₦airaland Forum

RAFAEL TRUJILLO, May 30, 1961
Like a scene from a Chicago gangster film, Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo was gunned down as his chauffeur drove him along a dark road.
The first shot didn’t kill him though - he fought back. But the seven men, assigned to take him out on the orders of the nation’s wealthy elite, were determined and quickly overwhelmed him.
Trujillo, also known as El Jefe (The Boss), had presided over a murderous regime for 30 years between 1930 and 1961.

His political weapons were torture and murder.
Several thousand Haitians, for instance, were massacred in 1937 on his say so.
But as history shows, there is only so much the people will take.
His killers blocked his car with theirs and a fierce gun battle ensued.

The armed chauffeur let loose with a volley of shots and Trujillo, despite being hit, carried on firing back.
They were eventually overpowered - the car was left with 60 bullet holes in it - and left lying dead on the road.

ION ANTONESCU, June 1, 1946
It’s often said that dictators are deluded, tinged with madness – Ion Antonescu then, was perhaps no different, because even while staring down the barrel of a gun, he held his hat aloft.
He had been Romania’s war-time leader and was said to be responsible for the deaths of 400,000 people.
But justice was eventually served in 1946 when he was prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against the peace, and treason.


The sentence was death, and he was dispatched ruthlessly in a field along with three members of his hated regime.
They were dressed in suits and hats but there was nothing respectful about their deaths.
The firing squad unleashed their shots and the four men crumpled in a split second.
To make sure they were dead an officer steps up to each corpse and shoots it several times.
Cold and brutal, just like Antonescu himself.

BENITO MUSSOLINI, April 28, 1945
Mussolini made a desperate bid to escape to Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci and his fascist entourage, numbering about 15, on April 27, 1945.

But he was stopped by Communist officials and soldiers, despite trying to disguise himself in a German military uniform.
He was shot the following day in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra, along with those travelling with him.

Defiant to the last, the deluded leader screamed at the soldier sent to execute him: ‘Shoot me in the chest!’
The soldier wasted no time in firing.

It's believed Mussolini slumped to the floor in agony, still breathing, so the soldier strode up to him and shot him in the chest again.
His body, along with that of his wife and other executed fascists, was taken to Milan and dumped unceremoniously on the ground outside a petrol station in the middle of the night.

There Italians, reviled by the former leader’s regime, took the opportunity to vent their anger on him.
Even in death, they had no respect for him at all.
For hours they spat on him, kicked him, stoned him and battered his body with whatever they could lay their hands on.
The attack was so violent that the dictator’s head was left misshapen.

Bloodied, dishevelled, and bearing agonised grimaces, Mussolini, Clara and other executed fascist were then hung upside down with meat hooks.
Had they been innocents, Italians would have been horrified by what they saw – but this sight was met with jubilation.
They’d lived a life of luxury and wielded enormous power – now their honour was mercilessly torn away from them.

NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, December 25, 1989
So many soldiers volunteered to shoot Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena that a lottery was held to allocate places.

And on Christmas Day, 1989, after a brief show trial in Bucharest, the couple faced the firing squad of elite paratroopers.

With Communism crumbling around him, the self-proclaimed ‘Genius of the Carpathians’ realised that his days as ruler of a brutally oppressive regime were over.


He had attempted to flee the country with his wife but they were soon captured by rebel soldiers.

Their trial was held in a bare room, where they were treated with cold contempt.

Accused of crimes ranging from illegal gathering of wealth to genocide, he stood frightened in the dock.

Within 90 minutes, he and Elena were sentenced to death.

At first, they were told they would be shot separately, but they begged to die together – and their final wish was granted.

After the trial they had their hands tied behind their backs with rope, with such force that Elena complained that her arms were breaking.

The soldiers took no pity on them. ‘Nobody will help you now,’ one said.

They were led outside, shouting ‘shame, shame’.

The firing squad were ordered to set their guns to automatic fire.

One paratrooper describes how the first bullets hit Nicolae in the knees, then in his chest, with the next thumping into Elena.

Within seconds they lay dead on the floor, blood flowing along the ground from Elena’s head.

ADOLF HITLER, April 30, 1945
Blood dripped onto the carpet and the smell of burnt almonds filled the air.
Hitler’s valet was the first on the scene after the sound of a single gunshot was heard coming from the Fuhrer’s study.
Holed up in a Berlin bunker, the date was April 30, 1945.
One of the leader’s most trusted commanders, Field Keitel, had just told him the soldiers protecting the city would run out of ammunition that night.

Two days earlier, Hitler had married Eva Braun – and she too would take her life as the Russians edged ever closer.
Knowing the end was near, he had meticulously prepared for death, even testing cyanide pills on a dog and her puppies to make sure they worked.
Before retiring to his study, he said farewell to his inner circle.
Then, at around 3.30 that afternoon, the man who had survived numerous assassination attempts took out his Walther PPK pistol and shot himself in the head.

He is said to have sat, sunken on a sofa, with blood oozing from his right temple. According to other accounts, his head was slumped on a table.
Braun chose cyanide (which produces a burned almond smell) and was discovered dead in the same room with her legs drawn up.
In accordance with Hitler’s instructions, SS officers took the corpses outside, poured petrol over them and set them alight.

Eyewitness claim it took two hours for the blaze to consume them.
Their remains were hidden under the soil in a bomb crater.
(Mystery shrouds the exact circumstances of Hitler’s death, with some claiming he in fact survived the battle for Berlin.)

