₦airaland Forum

Trump says Pyongyang ‘disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President.

Seoul: North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile Saturday in apparent defiance of a concerted US push for tougher international sanctions to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

The latest launch, which South Korea said was a failure, came just hours after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the UN Security Council of “catastrophic consequences” if the international community — most notably China — failed to pressure the North into abandoning its weapons programme.

Military options for dealing with the North were still “on the table”, Tillerson warned in his first address to the UN body.

The launch ratchets up tensions on the Korean peninsula, with Washington and Pyongyang locked in an ever-tighter spiral of threat, counter-threat, and escalating military preparedness.

US President Donald Trump, who has warned of a “major conflict” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s regime, said the latest test was a pointed snub to China — the North’s main ally and economic lifeline.

“North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!” Trump tweeted.

The US is deploying a naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier to the Korean peninsula, and a missile-defence system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) that officials say will be operational “within days”.

North Korea recently conducted its biggest-ever firing drill and has threatened to “bury at sea” the US aircraft carrier, and there are signs it could be preparing for a sixth nuclear test.

South Korea’s defence ministry said it suspected Saturday’s missile test had failed after a brief flight, while the US military’s Pacific Command confirmed the rocket did not leave North Korean territory.


Risk of nuclear attack ‘real’

China pushed back at Tillerson’s call at the UN Security Council for it to do more to rein in Pyongyang, arguing that it was unrealistic to expect one country to solve the conflict.

“The use of force does not solve differences and will only lead to bigger disasters,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

His country, he said, should not be “a focal point of the problem on the peninsula” and stressed that “the key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side”.
Russia joined China in saying a military response would be disastrous and appealing for a return to talks and de-escalation.

Military action was “completely unacceptable”, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the council, and a miscalculation could have “frightening consequences”.

But Tillerson argued that diplomacy had to be backed with credible muscle.
“Diplomatic and financial levers of power will be backed up by willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action, if necessary,” he said.

“The threat of a North Korean nuclear attack on Seoul or Tokyo is real, and it is likely only a matter of time before North Korea develops the capability to strike the US mainland.”

China wants talks
The meeting of the top UN body on Friday laid bare major differences among key powers over the way to address the North Korea crisis.

Over the past 11 years, the Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions on Pyongyang — two adopted last year — to significantly ramp up pressure and deny the North Korean regime the hard currency revenue needed for its military programmes.

But UN sanctions experts have repeatedly told the council the measures have had little impact because they have been poorly implemented.

Tillerson called on all countries to downgrade or sever diplomatic relations with North Korea and impose targeted sanctions on entities and individuals supporting its missile and nuclear program.

The United States is ready to impose sanctions on third countries where companies or individuals are found to have helped North Korea’s military programmes, he said.

China instead wants Pyongyang to freeze its military programmes in exchange for a halt to US-South Korean annual drills.
“Now is the time to seriously consider talks,” said Wang.

But Tillerson was blunt in saying it was up to North Korea to take the first concrete steps.
“We will not negotiate our way back to the negotiating table,” he said. “We will not reward their bad behaviour with talks.”

The United States, Russia and China took part in six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearisation from 2003 to 2009, along with Japan, South Korea and Pyongyang.

source:https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/north-korea-fires-missile-defying-us.html

princechurchill:
Our president is 8 years older than him right?

google them age

Fortunate Fiberesima is accused of awarding contracts to companies in which he had a personal interest

ABUJA: Nigeria’s ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s former doctor was charged Tuesday with six accounts of money laundering, the country’s anti-corruption agency said.

Fortunate Fiberesima, who worked as Jonathan’s personal physician in 2012, is accused of awarding contracts to companies in which he had a personal interest, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said.

Fiberesima, former head of the State House Medical Centre, pleaded not guilty to all charges at a court in Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital, it said.

He was ordered to be released on bail pending trial, which will start on June 6.

President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general who first led a military regime in the 1980s, has made combating Nigeria’s rampant corruption a hallmark of his tenure.

A two-year campaign by the EFCC has seen the agency seize hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly ill-gotten gains and there has been a string of high-profile arrests.

However, there has yet to be a conclusion to any corruption trial.

Buhari’s critics accuse him of conducting a witch-hunt, targeting opposition party members or those who served in the previous administration.

The government dismisses the criticism, insisting that anyone with a proven case of graft would face the law.

On April 19, Buhari, pressed by the Nigerian Senate, suspended two key aides over alleged irregularities.

David Babachir Lawal, a top-ranking member of the administration, was alleged last year to have awarded contracts running into millions of naira to companies in which he had interests.

Buhari also suspended Ayo Oke, head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), one of the country’s spy bodies, pending an investigation into the discovery of a stash of cash in a private apartment.

source:https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/doctor-to-ex-nigerian-leader-accused-of.html

US president says Washington losing a 'tremendous amount of money' defending the kingdom

Washington: President Donald Trump complained on Thursday that US ally Saudi Arabia was not treating the United States fairly and Washington was losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump confirmed his administration was in talks about possible visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel in the second half of May. He is due to make his first trip abroad as president for a May 25 NATO summit in Brussels and could add other stops.

“Frankly, Saudi Arabia has not treated us fairly, because we are losing a tremendous amount of money in defending Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Trump’s criticism of Riyadh, the world’s top oil exporter, was a return to his 2016 election campaign rhetoric when he accused the kingdom of not pulling its weight in paying for the US security umbrella.

“Nobody’s going to mess with Saudi Arabia because we’re watching them,” Trump told a campaign rally in Wisconsin a year ago. “They’re not paying us a fair price. We’re losing our shirt.”
Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman met with Trump last month in a meeting that was hailed by a senior Saudi adviser as a “historical turning point” in relations.
The talks appeared to signal a meeting of the minds on many issues, including their shared view that Iran posed a regional security threat.

Riyadh and other Gulf allies see in Trump a strong president who will shore up Washington’s role as their main strategic partner and help contain Riyadh’s adversary Iran in a region central to US security and energy interests, regional analysts said.

A visit to Israel would reciprocate a White House visit in February by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to meet Trump next Wednesday in Washington.
Trump has set a more positive tone with Israel than his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, who often clashed with the right-wing Israeli leader, and has raised concerns among Palestinians that their leaders may not get equal treatment.

Trump has also asked Israel to put unspecified limits on its building of colonies on Palestinian land, and has promised to seek a Middle East peace deal that eluded his predecessors. However, he has offered no new diplomatic prescriptions.

“I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians,” he said. “There is no reason there’s not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - none whatsoever.”

source:https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/trump-saudis-not-treated-us-fairly.html

Vorpal:
So what does your comparison hope to achieve now?

to know the difference now, e.g for those coming to Nigeria

asuustrike2009:
That's culture for you but you fail to mention that in Nigeria female children are looked down. You would notice it when a woman gives birth to a baby, the mode and laughter changes on hearing it's a boy or girl. Some part of Nigeria doesn't allow their female child to inherit their family wealth

yeah but not all tribe does dat

Like many overnight sensations, John Boyega worked on his craft for a very long time indeed before he became famous.
The British actor was five years old when he first realised his love for performing, while playing a leopard in an infant school production.
“I went on all fours,” he has said, “and gave him a character breakdown.”
Eighteen years later, and having been cast on the strength of his first ever movie role, the Peckham native found himself as the leading man in one of the most anticipated movies in history, playing stormtrooper Finn in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Next month will see Boyega, 25, crossing another frontier, playing the title character on the London stage in Georg Buchner’s 19th-century German classic Woyzeck, in a new version written specially for him.
It is the actor’s first stage role for almost eight years and his first ever lead — a daunting leap, perhaps, to now find himself fronting a major production on the hallowed stage of the Old Vic.
But the young man who carried the weight of the retooled Star Wars franchise, while brushing aside racist protests about the casting of a black actor as a stormtrooper, has very broad shoulders, according to Woyzeck director Joe Murphy.
“We can’t overestimate the insane pressure of Star Wars,” Murphy said. “Coping with that has given him some serious mental strength, and has really built up those emotional muscles that know how to deal with pressure, know what it is to be a leading man.
“Of course, there’s a level of inexperience — he hasn’t done this kind of role before.
“But I think the last few years’ experience has prepped him really well to take this kind of challenge on.”
The historic theatre on London’s South Bank is only a few miles from the council estate where Boyega grew up, but it might as well have been another galaxy, he said this week.
“Growing up, I used to get the bus, the 171, and I would pass the Old Vic and I thought: ‘Who goes to see plays there, man?’ It felt to me so distant.” Yet, while Boyega’s housing estate background was far from privileged, he has always resisted attempts to portray his childhood as a gritty urban struggle dominated by gangs and crime.
Boyega was born in Camberwell in 1992, the youngest child and only son of Samson, a Pentecostal minister, and Abigail, who works with disabled children. The couple had moved to the UK from Nigeria some years earlier. It is true that Boyega and his sisters were friends with Damilola Taylor, who was murdered on their estate in 2000 at the age of 10, and were with the young boy just before he was killed, something the actor has resisted talking about before this week.
The incident was horrifying, Boyega told the London Evening Standard. But, he added: “Just because you’re in the area, doesn’t mean you have to carry all the circumstances that come with it.”



