Friday 10 July 2015

Multiple deaths following gunman drive-by shooting in Germany this morning


At least two people have been confirmed dead after an 18 year old gunman opened fire at passers-by from his car in Ansbach, southern Germany this morning. The first victim was an elderly woman, and the second was a man on a bicycle. Another pedestrian and a driver of another vehicle were shot at by the gunman, but he missed. Police say they expect more casualties.

The gunman, who was firing from a silver Mercedes Benz, escaped after the shooting but police used helicopter to track him down at a petrol station in Ansbach at 11.45am. He has been arrested. Details later

#ifStatesWereWomen...hilarious hashtag trending on Twitter

This was the number one trending topic in Nigeria a few hours ago and it's hilarious! More tweets after the cut..



Actor Mofe Duncan share his pre-wedding photos


He and his fiancee Jessica will be getting married onAugust 20th and 22nd. They got engaged in April. More photos after the cut...


Kylie Jenner has dumped Tyga following reports he cheated with transgenders?


I put the question mark there because it's a report from MediaTakeOut. Read below...
MTO learned that Tyga and Kylie Jenner are officially over... a wrap ...dunzo! According to an insider, Kylie is upset with the recent allegations against Tyga - by multiple transgenders.
Here is what one of our Kardashian tipsters is telling us, "Tyga is going through some things right now, and Kylie wants no part of that. She's at a good point in her career and she doesn't need that kind of scandal surrounding her. For now Kylie is allowing Tyga to deal with the situation and she's going to focus on her career."
We're told that Tyga and Kylie haven't spoken since the incident, and that Kylie is not responding to Tyga's text messages.

See inside footballer Steven Gerard's new $18million mansion in LA


Former Liverpool star Steven Gerard got newly signed to LA Galaxy where he's paid about $100k a week and has moved to LA from England with his wife and three children. He just moved into a sprawling six bedrooms mansion in an exclusive part of Beverly Hills worth $18million. The 12,000sq ft mansion has a pool, cinema, own waterfall and he's paying about $50k a month to rent it. See more photos after the cut...

Is Akon being used as a front for Chinese-owned businesses to sell solar power to Africa?


So says this article by Joseph Guthrie titled 'Tricking Africa?'. Read below..
When the news broke about Akon’s initiative to bring solar power to 600 million Africans, social media was awash with praise and mainstream media felt compelled to spread the word. The Senegalese-American recording artist/entrepreneur officially became the face of the plan that he had dropped hints about for a year. Upon first glance, you couldn’t really blame anyone for extending their adulation.
The world’s second largest continent and its 54 nations have repeatedly been a target for imperialism, colonialism, and conquest so seeing a descendent “give back” to the people struggling to keep their heads above water was indeed a refreshing moment.
 The official Akon Lighting Africa (ALA) webpage is a spectacle to behold: Akon’s visage and signature adorning his words in the form of a quotation “…bringing hope to millions and ultimately giving Africa a better future” greet you as the page loads; three major bullet points outlining the programme’s overall goals to bring light to the African masses neatly line up next to that. For lots of people – the global black diaspora, notwithstanding – this move is beyond major. 

Akon’s peers in the entertainment industry – particularly black artists and/or actors – were very vocal in their support. Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Tyrese, Timbaland, and Lil Jon used their respective spaces to tell their fans and affiliates about this incredible academy. Mike Bloomberg and organisations, including the United Nations, also spoke highly of Akon’s efforts. Countless Africans tendered their gratitude to Akon for stepping forward and using his stardom to make a significant difference in their lives. Truly, it was marvellous to see all of this positivity abounding.
Or at least… it seemedmarvellous at the time.

