APC Registered by INEC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has been registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). A statement from INEC reads:

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approved the application by three political parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – to merge
into one, to be known as the All Progressives Congress.
 
On considering the application, the Commission found that the applicant-parties have met all statutory requirements for the merger, and has accordingly granted their request.
 
Consequently, the Commission has approved the withdrawal of the individual certificates of the applicant-parties, and the issuance of a single certificate to the All Progressives Congress.

Chinese Toddler Puts an End to Incessant Chases from Dad

That's enough!

Man forgotten in jail for 5 days gets wins $4.1m compensation

What an awful ordeal to pass through...

Man abandoned in US jail for five days wins $4.1m

A man forgotten for five days in a US jail without food or water has won a $4.1 million (3.1 million euro) settlement from the US government, news reports said on Wednesday.

Daniel Chong, 25, survived by drinking his own urine, after his jailers from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) forgot that he was being held in their facility.

Chong, a college student in the southern Californian city of San Diego had been smoking marijuana in April last year at a friend's home, when he and several others were swept up during the DEA raid, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Chong was taken into custody, questioned briefly at the DEA facility in San Diego; he was assured that he would soon be released.

Instead, officials apparently forgot about him and did not return to free him from the windowless, five-foot by 10-foot (1.5 metres by three-metre) room for five days.

Chong quickly lost weight and was able to wriggle out of a set of handcuffs, the Times reported.

But he was unable to escape the cell and his cries for help went unanswered.

Chong had to drink his own urine to stave off dehydration, and began to suffer hallucinations.

Fearing he would die before help arrived, he broke his eyeglasses and began to carve the message, "Sorry, mom," into his arm, the newspaper said.

When he finally was discovered, Chong was covered in his own faeces and severely dehydrated.

When he was rushed to a hospital, his body close to kidney failure and he was breathing with difficulty. He needed five days in the hospital to recover, according to the daily.

"It was an accident, a really, really bad, horrible accident," Chong said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The settlement was reportedly approved by the department of justice, which would not comment to the newspaper about the out-of-court agreement.

His attorney said Chong has had to undergo intensive psychotherapy and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder since the ordeal, which "should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet".

Source: Times of India

10 die in Shanghai heatwave

The heat is really on in Shanghai...

Over 10 die of heatstroke in "hottest Shanghai summer"

Over ten people in Shanghai have died of heatstroke in the east China city's unprecedented summer heat, local health officials said Tuesday.

The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention said the persisting high temperatures this summer have caused a spike in the number of heliosis patients in the city. But center officials declined to disclose the specific number of deaths.

Temperatures in Shanghai surpassed 39 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, the 8th straight day for temperatures to rise above 38 degrees Celsius, the Shanghai Meteorological Center said.

The center said that with 24 days of temperatures at or above 35 degrees Celsius monitored so far, this July has been the hottest for the financial and business center since weather records started 140 years ago.

In an eye-catching demonstration of the hot weather, a reporter from a Shanghai TV station successfully barbecued pork slices on outdoor marble in just ten minutes.

The disease control and prevention center said over 30 percent of the patients who died were hit by summer heat when they were indoors.

A doctor from Shanghai Minhang District Center Hospital said three elderly patients have died of sunstroke at his hospital, while two others were in life-threatening condition.

The doctor surnamed Zheng advised all elderly citizens not to avoid using air conditioning, referring to widely held belief among elderly Chinese that air conditioning is unhealthy or a waste of money.

Heat waves continued to scorch many parts of China on Tuesday, triggering level two emergency response to heat from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

The emergency response covers provinces including east China's Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, central China's Hunan and Hubei, south China's Fujian, and Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities.

Source: Xinhua

Total is Recruiting Trainee Production Operators (HND)

This is a great job opportunity for HND holders in a multinational oil company...

TRAINEE PRODUCTION OPERATORS (HND) (10050513)

Job Type

Company :	Total E & P Nigeria Limited (Tepng)
Contract :	Sponsorship  12 Month  (local)
Business :	Exploration & Production
Location :	Nigeria - Nigeria
Interviews will take place in :	Nigeria
Starting date :	As soon as possible
Salary :	According to profile and experience

Job description

Training Scheme facilitated by a Training Company. During the training programme participants will be on a Training Contract and on successful completion of the training programme would be considered for the usual recruitment process leading to employment in TEPNG.

Required skills

Education

HND holders or its equivalent in any Engineering Discipline. (Must have graduated not before 2010).