Unique presence

It was Teresa Early, the artistic director of local community drama group Theatre Peckham, who first spotted an eight-year-old Boyega when he was appearing in a play at his primary school.
“I looked at that little boy,” she said, “and I thought: ‘Hmmm. There’s something going on in that child.’ Because he had a presence.”
She decided to offer the boy a place at the community theatre’s drama school, where he became a “delightfully eager” student.
“He has got a high, strong energy, and he was focused in what he did,” she said.
“If John was being a rabbit, he would be a rabbit. If he was being Captain Hook, he would be Captain Hook, and there would be a visible difference between the two.”
But as the young boy became involved in more and more productions — “He couldn’t keep away,” according to Early — his close-knit family took some convincing that there was a future in his all-consuming hobby.
“I think his parents’ ambitions didn’t really include him being an actor. His father is a pastor, and I think he thought that John would follow in his footsteps.
“I think it’s quite conceivable, frankly, that his father as a role model did give John a good idea of how to hold an audience.”
She recalls meeting the actor’s father, who was seeking reassurance on “the question of whether you could be a good person and an actor... later, after John had started making his first films, he actually phoned me and said it was a really good thing that John was an actor. So he is now completely behind him, which is great.”
After secondary school, the young Boyega took a diploma in performing arts at South Thames College before enrolling at the Identity School of Acting in Hackney.
A small role as part of an ensemble cast in a play called Category B at the Tricycle theatre in Kilburn, north London, followed in 2009.
It would lead to his first major break, after he was seen by Joe Cornish — the comedian and writer/director — who was looking for young unknown actors for what would become his first feature film, Attack the Block (2011).
“John was onstage for about 10 minutes, playing the son of one of the adult characters,” said Cornish of the Tricycle play. “He didn’t say much but he had a real presence and really expressive face. He drew the eye, even though he wasn’t saying much.”
His screen test was also impressive, Cornish said. “We sort of cast the rest of the gang in Attack the Block around him, because he was so good and had such quiet charisma.”
One of Cornish’s ambitions for the film was to “provide a launchpad” for its young actors, including the 19-year-old Boyega.
“We knew we were going to cast five unknowns, and we wanted to give them a break,” he said. “It’s quite something to be given the opportunity to carry a feature film at that age.”

Launchpad

It did indeed provide a launchpad after the very funny movie, in which a group of inner London teenagers gang together to defeat aliens invading their housing estate, was particularly warmly reviewed in the US.
“As soon as we started screening it, people said [of Boyega]: ‘This kid is something else.’”
One of the film’s unexpected fans was the US film director and producer JJ Abrams. According to Cornish, he was woken by his wife, who — having just seen the film — urged him to check out the young man playing the leading youth, Moses.
In 2011, finding himself in Los Angeles, Boyega by chance ran into Abrams and Tom Cruise, who were working together on one of the Mission Impossible films. Abrams told the young actor: “I am going to get you in something.” And so it proved when, several years later, Abrams told Boyega, after seven months of tortuous auditions, that the career-making role in The Force Awakens was his.
If Star Wars certainly turned Boyega’s world upside down, the young man who had taken Harrison Ford for pounded yam on the Old Kent Road showed an admirable degree of self-possession in dealing with the publicity firestorm he encountered.
Asked by the New York Times how he felt about the racist abuse he received when he was cast as a stormtrooper, he said: “It made me feel fine. I’m grounded in who I am, and I am a confident black man... they’re stupid and I’m not going to lose sleep over those people.”
Instead, he took to making surprise appearances at cinemas where the movie was being screened, delighting fans.
Boyega is not afraid of speaking out, dismissing Samuel L Jackson’s recent suggestion that black British actors do not “really feel” African American experiences as “a stupid-[expletive] conflict we don’t have time for”.
But he apologised for remarks he made while collecting an award that black actors complaining about diversity “is not going to benefit us”, which were criticised by Sir Lenny Henry and others.
Murphy said he was particularly eager to cast a non-white, working-class actor as the titular Woyzeck (the play, first performed in 1913, has been updated to 1980s Berlin by This is England and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne ).
Murphy had that casting aim because, he said: “I think class is a big thing in the theatre that doesn’t get discussed enough.”
So he is now looking forward to Boyega bringing a new audience to the theatre from Peckham, and from other places “far, far away”.
He added: “We are really excited about the Old Vic crowd and John’s crowd coming together and watching a play.
“It feels like the more diverse that audience is — in terms of class, ethnicity, life experience, gender, age — the better that experience is.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/john-boyega-from-uk-to-hollywood-and.html

Last year, militant attacks cut oil production to 1.4 million barrels per day in August, triggering Nigeria’s worst economic slump in 25 years

Kana Rugbana, Nigeria: Nigerian commander Remi Fadairo points to the roiling plume of black smoke blotting the morning horizon in the Niger Delta — the unmistakable sign of an illicit oil refinery.

“Let’s see if we can go eat them for breakfast,” he says with an ominous chuckle.

The 44-year-old colonel, a man with broad shoulders wearing his fatigues tucked into gumboots, is standing in the middle of a destroyed illicit refinery in Kana Rugbana, an area in the swamplands some 20 nautical miles from Port Harcourt.

Fadairo is part of the Joint Task Force Operation Delta Safe, a coalition of Nigerian security forces tasked with protecting the country’s oil and gas infrastructure.

source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/nigeria-cracks-down-on-illicit-oil.html

Last year, militant attacks cut oil production to 1.4 million barrels per day in August, triggering Nigeria’s worst economic slump in 25 years.

Following talks with the government, the militants have suspended their sabotage. But Nigerian troops on the ground say the battle isn’t over, it’s just changed.

Today, the military says one of its priorities is to crack down on the illicit refineries that they claim fund the operations of the militants.

“The two are interwoven, if they aren’t doing militancy, they are doing this,” Fadairo tells AFP as he wades through crude-soaked muck.

Despite the site looking like a scrap yard, Fadairo says it actually is being rehabilitated, showing new silver pipes welded to a rusted metal container.

On the ground between iridescent oil puddles lay little sachets of gin, empty packets of instant noodles and cigarette butts left by the bush distillers.

“We just destroyed all this but they are back,” says Fadairo. “They are trying to revive it.”

The illicit refineries are just one component of oil theft in Nigeria, a mammoth industry estimated to be worth as much as $8 billion a year, according to a 2013 report by Chatham House, a London think tank.
Image result for Nigeria cracks down on illicit oil refineries pics

“The principal security concerns are endemic corruption, which creates economic discontent, breakdown of the rule of law, which allows for criminality to be normalised, and the funding of militancy,” said Ian Ralby, founder of the I.R. Consilium, a security advisory firm.

In the past month, Fadairo’s troops have destroyed more than 10 illicit refineries, which process oil stolen from the pipelines of multinational companies, including Shell and Eni, by heating it in car-sized metal containers.

The waste is dumped into the surrounding swamplands, turning what should be a wetland paradise into a monochrome nightmare dominated by the white skeletons of dead mangrove trees.

These artisanal refineries, as they are sometimes called, employ upwards of 50 men each, who work through the night to avoid detection.

They offer a rare job opportunity to thousands of unemployed men in the Niger Delta suffering from extreme poverty.

For militants like the Niger Delta Avengers, who say crude is their birthright, refining represents something bigger — a chance to take back oil profits from corporations and the Nigerian government.

Perhaps recognising that fighting illicit refineries is an exercise in futility, as part of the government’s Niger Delta outreach program Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has proposed legalising the “modular refineries”.

“There is a way out of violent agitation, but it is by creating opportunities and the environment where the people in the communities can benefit,” Osinbajo said in early April.

As an olive-branch to the Niger Delta, Osinbajo’s plan has been welcomed by community leaders. Making it a reality is more complicated.

Too many people, ranging from the refiners to militants to corrupt officials, have got used to enjoying the untaxed spoils of the land.

Any disturbance to the delicate balance in the region may result in violence and, in the worst-case scenario for cash-strapped Nigeria, further disruptions to oil production.