SADDAM HUSSEIN, December 30, 2006

Seven coils and pre-boiled to take out any stretch. One thing the U.S. and Iraq do have in common is their style of hangman’s noose.
Saddam Hussein, deposed dictator of Iraq, would have had little time to dwell on such

Like Muammar Gaddafi, he too had been found cowering in a grubby bolt-hole, in December 2003.
As one U.S. military commander said, he was ‘caught like a rat’.
Holed up in an underground chamber little bigger than a coffin, he surrendered without a fight when allied troops cornered him in a farm near Tikrit, his birthplace.
Bearded, thin and exhausted, he had been on the run for 250 days.

On November 5, 2006, he was finally found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He was then sentenced to be hanged until dead.

A month later in Baghdad - at 6am on December 30 – he was led to a platform in a concrete chamber by masked men.
Wearing a white shirt and dark overcoat, he refused a hood and shouted ‘God is great’.

Soldiers taunted him with insults until a judge demanded silence.

As he clutched a copy of the Koran, a noose was placed around his neck – waxed to guarantee a clean slide of the knots. The trapdoor was released and a loud crack was heard when his neck broke.

Left to swing for several minutes, a doctor was called to listen for a heartbeat. Saddam was dead.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051552/Gaddafi-dead-Videos-worlds-infamous-dictators-violent-deaths.html#ixzz1bPuqhStP

jidsoon:
The state government also said it would abolish the use of consultants by the Lagos Internal Revenue Service, LIRS to collect taxes in the state as their activities have become inimical to the government.


On the use of consultants by the LIRS, Shodipo disclosed that from January 2012, the state government would stop using consultants to collect taxes in the state, saying that he had already submitted a proposal to that effect.

According to him, consultants were doing more harm than good in the collection of taxes in the state, adding that maybe at inception they might have been very helpful.

He said the government had received lots of complaints through text messages, e-mails, among others on the illegal activities of these consultants.

“We are addressing it and by next year, it will be clearer to you, as government would phase them out.”

Could a certain ABC be one of these consultants?

Nigeria: Shipwreck - FG Needs N4.3 Billion to Remove Wreckage

George Okojie

11 September 2011


The high rate of abandoned shipwrecks all over the country's coastal waters has become a major source of headache to both the government and Nigerians, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY investigation, has shown.

Findings by LEADERSHIP SUNDAY in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri showed that the country was gradually becoming a dumping ground for old ships and abandoned marine vessels.

Presently , over 100 shipwrecks and derelicts litter the nation's coastlines and inner water body, causing navigational hazards to other vessels entering the ports, just as it might trigger flooding of the nation's shorelines.

The development alarmed President Goodluck Jonathan recently when he visited the Mayegun and Alpha beaches in Eti-Osa Local Government axis of Lagos state to inspect the various wrecked ships posing environmental challenges in the area.

Although the president affirmed that he recently signed contracts to ensure the removal of the shipwreck and derelicts, he noted that it was a bad development for shipwrecks to litter the country's water body.

Jonathan who was not pleased with the development and danger it posed to the coastal waters urged the relevant stakeholders to expedite action on plans to remove the vessels.

He added that there was no cause for alarm since the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) were on top of the situation.

The president noted that there was need to carry out investigation on the owners of the vessels, saying that some of the wreckages on the various shorelines could be old ships deliberately brought into Nigeria coast and abandoned.

Captain Moses Dosunmu , an officer of the Merchant Navy told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY there was some element of conspiracy in the way the old ships were abandoned in the country, saying some Nigerians may have connived with the owners of the ships to dump it country's water body.

He also blamed indigenous ship owners for purchasing bad and old vessels which he said often break down at regular intervals leading to eventual abandonment of the vessel.

According to him, over 60 of the derelicts that littered the nation's sea are owned by indigenous shipping companies , saying the government can effectively tackle the problem by coming up with a scrap policy that made it compulsory for the owner of the ship foot the bill of removing the scrap.

He said the government could also invoke the provisions of the Nairobi Convention which put the cost of removing shipwrecks on the ship owner.

In Lagos alone LEADERSHIP SUNDAY survey discovered 32 wrecks. Eight of the wrecks were said to be within the jurisdiction of NIMASA, while 24 were within the areas controlled by the NPA.

A close company source also revealed that the Lagos Channel Management (LCM) had before now made efforts to remove 16 of the 24 that are within the NPA jurisdiction.

Amid the biting economic downturn in the country, the Federal Government of Nigeria may be constrained to pump a whopping N4.3 billion for the removal of shipwrecks from the nation's coastal waters.

LEADERSHIP SUNDAY learnt from experts that it takes an average of N70 Million to dismantle a single vessel from inner waters.

Although NIMASA management still keep the cost of removing the vessel it had evacuated so far to their chest , close company source said the agency had expended over N270 Million on removal of some shipwrecks .

This informed why so many countries of the world police their coastal waters to avert incurring such costs.

The immediate past Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Sulaiman, confirmed the figure in Lagos during one of his visits to the Apapa Dockyard, Lagos.

Before his removal he promised that the effort made by the Federal Government would help to reduce danger in terms of insecurity the wrecks pose on the nation's water, adding that the Federal Government is determined to ensure safety and security of the ports to make it business-friendly for the West and Central African sub-regions.

According to him, "The removal of wrecks and derelicts from our channel will not only improve the safety of navigation in our waters, but also significantly contribute to increased cargo volume based on the economies of scale in shipping and thus promote the growth of trade in our nation ".

He noted that the presence of abandoned vessels and wrecks along the coastal areas poses serious danger to the safety of navigation, protection, marine environment and shipping development.

If the ministry embraces policy of continuity the removal is expected to start with Lagos Harbour and later, the Eastern harbour of the wrecks he said had overstayed their period of welcome.

Speaking on the issue frontline conservationist and the President of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Chief Philip Asiodu, said that the problem shipwreck is timed bomb waiting to explode, saying appropriate measure must be taken to avert the impending national disaster.

