EGYPT ELECTIONS: MAJORITY VOTE IN FAVOUR OF SISI

Cairo AFP reported that Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was assured Thursday of an overwhelming victory in Egypt's presidential election, securing 96.2 of the vote with most of the ballots counted.
At least 21 million voters, or 96.2 percent chose the retired field marshal, who deposed the elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July, with the ballots counted from 312 of 352 counting stations, state television reported.
His victory had never been in doubt with the main Islamist opposition crushed since Morsi's ouster.
Sisi's only electoral rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, received 3.8 percent of the votes counted.
Sisi rode on a wave of support for a potential strongman who can restore stability after several years of tumult.
Hundreds of his supporters took to the streets waving Egyptian flags, setting off fire works and honking their car horns.
"It's a victory for stability," said Tahra Khaled, who joined the crowd celebrating in the iconic Tahrir Square, the nerve centre of mass protests that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The army-installed government and Sisi were eyeing a large turnout as an endorsement of the overthrow of Islamist president last year, and the subsequent crackdown on his supporters.
Voting had been scheduled to end on Tuesday, but was extended for an extra day in a last minute decision that sparked protests from Sabbahi, a leftist politician who came in third in the 2012 election Morsi won.
An election committee official said turnout has "surpassed 25 million (46 percent)" out of almost 54 million registered voters, the official Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website.
The move to extend polling for a day fuelled criticism of an election already marred by a deadly crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
An electoral official had said after Tuesday's voting, when the election had originally been scheduled to end, turnout was around 37 percent, well below the 52 percent of voters who cast their ballots in the 2012 election which Morsi won.
Sisi had appealed for a large turnout, seeking vindication for his overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's only freely elected president, after a single turbulent year in power.
Sisi had urged "40, 45 (million) or even more" to give credibility to an election boycotted by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and secular opposition groups.
After reports of meagre numbers at polling stations on the first day of voting Monday, Sisi's backers in the state-run media appealed to people to get out and vote.
 CCTV News  reported that the official results of the votes will be out in two days.

FATAL CRASHES AND SEVERAL DEATHS LINKED TO FAULTY SWITCHES IN GM MOTORS, CANADA.

General Motors Co., Canada is undergoing probing, subject to a recall to fix faulty switches which allegedly led to two fatal crashes and at least 13 deaths in the United States. The country's top transportation official told Reuters on monday.
According to Reuters,
"Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said she was sure the number of complaints potentially linking accidents to the switches would rise as people became aware of the recall.

"There were two accidents into which we are currently having investigations which may be related to this defect and this recall and I can confirm that," she said in a telephone interview.

An official at Transport Canada - the federal transportation ministry - earlier said both accidents involved vehicles which were subject to the recall. The airbags did not deploy in either case.

Complaints about the crashes were filed in June 2013 and April of this year. Raitt said she did not know how long Transport Canada's probes would take to wrap up.

The United States this month fined GM $35 million for not recalling cars with faulty ignition switches as quickly as possible.

At least 13 deaths in the United States have so far been linked to the problem.

Asked whether she felt fatal crashes in Canada could be linked to the faulty switches, Raitt told Reuters: "I think people are going to take a look at the accidents they had and wonder whether or not the faulty switch was at fault and I expect Transport Canada will get more phone calls."

Raitt said Ottawa is trying to determine whether the firm had delayed the recall of some cars, breaking the law in doing so, but she added that there was no evidence that GM Canada had contravened Canadian laws.

"If information comes to light that GM Canada is not being truthful with us, we do have the ability to go back and prosecute," she said.

Raitt said she did not know how Transport Canada would handle the nine complaints. Asked about the complaints, GM Canada said it was working closely with the ministry.

"We will continue to offer our full cooperation with the federal government as we work through these difficult issues," said spokeswoman Adria MacKenzie."