Going into presidential polls in 2019, analysts say the likelihood of more unrest is high, especially once electioneering begins in earnest.

“Rival theft networks can lapse into turf wars and the proceeds from stolen oil could continue to be used to finance election bids,” explains Gillian Parker, a Nigerian analyst at the Control Risks consultancy.

Until then, Nigerian forces will continue playing the cat-and-mouse game in the creeks.
For Fadairo and his team by mid-morning they have arrived in gunboats at the site of another illicit refinery.

Landing on a sandy shore gently lapped by oily waves, the troops spot a group of men fleeing from the bush and disappearing into the creeks in a speed boat.

“Sometimes they can out-manoeuvre us,” says an officer, squinting his eyes as the men make their getaway. “The water is very wild.”

Secretary General of Opec said all twenty four countries involved in the accord are committed to supply cuts to rebalance oil market

Abu Dhabi: Oil markets are on path to recovery due to measures taken by Opec and non-Opec members to cut production by about 1.8 million barrels per day from January this year, secretary general of Opec said at the third GCC petroleum media forum that kicked off in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

“We are optimistic that policy measures already placed us on the path of recovery. There has been a high level of compliance among oil producers to cut production and bring stability to oil markets,” said Mohammad Barkindo adding that 94 per cent compliance was recorded in February which was eight per cent higher than January figures.

“March data is showing better performance with higher conformity in line with our commitment. Our collective action will continue to prove effective and bring us results we are seeking. Both Opec and non-Opec members are committed to achieve the objective of bringing down the stock levels to bring stability to oil markets.”

Thirteen members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and 11 non-Opec members agreed to cut production by about 1.8 million barrels a day to prop up oil prices in December last year.

Opec agreed to slash output by 1.2 million barrels a day and non-Opec members led by Russia promised to cut 558,000 barrels a day.

Oil prices jumped by more than 10 per cent following the deal with international benchmark Brent crude currently trading above $55 (Dh202) per barrel.

Possibility of extension
Libya, Nigeria have been exempted from the deal as their production is affected due to internal conflicts and Iran has been allowed to increase production to pre sanction levels of about four million barrels a day.

When asked whether Libya, Nigeria and Iran would be asked to join the production cut deal if there is an extension, Barkindo said it would be premature to talk about this as the meeting is still one month away.

On the possibility of extension of the deal beyond June, he said they would meet next month to decide on this and any decision taken would be in the interest of all producers, consumers and the global industry.

“We would like to see market coming to balance and we would like to see an equilibrium of price that will encourage investors to come back not only in short cycle projects but also in the long cycle projects.”

He did not specify what the equilibrium price is but said it would be determined by the market when supply and demand converge.

Speaking to reporters at the same event, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui said the market is correcting itself with no huge fluctuations in oil prices.

“I am optimistic about the second half and I think if we continue to achieve what we managed to achieve, we will see better results.”

The UAE is also planning to raise production capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2018, Al Mazroui added.

source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/oil-markets-on-path-to-recovery-due-to.html

PrinceAbinibi:
by the way we say trousers not pants. pants here means pata.

yeah that too

Definition of culture: the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group:

I lived in Nigeria for 12years and in the states for 12years. Some differences I have noticed in Nigerian and American culture. I left Nigeria 12years ago, some things about Nigeria might be different but you will get the gist.
General Culture:
-Nigerian culture: grouped by language. Each language has its own culture. People who speak the same language share the same culture. For example: People who speak Yoruba language share the same culture.
-American culture: It’s really hard to sum up the American culture because it’s so diverse. The way people think in the North is not the way people think in the South. I think the social norms are similar across the states.

Social Norms
Nigerian: Can’t call your elders by their first name. Instead you say “Aunty” or “Uncle” even though they are not related to you. Professionally: Say “Madame” or “Sir”
American: Can call elders by their first name. Professionally: Say “Ma’am” or “Sir”
Family:
Nigerian Parents: Very strict and not affectionate. They are not open to meeting girlfriends or boyfriends except you are getting engaged to them.
American Parents: Lenient and more affectionate. They are open to meeting the people their kids are dating.
Kids:
Nigerian: Kids can live with their parents till they get married with full support from their parents.
American: legal adult age is 18 which mean their parents can kick them out of the house at this age. That’s why a lot of Americans are independent by this age. Their culture encourages independence by 18.
Education:
Nigerian: Value Education.. Education is HUGE in our Culture!!!! Uneducated people are undermined and look down upon.
American: Education is huge in American Culture as well but it varies among ethnic groups.
School
Nigerian: Nursery, Primary and Secondary school students are required to wear uniforms. University students can wear what they like. Teachers and senior students can punish junior students in Primary and secondary schools.
American: Private school students have to wear uniforms. Public students can wear what they like. University students can wear what they like.
Clothing:
Nigerian: When I was in Nigeria, it wasn’t socially acceptable for girls to wear pants but I think time is changing (it’s becoming more socially acceptable).
American: Women can wear pants. It’s socially acceptable for women to wear pants. It is very possible for a woman to wear pants all year without wearing skirts and dresses (very possible).
Shopping:
Nigerian: You can bargain prices and buy things at a lower price. Supermarkets you can’t bargain.
American: No bargaining. The price you see is what you pay except they are on sale or you have a coupon. People can bargain at auctions and stuff.
Misc-
Nigerian: Social economic class competitions.
American: Race Issues
Greetings:
Nigeria: Shake hands elders with both hands instead of one. Never greet an elder with a left hand. Showing respect to elders is very important in our culture.
American: Doesn’t really matter.
https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/nigerian-vs-american-culture.html