He said, "On the latest abandoned shipwrecks in Lagos, I am planning to meet with the state governor and we will go as a combined delegation to meet with the Presidency on it. If we do not act now, and we allow the sea to break into the lagoon, it is going to be a national disaster because Lagos accounts for a larger percent of the Nigerian economy.

"It would be an act of monumental irresponsibility for us to close our eyes to this issue. We at the NCF are ready to be the catalyst and get people together, but the funding should come from the Federal Government which has the ecological fund."

Also the Director of Technical Programmes, NCF, Alade Adeleke, said the increasing rate of shipwrecks on the sea by faceless people was a reflection of the neglect of marine and coastal environment over the years.

According to him, "It our role as an environmental organisation, to inform people about the implication of living wrecks on our coast. We restate our usual call to both NIMASA and the Lagos State Ministry of Waterfront to sit together and remove the abandoned wrecks immediately.

"The implication of these shipwrecks is that erosion occurs as a result of the wrecks, the erosion will go to the housing estates and it will destroy properties. If the wrecks are left for a long time, it will sink, get corroded and add more metal to the ocean. And more importantly, if the sea breaks into the ocean as this is gradually coming, it will be a monumental disaster because it will involve lives."

On the Lekki beach alone the latest shipwreck makes the fourth ship that has run aground in the beach in the past one year.

To this end , the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye said the state government had seen the negative impact the menace could wreak on the environment .

He said the state government would henceforth go after the perpetrators of the wrecks (ship owners) and make them to account for their actions.

The Attorney General said both the State and the Federal Ministries of Justice would give NPA AND NIMASA the desired legal cover for the wrecks removal activities.

The Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure, Mr. Adesegun Oniru, confirmed to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the shipwrecks and derelicts pose grave danger if nothing is done urgently to save the situation.

Blaming the coastal erosion in the state on the shipwrecks , he said," You can't fight nature, you can only appease it. You can work with nature to stop what is happening. You need to put in place protections that will break the energy of the ocean surge.

"If nothing is done urgently, in another two to six months everything you see behind you won't be there anymore. In two weeks we lost about twenty meters of coastal line, where we are standing today. So we need to do something immediately", the commissioner added.

He said the state government has awarded contract for the removal of the wrecked ships on the Lekki beach, adding that the Federal Government need to refund the money spent by the Lagos state government.

Oniru described the act of abandoning faulty and old ships on Lagos coastlines by unknown ship owners who usually go back to their countries as criminal.

The commissioner decried absence of adequate and responsive regulatory mechanisms from the appropriate Federal agencies responsible for the daily influx of wrecked ships into the country's internal water.

Oniru urged federal agencies, especially the Nigeria Maritime and Safety Authority (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to work in partnership with Lagos State Government in order to urgently salvage communities being ravaged by shipwrecks in Lagos.

He noted that though the encroachment of land by strong ocean waves would not alter the country's map but it would alter the people's natural source of living which might lead to various degrees of unemployment.

As the country gradually becomes a dumping ground for old and derelict ships , many Nigerians have called on relevant agencies to live above board in the discharge of their duties to nip the problem in the bud.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201109110054.html

Wall Street sit-in goes global Saturday

By Alastair Macdonald

LONDON | Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:52am EDT

Oct 14(Reuters) - For an October revolution, dress warm.

That's the word going out - politely - on the Web to rally street protests on Saturday around the globe from New Zealand to Alaska via London, Frankfurt, Washington and, of course, New York, where the past month's Occupy Wall Street movement has inspired a worldwide yell of anger at banks and financiers.

How many will show up, let alone stay to camp out to disrupt city centres for days, or months, to come, is anyone's guess. The hundreds at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park were calling for back-up on Friday, fearing imminent eviction. Rome expects tens of thousands at a national protest of more traditional stamp.

Few other police forces expect more than a few thousand to turn out on the day for what is billed as an exercise in social media-spread, Arab Spring-inspired, grassroots democracy with an emphasis on peaceful, homespun debate, as seen among Madrid's "indignados" in June or at the current Wall Street park sit-in.

Blogs and Facebook pages devoted to "October 15" - #O15 on Twitter - abound with exhortations to keep the peace, bring an open mind, a sleeping bag, food and warm clothing; in Britain, "Occupy London Stock Exchange" is at pains to stress it does not plan to actually, well, occupy the stock exchange.

That may turn off those with a taste for the kind of anarchic violence seen in London in August, at anti-capitalism protests of the past decade and at some rallies against spending cuts in Europe this year. But, as Karlin Younger of consultancy Control Risks said: "When there's a protest by an organisation that's very grassroots, you can't be sure who will show up."

Concrete demands are few from those who proclaim "We are the 99 percent", other than a general sense that the other 1 percent - the "greedy and corrupt" rich, and especially banks - should pay more, and that elected governments are not listening.

"It's time for us to unite; it's time for them to listen; people of the world, rise up!" proclaims the Web site United for #GlobalChange. "We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us , We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organise until we make it happen."

By doing so peacefully, many hope for a wider political impact, by amplifying the chord their ideas strike with millions of voters in wealthy countries who feel ever more squeezed by the global financial crisis while the rich seem to get richer.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

"We have people from all walks of life joining us every day," said Spyro, one of those behind a Facebook page in London which has grown to have some 12,000 followers in a few weeks, enthused by Occupy Wall Street. Some 5,000 have posted that they will turn out, though even some activists expect fewer will.

Spyro, a 28-year-old graduate who has a well-paid job and did not want his family name published, summed up the main target of the global protests as "the financial system".

Angry at taxpayer bailouts of banks since crisis hit in 2008 and at big bonuses still paid to some who work in them while unemployment blights the lives of many young Britons, he said: "People all over the world, we are saying 'Enough is enough'."

