Jonathan plans to arrest Obasanjo, Atiku, others, says Baraje PDP

Baraje

The Abubakar Baraje led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the party has uncovered plots by President Goodluck Jonathan to arrest former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his erstwhile deputy, Atiku Abubakar.
Similarly, the party also said members of the league of G7 governors and leaders of the Baraje faction have also been marked for arrest ad detention.
Governors in the G7 are: Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Chukwuemeka Eze, the faction said intelligence report in its possession revealed that the Presidency was already putting finishing touches to the plan.
According the party, the Presidency’s plot is code named “Operation Total Crackdown on G7 and their allies in the New PDP”.
“When we got details of the plot to arrest and commit the leadership of New PDP to prison without charge we thought it was a joke.
“The reality, however, dawned on us after we read the interview of our friend and brother, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, in the PREMIUM TIMES of 26th September, 2013, confirming that President Goodluck Jonathan is under pressure to arrest former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar without any further delay.
“The sin of these two distinguished Nigerian statesmen, according to those plotting their “demystification”, is their alleged support for the New PDP, including the G7 Governors. That this evil plot is being conceived by the Presidency confirms that the Abacha days are truly here again with us”, the statement added.
The party said in view of the development, the leadership of the Baraje group had, in an emergency meeting of its National Working Committee, brainstormed on how best to respond to the plot.
“Our conclusion at the end of the meeting was that we would not be intimidated for any reason, even if it means death, as we are fighting a just cause of reclaiming, recovering and establishing our party based on the vision of its founding fathers as the party is currently usurped by some members who do not know how it was formed.
“Baraje, knowing how dirty some of the hawks in the Presidency can fight when pushed to the wall, directed NWC members to write their wills immediately after the meeting as we have entered the stage of no retreat and no surrender – fully determined to reclaim what rightly belongs to us”, the party said.
Baraje urged the G7 Governors not to be intimidated or frightened by any tactics or strategy employed by “state forces” to coerce them to forgo any of the issues they have been asked to present before President Jonathan in the October 7 meeting.
The party regretted that instead of employing diplomacy to attend to the issues that brought about the present conflict, the Presidency had chosen to apply force.
Baraje said that rather than being disturbed by the plot, his members are ready for any tactics that may be adopted by the Presidency in the alleged crackdown.
“In this regard, we wish to urge both the Presidency and those detailed to attack us not to waste time or wait till October 7 to start arresting us, as there are thousands of Nigerians ready to step into our shoes and fight this cause to its conclusion.
“We are convinced that at the appropriate time; Asari Dokubo will join us when he is convinced as a social crusader, the injustice we have been subjected to in PDP all these years so we are not threatened by his outbursts”, Baraje added.
The party quoted a one time President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, to buttress its determination to face the alleged threat squarely.
Roosevelt had stated in that memorable speech: “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.”

Rivers Police disperse Amaechi’s loyalists...

Rivers commissioner of police. Mbu

•We are in a police state – Rep
•Police spokesman denies disruption
Barely72 hours after the Rivers Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, chased away 13,000 newly-recruited teachers, who wanted to collect their posting letters at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, Mbu was at it again yesterday morning.
Over one hundred policemen, on the orders of the controversial police commissioner, disrupted the inauguration of the Rivers Leadership Advancement Foundation (RIVLEAF) in Bonny Island, headquarters of Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State.
RIVLEAF members are loyal to the Rivers governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
The representative of Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Constituency of Rivers State in the House of Representatives, Dakuku Peterside, declared that with the ugly development, Rivers people were now in a police state.
The chairman of Bonny LG Council, Edward Pepple, described the action of the policemen as barbaric and unexpected in a democracy, stressing that the security personnel initially raided the Bonny Government House Lodge, before disrupting the RIVLEAF’s inauguration.
Pepple noted that the policemen invaded all the venues of the inauguration and declared that the members of RIVLEAF, a socio-political organisation, must not gather, stressing that the policemen could not give any justifiable reason for their action.
Peterside, a former Rivers State Commissioner for Works and an ally of Amaechi, said: “Police in Rivers State today (yesterday) at Bonny, stopped the inauguration of RIVLEAF, a non-governmental organisation of young Rivers professionals.
“Police first mobilised over hundred men to storm Bonny Industrial Centre. Then, the organisers moved the event to the Local Government Council. Police also went there to disrupt them.
“They moved it to a private individual’s house on Hospital Road, Bonny, yet police went there. Finally, we are in a police state.”
The coastal Bonny is the base of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company Limited and the crude oil loading terminal of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), among other oil and gas firms.
The National President of RIVLEAF, Wele Alex Wele, who is also the Special Adviser on National Economic Affairs to Amaechi, was contacted by telephone for his reaction, but he didn’t pick his call, while a text message later sent to him had not been replied as at press time.
When also contacted at 1:54 pm, the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ahmad Kidaya Muhammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said: “I am not aware of disruption of RIVLEAF’s inauguration at Bonny,” promising to find out and get back, but did not do so.
A senior police officer, who would not want to be named, stated that the Bonny’s inauguration of RIVLEAF was not allowed in view of the current ban on demonstrations, protests and unauthorised assemblies, while describing the gathering as political and could lead to the breakdown of law and order.
When reminded that the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, who is also the grand patron of the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), had been moving round the state’s 23 LGAs for GDI’s inauguration, without police’s disruption and preparing to go to Etche LGA this weekend, the police officer said: “No comment.”
Amaechi, through the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, had earlier stated that Wike had been busy with his 2015 governorship campaigns, contrary to the regulation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which made it clear that campaigning must only take place 90 days to elections.
The Rivers governor noted that the Minister of State for Education had been busy deceiving his “confused” supporters of mobilising support for the 2015 re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan, while campaigning for his governorship, ignoring the nationwide strike by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), in its third month.
On Friday in Port Harcourt, the organised labour in Rivers State gave the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, and the Police Service Commission (PSC), 21-day ultimatum to redeploy Mbu or face indefinite strike.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Rivers State councils, asked the IGP and the police commissioner to also tender unreserved apology for using teargas to chase away 13,000 newly-recruited teachers, who were at the Liberation Stadium on Wednesday to collect their posting letters.
The River State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Felix Obuah, however, stated that asking 13,000 teachers to collect posting letters at the stadium was unwise and mischievous.
Amaechi and Mbu had been at loggerheads since the police commissioner’s redeployment from the Oyo State Command in February, with the NGF chairman declaring that the only condition for peace in the state would be the redeployment of Mbu, who was accused of taking sides and described as a politician.
The Senate and the House of Representatives, in separate resolutions, before they proceeded on recess, also called for the immediate redeployment of the police commissioner, but the IGP later stated that Mbu had been told to be a professional police officer and would remain in Rivers state.
However, a civil society group has appealed to the National Council of State (NCS) to intervene and end what it described as “the reign of terror being orchestrated in Rivers State by Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu who is playing power politics in the state while neglecting his police duties and the crime rate is escalating.”
The group, Coalition of Concerned Citizens, Indigenes and Non-Indigenes Residents In Rivers State (CCCINRRS) decried the police blundering in the state, accusing Mbu of a plethora of derelictions while cozying up with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) politicians in the state in a comedy of the absurd which residents of the state do not find funny at all.
It urged the National Council of State to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to call Mbu to order because the state police chief’s professional non-performance “is a disgrace to our national psyche.”

