₦airaland Forum

Taller women have a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer, according to a review of studies.

Obesity is also a risk factor among women who have never taken HRT, say international researchers.

Previous studies have suggested a link, but there has been conflicting evidence.

The latest research, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, analysed all worldwide data on the topic.

It looked at 47 epidemiological studies in 14 countries, including about 25,000 women with ovarian cancer and more than 80,000 women without ovarian cancer.

Lead researcher Prof Valerie Beral of the Oxford University Epidemiology Unit told the BBC: "By bringing together the worldwide evidence, it became clear that height is a risk factor."


She said there was also a clear relationship between obesity and ovarian cancer in women who had never taken HRT.

"Ovarian cancer can clearly be added to the list [of cancers linked to obesity]," she added.

Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said the study produced a clearer picture of the factors that could affect a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer, and found that body size was important.

"Women can reduce their risk of this and many other diseases by keeping to a healthy weight," she said.

"For women trying to lose weight, the best method is to eat healthily, eat smaller amounts and be more physically active."

Commenting on the study, Dr Paul Pharoah, reader in cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said the increase in risk was small.

"If we compare a woman who is 5ft tall with a woman who is 5ft 6in tall, there is a relative difference in ovarian cancer risk of 23%.

"But the absolute risk difference is small. The shorter woman will have a lifetime risk of about 16-in-a-1000 which increases to 20-in-a-1000 for the taller woman.

"A similar difference in absolute risk would be seen when comparing a slim woman with a body mass index of 20 to a slightly overweight woman with a body mass index of 30."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17601143

tigerleggs: Just one Nollywood low life.

so, what ur all saying is she's kinda a hoodrat, sl.ut?

Can someone pls tell me who is Tonto Dike?

Their antecedent speaks ahead of them. They should be sent back asap!

dazzle37: Is it that some people start from the middle of a sentence to read ? you all saying the bus does not travel from calabar to lagos, Did you not see at the beginning of the post THAT IT WAS A MIX-UP IN THE TITTLE ? THE BUS WAS FROM ABUJA TO LAGOS.

The OP must have Modified his post after the comment were made.

This Rihanna sef! After being brutally abused she still goes back to Christ Brown. SMH.

Nigeria masses are never gonna benefit from this oil, just at it has been since oil was discovered in the Delta.

But one unblemished character was determined to stamp out the corruption. He was Albino Luciani - the future Pope John Paul I - who became Archbishop of Venice on December 15, 1969. In 1972, Luciani began investigating transactions at “the priests’ bank”, Banco Cattolica del Veneto, in which the Vatican Bank owned a 51 percent interest.

Luciani had become suspicious after the bank was sold by Vatican Bank President, Paul Marcinkus, to Roberto Calvi, Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano in Milan. Calvi was known as a crook who had laundered Mafia money through his bank.

Marcinkus, on the other hand, had been an American-born Catholic priest whose nickname was “the Gorilla” because of his huge bulk. Despite having no experience of banking, he was the Vatican Bank’s President from 1971 to 1989.

But Marcinkus soon became the central figure in Vatican Bank corruption. As soon as he was appointed as the Vatican Bank President, financial irregularity started to emerge. In 1972, the US federal department questioned Marcinkus about US$14.5 million in counterfeit US Bonds delivered to the Vatican. He refused to answer, citing confidentiality, and the US government opted not to pursue the matter.

Around the same time, Albino Luciani’s investigations of Marcinkus and Calvi had led to Sindona, who turned out to be a friend of Calvi’s. Luciani quickly realised all three men were dealing with the Mafia, and in cahoots. But, for now, there was little he could do.

Then, in 1978, Luciani became Pope John Paul I and began an immediate investigation into the financial aberrations at the Vatican. On the evening of September 28, the Pope told his Secretary of State, Jean Villot, that he was going to remove Marcinkus from his post the following day. But the Pope didn’t get to make the order because he never woke up.

“I’m convinced he was murdered,” said David Yallop, who wrote the bestselling In God’s Name about the alleged crime. “It was largely to do with money. There were a number of parties who wanted him dead. Chief among them was Marcinkus, who knew he was about to be ousted. Then there was Calvi, who was in league with Marcinkus on a fraudulent business deal. Everyone in the inner circle knew about the Pope’s plans. I’m sure he was poisoned, although because the Vatican refused to carry out an autopsy, or release a medical report, we cannot prove it.”
He added: “The Vatican said he died of a heart attack, but you would normally assess that. The Venetian doctor who’d looked after him for 15 years and came down every two weeks to the Vatican said he was in excellent health.”

