₦airaland Forum

[b]Miss South Africa, 22-year-old Rolene Strauss, was crowned Miss World 2014 at the contest’s glitzy final in London on Sunday, with an estimated billion viewers watching on television around the globe.
Miss Hungary, Edina Kulcsar, was judged the runner-up and Miss United States, Elizabeth Safrit, came third in the 64th annual competition, contested by women from 121 countries.
Miss South Africa, 22-year-old Rolene Strauss
Miss South Africa, 22-year-old Rolene Strauss

Medical student Strauss clasped her hands together in surprise and was crowned by the outgoing Miss World, Megan Young of the Philippines, to huge cheers in the ExCeL exhibition centre.
“South Africa this is for you,” Strauss said. “I think I will brace myself for what’s about to happen. It’s a huge responsibility.”
She told AFP she wanted to help spread education in her homeland and thereby help other people realise their dreams.
“I am what I am today because of the opportunities I have received and I would love to give others the same opportunities; educating, the opportunity to be educated, to make healthy choices and also to live their dreams,” Strauss said.
And she was already getting used to the glittering crown.
“I’ll definitely keep it on as long as I can but my parents are staying around here so they’ll be hugging me and I’m afraid that it might fall off,” she said.
This year’s event has been rocked by the murder of Miss Honduras, 19-year-old Maria Jose Alvarado, who was shot dead along with her sister last month.
Police in Honduras accuse her sister’s boyfriend of shooting them after seeing his partner dancing with another man at a party.
– Shimmering costumes –
Strauss and other contestants will travel to the crime-plagued central American nation to build a school named in the sisters’ honour.
“We hope that it will really start to impress on the people in Honduras that the violence, and hurting people like those two innocent women… maybe they can think again before they take a gun,” Miss World chairwoman Julia Morley told AFP.
Sunday’s show started with a spectacular choreographed dance routine, with all the beauty queens on stage in costumes inspired by their homelands — including Miss Bolivia in a colourful feathered headdress.
While beauty remains central to the event, the women taking part are chiefly judged on their talents and involvement in good causes.
Miss Malaysia won the talent competition in a live sing-off with Miss Scotland.
In the Beauty with a Purpose section — the heart of Miss World — contestants present a charitable project they have been working on in their homeland.
In this section, the judges gave equal first place to Misses Brazil, Guyana, India, Indonesia and Kenya, unable to separate them.
In rounds held since the contestants arrived in London, Miss Finland topped the sporting competition; Miss United States was the multimedia winner; Miss Bosnia and Hercegovina won the top model round and Miss Sweden triumphed in beach fashion.
– Bollywood star honoured –
The event also featured a special 20-year award for 1994’s Miss World, Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai.
The 41-year-old Indian actress appeared on stage with her film star husband Abhishek Bachchan, their daughter Aaradhya and her mother.
The prize was for the “Dhoom 2″ star’s charitable work with children with cleft palates since being made famous by Miss World.
“I stand here overwhelmed by this honour,” she said.
The 10 contestants who topped the final scoreboard were, in descending order, from India, South Africa, England, Guyana, Brazil, Hungary, Kenya, United States, Mexico and Australia.
They were joined by Miss Thailand, who won the people’s choice award, voted for by people around the world through a mobile phone app.
The judges chose Miss Hungary, Miss Australia, Miss South Africa, Miss United States and Miss England as their top five before picking their top three.
Miss World began in 1951, a year before its chief rival Miss Universe.
Strauss is the third South African Miss World, the country having held the title in 1958 and 1974.
Venezuela tops the all-time leader board with six titles, ahead of India and the United Kingdom on five titles each.
[/b]
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/south-african-wins-miss-world-beauty-pageant-london/#sthash.Y8t2iNwe.dpuf

[b]Former Arsenal captain Thierry Henry, has announced his retirement from playing football and has signed a contract worth around £25million with Sky television as football expert and ambassador from the start of 2015.
The deal, however, will allow him work on his coaching badges, which could eventually see him return to the Emirates.
Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry
The former Arsenal, Barcelona and France star admitted it was not an easy decision to call time on his playing days, adding that he is now keen to offer his insight on the game.
“It’s hard to leave the game you love behind,” he said. “But I’m at peace with what I’ve done in the game; I’ve got no regrets.
“I still think I can give a lot to the game. I’m retiring and I’m not yet involved in any team so, in the meantime, why not give back to the game on TV and make people understand some stuff they don’t understand?
“The job of an analyst is to put your message across and make people understand how the game is. It will be our job to try to make sure we can bring the game closer to people at home.”
Henry – who left Arsenal for Barcelona in 2007 – ended his playing career at New York Red Bulls, despite rumours he would make a return to the Emirates.
But the 37-year-old says that wasn’t an option, despite his love for Arsenal.
“You never leave Arsenal Football Club. Everyone wants to know about the playing side but we didn’t talk too much about that,” he said.
“If you moved back it would have turned out to be a bad move at one point. We all loved the first Rocky, but I don’t know about the last one. You come back once but I don’t see going to Arsenal as a comeback. I feel like I never left the place. I had one comeback and I guess it was enough.”
Henry lifted more than 35 major individual and team trophies including the World Cup and European Championship for France, the Champions League and La Liga with Barcelona, the Premier League and FA Cup at Arsenal, the French League at Monaco and the MLS Shield with the New York Red Bulls.
[/b]
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/henry-retires-signs-25m-sky-deal/#sthash.CBeSQYY6.dpuf

President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated General Muhammadu Buhari on the occasion of his 72nd birthday anniversary which comes up tomorrow.
In a statement Tuesday, the special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said President Jonathan in a congratulatory letter addressed to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in next year’s presidential election prayed that God Almighty should grant him many more years of good health and personal fulfillment.
“As you mark your 72nd birthday anniversary, I write on behalf of my family, the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to extend warm felicitations to you. I join your family, friends, and well-wishers to thank God for your life and to pray that He continues to guide, guard and prosper you even as He blesses you with many more years of abounding health and personal fulfillment,” President Jonathan wrote.
He wished General Buhari a very happy birthday, the statement concluded.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/jonathan-congratulates-buhari-72nd-birthday/#sthash.OTn10MeV.dpuf

ok

very good

ok

Pastor and televangelist TB Joshua on Monday again failed to appear at a coroner’s inquest into a building collapse at his Lagos church which killed 116 people, including 81 South Africans.