ASUU vows to continue strike ...

 

                        

 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says it will press ahead with its nationwide strike while negotiations with the Federal Government continue.

The vice president of the union, Alhaji Namadi Sambo recently took over the leadership of the Federal Government negotiation team from Gov. Gabriel Suswam of Benue.
The zone coordinator of the union in charge of Kano Zone, Dr Rabi’u Nasiru, told newsmen in Kano on Wednesday that ASUU had not changed its position on its demand for the implementation of the 2009 agreement.
He said the lecturers would continue with the strike for as long as the Federal Government failed to implement the agreement.
Nasiru, however, blamed "selfish interests" for the failure of the Suswan committee to successfully negotiate with the union.
"The meeting with the vice president did not provide anything new about what the government has done in the past three months.
"The Sambo committee is still giving promises and trying to negotiate the 2009 agreement, even when we should be at the point of implementation.”
He said the Federal Government had failed to inject N400 billion into federal and state universities.
Nasiru said that the N100 billion provided by the government was supposed to cover only 2012.
According to him, the quest to redeem the country's fortunes should begin with education.
"For any country to develop, its university education must be of the highest standard."

How to Become an Exercise Addict..

 

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Getty Images

We all have friends who, despite hectic schedules, never miss a day at the gym. Who can't stop talking about the next 10K. Who can't stop smiling after yoga class. Sure, they're a little, well, obsessive about working out. But we envy them!

The good news is we all have the potential to become fitness-obsessed, says Tom Holland, a Connecticut-based celebrity fitness trainer, exercise physiologist, and expert in sports psychology. Here are 20 proven ways to make exercise a habit.

Scientists: IPCC Report Should Serve as 'Wake-Up Call'...

 

Global Warming Debate Heats Up at UN

The new U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report should serve as a "wake-up call" to governments and society about the role of humans in global warming, scientists say.

"It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century," the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, which was published Friday, found.

"This report confirms with even more certainty than in the past -- that it is extremely likely that the changes in our climate system for the past half a century are due to human influence," Michel Jarraud, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, which co-sponsored the IPCC, said in a statement.

"It should serve as yet another wake-up call that our activities today will have a profound impact on society not only for us but for many generations to come," he said.

More than 800 authors across more than 39 countries contributed to the working group's 2,500-page assessment, which draws on millions of observations and numerical data from climate model simulations.

The report, which contains the strongest wording yet on the existence of climate change and the role that humans play in contributing to it, states: "Warming in the climate system is unequivocal."

It also documents that the last three decades have successively been warmer at the Earth's surface than any preceding decades since 1850.

Scientists have predicted continued shrinking ice caps, rising sea levels, longer and more frequent heat waves, and wet regions receiving more rainfall and dry ones receiving less, as a result of these changes.

"Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system," said Thomas Stocker, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group I which released the report. "Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions."

"As the ocean warms, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years," said Working Group I's other Co-Chair Qin Dahe.

The report's summary for policy makers also contained strong wording.

"It is virtually certain that globally the troposphere has warmed since the mid-20th century" and it is "extremely likely" that more than half of observed increase in global average surface temperatures from 1951 to 2010 was caused by human produced greenhouse gas activity, the report summary said.

