funding to keep its civil service running. With its traditional Western source of aid cut following Mutharika's expulsion of British high commissioner Fergus Cochrane-Dyet in April, Lilongwe has been looking to the second tranche of a US$79,4-million (R539-million) IMF extended credit facility. But Malawi failed the IMF's economic performance review and resisted IMF pressure to devalue the kwacha - already at just a third of its 1994 dollar value, and devalued by 10% last month. Talks have resumed, but it is not clear when, or whether, the IMF will approve a second tranche.

Adding to Mutharika's problems, he hosts a summit of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) in mid-October - the first at which neighbouring Zambia should be represented by newly-elected President Michael Sata.

But Sata has been a prohibited immigrant to Malawi since 2007, when he was leader of Zambia's opposition. He was arrested at Blantyre's Chileka Airport on Mutharika's direct orders, en route to a meeting with Mutharika's predecessor President Bakili Muluzi. No reason was given for his arrest, but he was detained for several hours and declared persona non grata. He was then driven 500km to the Chipata Malawi-Zambia border post and dropped off.

He sued the Malawi government for defamation and wrongful detention, but has not forgotten the humiliation. His personal lawyers announced within hours of his election that he would boycott the Comesa meeting.

https://allafrica.com/img/csi/00171790_170c7b93453b16f4bf411212d75d20e4/w260x.jpg
Hundreds of protesters gather outside stores in Rumphi during the Malawi protests (file photo).[/b]

[b][img]http://images.ninemsn.com.au/resizer.aspx?url=http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2011/world/0110_nelson_sp.jpg&width=310[/img]


Omaima Aree Nelson in court in 1993.



Ex-model who killed, ate husband seeks parole


12:00 AEST Sat Oct 1 2011

A former US model convicted of killing her husband and eating his remains in the early 1990s is seeking parole.

Omaima Aree Nelson was sentenced to at least 28 years in prison for murdering William Nelson at their apartment over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 1991.

Nelson, who worked as a part-time model and nanny in Egypt before immigrating to the US in 1986, killed her 56-year-old husband after just one month of marriage.

She then cooked his head on a stove, skinned his torso and fried his hands in oil, at their Costa Mesa unit in central California, reports the Daily Pilot news website.

Nelson then drove garbage bags filled with body parts to ex-boyfriends, asking them to help dispose of the evidence and offering a $75,000 reward for help.

She was arrested two months later after police found garbage bags containing human body parts in the apartment and in her husband's Corvette.

Nelson, who was aged in her 20s at the time, told police she was under severe stress and claimed her husband often physically and sexually abused her.

Nelson faces a parole board at Chowchilla State Prison next Wednesday, reports CBS News.

Her first parole bid in 2006 was rejected.




By ninemsn staff[/b]

[b]A few NL posters have been putting in the work to post the truth.

The global gangsters/colonalists have long memories




Shell accused of fuelling violence in Nigeria by paying rival militant gangs

Oil company rejects watchdog's claims that its local contracts made it complicit in the killing of civilians


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/shell-accused-of-fuelling-nigeria-conflict



https://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/10/3/1317596989761/Militants-of-the-Movement-007.jpg


Militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta travelling between camps. Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images


Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations.

The oil giant is implicated in a decade of human rights abuses in the Niger delta, the study says, claiming that its routine payments exacerbated local violence, in one case leading to the deaths of 60 people and the destruction of an entire town.

Platform's investigation, which includes testimony from Shell's own managers, also alleges that government forces hired by Shell perpetrated atrocities against local civilians, including unlawful killings and systematic torture.

Shell disputes the report, defending its human rights record and questioning the accuracy of the evidence, but has pledged to study the recommendations.

In Counting the Cost: Corporations and Human Rights in the Niger Delta, Platform says that it has seen testimony and contracts that implicate Shell in the regular awarding of lucrative contracts to militants. In one case last year, Shell is said to have transferred more than $159,000 (£102,000) to a group credibly linked to militia violence.

One gang member, Chukwu Azikwe, told Platform: "We were given money and that is the money we were using to buy ammunition, to buy this bullet, and every other thing to eat and to sustain the war." He said his gang and its leader, SK Agala, had vandalised Shell pipelines. "They will pay ransom. Some of them in the management will bring out money, dole out money into this place, in cash."

The gang became locked in competition witha rival group over access to oil money, with payments to one faction provoking a violent reaction from the other. "The [rival gang] will come and fight, some will die, just to enable them to also get [a] share. So the place now becomes a contest ground for warring factions. Who takes over the community has the attention of the company."

Platform alleges that it was highly likely that Shell knew that thousands of dollars paid per month to militants in the town of Rumuekpe was used to sustain a bitter conflict. "Armed gangs waged pitched battles over access to oil money, which Shell distributed to whichever gang controlled access to its infrastructure."

Rumuekpe is "the main artery of Shell's eastern operations in Rivers state", with aroundabout 100,000 barrels of oil flowing per day, approximately10% of Shell's daily production in the country. Shell distributed "community development" funds and contracts via Friday Edu, a youth leader and Shell community liaison officer, the report said, an exclusive arrangement that magnified the risk of communal tension and conflict.

By 2005, Edu's monopoly over the resources of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) had sparked a leadership tussle with Agala's group. The latter was reportedly forced out of the community and a number of people killed. Dozens of gang members and residents reportedly died in counter raids by Agala.

The inter-communal violence killed an estimated 60 people, including women and children, from 2005-08. Thousands more were displaced by fighting that left homes, schools and churches in ruins. Many still suffer severe malnutrition, poverty and homelessness.

Platform says the local conflict soon created regional instability. Displaced villagers were hunted down in the regional capital, Port Harcourt, and killed in their homes, schools and workplaces. Gangs active in Rumuekpe collaborated with prominent criminal networks in Rivers state and doubled as Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) militants.

Mend's activity in Rumuekpe seriously disrupted Shell's operations and sent shockwaves through world markets, the report notes, yet Shell paid little heed. One of the corporation's managers was alarmingly candid: "One good thing about their crisis was that they never for one day stopped us from production."

Platform interviewed Ex-gang members claimed Shell exacerbated the conflict by providing regular funding to both factions throughout.