90’ — GOAL! Real Madrid 2-3 Barcelona. AMAZING! Lionel Messi scores a winner in stoppage time! Instead of wasting time, Madrid commits too many men forward for the winner and gets carved up. The Blaugrana go end-to-end in 10 seconds, Sergi Roberto cuts it back, and Messi scores with the last kick of the ball.
86’ — GOAL! Real Madrid 2-2 Barcelona. Substitute James Rodriguez equalizes for Los Merengues with only 10 men! Marcelo, who’s been the best player on the pitch for either team, provides the assist. Despite Madrid playing with 10 men and only one defender, they’ve overpowered Barca. Incredible.
82’ — Real Madrid doesn’t have a defender on the bench to replace Ramos, and since they’re trailing, they’re not even going to put in a makeshift one. Nacho — Madrid’s 4th choice center back — is going at it alone. That means their midfield is stretched badly and having to do things like hack down Messi early, which Kovacić just got a yellow card for.
80’ — Tough to see Madrid getting back in this game, but Navas is giving them a chance. He makes another great stop on Piqué.
78’ — RED CARD! Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos is shown a straight red, and it’s an easy call. Launched himself into Lionel Messi, high and late, with two feet and got nowhere near the ball.
75’ — Once again, Ronaldo shoots and ter Stegen saves. Had to check to make sure it wasn’t a replay.
73’ — GOAL! Real Madrid 1-2 Barcelona. What a hit by Ivan Rakitić! From 25 yards, the Croatian midfielder curls a shot around the hand of Keylor Navas. The Madrid goalkeeper never had a chance. And if Barca can hold on, they’ll be back in the La Liga title race.
72’ — Yet another ter Stegen save, this time from Asensio. If the score holds, MATS is the clear man of the match.
70’ — Substitution for Real Madrid. Casemiro is off, Mateo Kovacić is on. Casemiro picked up a yellow in the first half and the referee was very kind to not send him off on a couple of occasions. Barca has opted to add some numbers to midfield and push Messi up the pitch, bringing on Andre Gomes for Alcácer.
68’ — Incredible from Navas! Iniesta finds Suárez with a sensational through ball and it looks like he has an easy goal, but Navas quickly gets across his goal and comes up with a fantastic stop.
67’ — Big miss by Ronaldo, though it wasn’t exactly his fault. Benzema plays Asensio through, but he’s not on the same page with his superstar. CR7 moves a hair early, Asensio plays the ball a hair late, Ronaldo reaches back and can’t make good contact.
65’ — It feels like either team could score at any time. The ball isn’t spending a ton of time in the midfield, both teams are attacking vertically and aggressively.
59’ — Another excellent save by Navas! Piqué wins a header off a corner and directs it towards the top corner, but Madrid’s goalkeeper reacts as quickly as a human being reasonably could.
56’ — Signs of live from Barcelona. Rakitić to Alcácer, but Keylor Navas makes a very nice save. To be honest, Alcácer should have been able to place it somewhere that Navas couldn’t get it, Rakitić’s pass had completely beaten the defense.
53’ — Ter Stegen again! Marcelo to Benzema, but the Barca keeper comes up with a kick save. The Barca defense is virtually absent today.
52’ — Fun fact here: Casemiro is the 100th Madrid player to score in El Clásico.
48’ — Ter Stegen makes another excellent save. This time, it’s off a 20-yard drive from Toni Kroos, set up brilliantly by Marcelo. Barcelona’s asking a lot of their goalkeeper today.
47’ — Marco Asensio looks ready to make an impact. He makes an excellent runs forward, lays off to Carvajal, and Piqué just barely puts it out for a corner to prevent the goal-scoring chance. Nothing comes of the corner, but it’s a good sign for Los Merengues.
46’ — We’re back for the second half. No changes for either team at halftime.
3:45 p.m. — The halftime stats show how each team has executed their style. Barca has 60 percent possession and 93 more completed passes than Madrid, but Los Merengues have had better chances to score. Even though they haven’t been around Barcelona’s box that often, they’ve been dangerous when they got there, putting six shots on target to Barcelona’s one.
HALFTIME — Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona.
That was everything we ask for from El Clásico and more. Extremely fast paced, spectacular last-ditch defending and a goal for each team. One of the best halves of soccer we’ve watched anywhere in the world this season.
44’ — This is a big moment for Asensio. He’s shown flashes of brilliance this season, but he hasn’t been asked to put together a big end-to-end performance in a game like this before. He’s one of the world’s most promising young players and in line for more playing time next season, but he’s being asked to grow up early.
39’ — Bad news for Madrid. Bale, who had a calf problem coming into this game, goes down clutching that calf. He’ll be subbed off, and interestingly, for Marco Asensio. That suggests Zidane values a goal more than defense and possession; some fans might have expected Isco.
36’ — Big save by ter Stegen. Modrić takes a rip from 20 yards and the German keeper makes an incredible diving stop.
33’ — GOAL! Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona. What a response from Lionel Messi and the Blaugrana! He picks up a pass on the edge of the box, slaloms through four white shirts and places the ball into the back of the net from 12 yards. Spectacular.
28’ — GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona. Casemiro scores it! After a corner, Marcelo sends a second ball in, which Sergio Ramos gets on the end of. He hits the post, but Casemiro is in position to tap in the rebound.
Terrible defense by Barcelona, both Ramos and Casemiro were completely unmarked.
26’ — More of the same: Barca possession, Madrid counters, ter Stegen in control in the Blaugrana net.
Here’s a look at Marcelo’s forearm to Messi’s mouth. It looks completely accidental, the referee was probably correct not to book the Brazilian.
21’ — Uh oh, Lionel Messi has a bloody mouth. He takes an accidental forearm from Marcelo and he doesn’t look great.
Barca’s players aren’t too angry, they seem to realize Marcelo didn’t mean it.
20’ — Marc-André ter Stegen is tested again, he makes another good save on Ronaldo.
18’ — This has settled into a match where Barcelona controls possession and Madrid counters quickly. Karim Benzema just had a shot saved off a fantastic through ball by Luka Modrić.
12’ — Bad news for Madrid, Casemiro is already on a yellow. He got beat badly by Messi, then hacked him down.
11’ — Barcelona has settled down, started putting together some passing moves, and Luis Suárez has their first half-chance. He misses a foot wide from 25 yards.
6’ — All Madrid early. They’re breaking fast quickly with some brilliant long balls. Ronaldo has the first shot of the game saved.
And an interesting wrinkle here — Zinedine Zidane has swapped his forwards. Ronaldo is on the right and Gareth Bale is on the left.
2’ — Big penalty shout! A spectacular diagonal by Sergio Ramos finds Dani Carvajal, who squares for Cristiano Ronaldo. Samuel Umtiti makes an aggressive challenge, but the referee thinks he got more of the ball than the man. And the referee is probably right.
1’ — Kickoff! If there’s a player to keep an eye on to see how the match is going for these teams, it’s Real Madrid’s defensive midfielder, No. 14 Casemiro. He’s been Madrid’s best player at times this season, and he’s had some poor games too. He’ll be tasked with making sure Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta can’t get into dangerous areas to create scoring chances.
2:44 p.m. ET — The Madridistas’ tifo says “The world is Real” and depicts their 32 La Liga titles won. If they win this game, they’ll be all but assured of 33.
On Sunday, Barcelona and Real Madrid contest the biggest game of their season so far. And for the Blaugrana, they might need to win the second La Liga edition of El Clásico in order to save their season.
Madrid got a draw at Camp Nou in the first matchup between these two teams, giving them a leg-up in the race for the La Liga title. Los Merengues have a three-point lead on Barca, and they’ll keep the head-to-head tiebreaker over their rivals with a scoreless draw or a victory.
Midweek, Madrid won in Champions League to advance to the semifinal, while Barca was knocked out. That means La Liga is everything to Barcelona now, so this game might mean even more to them than it does to Los Merengues.
This is a live blog, so this post will update constantly as the game is going on. If you refresh, you can see the latest updates above.
Lineups
Real Madrid lineup (4-3-3): Keylor Navas; Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Nacho, Dani Carvajal, Casemiro, Luka Modrić, Toni Kroos, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale
Barcelona lineup (4-3-3): Marc-André ter Stegen; Jordi Alba, Samuel Umtiti, Gerard Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitić, Andrés Iniesta, Paco Alcácer, Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi

source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/el-clasico-live-blog-scores-and.html

Justuceleague2:
Expired news or fake one??

which ever one you call it

Anything less than unity would mean near-inevitable victory for Mugabe

HARARE: President Robert Mugabe’s grip on power has faced little recent threat from Zimbabwe’s splintered opposition, but efforts to forge a unified alliance in next year’s election could test his supremacy.

Any opposition bloc would first have to overcome fierce rivalries within their various camps, and then hold together in an intense and often violent political landscape dominated by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

Two deals between opposition parties signed this week represent an embryonic attempt to forge an alternative to Mugabe’s rule, which began with independence from Britain in 1980.

Now aged 93 and in weak health, Mugabe has struggled to maintain control over ZANU-PF. The party has been hit by infighting and public frustration over the country’s economic woes.

The strife presents an opportunity to the opposition only if they can unify, according to Alois Masepe, a Harare-based political analyst.

“It is a move in the right direction,” he said of steps toward the alliance.
“A fragmented opposition does not help anyone except ZANU-PF.”

Anything less than unity would mean near-inevitable victory for Mugabe.

The going is tough, after decades of repression, vote-rigging and ZANU-PF violence during campaigning.

But another stumbling block is apathy.

“The opposition leaders must find strategies to get the people to participate,” Masepe said. “The majority ... don’t.”

On Wednesday, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), held a joint press conference with Mugabe’s former vice-president Joice Mujuru, who has set up the National People’s Party.

“This is just the beginning,” Tsvangirai said as the two signed a pact to work together to try and topple Mugabe in next year’s poll.

The following day, Tsvangirai signed another pact to re-unite with the MDC-N, which split away in 2005, and is led by the influential Welshman Ncube.

The MDC has been weakened by repeated splits, and was badly fractured by Tsvangirai’s troubled term as Mugabe’s prime minister in a coalition government from 2009 until 2013.

“We owe it to future generations, we owe it to ourselves to do everything that we can to make sure that come 2018 we won’t fail,” Ncube said.

In 2008, Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off against Mugabe after a wave of deadly violence, vote-rigging and voter intimidation from ZANU-PF operatives.

This week’s pacts, however, are fledgling.

“More still needs to be done to unravel the matrix of cheating by ZANU-PF,” warned Takavafira Zhou, a political scientist at Masvingo State University.

Another tricky problem facing any broad-based opposition alliance would be deciding which of its leaders would emerge as the candidate to take on Mugabe.

The two top names would appear to be Tsvangirai and Mujuru, who was expelled from ZANU-PF in 2015 after Mugabe’s wife, Grace, accused her of plotting against the president.

Mujuru is seen as relatively moderate, but her long record as a former Mugabe loyalist would raise major concerns among those who have opposed the regime — often at great risk — for years.

Mugabe himself has mocked the chances of would be opponents.

“They have tried this and that, been together, they split again, they talk of coalitions,” he said earlier this month.

“We look with joy as they daily turn on each other while pretending to chase a mirage they have termed the grand coalition, apparently unaware of the grand defeat that stares them in the face.”

After last week’s deals, his spokesman added: “They can sign as many MoUs (memorandums of understanding) as they like, but these MoUs don’t vote.”

Mugabe, who would be 99 if he held power through another full term, has ruled through the country’s drastic economic collapse.