Pope John Paul I’s reign had lasted for a mere 33 days. The only Pope to serve less time in the entire papal history was Leo XI who ruled for just 17 days in 1605 before dying under mysterious circumstances as well. Yallop believes that the probable method of Pope John Paul I’s murder was tampering with his medications for low blood pressure – either through liquid Effortil, or Cortiplex injections.

With the Pope’s timely death, Marcinkus stayed on and continued his rackets. In 1982, Banco Ambrosiano went bust with debts of US$1.3 billion. Embarrassingly for Marcinkus, the Vatican Bank had been a major partner in Calvi’s illicit deals, which included laundering, Mafia money and facilitating unlawful payments from corporations to Italian politicians. The Vatican bank lost US$500 million.

In June 1982, Calvi fled Italy to escape jail and landed in London. He began threatening to tell everything he knew if he was imprisoned, and was found hanging under London’s Blackfriars Bridge just days later. Few people have accepted the official police verdict of suicide.

“Of course, he was murdered,” said Jason Berry. “He was deeply in bed with Cosa Nostra. I never heard of anyone committing suicide by putting rocks in his own shoes!”
The Vatican Bank claimed innocence, though in 1984 it made a US$240 million goodwill payment to creditors of Banco Ambrosiano. The gesture however failed to satisfy Italian magistrates who issued a warrant for Marcinkus’s arrest in 1987. This would result in a long tussle between the Vatican and Italian judicial authorities, which resulted in Marcinkus spending weeks holed up within the Vatican – fearing arrest if he ever set foot on Italian territory.

Finally, the Italian Court of Cassation had to rule that the Italian courts had no jurisdiction over Marcinkus. They said major officials of the Church were exempt from Italian state law under the terms of the 1929 Lateran Pact, which had granted independent statehood to the Vatican.

Marcinkus survived once again and his influence continued to grow. He became Pro-President, the third most powerful person in the Vatican. In 1990, Marcinkus finally retired to Arizona.

“At one time, everyone was trying to arrest him,” said Williams. “But he escaped prosecution and lived a long, happy retirement on a palatial estate, playing golf every day on, smoking expensive cigars, dining in chic restaurants.”



“I could never understand why Interpol, or the US authorities didn’t extradite him. He was the number one guy at the centre of the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, which devastated hundreds of thousands of Italians. I think powerful Catholic interests would have cried ‘foul’ and ‘sacrilege’ if he’d been prosecuted.”

The Vatican Bank has been plagued by corruption and criminality ever since it was established in 1942. Yet this is hardly a surprise, given that no bona fide legal system is currently in place to ensure check and balances for the bank of God.


The scandals surrounding the Vatican’s finances strain credulity. At the heart of the Catholic Church, we find murder, collusion with violent crime, bribery and money laundering.

But the Church has, and will, never admit to any financial wrongdoing. With an image of sanctity to protect, the Catholic Church simply cannot admit to any illegality or immorality. In this respect, there is a parallel with the Holy See’s persistent denials of sexual abuse among the clergy. This pretence of moral purity can be maintained because the tiny Vatican state is not subject to Italian law enforcement.

Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, said: “The Vatican has a systematic aversion to transparency. Its power structure is honeycombed in secrecy. With the abuse scandal, the bottom line is that the Pope will not punish complicit Bishops and Cardinals.”

“The crux of the Vatican’s problems – whether in finance, or the abuse crisis – is they are an international state without a bona fide legal system. The Vatican cannot police itself and that’s why we see so many scandals.”

The Sins Of The Fathers

Financial controversy has dogged the Vatican Bank ever since it was formed in 1942. There is strong evidence today that the Bank accepted tainted funds and riches from the bank accounts of deceased Jews in Europe during World War II.

But the modern era of the Vatican’s financial misadventures only truly began in the late 1960s, after the Vatican Bank started to develop strong ties with violent crime. At the heart of this story was a Sicilian banker named Michele Sindona who laundered heroin money for the New York Mafia family, the Gambinos. With his proceeds, Sindona bought up banks across Italy during the 1960s.

“Then, Sindona was hired by Pope Paul VI in 1969 to become chief Vatican financial advisor after the Italian Government said all the Vatican’s holdings in Italian banks would be taxed. That’s when the trouble started,” said Paul Williams, author of The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder and the Mafia.

“Sindona moved the Vatican’s holdings into the international market place where it could not be taxed…Through Sindona’s Mafia connections, dirty money flowed into the Vatican Bank.”