The report had been met with some criticism, notably by skeptics and climate change deniers in the lead-up to its release.

The IPCC fourth report, released in 2007, also came under fire from critics when it was released for including incorrect statements on Himalayan glaciers and natural disasters.

Next year, two other working groups that release reports on climate change for the IPCC will reveal their findings on the impacts global warming has on adaptability and vulnerability, and a policy report on mitigation.

Ancient oxygen discovery shakes up history of life on Earth...

Oxygen appeared in the Earth’s atmosphere up to 700 million years earlier than thought, according to a study led by a B.C. scientist, suggesting that revisions need to be made to current theories about how life evolved on Earth.

Up until now, scientists thought photosynthesis — the ability of living things such as algae and plants to harvest energy from the sun — first evolved in single-celled organisms about 2.7 billion years ago.
Because oxygen is produced during photosynthesis, early photosynthetic organisms are thought to have given rise to the Great Oxygenation Event, also known as the Great Oxidation Event, about 2.3 billion years ago.
The incident was thought to be the first time the atmosphere began accumulating significant amounts of oxygen. That is significant because complex multicellular organisms such as humans require an oxygen-rich atmosphere to survive.
The new study led by biogeochemist Sean Crowe has found surprising evidence that as far back as three billion year ago, there were levels of oxygen in the atmosphere too high to have been produced without living organisms.
The findings were published online in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Scientists figure out whether oxygen existed in the atmosphere during different eras by looking at samples of ancient rocks and soils, and checking for elements in states that only form during chemical reactions involving oxygen.
Crowe, an assistant professor in the department of Microbiology and Immunology and the department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia, said people have detected traces of oxygen before in samples older than 2.3 billion years, but the signals were never strong enough to make a conclusion.
That is partly because most ancient samples analyzed were marine sediments from the bottom of the ocean, which aren’t in direct contact with the atmosphere, and therefore don’t show very strong oxygen signals at the best of times.
However, researchers in South Africa recently discovered an ancient land-based soil sample called a paleosol that dated back three billion years.
Crowe, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Southern Denmark, where he was previously a postdoctoral researcher, decided to test the samples for oxygen. The researchers employed a new, more sensitive technique that involves looking for forms of chromium that only occur following reaction with oxygen.
Given, the age of the samples, Crowe didn’t expect to find any oxygen. So he was surprised when the tests showed “low but appreciable concentrations.”
“Initially we thought we must have done something wrong or there was something wrong with the samples,” Crowe said.
To verify the results, researchers tested marine samples that were about the same age. Using the new chromium technique, they too showed a positive signal for oxygen.
“We were very excited,” Crowe said. “Immediately we knew there was oxygen in the atmosphere well before we understood it to be.”
The oxygen levels detected in the samples were only a 10,000th of present day levels of 20 per cent of the atmosphere, and a 200th to a 500th of the levels that immediately followed the Great Oxygenation Event.
But computer modelling showed that the oxygen levels three billion years ago were still five times higher than the amount that could be generated by chemical reactions in the atmosphere alone, without the help of photosynthesizing, living organisms.
“Once … we realized there’s really a lot more oxygen than you can produce abiotically, we were very excited,” Crowe said.
“Because we capture oxygen in the atmosphere three billion years ago, the likelihood is that oxygen-producing organisms evolved before that — very early in Earth’s history.”
The first life is thought to have formed on Earth about 3.8 to 3.5 billion years ago, shortly after the Earth became cool enough to form oceans and continents.
The results of the study suggest that it doesn’t take very long for complex metabolisms, such as those required for photosynthesis, to evolve. But it does take a long time for oxygen levels to get high enough to support complex life.
Crowe said it’s not clear why that is, but geological processes are likely play a role, and those geological processes may therefore have had a big influence on the development of complex life.
He added that it’s still unknown whether oxygen levels dropped or whether they stayed high. It’s also possible that oxygen appeared earlier than three billion years ago, he said.
“Filling in the geological record of oxygen,” he said, “is still important to do.”

Alitalia Jet Makes Safe Emergency Landing in Rome..

Authorities say an Alitalia jet on a flight from Madrid safely made an emergency landing at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport after one of its landing gears failed to open.

The airport's operations room said the Airbus 320 landed on the tarmac Sunday night leaning on a wing and its tail after the right-side landing gear didn't work.

It said all 151 passengers and the crew of five left the plane safely through emergency slides about 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) after the pilot reported the problem. No one was injured.

The cause of the malfunction was under investigation.

Global travel body urges Kenya to reassure future tourists ....

               

              

The head of the World Travel & Tourism Council on Tuesday urged the Kenyan government and tour operators to reassure potential visitors about coming to the country given the deadly Nairobi mall attack.

