Airtel sponsors Big Brother Africa 8

Leading telecoms service provider in Africa and Asia, Airtel is now the official sponsor of
the eighth edition of Africa’s biggest reality series, Big Brother Africa (BBA), dubbed The
Chase, set to kick off May 26th, 2013.
Big Brother Africa is a revolutionary project that connects diverse audiences across
Africa. It is the most successful television franchise ever seen on the continent, which
grows every year.
The seventh edition, which was dubbed ‘Big Brother StarGame’, broke all records with its
massive domination of TV screens and online space.
BBA ‘The Chase’ is expected to build on the huge success of the StarGame, a statement
from Airtel Ghana said
It quoted Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Philip Sowah as saying “Africa’s viewers are
known for their passion for Big Brother Africa and we look forward to developing a
number of exciting initiatives during season 8. I am delighted to welcome AfricaMagic
and DStv into our family of commercial partners. We are also pleased to be associated
with Big Brother Africa 2013. The show presents huge opportunities for Airtel to make an
emotional connection with our customers.”
Big Brother The Chase will feature 28 housemates from 14 countries. The housemates
will need to gain acceptance from viewers in order to survive evictions.
After 91 days of drama and thrills, the winner will pocket a massive USD 300,000 prize. Also check out willzfashion,a fashion site...

'Armies of one': Are lone wolf attacks the future of terrorism?

The only thing more horrifying than the murder of a British
soldier in a London street is the fear that there is little police can do in the age of "open-source jihad" to prevent these types of terror attacks.
    "It's always the one we feared, the lone wolf that can come from nowhere and not be on our radar," said ex-London police chief John Yates. On Wednesday two men hacked the soldier to death near his military barracks in Woolwich, southeast London before delivering a message to a witness's camera: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone ... this British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
    The message has all the hallmarks of classic al Qaeda rhetoric, and experts believe the blood-soaked men wielding cleavers for the cameras in London are just the latest proponents of the "open-source jihad" that seems to have grown just as the U.S.-led "War on Terror" scattered the organization's terror cells around the world.
    "Nearly a decade ago there was a debate within al Qaeda about
the future of the organization," according to Shiraz Maher, Head of
Outreach at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation . "Afghanistan had been overrun by U.S. forces, the Taliban had been forced to retreat, and as a result al Qaeda lost its ability to train recruits there."
    The organization needed a new plan to stay relevant as the U.S.
struck at the heart of its traditional operation in places like
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen Enter a man called Abu Musab
al-Suri , the so-called architect of the new al Qaeda, who had a simple plan to change the way al Qaeda took the fight to the West.
"Every Muslim should be an army of one," Maher told CNN. "That
was his grand idea -- every individual Muslim should be an
autonomous hub that goes out and strikes the West and you can't
contain it."
   vAl-Suri may have had the vision, but it was al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that translated it into reality in 2010 through the online speeches of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- since killed by a U.S. drone strike -- and the publishing of "Inspire," the English-language magazine that acts as a how-to guide for followers to carry out small-scale terrorist attacks in the West.
    "Since 2010 al Qaeda has been telling its followers in the West:
'Don't try and do another 9/11 or 7/7-style attack because invariably these things catch the attention of security services and you go to jail.
   Think small, think easy, think unsophisticated. Really scale it down to make it difficult to detect, because really it's a detection battle,'" Maher said.
     So this is the growing struggle facing police forces around the
world today, say experts -- not more traditional terror cells, which are more likely to show up through traditional surveillance
methods, but self-starters who become radicalized through online
sermons and publications.
    In 2011 New York police arrested Jose Pimentel and accused him of plotting to detonate pipe bombs that he allegedly learned to make
after reading "Inspire" magazine. Pimental pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges and is awaiting trial.
    The pressure cooker bombs that killed three people near the finish line of April's Boston Marathon bore strong similarities to a design laid out in the first
issue of the magazine titled "How to Build a Bomb in Your Mom's Kitchen," according to CNN's Paul Cruickshank.
    In 2010 British MP Stephen Timms was nearly killed when a 21-year-old British student stabbed him during a meeting with his constituents in east London.
    The student, Roshonara Choudhry, told police she had become radicalized after watching the speeches of al-Awlaki online, and tried to kill Timms because
he voted in favor of the Iraq War.
    Yates, who was Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner until he retired in 2011, told CNN: "As someone who has tried to prevent these attacks in the past,
they're the most difficult ones.
"If we have some serious targets, then of course you can apply the correct level of resources and tactics ... Choudhry had never come to the attention of any authorities at any point.
    So what, if anything, can be done to prevent lone wolf attacks? The grisly murder in Woolwich has prompted calls for Britain's government to look again
at a shelved bill that would greatly expand law enforcement's powers to monitor suspects' use of the internet, which is currently only possible on a more limited basis.
    "There is some internet surveillance going on," said Yates. "It's been made very clear by police chiefs in recent weeks that if you download something like
'Inspire' you will be arrested, it is an offence and you will be charged."
    So where to draw the line between free speech and invasion of privacy? The proposal to expand police powers for collecting online data caused uproar among privacy advocates in late 2012, but the government says more robust surveillance tools are now needed to effectively combat terrorism.
While acknowledging there are "powerful" arguments on both sides, Yates said: "All I know is that you've got to do something, because the level of sophistication in technology is going to make it extraordinarily challenging to improve the way that the internet and other means of communication are monitored if nothing's done."
READ MORE: UK Muslims condemn London slaying
But radicalization expert Maher said monitoring the internet and tracking down
anyone who downloads an al-Awlaki speech or a bomb-making guide won't
solve the lone wolf problem.
"You don't have to have read 'Inspire' anymore -- everyone knows what's going on because, if nothing else, the media talks about it so much. The idea of
committing an unsophisticated attack against a high-profile symbol is out there. It's an impossible thing to work against," he said. Yates says in order to prevent future attacks, counter-terrorism police must
bolster their community engagement strategy -- making local people feel "free and able to provide relevant information at the right time."
     "It comes back to the line from the 1980s with the IRA: 'Communities defeat terrorism.' That was the strap-line then, and it's no different today."