In 2006, Shell is alleged to have awarded maintenance contracts relating to its oil wells, the Trans-Niger pipeline, its booster station and flowstation to Edu's gang. But after Agala's counter-raid left Rumuekpe "littered" with corpses, Shell apparently switched sides and started paying Agala. It paid whoever controlled access, even if they were known criminal gangs, Platform claims.

The allegations of ex-gang members were largely substantiated by the testimony of a Shell official, Platform claims. A manager confirmed that in 2006, one of the most violent years, Shell awarded six types of contract in Rumuekpe. Thousands of dollars flowed from Shell to the armed gangs each month.

The company eventually terminated some, though not all, of the contracts. But by then the violence had reached the Shell flowstation. A Shell manager, whose name has been withheld, is quoted as saying: "Somebody came in [to the flowstation] and cut off somebody's hand. We had to vacate the place. We stopped the contract entirely."

Other contracts to "maintain the pipeline right of way" continued throughout the entire conflict, as did one-off contracts created in response to specific threats, the report found.

Matthew Chizi, a local youth leader, said: "[Shell] were going to their job, doing their operation, servicing their manifold. They never cared that people were dying. They never did anything to call the crisis to order. Rather they were using military to intimidate the community."

Platform's report offers a damning assessment: "Shell was highly likely to be aware that it was helping to fuel the conflict in Rumuekpe, since company workers visited the community on a regular basis. Even if Shell was somehow unaware of the violence, media reports were publicly available.

"Members of the community reportedly wrote to Shell to request that the company stop awarding contracts to gang leaders such as Friday Edu. Through Shell's routine practices and responses to threats, the company became complicit in the cycle of violence."It adds: "The Rumuekpe crisis was entirely avoidable, Shell operated for decades without an MoU, polluted the community and distributed 'community development' funds through an individual who had lost the confidence of the community. Once conflict erupted, Shell paid the perpetrators of gross human rights abuses as long as they controlled access to oil infrastructure. The cumulative impact of Shell's mistakes was devastating."

Rumuekpe is just one of several case studies examined by the report which alleges, that in 2009 and 2010, security personnel guarding Shell facilities were responsible for extra-judicial killings and torture in Ogoniland. Platform calls on the corporation to break ties with government forces and other armed groups responsible for abuses, and to clean up environmental damage.

Rumuekpe is just one of several case studies examined by the report which alleges, that in 2009 and 2010, security personnel guarding Shell facilities were responsible for extra-judicial killings and torture in Ogoniland.

Shell insisted that it respected human rights and was committed to working with Nigeria to ensure that the country benefited from its natural resources. "We have long acknowledged that the legitimate payments we make to contractors, as well as the social investments we make in the Niger delta region may cause friction in and between communities," a spokesman said. "We nevertheless work hard to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the benefits of our presence.

"In view of the high rate of criminal violence in the Niger delta, the federal government, as majority owner of oil facilities, deploys government security forces to protect people and assets. Suggestions in the report that SPDC directs or controls military activities are therefore completely untrue."

He added: "It is unfortunate that Platform has repeated several old cases, some of which are unsubstantiated and some proven inaccurate, because doing so obscures the good work which has been going on for many years. However, we will carefully examine its recommendations and look forward to continuing a constructive dialogue with the Nigerian government and other stakeholders to find solutions to these issues."[/b]

Casino crooks


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26857

[b]
Full of thoughtful ideas.

Can Ghana afford to pay the same price as Pakistan?





Posted by Branko Mihić on October 1, 2011 at 1:13pm

.


Cameron Duodu 2011-09-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76748

I would never have believed it, but after 54 years of independence – and despite the noise we have made about our national sovereignty and how we adopted the policy of non-alignment in the Cold War in order to safeguard our sovereignty – there are still people in Ghana who believe that it would be in Ghana’s interest to allow the United States to operate a military base on Ghanaian soil. And that includes a base from which drones can be flown to kill the enemies of the US who operate in neighbouring countries.

The issue is far from being theoretical because Ghana is surrounded by countries in which there are large Muslim communities – the Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso. Ghana’s own Northern, Upper and Upper West regions also contain significant numbers of Muslims. And we all know that someone’s fervent adherent of Islam, is another person’s fanatic, waiting to be recruited into Al Qaeda or some other sinister Islamic sect.

Yet despite Ghana’s possession of all the ingredients for a potentially lethal demographic cocktail, there are individuals in the country who would tolerate the use of Ghanaian territory by the US for military purposes.

Their view can be represented by this posting to a Ghanaian Internet forum: President John Atta Mills could get Ghana a US base, 50 miles from Tamale, in Northern Ghana, which would build ‘a state of the art military hospital that the residents could use as well.’ Ghana could also get an airport that had ‘a civilian wing the country can use.’ And an infrastructure plan to be put in place to support an army of Ghanaian businesses, ranging from hotels to food production outfits, to support the complex. ‘The security agreements to be negotiated would permit us to secure our interests, wherever they maybe, as we help the America effort.’

The posting betrays ignorance about the troubled relations that exist between local populations and the personnel of American bases – such as are often reported even from such American close allies as Japan (Okinawa). And to imagine that an American hospital meant for the personnel of a military base would necessarily be available to locals, borders on naivety.

In any case, Africans will probably be called upon to make judgements on such issues sooner than they think. For a report in the Washington Post tells us that that the US has stationed drones (pilotless military aircraft) in the Seychelles Islands that have a range of about 800 miles. It also has some drones in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa.

The purpose of the drones, it is assumed, is to protect the seaways in the area from pirate activity, usually carried out from Somalia. But since the Somali pirates are generally suspected to be affiliated with Al Qaeda or other militant groups that hostile to the US, the use of the drones in Africa will open a new front in the worldwide ‘war on terror’ the US and its allies are waging. Even in the West, some people have doubts about the waging of a ‘war on terror’ that encompasses the entire globe. Can Africa afford to ‘sleep-walk’ into the centre of such a conflict?