A cornerstone of Kenya's economy, the billion-dollar tourism industry accounts for 12.5 percent of the economy and provides one in 10 jobs, and there is concern the bloody siege of a Nairobi mall by Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants could lead to a drop in visitors.
"The government in Kenya and the private sector need to communicate very clearly... that it is a specific incident in one shopping mall in Nairobi that is now contained," said David Scowsill, head of the WTTC, a global forum for business leaders in the industry.
"It has no impact on the wider travel and tourism in Kenya, most of which is outside the main city," Scowsill, who by coincidence is in Nairobi for a hotel investment conference, said by phone.
Kenya is East Africa's richest country, but more than half of its population still lives on less than $1 a day and tourism is a precious industry.
The largely peaceful country has been rocked by several major terrorist attacks in the past, such as in August 1998 when a car bomb at the US embassy in Nairobi left 213 dead.
The latest attack began on Saturday when Somalia's Shebab insurgents stormed the upmarket Westgate shopping centre in the Kenyan capital, shooting at will and killing 67 shoppers, staff and security forces.
The insurgents, who claim the carnage is in retaliation for Nairobi's two-year fight against their bases in southern Somalia, battled Kenyan troops in the mall for more than three days.
Early Tuesday evening, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the siege finally over.
Scowsill acknowledged that tourism to Kenya may be affected in the coming months.
He said previous examples of major attacks or natural disasters in other countries gave a rough idea of what could happen to the tourism market.
"With these kinds of incidents, it does take a dip, typically for two or three months, then it starts to return again," he said.
"I would expect within six months, it will be absolutely back to normal again, assuming all the communications are right and of course there is no further incident."

Gunmen kill students as they sleep in Nigerian college..Terrible

DAMATURU, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants stormed a college in northeastern Nigeria and shot dead around 40 male students, some of them while they slept early on Sunday, witnesses said.
The gunmen, thought to be members of rebel sect Boko Haram, attacked one hostel, took some students outside before killing them and shot others trying to flee, people at the scene told Reuters.
"They started gathering students into groups outside, then they opened fire and killed one group and then moved onto the next group and killed them. It was so terrible," said one surviving student Idris, who would only give his first name.
"They came with guns around 1 a.m. (2400 GMT) and went directly to the male hostel and opened fire on them ... The college is in the bush so the other students were running around helplessly as guns went off and some of them were shot down," said Ahmed Gujunba, a taxi driver who lives by the college.
Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has intensified attacks on civilians in recent weeks in revenge for a military offensive against its insurgency.
Several schools, seen as the focus of Western-style education and culture, have been targeted.
Boko Haram and spin-off Islamist groups like the al Qaeda-linked Ansaru have become the biggest security threat in Africa's second largest economy and top oil exporter.
Western governments are increasingly worried about the threat posed by Islamist groups across Africa, from Mali and Algeria in the Sahara, to Kenya in the east, where Somalia's al-Shabaab fighters killed at least 67 people in an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall a week ago.
Bodies were recovered from dormitories, classrooms and outside in the undergrowth on Sunday, a member of staff at the college told Reuters, asking not to be named.
A Reuters witness counted 40 bloody corpses piled on the floor at the main hospital in Yobe state capital Damaturu on Sunday, mostly of young men believed to be students.
The bodies were brought from the college, which is in Gujba, a rural area 30 miles (50km) south of Damaturu and around 130 miles from Nigerian borders with Cameroon and Niger.
State police commissioner Sanusi Rufai said he suspected Boko Haram was behind the attack but gave no details.
REVENGE ATTACKS
Thousands have been killed since Boko Haram launched its uprising in 2009, turning itself from a clerical movement opposed to Western culture into an armed militia with growing links to al Qaeda's West African wing.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern state in May, including Yobe, and ordered a military offensive to crush Boko Haram's insurgency.
There was an initial lull in the violence as Islamists fled bases in cities, forests and mountains. Then the militants began revenge attacks on schools, security forces and civilians believed to be helping them.
In July, suspected Boko Haram militants killed 27 students and a teacher at a school in Potiskum, a town about 30 miles from the site of Sunday's attack.
Several hundred people have died in assaults over the past few weeks. Some observers say the army offensive has only succeeded in pushing attacks away from well-guarded large towns and cities into vulnerable rural areas.
Boko Haram's insurgency is also putting pressure on the economy of Africa's most populous nation. Nigeria's security spending has risen to more than 1 trillion naira ($6.26 billion) per year, or around 20 percent of the federal budget. ($1 = 159.8 Nigerian naira)
(Additional reporting by Isaac Abrak in Kaduna; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Girl Who Disappeared From Texas Middle School Found Safe..

Adrienne Solorzano, 12, has been missing since Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013.

Garland Police Dept.

A 12-year-old Garland, Texas, girl who went missing two days ago from her middle school, when she left class to go meet her father for a conference with a teacher, was found safe today, police said.

Police got a call that the girl, Adrienne Solorzano, might have been seen near a Mexican restaurant about a mile from the school this afternoon and went to investigate.

"Officers got there, located her, and then we brought her to the police station," Garland Police Department spokesman Officer Joe Harn told ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas.

The owner of El Langostino Azul restaurant told WFAA-TV he saw two men with the girl when she was picked up by police.

"She appears to be fine as far as her physical appearance and everything," Harn said. "The good and the positive thing is that she's here and she's safe now."

Detectives were talking to the girl this evening to try to learn what happened to her.

The girl's disappearance on Thursday was first considered as a case of a runaway, but detectives became suspicious there might have been more to it after starting to investigate, according to a police statement.

Adrienne's father went to her school, Brandenburg Middle School, to meet with one of Adrienne's teachers to talk about why her grade was slipping in that class, police said.