"They laundered money from gun running and drugs. Sindona began the process, and it’s not stopped to this day. New York’s five Mafia families launder their holdings through the Bank.”

_{Continued ready story underneath}

Sholani street, Igando a Lagos suburb is noted for its serene and peaceful atmosphere where commercial and social activities thrive unhindered. But the situation turned awry and dramatic Tuesday, March 20,2012 after a man rushed out from a canteen and raised an alarm on discovering that his motorbike had disappeared from where it was parked.



Just about same time, an unknown person was sighted speeding away on the same motorbike. Other motorcyclists who were attracted by the alarm gave the thief a hot chase and apprehended him. He was beaten black and blue before some policemen from the nearby Igando Division came to his rescue.

However, to the astonishment of all, the motorcycle snatcher who gave his name as Idowu Dosumu, admitted during investigation that he intended to sell the motorbike and use the proceeds to eke out a living .

Investigation also revealed that the 26-year-old Idowu is an unrepentant thief as he has been arrested severally for the same crime. He was discovered to have been sent to jail on three occasions over a similar offence. But like the proverbial dog who would always turn to its cud , Idowu has proved to be recalcitrant. Inf act, he was discovered to have been in and out of prison custody in the last eight years .

In his confessional statement, he claimed to have tried his hands on other businesses but did not succeed and therefore finds ready solace in stealing

Hear him, " I am an electrician by profession. But the business got so bad that money was not forth coming. Then , I had to take to stealing because that is the only thing I am comfortable with.

"Yes , I have been arrested before and have been sent to jail say, about three times. I was sent to jail when I broke into somebody's house and I was caught and also when I snatched a motorcycle. But I can not remember the offence I committed the third time.

However, any time I come out of prison, poverty stares me again in the face and I will be left with no other choice than yield to the temptation of doing what I know how to do best. I went back to robbery because there is no other thing I can do again in my life".

Asked if he was under any influence, he responded, " I can not tell. But the only thing I know is that I feel comfortable with what I am doing. I wanted to steal the motorcycle and sell so as to use the money to eat and take care of other things"

Asked again if he would go back to stealing if let off the hook, he replied, " I do not think I can leave stealing. So the only solution for me is to be kept in jail for a very long time so that I will not go back to stealing again"

He was thereafter , charged to court where he bluntly told the presiding Magistrate at the Ejigbo magistrate court ,Mrs M.B Folami to grant him maximum jail term to avoid the temptation of committing the same offence.

But the Magistrate in her wisdom sentenced him to one year imprisonment with hard labour after he pleaded guilty as charged; a conviction Idowu never showed any sign of remorse.

http://odili.net/news/source/2012/mar/25/307.html

The Arab world specialises in insane conspiracy theories to explain away its own shortcomings. Not long ago the Governor of Sinai province blamed a Mossad-trained shark for attacking a tourist at Sharm-el-Sheikh in order to damage Egypt's tourist industry. It's called stupidity!

Lionel Messi and Barcelona have found themselves at the centre of one of the most surreal conspiracies theories of all time, after a state-owned Syrian television channel claimed the Catalans were aiding the smuggling of weapons to Syrian rebels.


While the situation in the Middle East is clearly no laughing matter, Al Dunya TV have left internet users gobsmacked following an outrageous report that Barcelona helped anti-president Bashar Assad radicals plot arms smuggling routes through the country.
Using an El Clasico clip from last December, a video report on Sunday claimed Barcelona’s formation plots specific locations on a map, with the players representing the smugglers and the ball’s position signifying the current location of weapons.
The report concludes Messi's final passes to set up Pedro’s goal against Real Madrid indicates the successful handover of the arsenal to the rebels in Dir al-Zur.
Hard to believe? Watch the 'evidence' for yourself and see what you think...

WATCH: Video from Al Dunya TV claiming Barcelona are part of an elaborate rebel plot


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfpHdWCIx0U&feature=player_embedded

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/oddballs/893706-lionel-messi-and-barcelona-accused-of-elaborate-syrian-rebel-weapons-plot#ixzz1pg2Z0ydR

*Laments breach of contract with the people


Because of the issues involved in this first part of the TINUBU REVELATIONS, we decided to run the interview along with other materials in this segment of the paper, NATIONAL CONFERENCE PALAVA. Fiery as ever, Bola Ahmed Tinubu spoke with passion about the failure of leadership in the country. According President Goodluck Jonathan the respect deserving of the holder of the Office of the President and Commander-in-Chief, Tinubu, nonetheless, did not shy away from stating his views on how leadership in Nigeria appears to be going to the dogs. Did he meet with President Jonathan before the elections, "Yes, we met", he declared; but he was quick to add that he never reached any deal for personal gains. Rather, he impressed it on Jonathan the need not to breach the contract entered into with Nigerians. Today, however, even Tinubu himself feels betrayed and disillusioned.