BlackBerry confirms BBM app for Android and iPhone – but rivals await

BlackBerry is making its
Messenger (BBM) real-time
messaging service available on
Apple's iPhone and iPad and
Google's Android platforms from
summer, abandoning the
platform exclusivity that had for
years been a crucial tool in
attracting and retaining users.
Announcing the move at the
company's developer conference,
software vice president Andrew
Bocking said: "the time is
definitely right for BBM to
become a multi-platform mobile
service. BBM has always been
one of the most engaging
services for BlackBerry
customers, enabling them to
easily connect while maintaining
a valued level of personal
privacy. We're excited to offer
iOS and Android users the
possibility to join the BBM
community."
Chief executive Thorsten Heins
called the move "a statement of
confidence". BlackBerry says that
BBM has more than 60 million
monthly active users, with more
than 51 million using BBM for an
average of 90 minutes per day.
Its customers collectively send
and receive more than 10bn
messages daily, with almost half
read within 20 second of being
received, it said.
The free app will be available
once approved for Apple's iOS 6
software released last year and
devices running Android 4.0 or
higher, released in late 2011.
BBM was once seen as an iconic
messaging system which drew
both teenagers and business
people onto the BlackBerry
platform because messages
could only be swapped between
its own handsets. But with its
installed base of users falling,
the company has had to look for
ways to generate revenues from
its software expertise.
The move pitches BBM into a
fight with other cross-platform
data-reliant apps - known as
"over the top" services - such as
WhatsApp, WeChat and Viber.
On Apple's iOS, it will put it up
against the company's own
iMessage app - though that does
not work across different
platforms.
But BBM is now one of the
smallest cross-platform apps,
with WhatsApp claiming more
than 200 million active users,
and WeChat around 190 million.
In the planned initial release, iOS
and Android users would be able
to experience the immediacy of
BBM chats, including multi-
person chats, as well as the
ability to share photos and voice
notes, and engage in BBM
Groups, which allows BBM
customers to create groups of up
to 30 people.
BlackBerry says BBM provides
customers with a high level of
control and privacy over who
they add to their contact list and
how they engage with them, as
invites are two-way opt-in. iOS
and Android users would be able
to add their contacts through
PIN, email, SMS or QR code scan,
regardless of platform. Android
users would also be able to
connect using a compatible NFC-
capable device.
    This is going to be sweet... Tell me what you feel about this.

State news: Detainees linked to al Qaeda targeted U.S., French embassies in Egypt

The Egyptian prosecutor's office says evidence shows three suspects linked to al Qaeda targeted the U.S. and French embassies in Cairo, as well as
an Egyptian army facility in the Sinai Peninsula, according to state news.
The state-run Middle East News Agency, known as MENA, reported Wednesday that state prosecutors have evidence suggesting the alleged terrorists, who were arrested over the weekend, planned to detonate car bombs at the three sites.
    A source briefed by an Egyptian security official said Wednesday that he'd been told that France's embassy was allegedly targeted but was not told about the other diplomatic mission. Members of the alleged terrorist cell had 10
kilograms of ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used in bomb making, according to David Linfield, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, told CNN that he's aware of reports in Egyptian media that the American embassy was targeted but otherwise had no comment on the matter. And an Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman refused to comment to CNN about the alleged targets.
A prosecutor ordered one of those arrested, Mohamed AboulEla Aqida, to stay
behind bars for at least 15 more days, rather than be put on house arrest, MENA reported Wednesday. The fate of the other two people detained was not
immediately clear.
    The prosecutor's office pointed to new evidence that has surfaced linking Aqida to a leading figure of al Qaeda in Iraq named Daoud Al Asdi, as well as al Qaeda members in the Sinai Peninsula, according to MENA.
    He and others allegedly had gone beyond the planning stages and were getting ready to attack when Egyptian police arrested them, the source briefed by an
Egyptian security official told CNN.
A U.S. State Department travel alert issued Wednesday did not specifically mention this plot, though it did allude to a May 9 knife attack on a U.S. citizen.
That American was outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, was asked if he was an American, then attacked. Egyptian police have a suspect in custody in that case,
according to the State Department.
    The diplomatic alert also urged Americans "to avoid all demonstrations in Egypt, as even peaceful ones can quickly become violent, and a foreigner could
become a target of harassment or worse."

Nigeria military: Insurgents killed in raid on militant camps

At least 20 insurgents were killed Friday as Nigeria's military carried out an aerial bombardment of suspected militant Islamist camps in the country's northeast, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
    The raid by Nigerian Air Force jets and attack helicopters is part of what the military says is a "massive deployment" of forces this week to tackle insurgent
groups, including Boko Haram.
    "Our military has overrun a number of the militants' camps in north and central Borno state," said defense spokesman Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade.
"Within those insurgents' camps, we discovered that they have been storing sophisticated, high-caliber weapons including anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons."
Asked whether the military had inflicted any casualties on the
insurgents, Olukolade said "definitely so. Conservatively speaking, over 20 dead so far."
    Members of the armed forces have suffered only minor injuries,
according to Olukolade.
"The operation continues, we are injecting even more troops and
resources into those areas," he
added.
The military operation was announced Wednesday, a day after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and
Adamawa states.
    The president blamed "terrorists" aimed at "rebellion," causing "fear among our citizens and a near breakdown of law and order in parts of the country."
He also noted a rise of insurgent violence in eight other states, including Nasarawa, where scores of police officers were killed last week.
"Insurgents and terrorists," including Boko Haram, are trying to destabilize Nigeria, Jonathan said. "The military operation will focus on tracking down criminal elements within the vicinity of border communities prone to terrorist activities," Olukolade said
Wednesday.
    He did not confirm the number of troops deployed or which units are involved in the military operation. Much violence over recent years has been blamed on Boko Haram, the name of which means "Western education is sacrilege."
    On Friday, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights commissioner told reporters that Boko Haram could face war crimes charges for alleged ethnic and religious
cleansing in Nigeria. Addressing reporters in Geneva Rupert Colville urged it and other extremist groups to stop "cowardly attacks" against civilians, security forces, Nigerian officials and foreign nationals.
According to Human Rights Watch, the group has killed more than 2,800 people in an escalating campaign to impose strict Islamic law on largely Muslim northern Nigeria.
    The U.N. human rights office is calling on Nigeria's government to respect human rights principles during security sweeps, following reports of heavy casualties in some parts of the country.
    Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, with a population of nearly 175 million according to the CIA World Factbook, and is the political and economic powerhouse of West Africa.

Oil-price manipulation: the next Libor?