What the remedy would be, Spyro said, was not for him to say but should emerge from public debate - a common theme for those camping out off Wall Street since mid-September, who have stirred up U.S. political debate and, a Reuters poll found , won sympathy from over a third of Americans.

A suggestions log posted at 15october.net ("This space is ready for YOUR idea for the revolution" range from a mass cutting up of credit cards ("hit the banks where it counts" to "use technology to make education free".

For all such utopianism, the possibility that peaceful mass action, helped by new technologies, can bring real change has been reinforced by the success of Arab uprisings this year.

"I've been waiting for this protest for a long time, since 2008," said Daniel Schreiber, 28, an editor in Berlin. "I was always wondering why people aren't outraged and why nothing has happened and finally, three years later, it's happening."

Quite what is happening, though, is hard to say. The biggest turnouts are expected where local conditions are most acute.

Italian police are preparing for tens of thousands to march in Rome against austerity measures planned by the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Yet in crisis-ravaged Athens, where big protests have seen violence at times of late, a sense of fatigue and futility may limit numbers on Saturday. In Madrid, where thousands of young "indignados", or "angry ones", camped out for weeks, many also feel the movement has run out of steam since the summer.

Germans, where sympathy for southern Europe's debt troubles is patchy, the financial centre of Frankfurt, and the European Central Bank in particular, is expected to be a focus of marches calling by the Spanish-inspired Real Democracy Now movement.

Complicating German sentiments, however, a series of small bombs found on trains has stirred memories of the left-wing guerrilla attacks that grew in the 1970s from frustration at a lack of change after the student protests of 1968.

CITY OF LONDON

British student protests a year ago were marked by some acts of violence by what authorities say were hard-core anarchists. Days of looting in London in August were put down to motives that mingled political discontent with criminal opportunism.

As an international centre of finance, the City of London is key target. But organisers know strong police powers make setting up a Wall Street-style protest camp there far from easy.

"There's quite a bit of fatigue setting in," said one young veteran of last year's protests against higher university fees. "But if it's still going by Monday or Tuesday, I think that will excite students and they will head down. The City is much more the focus of people's anger now, compared to a year ago."

A long Saturday of rallies may start in New Zealand, where the Occupy Auckland Facebook page provides links recommending "suitable clothing , a sleeping bag, a tent, food" -- but, in a family-friendly spirit, strictly no drugs or alcohol.

Asian authorities and businesses may have less to fear, since most of their economies are still growing strongly.

Tracking across the time zones, through towns large and small ("Occupy Norwich!" reads a website from the picturesque English city), the New York example has also prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of U.S. cities from Saturday.

In Houston, protesters plan to tap into anger at big oil companies. As the world's day ends, hardy souls will be marching in Fairbanks. "We will be obeying traffic lights," insist the authors of OccupyAlaska.org, and they "will be dressed warm".

History suggests such actions are unlikely, of themselves, to change the world. As one anonymous poster at 15october.net writes, "Fleshing out ideas into living reality has always been the bugbear of radical politics". And while anger at corporate greed is widespread, there are plenty of voters who would agree with the Australian who posted on the OccupySydney site that those marching will be "the lazy, the paranoid, the confused".

But some analysts do see a potential for political change.

Jeff Madrick, a prominent economics writer, speaks warmly of the serious and reasonable debate he found at Zuccotti Park. Revolutions may be rare, but the protests could push lawmakers to act on some of the demands, he said last week: "It may begin to change public opinion enough to give Congress, people in Washington, the courage of their own convictions."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/wallstreet-global-idUSL5E7LD3VU20111014

Occupy Wall Street goes global
Posted by Suzy Khimm at 10:28 AM ET, 10/13/2011


The U.S. anti-corporate movement has inspired an offshoot occupation in London. It will kick off this Saturday with a rally headed to the London Stock Exchange, as Dealbook notes today. OccupyLSX describes itself as part of a global movement against “corporate greed” and inequality, and UK Uncut — a group of activists who’ve fought austerity measures — has already signed on to support it. From the OccupyLSX Web site:

The words ‘corporate greed’ ring through the speeches and banners of protests across the globe. After huge bail-outs and in the face of unemployment, privatisation and austerity we still see profits for the rich on the increase. But we are the 99%, and on October 15th our voice unites across gender and race, across borders and continents as we call for equality and justice for all.

There have been recent popular uprisings in London, like this summer’s riots that many have linked to economic discontent and anti-austerity measures. By contrast, the OccupyLSX movement has already distinguished itself as an organized, civil society protest with a clear purpose. Unlike their New York counterparts, the OccupyLSX organizers say they want a specific agenda, vowing to build “a future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met.” It’s not the only popular U.S. movement to go global in recent months: a Tea Party offshoot sprung up in Australia last year.

OccupyLSX cites its Facebook page as a display of its growing support: as of Thursday morning, it had about 4,600 people saying they’d show up. That’s a small crowd, as far as these sorts of demonstrations go, but piggybacking off the U.S. movement, OccupyLSX is anticipating the media attention: their Web site already lists dedicated press contacts.

*Update: Other cities spanning 78 countries are also planning October 15 solidarity events to protest economic injustice, but not all seem to be as directly modeled on Occupy Wall Street.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/occupy-wall-street-spreads-to-london/2011/10/13/gIQAnbsRhL_blog.html

^^^

'Modern face of illegal insider trading' Raj Rajaratnam gets 11 years in prison

Published: Thursday, Oct 13, 2011, 21:32 IST | Updated: Thursday, Oct 13, 2011, 23:18 IST
Place: NEW YORK | Agency: PTI

A former billionaire described by the government as "the modern face of illegal insider trading" was sentenced today to 11 years in prison, the longest insider trading sentence ever but far short of the two decades sought by prosecutors.


Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam also was fined $10 million by US District Judge Richard J Holwell, who said he concluded that Rajaratnam made well over $50 million in profits from his illegal trades.

"His crimes and the scope of his crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated," Holwell said.

The Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, 54, was ordered to report to a yet-to-be-designated prison on November 28.

The judge gave Rajaratnam leniency, citing his need for a kidney transplant and his advanced diabetes. And he credited Rajaratnam's charity work, which he called "the defendant's responsiveness to and care for the less privileged." The judge cited Rajaratnam's work to help victims of the earthquake in Pakistan and September 11, among others.


Asked if he wished to speak at his sentencing, Rajaratnam said only, "No, thank you."

The sentencing culminates a series of convictions and sentencings that followed the October 2009 announcement of Rajaratnam's arrest. More than two dozen people were arrested; all were convicted. The other defendants got sentences ranging from a few months to 10 years.

Assistant US Attorney Reed Brodsky told Holwell before the sentence was announced that Rajaratnam made up to $75 million in illegal profits from insider trading he indulged in since at least the late 1990s. The government has said he switched so much money around within his multibillion dollar funds that the movement of price in individual stocks could be traced to his trading whims.

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_insider-trading-case-raj-rajaratnam-gets-11-years-in-prison_1598480

Oct, 12, 2011
Another firebomb found near Berlin train tracks
By JUERGEN BAETZ / The Associated Press

BERLIN -- German police say they have found another firebomb set to go off next to train tracks in southwest Berlin.

Federal police spokesman Meik Gauer said Thursday that experts were on hand to defuse the device.

Sixteen firebombs have been found in nine locations since Monday and hundreds of trains have been delayed because of partial shutdowns, but there have been no injuries. Two have gone off - one damaging a track west of the city and another igniting but not exploding in Berlin with little effect.

Gauer says it is not known when the most recent bomb was placed - and authorities have said that all of the devices could have been planted at the same time over the weekend.

A previously unknown leftist group has claimed responsibility for one of the firebombs.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/10/12/2224709/3-more-arson-attacks-against-berlin.html

David Cameron needs facts before making Liam Fox decision

By Mark McLaughlin
Thursday, 13 October 2011

Prime Minster David Cameron has suggested he would be "a weak leader" if he made a decision on Liam Fox's future before the facts about the financial affairs of his close friend and self-styled adviser Adam Werritty had been established.


Mr Werritty will be questioned for a second time by senior civil servants investigating his relationship with Dr Fox, the Defence Secretary, either on Thursday or Friday.

Speaking during a visit to Aberdeen, where he was welcoming BP's announcement of a near £10 billion investment in the UK oil industry, [b]Mr Cameron said: "I think what is right is to allow the Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell to complete his full report. I think we have to be patient and allow him to gather the information, to answer the questions and a judgment can be made.

"But let me repeat again, I think Liam Fox has done a good job in sorting out the defence budget, making sure we've effective in Libya, and clearing up the mess in the MoD left by the last administration."

Mr Cameron was responding to new allegations that wealthy backers of Dr Fox had funded Mr Werritty's work and travel, claims that Labour said have appeared to "blow a hole" in the Defence Secretary's position.

Mr Cameron added: "A strong leader actually recognises you have to take time to get all the information, answer all the questions, and then actually make a decision.

"A weak leader is someone who jumps at it because of some artificial deadline. Let's get the facts established, and then we'll make a decision."
[/b]

Labour MP Anas Sarwar called on the Electoral Commission to investigate the latest claims that anonymous backers had paid Mr Werritty.

In a letter to the watchdog, Mr Sarwar said there had been "potential breaches of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000" as anonymous donations were illegal.

Referring to reports that Mr Werritty was effectively a privately-funded adviser to the Defence Secretary, he wrote: "If true, this would be a donation to Liam Fox, which would legally have to be declared.

"Records of donors available on the Electoral Commission website list a number of donations to Dr Fox but none of these date from after the 2010 election - a period when Mr Werritty is reported to have been an adviser to Dr Fox - and it is unclear whether these donations relate to money used for the employment of Adam Werritty.

"Additionally, Dr Fox's entry in the House of Commons Register of Members' Financial Interests makes no reference to Adam Werritty."

The BBC reported that Mr Werritty, who has been by the Defence Secretary's side on numerous overseas visits over the past 18 months, was bankrolled by "a number of wealthy private clients" who shared his and Dr Fox's strong Atlanticist views.

Arriving at the Ministry of Defence this morning, Dr Fox said he was concentrating on his job at an important time for operations in Libya.

"I'm continuing to do what is needed at the moment, which is that the Defence Secretary focuses on defence issues," he told reporters.

But Labour leader Ed Miliband said: "This uncertainty is not good for the country.

"We've got a distracted Defence Secretary and a distracted Government.

"The questions are mounting about Liam Fox, and the best way of answering those questions is to speedily get on with the report that is being done."


Mr Miliband said Prime Minister David Cameron should have referred the inquiry into Dr Fox's conduct to an independent adviser.

"Let's get on with that report and then let's find out what his judgment is about whether Liam Fox broke the ministerial code," he said.

Mr Miliband accused the Prime Minister of being "weak" in his response to the allegations surrounding Dr Fox.

Renewing his questions over why the case had not been referred to the independent adviser on the ministerial code, Sir Philip Mawer, he told a press conference: "There is an issue now about delay and indecision at the heart of Government.

"A report should have been commissioned swiftly, and then a decision should have been made.

"He is showing ineffective leadership. He should have acted more swiftly, he should have done what the code says."