NIJ STUDENTS' WEEK 2014; UNUSUAL IS THE STANDARD

The 2014 edition of students' week in the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos promises to be more interesting and fun filled than the previous ones as various events are already taking place in the pre students' week activities to get the students prepared for the never-stopping fun still to come during the week itself.

 The chairman of the students representative council (SRC), Ojebola Mathew revealed to the students that this year's students' week is going to be unusual, he said "unusual is the slang as we the committee shall see to it that our fellow students  experience something unusual from time past".

 Also, speaking with the leader of the sub-committee in charge of the pre students' week activities, Motunrayo Ganiyah, she expresses her hopes that the activities of the pre student week will be effective in getting the students involved during the student week proper, she said " the whole idea of the pre students' week activities is to get students fully prepared for the week it self, and with activities like the hilarious beauty contest in which the winners won cash prize, the intra-school debate, the five-men football competition and several others still to come, I believe that the students are well prepared for the main week come june."

  According to the leader of the sub-committee handling publicity, Olubunmi Adeyera, he said " we are committed to keeping the students  and the general public informed and ensuring success during the pre-students' week and the students' week itself, and i believe we are making progress through publicity on social platforms and also posting bills all around the campus, with all these, i believe we're going to make it."

 Other sub-committees are also doing genuine jobs to ensure the success of the week.

10 MISSING AFTER ATTACK ON CHINESE CAMP IN CAMEROON

About ten people have been confirmed missing after an attack carried out by unknown people in a chinese enterprise camp in cameroon today.
  According to CCTVNEWS, Nigeria's boko haram are suspected to be behind the attack.

KIDNAPPED GIRLS HAVE BEEN CONVERTED - SHEKAU

  A Boko Haram video emerged Monday purportedly showing some of the kidnapped Nigerian girls in Muslim headdresses and the terror group's leader declaring they have converted to Islam.
The video, released by French news agency Agence France-Presse, was shot in a nondescript bush area and showed about 100 girls.

In the 27-minute footage, the terror group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, says he is willing to exchange the schoolgirls for Boko Haram prisoners.

It shows girls dressed in black and gray hijabs, and reciting the Quran as they make Islamic declarations of faith. Shekau appears in a separate part of the video, but never with the girls.

"Praise be to Allah, the lord of the world," the girls in the video chant.

It's the first purported sighting of the girls abducted last month in the northern town of Chibok. A convoy of Islamist militants drove to a school, seized nearly 300 girls and fled into the night.

At least 276 girls remain missing since the terror group abducted them on April 14. Though some of the girls escaped shortly after their abduction, none of the others have been found.

MISSING FLIGHT MH370 - HARDEST SEARCH IN HISTORY

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been termed as  the most difficult in human history by the man heading the operation, but modern technology greatly increases the chances of finding the missing plane.
According to CNN  "Angus Houston said the hunt is even more difficult than that for Air France Flight 447, which disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

"The big difference between Air France 447 and MH370 is that the last known position, in terms of MH370, is at the top of the Malacca Straits, and then the aircraft continued to fly for an extended period after that," Houston told CNN's Anna Coren on Monday.

"Whereas Air France, they had a very good last known position, which then turned out to be very close to where the aircraft was eventually found."

But he said searchers are performing "groundbreaking work" with satellite analysis, which has helped isolate the search area in the Indian Ocean.

"Without that, we would be essentially searching the whole of the Indian Ocean, and I think the chances of finding the aircraft in those circumstances would have been slim," Houston said. "I think by having this defined search area ... I think eventually we will find the aircraft."

Houston is the chief search coordinator for the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, based in Australia. He said his greatest concern throughout the two-month search has been the families of those on board.

"To have a set of circumstances where you don't know what's happened to your loved ones in circumstances such as this, it's just a terrible, terrible emotional trauma of all of those involved," he said.

"And beyond that, the wider public has a great interest in what happened here because we all fly in airplanes, and we all fly long distances over water, and a lot of people want to know what happened and why it happened."

