Juliet Ibrahim Release A Video For Her Latest Single-"It’s Over Now"

Following the release of a video for her latest single-It’s Over Now, which some have said the song could be a reflection of Juliet Ibrahim’s personal circumstance, the actress/musician has dropped some hot & sexy photos—to help push her latest single.
Officially, the photos are meant to help with the promo of Juliet Ibrahim’s second single, off her upcoming album slated for 2015 release. But unofficially, the photos will give the men sleepless night—the hotness cannot be ignored.

Real Madrid Agrees Six Year Contract With Toni Kroos

Information reaching us indicates that Germany midfielder, Toni Kroos, has joined current UEFA Champions League winners, Real Madrid from Bayern Munich on a six-year contract.

According to latest reports, the 24-year-old midfielder, who was a key member of Germany’s World Cup-winning team, would be presented at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium later Thursday, 17 July, 2014.

As at the time of compiling this report, both Madrid and Bayern have not disclosed the transfer fee both there are rumours that Kroo would cost Madrid in the region of 25 million Euros ($33.82 million).

* Toni Kroos of Germany, left, tries to tackle Ghana’s Sulley Muntari at the just ended 2014 FIFA World Cup

Kroos was chosen as the best player at the 2007 Under-17 World Cup held in South Korea between 18 August and 9 September, 2007, when Germany finished third.

He joined Bayern when he was 16 and later spent 18 months on loan at Bayer Leverkusen before returning. He was a regular starter since Pep Guardiola took over as coach last season.

* Toni Kroos

Kroos helped Bayern win the Champions League in 2013 and domestic doubles the past two seasons.

He was on Germany’s 2010 World Cup squad, but was given a bigger role in coach Joachim Loew’s team during qualifying for this year’s tournament in Brazil.

While confirming the departure of the player, Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge thanked Kroos for his time in Munich and wished him "all the best in Madrid and at Real."

* Real Madrid’s coach, Carlo Ancelotti

"We are grateful to Toni Kroos for his time in Munich," Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummeniggetold the club website (www.fcbayern.de).

"Together we had great achievements here and we wish he and his family all the best in Madridwith Real," Rummenigge added.

Kroos is Madrid’s first signing ahead of the new season and many analysts believe he could well take over set-piece duties from Xabi Alonso.

His arrival could also lead to the departure of Germany teammate Sami Khedira, who has been linked with a move to Arsenal in England.

Police Arrest Chief Butcher Of Boko Haram Sect

The Nigerian Police Force has released a press statement saying they have arrested a top ranking official of Boko Haram, who says he is the ‘Chief Butcher’ of Balmo Forest.

Mohammed Zakari

The press statement reads thus: 

Following the massive onslaught by Security Forces on the activities of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, at the Balmo Forest Bauchi State, Police detectives attached to Bauchi State Police Command on Saturday, 12/7/2014 about 2pm have arrested one Mohammed Zakari, a male of 30 years old and senior member of the Boko Haram terrorists’ organization along Darazo-Basrika Road while fleeing from the intensive counter insurgency operations going on around the Balmo Forest.

The suspect, who hails from Kaigamari Village, Daptchari in Darazo Local Government Area, Bauchi State is the self-styled “chief butcher” of the insurgent group at the Balmo Forest Camp and is linked with the recent slaughter of seven (7) people, including women and children. Findings as well as disclosures from the suspect will assist the Law enforcement agencies in tracking down some other members of the terror cell. 

The suspect whom investigation reveals was tutored in the art of insurgency at Gombe Forest under the leadership of a fleeing insurgent, one Abba Taura and moved to Balmo Forest only three months ago, is discovered to have actively participated in the April attack against Customs officers at Kari Town, along Maiduguri Road, Bauchi State. Meanwhile, the Police High Command has called on the citizens in the affected areas to be on guard for any suspicious or strange character fleeing from Balmo Forest.