Hyperinflation wiped out savings more than 10 years ago, unemployment is over 90 per cent and economic output has halved since 2000, when many white-owned farms were seized.
Strife has resurfaced. Last year street protests shut down major towns as citizens demanded help from worsening hardship.

Authorities reacted by beating up protesters, arresting activists and banning marches.

Although Mugabe has refused to name a successor, his wife Grace and vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa have been touted as favoured replacements.

source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/anti-mugabe-election-coalition-takes.html

An electric cable fell on a building where they were watching a match

Lagos: At least seven football fans were killed and 11 injured when an electric cable fell on a building where they were watching a Europa League match, Nigerian police said on Friday.

The incident happened in the southern port city of Calabar on Thursday during a quarter-final between Manchester United and Anderlecht being shown on satellite television, the police said.

“We received a report of the incident at around 10pm and on getting there were able to recover the bodies of seven people who had been electrocuted when a high tension cable fell on them,” Cross River state police spokeswoman Irene Ugbo said.

“Eleven other fans who were injured were rushed to the hospital, with one in a critical condition,” she said.

Local media said up to 30 fans were feared dead in the incident.

Ugbo ruled out any foul play in the tragedy.

source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/04/at-least-7-football-fans-electrocuted.html

Africa’s second-biggest producer will finish repairs on the Forcados pipeline by June

New York: Nigeria will revive oil production this summer as it completes maintenance and repairs, and expects fellow Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) members to continue to cut their output in the second half of the year, Oil Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said.

Africa’s second-biggest producer will finish repairs on the Forcados pipeline by June and complete maintenance at the Bonga oilfield the following month, Kachikwu said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The country’s output slumped to 1.27 million barrels a day last month, the lowest in decades, according to data provided by the nation. It aims to reach 2.2 million barrels a day.

With production losses due to militant attacks, Nigeria had been exempt from output cuts by the Opec. The nation will join the Opec measure once it has fully restored output it’s lost, which could happen as early as October or November, and meanwhile expects the counterparts to extend the cuts to keep oil prices above $50 (Dh183) a barrel, Kachikwu said.

“I’m not sure we have an alternative, we’ve got to,” Kachikwu said. “There’s a lot of energy around a six-month extension,” which should be “easy” to agree when ministers meet in May.

Maintenance reduced Nigeria’s output in March by 250,000 barrels, he said. Having been spared from militant attacks for three months, the country’s focus for boosting output is shifting away from security threats toward fiscal issues, he said.

The country’s long-delayed Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, which seeks to reform how the industry is regulated and funded, will be presented to lawmakers for consideration later this month.

Nigeria will also begin pay back a $5.1 billion debt owed to international companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA this month.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-13/nigeria-to-revive-oil-production-even-as-opec-may-extend-cuts

bishop4APC:
Because Big city of music ( Lagos ) is located in their region.... If you have not been to Lagos to exhibit your music talent , am afraid to tell you that your talent might just die with you.

AGREED

The music of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin are perhaps best known for an extremely advanced drumming tradition, especially using the dundun hourglass tension drums. Yoruba folk music became perhaps the most prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles.

Yorùbá music is regarded as one of the more important components of the modern Nigerian popular music scene. Although traditional Yoruba music was not influenced by foreign music the same cannot be said of modern-day Yoruba music which has evolved and adapted itself through contact with foreign instruments, talents and creativity. Interpretation involves rendering African, here Yoruba, musical expression using a mixture of instruments from different horizons.

Yoruba music traditionally centred on folklore and spiritual/deity worship, utilising basic and natural instruments such as clapping of the hands. Playing music for a living was not something the Yorubas did and singers were referred to in a derogatory term of Alagbe, it is this derogation of musicians that made it not appeal to modern Yoruba at the time. Although, it is true that music genres like the highlife played by musicians like Rex Lawson, Ebenezer Obey Segun Bucknor, Bobby Benson, etc., Fela Kuti's Afrobeat[13] and King Sunny Adé's jùjú[14] are all Yoruba adaptations of foreign music. These musical genres have their roots in large metropolitan cities like Lagos, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt where people and culture mix influenced by their rich culture.

Some pioneering Jùjú musicians include Tunde King, Tunde Nightingale, Why Worry in Ondo and Ayinde Bakare,Dr. Orlando Owoh, Dele Ojo, Ik Dairo Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala). sakara played by the pioneers such as Ojo Olawale in Ibadan, Abibu Oluwa, Yusuf Olatunji, Sanusi Aka, Saka Layigbade.

Apala, is another genre of Yoruba modern music which was played by spirited pacesetters such as Haruna Ishola, Sefiu Ayan, Ligali Mukaiba, Kasumu Adio, Yekini (Y.K.) Ajadi, etc.

Fuji, which emerged in the late 60s/early 70s, as an offshoot of were/ajisari music genres, which were made popular by certain Ibadan singers/musicians such as the late Sikiru Ayinde Barister, Alhaji Dauda Epo-Akara and Ganiyu Kuti or "Gani Irefin.

Another popular genre is waka music played and popularized by Alhaja Batuli Alake and, more recently, Salawa Abeni, Kuburat Alaragbo, Asanat Omo-Aje, Mujidat Ogunfalu, Misitura Akawe, Fatimo Akingbade, Karimot Aduke, and Risikat Abeawo. In both Ibadan (Nigeria's largest city), and Lagos (Nigeria's most populous city), these multicultural traditions were brought together and became the root of Nigerian popular music.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/why-yorubas-of-west-africa-are-most.html

The brown caterpillars, which cost Brazil $600m a year to control, were first reported in west and central Africa at the start of 2016.

After southern Africa’s worst drought in more than 35 years ravaged crops and sent food prices soaring, farmers are battling a new crisis: alien armyworms.

Godwin Mukenani Mwiya first noticed caterpillars chewing through his corn field south of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, near the end of December. Two weeks later, he’d lost half his crop to the pest that’s already invaded more than 10 per cent of farms in the country and spread to Zimbabwe and Malawi.
The fall armyworm that’s native to the Americas has arrived in southern Africa for the first time, wiping out tens of thousands of acres of corn fields. For a region trying to recover from drought, the pest brings renewed fears of food shortages and inflation. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation says the effects could be devastating for the area if its spread isn’t controlled.

“It’s really a national disaster because as you can see, half of my crop is gone,” Mwiya, a 56-year-old retired teacher who’s been farming for a decade, said as he scanned his ravaged field. “This has hit me below the belt.”

About 32 million people in the region with a population of 236 million will be food insecure from June 2016 to March this year, the Regional Interagency Standing Committee for southern Africa, which includes the United Nations, said in a report. Prices for white corn, a staple, are about 50 per cent above the five-year average in July, it said.

The brown caterpillars, which cost Brazil $600 million a year to control, were first reported in west and central Africa at the start of 2016. They’ve since jumped the equator into Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The spread has been more rapid than expected, according to Georg Goergen, an entomologist who’s studied their arrival and migration on the continent at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, about 115 kilometres northeast of Lagos in Nigeria.
“If not controlled in the countries affected, it will have devastating effects not only in those countries, but neighbouring countries too, because the spread capacity of this pest is very high,” said David Phiri, who coordinates the FAO’s operations in southern Africa, where corn is a staple food.

African armyworms, a close relative, are common on the continent. Malawi fought off an invasion a year ago, while an outbreak in late 2012 contributed to an 11 per cent reduction in Zambia’s corn production the following year. The fall armyworm grows to a similar size of about 4 centimetres.

Besides preying on crops, fall armyworms can become cannibalistic, eating competitors such as the African variety, according to a study by scientists including Goergen published in October.
Severe outbreaks usually arrive with the start of the rains, especially after a long period of drought, according to the study.

How did the pest arrive in Africa? The answer isn’t yet clear, though Goergen says there is evidence that there were at least two separate introductions. One of the theories he’s investigating is that the moths flew over the Atlantic Ocean. That would mean a journey of at least 3,000 kilometres between the closest points of South America and Africa.

“Among the speculations, climate change-induced variations in high-altitude wind streams may have favoured the shift from one continent to another,” he said in reply to emailed questions.

Regardless of how the pests got to the continent, their destructive capacity is clear for growers like Mwiya. His farm is part of the more than 10 per cent of Zambia’s cultivated land that’s so far been attacked.

In Zimbabwe, the caterpillars had already invaded seven of the eight provinces where corn is grown. It’s yet to be detected in South Africa, the continent’s biggest producer of the grain, with the government raising an alert and preparing contingency plans in case of an outbreak, said Jan Hendrik Venter at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ Plant Health Early Warnings unit.
Zimbabwe and Zambia are trying to contain the outbreak, with the latter declaring it a national crisis and deploying the air force to help distribute pesticide.