Adrienne was given a pass to leave her class, which was in a portable classroom, and to come meet with her father and the teacher.

Adrienne left class at approximately 11 a.m., but never showed up for the meeting, police said.

The girl's pass was found on the ground outside the portable classroom, but there were no surveillance cameras in place, so investigators didn't know what might have happened.

Earlier today, police said none of Adrienne's friends, family or neighbors had seen her since she left the classroom.

Family and friends said this was out of character for a girl who is said to be very quiet and polite, and who does well in school.

"What's being described to us is she's a very good student, quiet, goes home, studies a lot, has got just a few friends and they're all good students," Harn said.

Harn said Adrienne was not on social media, didn't have a cell phone or a boyfriend.

"This is totally out of character and that's what our detective's telling us," Harn said. "I can't pinpoint it, he says, there's just something not right about this missing girl."

Family, Friends of Missing San Francisco Woman Find it 'Disturbing' She Disappeared from Hospital...

Good Morning America - Family, Friends of Missing San Francisco Woman Find it 'Disturbing' She Disappeared from Hospital (ABC News)

The friends and family of a "lively, feisty" 57-year-old woman are searching for answers after she mysteriously vanished from a San Francisco hospital room eight days ago, a family spokesman said.

Lynne Spalding, of San Francisco, was last seen in her hospital room at San Francisco General Hospital at 10:15 a.m. on Sept. 21. She had been admitted two days before after suffering complications from an infection, and was being checked on every 15 minutes by hospital personnel, Spalding family spokesman David Perry told ABCNews.com.
But when hospital staff went to check on Spalding at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 21, she was not in her room and could not be found.
Spalding was on medication that caused her to become disoriented, but Perry said it was strange that she could have disappeared when she was on a 15-minute watch.
"We find it disturbing that someone can go missing from the hospital," he said. "One would think there would be cameras or something."
Spalding, who hails from Great Britain and speaks with a very heavy accent, has been living in San Francisco for several years, Perry said. She had left her last job selling tour packages and memberships at San Francisco Travel in June, and had previously worked at Joie de Vivre hotels.
"She's full of life, and has a huge personality," Perry said.
Spalding is divorced and has two children -- a 23-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son -- who are devastated by their mother's disappearance, Perry said.
Spalding is 5-foot-6, 105 pounds and has brown hair. She is believed to be wearing blue jeans, black boots and a black sweatshirt with the words "San Francisco Pow Wow" embroidered on it, according to a news release. She may also be carrying a large black and white striped bag.
Spalding may have left the hospital with her drivers' license and $20, Perry said. She left her cell phone behind at the hospital.
Perry said he was concerned that the morning Spalding vanished, it was pouring rain in San Francisco.
"It was like the floodgates opened up," he said. "She was last seen during the height of that storm."
A missing persons report has been filed with San Francisco Police Department, which is leading the charge on the search. Anyone with information is asked to call San Francisco Police Dispatch at (415) 553-0123 and reference case #130796086.
Hospital spokeswoman Rachael Kagan could not confirm whether Spalding left the hospital, but said that when hospital personnel checked on the woman at 10:15 a.m. on Sept. 21, she had been in her room. Fifteen minutes later, she was no longer there.

It was unclear whether any situation like this had happened before at San Francisco General Hospital, Kagan said.

Father of Stabbed Dodgers Fan Calls for Witnesses...

The father of a Los Angeles Dodgers fan stabbed to death after a San Francisco Giants game last week asked Sunday for witnesses who may have captured the fight on mobile devices to come forward and help both families find closure.

Robert Preece, his voice quavering at times, spoke in front of AT&T Park's iconic Willie Mays statue before the Giants played the San Diego Padres. He was flanked by family members who handed out fliers to fans streaming into the stadium.

The fight Wednesday night ended with the death of his 24-year-old son, Jonathan Denver.

"Losing a child is a heartache no parent should have to endure," Preece said in his plea for witnesses to the fight, which resulted in the arrest of Michael Montgomery, 21. Montgomery was released from jail on Friday after the district attorney said police have not yet collected enough evidence to warrant criminal charges. Montgomery's father has told other media outlets that his son says Denver hit him over the head with a chair and he stabbed him in self-defense.

Preece said Sunday that he saw bystanders with mobile devices and believes they were recording the incident.

"The Montgomery family is likely suffering as well," Preece said. "I am making a plea to the public asking that anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forth so that both families can have some measure of closure. I believe that someone may have videotaped the incident so we can discover the truth."

Denver's mother, Diana Denver, said in a prepared statement that she was angered by Montgomery's release and what she called "the negligence of our justice system."

The victim's aunt, Jill Haro Preece read the mother's statement after Diana Denver said she was too emotional to address the dozen of cameras and reporters assembled in front of Mays' statue.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said police had not spoken with any independent witnesses who may have witnessed the fight, which is what prompted Preece and his family to make their public plea.

The San Francisco Police Department did not return phone calls Sunday.

"The San Francisco Police Department has provided us an initial investigation," Gascon said in a written statement Friday night. "However, not all witnesses have been interviewed, nor have any independent witnesses of the incident been interviewed. We have requested this and other evidence be collected before we can make an assessment on whether charges should be filed."