Some of the world's biggest oil companies may have a new mess on their hands.
    The European Commission raided the offices of Shell, BP and Norway's Statoil this week as part of an investigationinto suspected attempts to manipulate global oil prices spanning more than a decade.
None of the companies have been accused of wrongdoing, but the
controversy has brought back memories of the Libor rate-rigging scandal that rocked the financial world last year.
    UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays have already reached settlements with regulators in the U.S. and U.K. over Libor-rigging, paying over $2.5 billion in fines after admitting to attempts to manipulate interest rates to appear more credit-worthy
and to benefit trading positions. Roughly a dozen other global banks remain under scrutiny over rate-rigging, and three people have been arrested so far.
    Reams of email and instant-message transcripts disclosed in the settlements so far reveal how the banks' scheme worked, and
experts have since warned that influential pricing data from publishers serving the oil market could be similarly vulnerable to manipulation.
    A review ordered by the British government last year in the wake of the Libor revelations cited "clear" parallels between the work of the oil-price-reporting agencies and Libor.
    "They are both widely used benchmarks that are compiled by private organizations and that are subject to minimal regulation and oversight by regulatory authorities," the review, led by former financial regulator Martin
Wheatley, said in August . "To that extent they are also likely to be vulnerable to similar issues with regards to the motivation and opportunity for manipulation and distortion." Libor -- short for the London Interbank Offered Rate -- is a collection of rates designed to measure the cost of borrowing between banks. The quotes are then used as benchmarks for roughly $10 trillion in loans and some $350 trillion in derivatives.
    In the setting of Libor rates, groups of banks are asked what interest rate they would have to pay to borrow money for a certain period of time in a certain currency, with averages calculated after several of the highest and lowest submissions are removed.
Libor-setting is overseen by the British Bankers Association, an industry trade group, though U.K. law was changed last month to allow financial regulators to supervise the process.
    Oil-price benchmarks are set by independent "price-reporting agencies," the most influential of which is Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill. Platts' data is used help set prices for billions of dollars' worth of physical oil
and derivatives contracts.
    As the Libor scandal gathered force last year, Platts and its fellow price-reporting agencies, Argus and ICIS, issued a joint statement emphasizing what they called the "fundamental differences" between their "reliable and robust" methods and those used in calculating Libor. Some observers, however, say the processes are similarly vulnerable.
    Platts collects voluntarily submitted information on bids, offers and transactions in the otherwise opaque physical-oil market in an effort to provide an assessment of the market price around the close of trading. The process is complex, and while traders can't predict it perfectly, they recognize that transactions late in the day are most important, said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, a principal at Global Economics Group who has studied Platts.
    "If you put in a price that is a bit off, you can affect the benchmark in a meaningful way, particularly because there just aren't that many transactions at the end of the day," she said. "You may try and move Platts in a particular way and lose in that transaction, but then gain, by moving the index, in a larger transaction on the opposite side or on your derivatives position."
There are also concerns about the fact that reporting to Platts is done by traders voluntarily. In a report issued in October, the International Organization of Securities Commissions -- an association of regulators -- said the ability "to selectively report data on a voluntary basis creates an opportunity for manipulating the commodity market data" submitted to Platts and its competitors.
    Responding to questions from IOSCO last year, French oil giant Total said the price-reporting agencies, or PRAs,
sometimes "do not assure an accurate representation of the market and consequently deform the real price levels paid at every level of the price chain, including by the consumer." But Total called Platts and its competitors
"generally... conscientious and professional."
"While there is the risk of market actors voluntarily submitting false data to the PRA assessment process, most
PRAs have effective processes to verify submissions and generally avoid this problem," Total said.
Platts describes its methods as "structured" and "highly transparent," saying the submissions it collects must
reflect verifiable transactions or executable bids and offers. The agency vets submitters and restricts them from
altering their bids and offers beyond defined increments to mitigate against sudden price swings.
    Platts declined to comment in detail on the European Commission investigation, saying only that investigators
visited its office in London on Tuesday and that it is "cooperating fully" with the probe.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday asking that the Justice Department join the
investigation, though it's not clear whether American regulators will get involved. Spokesmen for the Department
of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission declined to comment.
Shell, BP and Statoil all confirmed that they were cooperating with the European
Commission. Italy's Eni ( ) said it had not been visited by officials but had received a request for information
and would be cooperating.
Aside from the big oil companies, Wall Street banks are also big players in the energy markets who could conceivably benefit from price movements, said David Frenk, director of research at the financial reform group
Better Markets and a former commodities analyst at a hedge fund. If Platts' data was indeed manipulated, Frenk
said, consumers as well as other traders took a hit. If the benchmark was manipulated upward, that would mean higher oil prices and more expensive gasoline, Frenk said. If it was manipulated both up and down at various times, that volatility would increase the cost of hedging for gasoline resellers, who would in turn pass that cost onto drivers.
    "Even small distortions of assessed prices may have a huge impact on the prices of crude oil, refined oil products and biofuels purchases and sales, potentially harming final consumers," the European Commission said this week.

Human stem cell cloning: 'Holy Grail' or techno- fantasy?

Today was a strange day. I'm used to handling the brief but
overwhelming burst of media attention that comes with new stories about
medical breakthroughs and ethical issues. But I don't often get an
accompanying deluge of passionate e-mails and phone calls from people who
had read my comments, denouncing me for criticizing science, especially
medical research that "can save millions of lives."
There is definitely something special about this idea of "therapeutic cloning,"
something that has a religious feel to it. Most of those messages come from
people who have family members suffering from some of the diseases that we
are told will be cured, and it's hard to have to pour cold water on people's
hopes.
    I feel really angry at the scientists and PR people who have sold the idea of cloned human stem cells to so many patient support groups, when there is so little scientific substance to their promises.
    We are told that there will be great medical benefits and that the risks that there will be cloned babies are small, but in truth it's the other way round.
    Let's deal with the cloned babies issue first. Ordinary people know perfectly well why human cloning is wrong, and that's why governments around the world, including all developed nations except the USA have banned it. But there are plenty of desperate people and egoistic tycoons wanting to be cloned, and plenty of unscrupulous IVF doctors happy to relieve them of their cash. And there are still countries where those doctors can go to evade legal sanctions.
    What the Oregon scientists have done is to deliver the baby that the would-be human cloners have been waiting for 15 years -- what looks like a reliable technique for creating cloned embryos. I think it was irresponsible to publish their research before there is a comprehensive global ban on cloning, with tough sanctions.
    But I think what makes me even angrier as a scientist is the hype and false promises around therapeutic cloning. Let's be clear: this is not about embryonic stem cell research, which, despite the hype may deliver something
given time, although the alternatives of adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells look set to deliver results much quicker. And I'm not a
pro-lifer; destruction of embryos is not what bothers me.
    The cloning element is there purely for the purposes of creating tissues genetically identical to the patient that won't be rejected, and that's a nice idea.
    The trouble is it brings a whole raft of biological problems with it that create major risks to the patient as well as creating an impossibly expensive process.
With cloning, you are forcing nature to do something that it does not want to, so the new risks are to be expected. Cloning creates abnormalities in the
genetic read-out, which is the reason that cloned animals are so often sick.
    Those errors will be there in any stem cells and tissues produced by cloning. Those problems are another reason why cloning babies would be hugely
unethical, but they don't necessarily make it impossible.
    Finally, even if you could somehow solve these problems, the use of genetically matched tissues in mainstream medicine is simply not feasible and, unlike
electronic gadgets, medical costs go up, not down.
    In addition to the extremely expensive process of cloning, for each patient you have to culture stem cells and reliably turn them into the tissue you want with 100% efficiency, so you don't get a single left over stem cell that will cause tumors. You have to do all that to a standard of accuracy that will satisfy government regulators and medical liability lawyers when something goes
wrong. Forget it. We don't do anything remotely approaching this in medicine and it doesn't look like medical budgets are growing, does it? There are other
much better solutions to the tissue rejection problem that will cost a fraction of the price.
    The fact is that the cloning paper published on Wednesday is zombie science. Therapeutic cloning was dead and buried years ago, but it just seems to keep
on going, and so do people's hopes. There is definitely something weird here,
something that brings out religious terminology like "the Holy Grail of medicine" around therapeutic cloning. That's because therapeutic cloning is a
fantasy, one that belongs to the modern religion, the religion of technocracy.
    That's the only way I can explain how scientists who ought to know better seem to get drunk on their power over nature and keep pursuing this absurd
dream.
    People often say to me that scientists pursuing therapeutic cloning are "just trying to make money," but the truth is worse. Driven by their technocratic
ideology, they betray their own credo of sticking to the facts, and that's bad enough. But to keep raising people's hopes in this way is really unforgivable.

