Hot Globe: December 2013

Tuesday 31 December 2013

My fear for Iheanacho - Keshi

From Vanguard...

Head coach of the Nigeria national team coach, Stephen Keshi is unhappy that the best player at the 2013 Fifa Under-17 World Cup, Kelechi Iheanacho will not be part of the Super Eagles side that will compete at the 2014 African Nations Championship (Chan) in South Africa.

Iheanacho was reportedly hurled off to Manchester City earlier this month to undergo trials with the Barclays English Premier League club.

However, nothing came out of the trip to Eastlands and the midfielder has now been left in limbo with Keshi declaring that the 17-year-old is no longer in his immediate plans.

Twenty-six Palestinian prisoners have been released from Israeli jails, as part of a US-brokered deal to restart Middle East negotiations.

Tuesday's release comes a day before US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to return to the region in a bid to boost the faltering negotiations.

It is the third of four stages to free 104 inmates that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to let go when the talks were renewed in July. They have been convicted of killing Israeli civilians or soldiers and have spent between 19 and 28 years in prison.

After departing on buses from Israeli jails overnight, the prisoners received hero's welcomes upon their return to the occupied West Bank and Gaza with officials and relatives lining up to greet them.

Train collision in North Dakota ignites Oil Tankers

A cargo train carrying oil in the US state of North Dakota collided with another train on Monday, setting off a series of explosions that left at least 10 cars ablaze, the latest in a string of incidents to raise concerns over oil-by-rail traffic.

Local residents heard several powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound train carrying soybeans derailed, and an eastbound train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 pm CST (8 pm GMT), local officials said. There were no reports of any injuries.

Scientists have identified an existing anti-inflammatory drug that in laboratory tests blocked the death of immune system's cells which occurs as an HIV infection leads to AIDS. Researchers are planning a Phase 2 clinical trial to determine if this drug or a similar drug can prevent HIV-infected people from developing AIDS and related conditions.

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes identified the precise chain of molecular events in the human body that drives the death of most of the immune system's CD4 T cells as an HIV infection leads to AIDS.

An Egyptian court has convicted 139 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on charges ranging from rioting to sabotage, and sentenced each to two-year prison terms, reports stated.

The mass trial was among scores of court cases and prosecutions in Egypt that have followed the popularly-backed July coup that ousted Morsi from power.

Local news agency says at least 14 people killed and another 20 wounded after a trolleybus explodes in Volgograd city.

At least 14 people have been killed and 20 wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a packed trolleybus in Russia's Volgograd city, according to the Interfax news agency.

Volgograd was on high alert on Monday following the latest attack, that came a day after a suicide bombing at a train station in the city killed 17 people.

More than 500 Chinese lawmakers leave Office over election fraud

More than 500 Chinese lawmakers who were accused of election fraud have been forced from office, the country's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The officials were disqualified, dismissed or resigned on Saturday following elections in Hunan at the Hengyang municipal people's congress, the local legislative body.

Fifty-six provincial lawmakers offered bribes to 518 municipal lawmakers and 68 staff members, a statement from the Hunan provincial people's congress said, according to Xinhua. The total amount of money involved exceeded 110 million yuan, or $18.14 million U.S. dollars, according to the statement.

The 56 provincial lawmakers were disqualified Saturday and 512 municipal legislator resigned, according to Xinhua.

According to Think-tank, satellite images show Pyongyang could be making efforts to reactivate its main nuclear complex.

Satellite imagery suggests North Korea is making "wide-ranging, extensive" efforts to fully reactivate its main nuclear complex, a US think-tank has said, in line with Pyongyang's vows to strengthen its weapons programme.

Recent images show work at the Yongbyon nuclear compound, apparently aimed at producing fuel rods to be used in a plutonium reactor, Johns Hopkins University's US-Korea Institute said.

A python has killed a security guard near a luxury hotel in Bali, Indonesia. A doctor told CNN that a man's corpse was brought to the RSUP Sanglah Denpasar Hospital in Bali on Friday.

A large snake appears to have suffocated the man, said the doctor, who did not wish to be identified. The body has been released to the family, the doctor said. The python remains on the loose after strangling the guard, who was trying to capture the large snake, according to Agence France-Presse.

Another security guard, at the Bali Hyatt, saw the attack, which took place "on the roadway outside of the hotel's property," Jamie Zimmerman Rothfeld, a spokeswoman for the Bali Hyatt, told CNN.

