₦airaland Forum

While some are complaining of flood . . .


Residents pray for rain  
By Agency reporter    
Tuesday, 21 Jun 2011    
 

Muslim faithful in Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State have embarked on praying and fast for rain, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

Earlier, the Emir of Dass, Alhaji Othman Usman, had ordered a three-day fast to seek divine intervention to lack of rainfall.

Alhaji Ishaiku Ismail, the Deputy Chief Imam of Dass, who led the others in the prayers at the Dass Eid-Ground on Sunday, urged them to seek Allah’s forgiveness for their wrong deeds.

He lso admonished them to desist from evil acts, blaming the persisting drought in the area on such acts.

Ishaiku appealed to the Muslim faithful to always forgive one another even as he urged philanthropists to assist the poor to ensure peaceful co-existence of the people.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201106213402028

Fifa vice-president Jack Warner resigns

Page last updated at 14:21 GMT, Monday, 20 June 2011 15:21 UK

Fifa ethics committee procedures against Warner have been dropped Fifa vice-president Jack Warner has resigned, world football's governing body has confirmed.

"As a consequence of Mr Warner's resignation, all ethics committee procedures against him have been closed and the presumption of innocence is maintained," said a Fifa statement.

Warner was suspended pending an investigation into bribery allegations.

He and fellow Fifa member Mohamed Bin Hammam are alleged to have paid bribes of £600,000 to Caribbean associations.

Continue reading the main story
The Fifa Executive Committee, the Fifa President and the Fifa management thank Mr Warner and wish him well for the future
Fifa statement
Chuck Blazer, general secretary of the Concacaf federation Warner had been president of, alleged that violations of Fifa's code of ethics occurred during a meeting organised by Bin Hammam and Warner in May.

Blazer's allegations were preceded by claims made in parliament by the former head of England's failed 2018 World Cup bid, Lord Triesman, about irregularities in the bidding process for the 2018 World Cup.

Triesman, who was also former chairman of the Football Association, accused Warner and three other Fifa Executive Committee members of improper conduct during England's 2018 World Cup bid.

According to Triesman, in exchange for voting for England to host the World Cup, Warner had asked for cash to build an education centre in Trinidad and to buy World Cup television rights for Haiti.

The 68-year-old had been the longest-serving member of Fifa's executive committee, and a Fifa statement continued: "Fifa regrets the turn of events that have led to Mr Warner's decision.

"His resignation has been accepted by world football's governing body, and his contribution to international football and to Caribbean football in particular and the Concacaf confederation are appreciated and acknowledged.

Fifa in May opened "ethics proceedings" against Warner and Bin Hammam but Warner insisted he was not guilty of a "single iota of wrongdoing."

Football's governing body then suspended Warner and former Fifa presidential candidate Bin Hammam on 29 May, pending an investigation into claims they had offered bribes to members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Despite claims by Bin Hammam that Fifa President Sepp Blatter was aware of payments made to the CFU, and that he too should be investigated, Fifa' ethics committee stated that "no investigation is warranted" of Blatter.

Following Bin Hammam's suspension, Blatter went on to run unopposed in the Fifa presidential election, despite efforts by the FA to have the election suspended amid the corruption allegations that had engulfed the sport's world governing body.

Seventeen member associations supported the FA's request for a delay, but Blatter was re-elected for a fourth term after receiving 186 of the 203 votes.

Despite the controversy that has surrounded Fifa and Warner since May, the governing body's statement concluded:

"Mr Warner is leaving Fifa by his own volition after nearly 30 years of service.

"The Fifa Executive Committee, the Fifa President and the Fifa management thank Mr Warner for his services to Caribbean, Concacaf and international football over his many years devoted to football at both regional and international level, and wish him well for the future."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13845203.stm

American Republicans can't take a joke.

They laugh when Obama is the butt of the joke but drag Reggie Brown off the stage when he starts joking about their own politicians.

[flash=600,600]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9-Oi2i62Qw[/flash]

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

Reggie Brown, Obama Impersonator, Yanked After Mocking Obama, GOP Candidates

.By PHILIP ELLIOTT   06/18/11 11:29 PM ET   

NEW ORLEANS -- A Barack Obama impersonator was ushered off the stage after he mocked the Republican presidential hopefuls and joked about the real president's biracial roots to a room full of conservative activists Saturday.