Not even a day after ALA was officially announced, Snoop Dogg took to Instagram to air a grievance. He bemoaned the fact that major media outlets prioritised the coverage of Caitlyn Jenner over Akon’s solar academy, insulting Caitlyn – a transgender woman – in the process. Of course, I was appalled by the labelling of Jenner as “a science project,” and when I took to Twitter to air my own views on the discourse (calling out the attention ALA wasn’t getting using that kind of transphobic language is quite crass and wholly unproductive, I feel), I saw that valid questions were being asked about ALA.

JJ Bola – author, poet, and educator – was one of a few people I noticed looking at the ALA initiative critically. “…Where does that 600 million figure come from? That’s half the continent,” he tweeted. He’s not far off: The estimated total population of Africa is 1.111 billion people. Half of that is 550,500,000 – very close to the number of people that ALA has said they will deliver a clean, renewable energy source to. Even allowing for lofty ambition, I still believed the target was achievable considering ALA’s $1bn line of credit and the substantial political networking ALA has already done to get this realised. And then, I was presented with a blog post in the Corge that made no bones about why they thought ALA was merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Their lengthy essay laid out major concerns, stating Akon is nothing more than a “scumbag torch-bearer for the new imperialism that is coming” to the continent. Initially, the whole thing read to me like an aimless rant, effing and blinding and throwing out all manner of insults to Akon’s character. Thankfully, there was a decent amount of substance to the concerns and a bit of righteousness to the anger. It also provided answers to my own questions about ALA, upon further research and fact-checking. Consider the following:

Who is funding ALA? ALA has been provided a $1bn line of credit via China Jiangsu International, a state-owned international conglomerate, headquartered in Nanjing, China, specialising in economic cooperation and foreign trade. China Jiangsu International was founded in December 1980 and has more than 30 overseas subsidiaries, offices and branches to extend their reach and influence to roughly 80 countries around the world. According to their website, “CJI has exported chemical products, API, electrical equipment, and materials exports, exceeding a total volume of $10bn USD per year.” 

Is this a private venture or is ALA not-for-profit? How will it be paid for? It appears ALA isn’t what you’d call a completely philanthropic endeavour, to say the least. Quoth Akon: “We invest our own money to get things started. We go in, plead our case to the country, put up pilots with our own dollars using sophisticated equipment…It shows people that we’re not coming in to pull money out of the country, we’re there to provide jobs for the locals and to enable them to feed their families.”So what does he mean by this? According to the ALA website, the average investment per village is $75,000 USD and will see the partnership of public (read: government, heads of state) organisations and private firms (read: Solektra, Give1 Project, Akon Corp, Sumec, Nari, and Huawei) in order to oversee the delivery. Given the private companies getting involved and private dollars getting spent, one would expect these companies to see a return on that investment. Sure enough, Samba Bathily – one of the cofounders for ALA and head of the holding group that owns Solektra – dropped more knowledge on the subject. “It means anyone who installs our systems can make payments over [several] years. Most of these countries couldn’t allocate the money to pay for a big project up front, but they can afford if they pay by installments.”[REF.? this I think is the embedded link at ‘knowledge’ above] At this stage, one would be well pressed to make ALA out to be altruistic.

Beyonce's mum stuns in red as she steps out with new husband


Beyonce's mum Tina Knowles-Lawson looked stunning in red as she celebrated the release of her Ebony magazine cover with a party in LA yesterday. Her husband - Richard Lawson and friends were there but her children couldn't make it. More photos after the cut...



Former Adamawa gov, Murtala Nyako, son, granted N350million bail


Friday, July 10, 2015

A Federal High court sitting in Abuja has granted former Adamawa state governor, Murtala Nyako and his son Abdulazeez bail of N350 million. Both men are standing trial for a N15billion fraud.

EFCC alleges that the former governor and his son along with two others used five companies- Blue Opal Nigeria limited, Serore Farms & Extension Limited, Pagoda Fortunes Limited, Towers Assets Management Limited and Crust Energy Limited which have been traced to the governor to siphon N15 billion belonging to Adamawa state government.

At the court hearing today, both men pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them