“There is no doubt that the introduction of this new pest will have lasting consequences for the farmer and food security in tropical Africa,” said Goergen. “There is definitively an urgent need to develop local solutions building on the experience in the Western Hemisphere and adapting them.”

The drought is easing in some areas, and “generally good rainfall” is forecast for the southern and central parts of the region, increasing chances for better production, the US Agency for International Development’s Famine early Warning Systems Network and the Southern African Development Community said in December. “However, the armyworm outbreak threatens some reversals of these gains.”

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/alien-armyworms-invade-corn-in-drought.html

Tens of thousands of UAE residents have lost life savings in dubious investment plans

Dubai: If a money-making opportunity looks too good to be true, it probably is. Tens of thousands of UAE residents have found this the hard way after losing their life savings in investment plans only to discover that these were outright Ponzi schemes. Yet such is the lure of easy money, that every few days many still get sucked into their swirling vortex of deceit.

Nearly 6,000 residents lost their money in Sunfeast Infotech, 4,000 in SpeakAsia, 1,500 in MMA Forex, 2,000 in Gold AE, 40 in Ferryland Tourism and more recently 5,000 in UT Markets and 7,000 in Exential Group.

That’s around 25,000 people duped out of roughly Dh2.5 billion in just a little over three years – Dh100,000 per person on an average.





Tip of the iceberg

Mindboggling as it sounds, this could just be the tip of the iceberg, according to Gaurang Desai, Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) owned by Dubai Government and regulated by the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA).

The derivatives marketing specialist reckons there could be 150 such fly-by-night companies in the UAE peddling get-rich quick schemes by offering annual returns of up to 120 per cent. .


Sam Instone, CEO of Dubai-based financial advisors AES International says the number could be as high as 1,000.

“A financial regulator recently told me they suspect there are more the 1000 boiler rooms (unlicensed financial people/firms), Some of these are large, legitimate looking businesses,” he said.

“The tough economic climate and the slump in savings and stocks make the perfect scenario for these thugs,” said another financial advisor.

However, like any other outwardly viable but untenable model, the Ponzi schemes look good till they last, which in most cases has rarely been beyond six years.

Sure enough, when they inevitably fall apart, they cause the equivalent of a financial apocalypse. A staggering 7,000 alone have been hit by the $300 million Exential scam.

Numbers tell half the story

But statistics are just numbers. They don’t quite show the fallout of a reckless investment and what victims go through in the aftermath of a Ponzi scam.

Understandably so they are unable to capture the plight of a Dubai father who works for a reputed airline but often doesn’t have money to buy food or this Jordanian mother in Sharjah who has been dumped by her husband and now fears losing the custody of her kids as she can’t afford to pay their school fees.

The airline staff invested $80,000 in Exential after taking a bank loan while the Jordanian mum sold her ancestral land to fork out $175,000.

“That’s all I had. My husband got so annoyed that he left me. My kids are on the verge of dropping out of school and my husband wants their custody saying I cannot look after them. My life has become a mess,” she said in a voice choked with emotion.

The airline staff said his entire salary goes towards paying off his loan. At times, I’ve no money for even food. I don’t want to cheat any bank or run away. I would rather go to jail but I dread to think about the fate of my school-going daughter should that happen,” he said.

A Dubai-based Syrian hairstylist Rafi Zazza who borrowed from relatives to open seven forex accounts of $25,000 each with the firm said he doesn’t know how to face them.” Then there are people like Elrina van Graan who’s unable to pursue the case as she’s based out of the country. “I live in South Africa and don’t know how to lodge a complaint,” she said sharing documents that show that Exential owes her over $35,000.

A majority of Exential victims are from the aviation industry but it’s people from the oil and gas sector who have taken the biggest hits --like this senior executive at an oil and gas company who reportedly has 728 accounts of $25,000 each.

Why investors fall for Ponzi schemes

So what is that causes perfectly-educated people to fall into the infallible trap of Ponzi schemes?
“Pramod Bothra, director, Evermore Global DMCC. puts it in one word – Greed. “Ponzi schemes feed on greed. People are so blinded by the seemingly incredible returns that they seldom pause to think how they could possibly earn 10-12 per cent monthly on their investments. No business offers that kind of money,” he said.

Stupidity also plays an important if not equal part. At Sunfeast Infotech, for instance, investors looking to make extra bucks from ‘outsourced projects’ were handed a flash drive with several pages of manuscript in PDF format which they were required to type into text format and submit within 25 days.

At the end of a 30-day cycle, they were paid Dh250 for the job. They had to pay a security deposit of Dh500 for each project. In theory, they got their initial investment in two months; any extra job after that was profit.

Enticed by big returns, thousands used to queue up at Sunfeast’s Oudh Mehta office during 2013 with many taking huge loans to procure hundreds of ‘projects’ at the same time.

When that was not enough, scores sold their jewellery and homes. One enterprising man even set up a temporary typing centre at his home in India where young students were hired to do the job.

Nobody bothered to find out how anyone could make a fortune out of typing a few sheets of paper. By the time the company was shut down by the Dubai Economic Department (DED) and its owners jailed for fraud, millions had been siphoned off.

Another company MMA Forex conned investors into believing they were dealing with a multi-national firm with a diversified portfolio that included an airline in Ras Al Khaimah. As it turned out, the whole thing was a sham. MMA Forex owner CEO, Malik Noureed Awan, was later arrested and sentenced to jail.

Company ran on WhatsApp

The UT Markets scam which happened around the same time as Exential is even more shocking. The company was based out of Bulgaria and managed its operations in the UAE entirely on WhatsApp.

Yet, nearly 4,000 UAE residents, largely cabin crew, gave away their hard-earned money to them without a second thought.

“They claimed they were investing our funds in foreign exchange through a trading software. At 13 per cent per month, the returns were too good to be true, and too good to be missed, recalls Indian expat A.K.

“I invested $10000 in January 2016. Encouraged by initial profits, I took a bank loan and pitched in with another $60,000 in July last year. Now it’s all stuck and I am saddled with a big loan,” said the 41-year-old, who also got his fingers burnt at Exential.

Like most victims, AK has resigned himself to fate after calls made to UT Markets’ Bulgaria office and their relationship managers remain unanswered and a letter from the country’s Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) showed the company was not licensed.


Before you are able to spot the telltale signs of a Ponzi scheme, it’s important that you understand what the fraud is all about. Named after notorious US-scamster Charles Ponzi, the scheme functions by paying off new investors with money from old ones.

“If anyone is considering investing in a scheme that they’ve been advised – or even promised - will give them very high returns -- it’s probably best to avoid it because it may well be a scam,” warns Sam Instone, CEO, AES International.

If you want advise about your finances, you should only take it from a qualified, regulated professional rather than someone who cold calls you,” he says.

“Prevention is better than cure,” says Gaurang Desai, CEO, Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX). Investors should go through registered intermediaries and make sure that the company they are dealing with is registered with exchange houses like DGCX which is regulated by federal authorities,” he says.

Instone said his advice to investors would be to buy Andrew Hallam’s book ‘The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing’ and choose how to invest from there. It has a list of all the best investment venues for a range of different nationalities and its wisdom can massively positively impact the investment outcomes people experience. If people don’t want or don’t have time to read it – they can find a fee-based independent financial planner who should tell them this. And yes, make sure the businesses is directly licensed. Don’t sign any contract without reading it – and keep on checking things!

Verifying the credentials of promoters can save you a lot of time, money and heartache,” says Pramod Bothra, director, Evermore Global DMCC.

(The author is the Editor of XPRESS, a sister publication of Gulf News.)

BOX: RED FLAGS

Guaranteed unusually high returns

Be wary of any investment scheme that promises guaranteed and consistent high returns :

Unlicensed forex companies

A trade license doesn’t mean that the company is licensed to trade in foreign currency. For that, they have to be registered with an exchange house regulated by the government.

Pressure to Reinvest

Ponzi schemes fall apart without regular income or when too many investors cash out.
Impressive websites, brochures, free seminars

They mean nothing as recent instances show.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/why-do-people-fall-for-bogus-schemes.html

Nelson Mandela said Obama’s historic victory was proof everyone should ‘dare to dream’ and Africans gave the new president a hero’s welcome

Accra: It was always going to be hard for outgoing US President Barack Obama to live up to expectations in Africa.

Born to a Kenyan father who once herded goats, the first black US president was seen as Africa’s prodigal son who would understand the continent in a way white presidents never could.

