Janet Jackson On UNICEF Assignments

Ambassador Janet Jackson: Jackson will be appearing in a Public Service Announcement and take to Twitter and Facebook accounts with a message that children in the hard-hit Sahel region of West and Central Africa — and must — have access to proper food and other basic necessities to save and improve their lives. UNICEF has appealed for $248 million for this year to address the needs of children affected by chronic drought, rising food prices, and conflict in the semi-arid Sahel, a belt of land south of the Sahara desert. “We are all facing a silent emergency. So many children are at risk of losing their lives in the Sahel region of Africa because they don’t have food to eat. We must act now to save and protect children at risk from malnutrition — not just in emergencies — but for today and forever. I commit my heart, my love, and my resources to this effort. With your help and the leadership of UNICEF, we will bring change to West and Central Africa,” said Jackson.

Bollywood Actress Jiah Khan Found Dead

Bollywood: Bollywood actress Jiah Khan smiles during a promotional event of her forthcoming Hindi movie 'Ghajini' in Bangalore, India. Police said that Khan was found dead at her home in Mumbai late Monday, June 3, 2013. Khan began her career in Mumbai's film industry in the 2007 Hindi film "Nishabd" in which she portrayed a teenager in love with her best friend's father, played by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. ImageL: AP

Scottish Scientists Hopeful Of Malaria Vaccine Breakthrough

SCOTTISH scientists say they have identified a link between strains of a malaria parasite, potentially paving the way for a life-saving vaccine.

A key protein common to different types of malaria parasite is said to have been uncovered, and laboratory tests show antibodies that target the protein are effective in blocking the mechanisms that cause the disease.

Researchers at Edinburgh University are now appealing to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to help them apply the findings and bring forward the next generation of malaria drug or vaccine.

In Africa a child dies, on average, every minute from malaria, according to the World Health Organisation.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria account for at least 40% of the estimated malaria deaths globally.

The protein identified by researchers binds to red blood cells using its "sticky" structure and forms clusters, known as rosettes, that can block blood vessels in the brain and lead to cerebral malaria, the most lethal form of the disease.

Once injected into the blood by the mosquito, malaria parasites alter protein molecules on their surfaces to evade detection by the human immune system.

Normally these surface proteins are poor targets for treatments or vaccines because, until now, they have differed greatly between the various malaria parasite strains.

However, researchers found the surface proteins of rosette-forming parasites share similarities that may allow them to act as a target for new treatments to block progress of the disease.

Professor Alexandra Rowe, from Edinburgh University's school of biological sciences, said: "We were aware the blood cell rosettes were apparent in many cases of life-threatening malaria, so we looked at rosette-forming parasites and found a common factor that could be targeted with antibodies. With this research yielding positive results, investigations into the viability of new treatments and vaccines to eradicate the formation of rosettes and prevent instances of life-threatening malaria are now under way."

Scientists collaborated with researchers from Cameroon, Mali, Kenya and The Gambia to test their antibodies against parasites collected from patients.

Wendy Nicholson, from the university's commercial arm, Edinburgh Research and Innovation, said: "The quest now is to stimulate pharmaceutical com-panies into the funding of early-stage vaccine and drug development programmes that offer genuine hope in halting the alarming death rate prevalence of this disease."

Scotland Herald, Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Ifeanyi Ubah On 2 Year Sabbatical For Anambra 2014

Oil tycoon billionaire Ifeanyi Ubah is taking a sabbatical for two years as CEO of Capital Oil and Gas Company under an agreement with the Asset Management Company of Nigeria to prepare his run for the 2014 gubernatorial election in Anambra State. Speaking with journalists in Abuja Monday, June 3, 2013, Ubah promised to end the rifts in Anambra politics.

US Offers $7 Million Bounty On Boko Haram Leader Abubakar Shekau

United States government offers the single biggest bounty, of up to $7 million for tips and whereabouts of the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigeria-based group held responsible for numerous attacks in the country, including the 2011 bombing of a U.N. facility in Abuja. The package in all, is offering up to $23 million for information leading to the locations of top officials from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, Boko Haram and the Signed-in-Blood Battalion, the US State Department announced Monday, June 3, 2013.