France offers to host African security summit on Boko Haram

France has offered to host a summit with Nigeria and its neighbors focused on Islamist militant group Boko Haram, President Francois Hollande said on Sunday.
Global outrage over the Boko Haram's abduction of 200 schoolgirls last month has focused attention on the group, which has destabilized large swathes of northeast Nigeria and its neighbors.
"With Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, I have proposed to hold a meeting with the countries bordering Nigeria," Hollande said during a visit to the Azeri capital of Baku.
"If the countries agree, it should take place next Saturday" in Paris, Hollande added. His aides said that the leaders of Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger might attend. Britain, the European Union and the United States would likely be represented as well.
France, Britain, the United States and other countries have said they were sending experts to help Nigeria track down and free the schoolgirls.
Nigeria's army has mobilized two divisions to hunt for the schoolgirls as Jonathan's government has faced criticism for not responding more quickly to the abductions.
A French priest was released in December after being kidnapped the previous month in northern Cameroon, a region where Boko Haram is known to operate. The group kidnapped a French family of seven on holiday in northern Cameroon in February 2013 and released them the following April.

<<Reuters>>

CHINA - ELITES URGE RELEASE OF JAILED NOBEL LAUREATE

A group of "princelings", children of China's political elite, has quietly urged the Communist Party leadership to release jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo on parole to improve the country's international image, two sources said.
Liu's release is not high on the agenda of the party, which is trying to push through painful economic, judicial and military reforms amid the most extensive crackdown on corruption in over six decades, the sources with ties to the leadership said, requesting anonymity.
But the back channel push for Liu's parole shows that a debate is taking place among leaders about damage to China's reputation caused by his jailing. It also suggests the ruling elite are not monolithic when it comes to views on dissent.
Liu, 58, a veteran dissident involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests crushed by the army, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 on subversion charges for organizing a petition urging an end to one-party rule. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
"For many princelings, the pros of freeing Liu Xiaobo outweigh the cons," one of the sources said. "Liu Xiaobo will definitely be freed early. The question is when."
 He is eligible for parole after serving half his term.
The sources declined to say how big the group of princelings was, but said most were second- or third-generation born in the 1960s or 1970s and some were close to President Xi Jinping.
"The biggest worry is hostile forces using Liu Xiaobo once he is freed," the second source told Reuters.

read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/11/us-china-dissident-idUSBREA4A01120140511

U.S. FIRST LADY EXPRESSES OUTRAGE OVER KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN GIRLS

 

First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama has taken the rare step of delivering her husband President Barack Obama's weekly radio address on Saturday to express outrage over the kidnapping of some 200 girls in Nigeria last month.

"Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night," Mrs. Obama said in the address.

"This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls."

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said on Friday he believed the girls, abducted by militant Islamist group Boko Haram, were still in his country.

Militants stormed a secondary school in the village of Chibok, near the Cameroon border, on April 14, and kidnapped the girls, who were taking exams at the time. Fifty have since escaped, but more than 200 remain with the insurgents.

The United States offered this week to send a team of experts to Nigeria to support the government's response effort, which has been criticized for being slow.

"I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government's efforts to find these girls and bring them home," Mrs. Obama said. "In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams - and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now."

The first lady noted that the school where the girls were abducted had been closed recently because of terrorist threats, but the girls insisted on coming back to take exams.

"They were so determined to move to the next level of their education...so determined to one day build careers of their own and make their families and communities proud," she said.

"And what happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident. It's a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions."
 <Reuters>

BLOGGER BAGS TEN YEARS AND THOUSAND LASHES IN SAUDI.