It also calls for the understanding and support of the public for the efforts of the Police and other Security Forces in tackling insurgency, terrorism and other related crimes headlong, noting that although the war on terrorism is unrelenting, it is certainly not insurmountable and must be won with the cooperation of all.

ACP FRANK MBA

FORCE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, FORCE HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA.

Ugandan cops abuse street kids

 Ugandan street children face constant abuse from police and government officials, who beat and extort bribes from them, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday. 

Police as well as Kampala city officials detain street children after targeted roundups, an HRW representative said.

 They beat them with batons, whips and wires as punishment for vagrancy or to extort bribes as a condition for letting them go, according to the 71-page report, titled, Where Do You Want Us To Go?

 Abuses Against Street Children in Uganda." Children have also been forced to clean police cells and living quarters. 

Poverty 

The exact number of street children is not known. But more than half of Ugandans are under 15 years old. 

Poverty has driven large numbers of children to live on the streets after their parents died of Aids or because they fled the rebellion of the Lord's Resistance Army in the north of the country.

 Homeless children are also beaten and forced to take drugs by older street children or adults, the report said. Boys and girls living on the street reported rape or other sexual assault.

 Police officers "take money from us. If you do not have money, they beat you so much", a 13-year-old boy living on the street in Lira in the north told HRW.

Living in fear 

 "Last week ... police came in the night and beat me when I was sleeping with three other children. The policeman beat me on the thighs with a rubber whip.

 He then hit my knees with a baton. He beat me until I gave him 1 000 shillings (40c) and left me," the boy told HRW in December 2013.

 Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher with the group, said: "Instead of being able to turn to the police or local government officials for help when they've been abused, children find themselves living in fear of the authorities meant to protect them." 

HRW interviewed more than 130 current or former street children as well as organisations assisting them, health workers, police and government officials.

LETS HAVE FUN......Awesomeness You Only Find In Nigeria

Nigeria is by far a very peculiar country with a population that can boast of both creativity and uniqueness in more ways than one

While the exchange of cultures around the world has significantly reduced the peculiarity of a lot of things, here are 20 things in Nigeria we don’t think you would easily find elsewhere;

This beautiful hilly settlement:

This sachet water (pure water) named ‘Salary’ for reasons best known to the makers:

These delicious roasted treats popularly called (boli). You just have to try these:

This cyclist and his well stacked "passengers":

These palatable meals that don’t need adverts to sell:

This hair salon bill board with the President of the United States of America giving a former President of Nigeria a good trimming:

These very distinct tribal marks:

Beautiful ankara prints made into cute cultural outfits for the gorgeous Nigerian ladies:

These ‘kuli-kuli’ treats made out of peanuts:

These colourful traditional masquerades:

This really nice guy who thought it fit to heat up the beach before going for a swim:

These gorgeous flamboyant ladies at the carnival:

These foul-proof inventions that ensure no one plays any hanky-panky with your food (very handy):

This Facebook school:

Beautiful sunset views like this:

This guy who has a much better way of preparing chicken soup than the rest of us:

This lovely waterfall:

This yummy breakfast combo (akara and pap):

This viral ‘Etighi’ dance (everyone does it):

We told you about this dance, ‘EVERYONE’ does it:

14 Tunisian troops killed in mountain ambushes

 At least 14 Tunisian troops were killed when gunmen attacked checkpoints in the remote Chaambi mountains, the deadliest militant strike on the North African country's armed forces.

Since April, thousands of Tunisian soldiers have been deployed to the Chaambi range bordering Algeria in an operation to flush out al Qaeda-linked militants seeking refuge there, some since fleeing French intervention in Mali last year.

During the attack on Wednesday night, militants with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles ambushed checkpoints the military had set up to try to control the Chaambi region.

The gunmen attacked as the soldiers were breaking their fast for the evening during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Defence Ministry said. More than 20 soldiers were wounded.