Spain Police Smash 'Voodoo' Prostitution

Spanish police say they have broken up a ring that smuggled in women from Nigeria and forced them into street prostitution by burning them with irons and using voodoo rituals.

Police arrested six Nigerian nationals, including the suspected woman ringleader, as part of an investigation launched last year after one of the prostitutes filed a complaint with the authorities.

'The control exercised over women was total, involving verbal threats as well as physical violence and various voodoo ceremonies to terrorise them,' police said in a statement on Sunday.

'The ring caused them serious injury through bites or by using an iron to cause second-degree burns.'

The ring recruited women in Benin City, a run-down Nigerian port, whose husbands and fathers had died and who were struggling to raise their children.

They transported the women overland to Morocco and then smuggled them on small wooden boats into Spain where they were forced to work as street prostitutes in Barcelona and Malaga.

Spanish police have swooped several times in past years on similar prostitution rings that used the threat of voodoo curses to frighten their victims into obedience.

Before leaving Nigeria, the rings often take their victims to shrines where they swear to pay their debts to the group and not to denounce them to the police.

The women leave fingernails, hair, underwear and other personal items at the shrines which they are told will give voodoo priests the power to harm them wherever they are in the world.

------Sky News, Monday, June 3, 2013

Nigerians Scramble for Ghanaian, Other W’African Nations’ Passports

By Chinedu Eze

This Day, Friday, May 31, 2013

Federal Ministry of External Affairs

Nigerian travellers are now disguising as citizens of other countries in West Africa, especially Ghana, and obtaining their passports which they use to travel to Asia and other parts of the world.

THISDAY learnt that it is mainly Nigerians who travel to China that take the passports of other countries in the region and the reason is because China gives about four weeks visa to Nigerians and do not extend it when it expires, but the country gives up to six months visa to Ghanaians, Senegalese, Guineans and others in the region.

When Nigerian businessmen go to China to buy, manufacture or process goods, four weeks are not always enough and if they leave the country at the expiration of their visa and instruct their agents to arrange and ship their consignments, they usually short-change them and as their goods purchased by the Nigerian is arriving the country, their dubious partners in China would export the same goods to the country and sell it at cheaper price, thus damaging the market for the Nigerian importer.

So for the Nigerians to stay till they are able to get their goods, they need visa that allows them longer time, hence they go for Ghanaian and other countries’ visas.

A top Nigeria Immigration Service official explained to THISDAY that Nigeria is reciprocating the Chinese gesture because visa policy is usually based on reciprocity.

“We give them 14 days visa but we don’t have the enabling machinery to flush them out whenever their visa expires so many Chinese overstay their visa in Nigeria. Some of them even take transit visa and disappear as soon as they arrive in Nigeria.”

The official also said Immigration is supposed to have the machinery to smoke out the Chinese citizens that have overstayed their visa, but decried the attitude of Nigerian government officials who move to protect them in the name of encouraging investors, in spite of the law that says that they should be deported.

“Government officials do not want the law to operate so they intervene in the job of Immigration officials, but the Nigeria Immigration Service used to have investigation and inspection department whose duty is to check those who have over stayed their visa and also patrol the boundaries to stop illegal immigration into the country. But when these Chinese overstay and you want to do your job, these government officials will intervene and may even sack you.”

The Immigration official said the body needs logistics to be able to effectively carry out its responsibility, including patrol vehicles at the borders, communication equipment and others.

“In the 1980s Nigeria Immigration Service was patrolling the nation’s borders and preventing people of other countries from gaining entry. Today, the Boko Haram menace would have been checked if Immigration is adequately equipped. Now, these Chinese are having easy run in Nigeria because government is protecting them and those menial jobs that should be done by Nigerians are being taken over by the Chinese who are now flooding into the country.”

African Woman: Dambisa Moyo Responds To Bill Gates' Personal Attack Against Her

Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian-born economist and author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa (2009). Moyo holds a Doctorate (D.Phil.) in Economics from St Antony's College, Oxford University; her 2002 dissertation is titled "Essays on the determinants of the components of savings in developing countries". In 1997, she earned a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.She also earned a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in Finance and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Chemistry from American University in Washington D.C.Moyo worked for the World Bank as a Consultant and at Goldman Sachs where she worked in the debt capital markets and as an economist in the global macroeconomics team.

