Colonialism: US group tells Britain to apologise to Nigeria

A United States-based civil society organisation, Gatestone Institute, New York, has called on Britain to apologise to Nigeria because “the problems and tensions in northern Nigeria are direct results of left-overs by the British colonial government.”

A representative of GI, Mr. Alan Craig, made the suggestion on Saturday in Abuja, during a workshop for leaders of ethnic minorities in the North. The workshop was jointly organised by Minority Interests Rights Project and Stefanos Foundation (Nigeria).

At the event, the Coordinator of MIRP, Mr. Mark Lipido, raised the alarm that 75 per cent of indigenes of Southern Borno had fled to Cameroon following the recent attack on them by the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

Craig told journalists after the event that Britain had no choice than to apologise to Nigerians following the sad fallouts of colonialism.

He said, “This type of grassroots work is significant for the people in the villages and we hope to help the local people to have a voice. We want to support ordinary people to have a voice and we are always on the side of the minorities.

“The problems of northern Nigeria are direct results of left-over by the British Government (colonial) and therefore the tension and difficulties in northern Nigeria are direct result of the British Government (colonial). Therefore, my argument now is that the British Government should be rectifying the situation and contributing instead of telling the Nigerian Government about the gay right law, for instance.

“It should be saying that ‘we are sorry for the legacy we left and other things we did’; there are other good things the then British colonial government did too. So, don’t condemn it all but that particular aspect was wrong and was a mistake; so the British Government should be rectifying it.”

White House on lockdown as man caught trying to jump over fence

The White House has been put on lockdown after an unidentified man was caught trying to jump the fence Friday afternoon.

Secret Service officers apprehended the suspect and he is now in custody.
The man was said to be carrying two large bags but the agency has not released any further information about the incident.

They stressed to NBC News that they are not especially worried about the bags now that the man is in custody but they are following standard protocol.
That included a call to Washington’s Metro Police Department’s Explosive Ordinance Division and they are said to be investigating the bags now.
The Secret Service reported that the man did not make it over the fence before he was apprehended initially by Park Police and Uniformed Division officers.
President Obama was not in danger as he is currently on a trip to Michigan, which was timed to coincide with the signing of the new farm bill.

Shortly after the news broke about the lockdown, the press pool reported that the President had boarded Air Force One headed back to Washington, but that appeared to be just the trip staying on schedule rather than a reaction to the events at the White House.
Because the climber was caught in the early afternoon, the first daughters would not have been home at the time. MailOnline’s calls about Michelle Obama’s and her mother’s locations at the time of the incident. The First Lady’s mother Marian Robinson lives with the first family.

Violent protests rock Bosnia

Irate crowd

Demonstrators in Bosnia-Hercegovina have set fire to government buildings, in the worst unrest since the end of the 1992-95 war.
Hundreds of people have been injured in three days of protests over high unemployment and perceived inability of politicians to improve the situation.
Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to quell unrest in the capital Sarajevo and the northern town of Tuzla.
Black smoke could be seen coming from the presidency building in Sarajevo.
In Bosnia the legacies of the war mean that few even hope for change anymore. For this reason, anger has been simmering for years, but now it has boiled over”
Sarajevo-based newspaper Dnevni Avaz says police used water to disperse the protesters who were throwing stones at the building. There were also reports of an attempted storming of the office.
The fire brigade are unable to reach the burning building, the paper reports. A total of 13 fire service teams have been deployed.
On Thursday, clashes between police and demonstrators in Tuzla injured more than 130 people, mostly police officers.
“People protest because they are hungry, because they don’t have jobs. We demand the government resign,” Nihad Karac, a construction worker, told the AFP.
About 40% of Bosnians are unemployed.
The unrest began in Tuzla earlier in the week, with protests over the closure and sale of factories which had employed most of the local population.

SHOCKING: 13-Year-Old Boy Rapes His Eight-Yr-Old Sister After Watching Porn

A 13-year-old student after watching Porn on an X-box, decided to try out what he watched by raping his 8-year-old sister.
The teenager confessed to the police that he decided to try it out on his younger sister because she was small and 'couldn't remember stuff'.
He, yesterday admitted at the Blackburn Magistrates Court to rape, indecent assault and inciting his sister to perform a sexual act on him and was bailed to live with relatives away from his sister.
The X-Box customer support website however says explicit content and internet access can be restricted using parental controls while Microsoft, the company which makes the console, said: 'We have the greatest sympathy for all involved in this case.
'At Microsoft we have some of the most robust systems that allow parents to control what their children play and watch online.

Why US Ambassador To Russia Resigns

McFaul

The U.S. ambassador to Russia has announced that he is stepping down after two turbulent years in Moscow.

 Michael McFaul is considered the architect of President Barack Obama's effort to reset relations with Russia.
McFaul points to many successes in U.S.-Russian relations, including the negotiation of a new strategic arms treaty and cooperation on the NATO-led military campaign in Afghanistan. But his tenure also has brought disappointments in the face of the rising anti-Americanism in Russia that accompanied Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency.
The ambassador announced his departure in a blog post on Tuesday, saying he would leave after the Sochi Winter Olympics.
A longtime Stanford University professor, McFaul said he would be returning to California. His wife and two sons had returned home last year.

HORRIBLE: Husband Stabs Wife To Death After Ending Their Marriage Of 10 Years

Arthur

A 50-year-old woman met her untimely death after she was stabbed by her husband for telling him their marriage was over.