Democracy 

Tunisia has struggled with the rise of radical Islamist militants since the 2011 popular revolt ended the rule of autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and began its fragile steps towards democracy.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaeda's North Africa branch, has claimed attacks in Tunisia in the past, but another militant group, Ansar al Sharia, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by Washington, has also been blamed.

The mountain range is tough terrain with access into Algeria. Tunisian forces conducted several raids there and have bombarded caves after eight soldiers were captured and killed last year.

Algeria's military, experienced in battling its own Islamist militancy, have been co-ordinating on their side of the frontier, especially with sharing intelligence. 

Tensions 

But despite their large presence, Tunisian troops have been harried by improvised landmines and the porous border complicates tracking militants who use the area as a training ground.

One of the Arab world's most secular states, Tunisia has taken steps towards democracy since the 2011 revolt. It adopted a new constitution and allowed a caretaker government to take over until elections this year as a way to ease tensions between a leading Islamist party and secular opponents.

But hardline ultra-conservative Islamists are still influential, and Tunisia is one of the main sources of jihadist fighters travelling from North Africa to fight with Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Last year a Tunisian man who had travelled to fight in Syria returned to carry out a suicide attack on a beach resort near the capital, killing only himself, but shocking a country that relies heavily on foreign tourism for revenue.

Tunisian officials also worry about arms and fighters spilling over from neighbouring Libya, where the weak government is unable to impose order on brigades of former rebels and militias still fighting since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

25 PDP Lawmakers Defect To APC In Rivers State

25 members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State House of Assembly, on Wednesday, 16 July, 2014, joined Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The lawmakers officially declared their defection to the APC during a session in the assembly and House Leader, Hon. Chidi Lloyd, who spoke on behalf of the lawmakers, said they had ceased to be members of the PDP.

Lloyd also added that further correspondence to them should bear the APC.

While speaking during the session, Lloyd said: “The 25 pro-Amaechi lawmakers have asked me to declare our formal defection to All Progressives Congress (APC). Henceforth, 25 of us should be referred to as All Progressives Congress members. We are telling the world today that we are all members of APC.”

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Otelemaba Dan-Amachree, while responding to the defection of the lawmakers, told his colleagues to document their decision.

Leadership reports that the defection of the lawmakers is coming after the kidnapped member of the River State House of Assembly, Hon. Golden Ngozi Chioma, regained his freedom after about one week in captivity.

Chioma’s release on Tuesday, 15 July, 2014, came less than 24 hours after the House of Assembly appealed to the suspected kidnappers to free him unhurt.

It could be recalled that the lawmaker, who represents Etche Constituency II and Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, was reportedly abducted by unknown gunmen on Tuesday, 18 July, 2014, in Diobu axis of Port Harcourt.

Reports had stated that the captors did not establish contact with the victim’s family. It could not be ascertained if ransom was paid before he regained freedom.

* Hon. Chidi Lloyd

Speaking on the official defection of the 25 lawmakers to the APC, Chief of Staff to Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Hon. Tony Okocha, opined that the moves by some forces operating from Abuja to use six members of the Rives State House of Assembly to impeach the governor will not succeed

Fear grips Gaza hospital

 At Al-Wafa rehabilitation hospital near Gaza City, a handful of doctors and nurses hover over paralysed patients, wondering how to protect them from more air strikes as threatened by Israel.

The patients lie mostly inert in beds lined up in the hospital's reception, where staff moved them after an Israeli rocket crashed into the fourth floor.

The staff have appealed to international agencies for protection, and say the hospital is known to the Israeli army.

But it was hit again on Tuesday night.

Shortly afterwards, the Israeli army contacted the hospital three times, saying everyone should be evacuated by morning as the air force was planning to intensify its air strikes.

Director Basman Alashi explained that the 14 patients in the facility, many of them paralysed or in a coma, are in no position to be moved.

And even if they were, he said, there is no place to take them.

"There is no place safe in Gaza! If a hospital is not safe, where is?

"We cannot leave our patients, they are helpless. They cannot move, they cannot walk, they cannot eat, they cannot even scratch their heads by themselves," he said.

Even as he spoke, the sound of shelling rattled the hospital windows.

Hospital shaking

More than 200 people have been killed in Gaza since the latest confrontation between Israel and Hamas militants erupted in the early hours of 8 July.

After an Egyptian truce effort failed to get off the ground on Tuesday, there appears to be no end in sight.

Mercifully, said staff doctor Hassan Sarsur, many of the patients are unconscious and unaware of what is happening.

But for others, the situation is terrifying.

"Several of our female patients are paralysed but conscious, and during the night they were crying with fear and clutching our hands," Sarsur said.

Aya Abdeen, one of eight women in the facility, is paralysed from the waist down because of a tumour in her spinal cord.

"Yesterday, when they said that we have to evacuate and with all the shelling, of course I was afraid," she told AFP.

"There was shelling all around and the hospital was shaking. And I am as you see, I can't move," she said.

"We are sick people, in a hospital!"

Karam Shublaq suffered a gunshot wound to his spinal cord in 2006 and is also paralysed from the waist down.

Scared

He is being treated for pressure sores and is fitted with a colostomy bag.

"We wake up to shelling and we go to sleep to shelling," he said.

"We can't even move and they hit the fourth floor of the building several times, so they moved us down here."

To care for the patients, the staff are working 24-hour shifts, battling fatigue but also fear.

"We are human beings, of course we are scared," said Sarsur.

"We don't know what to do to protect the patients. We'd already evacuated the fourth floor and now we've evacuated all the floors except the reception."

Several patients have been sent back to their families, but others require medical care that relatives can't provide.

Sixteen-year-old Nur Okasha has been sleeping at the hospital for a week to keep watch over his 13-year-old brother Mohammed who has been in a coma for several months after nearly drowning.

He lies motionless on the bed, his eyes half open as Nur flicks away flies.

"We wanted to take him home, but the tube in his trachea requires a suction machine, and we don't always have electricity at home," the teenager explained.

Not the target

He keeps vigil at Mohammed's side, putting in his eyedrops and talking to him.

"I want to make him feel like someone is always here. I tell him that his friends miss him. I talk to him about anything except the war," he said.

Doctors at the hospital have reached out to international agencies in a bid to secure Israeli assurances that the facility won't be hit again.

And a group of foreign activists are staying at the hospital in the hope that their presence might deter further attacks.

"The Israelis told the international agencies that the hospital was not the target, only the area around it. But they have already hit us directly," Sarsur said.

"We are helpless, the war comes to us and there is nothing we can do to stop it."

US campus shut down after 2 devices found

 Bomb technicians are working to neutralise a suspicious device near one of Louisiana's largest universities while authorities investigate a second suspicious package found in a nearby parking garage.

Louisiana state police said in a Facebook post that residents near University of Louisiana at Lafayette may hear a controlled explosion.

State Trooper Brooks David says the bomb squad was neutralising the first device, which was found in a trash can. Authorities say they are carefully examining the second device.

Classes and other activities were cancelled for the day.

Lafayette police spokesperson Kyle Soriez says someone called about 05:35 to say a bomb had been placed at Girard Park, which sits next to the sprawling, 600-hectare university campus.

University spokesperson Kathleen Thames says about 5 500 students are enrolled in summer school and 400 freshmen were coming for orientation.

Clinton hints she's ready for 'office without corners'

 Hillary Clinton playfully dodged a barrage of questions about her presidential ambitions, but opened the door a little wider to a future White House run.

With a nod and a wink, the former secretary of state played along with television host Jon Stewart's efforts to get her to declare her candidacy - a scoop he had promised viewers during the opening minutes of his late night comedy show.

Clinton, however, failed to take the bait.

"I was going to make an announcement, but you kind of spoiled it for me," she joked, to applause and laughter from the audience during her outing late on Tuesday on The Daily Show.

"The Big Spoiler. I'm just going to have to reconsider where I go do it," she jibed.

During the interview, she artfully eluded more traps meant to trick her into declaring her candidacy, including a career "aptitude test" administered by Stewart to help determine "if you even want to do this job".

First question: Whether the former first lady preferred commuting, or working from a home office?

"You know, I've spent so many years commuting, I'd kind of prefer a home office," Clinton said brightly. "That works."

"Do you have a favourite shape for that home office? Would you like it to have corners? Would you like it not to have corners?" Stewart asked in his followup - a sly reference to the Oval Office where the president carries out a great deal of his daily duties.

"You know, I think that the world is so complicated, the fewer corners that you can have, the better," was Clinton's rejoinder, to thunderous applause and cheers from the audience.

Asked whether she preferred "to sit in traffic, or cause it", Clinton modestly said that she disliked putting members of the public through the inconvenience of official motorcades that can leave motorists idling at Washington intersections for several minutes.

"I really hate to cause traffic, and sometimes I do," said Clinton, who said that "I sometimes have to scrounch down" to remain out of the public view in her security detailed car, rather than inconvenience the public while on the road.

Finally, Stewart wanted to know, does Hillary Clinton enjoy the "constant, non-stop criticism" endured by the occupant of the White House?

"Enjoy is probably the wrong word. Expect. Survive. Live through," Clinton replied, smiling broadly.

"It just comes with the territory."

Mali peace talks start after prisoner swap

Mali's government and rebels were holding peace talks in Algiers on Wednesday intended to end decades of uprisings by northern Tuareg tribes after an exchange of prisoners helped to get the negotiations started.

Mali's vast desert north - called Azawad by the rebels - has risen up four times since independence from France in 1960, most recently last year, when French forces intervened to drive back Islamists who had taken advantage of a Tuareg-led rebellion and were advancing on the south.

The talks are the first since fighting in the Tuareg stronghold of Kidal killed around 50 Malian soldiers in May. The light-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs perennially accuse black African governments in the capital Bamako of excluding them from power.

France, Mali's northern neighbour Algeria and the West Africa regional bloc Ecowas are all pushing for talks despite deep distrust between Bamako and rebels, and among the separatist groups.

The negotiations, which include representatives of the United Nations, European Union and the African Union, are aimed at aimed at laying out a framework for a broad peace deal.

"The government is committed to talks in good faith, in a spirit of openness and confidence, to reach a definitive agreement with our brothers in the north," Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said, according to the Algerian state news agency APS.

Algeria's government said it had helped to broker the prison swap - 45 civilians and troops from the government in exchange for 42 members and sympathisers of rebel movements - before the talks started.

Three main rebel groups - the Tuareg MNLA and High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA), as well as the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA) - have sought to unify their positions, but there are divisions within the different Tuareg factions and between Tuareg and Arab separatist groups.

Counter-terrorism force

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected last year partly for his reputation for taking a firm stand against previous uprisings, and is under pressure from the more densely populated south not to give in to rebel demands.

But the army's inability to defeat rebel forces has severely undermined Bamako's position. The UN Security Council has warned that failure to hold inclusive talks could further radicalise rebel fighters.

Talks advanced in June after a preliminary accord. But analysts said the rebels had yet to make concrete, coherent proposals and overcome splits in their ranks.

Andrew Lebovich, a New York-based researcher and analyst on the Sahel region, said an agreement was possible in Algiers, but a deal signed outside Mali would not necessarily carry weight with the diverse and fragmented fighters on the ground.

"An agreement is only one step in a much longer process, and a deal itself will not guarantee or even potentially lead to a resolution to the various conflicts in northern Mali," he said.

French troops were dispatched to Mali last year to force back al-Qaeda linked Islamist militants who occupied swathes of northern Mali.

Isolated attacks by Islamists have continued in northern Mali despite the presence of thousands of French and U.N. peacekeepers. A French soldier was killed this week in the first suicide attack on French forces in Mali.

Paris is in the process of reorganising its deployment in the region, with its 1 700 soldiers in Mali being folded into a broader, Sahel-wide counter-terrorism force

Nigeria state impeaches governor

 The governor of Nigeria's northeast Adamawa state, one of three areas under a state of emergency since last year amid Boko Haram violence, was impeached on Tuesday over corruption charges.

Murtala Nyako denies the allegations, and his party - the All Progressives Congress (APC) - vowed to fight the move in court.

Nyako's political problems began last year when he was among a group of powerful governors that quit President Goodluck Jonathan's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the opposition APC.

He fiercely criticised Jonathan's decision to include Adamawa in the states placed under emergency rule in May 2013.

He argued that Adamawa had been relatively lightly touched by Boko Haram violence and claimed the state of emergency was imposed there as an attempt by Jonathan to sideline a rival.

Islamist violence in Adamawa has been less intense than in neighbouring Borno, but the state has seen a series of gruesome attacks blamed on Boko Haram, including a massacre targeting university students.

As Nyako's dispute with Jonathan escalated, the 25-member Adamawa state assembly, which is dominated by the PDP, launch a corruption probe, including into claims that the governor lavishly spent public funds while hosting senior APC leader Muhammadu Buhari.

"The process that led to that [impeachment] is unfair and will be challenged in court," APC spokesperson Lai Mohammed told AFP.

The deputy governor, Bala James Ngillari, next in line to run the state, resigned before the impeachment motion was approved.

State assembly speaker Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri will serve as interim governor pending a snap election which must be held within 90 days.

Nigeria's state governors have a significant amount of autonomy on areas including education and infrastructure spending, and each by law is entitled to a portion of the revenue from Africa's biggest oil industry.

Egypt road crash kills 17 – report

 At least 17 people were killed in Egypt on Tuesday when a bus ploughed into a truck south of Cairo, state television reported.

The accident occurred near the town of Safaga, 570km south of Cairo, the report said, adding that 25 other passengers were injured in the crash.

Traffic accidents are common in Egypt, where roads are often poorly maintained and traffic regulations are little enforced.

In March, 24 people were killed in a similar accident when a bus crashed into a truck parked on the side of a road near the Sinai Peninsula.

Kidnappings: Jonathan blasts activists

 Nigeria's leader Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday accused activists of playing politics, saying they cancelled a meeting between him and family members of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April.

Jonathan had been scheduled to meet some parents of the victims, as well as five girls who escaped captivity hours after the attack in the remote town of Chibok in the northeast.

But a statement from the presidency accused the activists, who started the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, of using the plight of the hostages "to play politics".

Some of the president's allies have claimed that the group is working with Jonathan's political opponents and exploiting the kidnapping to embarrass the government.

Heavy criticism 

Jonathan has faced heavy criticism for his handling of the hostage crisis, which many say has lacked both compassion and urgency.

He is not known to have met with any of the girls' families.

"Despite the shameful and disgusting games being played by the Nigerian chapter of Bring Back Our Girls, as a father of girls, I stand ready to meet with the parents of our abducted children," Jonathan said in the statement.

But campaign leader Hadiza Bala Usman told AFP that activists had simply asked to reschedule the meeting so that more parents could attend.

Mass kidnapping 

They "requested that the meeting with the president be shifted untill next week to allow for a larger representation", she said.

The meet was hastily organised following talks between Jonathan and Pakistani education rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who urged the president to comfort victims of the mass kidnapping.

Malala, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 and has become a champion for access to schooling, was in Abuja on her 17th birthday to mark three months since the Islamist rebels abducted more than 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok.

At least 219 of the girls taken are still missing.

The Bring Back Our Girls campaign has drawn support from some of the world's most prominent personalities, including US First Lady Michelle Obama and actress Angelina Jolie.