Denver was stabbed to death Wednesday after attending the game with his brother, father and two others to celebrate his father's 49th birthday. Denver lived in Fort Bragg, a Northern California city about 170 miles north of San Francisco.

Preece didn't go into details Sunday about what happened, but police say Denver's group, many wearing Dodgers garb, left AT&T Park after the eighth inning to head to a nearby bar. At some point, they got into a shouting match over the Dodgers with Montgomery and a few friends who were bar-hopping in the trendy South of Market area. At least one was wearing a Giants cap.

"The back and forth, 'Go Dodgers!' 'Go Giants!'" Police Chief Greg Suhr said. "And it deteriorated from there."

Suhr said Montgomery made "incriminating statements" that led to his booking the night after the stabbing.

Montgomery's father told the Lodi News-Sentinel that his son was jumped during the fight, and he stabbed Denver in self-defense after Denver and others yelled "Giants suck." The father told the News-Sentinel that his son said Denver hit him over the head with a chair during the fight a few blocks from the stadium.

A second suspect was questioned and released by police Friday. Two others were being sought.

The stabbing was the latest incident over the years stemming from one of the most passionate rivalries in sports. Two years ago, Giants fan Bryan Stow suffered permanent brain damage when he was attacked in Los Angeles.

Five Things Former President Clinton Took Away From the 2008 President Election...

 

 
During an interview with ABC News, former President Bill Clinton was asked by "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos about the biggest lesson he learned from the 2008 presidential campaign, in which his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the Democratic presidential primary to then Sen. Barack Obama who ultimately defeated former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney to win the general election.

Below are excerpts from what Clinton told Stephanopoulos during their interview, which taped Thursday in New York during the Clinton Global Initiative.

1) "You've got to have a plan for the future that relates to the people. You know, this is not about the candidates as much as about having a plan for the future."
2) "You have to have a strategy for presenting your true self to the voters in an environment where there are unprecedented opportunities for those who don't want you to win to paint a different picture of your true self."
3) "Big data helps, it really matters. And you have to merge high-tech with grassroots. "
4) "I still think we have way too many caucuses. They're not democratic. And unlike primaries, they have no legal enforcement. You can break the rules, nobody's going to say anything. I think there are way too many of them."
5) "And we have learned that it's a strategy in modern life to make- do reverse plastic surgery on people, so that people don't really know who you are."
Toward the end of the conversation, Clinton added the following:

"You must learn the lessons of your mistakes and your failures without becoming a general who fights the last war, because every new encounter will be shaped by different forces."

Zimbabwe poachers jailed 15 years for elephant poisoning...

 

                        

 

 

 

 

 

A Zimbabwe court on Wednesday sentenced three poachers to at least 15 years in prison each for poisoning and killing 81 elephants, state radio reported.

A provincial magistrate sentenced 25-year-old Diyane Tshuma to 16 years in prison for poisoning elephants with cyanide at in Hwange National Park, in the west of Zimbabwe, Spot FM reported.
His co-accused Robert Maphosa (42) and Thabani Zondo (24) were each sentenced to 15 years.
"The parks and wildlife management authority has hailed the sentences saying they will be a deterrent to would-be poachers," Spot FM reported.
Tshuma was ordered to pay $600 000 to the Zimbabwe Wildlife and Parks Authority for killing the animals, while Zondo must pay $200 000 by the end of the year.
Elephant's tusks are highly sought after for Asia's ivory trade.                       
The three were among nine people arrested on suspicion of poisoning watering holes in the game park.
However, Jerry Gotora, chairman of the Zimbabwe parks department board of directors on Tuesday said the poison had been "put at places where elephants graze, not in water".
Two years ago nine elephants, five lions and two buffalo died from cyanide poisoning in Hwange National Park.
Just 50 rangers patrol the 14 650-square kilometre park, and wildlife authorities say 10 times that number are needed.
There are more than 120 000 elephants living in Zimbabwe's national parks.

Two Canadians held in Egypt have detention extended for another 45 days: family...

Two Canadians arrested and held without charge in Egypt for more than seven weeks have been ordered detained for another 45 days, a decision that comes amid heavy diplomatic pressure to free the two men.