The Labour leader said Mr Cameron was showing himself to be "a weak Prime Minister seemingly unable to make the right decision".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-needs-facts-before-making-liam-fox-decision-2369924.html?service=Print

lagcity:
Poor Jona missed his calling. He should have been a military man instead of Zoologist. Looks good in Uniform

He started his working career in the Customs Service.

Here is a picture of him carrying out fleet review during the Navy's 50th anniversary in September last year.

@eGuerrilla, GEJ actually started his career with the Customs Service.

Which govt?

Federal, state or LG?

Na dem cause the rain?

Dem no warn say rain go plenty?

Sorry about your car though.

^^

Bless you!

Israeli protests: 430,000 take to streets to demand social justice
Harriet Sherwood in Tel Aviv guardian.co.uk, Sunday 4 September 2011 11.40 BST

Up to 300,000 take part in Tel Aviv, 50,000 in Jerusalem and 40,000 in Haifa in Israel's biggest ever demonstration


A record 430,000 people have taken part in demonstrations across Israel to demand social justice and a lower cost of living Link to this video Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday night in Israel's biggest ever demonstration to demand social justice, a lower cost of living and a clear government response to the concerns of an increasingly squeezed middle class.

About 430,000 people took part in marches and rallies across the country, according to police. The biggest march was in Tel Aviv, where up to 300,000 took part. There was an unprecedented 50,000-strong protest in Jerusalem, and 40,000 marched in Haifa. There were smaller protests in dozens of other towns and cities.

It had been billed as the "march of the million" but organisers said a turnout matching the 300,000-strong demonstrations four weeks ago would be a triumph. Israel's population is 7.7 million.

Saturday's demonstrations followed 50 days of protests that have rattled political leaders and led commentators and analysts to ask whether a new social movement would transform Israeli domestic politics for the next generation.

The movement, which has the support of about 90% of the population according to opinion polls, began when a small group of activists erected tents in Tel Aviv's prosperous Rothschild Boulevard in protest at high rents and house prices.

Tent cities mushroomed across the country and protesters rallied behind the slogan: "The people demand social justice." Among the issues raised were the cost of housing, transport, childcare, food and fuel; the low salaries paid to many professionals, including doctors and teachers; tax reform; and welfare payments. The government established a committee led by the economics professor Manuel Trajtenberg to examine the protesters' demands, which is due to report later this month.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday night blew whistles and banged drums as they marched in a carnival atmosphere to a large square for a rally. Residents hung banners from balconies and cheered as they passed.

"We are the new Israelis," the student leader Itzik Shmuli told the rally. "And the new Israelis want only one simple thing: to live with dignity in this country."

He added: "Tonight we make history again. The people are supporting a protest started by the young people and, a week after the protest was proclaimed over, we are on the verge of breaking another record. From now on the government knows that at any given moment Israelis can return to the streets and must therefore deliver the goods."

Daphni Leef, one of the organisers of the original tent protest, said: "This summer is the great summer of the new Israeli hope born of despair, alienation and impossible gaps … The Israeli society has reached its red line, and has gotten up and said: 'No more.' This is the miracle of the summer of 2011."

Under a homemade banner saying "Walk like an Egyptian", Ruti Hertz, 34, a journalist, said that until this summer people had been privately ashamed of their inability to make ends meet. "Each person was lonely in their situation, thinking it's my own problem." That had changed with the protests.

She said that she and her teacher husband, Roi, were living on the same income as when they met 10 years ago. "We don't ask for much, just to be able to finish the month without taking from our parents."

Roi's monthly take-home pay of 5,500 shekels (£940) went on nursery fees for their two young daughters, she said.

Vered Cohen Nitsan, a primary school teacher from Netanya, said she had joined the march "to protest, to support the people of my country and [because] I wish my children will have an easier life in the future".

She added: "For years, you think you just have to work harder and struggle. And now people start to talk to one another and you see it's not your personal problem."

At a rally in Haifa, Shahin Nasser, an Israeli-Arab, said: "Today we are changing the rules of the game. No more coexistence based on hummus and fava beans. What is happening here is true coexistence, when Arabs and Jews march together shoulder to shoulder calling for social justice and peace. We've had it."

The protests have been criticised by some on the left for not paying more attention to the discrimination suffered by Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20% of Israel's population, or Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Weekly demonstrations, whose turnout had been steadily building, were suspended for two weeks after an attack by militants near the Egyptian-Israeli border in which eight Israelis were killed. Some commentators suggested that the movement had lost its momentum.

Protest organisers said the tent cities would be dismantled but the movement would continue with other actions. Many tent-dwellers had already left as the Israeli summer holidays ended.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/israel-protests-social-justice

blank:
Imagine 6 lanes merging into 2. Not to mention those entering the roundabouts or exiting. Why not 3 lanes? Hopefully, they will build flyovers. Praying seriously.

You are right. They would have to build bridges sooner or later. Later seems more like it (maybe phase 3 or 4 of the project).

olabukola:
Yet you can't see the news on BBC. And CNN. They are still showing us Arab spring while American Autum is going on on-televised except on Russia Today(RT).

So you noticed too!

Do you know that there have been hundreds protesting in Israel since July (See pictures below). No mainstream western media carries it. You won't hear it on CNN or BBC. But the Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan and Syria uprisings are staples.

Don't believe the hype!

27 September 2011 Last updated at 18:16 GMT

African viewpoint: You can't lose what you don't have

-----------------------------------------
In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene comments on the media coverage of the recent arrest of the Ghana-born UBS "rogue trader".
-----------------------------

A few weeks ago, the Ghana parliament was recalled from vacation so that members could debate a $3bn (£2bn) dollar loan the president had negotiated from China.

According to the government this loan is going to be the panacea for the huge infrastructure deficit we have.

Roads, bridges, hospitals, factories, schools, money-in-our-pockets - everything that would make us truly a middle-income nation would happen with this $3bn Chinese loan.