Nelson Mandela said Obama’s historic victory was proof everyone should “dare to dream” and Africans gave the new president a hero’s welcome.

Six months after taking office in 2009, Obama travelled to Ghana to lay the foundations for future policies that emphasised responsibility and trade.

“Africa’s future is up to Africans,” he said in a speech in the country’s capital of Accra.

“Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,” he added, referring to the countless leaders who cling to power and enrich themselves in countries where poverty is rampant.

The speech electrified the crowd but the thrill wore off. The trip was his last visit to Africa in his first term.

He took a different approach in his second term, launching his signature Africa initiative in 2013 after a visit to Robben Island, the apartheid-era prison outside Cape Town that held Mandela for more than 20 years.

His Power Africa programme to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa was designed to bring governments and the private sector together.

“That’s a big part of his legacy, to change that perception that Africa is not the dark continent, it is rising and there is opportunity there,” US-Africa specialist Scott Firsing told AFP.

“Obama changed aid to trade,” added Firsing, from the University of North Carolina.

Obama, who has said that one of his greatest achievements in office was “taking out” Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, also took the fight against rising Islamist extremism to Africa.

He ordered an expanded military presence against Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al Shabab in Somalia.

Drone bases were set up in Niger, which borders both Mali and Nigeria, and northern Cameroon, while there were targeted strikes in Somalia.

“Frankly the US military didn’t have much cause to focus on Africa, but now, unfortunately, there is cause to be there,” said the former head of US Africa Command, retired general Carter Ham.

The breakdown in Libya following the death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 saw weapons and radicalised fighters spread across Africa.

“There clearly was a follow-on effect that was detrimental,” said Ham, who led the initial military intervention against Gaddafi.

Tackling the threat was a priority for Obama, he said, adding: “I think he was genuinely concerned for stability and security in Africa.

“If left unaddressed it was only a matter of time before those organisations would fulfil their stated intention of attacking the West.”

Al Shabab gunmen confirmed those fears in 2013 when they killed at least 67 people at Nairobi’s Westgate mall, a favourite shopping destination for Westerners.

Obama’s tenure has by no means been perfect.

His administration faced heavy criticism for supporting countries such as Ethiopia with poor human rights records.

Sometimes he misjudged the mood. Senegal cheered in 2013 when its president Macky Sall rebuffed Obama for hitting out at discrimination against gays.

And detractors say Power Africa is also falling short of its goals.

Obama is generally seen as having advanced US interests in Africa and deepened relationships, not least by continuing his predecessors’ flagship projects.

George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is credited with having given life-saving treatment to millions of people.

Bill Clinton’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has boosted trade with sub-Saharan Africa.
Bur arguably Obama’s most enduring legacy is his example.

“Having a leader like him has an important psychological effect on Africans,” said Mzukisi Qobo, associate professor of politics at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

“Despite his weaknesses and shortcomings, there is a sense of pride in seeing someone like Obama.

“He seemed to have a more transcendental awareness of the challenges of the world rather than looking at it through a white Western lens.”

In Accra in 2009, Obama declared he had “the blood of Africa” within him.

Last month, Ghanaians remembered his words when president John Dramani Mahama lost an election to opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo.

The vote was hotly contested but generally peaceful. Mahama conceded and the transition was smooth, just as in Nigeria, when Muhammadu Buhari beat incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

“I remember Obama’s famous speech ‘we don’t need strongmen’,” said 28-year-old Daniel Apau Ofori as he celebrated outside Akufo-Addo’s house.

“It had an impact. This has been the most free and fair election."

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/obama-leaves-symbolic-legacy-in-africa.html

More than 120 people were wounded in the bombing of the camp in Nigeria

Maiduguri: Nigeria Scores of injured people were airlifted on

Wednesday to hospital for treatment after a botched air strike on Boko Haram Islamists in Nigeria killed at least 52 civilians and aid workers.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said more than 120 people were wounded Tuesday in the bombing of a camp in Rann, in the far north of Borno state, the epicentre of the militants’ insurgency.

Six Nigerian Red Cross workers were among the dead, while 11 others were injured, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The Borno governor Kashim Shettima has ordered public hospitals and doctors in the state capital, Maiduguri, to be on standby to receive casualties.

But there were already reports that some casualty departments were overwhelmed.
Some of the injured were being taken to a unit run by the ICRC at the Borno State Specialist Hospital, which normally treats patients wounded in Boko Haram suicide and bomb attacks.

Shettima said three hospitals had been “all placed on standby in readiness to carry out emergency treatment”, and that the most critically injured people were being evacuated first from Rann by helicopter.

Accidental bombings have occurred before in the conflict, which began in 2009 and has left at least 20,000 dead and made more than 2.6 million others homeless.

In March 2014, an air force jet killed five and wounded several others when it mistakenly bombed a village in the Konduga area of Borno.

In January that year, the convoy of a Nigerian senator was fired on, after pilots mistook his six-vehicle convoy under police and military escort for Boko Haram fighters.

Senior military commanders in charge of the fight against Boko Haram called the latest bombing “a mistake” and maintained that humanitarian workers were not targeted directly.

Major General Lucky Irabor, who heads the counter-insurgency operation, said the air force jet had been given the coordinates of insurgents in the flashpoint Kala-Balge area but hit Rann instead.

He blamed the error on “the fog of war”.

The aid workers were distributing food at the military-run camp housing tens of thousands of people.

Many are suffering from severe malnutrition and acute food shortages because of the conflict.

Jean-Clement Cabrol, the director of operations for MSF, called the attack “shocking and unacceptable”. “The safety of civilians must be respected,” he said.

Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel region, told journalists: “Never in my 20 years of work in crisis setting have I seen such an incident.

“For aid agencies and their staff tragedy moves us to engage and respond in support of survivors and the communities on the ground acting as first responders.”

Local and international aid agencies have until recently been unable to get to Rann because of bad roads and insecurity in the remote region around Lake Chad.

The military announced last month it has ousted Boko Haram from its camps in Sambisa Forest, in southern Borno, sending fighters north.

Nigeria’s military has announced an investigation into what happened. The Daily Trust newspaper reported that clearly marked ICRC tents were bombed, without quoting sources.

MSF said none of its staff was injured or killed but disclosed that three employees of a Cameroonian firm it hired to provide water and sanitation services were killed.

One aid worker told journalists colleagues were “stunned” at what happened and suggested civilians were likely to have been caught up in previous bombing raids in the remote region.

“I’m sure it (the bombing in Rann) is an accident but why would they (the Nigerian military) bomb a place that they’re guarding?” the aid worker said on condition of anonymity.

Ties have been strained between humanitarian agencies and the Nigerian authorities, who have accused some aid organisations of exaggerating the food crisis triggered by the insurgency.

In December, Save the Children said 4.7 million people in the northeast needed food assistance and some 400,000 children were at imminent risk of starvation.

The presidency called some of the claims “hyperbolic” while the Borno state governor recently accused some aid agencies of profiting from the crisis.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/scramble-to-treat-wounded-after-botched.html

maryjames9:
The report by op is accurate. Access to school gate is uneasy as you would be thoroughly searched,scrutinized and identified before access is granted. Registration,clearance and other activities besides lecturing is indefinitely suspended. Departments,faculties and other places that used to be bubbling with activities has suddenly become deserted. This buhari government is realy a change,but definitely not for good in many homes. Hope the government and the concerned unions resolve their differences so normal academic activities resume.

thanks, seems they dont believe me.

alex81:
after u post a valid source, wake me up to comment

OK sirsir

Airoflaw:
u just wan people know say unilorin abi y you com magnify d UNILORIN join dem in d strike,anyway for your info it doesn't affect d students, lecture is still going on...bad belle

Thanks

The Non-academic staff of the University of Ilorin has today decided to join the five-day warning strike embarked upon by the Non-Academic unions in the Nigerian Universities over the inability of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 Agreements with the unions.

Members of the University of Ilorin non-academic staff union are currently at the school gate scrutinizing any passing vehicle to check whether any worker wants to sneak into school.

The security at the school gate is currently very tight and students are hereby advised to go with their course forms or students identity card.

Reports also revealed that places such as the main and departmental library in the Institution has shut down as a result of the warning strike.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the unions in a statement stated that the warning strike became necessary in order for government to fully implement the 2009 FGN/Non-Teaching Staff Unions Agreements it freely entered into with the unions.

JAC said that a letter of the warning strike signed by Samson Ugwoke, SSANU President, Sani Suleiman, President of NAAT and Chris Ani, NASU President had been sent to the Minister of Education.

Source: [url]larryshotspot..com[/url]

ajani1978:
Old story

REVIEWING IS GOOD!