Mariposa botnet 'mastermind' jailed in Slovenia

Credit to BBC:

A hacker accused of masterminding one of the biggest ever botnets has been sentenced to just under 5 years in jail.

Matjaz Skorjanc was arrested in 2010 after a two-year investigation into malware that had hijacked about 12.7 million computers around the world.

The 27-year-old was found guilty of creating the Mariposa botnet software, assisting others in "wrongdoings" and money laundering.

Culled from Foxnews:

North Korea's Kim Jong Un was reportedly "very drunk" when he ordered the recent execution of two aides close to his uncle Jang Song-thaek.

The pair, according to a report in The Independent citing Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, questioned an order from the North Korean leader to transfer control of a business to the military. Kim was reportedly angered when they said they needed to check with "Director Jang" first before finalizing the switch.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the assault rifle AK-47, has died at
the age of 94

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the assault rifle AK-47, has died at the age of 94. A spokesman for the Udmurt Republic’s president said Kalashnikov died on Monday in his home city of Izhevsk, the capital of the republic.

The spokesman did not give the cause of death. State media reported that Kalashnikov was fitted with an electric heartbeat stimulator at a Moscow hospital in June and had been in hospital in Izhevsk since Mid-November. Kalashnikov was in his 20s when he created the AK-47 just after World War Two.

During his first in-person interview since June, when he arrived in Russia after being granted temporary asylum, Snowden declared he had "already won" his campaign for the United States to re-evaluate its policies of widespread phone and internet surveillance.

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said in the interview with The Washington Post, which was published Tuesday.

Snowden's revelations that the US government had routinely collected Americans' internet and phone records, especially in the 10 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, caused a worldwide public outcry about the intrusion of privacy.

According to several reports, a powerful car bomb explosion has rocked a police headquarters in an Egyptian city north of Cairo, killing at least 13 people and injuring 150, officials said.

An interim government spokesman on Tuesday blamed the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack in Mansoura and branded it a "terrorist organisation." The Brotherhood then quickly condemned the blast in an emailed statement.

Bayern Munich wins FIFA World Club Title, beats Raja Casablanca in finals.

Europe’s reigning champions Bayern Munich won the 10th edition of the Club World Cup football tournament after defeating their Moroccan hosts, Raja Casablanca, 2-0, in Marrakech on Saturday evening.

German giants Bayern Munich claimed their fifth title of 2013 as they lifted the Club World Cup with a 2-0 win over Raja Casablanca in Saturday's final.

The Bavarian giants had few problems against Moroccan champions Raja as Bayern grabbed both goals inside the opening 22 minutes from Brazil centre-back Dante and midfielder Thiago.

Credit to Vanguard:

Mastermind of the Christmas day bomb blast that killed about 44 persons and wounded 75 others at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, in 2011, Kabiru Umar, alias Kabiru Sokoto, was yesterday, sentenced to life imprisonment by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

Delivering his judgement, the presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, said he was satisfied that the Federal Government, successfully established the culpability of the convict beyond every reasonable doubt, noting that Umar had in two earlier separate confessional statements, admitted that he had prior knowledge of the attack.

Besides, the court stressed that the accused person, throughout the trial, never showed any remorse for his actions, describing him as “a pathological liar with no regards for the truth.”

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/catholic-church-bombing-court-sentences-kabiru-sokoto-life-imprisonment/#sthash.PERuI3pS.dpuf

Rebel forces have fired and hit two US military aircraft in response to the outbreak in violence in South Sudan, injuring three US service men and damaging one of the Military aircrafts, according to reports.

South Sudan have accused the renegade troops in control of the breakaway region for the attack.

The US military aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation's worst violence over the last week.

One American service member was reported to be in critical condition.

More details of people and institutions targeted by UK and US surveillance have been published by The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel, as the latest string of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that Britain and the US spied on hundreds of top officials in 60 countries, including an Israeli premier, an EU policy maker and several aid groups.

According to the papers, the list of around 1,000 targets includes a European Union commissioner, humanitarian Organisations and an Israeli PM.

Report: U.S. nuclear general drank too much, misbehaved in Russia

Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, a U.S. general who oversaw nuclear weapons, boozed, fraternized with "hot women" and disrespected his hosts during an official visit to Russia this year, an investigative report shows.