The woman, Heather Arthur decided to leave her husband of 30 years, Mark Arthur, after falling in love with the saxophonist in a jazz band she sung with.
Mrs Arthur was stabbed in the heart by her husband at the couple's home when she told her husband their marriage was over
Mr Arthur after killing his wife went to his doctor's surgery nearby wearing boxer shorts and a top, bursting in on his GP and saying he had hurt his wife.
The 50-year-old man who ran his own IT business has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder on the grounds that he lost control.
However prosecutors say he had known for some time the marriage was in trouble and that Mrs Arthur wanted to separate.
A prosecutor Mark Giuliani told the court: 'She was exercising control over her life and told him it was definitely over and he didn't like it and he stabbed her.
'The Crown's case is this was not loss of control. Relationships break down every day but people don't end up lying in a pool of blood.
'That is not a reasonable response to being told something you already had good knowledge of and well knew.'
The couple who met at the university in London had been together for 30 years and married for around 10 years.
Mr Giuliani said: 'They started to see each other away from the band and she confided in him about how badly her husband treated her.
'It was clear the marriage was breaking down, while Heather Arthur and Paul Gowland's relationship grew stronger.
 'In the last weeks before her death, they became lovers. 'Mrs Arthur had decided her relationship with the defendant had run its course and that they should separate.'
Mrs Arthur on the day she died had agreed to have one last family day out with her husband, Arthur but was found lying dead in a pool of blood in the study at the back of the house, next to her husband's desk by Police officers.
Police untied a tightly knotted scarf round her neck, revealing a knife sticking out of her chest.
The trial, expected to last 10 days, continues.

INCREDIBLE: Man Survives 13 Months Lost At Sea

A castaway who says he survived 13 months adrift in the Pacific said Tuesday he thought about suicide but was sustained by dreams of eating his favourite food — tortillas — and reuniting with his family.

Fisherman Jose Salvador Alvarenga also described being forced to dump the body of his teenage companion overboard when he starved to death, but said his own strong religious faith helped as he drifted some 12,500 kilometres (8,000 miles) from Mexico to the Marshall Islands. “I didn’t want to die of starvation,” he told AFP through a Spanish interpreter at Majuro Hospital, where he is recuperating after being found disoriented last Thursday at a remote coral atoll.
“There were times I would think about killing myself. But I was scared to do it,” he added, raising his arm, pointing to heaven and declaring: “God! Faith!” The stockily built Alvarenga looked in remarkably good physical shape when he arrived in the Marshalls capital Majuro five days after landing on the remote Ebon Atoll. Sporting a bushy beard and with his hair bleached a ginger colour by the sun, he was helped down the gangplank by a male nurse but he did not appear to have chapped lips, blistered skin or other signs of severe exposure.
“He looked better than one would expect,” US ambassador Thomas Armbruster said on Monday after acting as an interpreter for the Marshallese authorities. However, extraordinary feats of survival are not uncommon in the Pacific.
Three Mexicans washed up in the Marshalls in 2006 after nine months adrift. Dreaming of tortillas Speaking from hospital Alvarenga said he would dream of eating all his favourite foods as he drifted across the Pacific. “But then I woke up and all I see is the sun, sky and the sea,” he said.
“My dream for over a year is to eat a tortilla, chicken and so many other types of food. “I would imagine and dream a lot about my family — my mother and my father,” he said. Alvarenga said he was not married but has a daughter named Fatima. His parents feared he had been killed.
“Thank God he is alive. We are overjoyed… I just want him here with us,” his mother Maria Julia Alvarenga told CNN in his homeland El Salvador, whose government says it is working with Mexico to bring him home. “My heart would tell me that my son was not dead but I wondered about it so often that I had started to lose faith.”
Alvarenga said he set out on a one-day fishing expedition in late December 2012 with a teenager named Xiguel, when they became lost in their 24-foot (seven-metre) fibreglass boat. “We had just finished a day of shark fishing when the motor died,” he said. “I wasn’t worried at first but I couldn’t get a radio signal, and meanwhile there was a wind that pushed us further out.”
The 37-year-old’s mood darkened as he described how the boy, who he says was aged 15-18, died four months into their voyage, unable to survive on a diet of raw bird flesh, turtle blood and his own urine. Pushed body overboard “He couldn’t keep the raw food down and he kept vomiting,” Alvarenga said. “I tried to get him to hold his nose and eat but he kept vomiting.”
He said the teenager died of starvation and he pushed his body into the ocean. “What else could I do?” Alvarenga said he tried to keep track of time as the sun moved across the sky but weeks and months eventually blurred. Every so often he would hear something bump the boat. Invariably it was a sea turtle. “I was able to reach over the side of the boat and grab them,” he said. “I caught many turtles over the course of my drift.” Starting out the trip with fishing gear, he also caught fish, and learned to stand still in the rocking boat until sea birds came close enough for him to grasp.
“The hardest thing I had to do to survive was to drink my own urine,” he said. This was during a period when “for three months it didn’t rain”. When it did, he used the hull of his boat to store water.
Alvarenga described his joy at making landfall at Ebon Atoll, saying he spotted a house and crawled up the beach towards it. “I went towards it and began yelling for help,” he said.
Two Marshallese came out and helped the stranger, who was clad only in a ragged pair of underpants, by giving him coconut juice. In Majuro, foreign ministry officials said Manila-based ambassador Julio Camarena, who represents Mexico to the Marshall Islands, has offered to pay for Alvarenga’s ticket back to Mexico.