The Republican Leadership Conference turned the podium over to impersonator Reggie Brown, who drew raucous applause from the GOP's supporters when he projected lewd photos of Rep. Anthony Weiner, the New York Democrat who just resigned after the furor over his sexually charged online dalliances with a former indecency actress and other women.

Brown later played up the mass exodus of advisers to candidate Newt Gingrich's campaign and said Gingrich's supporters "are dropping faster than Anthony Weiner's pants."

The audience grew more uncomfortable when Brown turned to the candidates who are looking to make Obama a one-term president.

The impersonator took a shot at former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, saying Pawlenty missed the conference because "he's having his foot surgically removed from his
mouth."

"Don't worry: it's covered under Obamneycare ,  along with spinal transplants," Brown said.

Pawlenty has struggled this week after previewing his criticism of former Gov. Mitt Romney's health care overhaul in Massachusetts that was a model for Democrats' national plan. Pawlenty first called it "Obamneycare," a hybrid of "Romneycare" and "Obamacare." But when given the opportunity to use the term while sharing the stage with Romney during a debate Monday night in New Hampshire, he balked.

Pawlenty later said it was a mistake not to offer a stronger criticism.

The impersonator joked about Romney's Mormon faith and about polygamy, and Rep. Michele Bachmann's tea party support.

Organizers then cut off Brown's microphone and turned on music. He was shown off the stage.

The jokes came a day after Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour urged Republicans not to be distracted from a message honed solely on jobs and the economy.

"If we let people in the Obama campaign take America's eye off the ball, then that's their only chance to win," Barbour said.

Brown opened his routine with jokes about Obama's biography as the son of a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya.

"My mother loved a black man and, no, she was not a Kardashian," the actor said, referring to the reality television family. Khloe Kardashian is married to basketball player Lamar Odom of the Los Angeles Lakers. Other family members have had black romantic interests on the E! television series.

Brown also joked about rumors of the president's birthplace. Obama was born in Hawaii, "or as the tea partyers call it, Kenya," he said.

Brown highlighted photographs of past presidents such as George W. Bush at the beginning and end of their terms.

He showed a picture of George Washington at the start of his term and then projected an image of former first lady Barbara Bush as though it was the nation's first president as he left office.

Brown then projected a picture of Obama at the start of his term, followed by a picture of Fred Sanford of "Sanford and Son" as a representation of what Obama would look like when he leaves office.





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/18/republican-leadership-conference-obama-impersonator_n_879783.html

^^^

About time too.

johnie:
This is where we miss the likes of Gani.

He could have headed to the courts by now.

Group sues Aregbesola over lack of cabinet

By Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji

June 20, 2011 12:31AM


A pressure group, the Osun State Voters' Interest Committee, has sued the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola over his failure to name his cabinet since he was sworn in as governor of the state on November 26th, 2010. The group, in an originating summons and an affidavit deposed to in the High Court of Justice, Osogbo, by Ayodele Emmanuel, argued that the non-inauguration of a cabinet has been slowing down the socio-economic development of the state. In the summon, which was filed at the weekend, the plaintiff, which claimed to be a non-profit organisation, contended that the action of the governor runs foul of sections 192 (1); 193 (1); 196 (1) and 197 (1) of the 1999 constitution, which the governor vowed to uphold.

Some aides of the governor had defended him, saying he was taking such a long time in choosing his commissioners because he wanted to be sure that only the best are appointed. The plaintiff also prayed the court to determine whether the governor (defendant) was right by his refusal to assign responsibility to the office and person of the deputy governor, in accordance with section 193 (1) of the 1999 constitution.

The Committee described the actions of the governor as a negation of the principle of the rule of law. The plaintiff explained that it deposed to the affidavit in good faith, as the step is in the interest of the generality of the indigenes of the state. It however, accused the governor of engaging in dictatorial tendencies by working out of the ambience of the constitution.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had also faulted the inability of Mr Aregbesola to name his cabinet. Recently, the party said it embarked on a fasting and prayer session to solicit God's intervention in the matter. The party also, recently cheekily said it had helped the government recruit his cabinet and announced the names of some members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as people the governor should make his commissioners.