Actor Edward Furlong arrested by California police

Actor Edward Furlong tried to hide, but ended up caught and behind
bars in California for allegedly violating a protective order filed against him by
an ex-girlfriend, authorities said.
West Hollywood, California, deputies responded at 5:44 p.m. Thursday to a call
about a possible violation of a protection order, the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department said Friday in a news release.
They found the suspect -- the 35-year-old actor best known for his role in
"Terminator 2: Judgment Day" -- hiding on a nearby property. He was arrested
and brought to a sheriff's substation in West Hollywood, authorities said.
The protective order was imposed after the actor was arrested following a
domestic disturbance at the same address in January, the sheriff's department
said. He was then charged with felony domestic violence and domestic battery.
The actor, who was already serving probation, is being held on $100,000 bond,
according to Los Angeles County jail records.
After his breakthrough role as John Connor in 1991's "Terminator
2" alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Furlong went on to play roles
in a number of movies, including "American History X," and TV
projects, such as "CSI-NY."

'Please don't let me go,' Cleveland kidnap victim told officers

When officers arrived at Ariel Castro's home in Cleveland, a crowd had
formed on the porch.
But where was the woman they came for? Where was Amanda Berry?
Then she stepped forward, holding a crying child. It was really her, the missing
girl they had searched for for 10 years.
It is Amanda Berry, Officer Michael Tracy said.
"Just the emotion at that point of my partner confirming that it was Amanda ...
It was overwhelming," Officer Anthony Espada recalled.
Cleveland police this week released the emotional video interviews
of officers Espada, Tracy and Barbara Johnson, who helped in the
May 6 rescue of the three women from Castro's home.
The 11-minute video, which is posted on YouTube, provides the
most graphic detail to date of the harrowing rescue. It's also a rare
behind-the-scenes glimpse at the raw emotions of officers involved
in the ordeal.
Once they had Berry, they wondered who else was in Castro's
home.
Was the suspect in there? They asked Amanda, as the child
continued to wail.
"She says yes, Gina DeJesus and another girl," Espada said. "It was
like another bombshell with overwhelming force hit me. We
immediately started running toward the house."
When they entered the home, it almost seemed peaceful, Espada
recalled.
As if nobody else was there. Nobody was in the basement. Nobody
was downstairs.
And then they heard the sound of scurrying feet upstairs.
"It was Michelle (Knight). She kind of popped out into the
doorway," Espada said, his voice cracking with emotion.
"She came charging. She was like. 'You saved us. You saved us.'
And I am holding on to her so tight. And within a few seconds, I
see another girl come out of the bedroom."
He immediately recognized the girl, Espada said, probably from
missing posters that date to 2004. But she looked thinner than he
remembered. He asked the girl to say her name.
She said her name was Georgina DeJesus, he recalled.
"It was very overwhelming," Espada said. "It took everything to hold
myself together."
One of the women also jumped into Johnson's arms, screaming at
the female officer.
"She was saying 'please don't let me go. Please don't let me go,'"
Johnson said. "I said, 'Honey don't worry, I am not going to let you
go."
Johnson said Espada stared at her with an unreadable expression.
We found them, Espada said.
"I can't even explain the emotions we felt," Johnson said. "It was
just unbelievable. It was surreal. The heaviness in the heart just
lifted."
Castro, 52, was arrested quickly after that. He is in jail on charges of
kidnapping and rape, and is accused of snatching the three women
between 2002 to 2004, and holding them ever since.
His attorney has said he plans to plead not guilty.

Report: North Korea launches short-range missiles

    North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea
off the Korean Peninsula's east coast Saturday, South Korea's semi-official
news agency Yonhap cited the South Korean Defense Ministry as saying.
The ministry said it had detected two launches in the morning, followed by
another in the afternoon, Yonhap reported.
The missiles were fired in a northeasterly direction, away from South Korean
waters, the ministry said.
South Korea has beefed up monitoring on North Korea and is maintaining a
high-level of readiness to deal with any risky developments, the ministry added,
according to Yonhap.
According to the Arms Control Association, a U.S.-based organization, short-
range guided missiles are generally classified as those traveling less than 1,000
kilometers (about 620 miles.)
Tensions in the region have eased in recent days since a fraught
period last month that included near daily North Korean threats of
war.
U.S. and South Korean officials feared at that time that Kim Jong
Un's regime was planning to carry out a test launch of longer-
range ballistic missiles, believed to be Musudans. The South Korean
government says they have a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers
(2,175 miles).
Andrew Salmon, a journalist and author based in the South Korean
capital, Seoul, said North Korea's reported launch of short-range
missiles Saturday should not cause the same degree of concern as
the launch of a satellite or medium-range Musudan rocket.
"It's a short-range tactical weapon. If any other country launched
this kind of weapon, it's a routine test, nobody would be too
worried. It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it
raises concerns," he said.
The situation is much less tense in the region than it was last
month, Salmon said.
"The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity
and their rhetoric since the end of April," he said. "The South
Korean government, I suspect, will not be strongly condemnatory
of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the
North Koreans to the negotiating table."
The recent tensions flared after the North's long-range rocket launch in
December and underground nuclear test in February, both of which were
widely condemned.
Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric intensified in March as the U.N. Security Council
voted to tighten sanctions on the regime following the nuclear test.
Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in South Korea also fueled the North's
anger, especially when the United States carried out displays of strength that
included nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers.
North Korea is demanding recognition as a nuclear power, something the
United States refuses to countenance.
Last month's crisis resulted in the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex,
the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