Experience

No work experience is required

Skills

Must have already completed their NYSC programme. Candidates will be required to show evidence of this in their application. Good aptitude and fast learning skills.   Click here to apply

Barack Obama Hosts Iftar for Muslim Americans

Iftar is the formal breaking of fast at sunset by Muslims during Ramadan. United States President Barack Obama hosted one for Muslim Americans... 

Obama Thanks Muslim Americans for Their Contributions

President Obama thanked Muslim Americans for their many contributions to U.S. society at the fifth White House iftar under his administration.

Iftar refers to the evening meal when Muslims break their daily fast during their holy month of Ramadan.
“Throughout our history, Islam has contributed to the character of our country, and Muslim Americans, and their good works, have helped to build our nation — and we’ve seen the results,” Obama said.

Among the entrepreneurs whom Obama honored at the July 25 dinner were: Shazi Visram, of Pakistani and Tanzanian heritage, who founded Happy Family, a company that offers organic foods for babies; and Iya Khalil, of Libyan descent, who co-founded a biotechnology research company focused on genomic medicine, a branch of medicine dealing with a patient’s risks for hereditary diseases.

The 2013 White House iftar hosted diplomatic representatives from 46 countries, members of the U.S. Congress and local U.S. officials such as Arjumand Hashmi, mayor of Paris, Texas. Hashmi, a Pakistan-born cardiologist, attracted national attention when he was elected mayor in 2011 by the overwhelmingly white and Christian citizens of a small Southern city.

The White House gala wasn’t the only high-level iftar held by U.S. officials. Secretary of State John Kerry held one July 24 at the State Department, where he said that “when we speak of our faith, it can’t be just about our personal relationship with God. … Our partnerships, the way we work every day in life, the way we reach out country to country, people to people, they have to foster a mutual respect and underscore the freedoms that we seek.”

Source: US Embassy

Never stop trying

Would you like this?

Not only do I blog, but the organisation I work for, Butson Ventures does business consulting. One of our clients has asked us to ask you this question via a poll. Kindly oblige us by selecting the answer that suits you.

Thank you for your support and consideration.


Would you appreciate the opportunity to have quality breakfast regularly at an upscale lounge on the Island?

Enter MTN's APP Developer Challenge

MTN has introduced a competition for app developers tagged "MTN APP Developer Challenge. The overall winner is to get an Hyundai IX 35, N1 million and a Samsung Galaxy S4. Details of the competition next...

MTNApp Developer Challenge 2013
How To Enter:
Step 1: Register
Registration is open to individuals or teams.
Step 2: Selecting the mobile app Idea you want
1. Entry Categories
Developers will be expected to submit applications into any of the following categories:

• Entertainment and Lifestyle
• Productivity
• Games
• Education
• Health and wellness
• Special category for student submissions (undergraduates)

 2. Shortlisting Criteria
Top 4 Apps will be shortlisted from each category based on number of customer downloads and judged based on the criteria listed below.
One ‘wild card’ app will also be selected from each category by the judges (Judges’ wild card).
 3. Judging Criteria

• Originality of concept
• Relevance of concept to the market
• Best user experience
• Commercial viability

Step 3: Submit your final App by 24^th October
You have from 24^th July to 24^th October to create or improve and submit your mobile apps.
Final submission is on 24^th October, 11.59 pm.
Winners will be announced by the 13^th of December 2013.

NOTE : Once you have submitted your app, drop us a mail with the app(s) name and your developer account name at [email protected] and you may be on your way to win a great prize.
If you are submitting an app for the Student category, please indicate in the email sent to the mailing address above.

Good luck!

Introducing the Burka Avenger

You might have heard of Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl but it's time to meet a new female superhero...the Burka Avenger! 

Burka Avenger: Pakistan's answer to Wonder Woman

Cartoon fans in Pakistan have been excited by the arrival of the country's first caped crusader, in the form of a female superhero who flies through the air, battling villains using pens and books.


The heroine, Burka Avenger, is certainly an unusual role model for female empowerment in Pakistan: a woman who uses martial arts to battle colorful villains such as Baba Bandooq, a Taliban-esque figure who tries to shut down her school, and Vadero Pajero, a corrupt politician.


But the cartoon, in which a demure schoolteacher, Jiya, transforms into the action heroine by donning a burqa, or traditional cloak, has also triggered an awkward debate about her costume.

"Is it right to take the burqa and make it look 'cool' for children, to brainwash girls into thinking that a burqa gives you power instead of taking it away from you?" asked the novelist and commentator Bina Shah in a blog post.

The criticism has not overshadowed the broader welcome that Burka Avenger, which aired here for the first time on Sunday evening, has received. With slick computer animation, fast-paced action and flashes of humour that even adults can appreciate, the character could offer Pakistanis a new cultural icon akin to Wonder Woman in the United States.