I confess freely that figures are not my strong point: and I was still trying to get my mind around the loan when we were hit by the story of the UBS trader who is said to have lost $2.3bn dollars in unauthorised trading.

As I sat wondering how anybody "loses" $2.3bn, a new angle to the story emerged.

Every newsroom around the world went into frantic mode trying to get the Ghana angle. In a 30-second news item on the young man's appearance in court last Thursday, the BBC managed to make three references to him being a Ghanaian.

Public school boy

At first I was thoroughly irritated by this. As the whole world now knows Kweku Adoboli, the young "rogue trader" as he is described, is the son of a retired United Nations official who is a Ghanaian and lives here in Ghana. There has even been footage of the retired man's home on international television.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Oh no! We are not accepting responsibility for this one, he might be Ghanaian born and even carry a Ghana passport but he sounds more British to me”
End Quote The 31-year-old young man was said to be a Ghanaian and suddenly him being a Ghanaian seemed to be the most interesting part of the story.

Kweku Adoboli, we now know, grew up around the world, as all these international children do: and he went to an English public school where the fees range from £19,000 to £26,000 ($29,000 to $40,000) a year, depending on which newspaper or radio station or website you are following.

My first instinct was to say: "Oh no - we are not accepting responsibility for this one. He might be Ghanaian born and even carry a Ghana passport but he sounds more British to me."

There aren't many Ghanaians who become head boys at a Quaker public school and who get high-flying jobs with fancy companies or live in £1000-a-week apartments.

The more I heard and read British news outlets trying to distance Britain from the young man, the more I decided it is no wonder the world's finances are in such disarray.

Money matters

Surely what happened had more to do with the financial system than the nationality of the trader?

I had always been made to believe that when it came to money matters, the Swiss had no competitors and the City of London was the place for financial wizardry.

Now I am to believe, according to the charges being laid against him in court, that a 31-year-old Ghanaian, sitting in front of a computer in the City of London, is able to lose $2.3bn belonging to a Swiss bank.

The capital base of all the banks operating in Ghana does not add up to $2.3bn. Our parliament had to be recalled from holidays for a $3bn Chinese loan.

Then I hear on the news that Kweku Adoboli is telling the court through his lawyer he is "sorry beyond words" for what happened and "appalled at the scale of the consequences of his disastrous miscalculations".

Now that sounds to me like just how a British public schoolboy would speak. Miscalculations indeed.

In my mother tongue, we do not have any real equivalent for a million - what we say translates as "uncountable thousands". So when the conversation gets into billions, I retire gracefully.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15081657

johnie:
The protesters have varied causes but have spoken largely about unemployment and economic inequality and reserved most of their criticism for Wall Street. "We are the 99 percent," they chanted, contrasting themselves with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

Susan Henoch, 63, of Manhattan said she was a "child of the '60s" and came out to the park for the first time Wednesday. She held a sign that read, "Enough."

"It's time for the people to speak up," she said. "Nobody's listening to us, nobody's representing us. Politics is dead.

"This is no longer a recognizable democracy. This is a disaster," she said.

"The state of education in our country is ridiculous," said Kingsbury, who plans to teach. "The state doesn't care about it and we need to fight back about that."

God dey!

johnie:
Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for the protesters, but some Republican presidential candidates have rebuked them. Herman Cain, called the activists "un-American" Wednesday at a book signing in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They're basically saying that somehow the government is supposed to take from those that have succeeded and give to those who want to protest," the former pizza-company executive said. "That's not the way America was built."

Politicians!

johnie:
Some protesters were recent graduates looking for work, including Rachelle Suissa, who held up a sign in Manhattan that read: "I have a 4.0 GPA & $20,000 in debt. Where's my bailout?"

The 25-year-old Brooklyn woman said she has applied for at least 200 jobs and is finding it difficult to remain optimistic.
"I don't understand what's going on here," she said.

This is my favourite. Classic!

, Unions, students join Wall Street protesters
By DEEPTI HAJELA and VERENA DOBNIK - Associated Press | AP – 4 hrs ago.
, Occupy Boston protesters gather outside a building in the Financial district in Boston, …

.NEW YORK (AP) — Unions lent their muscle to the long-running protest against Wall Street and economic inequality Wednesday, with their members joining thousands of protesters in a lower Manhattan march as smaller demonstrations flourished across the country.

Protesters in suits and T-shirts with union slogans left work early to march with activists who have been camped out in Zuccotti Park for days. Some marchers brought along their children, hoisting them onto their shoulders as they walked down Broadway.

"We're here to stop corporate greed," said Mike Pellegrino, an NYC Transit bus mechanic from Rye Brook. "They should pay their fair share of taxes. We're just working and looking for decent lives for our families."

Of the camping protesters, he said, "We feel kinship with them. We're both looking for the same things."

People gathered in front of the courthouses that encircle Foley Square, then marched to Zuccotti Park, where they refueled with snacks and hurriedly painted new signs as the strong scent of burning sage wafted through the plaza.

Previous marches have resulted in mass arrests. Police said there were about 28 arrests on Wednesday night, mostly for disorderly conduct. But at least one arrest was for assaulting a police officer; authorities said a demonstrator knocked an officer off his scooter.

The demonstrators Wednesday night posted a video on YouTube in which a police official is seen swinging a baton to clear a crowd of protesters. It was unclear from the angle of the video if anyone was hit. Officers are allowed to use batons and pepper spray in crowd control efforts.

Another arrest came when a group of about 300 people decided to start marching again Wednesday night after the main march had ended.

The protesters have varied causes but have spoken largely about unemployment and economic inequality and reserved most of their criticism for Wall Street. "We are the 99 percent," they chanted, contrasting themselves with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

Susan Henoch, 63, of Manhattan said she was a "child of the '60s" and came out to the park for the first time Wednesday. She held a sign that read, "Enough."