 A blogger in Saudi Arabia who has been identified as Raif Badawi has been sentenced to ten years in jail, a thousand lashes and a fine worth millions of riyals.
According to a news website, "Raif Badawi originally faced seven years jail and 600 lashes, but an appeal court overturned that sentence and ordered a retrial.
Amnesty International has called the new sentence 'outrageous' and says Badawi is a 'prisoner of conscience'. His website has been closed since his first trial.
Badawi was arrested in June 2012 and charged with cyber crime and disobeying his father - a crime in Saudi Arabia - in relation to his Saudi Liberal Network website..
The site included articles that were critical of senior religious figures such as Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, according to Human Rights Watch.
The prosecution had demanded that Badawi be tried for apostasy, a crime which carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, but his original trial judge dismissed that charge.
Badawi's lawyers have slammed yesterday's sentence as too harsh, althought the prosecutor had asked for a harsher penalty, according to news website Sabq.
The ruling is subject to appeal but, after his last appeal led to a stiffer penalty, and with his original lawyer, human rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair, currently held in Riyadh's Malaz Prison on charges including 'breaking allegiance with the king', Badawi may think twice about challenging the latest ruling.
Khair was detained incommunicado in April after appearing in court in Riyadh on sedition charges, according to his wife."

  *sighs* didn't know blogging is now a crime in some parts of the world.

WHO reveals drop down in maternal deaths world wide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a study, reporting that the rate of maternal deaths across the globe has fallen to 45% since 1990.
Here's an excerpt from punchng...

"The statistics, released by the World Health Organization, also provide new evidence on the causes of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth.

The WHO says most are preventable, highlighting the need for more investment in pregnancy care.

In 1990, more than half a million women died in pregnancy or childbirth – by 2013 the figure was 289,000.

But the WHO say the figure it still too high – with 33 maternal deaths around the world every hour.

The gap between rich and poor countries is wide. In sub-Saharaan Africa, a 15-year-old girl has a one in 40 risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth. In Europe, that risk is one in 3,300.

The WHO says the study highlights the need for poorer countries to invest more in health care.

But there is also evidence that in some rich countries such as the United States, maternal mortality is rising, say health experts.

More than one in four maternal deaths is caused by pre-existing conditions which complicate pregnancy, such as diabetes, HIV, malaria and obesity."

This is good News i believe.

NIGERIA YOUTHS DEMAND ANSWERS TO MISSING SCHOOL GIRLS' RIDDLE

Nigerians, especially the youths have been playing active roles towards ensuring the return of the kidnapped school girls in chibok, Borno state.
The youths have launched series of activities ranging from peaceful protest to dedication of display pictures and Personal messages on social media, demanding that the terrorists should "bring back our girls" and that the federal government should be more responsible, while the believers among them take to their places of worship to pray for the victims.
  In view of these, the youths have began asking more direct questions that appears puzzling, here is what a close source sent to me on social media...
 "The students are said to be SSS3 student writing physics examination. QUESTIONS:1. Why are their names not yet published by the school, state government and WAEC?2.Why are their pictures not over the news media?3. How come all 235 students are in SSS3 and all came to write physics examination when the total number of students in the whole school are around 1200?4. It was announced that the Borno states govt gave N1m each to parents of the missing girls. If thats true.QUESTIONS:1.Why was these money given to these parents, was it as compensation for the kidnap or compensation for their deaths?2. On Tuesday 29th April 2014,the senator from Borno said in the senate that the girls has been taken out of the country to Chad, Niger and Cameroon and married off to their adoptors.QUESTIONS: How come these senators know so much, who are their informants? Why is the wife of the state governor organising women to pressure FG in Abuja after the National Security Council has ordered the armed forces to use all state resources to secure the release of the adopted Girls. I just wonder how 200+ girls can be kidnapped at once. How come we havent seen those girls who they said have escaped on tv?If the Ss3 student aren't up to 120 in a school of 1200, how is it possible 234 girls are missing?Where are the school authorities? We haven't seen any of them on tv.We are not fools. WHO IS FOOLING WHO? I need objective answers pls, its time all Nigerians start asking quesions than drawing to conclusion.j

GEJ ISSUES PRESIDENTIAL ORDERS TO SHETTIMA

Nigeria President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is finally doing something worthy about the 200+ missing school girls in Borno state recently. Here is an update on the issue, according to PUNCH NG...
"The meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State on the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok ended in the early hours of Sunday with a presidential directive that all the missing schoolgirls must be recovered alive.