TB Joshua had been called to give evidence at the hearing but his lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, asked for him to be excused because of a pending high court application.

Lawyers for Joshua, who has claimed the collapse may have been sabotage, are attempting to stop the inquest, arguing that the coroner has exceeded his powers to call him as a witness.

The high court hearing will be held next Monday, the inquest was told.

Coroner Oyetade Komolafe accepted Joshua’s absence pending the high court session.

“Let your client go to the high court and come back,” he told Fagbemi.

TB Joshua suggests sabotage over deadly building collapse

Joshua was summonsed twice to appear at the inquest before the application to stay proceedings was made.

The engineer of the collapsed building was in court but said he could not give evidence because he was ill. Komolafe warned him that he faced jail if he did not appear on Friday.

Expert witnesses have told the hearing that there was no sign of an explosion or sabotage of the building, which housed foreign followers of Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

The Lagos state government has said the building did not have planning permission and that an inspection had found that other structures on the sprawling SCOAN site were shoddily built.

On Joshua’s theory of aerial sabotage from a low-flying plane, Rafiq Arogunjo, of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), said the aircraft seen over the building was on a training mission.

The Nigerian Air Force C-130 aircraft, flying at 1,100 feet (335 metres), was operating “normally in line with aviation rules” on the day of the tragedy, September 12, he said.

NAMA officials reviewed security camera footage of the plane released by church officials and said the aircraft banked left on four occasions without flying directly over the building.

Air traffic control at the nearby Lagos international airport directed the pilot to divert to allow four incoming flights to land, he added.

The inquest was adjourned until Wednesday.

]

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/tb-joshua-missing-building-collapse-hearing/#sthash.nbbdPTkF.dpuf

ok

i don't know why all the good topics that i have been posting here on nairaland
doesn't make frontPage
its like some people are paying this mod to get their topics posted on FP

This mod no dey sleep!

ok

[b]The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has condemned last week’s terrorist attacks in Kano and Jos.
“Once again, those who seek to influence our way of life, modify our faith and our most sacred core values, have struck, leaving in their wake lives brutally cut short, limbs badly broken and dreams forced to fade away”, Buhari said in a statement, last night.
He went on: “But these people, whose actions are not sanctioned by any religion and who subscribe to no known decent values, will not succeed. Our people are resilient and strong, and our nation is capable, based on our rich human and material resources, of successfully tackling these nihilists.
“We will together see the end of them and their reign of terror. They have failed because Nigeria will remain strong and united in the face of what has now become an almost daily infliction of terror on a defenceless people. Women, children and the aged are not spared by these barbaric purveyors of horror, intimidation and panic. No religion condoles the killings of such vulnerable and innocent people, hence we are sure these terrorists profess to none of the world’s great religions, much as they seek to mask their actions with the cloak of religion.
“To my long-suffering fellow citizens who have borne the brunt of these almost daily senseless attacks, I say help is on the way. Terror must and will be defeated. All it requires is the political will, uncommon courage and unrelenting determination, and victory will be ours”[/b]


- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/terrorism-will-never-prevail-buhari/#sthash.VpWhaqMR.dpuf

[b]The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, says insurgency persists in some parts of the country due to pretence by some Nigerians and refusal to speak the truth.
Oritsejafor, who stated this at the Northern States Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) Traditional Rulers Conference 2014, in Abuja, said the country was fighting the war against the truth.
His words; “Nigeria is fighting against truth. We hate truth, we hide truth and we fear truth. It is so unfortunate. In John 8:32, Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.
“Nigeria is not free because we are running away from truth. Truth can be bitter, but when you swallow it, when it gets inside, it could become sweet.
“No nation can grow or develop without embracing the truth. No matter how difficult it is. In the same John 8:46, Jesus said, ‘if what I have told you is the truth, then why do you refuse to believe me?’ This is the situation of Nigerians today, we are like Ostriches, we are a nation of pretenders.
“We wrote from the truth and we want to believe that somehow, our troubles will just vanish, but it never happened that way, because truth has a way of creating a level plain ground for everybody. Nigerians must face the truth, accept it, work with it, live by it, and must build a nation of truth.”The National Chairman of NOSCEF, Mr Olaiya Phillips, described the activities of Boko Haram in the North-East as an inferno engulfing the nation, accusing politicians of not having the interest of the people at heart.
“In recent months, many politicians have tried to claim that one political party or another is secretly using Boko Haram for their own ends. Providing them with weapons and finance; Yet not one piece of evidence has been forthcoming’’ , Phillips said.
“Accusations and denials have filled the newspapers, but these politicians not want to help our community. They just want our votes so that they can look after themselves. They feed on fear and gorge themselves on terror.
[/b]



- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/terrorism-persists-nigeria-oritsejafor/#sthash.T60ciJ7v.dpuf

ok