Illustration of Dambisa Moyo by Anthony Jenkins/Globe & Mail

On May 28th, 2013 during a Q&A session at the University of New South Wales, Bill Gates, co-Founder of Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, made some shocking and inappropriate ad-hominem attacks against me and my book Dead Aid.

In this video excerpt, Mr. Gates answers a question about Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There is A Better Way for Africa by claiming that I “didn’t know much about aid and what it was doing” and that my work is “promoting evil”.

I find it disappointing that Mr. Gates would not only conflate my arguments about structural aid with those about emergency or NGO aid, but also that he would then use this gross misrepresentation of my work to publicly attack my knowledge, background, and value system.

I would like to take this opportunity to address both of Mr. Gates’ claims here:

1. I wrote Dead Aid to contribute to a useful debate on why, over many decades, multi billions of dollars of aid has consistently failed to deliver sustainable economic growth and meaningfully reduce poverty. I also sought to explicitly explain how decades of government to government aid actually undermined economic growth and contributed to worsening living conditions across Africa. More than this, I clearly detailed better ways for African leaders, and governments across the world, to finance economic development. I have been under the impression that Mr. Gates and I want the same thing – for the livelihood of Africans to be meaningfully improved in a sustainable way. Thus, I have always thought there is significant scope for a mature debate about the efficacy and limitations of aid. To say that my book “promotes evil” or to allude to my corrupt value system is both inappropriate and disrespectful.
2. Mr. Gates’ claim that I “didn’t know much about aid and what it was doing” is also unfortunate. I have dedicated many years to economic study up to the PhD level, to analyze and understand the inherent weaknesses of aid, and why aid policies have consistently failed to deliver on economic growth and poverty alleviation. To this, I add my experience working as a consultant at the World Bank, and being born and raised in Zambia, one of the poorest aid-recipients in the world. This first-hand knowledge and experience has highlighted for me the legacy of failures of aid, and provided me with a unique understanding of not only the failures of the aid system but also of the tools for what could bring African economic success.

To cast aside the arguments I raised in Dead Aid at a time when we have witnessed the transformative economic success of countries like China, Brazil and India, belittles my experiences, and those of hundreds of millions of Africans, and others around the world who suffer the consequences of the aid system every day.

In conclusion, I am disappointed that Mr. Gates would choose the route of personal attacks rather than a logical counter argument about the role of aid in modern Africa. Such attacks add no value in the important discussions on the challenges the world faces to deliver economic growth, eradicate poverty, combat disease, and reduce income inequality, to name a few.

As I have always maintained, I respect the views of others and am open to having logical and meaningful debates with the ultimate goal of finding sustainable solutions to Africa’s economic problems.

Thank you,

Dr. Dambisa Moyo

Nigeria-Mexico: International Friendly Preview

By Seth Vertelney
GOAL.COM, May 30, 2013

PROBABLE LINE-UPS

Mexico (4-2-3-1): Corona; Meza, Rodríguez, Reyes, Torres Nilo; Torrado, Salcido; Barrera, Herrera, Guardado; Hernandez

ROSTER

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa (Ajaccio), Jesús Corona (Cruz Azul), Alfredo Talavera (Toluca)

Defenders: Severo Meza (Monterrey), Francisco Javier "Maza" Rodríguez (América), Héctor Moreno (Espanyol), Diego Reyes (América), Jorge Torres Nilo (Tigres UANL), Carlos Salcido (Tigres UANL), Hiram Mier (Monterrey)

Midfielders: Jesús Zavala (Monterrey), Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul), Jesús Molina (América), Héctor Herrera (Pachuca), Javier Aquino (Villarreal), Andrés Guardado (Valencia), Ángel Reyna (Pachuca), Pablo Barrera (Cruz Azul)

Forwards: Giovani dos Santos (Mallorca), Oribe Peralta (Santos Laguna), Javier Hernández (Manchester United), Raúl Jiménez (América), Aldo de Nigris (Monterrey)