Nigerian President Buhari’s deplorable comments about his wife only serve as a poor reflection of his ego — they do not take anything away from women’s exemplary contribution to the continent’s history and legacy

At a time when issues of sexual harassment and women’s rights dominate the narrative of the United States presidential race, it was unfortunate for an African leader of the most populous, most ethnically diverse and most culturally rich country in the continent to insult his wife and in fact all African women before the whole world.

“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” said President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, in response to his wife Aisha Buhari’s criticism of his government’s performance.

Buhari’s reaction is an insult to African women and it has left a bad taste in the mouth with African men as well, particularly as Buhari stood beside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Europe’s most powerful women leaders and indeed a wife herself. I can only imagine how much Merkel must have cringed when she heard Buhari’s insulting words to his wife and to women as a whole. British online newspaper Independent reported that Merkel ostensibly “glared at him before laughing briefly”. What else could she have done? As an old Arab adage says: “The worst misfortune is the one that makes you laugh.”

Unfortunately, the western media may just dismiss his comments as an awkward view from an African leader, but it is a serious matter. More so, since women are known to be the backbone of African economy, apart from holding together the continent’s social fabric.

When I read Aisha’s strong comments against her husband’s choice of people for ministerial and other senior government posts, I could understand that she was obviously not happy that the people who worked hard for the party to win the elections, people on whose shoulders Muhammadu reached the presidency, were passed over in government appointments and opportunistic outsiders were favoured, who were not even members of the party. She even mentioned that she spoke to the president and conveyed to him complaints that she had heard from the people. But as the president decided to ignore her advice, she finally decided to go public with her frustration and put her disappointment on record as a citizen.

“As a person, I have my right to say how I feel about something. If it continues like this, I am not going to be a part of any movement again, because I need to work with people who started the journey collectively so that we can achieve what we want to achieve; so that he would leave behind a legacy,” she said in an interview with BBC.

If you look at the words, she underlined that she had a right as a person or citizen to say what she felt. She also reminded her husband about the journey they have taken together and with other party supporters on way to presidency. And finally, she reminded him that she was worried about his legacy.

My first impression after reading Aisha’s words was that the president was such a lucky guy — to have a wife like Aisha. But I forgot that Buhari was just another irritable African leader who cannot tolerate criticism. He had the whole language dictionary before him to choose better words. He could have said that his wife was his moral compass, but his fossilised view of women revealed his true nature.

A laundry list

Compare this with what the President of the United States, Barack Obama, had to say when he was asked what did he and his wife fought about: “You know, after about 15 years, I finally figured out that she’s always right,” was Obama’s answer to Ellen DeGeneres.

Contrast Buhari’s position also with former Japanese rime minister Naoto Kan, whose wife had questioned whether he was even fit for the nation’s highest office. “You are the prime minister, so what will change in Japan?” she said, making a laundry list of her husband’s shortcomings — from his failure to do any household work to his irritability about a book that she had published. Kan called her “the opposition at home”.

Current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is known to have his wife as his critic, who was described by Ikuo Gonoi, a political scientist, as a “shock absorber”, noting that her remarks had kept the prime minister’s image from going to one extreme or the other.

But unlike these leaders who appreciate the intelligence of their spouses, Buhari was quick to “claim superior knowledge over her ...” He needs to be reminded that by being in the kitchen, African women had kept the continent’s children alive, while the men were committing genocides and wreaking havoc with the continent’s resources and image.

African women are the breadwinners, the farmers, the cow-herders, the traders — and mothers, who mostly raise their children as single parents since the men are often devoured by wars and diseases. These women are doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, bankers, lawyers and journalists. They are in the police and military forces as well. They are in the legislative and executive bodies of governments and according to McKinsey & Company’s annual Women Matter report 2016, Africa beats Asia, America and Latin America in women holding managerial positions.

African women have also become presidents in some of the most difficult countries of the continent, such as Liberia, Malawi and Central Africa. And I am proud to say that one courageous woman is rattling the political landscape in Somalia and giving jitters to men by running for president for the first time in the country’s history. And to top it all, at least three African women have won the Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to peace and development.

Do I need to remind Buhari that Hatshepsut, Cleopatra and Nefertiti of Egypt; Ameena, the queen of Zaria in Nigeria; Candace, the empress of Ethiopia; Makeda, the queen of Sheba; Yaa Asantewaa of Ghana; and Arrawelo of Somalia were all powerful figures in African history.

Finally, we all know that African women are too busy fixing the continent than to worry about the antics of insecure men like President Buhari. And to borrow the words of Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the US, women in Africa will “do what women have always done” — they will roll up their sleeves and go back to work both in the kitchen and beyond.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/african-women-have-nothing-to-worry.html

It makes them feel uncomfortable when it’s reported in western media, but they can’t sugar-coat reality — it’s dangerous because that reality can explode at any time.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/privileged-nigerians-shouldnt-downplay.html

One of the essential elements of SEO is keyword ranking and position.

It is absolutely necessary for a blogger or SEO professional to check their Google keyword ranking for target keywords. One of the most common mistakes bloggers and website administrators make is that they write and publish articles without targeting any keywords at all.
It takes only 2-3 minutes to use a keyword research tool like SEMRUSH or the Google keyword search tool to find which keywords to use. Make sure you take advantage of these tools in order to accomplish this very important step!

Check Google Keyword Ranking

Once you are finished writing an SEO-optimized post using your target keywords, your next task is to keep track of its search engine rankings and to continue building backlinks with the proper anchor text.

**Again, proper keyword selection is one of the main factors involved in achieving a better ranking in Google’s search engine.**
Every blogger must aim to use the keywords which users search the most, especially those keywords which will help your website show up on one of the first few pages of search results.

If you accomplish proper on-page SEO, chances are good that you will appear in the first 50 search results.

To improve your SEO, you must manage keywords properly so that you can find out which keywords are strong for your particular domain and which are not. This information allows you to work on using the strongest keywords, thus increasing your likelihood of getting a better ranking in Google and other search engines.

In order to accomplish this goal, you need a tool which can tell you where a specific keyword ranks in Google’s search results without manually going through 100’s of search results and pages.

To help you to do this, we have compiled a list of some excellent free online tools to use to check your target keyword position in Google.
5 Useful Google Position Checker Tools:
1. SEMrush
Keyword position checker Google

SEMrush is my favorite tool on this list as it is a complete solution for keyword checking.
You can enter your website URL or the individual URL of a blog post, and it will show you which keywords you are currently ranking for. You can further click on any resulting keyword to check keyword competition and other details.

It supports Google (you can select Google Search based on your target geographical region) and Bing.

SEMrush is professional software that is easy to use, and you can try it for a couple of weeks for free before deciding whether you want to subscribe.

You can use this link to get a free 14-day trial of SEMRUSH.

Overall, SEMRUSH is an amazing tool for checking the position of keywords in search engines.

2. Ahrefs
Ahrefs

I’m pretty happy with SEMrush, but if I ever have to replace it with anything else, it’s going to be Ahrefs.

This one is loaded with tons of great features. It automatically detects what keyword your website is ranking for & you can specify ranking based on country.
Check out Ahrefs

3. Google Rank Checker
Google Rank Checker is an excellent free online utility which helps users track keyword positioning in Google search engine results.

In order to use this service, simply put in the keyword you want to search along with the domain name, and it will show you the position of that specific keyword in Google.
It’s that easy.

Google Position Checker
Check out Google Rank Checker

4. iWebTool Search Engine Position Checker
Like Google Rank Checker, iWebTool Position Checker is another handy utility which helps users track keyword positions. The utility is simple and easy to use.

All you have to do is type the keyword you want to search, and you’re done!

iwebtool-position-checker
Check out iWebTool Position Checker

5. SEOCentro Rank Checker
SEOCentro is one of the best keyword checking tools I have found to date.
With Rank Checker you can check the performance of specific keywords in multiple search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. The result will give you complete details about a specific keyword including its rank in various search engines, along with a history of the keyword.

rank checker
Check out SEOCentro Rank Checker
Check Your Keyword Rank
Of all the keyword rank checker tools on this list, SEMrush is my top choice for checking keyword positions in Google and Bing searches. I’m sure you’ll like it as well, as it also offers other features such as a backlink checker, a full site audit, and a few other really cool things.
If you use any other keyword position checker tools which works well for you, let us know via the comments section below.

Source: https://larryshotspot..com.ng/2017/01/5-excellent-websites-for-checking.html

babseg:
You meant ponzi scam

Lol

WhoRUDeceiving:
What benefit did Onyeama get? Is it for recognition for what his people are agitating?

Maybe or Maybe Not