Global superstar David Beckham to retire

    End it like Beckham. One of the most iconic football stars of his
generation, David Beckham is to retire at the end of the season to bring down the curtain on a glittering career.
    As well as winning over 100 caps for his England and lifting 19 trophies in two different continents, it was his ability to maximize the power of the "Beckham brand" that allowed the footballer to transcend his sport and appeal to a worldwide mass audience.
    Beckham's marriage to former Spice Girl and fashion designer, Victoria, probably helped as well "Brand Beckham is dead, long live Brand Beckham!" sports business expert Simon Chadwick told CNN. "Beckham's transition from athlete commodity to
sporting statesman and entrepreneur is now complete."
This year, Beckham became the first ever sportsman from outside
of China to be invited to become the ambassador for the sport in
the country.
He is estimated to be Britain's wealthiest sportsman, earning in
excess of $46 million a year, according to France Football magazine.
"I wouldn't have achieved what I have done today without my
family," said Beckham in a statement. "I'm grateful for my parents'
sacrifice, which made me realise my dreams.
"I owe everything to Victoria and the kids, who have given me the
inspiration and support to play at the highest level for such a long
period."
Beckham's decision to retire comes days after the 38-year-old won
his latest title with French club Paris Saint-Germain.
"I'm thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I
feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest
level," added Beckham.
The Englishman, who won the Champions League with Manchester
United in 1999, also won league titles with Real Madrid and Los
Angeles Galaxy before arriving in the French capital earlier this year
after signing a short-term contract.
"If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and
won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly
captained and played for my country over one hundred times and
lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have
told you it was a fantasy," said Beckham.
"I'm fortunate to have realized those dreams."
Despite playing for some of the world's top clubs, Beckham singled out
captaining his country as one of his "proudest achievements".
"I knew every time I wore the Three Lions shirt, I was not only following in a
long line of great players, I was also representing every fan that cared
passionately about their country," said Beckham, who won 115 caps for
England.
"I'm honoured to represent England both on and off the pitch. I want to thank
all my team-mates, the great managers that I had the pleasure of learning
from.
"I also want to thank the fans who have all supported me and
given me the strength to succeed.''
Beckham had the chance to join PSG in January 2012, but opted to
stay in the U.S., ending his American mission with his second MLS
Cup title before announcing that he would not fulfill the second
year of his contract extension.
"Nothing will ever completely replace playing the game I love,
however I feel like I'm starting a new adventure and I'm genuinely
excited about what lies ahead," said Beckham.
"I'm fortunate to have been given many opportunities throughout
my career and now I feel it's my time to give back."
Many of Beckham's former teammates and managers spoke of the
positive impact his professionalism had on the clubs he played for.
"He was a great teammate and a role model for young players,"
said LA Galaxy Bruce Arena. "He had achieved so much, but wanted to keep on. But former PSG winger David Ginola told CNN that he had had a conversation
with Beckham a few weeks ago when the Englishman confided he had begun
to question his fitness to play at the highest level.
Not that Beckham's playing career is quite over -- yet.
French Champions PSG's last two games are against Brest at the Parc des
Princes in the French capital on Saturday and at Lorient the following Sunday.
    Meanwhile on Twitter, messages of congratulations poured in from some of his
former teammates and clubs and even politicians.
    "Best wishes as David #BeckhamRetires His magical free kicks for @MUFC and
England will live long in the memory of all football fans," tweeted British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Quake reported in eastern Canada

Eastern Canada got the shakes on Friday. Even the northern U.S.
twitched.
People on both sides of the border felt an earthquake originating around the
Quebec and Ontario borders, the Canadian government said. Natural
Resources Canada gave it a preliminary magnitude of 5.2; the U.S. Geological
Survey put it at 4.4.
With an epicenter about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from Shawville, in western
Quebec, the quake was felt in the Ottawa-Gatineau area and out to Toronto,
more than 260 miles away. It hit a nerve in New York state and Cleveland, too.
"My house shook!" Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said in a tweet.
Authorities say it is unlikely the quake, which occurred at 9:43 a.m., caused
significant damage. It was followed 10 minutes later by an aftershock measured
at magnitude-4.1 by the Canadian agency and 3.6 by the U.S. bureau. Its
epicenter was about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Shawville.
"It kind of made me a little nervous and I booted it out of the house as quick as
I could. It certainly got my heart racing," said Jonathan Essiambre of Shawville,
according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
"It was like a massive explosion that went off. It just started shaking and the
walls of the bakery were moving," Dan Duggan, who owns a bakery in
Shawville, said, according to the CBC. "I thought it was my propane tanks
exploding. We were evacuating employees out of the building. It lasted for
about 25 seconds and it went on for about another minute."
"We had a lot of shaking, that's for sure," said Kim Bulmer, town clerk of nearby
Renfrew, Ontario. "But I just checked with the public works director, and there
does not seem to be any reports of damage so far."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said state emergency officials were monitoring
the quake, felt in parts of the state.
"At this time, there have been no reports of damage to any of the state's critical
infrastructure," Cuomo said in a written statement.
Eastern Canada has a relatively low rate of earthquake activity, according to
Natural Resources Canada, but there have been large earthquakes before, with
about four exceeding magnitude 4 per year.
"A decade will, on average, include three events greater than magnitude 5," the
agency said.

$1 million in Chopard jewels stolen from Cannes hotel, police say

    Jewels worth more than $1 million were stolen from a hotel in
Cannes, France, police in the nearby city of Nice said Friday.
The theft of the jewels, from the Swiss firm Chopard , came Thursday night, on
the second day of the renowned Cannes Film Festival , which opened
Wednesday and runs through May 26.
The annual Cannes festival brings together the rich and famous from around
the world for movie screenings and glittering parties.
Commandant Bernard Mascarelli, of the Nice police, said the jewelry was stolen
from a safe in the Suite Novotel hotel on Boulevard Carnot in Cannes.
A Chopard employee was staying in the room but left it to go to dinner from 8
p.m. to 3 a.m. local time, he said. She returned to discover the safe containing
the jewels was missing.
The whole safe had been unscrewed from the inside of the hotel room and
carried out, Mascarelli said.
Police are now scouring security camera footage from the streets around the
hotel and citywide for clues, he said.
No detailed description has yet been given of the stolen jewels.
Chopard, which is an official sponsor of the festival, has provided the Palme
d'Or trophy awarded to the director of the best feature film for the past 15
years. The trophy features a 24-carat gold palm attached to a piece of cut
crystal.
The firm is promoting its Red Carpet Collection 2013 at this year's festival, with
a number of actresses sporting its gems.
The collection is "a world of unparalleled glamour and craftsmanship, where
originality, creativity, and technical mastery are pushed to their ultimate limits,"
according to Chopard's Facebook page.
By coincidence, the theft occurred on the same day as the screening in Cannes
of Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," which stars Harry Potter actress Emma
Watson as a member of a thieving group of teens who steal from the famous.
The movie isn't in competition but was selected to open the "Un Certain
Regard" portion of the film festival.

Religious violence.... Will it ever come to and end???