Maj. Gen. Michael Carey led the 20th Air Force responsible for three nuclear wings. He was relieved of duty in October because of loss of confidence in his leadership, the Air Force said at the time without providing specific details.

But an Air Force Inspector General report released Thursday sheds more light into the case. It details the events of a July trip to Moscow in which witnesses recalled Carey drinking too much. During a layover in Switzerland, the report states, he bragged loudly about his position as commander of a nuclear force, saying he "saves the world from war every day. "And the shenanigans continued in Moscow, according to the report.

The end of Syria’s chemical weapons is in sight. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the most toxic chemicals will be moved to the Mediterranean for destruction. And China will be one of the select few countries helping with the transport.

"China and the US will provide backup services when Russia moves the weapons to the Syrian port Latakia. Then Chinese ships will escort Norwegian and Danish vessels in moving the weapons to a US ship for final destruction." Li Shaoxian, vice dean of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said.

Discarded mainframes, second-hand scanners, and a solid amount of tinkering: These were the ingredients that allowed a Togolese geographer to create the first entirely recycled 3D printer. Recycling these materials, he explains, also helps fight against the worsening electronic waste problem in Togo.

Sales of 3D printers, which can print all kinds of objects using modelling or laser techniques, have boomed in the past year. The market is currently worth 1.5 billion euros and could increase to 6 billion euros by 2020. During this holiday season, several companies are selling 3D printers for individual use at very low prices

Read and view more photos after the cut.

Credit to France24.

After months of delays, the first direct high-speed rail link to connect Paris with Barcelona was opened on Sunday.

The joint project from France’s state rail operator SNCF and its Spanish equivalent Renfe will see two TGV (high-speed train) services run between the French capital and the Catalan city each day, with a journey time of just under six-and-a-half hours.

Ugandan Parliament have passed an anti-gay law that punishes "aggravated homosexuality" with life imprisonment.

Formally, the bill drew wide condemnation when it was first introduced in 2010 and initially included the death penalty, but in the revised version passed by parliament, death penalty was removed and replaced with life imprisonment.

The law passed today, Friday, 20th December 2013, sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for the new offence of "aggravated homosexuality," according to the office of a spokeswoman for Uganda's parliament.

From CNN:

Barack Obama's father was more abusive and violent than the president was aware of, according to his half-brother, who has written a memoir about their father. Mark Obama Ndesandjo, who is several years younger than the President, described their father as a brilliant man. But he was also an alcoholic, a "social failure" and an abusive husband, he said.

"I remember the sounds of my mothers' screams and I remember the sounds of breaking, things breaking," he told CNN. "And I remember that I couldn't protect her. That's something that no child ever forgets. "He said he especially remembered a violent episode when he was 6 or 7."My father actually broke -- came in the door, against the restraining order, and held a knife to my mother's throat," he said.

North Korea has sent a warning fax message to South Korea on Thursday, threatening to "strike mercilessly without notice" after protests against the secretive regime this week in Seoul. In the message, North Korea warned that it would strike if "the provocation against their highest dignity is to be repeated in the downtown of Seoul.

According to reports, "Earlier this week, on the second anniversary of the death of former North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, conservative protesters rallied in Seoul, burning effigies of the country's leaders as well as its flag. Such protests are common during North Korean festivals and anniversaries.

Mr President, I am Catro! Raul Castro Tells Obama

Cuban ex-President, Fidel Castro has said his brother, Raul, introduced himself to US President Barack Obama in English at the funeral for former South African President Nelson Mandela, telling him, "Mr. President, I am Castro".

Several media which include Aljazeera reported that in an interview about Mandela in Cuban state media on Thursday, Castro congratulated his brother, who took over as president of Cuba in 2008, for his "steadfastness and dignity, when, with a friendly but firm gesture, he greeted the head of the US government and told him in English, 'Mr. President, I am Castro'".

Tension is currently high in India after the "terrible" treatment of one of its top diplomats, who was arrested and strip-searched in the US.

According Aljazeera, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said on Thursday that he hoped India's "valuable relationship" with the US would soon return to normal, but reiterated calls for the visa fraud case against diplomat Devyani Khobragade to be withdrawn.

"We have asked for the case to be dropped and withdrawn... we are not convinced that there are legitimate grounds for pursuing it," Khurshid told foreign journalists.

"I cannot believe if a US senator was arrested he would be put through this behaviour....I would rather not prejudge. Let us allow the American government to respond."