But you would need to read this explosive interview - mind you, the second part is even more explosive as you would find out at the end of this part. Excerpts:

By Jide Ajani & Anthonia Onwuka

Let us start with the Code of Conduct Tribunal?

For seven years or thereabouts, they've been shouting; they tried to stop me in 2003 before the elections and I said bring the evidence.

Was it that the accounts did not exist or where did that confidence come from?

Look, if you list all these accounts, you must have access to what are the balances in them. Believe me, Heritage Bank doesn't even exist any more - that was the account I was using when I was in school. Now, you employed a private investigator, to give you details of an account, he would give you every bush meat he can get. It would then be left for you to sort it out and find out what the balance sheet is and when was the account opened, how much is in it; what is the aging analysis? Is there any evidence that Lagos State Government funds were transferred into that account? But government just listed account numbers, about 19 and there was no thorough investigation.

Your children's accounts too were....?

Do you know my daughter's graduation suffered a set back because of that?

How?

Because the banks are down-sizing, so if you have only $3,000 or $1,000 in any account and governments or people are making enquiries into it, the bank would just say 'this is a troublesome account, so why are we wasting time on it'; they will just close the account and cancel whatever cards are on it - they did all of that to my children.

So what does this tell you about those in government who are supposed to be giving inspiration to the citizens?

What it means is that they are not honest to be leaders and they are not competent to be leaders; they are vindictive and malicious. They are not looking at the future and the reputation of this country, no respect for values and family life and respect for human dignity. They just don't care.


The question of the idea of bringing him down and destroying an individual is not a civilized attitude in any politics. It doesn't show that you as a leader have that character trait that you can develop even in a civilized debate and discussion. You cannot help the country like that as a leader.

Good, you mentioned debate and discussion. 20 years since the talk about a Sovereign National Conference, SNC, it has refused to go away. What conditions would you say have continued to exist and which have made the issue remain with us - even with more fervency?

Lack of honesty, lack of commitment to core values of nation building, lack of integrity in governance, lack of character in leadership of the country, lack of visionary leaders, lack of true commitment to constitutional democracy and that's a great absence of a 'we the people' constitution.

We might remove the word sovereign from it because sovereign belongs to the people in any democracy but this our constitution, was it agreed to by the people? It is a lopsided constitution that is not democratic. It is an imperial constitution in a democratic setting.

Too much power at the centre even though they cannot manage the responsibilities attached to those powers. Until you devolve power, we'll keep having problems.

Why do we create states when we know that we will make them powerless? Why do we adopt the philosophy and principle of federalism if we know that we cannot put it to practice in a constitutional environment? It is because we have not been honest about it. It's a unitary system in a federal environment.

The power in any constitution is relinquished from the state to the centre and it should be about the security of the country.

You can have a federal police, but why do you have a legislative house of assembly, with the criminal code being that of the state yet the state does not have the coercive powers to enforce or implement the laws being made by the state? Why do we concentrate the revenue at the centre and be a supervisor of every state? That is not right.

The conference is necessary because the quality of life of our people must improve. Government dabbles into everything. Look at agriculture! Government continues to make policies and you ask where is its farm? What is the ministry of education doing with its huge budget? Even the universities it claims are located in states. The federal government says it is maintaining roads and universities but we have seen what has become of them. Lagos State that is building roads and bridges. can it not maintain them if you devolve power and give more funds?

Our constitution has given the states mandates that are not funded; so you ask, what type of constitution is that? Devolve power, devolve the revenue.

Lack of accountability is our major problem. Look at the revenue accruing to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; how is it accounted for? Look at the waste going on. We need to discuss.

Those who talk about the complexities that would arise talk about the word sovereign...?

(Cuts in) Okay, remove the word sovereign and let's talk.

In Benin Republic, a similar thing was organized and the end result was the cessation of the Mathieu Kereku administration and those who continue to oppose an SNC point to that because the momentum that would have been generated would be unstoppable. So, if you were President Goodluck Jonathan, how would you go about it because it is easy for people outside government to talk and grand-stand?

Remove myself from the picture and let Nigerians discuss and let government not mid-wife it.

Is that all? What about representation?