For I haven’t heard, for instance, of a parliamentary debate in the Seychelles about the stationing there of US drones. Even in Ghana, the exact nature of cooperation with the US AFRICOM objectives have not been adequately thrashed out publicly. Before we know it, we could be experiencing something of a ‘mission creep’: We conduct joint training sessions with US troops; some troops stay to train our soldiers; then equipment arrives; and finally we find that some of the equipment can be assembled in to drones!

It is easy to see why Ghana would be a welcome addition to the American bases from which drones can fly to combat Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (North Africa) is known to operate in Mauritania and Niger, and probably Chad as well. The Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso cannot be dismissed out of hand, either. No one will know for sure, until they strike – if they ever do.

That is what is baffling the Nigerians at the moment. It appears as if there is now a link between the deadly Boko Haram Islamic sect, which has been killing scores of Nigerians, and Al Qaeda in Somalia. (Shortly before it carried out a dastardly attack on the UN headquarters in Abuja in August 2011, Boko Haram boasted, through an operative, that the organisation had sent people for training in Somalia, and that they had just returned to Nigeria).

The question is this: If Al Qaeda were to suspect that that it was being targeted by drones flown from Ghana, would Ghana be safe from its retaliation? Quite frankly, I shudder to think of the situation that would confront us. For Nigeria, whose security budget is probably bigger than our entire gross domestic product (GDP) is currently floundering in its attempt to combat Boko Haram. A government report has recommended that arrested Boko Haram suspects should be granted an ‘amnesty’.

But a newspaper war has broken out, in the meantime, between the Nigerian police and the country’s Defence Intelligence Agency, over how a suspected Boko Haram operative was handled by both organisations, with each is accusing the other of not treating the alleged operative seriously enough.

This is a sign that the intelligence organisations in Nigeria are under enormous pressure over their inability, so far, to check the activities of Boko Haram. In one instance, Boko Haram sent a suicide bomber to blow up the police headquarters in Abuja. The Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police was saved from death by the skin of his teeth.

So, if it is doing nothing at all, Boko Haram is destabilising Nigeria. And if seeing what is going on in Nigeria, our government creates a situation that can be seized upon to see Ghana with hostile eyes, our government would have broken the oath it has sworn to protect and defend Ghana.

One thing that cannot be ignored is the possibility that the disarray in the Nigerian security services is caused by officials within the organisations who are sympathetic to the ideals preached by Boko Haram. That situation could be duplicated in Ghana, with unimaginable consequences. So far, Ghana has been fortunate in not having encountered religious intolerance. Religion does not interfere much in our social interactions. But we should not tempt our luck.

No one can convince an American to allow him to station his country’s troops or weapons on American soil – for any reason. Why can’t we learn from the Americans and tell them plainly that we cannot consider them as our friends, if they ask us to expose ourselves to attack, in order to assist in America’s ‘war on terror’?

The same disease that is plaguing Nigeria – a divided national security system – is also affecting Pakistan, a country which the US has been considering as an ally in its war on Al Qaeda. Pakistan dies indeed receive US$3.16 billion a year from the US as aid. Yet a few days ago, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, accused Pakistan of supporting a militant group called the Haqqani. This was the group that carried out a deadly attack on the US embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, recently, in which 25 people died. What could be a worse indictment of a supposed ally?

Admiral Mullen told the US Senate at a public hearing: ‘The Haqqani network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.’

He added: ‘With ISI [Pakistani intelligence] support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted a truck bomb attack [on 11 September], as well as the assault on our embassy. We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the 28 June [2011] attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations.’

This type of situation – a ‘love affair between two countries that has turned sour’ – is not new. Mention South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and those with good memories can attest to the lesson of history, which is that if you want to remain friendly with the USA, keep its military at arm’s length. Pakistan must now be badly regretting that it didn’t learn from what happened between the US and other countries in southeast Asia. But it is too late for Pakistan to regret its past mistakes. It will continue to pay for those mistakes in blood. Any African country that takes the risk of becoming another Pakistan, needs to have its head examined.[/b]

[b]Financial Warfare: "Sheared by the Shorts". How Short Sellers Fleece Investors


by Ellen Brown


“Unrestrained financial exploitations have been one of the great causes of our present tragic condition.” -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933




Why did gold and silver stocks just get hammered, at a time when commodities are considered a safe haven against widespread global uncertainty? The answer, according to Bill Murphy’s newsletter LeMetropoleCafe.com, is that the sector has been the target of massive short selling. For some popular precious metal stocks, close to half the trades have been “phantom” sales by short sellers who did not actually own the stock.



A bear raid is the practice of targeting a stock or other asset for take-down, either for quick profits or for corporate takeover. Today the target is commodities, but tomorrow it could be something else. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008, some analysts thought the investment firm’s condition was no worse than its competitors’. What brought it down was not undercapitalization but a massive bear raid on 9-11 of that year, when its stock price dropped by 41% in a single day.



The stock market has been plagued by these speculative attacks ever since the four-year industry-wide bear raid called the Great Depression, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was reduced to 10 percent of its former value. Whenever the market decline slowed, speculators would step in to sell millions of dollars worth of stock they did not own but had ostensibly borrowed just for purposes of sale, using the device known as the short sale. When done on a large enough scale, short selling can force prices down, allowing assets to be picked up very cheaply.



Another Great Depression is the short seller’s dream, as a trader recently admitted on a BBC interview. His candor was unusual, but his attitude is characteristic of a business that is all about making money, regardless of the damage done to real companies contributing real goods and services to the economy.



How the Game Is Played



Here is how the short selling scheme works: stock prices are set by traders called “market markers,” whose job is to match buyers with sellers. Short sellers willing to sell at the market price are matched with the highest buy orders first, but if sales volume is large, they wind up matched with the bargain-basement bidders, bringing the overall price down. Price is set by supply and demand, and when the supply of stocks available for sale is artificially high, the price drops. When the bear raiders are successful, they are able to buy back the stock to cover their short sales at a price that is artificially low.



Today they only have to trigger the “stop loss” orders of investors to initiate a cascade of selling. Many investors protect themselves from sudden drops in price by placing a standing “stop loss” order, which is activated if the market price falls below a certain price. These orders act like a pre-programmed panic button, which can trigger further selling and more downward pressure on the stock price.