The burqa debate centres on whether her use of the all-covering cloak - albeit a more streamlined version of the one usually seen in Pakistani villages - is subverting a traditional symbol of segregation and oppression or reinforcing it.

Source: The Age

View the trailer below:

Aswad Ayinde sentenced to 90 years in prison for raping daughters

This story feels like a really bad movie script but it is true. Award winning producer of "Killing me softly" for the Fugees, Aswad Ayinde has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for continually raping his daughter and fathering four children with her. He is believed to have raped 5 out of his 7 daughters and this trial was the second in five that he is expected to have. He had already been convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison earlier for raping another daughter and fathering a child with her too...

Daughter of Paterson man convicted of sexually assaulting her confronts him at sentencing 

As Aswad Ayinde’s daughter stood up to speak, the judge ordered him to put down the court papers he was hunched over and face the daughter he had assaulted and raped since she was 8 years old, fathering her four children.

“I can’t describe how much you hurt me and my sisters,” the daughter, now 35, said Friday to her father, shackled in a prison jumpsuit, his head still bowed, eyes never once meeting hers.

As the woman rehashed the horrors her father inflicted on her and her sisters in Paterson, Ayinde burst out, “You should’ve told the truth instead of lying,” bringing an admonishment from Superior Court Judge Raymond Reddin, who told him that not only did he believe the daughter’s testimony, but also so did the 12 jurors who convicted him.

Ultimately, the daughter said she forgave her father and hoped at some time he’d repent.

“But obviously, with your head down like that, you do not understand,” she said, three of her sisters fighting tears in the courtroom pews.

After the daughter finished, Reddin on Friday tacked on 50 years to the 40-year prison sentence Ayinde, 54, received in 2010 after being convicted of raping another of his daughters, who bore a fifth child.

The former music producer and self-proclaimed prophet faces three more trials for allegedly sexually assaulting three other daughters after requesting separate trials.

Prosecutors have said that Ayinde dominated his children as a god-like prophet who wanted to create a race that carried his pure bloodline. Over the years, he molested five of his seven daughters and fathered six children, the family and their attorney said.

By about 2001, the family had mostly split up, Ayinde “bouncing around,” but still in reach of his family, the daughter said. In 2003, he tried to rape her for the last time.

“That was it. … I just felt stronger,” she said.

Yet, it wasn’t until she and her sisters learned that Ayinde had fathered more children with other women that they decided to go to the authorities in 2006.

“We found out we had other siblings, young siblings, and we had to put him to a stop,” the daughter said after the sentencing hearing. “Even though we were healing, they could still fall victim.”

These days, the sisters stay in close touch. The daughter who spoke Friday is studying communications at Essex County College — “straight A’s last semester,” she said — and has just finished a memoir. As for her four children, two have genetic illnesses that doctors told her likely were due in part to the incest. A 9-year-old daughter died in 2010 of spinal muscular atrophy.

In sentencing Ayinde, Reddin could not hide his disgust for what he had done.

“By 13, most fathers are taking their daughters to the park … teaching them to ride a bike,” he said. “You took her in the bedroom and repeatedly raped her to complete your disgusting, revolting fantasies.”

Source: North Jersey

Taking a Look at Polygamy in America

This is an interesting video about Polygamy in America. Happy viewing...

Cleveland kidnapper, Ariel Castro agrees to life imprisonment without parole

Remember this? The man who committed to heinous crimes has agreed to a deal that would see him plead guilty whilst avoiding a possible death sentence for fetal homicide that attracts a murder charge in Ohio...

Source: Heavy.com

Cleveland man agrees to life in prison for abducting three women

At a court hearing, Ohio prosecutors in turn agreed that Castro will not be eligible for the death penalty.
Castro, 53, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, told Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Russo that he understood he would never emerge from prison under the agreement.

"I do understand that," Castro responded. "I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me."
Castro was charged with 977 counts, including kidnapping and rape, for the abduction and imprisonment of Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 32, and Amanda Berry, 27.

The women disappeared from 2002 to 2004, and were freed from Castro's home in a rundown area of Cleveland on May 6. Also freed was a 6-year-old girl who, according to DNA evidence, was fathered by Castro with Berry during her captivity.

The women had been bound for periods of time in chains or ropes and endured starvation, beatings and sexual assaults, according to court documents and a police report. Avoiding a trial would spare them from having to testify.

He had also been charged with murder under a fetal homicide law for allegedly forcing one of the women to miscarry.

Under Ohio law, prosecutors could have sought the death penalty for the murder charge, but the plea agreement precludes that.

Source: Reuters