Several reports from sports media including Sydney Morning Herald, confirmed that more than one-third of participants in the Ultimate Fighting Championship Fight Night held at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre ended the night in hospital.

Main card Australian fighters Mark Hunt, 39, and Dylan Andrews, 34, topped the long injury list coming out of Saturday's event.

Eight of the 22 competing fighters were taken to hospital, including two rushed by ambulance to St Andrew's Hospital

India retaliates to US, removes security barriers in front of US Embassy in Delhi

The Indian government retaliated Tuesday against the United States for the recent arrest and strip search of an Indian envoy -- going so far as to remove the concrete barriers at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and, reportedly, demanding American diplomats return their ID cards.

The clash between the two supposed allies escalated rapidly on the heels of last week's arrest of Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general, in New York. She was accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her Manhattan housekeeper.

Death toll in South Sudan rising so fast

From Al-jazeera:

Up to 500 people have been killed in violent clashes in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, a day after President Salva Kiir said security forces had put down an attempted coup by supporters of his former deputy.

The violence was the focus of an emergency UN Security Council meeting, which heard that as many as 800 people had been injured, and some 20,000 people had sought refuge in UN compounds.

"UN officials have told me they're going to find it very difficult to cope with these people," said Al Jazeera's Diplomatic Editor Jaes Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York.

"They don't have the food or resources to look after them."

Pirates have attacked an oil tanker off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapped two men, a Greek coast guard and Ukrainian captain official said.

Ten pirates boarded the 18-crew ship, the 6,500 tonne Marshall Islands-flaggged MT ALTHE, and took its Ukrainian captain and Greek first engineer hostage late on Monday.

They kidnapped the two men but did not touch the cargo (oil) or injure anyone.

The attack took place 35 nautical miles off the oil-producing Niger Delta coastline, a Nigerian security source said.

Former National Security Agency Contractor, Edward Snowden, who leaked vital documents alleged to NSA spying on World Leaders and American citizens has written an "open letter to the people of Brazil" offering to help investigate U.S. surveillance of Brazilian citizens. The letter was posted on the website pastebin and on the Facebook page of David Michael Miranda, partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, according to a tweet from Greenwald.

Germany's parliament voted Tuesday for Angela Merkel to serve a third term as the country's chancellor, this time at the head of a grand coalition government.The coalition is made up of Merkel's conservative bloc, her Christian Democratic Union party and the allied Christian Social Union, and the center-left Social Democrats.

Merkel was re-elected by 462 votes in Germany's lower house, or Bundestag, with 150 votes against and nine abstentions, and was sworn in as chancellor soon afterward. Her Cabinet is also due to be sworn in Tuesday.The parliamentary vote came after members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) overwhelmingly approved the coalition deal in a postal ballot.

Terrorism: Militants attack hospital at Yemen's Defense Ministry, killing 52

Militants staged a deadly attack on Yemen's Defense Ministry on Thursday, ramming the building with an explosives-laden vehicle, followed by gunmen who battled security forces inside.The attack targeted a hospital at the Defense Ministry complex, Yemen's state-run Saba news agency reported.At least 52 people died in the attack in the capital, Sanaa, according to the government.

A Defense Ministry official said four foreign doctors were among the dead. Also, a relative of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi died in the attack, the government said. It did not name the relative.Earlier,

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, told the new board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) that the people of Niger Delta are disappointed at the dismal performance of the commission over the years.

Inaugurating the board at the State House, Abuja, the president said he got all the blame for any failure of the commission, adding that henceforth, he would keep an eye on the activities of the board, to ensure it carried out its mandate to the people.

Curled from BBC:

The White House has ruled out the idea of an amnesty for fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

A top National Security Agency (NSA) official had suggested that a deal could be reached if Mr Snowden stopped leaking documents.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mr Snowden still faced felony charges for leaking classified data.

It came as a federal judge ruled that the NSA's snooping on telephone calls is likely to be unconstitutional.
US District Judge Richard Leon wrote that the programme probably violated Americans' right to be free of unreasonable searches.

The UN says more than 1,200 people have been killed in Islamist-related violence in north-east Nigeria since a state of emergency was declared in May.

The UN said the figure related to killings of civilians and the military by the Islamist group Boko Haram in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

"The club can announce that agreement has been reached with head coach, Andre Villas-Boas, for the termination of his services," read a statement on the Tottenham website. "The decision was by mutual consent and in the interests of all parties."