Another destabilizing factor is “margin selling”: many speculative investors borrow against their holdings to leverage their investment, and when the value of their holdings goes down, the brokerage may force them to come up with additional cash on short notice or else sell into the bear market. Again the result is something that looks like a panic, causing the stock price to overreact and drop precipitously.



Where do the short sellers get the shares to sell into the market? As Jim Puplava explained on FinancialSense.com on September 24, 2011, they “borrow” shares from the unwitting true shareholders. When a brokerage firm opens an account for a new customer, it is usually a “margin” account—one that allows the investor to buy stock on margin, or by borrowing against the investor’s stock. This is done although most investors never use the margin feature and are unaware that they have that sort of account. The brokers do it because they can “rent” the stock in a margin account for a substantial fee—sometimes as much as 30% interest for a stock in short supply. Needless to say, the real shareholders get none of this tidy profit. Worse, they can be seriously harmed by the practice. They bought the stock because they believed in the company and wanted to see its business thrive, not dive. Their shares are being used to bet against their own interests.



There is another problem with short selling: the short seller is allowed to vote the shares at shareholder meetings. To avoid having to reveal what is going on, stock brokers send proxies to the “real” owners as well; but that means there are duplicate proxies floating around. Brokers know that many shareholders won’t go to the trouble of voting their shares; and when too many proxies do come in for a particular vote, the totals are just reduced proportionately to “fit.” But that means the real votes of real stock owners may be thrown out. Hedge funds may engage in short selling just to vote on particular issues in which they are interested, such as hostile corporate takeovers. Since many shareholders don’t send in their proxies, interested short sellers can swing the vote in a direction that hurts the interests of those with a real stake in the corporation.



Lax Regulation



Some of the damage caused by short selling was blunted by the Securities Act of 1933, which imposed an “uptick” rule and forbade “naked” short selling. But both of these regulations have been circumvented today.



The uptick rule required a stock’s price to be higher than its previous sale price before a short sale could be made, preventing a cascade of short sales when stocks were going down. But in July 2007, the uptick rule was repealed.



The regulation against “naked” short selling forbids selling stocks short without either owning or borrowing them. But an exception turned the rule into a sham, when a July 2005 SEC ruling allowed the practice by “market makers,” those brokers agreeing to stand ready to buy and sell a particular stock on a continuous basis at a publicly quoted price. The catch is that market makers are the brokers who actually do most of the buying and selling of stock today. Ninety-five percent of short sales are done by broker-dealers and market makers. Market making is one of those lucrative pursuits of the giant Wall Street banks that now hold a major portion of the country’s total banking assets.



One of the more egregious examples of naked short selling was relayed in a story run on FinancialWire in 2005. A man named Robert Simpson purchased all of the outstanding stock of a small company called Global Links Corporation, totaling a little over one million shares. He put all of this stock in his sock drawer, then watched as 60 million of the company’s shares traded hands over the next two days. Every outstanding share changed hands nearly 60 times in those two days, although they were safely tucked away in his sock drawer. The incident substantiated allegations that a staggering number of “phantom” shares are being traded around by brokers in naked short sales. Short sellers are expected to cover by buying back the stock and returning it to the pool, but Simpson’s 60 million shares were obviously never bought back to cover the phantom sales, since they were never on the market in the first place. Other cases are less easy to track, but the same thing is believed to be going on throughout the market.



Why Is It Allowed?



The role of market makers is supposedly to provide liquidity in the markets, match buyers with sellers, and ensure that there will always be someone to supply stock to buyers or to take stock off sellers’ hands. The exception allowing them to engage in naked short selling is justified as being necessary to allow buyers and sellers to execute their orders without having to wait for real counterparties to show up. But if you want potatoes or shoes and your local store runs out, you have to wait for delivery. Why is stock investment different?



It has been argued that a highly liquid stock market is essential to ensure corporate funding and growth. That might be a good argument if the money actually went to the company, but that is not where it goes. The issuing company gets the money only when the stock is sold at an initial public offering (IPO). The stock exchange is a secondary market – investors buying from other stockholders, hoping they can sell the stock for more than they paid for it. In short, it is gambling. Corporations have an easier time raising money through new IPOs if the buyers know they can turn around and sell their stock quickly; but in today’s computerized global markets, real buyers should show up quickly enough without letting brokers sell stock they don’t actually have to sell.



Short selling is sometimes justified as being necessary to keep a brake on the “irrational exuberance” that might otherwise drive popular stocks into dangerous “bubbles.” But if that were a necessary feature of functioning markets, short selling would also be rampant in the markets for cars, television sets and computers, which it obviously isn’t. The reason it isn’t is that these goods can’t be “hypothecated” or duplicated on a computer screen the way stock shares can. Short selling is made possible because the brokers are not dealing with physical things but are simply moving numbers around on a computer monitor.



Any alleged advantages to a company or asset class from the liquidity afforded by short selling are offset by the serious harm this sleight of hand can do to companies or assets targeted for take-down in bear raids. With the power to engage in naked short sales, market makers have the market wired for demolition at their whim.



The Need for Collective Action



What can be done to halt this very destructive practice? Ideally, federal regulators would step in with some rules; but as Jim Puplava observes, the regulators seem to be in the pockets of the brokers and are inclined to look the other way. Lawsuits can have an effect, but they take money and time.



In the meantime, Puplava advises investors to call their brokers and ask if their accounts are margin accounts. If so, get the accounts changed, with confirmation in writing. Like the “Move Your Money” campaign for disciplining the Wall Street giants, this maneuver could be a non-violent form of collective action with significant effects if enough investors joined in. We need some grassroots action to rein in our runaway financial system and the government it controls, and this could be a good place to start.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26857[/b]

[b]Zambia's president replaces anti-corruption chief

https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55766000/jpg/_55766661_013017288-1.jpg

Mr Sata has got rid of several top officials since his poll victory


Zambia's newly-elected President Michael Sata has dismissed the head of the country's anti-corruption watchdog.

A presidential statement said Godfrey Kayukwa would be replaced by Rosewin Wandi, without giving further details.