    In Nigeria, many gunmen are known to claim allegiance to a religion, be it christianity or muslim. This poor state of things have left many hopless, childless, and even without a family.
    The terrible acts of the so-called BOKO-HARAM sect has been called to mind by several christians, old and young, so that the numbers of their deeds have been sumed up and decisive actions are about to be taken against this sect in an all-out attack against the muslims.
    War has never been in the minds of christians, but as it seems, some christians are going to face this sect and try to put an end to this sect.
    For more of these highlights, you can also like our FB page

Bangladesh building collapse: An end to recovery efforts, a promise of a new start

Across from the detritus of Bangladesh's
deadliest industrial disaster, up four flights of narrow stairs, and inside the
makeshift offices of the recovery operations, stands a dry erase board that
marks, in neat black handwriting, each life a nine-story building claimed when it
pancaked to the ground last month.
On some days, as rescue workers pulled body after body from the mountain of
steel and concrete, the number would spiral past 100.
On Monday, it settled at zero.
And so, after 20 days of non-stop digging, the army-led effort to pull out every
last body from the ruins of Rana Plaza in the Dhaka suburb of Savar came to
an end.
"We said we wouldn't stop until there were no more victims, and we didn't,"
said army Capt. Ibrahim Islam. "We are confident we have found them all."
The tally stands at 1,127 dead and 2,438 rescued alive. But Islam is
the first to admit that only God knows exactly how many occupants
were inside the building when it came tumbling down on April 24.
"We never were able to get a full accounting from the factory
owners," Islam said, referring to the five garment factories housed
in the building.
At least 98 people are still missing.
Another 59 are at a morgue, their bodies waiting to be identified
through DNA tests.
More than 230 bodies are unclaimed, prompting a civics group to
bury them in a Dhaka cemetery.
And what of the three severed heads and four unattached limbs
that are listed in red ink on the board?
But, in the last several days, the number of bodies had dwindled,
Islam said.
And after recovery crews made their last rounds Monday --
combing through the flooded basement of the structure and
finding no one -- they felt comfortable they had done their due
diligence.
On Tuesday, the army hands over the site to local authorities to complete the
cleanup. They will gather one last time to pray for the souls who perished.
"They will always be in our memory," Islam said.
The scene
Early Tuesday morning, the yellow excavators that roared night and day,
picking up tons of steel, fell silent.
People gathered and gawked at the yawning gap left in the cramped, congested
skyline of Savar where the gargantuan plaza -- the size of a city block -- once
stood.
"Aha re," the people shook their heads and tsked sympathetically. So sad.
"Shoitaner shoitan," they cursed. The devil's devil.
Their anger was directed at Sohel Rana, the building owner who dismissed
concerns that the cracks on Rana Plaza made the structure unsound.
"This building will stand a hundred years," he boasted on April 23.
The next morning, it came down.
Rana, who fled after the disaster but was arrested trying to cross into India, is
in police custody. He is a man so hated that even the most pacifist of
Bangladeshis wish death upon him.
There was a time when fliers bearing his beaming face festooned the walls
around Savar. They've now either been torn down or defaced.
"Kutta!" someone had scrawled on one.
Kutta , the Bengali word for dog.
A cracked system
But, human rights activists say, if fingers are to be pointed, there
are plenty of targets and plenty of blame to go around.
And in the next few days and months, Bangladeshis will have to
acknowledge the rude reality that it wasn't just a cracked building;
the deaths were as much a result of a cracked system.
The garment industry is a $20 billion-a-year money-generator for
Bangladesh. The 4,500 factories employ 3.6 million workers and
account for 77% of the country's exports.
Deadly accidents and deplorable conditions are all too common,
but pay is still a lure for many in this impoverished country, where
the minimum wage is the equivalent of $38 a month.
And so, the workers continued to work. And the government
continued to turn a blind eye to the disasters.
In the last decade, despite several other deadly accidents, no
factory owner has faced charges in court.
Until now.
Changes afoot
The outrage over Savar has reached such a fever pitch that the government not
only arrested Rana and the owners of the factories in the building, but it also
said it will form a committee to raise the minimum wage of garment workers.
On Monday, the government went a step further. Bangladesh's Cabinet
approved the draft of a law that will force factories to offer life insurance for
workers.
Internationally, several clothiers signed on to a plan that prevents fire and
building collapses in Bangladesh. Among the clothiers are H&M and Inditex—
which owns the Spanish brand Zara -- and PVH, which owns Calvin Klein and
Tommy Hilfiger.
The five-year plan calls for independent safety inspections and for companies
to publicly report the findings. It also requires retailers to help finance fire
safety and building improvements in factories they work with.
Companies who sign on will have to terminate business with any factory that
refuses to make necessary safety upgrades.
PVH is the only American company to sign on. A Wal-Mart spokesman said the
world's largest retailer had nothing to announce right now. And Sears said it
"assessing" the agreement.
"This is a crucial victory in the fight for companies to take responsibility for the
workers who make our clothes," said Ruth Tanner with the charity War on
Want.
"A tragedy like the Rana Plaza disaster cannot happen again."
But for many garment workers, it was a case of too little, too late.
In Ashuriya, a Dhaka suburb close to Savar, the garment trade group on
Monday night shut down 100 factories indefinitely. Workers there had refused
to work citing safety fears.
"For the last 14 days, workers came to work, clocked in, walked out," said
Shahidullah Azim, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers
and Exporters Association.
"We decided, 'No work, no pay.'"
The last survivor
Rana Plaza housed five garment factories, several shops and a bank.
The collapse occurred April 24, a day after cracks appeared in the structure. It
led the bank to order its employees not to report for work, and the shops were
closed because of a strike.
But garment workers were told to come in despite their concerns that the
building's structure was not sound.
The first few days after the collapse, rescue workers were buoyed by hope as
many survivors emerged from the rubble.
But then, for days, nothing.
On Friday, their spirits got a boost when Reshma, 19, was pulled out alive after
17 harrowing days.
"I did not have any food to eat. I had four biscuits and some water in 17 days,"
she told reporters Monday as she recuperated at a military hospital.
"The people who were with me under the rubble died. I heard people
screaming. 'Save me, save me,' they screamed. But I couldn't find them. I
tried."
For 20 days, so did the rescuers above ground.
But come Tuesday morning, they will wipe the deaths off the dry erase board.
It's time for a clean start.