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5719085-147/group_sues_aregbesola_over_lack_of.csp

johnie:
Born near Vancouver, Bublé was back at home for Wednesday night's Stanley Cup final, in which the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins. Although the millionaire singer was on his way to the airport when the rioting began in the city centre, members of his family were much less lucky: Bublé's grandmother, mother and other relatives were trapped inside downtown's Queen Elizabeth theatre, amid burning cars and brawling drunks. "They were traumatised," Bublé told the Globe and Mail. "They weren't allowed to go into the lobby because they were worried people were going to break the windows."

That's all they were worried about?

Michael Bublé to fund campaign to identify Vancouver rioters

Canadian singer whose family were caught up in violence wants to help police find those responsible for trashing the city

Sean Michaels guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 June 2011 11.31 BST  

Bubl-ing over , Michael Bublé has vowed to take the Vancouver rioters to Painsville. Photograph: John Medina/WireImage.com

Crooner Michael Bublé is going vigilante. The easy-listening singer is financing a new ad campaign to hunt down the vandals from last week's Vancouver hockey riots, vowing to help the police make arrests and to make sure the guilty parties receive "a very, very special round of applause". "It was gutless and disgusting behaviour," Bublé said. "I felt sick inside."


Born near Vancouver, Bublé was back at home for Wednesday night's Stanley Cup final, in which the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins. Although the millionaire singer was on his way to the airport when the rioting began in the city centre, members of his family were much less lucky: Bublé's grandmother, mother and other relatives were trapped inside downtown's Queen Elizabeth theatre, amid burning cars and brawling drunks. "They were traumatised," Bublé told the Globe and Mail. "They weren't allowed to go into the lobby because they were worried people were going to break the windows."


In the aftermath of the pandemonium, Bublé has launched a newspaper ad campaign asking Vancouverites to come forward with photo evidence of rioters' criminal activity. "Just like everybody else, I was embarrassed, ashamed and angry, and the anger hasn't gone away," he said. He wants to find the people who committed the worst acts – torching cars, looting shops, throwing bricks. "They're trash," he said. "We have to continue to circulate the faces and names of those guilty parties. Let's get them lots of publicity so that the police can make some arrests."


Bublé has also reached out to Vancouver's chief of police, offering to use his profile – and even his pocketbook – to help with their investigation. "The chief was very appreciative," Bublé's manager told the Globe. "He said he was getting tremendous co-operation from the public. And the cops are buoyed up by the outpouring of support from the public."


"I'm disgusted by what the rioters did to the city," the singer said. "[But] it's easy to sit back and complain. Let's do something about it."


Bublé, 35, was recently listed at number five on Forbes's list of the highest-paid musical acts in the world, ahead of Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney and the Black Eyed Peas.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/20/michael-buble-vancouver-riots-campaign

chamber2:
Can this ever happen in Nigeria?If it were to be in 9ja people would be busy blaming the govt without playing their roles as patriotic citizens.Citizens are ready to volunteer to clean up the city, upload pictures etc.No wonder crime will continue to stay in Nigeria, no body does altruistic work.

That is a moral of the story.

Good!

^^

is it proper to use a ups on a stabiliser?someone said it to protect the ups?

They took your phone?

(

1 held after suspicious activity at Pentagon

Backpack appears to have had ammonium nitrate, source says

Photo: Law enforcement vehicles gather near the Pentagon after a man was arrested nearby.The Associated Press
updated 11 minutes ago 2011-06-17T17:34:24

ARLINGTON, Va. — A man carrying a backpack containing what authorities said were suspicious materials briefly fled police Friday before he was detained in the middle of the night near the Pentagon.

The man was discovered inside Arlington National Cemetery after 1 a.m., several hours after the cemetery had closed, and was taken into custody after being uncooperative. He was in custody but has not been charged with anything. Authorities believe he acted alone and no one else was with him.

The man was identified as Yonathan Melaku, 22, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ethiopia, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Investigators and bomb-sniffing dogs were sifting through his family's home in Fairfax County, Va.

The man had an unknown quantity of a substance that appeared to be ammonium nitrate in a bag, according to another law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound that is widely used in fertilizers and can be used in explosives with the correct concentration.

Nothing else was found on the man that could have triggered an explosion, the official said.

Tests were being done to determine the substance and the exact concentration.