Mr Kayukwa is considered to be a close aide to former President Rupiah Banda, who lost last month's tightly-contested elections to Mr Sata.

During the campaign, Mr Sata pledged to stem out corruption among government officials.

And during the swearing-in ceremony last week he said: "Corruption has been a scourge in this country and there is a wide link between corruption and poverty."

The previous government was criticised for not being tough on tackling graft.


[img]http://www.postzambia.com/article_thumbs.php?x=350&id=22670[/img]
Lt Col Godfrey Kayukwa
[/b]

[b]Police Arrest About 500 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge
By AL BAKER and COLIN MOYNIHAN


https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/10/02/nyregion/02bridge_337_blog/02bridge_337_blog-blog480.jpg


Some demonstrators that walked from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge were arrested on Saturday when they blocked traffic on the Brooklyn-bound lanes.
Updated, 7:58 p.m. | In a tense showdown above the East River, the police arrested about 500 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

The police did not immediately release precise arrest figures, but said it was the choice of those marchers that led to the swift enforcement.

“Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested,” said the head police spokesman, Paul J. Browne. “Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested.”

But many protesters said that they thought the police had tricked and trapped them, allowing them onto the bridge and even escorting them across, only to surround them in orange netting after hundreds of them had entered.

“The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway,” said Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street who was in the march but was not arrested.

Things came to a head shortly after 4 p.m., as the 1,500 or so marchers reached the foot of the Brooklyn-bound car lanes of the bridge, just east of City Hall.

In their march north from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan — headquarters for the last two weeks of a protest movement against what demonstrators call inequities in the economic system — they had stayed on the sidewalks, forming a long column of humanity penned in by officers on scooters.

Where the entrance to the bridge narrowed their path, some marchers, including organizers, stuck to the generally agreed-upon route and headed up onto the wooden walkway that runs between and about 15 feet above the bridge’s traffic lanes.

But about 20 others headed for the Brooklyn-bound roadway, said Christopher T. Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who accompanied the march. Some of them chanted “take the bridge.” They were met by a handful of high-level police supervisors, who blocked the way and announced repeatedly through bullhorns that the marchers were blocking the roadway and that if they continued to do so, they would be subject to arrest.

There were no physical barriers, though, and at one point, the marchers began walking up the roadway with the police commanders in front of them – seeming, from a distance, as if they were leading the way. The Chief of Department Joseph J. Esposito, and a horde of other white-shirted commanders, were among them.


https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/10/01/nyregion/20111002_PROTEST-slide-UP67/20111002_PROTEST-slide-UP67-blog480.jpg
Police secured some protesters’ hands with plastic ties.
After allowing the protesters to walk about a third of the way to Brooklyn, the police then cut the marchers off and surrounded them with orange nets on both sides, trapping hundreds of people, said Mr. Dunn. As protesters at times chanted “white shirts, white shirts,” officers began making arrests, at one point plunging briefly into the crowd to grab a man.

The police said that those arrested were taken to several police stations and were being charged with disorderly conduct, at a minimum.

A freelance reporter for The New York Times, Natasha Lennard, was among those arrested. She was later released.

Mr. Dunn said he was concerned that those in the back of the column who might not have heard the warnings “would have had no idea that it was not O.K. to walk on the roadway of the bridge.” Mr. Browne said that people who were in the rear of the crowd that may not have heard the warnings were not arrested and were free to leave.

Earlier in the afternoon, as many as 10 Department of Correction buses, big enough to hold 20 prisoners apiece, had been dispatched from Rikers Island in what one law enforcement official said was “a planned move on the protesters.”

Etan Ben-Ami, 56, a psychotherapist from Brooklyn who was up on the walkway, said that the police seemed to make a conscious decision to allow the protesters to claim the road. “They weren’t pushed back,” he said. “It seemed that they moved at the same time.”

Mr. Ben-Ami said he left the walkway and joined the crowd on the road. “It seemed completely permitted,” he said. “There wasn’t a single policeman saying ‘don’t do this’.”

He added: “We thought they were escorting us because they wanted us to be safe.” He left the bridge when he saw officers unrolling the nets as they prepared to make arrests. Many others who had been on the roadway were allowed to walk back down to Manhattan.

Mr. Browne said that the police did not trick the protesters into going onto the bridge.

“This was not a trap,” he said. “They were warned not to proceed.”

In related protests elsewhere in the country, 25 people were arrested in Boston for trespassing while protesting Bank of America’s foreclosure practices, according to Eddy Chrispin, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department. The protesters were on the grounds and blocking the entrance to the building, Mr. Chrispin said.

Natasha Lennard, William K. Rashbaum and Elizabeth A. Harris contributed reporting.

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[/b]

The colonial masters are on a roll this year.


Embarrassing moment playboy son of an African dictator (whose people live on £1.50 a day) has £5million in supercars seized from outside his home


https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/30/article-2043836-0E28318E00000578-954_634x354.jpg

Away we go: Among the 11 supercars siezed were Maseratis, two limited edition Bugatti Veyrons, Ferraris, Porsches and Rolls Royces

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043836/Son-African-head-state-cars-seized-money-laundering-investigation.html#ixzz1ZWxrPg1p

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043836/Son-African-head-state-cars-seized-money-laundering-investigation.html#ixzz1ZWx2JiGR


https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/30/article-2043836-01E0F20900000578-173_306x423.jpg

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/30/article-2043836-03D77A69000005DC-821_306x423.jpg
Under investigation: President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, above left, was not present as the cars were taken away, but a staff member told police most of the vehicles were ‘mainly used by his son, Teodorin Obiang'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043836/Son-African-head-state-cars-seized-money-laundering-investigation.html#ixzz1ZWxVMS00

[b]https://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/houseoflies2/photos/auditor.jpg


Former Miami city auditor Igwe to get his $263,255 severance after all

BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@miamiherald.com

The Miami city attorney’s office has done an about-face on compensation due to long-time internal auditor Victor Igwe, whose contract was not renewed earlier this year.
In an email sent Thursday to the mayor, city commissioners and finance director, City Attorney Julie Bru said after being asked to re-evaluate Igwe’s final payout, she determined there was nothing in Igwe’s 2007 contract that stipulated he wasn’t to be paid after separating from the city.