Villas-Boas, who became the north London club’s manager in July 2012, led the side to fifth place in the Premier League last season.

Excerpts from Foxnews:

A United Methodist minister in Pennsylvania plans to defy a church order to surrender his credentials for performing a same-sex wedding.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer says he cannot uphold the church's Book of Discipline because he finds it discriminatory. The Methodist church accepts gay and lesbian members but rejects the practice of homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching."

From JPost & Aljazeera:

Report from Jerusalem Post and Al-jazeera state that more than 100 African migrants have abandoned an "open" Israeli detention centre to try to march on Jerusalem in protest at a law allowing authorities to keep them in custody indefinitely.

According to the report, the march through Sunday night and into Monday is in defiance of the new detention centre, which houses about 400 migrants, which allows detainees to leave during the day but requires them to return at nightfall.

From Al-jazeera:

Israel says soldier shot by Lebanese troops as he was driving a civilian vehicle along the border.

The Israeli army has said it fired across the Lebanese border in retaliation after accusing Lebanese troops of gunning down one of its soldiers as he drove near the frontier.

The incident jarred the relatively stable standoff between the two neighbours, which last saw major hostilities in the 2006 war between Israel and the armed Lebanese Shia group, Hezbollah.

The Israeli soldier, Shlomi Cohen, 31, was fatally shot late on Sunday near Rosh Hanikra, by a Lebanese army sniper, the Israeli military said.

The last 16 stage of the 2013/2014 Uefa Champions League is drawn with Manchester City and Arsenal been handed tough draws in the League against Barcelona and current champions Bayern Munich

Winners over fellow German side Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in the 2012-13 final, Bayern's bid to retain the trophy continues against table-topping Arsenal who were expecting a tough draw after finishing second in Group F.

Man City, who finished second to Bayern in Group D after stunning the Germans with a 3-2 win in the last pool game, fared little better as they have been paired with Spanish giants Barcelona, winners in 2009 and 2011, and will have to stop the world's best player Lionel Messi.

Excerpts from CNN:

The atmosphere was filled with varieties of displays in Qunu, and with military pomp and traditional rituals, as South Africa buried Nelson Mandela yesterday, which marked the end of an exceptional journey for the prisoner turned president who transformed the nation.

Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood village of Qunu.Tribal leaders clad in animal skins joined dignitaries in dark suits at the grave site overlooking the rolling green hills.As pallbearers walked toward the site after a funeral ceremony, helicopters whizzed past dangling the national flag.

International concern following North Korean Leader's Uncle execution

Following the execution of Jang Song-thaek, the Uncle to North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un, Governments have expressed alarm after the execution of such once a powerful figure.

The reported execution of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's powerful uncle has caused worries over the stability of the isolated country, with various governments expressing concern over the potential implications of the move.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says he does not envy Manchester City's squad as he prepares for Saturday's Premier League visit to the Etihad Stadium.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini spent more than £90m on five players during the summer and said in August that he had the division's strongest squad.

But Arsenal lead the Premier League by five points going into the weekend.

Group was travelling to a wedding in central Yemen when it was allegedly mistaken for Al-Qaeda fighters and hit by drone, Aljazeera reports.

According to the report, at least 13 people have been killed on their way to a wedding in Yemen by a suspected United States drone strike, local officials have said.

The air strike occurred on Thursday in the village of Qaifa, in Yemen's central al-Bayda province.

Credit to CNN:
A six-year-old boy, whose eyes were gouged out in an attack in China in August this year, has been discharged from hospital after receiving prosthetic eye implants.

A spokesperson from the C-MER Dennis Lam Eye Hospital in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen told CNN that Guo Bin had left the hospital on Thursday afternoon after a farewell ceremony and would return to his hometown in Shanxi province .

North Korea has executed Kim Jong-un's Uncle over multiple crimes

According to Korean Central News Agency, as reported early Friday, an uncle to the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been executed,."Traitor Jang Song Thaek Executed" blared the headline posted on the state-run news agency.

The story said that a special military tribunal had been held Thursday against the "traitor for all ages," who was accused of having attempted to overthrow the state "by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods."It added,

Tuesday 31 December 2013

Monday 30 December 2013

Sunday 29 December 2013

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Saturday 21 December 2013

Friday 20 December 2013

Thursday 19 December 2013

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Monday 16 December 2013

Friday 13 December 2013

Thursday 12 December 2013