The sister of Toronto filmmaker John Greyson said a prosecutor issued the extension for her brother and London, Ont., Dr. Tarek Loubani on Sunday.
"We were expecting some kind of decision to be brought down. Obviously we're very disappointed with this extension," Cecilia Greyson said.
In their first ever comments on their ordeal, Greyson and Loubani said in a statement released Saturday that they have been subjected to degrading conditions. They said they had left their Cairo hotel to observe an anti-government demonstration last month when Loubani heard calls for a doctor and began treating wounded demonstrators while Greyson began recording the bloody unrest on video.
The men were later arrested by police while heading back to their hotel. Their statement said they were beaten and dumped in a squalid, cockroach-infested jail cell crammed with others picked up that day.
Foreign Minister John Baird told Global TV on Sunday that he spoke with his Egyptian counterpart for an hour Friday night about the detained Canadians, but efforts are not progressing as hoped.
"We've had a favourable response at the political level but we haven't got the action that we want to see at this stage. We're going to keep focusing and keep working hard," Baird said Sunday morning before news of the extended detention.
Lynne Yelich, a junior minister responsible for consular affairs, said in a statement the government is "disappointed" Greyson and Loubani will stay in custody longer, adding consular officials continue to have access to them.
Cecilia Greyson said the men's legal team has launched a second appeal to free them, with a decision expected within days. She added they may be released before the 45 days are up, depending on the course of the investigation against them.
Sunday marked day 13 of a hunger strike the pair are staging to protest their detention. But Greyson's sister said they are being "careful" with their self-imposed starvation, and may reconsider it now that they face more time in prison.
"They're not interested in putting themselves in danger. The family members have really emphasized to both John and Tarek that if they start to go on too long they need to stop," she said, adding a doctor may check up on them this week.
She said their lawyers have told her the extension applies to the hundreds of people arrested and detained in the aftermath of the Cairo protest.
Egyptian prosecutors have accused Loubani and Greyson of "participating with members of the Muslim Brotherhood'' in an attack on a police station, but have not brought forward specific charges.
However, an Egypt foreign ministry spokesman has said there is a "solid basis... to charge them in the near future," according to a Toronto Star report.
The men's statement said they witnessed more than 50 people die in the unrest. They had planned an overnight stay in Cairo en route to Gaza, where Loubani was to do humanitarian work documented by Greyson.
But barred from getting across the border, they decided to investigate the protest erupting in Ramses Square mere blocks from their hotel.
The lengthy statement sketches a vivid portrait of what happened next, suggesting the pair are being detained for what they did and saw in the midst of the bloody clashes.
"(We saw) a young man carried by others from God-knows-where, bleeding from a bullet wound. Tarek snapped into doctor mode… and started to work doing emergency response, trying to save lives, while John did video documentation, shooting a record of the carnage that was unfolding."
Their nightmare started when they stopped for ice cream and then tried to go through a police roadblock, leading to their arrest and vicious beating, it said.
"Was it our Canadian passports, or the footage of Tarek performing CPR, or our ice cream wrappers that set them off? They screamed 'Canadian' as they kicked and hit us. John had a precisely etched bootprint bruise on his back for a week."
"We would welcome our day in a real court with the real evidence, because then this footage would provide us with our alibi and serve as a witness to the massacre," the statement added.
The unrest in Cairo was sparked after president Mohammed Morsi was removed from power, prompting his supporters to take to the streets.

No Nigerian casualties in Nairobi mall attack...

         

                     

 

 

Nigeria's High Commissioner to Kenya Akin Oyataru said on Wednesday that there were no Nigerian casualties in the attack at the Nairobi city mall which claimed the lives of at least 72 people.

Addressing journalists in Abuja via a video-conference from the Nigeria mission in Nairobi, Oyetaru condemned the terrorist attack that injured more than 200 people.
"I can confirm that we are all safe and fine in Nairobi and its environs and fortunately no Nigerian national was affected by the attack.
"But our heart goes to the families of those who are bereaved and to the injured, who we wish a very quick recovery."
Oyataru reiterated Nigeria's solidarity with Kenya in the aftermath of the attack at Nairobi's renowned Westgate shopping mall, for which the terrorist organisation, Al-Shabaab, had claimed responsibility.
The group reportedly said the attack was to avenge Kenya's military intervention in southern Somalia in October 2011 against the militant group.
The envoy said Nigeria, which has a police contingent in Somalia under an AU and UN backed peacekeeping mission, would not withdraw its troops from the war-torn country.
"Neither the Kenyan government nor the Nigerian government nor any government for that matter should succumb to the intimidation or blackmail from these people.
"These are people perpetrating a lot of mindless and needless deaths of innocent citizens. They are just people feeding on the orgy of violence and this should be condemned by all peace-loving people,’’ he said.
He added that the attack by Al-Shabaab was an "international crime" that needed joint collaboration and cooperation between all nations.
Oyataru, therefore, called on the international community to "reinforce and strengthen the options and mechanisms available to confront terrorism.
He also told reporters that the Nigerian mission in Nairobi had offered "a modest sum of money" to the victims of the attack.
"I have personally donated blood this afternoon and I encourage other Nigerians in Kenya to do the same and encourage the Nigerian community to contribute to the relief fund," he said.

Iran's foreign minister says nuclear enrichment is not negotiable...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday the country's right to peaceful nuclear enrichment was not negotiable in talks with the United States but it does not need to enrich uranium to military-grade levels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was willing to open its nuclear facilities to international inspections but the United States must end economic sanctions as part of any deal on Iran's nuclear program.
Speaking in the midst of an intensified effort to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, Zarif said he could see a "real chance" for agreement with the United States.
"Negotiations are on the table to discuss various aspects of Iran's enrichment program. Our right to enrich is non-negotiable," Zarif told ABC's "This Week" program.
Iran consistently has defended its right to enrich uranium as part of a civilian nuclear energy and medicine program, but the United States and its allies have sought an end to higher-grade uranium enrichment that could be a step away from the production of weapons-grade material.
"We do not need military-grade uranium. That's a certainty and we will not move in that direction," Zarif said. "Having an Iran that does not have nuclear weapons, is not just your goal, it's first and foremost our goal."
U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone on Friday in the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades. It was the culmination of a recent, dramatic shift in tone between Iran and the United States, which cut diplomatic relations a year after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Obama has said for years he was willing to have direct contact with Iran while also stressing that all options - including military strikes - were on the table to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
But Zarif said Iran was willing to have its facilities visited by international inspectors to prove it was not seeking a nuclear bomb.
"If the United States is ready to recognize Iran's rights, to respect Iran's rights and move from that perspective, then we have a real chance," Zarif said.
"We are willing to engage in negotiations. The United States also needs to do things very rapidly. One is to dismantle its illegal sanctions against Iran," he said.
Zarif said there has been 34 years of "mutual distrust" between Iran and the United States but both sides should begin removing some of that distrust through talks.
(Reporting by John Whitesides; Editing by Eric Beech)

Beer-Drinking Baby Caught On Camera During Celebration In Oakland A's Clubhouse..