“It is my opinion that the operative provisions dealing with vacation and sick leave as well as severance are clear and unambiguous,” Bru wrote. “Therefore, the … benefits and severance is authorized for payment.”

Three weeks ago, Igwe threatened to take the city to court after the attorney’s office opined that he wasn’t due any money because his contract did not “directly” address whether he was due unused sick and vacation time and a six-month severance if his contract expired.

Now, all that is needed for Igwe to collect $263,255 is for the city manager and the finance department to sign off on the check.

Reached at home Friday, Igwe hadn’t heard the news.

“Really, are you sure about that?” he asked a reporter. “I wonder why she changed her mind. That’s one less fight for us to have. I’m due that money. Not only do they owe me that, they owe me interest.”

Igwe, who had been the city’s internal auditor for 12 years, was escorted from Miami Riverside Center in June after his contract expired. Actually, it had expired two months earlier, but during a confusing commission meeting at which Igwe addressed commissioners late at night, then fainted, the commission agreed to extend it with all benefits for 60 days.

Meantime, Commissioner Frank Carollo was to work with Igwe on terms for a new deal. That never happened, and Igwe’s time ran out. Miami has yet to hire a new permanent auditor.



Persecuted For Honesty: Miami Auditor , Nigerian Victor Igwe Dismissed -Miami Herald
Posted: June 28, 2011 - 23:13

http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/news/general/102173-persecuted-for-honesty-miami-auditor-nigerian-victor-igwe-dismissed-miami-herald.html





[/b]

[b]Infidelity On The Rise In Nigeria

By Amara


It is gradually becoming acceptable in our society. Infidelity has suddenly become something to be proud of. Men used to hide their extra marital affairs from their wives and friends, but it has suddenly become a thing to be proud of as they now flaunt their wives more than their girlfriends. It is no longer something to be hidden from friends and relations.

A good number of men claim to be married to just one woman, but the truth is that I am beginning to respect those with two or three legally married wives because of what I see in the Nigeria of today. Men now claim to be living better than our forefathers who had more than one wife and took care of all. But the truth is that they are in no way better than our fathers, they are only smarter than they were.

We now live in a civilised world where men carry the Bible and Koran on one hand, while they use the other to commit all sorts of crime. People keep using religious words and titles just to cover up for different atrocities they perpetrate. In fact, the pew is now more sanctified than the pulpit. Why go on preaching against people with two wives when you have five girls in your church and two from each church you visit? Why do you claim to be very polished and educated that you can’t imagine yourself with two wives when God knows you have ten already?

Immorality has become the order of the day and men are playing the game very well. A man can confidently keep two women in the same hotel room with no feeling of guilt. Men now throw parties just to gain access to the women folk. Parties in Nigeria have suddenly become means to an end.

When you talk about a man loving his wife, the first thing that comes to the mind of several Nigerian men is money and how well he takes care of her. Love is not about the material things you are able to give the woman. Yes, love gives, but in several ways. You can give the whole world to a woman and still have no place in her heart.

It is unfortunate that women of today attach so much importance to wealth and material acquisition. There is this craze for money among the women folk and this is what is making men believe that all a woman needs is money and fame.

Your problem is that you have not met the real woman because when you do, you will realise there is more to do to win a woman’s heart than just throwing money around.

Men always complain of losing the respect and love they were getting from their wives just because they became broke. I know there are women who will turn their back on you the moment you become broke and that is why you must have to be extremely careful and wise when it comes to marriage. But I also know there are very nice and godly women who are forced to behave that way because of the way the man treated them when the money was there.

I am not saying you did not give her money; you gave her money and material things to the point that everybody saw it on her. But the problem is that she was aware of the other girl outside, who you bought the same things for. This is what led a woman here in VGC to mastermind the kidnap of her husband.

According to her, she laboured for years and lived with this man in a one-room apartment only for him to start taking care of different women and giving them much more than he gives her. From the kidnap, she got N70 million and they are still living together as husband and wife.

That woman was by you through your years of pain, she cried when you cried and went through the wilderness with you. Now you are the managing director of Bank… and she has suddenly become too old and fat in your eyes and she is no longer up to your class and so you need another one by the side to show off.

I once raised this issue on Facebook; how many men are proud to have the picture of their wives on the wall? All sorts of atrocities go on in the offices and social networking sites. Men always come up with this defence of not wanting to mix their public life with their personal life. In other things, I agree, but definitely not on the issue of flaunting your wife!

If you are not ashamed of her, you will have her picture on your table in the office. If you are proud to be a married man, you will have your wife’s picture on your Facebook wall because this is a very good way to keep some of those devourers away. I am not saying this is an assurance that you are not cheating, it only shows that even when you are cheating, you are still very proud of your wife.

I am not in support of cheating, but I made that comment because I know many on Facebook that even have pictures of them kissing their wives as their profile pictures and yet their girlfriends are there. I once asked to know why a good number of married men don’t wear their wedding ring. You see them wear all kinds of dressy rings, but wearing of their wedding ring is a no-go area. My male friends came up with this excuse that some of them have grown fatter with the food the woman cooks and so they can no longer fit into their wedding rings.

They have the money to constantly change their fashion rings, but they have grown too fat for their wedding rings. Sir, there is no excuse for injustice; that woman, with all her weight gain, still has her wedding ring on and here you are telling me yours is too small for you. I agree, but I also know that just as you change your other rings, you can place an order for a new set of wedding rings.

How would you feel when your very beautiful wife starts leaving the house without her wedding ring? That is exactly the way she feels when you start putting up attitudes showing for your marriage. If from the onset you objected to a white wedding or you married without a ring, like some churches do, it becomes a different case altogether, but when you wholeheartedly had a white wedding and had the priest bless the ring, sir, there is no acceptable reason not to wear it.

A woman sent me a mail lamenting how Facebook and Twitter have taken over her husband. If not for the women you are after on Facebook, what will make you use your whole day on it at the expense of your relationship? I use Facebook and Twitter, but I can never ignore that man I claim to love or my children just because I have to be with friends; what friends?