Transparent representation without you interfering! We've had elections. Let politicians stay out of it. You have the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA. You have several non-governmental organizations peopled by citizens of this country. You have body of doctors, you have retired judges, you have eminent retired judges. You can have all of them to come together and contribute membership to the elected delegates.

The counter argument is that we already have a National Assembly membership that is elected?

Okay, ask these people to have their toga of National Assembly and let them down because they were elected on the platform of political parties; so how would they discuss the problems of the country without thinking of the politics and positions of their parties, the character, texture and all? How would they be dispassionate without being partisan? Or do Nigerians want a constitution of a political party as their constitution or that oF 'we the Nigerian people'?

Okay, who are those who constitute this 'WE'? Government says it is defending the interests of the Nigerian people; those asking for SNC are also claiming to be representing the Nigerian people. So which is which? Which people are we talking about?

We are talking about non-partisan Nigerians. There was no single vote for an individual - only one person cannot vote for you because, as some people are voting for you, some others are voting for other people too. It is only the majority mandate that gave you that platform, so those people who voted against you or those who didn't vote at all, are you saying you are representing everyone? How can you say so?

The constitutional conference would be about the people, discussing Nigeria, administration, governance, from a non-partisan angle because we are all witnesses to the crises engulfing this nation.

How do you now ensure that members of that body would not be tainted by the influence of politics?

Even if they are, it would not be in favour of one party. Take for example the way PDP has been using its majority. The amendment they did, they limited the scope and then added in the constitution that you have just 180 days to ask for your right, for fair hearing about a petition. They can also use that to amend a constitution that will create a one-party state if you leave them to carry on the way they are carrying on.

We can cry wolf; but are these fears real – The fears of a possible one-party state?

Of course! Yes the fears are there and they are real. Just look at the example I gave and which you can not challenge. They amended the constitution with their majority and when you have electoral dispute you have been limited because the days are ticking while the legal tussle is on. 'I've received this mandate, go to court, you have just 180 days'.

What is a constitution supposed to be about? Your rights, my rights to fair hearing; to take a civilized manner for dispute resolution instead of taking to the streets with guns.

It is not enough to criticize. If you were the Commander-in-Chief, what are those things that you would be doing differently?

First of all, the image of the country should and would concern me.

I am not at war with my people in the country - I should not declare war against Nigerians. It is either there is anger somewhere or disappointment. My investigative apparatus must be first class and I must not be tired of constant consultations with people and leaders in this country with a view to making peace.

I have been there before. I governed Lagos State and Lagos State is very complex because if you govern Lagos then you can govern Nigeria. Lagos is a microcosm of the country because every tribe is represented here. We've had inter-ethnic conflicts here in Lagos - Mile 2, Ajegunle, Idi Araba, Mushin, Mile 12, Ikorodu, we've had the bomb explosions and we've managed all these. We've also had the OPC crisis and even if you were not in Lagos you were somewhere in this country.

You must really find out what these people want: Is it a sense of injustice? Are these my political enemies? What can I do to remove whatever weapons they are using against me? The image of Nigeria must be of paramount concern to you.

All these that you are saying now appear strange because just before that election that brought Jonathan to power, you were seen as a beautiful bride?

(Cuts in) I thought I was

For you to sound this frustrated and even express the fear about the President now sends a signal. You met with Jonathan before the election and we had that you reached a deal with him? Or was there no deal, for instance, on what and what you would like him to do for the country when he becomes President because from the way you've spoken, it appears as if some agreements were breached?

There was no deal between me and the President prior to the election. There was only the plea. We met, I won't lie.

I've known the President since he was a deputy governor. And God and Nigerian people have placed him where he is and I must respect him. I believe that he should be fair and he should believe in constitutional democracy.

I believe he was meant to become Acting President based on the turn of events and as the Constitution provided for.

And when our proposed alliance didn't work, I left my options open. We had a discussion about the stability of this country and the rule of law, the development of this country. That there will be adequate consultations, there will be effective consultations; there will be fairness.

Democracy, constitutional democracy, would be allowed to flourish and good ideas would be allowed to flow and pursued for the greatness of our country. So we discussed all these points.

I didn't make any bargain for myself. I didn't ask for it and I didn't need it.

That was the context of the deal I meant?

For myself!

No! I mean the issues discussed and possibly agreed on as conditions for your support?

Okay. I challenge anybody to publish it if there was a private arrangement or deal with me, including the President, let him come out and tell Nigerians, please speak now or keep them quiet forever.

We met, no lie about that.

Look at the issue of subsidy removal. Our party's position on that is clear – yes, if the subsidy was to be removed, how do we make a long term plan for it so that it would not affect the masses in an adverse manner.