A military plane was on Thursday reported to have crashed at the Air Force Base in Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

Although details of the incident are sketchy,
information released to Channels Television by sources
from the base, claimed that the plane made an
emergency landing.
Air force officials are yet to brief journalists as at the
time this story was published.
Last week, Nigerian Army’s Alpha Jet fighter crashed
some 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Niamey, the
capital of Niger republic, killing both pilots on board.
More details to come…

How we were lured into ‘baby factory’ – Pregnant teenagers

Nine girls, forced into pregnancy at a ‘baby
factory’ in Imo State ,yesterday spoke of
how they became victims.
The nine were arrested by the police
yesterday after initially escaping during a
raid of the ‘baby factory’.
Their arrest brings to 26 the number of
victims rescued from Ahamefula
Motherless Babies Home, Umuaka in Njaba
Ciouncil Area of the state.
They are aged between 14 and 25.
The visibly exhausted girls told The Nation
that they were held against their wish by
the proprietor of the so-called motherless
babies home simply known as Madam One
Thousand.
The victims are all from Imo .
They said their parents were unaware of
their whereabouts.
According to them, they were taken to the
‘baby factory’ by scouts engaged by Madam
One Thousand.
The scouts include women who go about
seeking vulnerable girls.
17-year old Adaobi Akubueze ,until her
abduction a student in Lagos, said she
referred to the centre by a medical doctor
who conducted a pregnancy test on her.
She said:“The result of the test was positive
and the doctor said I should not abort the
pregnancy. He said he knew where I could
go and have the child with adequate
maternal care and where the baby would
be taken care of until I would be ready to
take charge.
“So I ran away from home without
informing my parents. But on getting to the
centre in Imo State, I was asked to produce
my letter of introduction. After that, my
phone was taken away from me and that
was how I stayed there till the Police came
and arrested us.”
She said of conditions in the centre: “We
were kept in a crowded room with little
ventilation and a doctor came once in a
while to check us. Nobody was allowed to
go beyond the first gate also known as the
Green Gate. And one boy who we referred
to as oga came around to sleep with the
girls, especially those that were not yet
pregnant.
“The compound was built in such a way
that made escape impossible. It is fenced
with high walls and no visitor was allowed
to come into the area where the girls were
kept, except Madam, Oyibo and the doctor.
“After nine months, those who were due to
be delivered were taken to another
location and Madam would only bring back
news to us that our friend had given birth.
But they never came back ”.
Another victim, Chinyere Onwuegbu, also
17, said she was living with her mother, a
widow, until she ran away with one of her
friends who convinced her that she could
make a huge amount of money if she
could be pregnant and sell the child after
delivery.
Her words: “My friend brought me here
and she told me to stay and get pregnant.
Madam promised to take good care of me
and that she would give me N60,000 if I
had a baby boy and N30,000 if it was a girl.
“ But after I was impregnated, Madam
began to force me to work hard despite
my condition. I cried everyday but no way
to escape”.
From outside, the ‘baby factory’ looks very
much like a pure water production facility.
It sits on an expansive land and is walled
round.
The main building has several rooms
secured with iron doors.
A neighbour, who volunteered information
on condition of anonymity, said: “All we
saw were people coming to buy water but
we began to express worry when we
noticed flashy cars coming to the place at
nights.”
Investigation also revealed that the owner
of the ‘baby factory’ also runs a maternity
home where the victims are taken to be
delivered of their babies.
Oyibo, who was identified by the girls as
the one who impregnated most of them,
denied that he was paid to impregnate
them.
He said: “I was employed to work in the
pure water company, but I have slept with
most of the girls but not to impregnate
them as reported.”
Who is Madam One Thousand?
It was gathered that Madam One
Thousand is no stranger to the police
having been arrested by them at least twice
before for a similar offence.
A source, who asked not to be named,
said: “If the police are serious, they can
arrest her; they know her identity. She has
been in this trade for a long time. She even
has medical doctors who work for her.
“Apart from that, since she also runs a
registered maternity home, why can’t the
police look in that direction and get her
identity from the Ministry of Health that
registered her clinic?”
Sources said she is at the head of a
syndicate that also includes doctors.
The doctors refer victims to her and get
paid accordingly.
Efforts to get the Commissioner of Police,
Mohammed Katsina, and the Police Public
Relations Officer, Joy Elemoko, to comment
on what becomes of the girls were
unsuccessful as they did not pick calls to
their handsets.
However, a reliable police source said the
girls would be handed over to the Ministry
of Women Affairs after proper
documentation for adequate medical
attention as some of them are ill.

Kidnappers Snatch Wife, Daughter And Driver Of Supreme Court Justice Rhodes-Vivour In Edo

Kidnappers in Nigeria
yesterday night snatched the
wife, daughter and driver of
Supreme Court  Justice Bode
Rhodes-Vivour in Benin Edo
State.
The gunmen reportedly
waylaid the woman, her
daughter and their driver at
gunpoint as they were
driving to Benin, the capital
of Edo city in preparation for
Justice Vivour daughter’s
wedding.
Family sources told
Saharareporters that the
kidnappers have not
contacted the family to make
any ransom demands.

Plenty of summons for Dibu Ojerinde because of his bad results this year.

Reactions trailing the mass failure of candidates in this
year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination,UTME,have continued as the House of
Representatives has summoned the Registrar of the
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,JAMB, Prof
Dibu Ojerinde.
Although investigations showed that the failure had a
lot to do with some of the candidates’ reliance on
answers provided by fraudsters, other candidates have
claimed that the use of computer affected their
performance.
The result of the examination as released by JAMB
showed many students scoring below 150, out of the
400 marks, with only 10 scoring above 300.
Speaking on the matter, Thursday, Chairman, House
Committee on Education, Hon. Aminu Suleiman said
that the summons became necessary due to series of
complaints and protests by a cross section of
Nigerians.
“We heard that JAMB authorities had formally
explained some reasons for the mass failure.
“This is not enough if the
content of the complaints of
Nigerians is anything to go by. One of the complaints
concerns the usage of computer for the exam that
most of them had never had contact with before.
“It can be recalled that the House passed a resolution
asking JAMB not to use computer for the 2013 exams
and they said they would make it optional; but there
were still complaints by candidates that some of them
filled the manual or paper option only to find
themselves being asked to write the exams using
computers”, he said.
The lawmaker added that the mass failure might not be
unconnected with the introduction of computers for
the exams, bearing in mind that most candidates,
especially from Government secondary schools were
not exposed to computer before.
Accordingly, he said the committee was poised to
finding a lasting solution to the perennial failure of
Nigerians in the last JAMB examination.

JAMB CUT-OFF MARK FOR SCHOOLS

    JAMB 2013/2014 has released the 2013/2014 cut-off mark at one hundred eighty for universities and one hundred sixty for polytechnics and faculties of education.The cut-off mark 2013 for your establishments can modify you prepare well for his or her communicating and can additionally verify if there’s a requirement for dynamic of establishment course before it’s too late. Below area unit Jamb 2013/2014 cut-off marks 2013 for a few designated universities, polytechnics and faculties of education,,,,2013/2014 JAMB-UTME Cut-off Marks:
    University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT: 200 and above for Dentistry, Pharmacy, Engineering (except Civil & Environmental Engineering), Management Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Social Sciences; 180 and above for others are invited to a Screening Exercise First Choice and Second Choice
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, NAU/UNIZIK: 180 Arts (except Departments of English & History) and Education 200 for others
Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO: 180 First and Second Choice.
University of Ibadan UI: 200 First and Second Choice Most preferred
University of Lagos Unilag: 200 all courses, First Choice only
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN: 200 all courses; first and second Choice.
Obafemi Awolowo University OAU: 200; first and second choice
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, NAU/UNIZIK: 180 Arts (except Departments of English & History) and Education and 200 for others; first choice only.