In recent years the Oakland A's have taken a strong stance toward alcohol consumption in the clubhouse. In fact, Oakland was the first team to prohibit alcohol distribution in both its home and visiting clubhouses.

It's more than a little ironic, then, that a photo has emerged of what appears to be an infant taking a sip of beer during a recent celebration in Oakland's locker room. After an 11-7 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, the A's were celebrating clinching the A.L. West with some beer and champagne in their locker room.

In the background of a post-game interview, cameras caught an infant who appears to be sipping on a brew. Deadspin acquired the screencap:

While it's hard to tell exactly what's going on in this photo, it appears that the woman holding the baby is putting a can of beer to its mouth. Before we rush to judge, it should be noted that this doesn't necessarily mean the baby was gulping an alcohol beverage. Maybe the woman was posing with her infant for a funny photo, or maybe there was no beer in the container.

Or, maybe, the woman was giving the baby the tiniest sip of beer. In that case, it is mighty unfortunate that she happened to be caught on camera.

Market bombing kill 33 in Pakistan's Peshawar: police...

Security officials, rescue workers and residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Peshawar September 29, 2013. Twin blasts in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar killed 33 people and wounded 70 on Sunday, a week after two bombings at a church in the frontier city killed scores, police and hospital authorities said. REUTERS/Khuram Parvez (PAKISTAN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW)

By Hamid Ullah Khan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Twin blasts in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar killed 33 people and wounded 70 on Sunday, a week after bombings at a church there killed scores, police and hospital authorities said.
Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban.
The blasts outside a police station hit an area known as Quiswakhani, or the storytellers' bazaar, crowded with shoppers. Police said they thought at least one of the explosions in the city close to the Afghan border had been caused by a car bomb.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid condemned the attack.
Two policemen tried in vain to hold back the crowd gathered outside the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, where many of the victims had been taken.
Distraught relatives dialed mobile phone numbers of those caught up in the blasts but were unable to get through. Women sobbed as ambulances pulled up with more bodies.
"Who is burning Peshawar, who is burning Peshawar?" screamed one woman in a long headscarf.
Shop owner Sher Gul said he had made repeated trips on his motorbike to bring six people to hospital. Gul cursed a provincial government minister who came to visit the victims.
"Why have you come so late?" Gul shouted.
Inside the hospital, people tripped over the injured lying in corridors as they hunted for loved ones. Nine members of one family were among the dead.
The blasts follow an attack by a Taliban faction on Peshawar's Anglican church last Sunday that killed more than 80 people, the deadliest assault on Christians in predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
The Taliban have repeatedly rejected Pakistan's constitution and have called for the full implementation of Islamic law and for war with India.
Sharif was due to meet Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly later on Sunday, only hours after Singh described Pakistan as the "epicenter of terrorism in our region".
Another Pakistani politician, former cricket player Imran Khan, has suggested the Taliban might open an office in Pakistan to help negotiations, but the suggestion drew an angry response from those caught up in Sunday's blasts.
"The government wants to open an office for the Taliban? What office? They are killing us. For how long do we have to suffer like this? I have no hope," said Waheed Khan as he searched for his nephew, a rickshaw driver.
(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Paul Tait and Andrew Heavens)

FG urged to raise national competitiveness

      

Dr Chris Asoluka, the chairman of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, Onne in has called on the Federal Government to raise international competitiveness of Nigeria to boost foreign direct investment.

Asoluka made the call at the second Induction Ceremony and Fellowship Investiture of the African Centre for Supply Chain on Thursday in Lagos.
He said that this could be achieved through a national logistics strategy.
Asoluka said that national competitiveness in local and international trade would enable the country to determine its logistics performance index.
He said that Nigeria was ranked 93rd in competitiveness by World Bank and the country’s position was due to its poor logistics policy.
“The national logistics strategy is expedient because it is all about low service cost and high quality customer service.
“The achievement of 24-hour cargo clearance at the ports is not the only solution to the problem of logistics in Nigeria because the access roads are still an eyesore.
“There are other issues that need attention like ease of international shipments, logistics competence, tracking capabilities, domestic logistics costs, timeliness and consistency,” Asoluka said.
Mr Obiora Madu, a director in the authority, said that the logistics sector required urgent attention in time of emergencies.
According to Madu, our logistical preparedness in time of emergency is insufficient both in transport and other emergencies.
"This can be fostered by enlisting logistics and supply chain management at degree levels and not just at Masters level in Nigerian universities.
"We appeal to stakeholders and the government to align policies for the growth of this sector to boost foreign direct investment and local trade transactions," he said.