Nigeria (4-4-2): Enyeama; Kwambe, Obobona, Omeruo, Echiejile; Oduamadi, Ogu, Onazi, Mba; Ujah, Ideye

ROSTER

Goalkeepers: Chigozie Agbim (Warri Wolves), Austin Ejide (Hapoel), Vincent Enyeama (Maccabi Tel Aviv)

Defenders: Azubuike Egwuekwe (Warri Wolves), Efe Ambrose (Celtic), Elderson Echiéjilé (Sporting de Braga), Kenneth Omeruo (ADO Den Haag), Godfrey Oboabona (Sunshine Stars), Solomon Kwambe (Sunshine Stars), Francis Benjamin (Heartland F.C.), Odunlami Kunle (Sunshine Stars FC)

Midfielders: John Mikel Obi (Chelsea), Victor Moses (Chelsea), Ogenyi Onazi (Lazio), John Ogu (Academia de Coimbra), Obinna Nwachukwu (Heartland), Sunday Mba (Enugu Rangers), Michael Babatunde (Kryvbas Kryvyi), Reuben Gabriel (Kilmarnock)

Forwards: Joseph Akpala (SV Werder Bremen), Brown Ideye (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Anthony Ujah (FC Koln), Nnamdi Oduamadi (Varese), Kalu Uche (Kasımpaşa Spor Kulübü), Gambo Muhammad (Kano Pillars F.C.)

FACTOID:

• Mexico and Nigeria have met three times before, with Mexico winning one and a draw in the other two games. The two teams last met in October 2007 in a friendly, with the match ending in a 2-2 tie at the Estadio Olimpico Benito Juarez in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.

• Giovani dos Santos was originally set to stay with Mallorca for its crucial final La Liga match, but has now been released and will be with El Tri, though he likely won't feature in this match.
• This game beings a stretch of six matches in 24 days on three continents for the Super Eagles, who have two World Cup qualifiers in Africa following the match. The side then heads to Brazil for the Confederations Cup.
• El Tri is also starting a busy stretch. The team will play three consecutive Hexagonal matches after the Nigeria match: June 4 at Jamaica, June 7 at Panama and June 11 vs. Costa Rica, before also heading to Brazil for the Confederations Cup.

• Mexico has played five games in 2013 and drawn all of them, including friendlies against Denmark and Peru, and three Hexagonal matches against Jamaica, Honduras and the United States.

• Chelsea star Victor Moses will miss Nigeria's upcoming matches with an injury.

South Africans Chase Nigerians Out Of Their Homes

No fewer than 23 Nigerians were forced out of their homes and chased out of Port-Nolloth community by some South Africans members of the community, accusing them of dealing in drugs.

According to Diliora Ndubisi, the spokesman of Nigerians, the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League in the area instigated some community members to force them out of their homes.

“All the members of the community had a meeting on Friday on the need to curb the selling and usage of drugs in the community. On Saturday a teenager committed suicide in a police custody and by Sunday some members of the community led by the ANC Youth League leader came to our houses asking us to leave the community.

“They said we are the ones selling drugs to their children. They destroyed and looted our property and one Nigerian was seriously beaten and is on admission in a hospital in Johannesburg now,” Ndubisi said.

He said that the attack, which targeted Nigerians only, can be attributed to envy and jealousy about the success of Nigerian businesses in the community amidst poverty and unemployment among South Africans living in the community.

Reacting to the attack, the Nigerian Consulate in Johanneburg, South Africa today criticised what it described as the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in the country.

Mr. Okey Emuchay, the Consulate-General of Nigeria in Johannesburg, said in Springbok, in the Northern Province of South Africa, that labelling all Nigerians in the country as drug dealers was “unacceptable.”

Emuchay said that it was the duty of the South African police to provide safety for South Africans and foreigners living in the country.

“We are not asking for too much from the South African government, it is the duty of the South African police to provide safety and security for every one living in South Africa.

“The Nigerian government will not send the Nigerian police to come and protect our nationals just like the South African government will not send her police to protect South Africans living and working in Nigeria.

“In as much as we will not encourage our nationals to engage in criminal activities, it is not acceptable to us that some people should label all Nigerians as drug dealers.