We summarized our position and gave it to the President.

What happened to all the beautiful ideas you bounced off the President?

They were never accepted. They said we would meet again but we were never invited back and all we had was that subsidy had been removed.

So how come you trusted such a person?

You are asking me! I think there are fifth columnists in Jonathan's administration, in that cabinet. Some people just wanted to set him up for disgrace with wrong advice. How do you advise the President to remove subsidy on the 1st of January, the beginning of an accounting year; the beginning of a new year when people have traveled.

Why not 5th of January? What was there to be benefited from the January 1 date? What image are you trying to make of this man?

Or what image was the man trying to push out for himself because he is the President and he should think decisions through before they become policy?

Okay that is another angle. But he can not just come from the toilet or from his bedroom and say he wants to remove subsidy suddenly.

That is his problem as President. What if he woke up from the wrong side of the bed?

Wrong side of the bed! I don't see any side of the bed that is wrong. Then you break the social contract with the people who voted for you.

You didn't even set some programmes in place to cushion the effect of what you are trying to go and you just decided. If you call Ashok Leyland or Mercedez and say bring your plant into this country and make thousands of buses, you'll get waivers and I'm going to buy up the buses, do you think they won't come and set up plants here? You give them a guarantee. You rehabilitate the rail system first before jumping into subsidy removal. Meanwhile you are earning handsomely from the international price of crude oil, yet you jump to remove subsidy? It's inhuman.

This is a wake up call; leadership has been in the North most of the time, even under the military, but sadly, there is little or no (economic) impact on the region. Worse still, the region is retrogressively becoming uninhabitable because of increasing poverty and restiveness. These did not just begin, it has been progressively spreading unabated... But the youths are now awakening - if we can hold our leaders accountable instead of settling for tips and peanuts (evil manipulations). Kudos to Arewa Youth; I salute the courage to speak out!

Seun, pls revert back to the old Nl, everybody keeps telling you. Listen to the voice of the majority!

Interesting thread, please can somebody tell me the meaning of this name:

UREH :

Messi Offcourse!!!

Messi is already the compiler of the most fabulous individual highlights reel in football history, keeps gnawing away, persuading me that his consistent level of brilliance, displayed on such a routine basis that he can make the ethereal seem almost workaday, is inexorably putting him in a league of his own. And, yes, if he can stay fit, how perfect if Brazil in 2014 turns out to his moment to silence Pele's little asides about him having never delivered on the ultimate stage. I believe the little genius will have his World Cup day.

The South Africa Govt has overstepped their boundaries Really.

Thank God our Govt has now decided to react. Good Move i would say.

Saying "the time has come for a new policy" in Syria, veteran Republican Senator John McCain called Monday for U.S.-led airstrikes on President Bashar al-Assad's forces in an effort to protect civilians from a bloody year-long crackdown by the regime.

"The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centers in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad's forces," McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a speech on the Senate floor.

"To be clear: This will require the United States to suppress enemy air defense in at least part of the country," said McCain, who has repeatedly called in recent weeks and months for a stepped-up U.S. effort to protect Syrian civilians.

Assad has waged a year-long, deadly crackdown on opposition to his regime, drawing fierce criticism from Washington and other world powers, though Moscow and Beijing blocked a UN Security Council resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed.

The White House has sharply criticized Russia and China, but has resisted calls to arm the Syrian opposition as premature.

McCain said "the ultimate goal of airstrikes" would be "to establish and defend safe havens in Syria" where Assad's outgunned opponents "can organize and plan their political and military activities" and points for the delivery of humanitarian and military aid "including weapons and ammunition, body armor and other personal protective equipment, tactical intelligence, secure communications equipment, food and water, and medical supplies.

"After a year of bloodshed, the crisis in Syria has reached a decisive moment," McCain said. "Increasingly, the question for U.S. policy is not whether foreign forces will intervene militarily in Syria. We can be confident that Syria's neighbors will do so eventually, if they have not already."

"Some kind of intervention will happen, with us or without us. So the real question for U.S. policy is whether we will participate in this next phase of the conflict in Syria, and thereby increase our ability to shape an outcome that is beneficial to the Syrian people, and to us. I believe we must," the Arizona Republican said.

"However, it is not clear that the present policy can succeed. If Assad manages to cling to power — or even if he manages to sustain his slaughter for months to come, with all of the human and geopolitical costs that entails — it would be a strategic and moral defeat for the United States. We cannot, we must not, allow this to happen," McCain said.


Culled from Yahoo News.