University of Ilorin, Unilorin: – (i) 200 UTME for courses other than those listed in (5) ‘O’ level Credits at not more than two sittings. (ii) 220 UTME for Accounting, Biochemistry, Business Administration, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Common Law, Economics, English, Electrical Engineering, Finance, Geology, Industrial Chemistry, Mass Communication, Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine & (5) ‘O’ level Credits at not more than two sittings. (iii) MB;BS candidates who obtained: (a) 240 marks in the UTME and (b) Credit Passes at one sitting only in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination or its equivalence in each of the following subjects: English Language, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
University of Ado- Ekiti: 200; First and second choice
University of Benin, UNIBEN – 200; first choice only
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria: 180 for Science based courses and 190 for Arts, Social Science, Law and Administration; first choice only
Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto: 180; First and second choice
Federal University of Technology, Akure FUTA: 200; first and second choice
University of Uyo, Uniuyo: 180; first choice only
University of Calabar, feed.com,ng Unical: 180 for some courses and 200 for others
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta UNAAB – 180
University of Jos UNIJOS: 180; first and second choice
Lagos State University LASU: 200; first and second choice
Niger Delta University NDU: 180; first choice only
TAI Solarin University of Education TASUED: 180 first choice only and change of course
Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna: (i) 220 for School of Engineering and Engineering Technology and Environmental Technology (ii) 200 for School of Environmental Technology and School of Science and Science Education (iii) 190 for School of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology and School of Science and Science Education.
Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina: 180; first choice only
Federal University Oye-Ekiti: 180; first and second choice
Federal University of Wukari, Taraba State: 180 in the Sciences and 190 in the hmanities and Social Sciences; first and second choice.
Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State: 180; first and second choice.
Ebonyi State University EBSU: 180; first and second choice
Osun State University (UNIOSUN): 180 for Agriculture, Education and Arts (Humanities and Culture) and 200 for the rest; First and second choice.
Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun: 180; first and second choice
Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike; 180; first and second choice.
Anambra State University; 180; first and second choice.
Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma: 180; first choice only
Kwara State University KWASU: 200; first and second choice and changing of courses.
Afe Babalola University (ABUAD): No official cut-off mark.
Benson Idahosa University: No official cut-off mark.
Bells University of Technology, Ota: No cut-off mark, as long as you chose or wish to change course.
Kaduna State University, KASU: 180 UTME cutoff (first choice only)
Imo State University IMSU: now Evan Enwerem University EEU : 180
Enugu State University of Science Tech – 180
Adekunle Ajasin University: 200
Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST: 180 (1st choice only)
Delta State University, Abraka, DELSU: 180
Abia State University, Uturu, ABSUU: 180
University of Maiduguri, UniMaid: 180
Kogi State University, KSU:
Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro: No post-utme screening –UTME are used for selection.
Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo: 160 and first and second choice.
Lagos State Polytechnic, LASPOTECH: 160 cutoff
Institute of Management & Technology, IMT: 160
Federal Polytechnic, Ede: 160University of Agriculture Makurdi, UAM:
Polytechnic and College of Education 2012/2013 JAMB-UTME Cut-off mark List
Yaba College of Technology, YabaTech: 160
Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi: 180; most preferred, more preferred or preferred
Polytechnic Ibadan: No cut-off mark as long as you chose them as Most Preferred, More Preferred, Preferred and you can also do change of course.

JAMB 2013 result is out!!!

     The Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board (JAMB) has
released the 2013 Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination (UTME)
results.
    The board, however, withheld
12,110 results for possible
disciplinary action. The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, announced this at a news conference on the release of the results in Bwari, FCT, on Friday.
    The registrar said after thorough processing of answer scripts of the candidates who sat for the examination, the board discovered some forms of malpractice perpetuated during the conduct of the examination.
    “However, the results of 68,309
candidates from various centres are undergoing further screening to ascertain the culpability of 12,110 candidates’ results.“
    A total of 1,629,102 candidates
applied to sit for the Paper Pencil
Test (PPT), while 15,008 candidates
applied for the Dual Based Test, bringing the number of candidates to 1,644,110.
    “The general performance of
candidates in this year’s examination shows remarkable improvement compared with last
year.
    “Ten candidates scored 300 marks and above, while 127,017
candidates scored between 1-159
marks.
    “About 40,692 candidates’ results were invalid due to either multiple shading or no shading at all.  After processing all the results, the board also discovered that about 47,974 candidates were absent.“
    The registrar assured the candidates that their results could be accessed on the JAMB Website:
www.myjambresult.com using their registration numbers.
    He said about 40 centres would be screened to ascertain their culpability and warned the public against Internet fraudsters.
    “Information reaching JAMB shows Internet fraudsters are already telling candidates that their results could be upgraded in one form or the other. “
    This is pure deceit, the public and candidates are hereby advised to disregard these fraudsters since they do not have access to our data.
    “Let me once again state that
candidates are allowed to change
their choices of institutions and
courses once only, this change has
to be effected within two weeks from today. “ Ojerinde said the Computer Based Test (CBT) is scheduled to take place from May 18 to June 1 and appealed to candidates to reprint their e- registration slips afresh to further ascertain their CBT centres. (NAN).

82 students nabed by nscdc("oga at the top" crew) officials during saturday's jamb

At least 82 candidates who sat
for Saturday’s examination by the
Joint Matriculation Examination
Board (JAMB) were arrested for
alleged examination malpractices
in Ogun State.
The students were arrested by the
Ogun State Command of Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The Command’s Public Relations
Officer, Olanrewaju Kareem, who
confirmed the arrest to PREMIUM
TIMES in Abeokuta, said the
candidates were arrested from
different centres across the state.
He explained that they were
caught cheating during the
examination. While some were
caught using their phones others
were in possession of prohibited
materials such as books,palm
top, scientific calculator among
others.
The Ogun Commandant of the
Civil Defence, Aboluwoye
Akinwande, said appropriate
action will be taken against the
suspects.
”The first thing is that they have
been made to fill relevant form.
Investigation will be
conducted,that will determine
their culpability and then we can
decide on trial. Necessary
information about them have
been collected,” he said.
“The arrest were mainly from
Ogun Central followed by Ogun
East and West with very wide
marging. Apart from the arrest no
violence recorded so far as all
108 examination centres were
properly policed both plain and
uniform men.
“The Corps will continue to do its
best at all time to ensure
examination malpractices is
reduced to the barest minimum if
not eradicated. We will continue
to appreciate the support of
candidates, parents and other
stakeholders,” Mr. Akinwande
added.