A lot is going on now on Facebook and I learnt there are some pages where girls now go nude for men. Ladies, you have to watch out and be on the alert to know what your man is up to. I am not saying you should start a fight, be wise about it.

Men, this is the 21st century when women are the ones going after men and being proud about it. They are out looking for precious souls to destroy. A good number of women, both single and married, are into all sorts of things on Facebook and it can take only a disciplined man to stay off their hook.

I have grown to accept one thing; being disciplined is not about spirituality. I know God can give you the grace for the change you need, but it takes more than too much prayer. Discipline is about you making a decision to stand against all odds. If it is about spirituality and too much prayer, a lot of our pastors won’t be committing the atrocities they are into. In fact, I have friends who are free thinkers and I can tell you that a good number of them are disciplined to the extreme.

I know it is tough to live a life of decency and fidelity. Women now dress to kill, but you can refuse to be killed because God has given you the power. Take your eyes off that female staff that is all over you. Forget about those fine faces you see on Facebook; a good number of them are fatter than your wife at home, while some use pictures of relations and friends. By the time you see them physically, nobody will tell you to run home.

Be a one-woman kind of a man.[/b]

[b]Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yemi Adesokan, Nigerian scientist, wins MIT's World Top Young Innovators Award


[img]http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/thumbnail.php?file=images/Yemi_Adesokan_924237268.jpg&size=article_medium[/img]


While several young Nigerians are busy complaining their country has not done anything for them, 35- year- old US- based Nigerian born researcher, Yemi Adesokan, has put his country's name on the map of nations of innovation.

Adesokan's discovery which has potential to change the way mankind responds to disease pathogens, according to experts, may bring an end the era of increased burden of drug resistance in the world particularly, in sub Saharan Africa.

When he moved to United States in 1996, little did the young innovator have realise that he was going to rub shoulders with some of the greatest names in scientific technology.

But today, Adesokan who has been listed by Technology Review, an independent media company owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) USA. as one of the TR35 Award of the 2011 World top innovators. Past recipients have included Sergey Brin (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), and Konstantin Novoselev (later a Nobel Laureate in Physics).

Adesokan is being so specially honoured for his work in the application of next generation sequencing to clinical diagnostics. Adesokan, who is also the founder of Pathogenica Inc., was selected as a member of the TR35 class of 2011 by a panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review, who evaluated more than 300 nominations.

By this recognition, he will be joining other TR35 honorees in discussing their achievements at the Emtech MIT 2011 conference, taking place at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, October 18 to 19, 2011.

In this chat with Chioma Obinna, he speaks on the award and the benefits of his innovation in the diagnostics world.

Excerpts:

What it is all about

This work is being carried out by a biotechnology startup that I founded with Prof George Church of Harvard Medical School DNA technology. The Pathogenica's test kits are able to identify the presence, allowing for physicians to screen for multiple diseases with accurate results and a rapid turnaround.

I founded pathogenica with genomics pioneer and Harvard Prof George Church in 2009 in order to commercilaise applications of pathogen sequencing.

Sequencing technologies have improved a million – fold in the past seven years, bringing scientists a wealth of individual genomics and the key now is to employ the data to improve clinical practice. The DNA sequence of each individual or organism is unique, and is the most detailed signature for identification.

This year marks one decade since the completion of the Human Genome Project, a three billion-dollar effort to sequence a human genome.

A major issue in Nigeria today, is that some sterilised water may contain harmful pathogens. The technology is useful in screening a range of pathogens in water, livestock (poultry, etc.), and in food manufacturing. The key point for this technology is its high multiple. As it scales up, we actually see a reduction in price.

With the innovation, the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped more than 40,000_fold since that time to just $5,000 today. The price continues to drop. We are applying this fast, inexpensive technology in a unique way to improve routine clinical diagnostics.

Impact on clinical practice

The utility of the innovation in clinical practice lies in the low error rate, thereby reducing the number of inaccurate diagnoses due to false positives or the emergence of drug resistance mutations undetected by current methods. This reduces the occurrence of patient mortality (death) due to misdiagnosed infections.

In addition, the technology does not require cultures as samples. Tuberculosis (TB) samples can take over one week to culture. We can demonstrate diagnostic results in a single day. This would reduce the spread of Tuberculosis In the case of HPV, which causes cervical cancer and other types of cancers, this technology can be used for detection with a very low occurrence of error. The error rate is very low.

Plans to bring it to Nigeria

We are very interested in finding partners in the Nigerian private and public sectors, particularly as TB is not an issue in the US market. We plan to visit Nigeria around November to give some presentations on the utility of our technology, particularly in the case of drug-resistant infections.

TR35 Award

The TR35 award is presented each year to 35 innovators under the age of 35 whose "accomplishments are poised to have a dramatic impact on the world. The TR35 recognises the world's top innovators, spanning energy, medicine, computing, communications, nanotechnology, and other emerging fields.

It is given by MIT's Technology Review Magazine. Needless to say, Technology Review has an excellent track record in predicting innovative technologies. Pathogenica, Inc., was selected for this award based on my work on the development of fast DNA sequencing technologies for clinical diagnostics.

Nigerian government and Research

I think more can be done, especially in encouraging young innovators. The establishment of technology incubators to nurture and fund young companies would be a good starting point. There is need for the government to send science and technology representatives to scout out new innovations worldwide, and encourage private sector venture capitalists to invest in local technology innovation.[/b]

Heavy knowledge or fiction, enjoy the latest episode!