During the course of the investigation, officers searched the man's nearby car, a red 2011 Nissan that was parked in the bushes near a Pentagon parking lot, but found nothing suspicious inside, said Brenda Heck, special agent in charge of the counterterrorism unit of the FBI's Washington field office.

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.She would not disclose the materials inside the backpack, but said it contained no explosives.

In another incident earlier this week, a motorist found with a gun and what appeared to be a suspicious package near the Pentagon was taken into custody.

Friday's investigation snarled rush hour traffic as police closed off roads around the Pentagon.

The Pentagon has been the scene of a number of security incidents since the September 11 attacks in 2001, including an exchange of gunfire outside the building between a man and security guards in March 2010.

Last December, an unattended blinking package prompted authorities to shut the Pentagon's subway station for 90 minutes during rush hour. It turned out to be a Christmas ornament.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43437875/ns/us_news-security/

So I ask the question again:

johnie:
How can you go about looting shops and destroying police cars and posing for cameras at the same time in this age of the social media?

Is it that they are high on something, dumb or is it just that mob mentality of "well, since there are many of us involved, it is not a crime?"

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Can you believe this guy?

He must have watched too many kung-fu films!

.

.

.

Here are other photographs of the scene from other angles

Love among the ruins: Details about couple in 'Vancouver Riot Kiss' photo revealed

Australian news website identifies couple as an Australian male, Vancouver female

By Brad Frenette, Vancouver Sun June 17, 2011 9:34 AM Comment 39 •Story•Photos ( 1 )

VANCOUVER - Following the riots in Vancouver, one photo was shared more than the rest among users of Twitter and other social media. It shows a young couple tangled in each other's arms on the street, kissing, while the police and mayhem-makers clash all around them.

"I was trying not to get my ass kicked," says Vancouver freelance photojournalist Richard Lam, who took the photo, when asked if he'd stopped to talk to the couple.

Indeed, it was a hectic, and unexpected, path that led to the photo, he explains: "I was shooting the game - and me and another photographer decided to go. By the time I got out there it was out of control. I started out in front of The Sandman Hotel and ended up at The Bay. There was still looters coming out, two cars were on fire."

Soon, he was forced onto Seymour, corralled by the hard tide of the rioters and the riot police, "waving sticks and shields". There, between Georgia and Robson, he spotted the couple on the ground.

"I thought people were hurt. Next thing I knew there was some guy running toward the riot police, another waving a mannequin leg. I really didn't know what they were doing."

Lam got the shot, and several more, and didn't think much of it. He returned to the media room at Rogers Arena, where his editor (he was filing for Getty Images) took his memory card and imported it.

"I didn't even look at it. A colleague said 'nice photo'. Then I went back to the editing room, and looked at it. My jaw dropped."

The photo has kept Lam busy, with media outlets such as NPR, The New York Daily News and MSN all interviewing him. And there are other photos of the couple, he says, and thanks to the attention the original has received, he thinks the others will be published soon.

"I've been fascinated by [the response]. I don't want to sound idealistic - but I was just doing my job."

And as the city takes a deep breath after the events of Wednesday night, Lam too is taking a break. Asked if he'll be pursuing more photos from the clean-up, he laughs: "No one is paying me to cover the aftermath, so I'm not covering it."


Update: William, a citizen witness, wrote to The Sun to explain what REALLY happened.

He said: "I was on the top floor of a parkade on Seymour, the couple was right outside of the parkade on the street in front of me. What happen was the police line rushed the crowd and this couple trying to stay together couldn't react in time and were run over my 2 riot police officers. The girl who was knocked over landed head first on the pavement with her boyfriend landed partially on top of her. She was in visible pain, crying, but the 2 officers gave them a parting shove and moved on. By standers went to go make sure she was ok. I understand that the front line police have to control the crowd but it is a bit ridiculous that they couldn't have other officers or paramedics behind the line to help anyone who is hurt."


Another update: The couple photographed kissing on the ground in the midst of the chaos of Vancouver's riot Wednesday night have been identified.


Media reports say the pair are 29-year-old Australian Scott Jones and his girlfriend Canadian Alex Thomas.


Thomas is reportedly a student at the University of Guelph in Ontario.


Jones's father outted his son in a Facebook post.


"This is my Son," Brett Jones wrote next to the now-famed photo of the pair, which was snapped by freelance photographer Rich Lam during the riot. "Hows (sic) that for making love not war!"