Rest in peace Perx.

BY Tokunbo Ogunbiyi
toksalpha@gmail.com
London, UK



The adulation, encomiums and general praise heaped on General Chukwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the wake of his death last November were thoroughly deserved! It is not often that a life will traverse the nation-space and make such a forceful and far-reaching, if controversial, impact as Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu's did! And what a life it was! It is necessary for us after the dust of the obsequies have settled to take time to examine and meditate on the lessons, if any, that such a life may perhaps teach us. In our frenzied everyday life we often rush past potential nobel prize winners and do not give such a second glance perhaps because they have not fulfilled their potentialities, yet! But it is not unusual for us to gloss over and sometimes pass facile judgement on the lives of even the great. It would be a cardinal error if we did not approach an examination of Ikemba Nnewi's life with uncommon candour allowing for honesty of purpose to enthrone truth in our endeavours.


I submit up front that I am not qualified to carry out such a searching scrutiny of the life of an exceptional man of our times; no, instead I have been moved or better still driven by the waves of response to his passing to issue a clarion to all men and women of goodwill, to all patriots and all who care to share in our common endeavour, otherwise called the Nigeria project to stand up and be counted! And in being counted to take account of this person that ultimately was larger than life!

To be sure Ojukwu himself would have objected to my title above but this is my article and it is my modest and inadequate salute to Ikemba. If he were faced between a choice of this outpouring and the realisation of his dream for Nigeria, I guess I know his choice! But I digress; Ojukwu never set out to be a hero but ended up an authentic Nigerian hero. Such paradox would encapsulate the totality of his persona. An Igbo man born in northern Nigeria in the land of the Gwari and the Nupe, he grew up in Lagos going to school and speaking Yoruba better than many Yoruba, as a schoolboy at King's College Lagos running into trouble with constituted authority in the days when white colonial masters were decidedly not only our betters and superiors but gods incarnate, a blackman as a student of Holman House in Epsom College as he himself described it "amongst a sea of white faces", excelling at rugby, winning prizes which were controversially not awarded to him!

As an Oxford graduate he might have expected to settle into a very good job in the administrative class in Lagos or in Enugu and in due course become a permanent secretary or alternatively joined the already successful family business that spanned everything from road haulage and personnel transport to cement manufacturing and banking, making his father, the late Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu not only an authentic self-made millionaire but a knight of the British Empire to boot! But it was not to Enugu or Lagos that the young man out of Lincoln College, Oxford headed, but to the eastern provinces at Udi as district officer. My father worked in the colonial civil service in Lagos and Enugu and Udi in those days could not be considered a glam posting! But that was where the bulk of the people lived and Ojukwu set out early to serve the people, not the interests of money or high politics.

But the paradoxes do not end there. It was Ojukwu, perhaps a greater believer in one Nigeria than any of his generation who mobilised the former Eastern Nigeria to break away as Biafra. The circumstances of the bitter days of 1966 and 1967 are too well known to require rehearsal here but let it be understood that the idea of one Nigeria and the unity of Nigeria was tattooed in Ojukwu's blood; how else could it be since as a babe in arms he drank the breast milk of one Nigeria! But then it is not unusual in our political discourse to read and re-read contrary views. Several schools of thought or thoughtlessness exist ranging from those who see Biafra as the triumph of his personal ambition and bloated ego, or the acquisitive Igbo desiring to appropriate the oil riches of the Niger Delta for their sole benefit. So far no one had adduced evidence of the effort made by those with the responsibility of protecting the lives of Nd'Igbo in northern Nigeria in 1966 and 1967 to end the bloodshed. No one either has demonstrated what Igbo should have done, faced with extermination as they indeed were during that dark period.

By his singular and brave and clear-sighted actions in 1966 through to 1970 and beyond Ojukwu held up a mirror to the Nigerian nation and state and invited us to look ourselves in the face. According to the New International Version of the Bible " Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like" (James 1: 23 and 24).

I will conclude by saying that in holding that mirror up Ojukwu became the authentic Nigerian hero because he dared to tell us what we ought to know about ourselves; alas the Nigerian people promptly forgot what they looked like after observing their face in that mirror! All the issues Ojukwu raised and which led us to Biafra remain with us forty six years later!

The UN agency that fights drugs and crime has estimated that cocaine trafficking is generating about $900m annually in West and Central Africa as South American cartels use the shortest route to transport drugs to Europe.



Yuri Fedotov, the Head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that in addition to an upsurge in cocaine trafficking, West Africa was experiencing an increase in piracy, arms and human trafficking.