62º - ANSWERS OF AN ALIEN FROM ANDROMEDA - Nibiru - Elenin - Events



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk-xEyOupHc&feature=related

[img]http://bossip.files./2011/09/sylvia.jpg?w=400&h=400[/img]






R.I.P.: Sylvia Robinson, Mother Of Hip Hop, Dead At Age 75




Sylvia Vanterpool Robinson, 75, often credited as the Mother of Hip-Hop, died today at 6:28 a.m. EST from congestive heart failure.Sylvia is revered in the rap community as the producer who took Chic’s sample of “Good Times” and with the help of the Sugar Hill Gang, turned it into “Rapper’s Delight,” the first hip-hop record to go mainstream. Sylvia had been ill for approximately five months before passing this morning at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey, family spokesman Greg Walker told Sister 2 Sister. Along with producing “Rapper’s Delight,” Sylvia also produced “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. She didn’t just work behind the scenes, though. Sylvia was half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia.“Pillow Talk” and “Love is Strange” are two of Sylvia’s most popular songs.In addition to her professional accomplishments, Sylvia, who was married to the late Joseph Robinson Sr., was mother to three sons, Joseph Robinson Jr., Leland Robinson and Rhondo Robinson. Rest in peace.



http://bossip.com/466454/r-i-p-sylvia-robinson-mother-of-hip-hop-dead-at-age-75/

Sylvia - Pillow Talk

Pillow Talk





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xw1DDBFdFU&feature=player_embedded




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlhCYC_TEFw&feature=player_embedded

Lola Adesioye about the difference between being black in the UK and being black in the US


“Being black in the UK doesn't mean the same as being black in the US,” said writer and international journalist Lola Adesioye (1980) at the end of her spoken words performance in the PenTales Travel and Migration event (see video).

During her performance the London born Cambridge graduate of Nigerian descent, who now lives in New York, also talked about identity, being a "search culture kid" and about one question that irritates her the most. "One of the most annoying questions is 'where are you from'. Because I really don't know how to answer it. Especially when I am in England.


http://afroeurope..com/2011/07/lola-adesioye-about-difference-between.html



[img]http://1.bp..com/-AkpwI4AE8nM/ThoLk1LV0bI/AAAAAAAAAL4/UdS9gXyQWXE/s200/lola_adesioye.jpg[/img]

NATO's War on Libya is Directed against China: AFRICOM and the Threat to China's National Energy Security

by F. William Engdahl


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26763



https://lh4.ggpht.com/_ZL3Kngb81qo/She9ePhYXFI/AAAAAAAAQL0/FWJaWpHy2M0/Chinese%20investments%20in%20Africa%20BBC%20co%20uk%20map%5B4%5D.png

Nowhere to stay?
The nowhere-to-go phenomenon arises when a person accused of international crimes remains free in his own country, yet avoids travel for fear of arrest abroad. It's a phenomenon said at various times to have constrained any number of figures, from Muammar Gaddafi to Henry Kissinger.
A twist on the theme is playing out now in the administrative courts of France.
Call it the nowhere-to-stay scenario.
The figure at issue is Agathe Habyarimana (left). She's the widow of the President of Rwanda whose death in 1994 -- in a plane crash that also killed his Burundian counterpart -- helped touch off genocide in Rwanda. (credit for file photo depicting her at center)
Since then Habyarimana's been living for the most part in France, but without regularized status. She's twice sought a carte de séjour, a French residence permit; her 2d attempt is now pending before a court in Versailles.
The prefecture's denied her request, asserting that the 69-year-old widow is a "menace à l'ordre public," or "threat to the public order." The claim's based on Rwanda's longstanding warrant for her arrest, which contends that she was complicit in the 1994 genocide. As detailed in this Guardian article, she's alleged to have played "a central role in political decisions during the first days of the genocide."
To date France has not complied with a Rwandan request for her extradition.
A 2007 partie civile suit against her remains pending in France but has not yet resulted in charges.
And France has not regularized her status, either.
The tribunal's decision on her latest request for residency status is expected on September 20.


http://intlawgrrls..com/2011/09/nowhere-to-stay.html

[b]

[img]http://2.bp..com/-m-AJ6aJaRQE/Tme9jjmGpiI/AAAAAAAAQkI/KJvzz4AN8Rw/s200/aga.jpg[/img]

September 28, 2011


France Won't Extradite Rwandan Ex-First Lady



PARIS (AP) — France must not extradite the widow of Rwanda's former president, who has been sought by Rwandan prosecutors in connection with the African country's 1994 genocide, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Juvenal Habyarimana, has been sought by the Rwandan state prosecutor since 2009 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Paris court's reasoning for the decision was not immediately available, but it is binding on French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Rwanda could still make a second request, but an extradition now appears unlikely.

Rwanda's genocide erupted after an airplane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down as near the capital, Kigali. French investigators have been looking into the case because the plane's crew was French.

Some 500,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, were massacred by radical Hutus in under 100 days. The massacres ended when Tutsi-led rebels under current President Paul Kagame defeated the Hutu extremists in July 1994.

The head of the Rwandan government's National Commission for the Fight against Genocide — in which Kagame is a member — last year claimed Agathe Habyarimana was the "main architect" of the genocide.

Following the request by Rwandan authorities two years ago, French police detained Habyarimana last year, but she was released on condition that she stay in France and check in regularly with police.

At the courthouse, Habyarimana said she was "delighted" with the decision and alleged that Rwandan authorities today were after her "because they know they killed my husband." Asked whether President Kagame himself was to blame, she didn't answer and simply looked at her lawyer.

"What I really would like is for the truth to come out on this assassination. Those who downed the airplane of the President Habyarimana and his counterparts from Burundi must be identified," she said. Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of neighboring Burundi, was among those killed.

Agathe Habyarimana — a Hutu like her husband — was helped out of Rwanda by French forces on April 9, 1994, and lived in what was then known as Zaire, now called Congo, before moving to France.

In 2004, France rejected her request for political asylum, alleging she was at the heart of the regime responsible for the genocide. Two years ago, a French court denied her appeal, arguing she had de facto authority in state affairs and rejecting as not credible her claims that she had no power.

French investigators are conducting a probe of seven Kagame allies for their suspected roles in the downing of the plane — which has been a thorn in bilateral ties between France and Rwanda.

A Rwandan government investigation released in January suggested the plane was shot down by Habyarimana's own allies, as an excuse for starting the genocide.

Five years ago, the delivery of arrest warrants for people close to Kagame by a now-retired French anti-terrorism magistrate led to a break in diplomatic ties between France and Rwanda — re-established only in 2009.

Kagame conducted a state visit to France earlier this month, aimed in part at reviving bilateral ties. French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Kigali last year — the first visit to Rwanda by a French leader in 25 years. [/b]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro_Blue





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