Scott Jones' family told the Australian news website Ninemsn that her brother and Thomas had recently started dating.


"It is something he would do; that's our boy," mother Megan Jones told the site. "He has always lived in his own world. He's special like that. He doesn't always connect with what (is) going on around him."


The family said Jones has been in Canada for six months, working as a bartender and performing a live standup show


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Love+among+ruins+Details+about+couple+Vancouver+Riot+Kiss+photo+revealed/4959172/story.html#ixzz1PY4mD1ha

Well, that picture does not tell what really happened to the couple.

Here's the real gist:

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


17 June 2011 Last updated at 10:25 GMT
Vancouver riots: A kiss amid the chaos?
By Anna Jones

BBC News

In the aftermath of the ice hockey riots which broke out in Vancouver on Wednesday night, the Canadian public have been left asking two questions.

Firstly, how did their city, considered by many to be one of the world's most pleasant to live in, come to be the scene of such wanton violence? And secondly, was that really a photograph of a couple locked in a passionate embrace lying in the street between rioters and police?

Amid images of burning cars, furious faces and smashed shop windows, the couple seem almost serene - he romantically leaning over, her arm on his neck and her skirt raised.

The photo has gone viral, has its own Photoshopped meme and a @kissingcouple now have a Twitter account.

"What were we thinking?" says the second of the two posts so far.

'Visible pain'

But details are emerging which suggest the battlefield clinch may not be all it seems and that instead of a moment of careless abandon the woman may have been injured in the unrest and was being comforted rather than embraced.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
I don't think they were in any mood for people to be playing around setting something up like this”
End Quote
Richard Lam

Photographer
"The police line rushed the crowd and this couple trying to stay together couldn't react in time and were run over by two riot police officers," a man called William who said he witnessed the incident told the Vancouver Sun.

"The girl who was knocked over landed head first on the pavement with her boyfriend landing partially on top of her. She was in visible pain, crying, but the two officers gave them a parting shove and moved on. Bystanders went to make sure she was OK."

Another person wrote on an ice hockey fan site that the police had contained the area but left the couple alone.

"The girl appeared to hurt her ankle and that is why the photo was able to come into existence," he said.

Vancouver police have not commented on what happened and there are few official details on the incident. It is not yet known whether the woman was among some 150 people who needed hospital treatment.

A second image taken from another angle does little to clear up the mystery. It shows the couple on the ground but surrounded by people - some have said this shows they were in need of help while others have suggested it is proof the whole thing was staged.


Does this show more concern than romance? But photographer Richard Lam - who said that at first he had no idea of the drama he had captured - thinks this is unlikely.

"What you don't see in the frame is that 20ft beyond is the mounted [police] squad, on horseback. I don't think they were in any mood for people to be playing around setting something up like this," he told the Atlantic Wire.

"I wasn't hanging around at all, it was chaos. Maybe someone had a really brilliant idea to do it, I don't know. I don't want to speculate. The police line had just moved, there was tear gas, people were getting pepper sprayed, there was a lot going on."

A woman in Australia has now come forward to say the man is her son, Scott Jones, and that the woman is his Canadian girlfriend, Alex Thomas.

"It is something he would do, that's our boy," Megan Thomas told NineMSN.

"He has always lived in his own world, he's special like that. He doesn't always connect with what's going on around him. He just reacts and the whole world goes on around him."

She added that her son has been doing some standup comedy while in Canada, prompting suggestions this was an attempt by him to create some new material for his act.

Mr Thomas's family said his Facebook page was covered with comments from friends who had spotted him in the international news coverage of the riots.

His reported response: "Classic! This was shortly after the riot police run over the top of us and naturally Alex needed some comforting."

As Vancouverites take to the streets again, this time to clear up the mess left behind by some of the worst rioting in the city's memory, some Tweeters have suggested solving the mystery of the couple may not be a priority.

"People, if you have time to hunt for the kissing couple maybe you could help identifying the rioters first," wrote Eltaria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13807494

You mean this picture?

You think it would be difficult for the police to pick this guy up?

The "stars" of the show

How can you go about looting shops and destroying police cars and posing for cameras at the same time in this age of the social media?

Is it that they are high on something, dumb or is it just that mob mentality of "well, since there are many of us involved, it is not a crime?"