“If any Nigerian is caught dealing in drugs he/she should be arrested and prosecuted. But a situation where some people will act on rumours, attacking and harassing Nigerians will be totally resisted by us. If anybody has any information about any Nigerian dealing in drugs, such information should be given to the police to investigate and arrest those involved. It is the duty of the police to investigate, arrest and prosecute, and not the duty of any individual or group of persons to do the work of the police.

“In this case no arrest has been made, no prosecution and no sentencing of anybody, only some members of the community taking the laws into their hands and forcing out Nigerians from houses where they pay rent, sending them into the streets in this winter period,” Emuchay said.

The Consul-General said that the safety of the displaced Nigerians was the responsibility of the police.

“This is coming barely three weeks after President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria paid a state visit to South Africa, after a similar one-day official working visit by President Jacob Zuma to Nigeria.

“Nine MoU agreement were signed during the state visit to promote trade and investments between the two countries.

“If governments at the top level is working together to strengthen relations between the two countries, the people of the two countries should be encouraged to take full advantage of the bilateral cooperation in various ways, including business culture and interpersonal relations. Nigeria and South Africa have had a long history of friendship and cordial relationship and everything should be done in sustaining the relationship,” Emuchay said.

Ikechukwu Anyene, President of the Nigerian Union in South Africa (NUSA), commended the proactive step taken by the Consulate.

“I must on behalf of all Nigerians living in South Africa thank the Consul-General for the proactive steps he has taken so far in this xenophobia attack on Nigerians living here.

Brig.-Gen. Francis Hender, South Africa Police Service (SAPS), Cluster Commander, assured that no individual or group would be allowed to perform the duty of the police.

“I will go to Port-Nolloth personally to assess the situation there, and a team of crime investigators will be assigned to investigate the cause of the attack on Nigerians and the lady mentioned would be invited for questioning. She is not a police officer and cannot be allowed to get away with her actions,” Hender said.

Lebogang Abrans, ANC Regional Secretary, apologised to the Nigerian envoy on the attack and said there was need to engage with the community on how to allow the displaced Nigerians return to their homes.

SOURCE: PM NEWS

Nigeria Lawmakers Pass Anti-Gay Marriage Bill

Jon Gambrell

Associated Press, Thursday, May 30, 2013

Associated Press= ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Lawmakers in Nigeria passed a bill Thursday banning gay marriage and outlawing anyone from forming organizations supporting gay rights, setting prison terms of up to 14 years for offenders.

Nigeria's House of Representatives approved the bill in a voice vote, likely sending it immediately to President Goodluck Jonathan for him to potentially sign into law in Africa's most populous nation. Whether he will approve it remains unclear, and both the United States and the United Kingdom raised concerns over a measure that could put foreign funding for AIDS and HIV outreach programs in jeopardy.

Nigeria's Senate previously passed the bill in November 2011 and the measure quietly disappeared for some time before coming up in Thursday's session of the House. Under previous versions of the proposed law, couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

Other additions to the bill include making it illegal to register gay clubs or organizations, as well as criminalizing the "public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly." Those who violate those laws would face 10-year imprisonment as well.

While the bill read Thursday during the House session appeared to be similar, The Associated Press could not immediately obtain a copy of the version lawmakers passed. If there are differences between the House and Senate versions, a joint committee of lawmakers will have to first iron out those differences before sending it to the president.

Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Gay sex has been banned in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, since colonial rule by the British. Gays face open discrimination and abuse in a country divided by Christians and Muslims who almost uniformly oppose homosexuality. Across the African continent, many countries already have made homosexuality punishable by jail sentences.

Nigeria's proposed law has drawn the interest of European Union countries, some of which already offer Nigeria's sexual minorities asylum based on gender identity. The British government recently threatened to cut aid to African countries that violate the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. However, British aid remains quite small in oil-rich Nigeria, one of the top crude suppliers to the U.S.

A spokesman for the British High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The measure also could affect HIV and AIDS outreach programs funding by USAID, an arm of the U.S. government. Nigeria has the world's third-largest population of people living with HIV and AIDS. A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy could not be immediately reached.

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .