Welcome to Elizabeth Ifeoma's Blog.: June 2015

Saturday 20 June 2015

Rihanna surpasses Beyonce

Not only has Rihanna sold more records than Beyonce (She's in the top5 highest selling female artists of time) she has now surpassed Beyonce with the most No.1 hits on Billboard's Dance Club chart

From Billboard Magazine

Rihanna reigns atop Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart (dated June 27) for the 23rd time with "Bitch Better Have My Money" (2-1). With her latest leader, she eclipses Beyonce (22 No. 1s), who last topped the chart in February with "7/11."

Rihanna now trails only Madonna (45) for the most No. 1s in the chart's nearly 39-year history, dating to its inception as a national survey in 1976.

Outrage after Charleston judge tells relatives of murdered churchgoers that the killer's family are also victims

The judge who arraigned Dylann Roof sparked outrage when he referred to the 21-year-old's family as 'victims' and urged the community to 'rally round them'. Charleston County Magistrate James Gosnell Jr told the court on Friday:

'We have victims - nine of them. But we also have victims on the other side. There are victims on this young man's side of the family.'

The bizarre statement prompted outcry from the victims' families in the public gallery, and a torrent of complaints branding him 'insensitive' and 'racist'.

Composite of world's most desirable woman

A new composite of the world's most desirable woman has been created based on the most envied elements of female celebrities and three of the body parts are from stars over the age of 45. These were voted most desirable in a survey of 1000 UK women by skincare specialists, Premier Laser Clinic, who also looked into what makes women feel most desirable.

By far the most popular answer was inner body confidence, chosen by the 72 per cent of respondents.

According to a report by The Sun UK, a man believed to be South African fell to his death from a British Airways passenger jet as the plane approached Heathrow airport. The stowaway's body was found on an office block roof of a retail company along a busy road in Richmond, South West London.

Another man, also believed to be South African, survived the 8,000 mile, 11-hour flight from South Africa to London by holding on to the undercarriage of a British Airways Boeing 747. No one knows how the two men got there.

The second man was taken to hospital and is said to be in stable condition but is yet to talk to the police.

A Scotland Yard police spokesman confirmed the incident, saying;

Why online harassment is still ruining lives -- and how we can stop it

In 2010, Anthony Elonis threatened his estranged wife by writing rants on his Facebook page such as, "There's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts."

For making these threats, a federal district court sentenced him to more than three years in prison.

On June 1, the Supreme Court voided that conviction, explaining that the standard the court had used to judge whether Elonis's threats were "true threats" was not sufficient. The district court had asked jurors to consider only whether the threats would cause a reasonable person to be afraid. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that juries should also consider whether the defendant intended to make a true threat. The ruling will make it more difficult than ever to prosecute the authors of online death and rape threats.

This man allegedly bought a flight ticket just to steal from another passenger. See the rest of the tweets after the cut...

Meet The University Don Who Says He Has Cure For AIDS

A University Don, Professor Maduike Ezeibe of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, has claimed his recent therapy for the dreaded Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is real and effective. According to Ezeibe, he discovered the therapy when he decided to join the medical world to search for a solution to HIV/AIDS.

His research into the therapy known as ‘Antivirt’ (Anti-Viral Therapy) started in 1994, but he was able to discover the therapy in 2013 when his research was published in the British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research, Ezeibe explained.

Amazon's ambitions for gaming apparently go quite a bit beyond the mobile space and"hit" consumer hardware. The e-commerce juggernaut is looking for folks to help flesh out the development team of its first PC game and placed a job posting on Gamasutra in an effort to make that happen. As Polygon notes, the studio already has the likes ofPortal's Kim Swift and former Ubisoft developer Clint Hocking (Far Cry 2) on board, and the job listing says that designers whose resumés include Halo, Half-life 2 and The Last of Us are involved as well.

What does it mean? Well, at this point it's hard to really tell aside from the company expanding past the likes of Fire TV and iOS games. Amazon made some pretty key hires,

Nigerians have emerged top spenders in luxury retail and VIP services at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport by passenger traffic. Although over 70 percent of people in the West African nation live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank, its riches, concentrated in the hands of a few are freely spent on luxurious services abroad.

“Heathrow’s VIP Service was originally designed for dignitaries such as Heads of State but we recognised that the privacy and exclusivity that we offered is something that many passengers are looking for in their own lives. Making the service available to First Class and Business Class passengers, we now provide a quality experience that allows our passengers to enjoy a personalised service and we’re delighted to welcome many of these from Nigeria,” Jonathan Coen, Heathrow’s Retail Director said in a statement.

Today, in some enormous mansion, or perhaps aboard a private jet streaming towards a glamorous destination, Jay Z is sitting back and cracking a broad grin.

For in Cannes, Sony Music CEO Doug Morris just made the music mogul’s day.

On stage at the Midem Music Industry Festival, Morris spilled the beans about tomorrow’s launch of the much-anticipated music streaming service from Apple. And this is poised to have far-reaching implications for Jay Z’s’s own much-trumpeted, but struggling, Tidalstreaming service.

A Nigerian lady identified as Tonia Okojie (pictured above) was allegedly murdered by her boss in Russia. According to Nigeria Camera, Tonia, who worked as a maid in Russia, was allegedly beaten and tortured to death by the man she worked for. The reason for the attack is not yet known but there are reports that her continued rebuff of his sexual advances made him attack her. The case was reported to the Russian police but surprisingly instead of it being treated as a murder case, the police is treating it as a case of accidental death. Continue to see very graphic photos of the deceased...*warning - graphic content*

Website that saves politicians' deleted tweets faces deletion

The Politwoops website that saves tweets deleted by politicians said Friday it fears its operations may be closed down in 30 countries after Twitter switched it off in the United States.

"It's probably a matter of time before they shut the other ones down," said Arjan El Fassed, director of the Open Foundation which started Politwoops in the Netherlands in 2010 after it was dreamt up at a hackathon.

Since then, the website that is a useful tool for journalists and a frequent source of embarrassment for politicians has spread to 30 countries, from Egypt to the Vatican, as well as the European Parliament.

Yahoo will close its maps page, and several other sites, as it focuses on its search business, communication tools and content.

The Internet company will close its map, which gives users driving directions and traffic conditions, at the end of the month.

Yahoo will also close several sites worldwide, including Yahoo Music in Canada and Yahoo Movies in Spain. Yahoo's main Philippines page will also close, and users will be sent to Yahoo Singapore.

his week the US Patent and Trademark Office approved an application from Boeing for an autonomous drone that can be recharged without landing.

Today the amount of time a drone can spend in the air is limited by the amount of fuel or electricity the unmanned aircraft can carry.

But those limitations could soon be a thing of the past.

According to the patent, the system involves battery-powered dirigibles or drones that can deploy a retractable tether. The tether will be able to connect to a power source as the craft hovers. When fully charged, the drone will automatically fly off to complete its programmed task while another drone will fly in and take its place at the charging point.

What's this? A dual operating system hybrid device? The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office this month revealed a patent application from Samsung Electronics, titled "Electronic Apparatus, Docking Apparatus, Controlling Method Thereof, and Computer-Readable Recording Medium."

Patently Mobile discussed this Samsung hybrid device concept in detail, saying that "Samsung Galaxy Note, for instance, would naturally run Android when in smartphone mode. When the Note smartphone is docked inside a notebook-like shell companion component, it would automatically switch to running the Windows operating system, such as Windows 10."

After a $46 million cash injection and a $171 million majority acquisition by Japan’s Recruit Holdings last month, Wahanda, the StyleSeat-esque European salon and beauty booking platform, is continuing with its strategy to scale up its business. It has acquired Treatwell — a competitor in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany — for $38 million (€34 million).

“We are delighted to be joining forces with Treatwell,” Lopo Champalimaud, Wahanda’s CEO and founder, said in a statement. “Treatwell’s team includes a co-founder of Just-Eat Benelux, an ex-CFO of Booking.com and a former senior executive at Procter & Gamble, who between them have helped build Treatwell into one of the fastest growing online marketplaces of its kind in Continental Europe.”

A group of hackers has attacked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), stealing sensitive data on 4 million current and former American federal employees. Law enforcement sources tell Reuters that the government believes the perpetrators are from China and have penetrated not just OPM's IT systems, but also the records it stores at the Department of the Interior's data center. According to the New York Times, security researchers believe it's the same crew that attacked insurance companies Anthem and Primera. As you might know, OPM is in possession of a huge number of personnel info since it's in charge of conducting background checks on potential federal employees. It probably looks like a goldmine for data thieves and was even targeted last year (nothing was stolen at that time, though) by a group, which the government suspects is also based in China.

Baidu is pushing into the public WiFi space, after the Chinese internet giant — responsible for the country’s most popular search and maps services — led an $11.5 million investment in Qianhai Mobile, a company that gets China’s commuters online.

Qianhai Mobile, which is an affiliate of Nasdaq-listed media firm ChinaVision, provides wireless internet access on a range of commuter routes, including bus services across 18 cities in China. That deal covers around 35,000 buses in major cities that include Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou

Nigerian-born Oke Okaro, 41, is a product visionary, award winning technologist and pioneer in the U.S. mobile and connected devices industry. Okaro has been at the forefront of the U.S. mobile data/content industry since 2001 when he worked on the first wave of mobile apps in the U.S. and the rollout of the first mobile app development and distribution platform, BREW (binary runtime for wireless) – 7 years before the Apple AppStore. Over the years, Okaro has established a distinguished track record as an innovator by creating multiple pioneering, industry leading and award winning mobile products that have transformed established businesses and built new ones at ESPN Inc and Bloomberg L.P. The mobile products Okaro created are used by more than 60 million unique users every month and generate over $1B in annual revenues.

Ten African innovators have been nominated for cash prizes because they came up with products that respond to a need or challenge within their communities.

Winners will be chosen in Morocco May 13 at the African Innovation Foundation’s annual Innovation Prize for Africa Awards, PCTech reports.

The awards are not only showcasing Africa’s ability to innovate to address its own challenges, but also celebrating Africa’s ingenuity, said McLean Sibanda, chairman of the Innovation Prize Africa 2015 selection panel.

A recent survey by mobile surveying company Geopoll and World Wide Worx showed that 65 percent of Nigerians think “Facebook is the internet”, while 9 percent of the social media site users in the west African country said they had “never used the internet”.

The Mobile Africa 2015 study, which surveyed 3, 500 mobile phone users in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, showed that Internet browsing via phones stood at 40 per cent across these five major markets on the continent.

With over 100 million monthly active users in Africa, Facebook has been enticing users in the region with free connections by subsidizing access to its site for African users.

A recent report underscores the proliferation of cell phone use in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the Pew Research Center survey, Africa has all but skipped the “landline stage of development.”

The growth has been exponential.

In 2002, only one tenth of the populations of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana owned a mobile phone, said Pew.

“Across the seven countries surveyed, roughly two-thirds or more say they own a cell phone,” according to Pew. “Ownership is especially high in South Africa and Nigeria, where about nine-in-ten have a cell phone.”

The new ‘e-diesel’ has a zero net carbon footprint, being created through high-temperature electrolysis powered from renewable sources.

An Audi research facility in Dresden, Germany, has managed to create the first batches of diesel fuel with a net-zero carbon footprint — made from carbon dioxide (CO2), water and renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power.

Germany’s government has welcomed the new technology, created in partnership with a greentech company called Sunfire. Johanna Wanka, Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research, even test drove the fuel and called it, “a crucial contribution to climate protection and the efficient use of resources,”

Finalists from Zambia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania have been announced in the first Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, and they’re competing for a 455,000 rand ($37,700 US) prize, according to a report in htxt.

The prize is awarded by the London-based Royal Academy of Engineering.

Ernst Pretorius, 43, of Pretoria, South Africa, invented and patented the Draadsitter (Afrikaans for fence sitter), which detects tampering on fences of up to 800 metres long and sets off an alarm. He said his innovation will help combat rhino poaching. It is battery operated and weather proof.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was ‘locked out’ of President Muhammadu Buhari’s meeting with the National Security Adviser on the orders of the President.
Trent is reporting that a top Government source who pleaded anonymity disclosed on Wednesday that Vice-President Osinbajo was refused ‘security clearance’ to attend the meeting as a result of security concerns by the Commander-in-Chief allegedly over what he described as a “very sensitive meeting”.

According to the source, it was the thinking of the President that it was too early in the day to bring Vice-President Osinbajo into the President’s first security briefing.

The FBI’s move against seven FIFA officials on charges of corruption is seen by most countries as a desperate Western effort to isolate Russia and re-open the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Rio de Janeiro: Forget the analogies about football being more important than life and religion. The Beautiful Game has always been all about politics among nations – on and off the pitch. And now, it’s reaching Cold War levels.

3,000 sex workers arrested in Abuja

Three thousand commercial sex workers have been arrested by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Special Task Team on City Cleaning and Management in the last 90 days.

They have been handed over to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) for prosecution and rehabilitation.

The task team also arrested 2,534 street hawkers and beggars. One hundred and two strayed animals were removed from illegal cattle markets in Gudu and other parts of the city during the period.

The team impounded 4,790 commercial motorcycles, 883 Keke Napep, 645 unpainted commercial vehicles and 84 illegal commercial buses.

Yesterday Facebook and Google made two seemingly huge announcements about privacy. Facebook launched a new feature that allows users to add encryption keys to their profiles. Using these keys, the company can now send users who opt in encrypted notifications. This means that external snoopers will not be able to see the notification messages being sent to the users' emails.

Google announced new features to ensure users privacy settings are where they want them to be.

On the one hand, big technology companies are responding to mounting fears of widespread privacy invasion. Hacking is no longer a fringe concern. On the other hand, privacy experts don't think either of these initiatives will amount to much.

Apple CEO Tim Cook at a Monday award ceremony reaffirmed his support for strong encryption, TechCrunch reports, slamming law-enforcement plans to undermine it as "incredibly dangerous."

Cook's pro-privacy speech came just days after Facebook introduced support for the technology on its social network for the first time.

Strong encryption has become a contentious issue and a source of rising tensions between the US government and the tech community.

The term refers to data masked in such a way that it cannot be understood by anyone who does not have the correct key to decrypt it. It can help internet users keep their sensitive communications safe online, but some people believe it poses a potential security risk, as it cannot be decrypted by authorities even with a search warrant.

Following revelations by exiled whistle-blower Edward Snowden over the past few years of mass government surveillance, big tech companies have increasingly incorporated strong encryption into their products.

The Senate Wednesday passed 46 bills into law in less than ten minutes. The passage was done immediatly the bills were presented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang.

But the passage of the bills caused an uproar in the upper chamber, even after the voice vote by the presiding officer and Senate President, David Mark, who announced, ” the Ayes have it.”

Senator Mark, told those who were not satisfied with the passage of the bills to come tomorrow, being the next legislative day with their names and signatures for consideration.

Before the bills were passed, the Senate had suspended Order 79 (1) of the Senate Standing Orders and deemed all the Bills as having passed first, second and third readings on the floor of the Senate.

Details soon

Senators, Reps to leave with 109 jeeps, 360 exotic cars

Senators and members of the House of Representatives will go home with the operational vehicles of the National Assembly currently in their possession as the 7th Assembly winds down on Friday.

Each of the 109 senators has a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, commonly referred to as ‘jeep’, assigned to them for “operational” purposes like carrying out committee and oversight duties.

The story is the same at the House, where each member has a 2011 model Toyota Camry attached to them for operational duties.

Apart from the operational vehicles, principal officers, including the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, have additional vehicles assigned to them.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has named Mikel Obi as one of the outstanding players in the Blues 1-0 victory over hosts Sydney FC in their post-season friendly in Australia on Tuesday.

Mikel, who did not enjoy enough first-team appearance with the London club in their last season’s campaign, played in the entire duration of the game, but teenage defender Temitayo Aina was on the bench throughout.

Loic Remy gave the visitors the only goal of the game via a left-footed strike at the ANZ Stadium, but Mourinho never underplayed the role of Mikel in the encounter.

“I’m happy with the performance of my senior players because it’s been a long season, in fact very long,” Mourinho said on Chelsea’s website.

Midfielder Kelechi Iheanacho and striker Isaac Success could be dropped to the bench for Nigeria’s second game against Korea DPR at the Fifa U20 World Cup in New Zealand on Thursday.

Both started in the 2-4 loss to Brazil on Monday morning but coach Manu Garba is expected to make changes to his starting line up when they face the Asians, according to a report by Africanfootball.com.

Success, who scored Nigeria’s first goal, is likely to be replaced by Bernard Bulbwa who will partner Taiwo Awoniyi upfront.

Iheanacho, who has received criticism for his display, would be replaced by Enyimba’s Kingsley Sokari.

According to the report, injured Ifeanyi Mathew is also expected to be replaced by Akinjide Idowu while the coach has kept faith with goalkeeper Joseph Enaholo whose blunders resulted in Brazil’s late flourish.

There was commotion at the Nigerian headquarters of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development on Tuesday as workers of the agency engaged in fisticuffs, while protesting against the alleged reappointment of the Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, as NEPAD’s Coordinator/Chief Executive.

The peaceful protest at the agency degenerated into fisticuffs as some of the workers loyal to Njeze tried to stop the larger number of the employees from going outside the premises of the organisation.

Our correspondent gathered that the special adviser, whose job was meant to end at the expiration of the tenure of the former President, called some directors of the agency last Thursday to announce her new portfolio as the coordinator.

South Korea has confirmed five more cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, bringing to 30 the number of infected people since the outbreak began in the country two weeks ago.

Seoul reported its first two deaths from MERSon Tuesday, fuelling fear in the country which has reported the most cases outside the Middle East, where the disease first appeared.

The country has quarantined or isolated about 1,300 people for possible MERS infection.

More than 200 schools, most in the province of Gyeonggi around the capital, and where the first death occurred on Monday, were shut for the week, the education ministry said.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is being investigated by US authorities as part of their corruption inquiry into football’s governing body, The New York Times has reported.

Blatter, who announced on Tuesday that he will be resigning from his position , has not been directly implicated in the parallel US and Swiss criminal investigations into FIFA, which were announced last week.

Unidentified US law enforcement officials, however, told the NYT that “they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organisation” in a bid to build case against Blatter.

Buhari likely to head oil ministry in new cabinet

There are speculations that President Muhammadu Buhari will keep the petroleum minister portfolio for himself in the new cabinet rather than trust anyone else with the ministry, which currently contributes over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue.

Reuters quoted some close associates of the President as saying this on Tuesday.

One long-standing associate of Buhari, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the cabinet decision was still under wraps, said Nigeria’s oil sector was so dirty that nobody’s hands were clean enough to do the “surgical changes” needed.

Reuters also quoted another political associate as saying, “He will do it. It would be stupid to give that position to anyone else.”

A 25 year old Nigerian man identified as Austin Chukwuna died on Sunday May 31st after the hard drugs he was smuggling out of Indonesia burst inside his stomach. According to Indonesian Police, Chukwuna had on Saturday May 30th lodged at a hotel close to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Indonesia possibly with the intent of flying out with the drugs inside him, when he suddenly ran out of the hotel on Sunday morning, screaming. Witnesses saw him run to the hotel car park like a lunatic, broke the glass of one of the cars and used it to cut himself as he tried to get the drug out of his system.

While Dell managed to surprise us with its rather handsome XPS 15 -- the sibling of the thin-bezel XPS 13 laptop -- at Computex, it's also bringing us a range of both new and refresh models ahead of the Windows 10 launch. Starting off with the headliner we have the Inspiron 15 7000 series laptop (pictured above) that runs on Intel's quad-core Core i7H chip, and it's garnished with Waves MaxxAudio enhancement plus a "performance class" NVIDIA graphics processor with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, so you'll get some good gaming action on it. Most importantly, the machine's 15-inch FHD display has an optional 4K touchscreen upgrade that looks stunning, though it isn't clear as to how long that 74WHr battery can last for. The price? All we know so far is that it'll start from 5,999 yuan or about $970 when it launches in China on August 7th.

I'm absolutely sad to report that Rhythm 93.7FM PH on-air personality, writer and motivational speaker, Iphie Aggrey-Fynn was shot dead by armed robbers along Aba-Port Harcourt expressway yesterday. The Ghanaian-born OAP and blogger had gone to see her parents in Aba and was on her way back to Port Harcourt when their bus was attacked by armed robbers. As the driver attempted to speed away, the gunmen open fire on the bus, killing Ifeoma. May her soul rest in peace, Amen.

The photos had to be censored because they're quite graphic. An abandoned new-born baby, said to be about 3 days old, was discovered by a man in the woods being 'eaten alive' by ants. The man, who called police, said he heard the child crying while he was taking a shortcut to work through the woods on the outskirts of Chelyabinsk, a city in Russia. The badly bitten child was lying on a pile of leaves and covered in ants. See another photo after the cut...

The regent of Akungba Akoko township in Ondo state, Princess Mojisola Omosowon has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen along the Owo-Akure road in Ondo state this morning. According to a palace source who spoke to Sahara Reporters, the regent was on her way to attend the inaugural lecture of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Akure, the Ondo state capital when she was kidnapped by masked wearing gunmen.

A fuel tanker conveying 33,000 litres of petrol yesterday exploded at Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos, at about 1 am, thereby injuring no fewer than 14 persons, gutting about 21 vehicles and razing 44 shops.

The incident also completely burnt down five buildings and six tricycles, though officials of the Lagos State Fire Service and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) later responded to the distress call of residents in the neighbourhood.

Based on reports from different rescue teams, the incident did not claim any life, though a good number of shop owners and traders were seriously affected, losing all their goods and means of livelihoods.

Speaking at the scene, the Director of the state fire service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe, said the incident occurred at about 1 am, explaining that the tanker driver lost control at Iyana-Ipaja due to what he ascribed to fatigue.

Just as Boko Haram continued its guerilla attacks in North-eastern Nigeria yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari met with the service chiefs at the Defence House, Abuja, where the insurgency and security situation in the country was reviewed.

Topmost on the agenda at the meeting was the Islamist terror group, the success recorded in the war against the sect, as well as strategies on sustaining the tempo against the terror group.

According to sources, another issue that featured during the meeting was incessant crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.
At the end of the meeting, which lasted for over two hours yesterday, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin briefed State House correspondents on what transpired between them and the president.

The Multi-million dollar Delta Mall has been recording about 12,000 visitors daily since the shopping facility located in the Warri-Effurun metropolis opened for business about three weeks ago.

The head of the Mall's management team of Broll Properties, consultants to investors of the Delta Mall, Mr. Oni Olusola, revealed this in a chat with newsmen in Warri, saying the project would be launched in three phases, including the shopping complex, a Lunch, Cinema and play arena.

BLANK

Saturday 20 June 2015

Friday 19 June 2015

Monday 15 June 2015

Monday 8 June 2015

Friday 5 June 2015

Wednesday 3 June 2015