Congrats to you and your very loyal moderators - especially mukky, oam4j, r231, dani1luv, iice,ogugua, jesoul, tgirl4real, odunnu,inspired-m[main man!],lawyer, yamakuza![i like that handle!], ajanlekoko, justwise[truly wise], honeric01 and semid4lyfe[great guys] and the rest of them moderators. you guys are representing very fine! really making Naija great!

I noticed in yahoo comments that posts are hidden only if it has a lot of low rating - even when it is hidden, you still have the option of click on the post to open and read it at your own discretion is it possible to implement such on nairaland?

PhysicsQed:


Wow. Fukk Allafrica news. They fukked up this story so massively and people are just running with it. Part of the blame should also go the OP as well, for not correcting that crap.

Benin — Medical staff of the Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu, Edo State have embarked on an indefinite strike over the appointment of Dr. Sunday Olotu as Medical Director of the hospital.

The medical workers said they want an indigene of Benin as the new medical director and they have threatened to release all lunatics in the hospital if their demand was not met.

Olotu was appointed as substantive medical director through an appointment letter dated March 26, and signed by the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the staff of the hospital, however, kicked against the appointment of Dr. Olotu. It issued a notice on April 2, signed by its chairman, Comrade K. O. Oriakhi and five others, calling for a three-day warning strike

sherbol:

@spikedcylinder,i dont tink u r sane atall.
do u tink dis is a forum where u just open your large stinking mouth and say anything u like?
u nid 2 go 4 help.
is it a must dat u say somtin?
i hereby move d motion 4 your membership 2 b deactivated on dis forum!

China shuts down legal center, revokes licenses


Beijing officials shut down a legal research center led by activist lawyers Friday, while China revoked the licenses of more than 50 lawyers, many known for their human rights cases.

The moves appear to be a new government push to oversee Chinese activist lawyers, who run the risk of being detained, harassed, attacked and threatened with disbarment for their work. China is also preparing for the communist state's 60th anniversary on Oct. 1 — a particularly sensitive period when dissent is not tolerated.

About 20 officials from Beijing's Civil Affairs Bureau showed up Friday morning at the offices of the Gongmeng rights group's legal research center and confiscated computers and other equipment, said office manager Tian Qizhuang. They also questioned researchers and other employees on the nature of their work.

"They said the research center was not properly registered," Tian said. "We didn't want to resist them, but what they are doing violates the law. , Shutting us down is the same as shutting down Gongmeng."

Xu Zhiyong, one of Gongmeng's lawyers, said the legal center was a department of Gongmeng, which has proper registration.

Xu said the center does legal research on public welfare and offers legal aid. Most recently, lawyers from Gongmeng represented parents whose children got sick in a widespread scandal involving milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

The legal center's shutdown came two days after Beijing's tax bureau fined the group 1.4 million yuan (US$200,000) because it said the group had not paid taxes.

Xu said there had been only a delay and that the full amount had been paid.

"We made a small mistake, but it was not serious. The tax bureau levied the heaviest fine to us. It's not fair," he said.

Neither the tax bureau nor the civil affairs bureau responded to faxed questions regarding the shutdown.

In addition, the licenses of 53 lawyers in Beijing have been canceled, effectively banning them from working.

A notice posted last week on the Beijing Justice Bureau's Web site said the lawyers had been penalized because they did not pass an assessment by their firms or failed to register with the bureau.

The notice gave no details besides a list of names, including Jiang Tianyong, who recently defended a Tibetan Buddhist cleric against charges of concealing weapons in an area of China where anti-government protests occurred.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090717/ap_on_re_as/as_china_lawyers

"A British consulate for the Bights of Benin and Biafra was established in 1849 on the off-shore Spanish island of Fernando Po. In 1853 the appointment was divided with a consul for the Bight of Benin at Lagos. The consulate for the Bight of Biafra was transferred to Old Calabar in 1852.

"A British protectorate was proclaimed over the coastal area, [size=14pt]with the exceptions of the colony of Lagos [/size] and the centre of the Niger delta, on 5 June 1885. It was not, however, until July 1891 that steps were taken to set up an administration with the consul-general at Old Calabar and vice-consuls at some of the river ports.
"The consulate-general at Old Calabar and the vice-consulates at Benin, Bonny, Brass, Forcados, and Opobo acted as collection and distribution centres for mail from November 1891, but were not recognized as post offices until 20 July 1892."

http://www.stampwhiz.com/080293.html

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Masked and hooded Belfast Catholics hurled gasoline bombs, fireworks and other makeshift weapons at police all night Monday as the most bitterly divisive day on the Northern Ireland calendar reached an ugly end.

Several rioters and at least nine officers were injured, none seriously, when Irish nationalists in Ardoyne, a militant Catholic enclave of north Belfast, tried to block a parade by the Orange Order, Northern Ireland's major Protestant brotherhood.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090714/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nireland_orange_parades

Iraqi officials tightened security around churches in Baghdad and in two mostly Christian towns on Monday and braced for possible violence this weekend when huge crowds visit a holy Shiite shrine in the capital.

A series of church bombings targeting Iraq's Christian minority killed at least four people Sunday, including one that happened as worshippers were leaving Mass in eastern Baghdad.

Also on Sunday, a bomb exploded near a convoy of American personnel that included U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill, though no one was injured.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090713/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Hours after Sunday's riot, when police were still trying to pacify Urumqi's streets, Xinjiang's leaders went on TV to denounce Uighur separatists living abroad for using Diyarim and Uighurbiz to organize the disturbance.