"It's time for the people to speak up," she said. "Nobody's listening to us, nobody's representing us. Politics is dead.

"This is no longer a recognizable democracy. This is a disaster," she said.

Some of the union members traveled from other states to march.

Karen Higgins, a co-president of National Nurses United, came down with a group of colleagues from Boston. She said they had seen patients who skipped important medical tests because they couldn't afford them.

"Tax Wall Street," she said. "Those who make all the money need to start paying their fair share."

The Occupy Wall Street protests started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, hundreds have set up camp nearby in Zuccotti Park and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper.

Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for the protesters, but some Republican presidential candidates have rebuked them. Herman Cain, called the activists "un-American" Wednesday at a book signing in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They're basically saying that somehow the government is supposed to take from those that have succeeded and give to those who want to protest," the former pizza-company executive said. "That's not the way America was built."

On Tuesday, CBS reported that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called the protest "class warfare" at an appearance at a Florida retirement community.

Activists have been showing solidarity with movement in many cities: Occupy Providence. Occupy Los Angeles. Occupy Boise.

More than 100 people withstood an afternoon downpour in Idaho's capital to protest, including Judy Taylor, a retired property manager.

"I want change. I'm tired of things being taken away from those that need help," she said.

In Seattle, at least four demonstrators who had been camping out since the weekend in a downtown park were arrested after they refused orders from city park rangers to pack up. The reception was warmer in Los Angeles, where the City Council approved a resolution of support and Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa's office distributed 100 rain ponchos to activists at another dayslong demonstration, according to City News Service.

In Boston, hundreds of nurses and Northeastern University students rallied together to condemn what they called corporate control of government and the spiraling costs of their education. The students banged on drums made of water jugs and chanted, "Banks got bailed out, and we got sold out."

"This is an organic process. This is a process of grassroot people coming together. It's a beautiful thing," said David Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Many of those protesting are college students. Hundreds walked out of classes in New York, some in a show of solidarity for the Wall Street movement but many more concerned with worries closer to home. Protests were scheduled at State University of New York campuses including Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, New Paltz and Purchase.

Danielle Kingsbury, a 21-year-old senior from New Paltz, said she walked out of an American literature class to show support for some of her professors who she said have had their workloads increased because of budget cuts.

"The state of education in our country is ridiculous," said Kingsbury, who plans to teach. "The state doesn't care about it and we need to fight back about that."

Not every campus appeared to feel the rumblings of dissent. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, there were students publicizing breast cancer awareness and National Coming Out Week, students crawling on their elbows in an apparent fraternity hazing ritual, quarreling evangelicals and even a flash mob to promote physical fitness, but no sign of the Wall Street protests.

Senior Alex Brown tried to promote an event on Facebook, but said students' disgust with the government and wealth inequality was "not enough to reach a fever pitch."

Some protesters were recent graduates looking for work, including Rachelle Suissa, who held up a sign in Manhattan that read: "I have a 4.0 GPA & $20,000 in debt. Where's my bailout?"

The 25-year-old Brooklyn woman said she has applied for at least 200 jobs and is finding it difficult to remain optimistic.

"I don't understand what's going on here," she said.

Wednesday was quieter for the New York protesters than Saturday, when about 700 people were arrested and given disorderly conduct summonses for spilling into the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge despite warnings from police. Wednesday's march route was well marked with metal barricades along the side of the road.


http://news.yahoo.com/unions-students-join-wall-street-protesters-205839370.html

My point in posting these pictures is to show that anyone can read any meaning he wants into any picture.

Maybe that is why photography is a form of art!

And just in case you did not go through those pictures, look at these one closely.

Pic 1: JFK did not climb down before Jackie

Pic 2: Na senior military officer dey carry michelle bag so o! Who then is  the C-in-C?

Pic 3& 4:Michelle in front. Who exactly are the officers saluting?

I don't think the yanks are that crazy about "protocol". Might explain why Michelle touched the queen which is contraty to protocol.

These photos show clearly that Airforce One is not the same as the plane the Nigerian president flies. Na levels! And don't nobody start with me about Nigeria not being able to afford a plane like Airforce One!

Observe that the gangway/stairs of Airforce One is wide enough to take the president and his wife.

Anvaller:
I think the problem with GEJ is that his wife looks too bush so even if he was not actually wrong by his action but the bushy swag of his wife will give a feeling that something is just not right.

Pure Bad Belle ! Nothing else!

I laugh in fulfulde on Kukuruku Hill!

Amen!!!

Continued at

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-775701.0.html#msg9282681

Fashola Opens New Link Bridge

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State this morning commissioned the N2.5 billion Falomo bridge built by the Lekki Concession Company Limited.

The new flyover that links Lekki-Epe Expressway with Falomo bridge was commissioned by Governor Babatunde Fashola this morning at Law School Bus stop, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victorial Island, Lagos. Photo: Abeeb Ogunbadejo.

The new bridge which is 150 metres long is the first ever bridge structure of this scale and specification to be built by a private investor under the public-private partnership model.

Commissioning the bridge today, Fashola said the bridge will improve travel time for vehicles travelling to Ikoyi from Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue linking Falomo.

He said this will make a positive difference to daily commuting and life of road users.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of Lekki Concession Company Limited, Mr. Oruiyo Osoriokuna said the bridge would ease the traffic bottleneck that has plagued Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue for several years.

“This bottleneck which is caused by conflict of the intercession of Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue and Adeyemo Alakija Street on Victoria Island should now be eased by the provision of direct access onto the existing Falomo Brdige.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/10/05/fashola-opens-new-link-bridge/

Sept 28

Sept 28