 Shettima attended the meeting at the Presidential Villa alongside his deputy, his Chief of Staff, the state Commissioner for Education, Mr. Musa Kubo, the chairman of the local government, the State Commissioner of Police, the Divisional Police Officer and the Principal of the school, Asabe Kwabura among others.

On the President’s side were Vice President Namadi Sambo; President of the Senate, David Mark; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius, security chiefs and some other top presidential aides.

 Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, told State House correspondents that the clear instruction from the President to those who attended the meeting was that the schoolgirls should be recovered on time."

PREMIERE MONOTECHNIC OF COMMUNICATION IN NIGERIA PREPARES FOR STUDENTS WEEK

 After about seven months of academics work, students of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism are about to let off the studious steam of the past months in their students week activities which is set to hold for a week in the first week of June.

  In an interview with the chairman of the students representatives committee (SRC) Ojebola Mathew Opeoluwa, a final year student of the institute, he said that the students week activities of this session promises to be positively different from the previous ones. " I can assure my fellow students that this year's students week activities is going to be the best among the ones we've been having in the past because we (the committee) are bringing in the unusual in better ways than one" he said.

  He said further said that "progressive steps have been made by the committee towards ensuring adequate sponsors for a successful outcome of the week"

  In assuring his fellow students that the forthcoming student week promises to be more interesting than the previous ones, He said "we've set up sub committees for efficient handling of most of these activities, and to give the students a tip of the iceberg, there's a pre-students week activities coming up in exactly a month to the students week itself and that will be in few weeks time".

  About the lined up activities for the event, the chairman said, " we are planning on having both educational and entertaining programs for the event and some of the activities we have lined up are; inter-school debate, raffle draw, corporate social responsibilities, cultural day, essay competition, friendly matches, award giving, contests, dinners and several other activities that are planned surprises for students"

  He assured NIJ students that "we have also secured appointments with some top artistes in the entertainment industry for appearance and shows." 

 "Our gates are widely opened for students of other tertiary institutions in the country to participate with us in our students week activities and we assure them of adequate security". The SRC chairman concluded.   

    

MILITARY RULE IN NIGERIA

WHAT IS MILITARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT?

This is a structure of rule that involves a country’s administration and implementation of its law and order, under the control of the military.

INTRODUCTION TO MILITARY RULE IN NIGERIA.

Military rule is not peculiar to Nigeria; it is a continental phenomenon in Africa and some other parts of the world. The military system of government was first introduced into Nigeria on January 15 1966 after a military coup (the first ever in Nigeria) led by the leader of a group of majors, Late Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. An example of what military rule is all about can be sighted In the opening paragraph of the broadcast that marked the genesis of the military rule in Nigeria. It stated thus “In the name of the supreme council of the revolution of the armed forces, I declare martial law over the northern provinces of Nigeria. The constitution is suspended and the regional governments and elected assemblies are hereby dissolved. All political, cultural, tribal and trade union activities, together with all demonstrations and unauthorized gatherings, excluding religious worship, are banned until further notice. The aim of the Revolutionary council is to establish a strong united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife……………….”.

ACHIEVEMENTS/SUCCESS OF MILITARY RULE IN NIGERIA.

ü Keeping The Country Together: The first major achievement of military government in Nigeria was keeping the country together as one geographical entity.

ü Large Scale Rehabilitation: The military embarked on large scale rehabilitation programs at the end of the Nigerian civil war.

ü Reorganization of The Army: The Nigerian army was put in a better condition by flushing out unqualified and illiterate soldiers after the war ended.

ü Introduction of New Currency: The Nigerian currency was changed by the military in 1973 from pound, shilling and pence to Naira and kobo.

ü Introduction of N.Y.S.C.: The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme was established in 1973 during the administration of General Gowon.

ü Creation of states.

ü Maintenance of peace.