According to Sapa-AP, he said South American drug cartels were not only exploiting poverty but a lack of border controls, weak law enforcement, and endemic corruption in West Africa to reach Europe.


Fedotov said, “The West African transit route feeds a European cocaine market which in recent years grew four fold, reaching an amount almost equal to the US market.


“We estimate that cocaine trafficking in West and Central Africa generates some $900m annually.”


That estimate is up from an April 2011 UNODC report that put the figure at $800m for 2009.


Fedotov said illegal drug consumption was also growing fast in the region, where there are now up to 2.5 million drug users.


He said greater understanding was needed of the extent to which drug trafficking might be linked to piracy off West Africa's coast.


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there was a growing concern about stability in West Africa and the Sahel region to the north because of the rise in organised crime, drug trafficking and piracy, a growing food crisis, the influx of weapons from the upheaval in Libya, and the reported links between insurgent groups, criminal groups and terrorist organisations.


“There is even fear that we could see in this region a crisis of the magnitude of the one in the Horn of Africa,” Ban said, a reference to Somalia which remains a failed state, with the al-Qaida-affiliated militant group al-Shabab challenging a weak transitional government.


He told the council that an assessment mission he sent in December to look at the effects of the Libya crisis on the Sahel “found that terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, had begun to form alliances with drug traffickers, and other criminal syndicates.”


“Such alliances have the potential to further destabilise the region and reverse hard-won democratic and peacebuilding achievements.”


Benin's Minister of State for National Security Issifou N'Douro said the dispersal of Libya's arsenal and mass departure of Libyans following the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi “has considerably worsened the challenges that West Africa and the Sahel in particular are facing in terms of combatting organised transnational crime.”


The Libyan fallout has led to the growth and radicalisation of rebel groups in the Sahel states and “a resurgence in pernicious forms of coordinated criminal activity” such as kidnapping with ransom demands and shootouts between security forces and insurgents with better weapons, he said.


Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe, whose country holds the Security Council presidency this month and organised the meeting, said terrorist actions in Nigeria and the Sahel had added to West Africa and the Sahel becoming “channels for trafficking of all kinds.”

http://odili.net/news/source/2012/feb/24/824.html

igbaodun:
Why are your lips so big?

Do you give BJs for a living? How much do you charge for one nut?

Which mental institution cleared you save to the Society? You should be locked up. Psycho!

A young man by the name, Idris Kalejaiye who is within the age of 19has been summoned before an Apapa Magistrates’ court, Lagos State Southwest Nigeria for allegedly disguising and barging into hisneighbour’s house, ordering the wife, (names withheld) to suck his penis and to swallow his sperm,

Confirming the incident, and narrating her ordeal, the 33-year old housewife affirmed thus, “he ordered me to swallow his sperm when he released it into my mouth in order not to waste it.”

It was alleged that Kalejaiye broke into the victim’s house located at no 86, Muyibi street, Olodi Apapa, Lagos while her husband was away and threatened her with different weapons while he ordered her to suck his penis for his sexual pleasure.

Meanwhile, while sucking the penis, the man allegedly threatened to kill her with a razor blade if she should bite him in the process.

Disclosing the incident to the police before the culprit was reprimanded, the woman said that she was sleeping in her room when an un-identified man broke into the room and threatened to kill her if she failed to suck his penis.

“ He woke me up and told me that he wanted to have sex with me. I pleaded with him not to do so in the presence of my children who might wake up. He then brought out his penis and forced it into my mouth and forced me to suck it,” she disclosed.

She added that Kalejaiye threatened to kill her if she resisted, and she reluctantly gave up. However, the MouthAction was not enough for the suspect until he ensured that the victim had swallowed his semen before he left.

She said it later occurred to her through her observation that it was Kalejaiye that faked as a strange man to assault her and narrated the incident to her husband the next morning.

The matter was then reported to the police who now arraigned him on a four-count charge of felony, conspiracy, burglary, and indecent assault.

Meanwhile, the suspect pleaded not guilty and was granted bail with the sum of 200, 000 by the presiding Magistrate, Mr. E. O. Ogundare .

However he has been remanded in prison at Kirikiri after the case was adjourned till 30 March 2012 when it will come up again.

People are beginning to ask questions on how the woman was able to identify the culprit since she said she only identified him after he had finished with her. Another question that people are asking is why would the man be threatening her with his voice and, matching same with action, yet his children were not able to wake since she confirmed that her children were sleeping in the same room.

Many people have advised that the case be handled with care since anything could have been possible.

Not all are true, some are not far from the true though and some are false.