Failed Assassination Attempt on Bulgarian Opposition Leader!

An assassination attempt on the life of Prominent Bulgarian opposition leader Ahmed Dogan failed.

                          
                               

A man jumped on stage during a televised conference and attempted to fire a gun at point blank range at the leader of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party Saturday. 

                            

The gun did not discharge, allowing time for the politician to knock the weapon away from his face

                                   

 while security guards quickly wrestled the attacker to the ground.


                                  


Kicked......... 

                                

The attacker was identified by police as 25-year-old Oktai Enimehmedov, a Bulgarian national and ethnic Turk, from the coastal city of Burgas.             

                              

He was carrying the gas pistol and two knives. A gas pistol is a non-lethal weapon used for self-defense, but experts say when fired from close range it can cause life-threatening injuries.

                      

Interior Minister Tsvevtan Tsvetanov told journalists that the assailant had a criminal record for drugs possession, robberies and hooliganism.

Bulgarian Interior Minister :Tsvevtan Tsvetanov

                                  

Bulgarian security officers escort the bloodied 25 year old man after he attacked Ahmed Dogan

The liberal MRF party mainly represents ethnic Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria, who make up 12 percent of its 7.3-million population.

Over 40 Dead Bodies found floating in Anambra River!

                 

Nigeria: Residents of Amansea Community in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State woke up Saturday January 19th, to find about 40 dead bodies, floating in the Anambra River. People from the community and some neighbouring ones besieged the Ezu river yesterday to catch a glimpse of the dead bodies. The river is at the boundary between Enugu and Anambra states and the dead bodies were found at the old Enugu-Onitsha road axis of the river. 

viewers discretion advised!

                      

The river has its source at Agba Ogwudu, Enugu State, a boundary town between Enugu and Anambra States. The bodies are decomposing already and the stench emanating from them envelopes the neighbourhood. No one could say how they bodies got there, who killed them or identify any of them.

                       

The corpses whose identities were unknown, were suspected to have been dumped in the river Friday night by unknown persons. 

                       

Members of the communities said the bodies were first noticed by fishermen and sand excavators at the Amansea section of the river as some of the bodies were trapped at the river bank.

                       

                         

                      


The traditional ruler of Amansea said the community had never witnessed such a gory sight before, while the Commissioner of Police in the state said the dead bodies remained a mystery as there had been no communal clash in Enugu or Anambra where many people were killed. He said investigations are ongoing.

                            


Anambra State Commissioner for Local Government, Mrs. Azuka Enemuoh, yesterday confirmed that 40 dead bodies were sighted inside Ezu River in the state. But residents of nearby communities said the corpses were above 50.

Nigerian Footballer Osaze Odemwingie & Wife Welcome Baby Boy

                                          

Nigerian striker, Osaze Odemwingie has revealed that his wife, Sarah put to bed a bouncing baby boy Sunday morning in United Kingdom, UK; the West Brom striker who got married to Sarah Fallon last year was so delighted about his son’s delivery .
His tweet: 



                                               

Mother, Son and father are belived to be doing well.

Congrats Osaze!

Mistress strangles boyfriend's kids to death!

Strange as it may sound, but this really happened. A woman in Obuno Umuochefu, Igbo-Ukwu in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra state has snuffed life out of four children of her boyfriend by strangling them. Not done with her bestial mission, the suspect sat back at the scene of the crime until her victims’ parents returned, and attacked their mother.
         
                           

For Mr and Mrs Nwanneka Ogechukwu Okonkwo, both natives of Ekwulumili in Nnewi South Local Government Area but resident in Igbo-Ukwu, January 15, 2013, came like any other day. But the young couple who are each 28 years old, never knew that it was the day their four children, Chukwuebuka, (13), Chukwumelum (6) Obumneme (3) and 15-month-old Chinenyenwa would breathe their last.

The young couple had no premonition of the tragedy that shocked everybody in the community. Their three sons and a daughter were allegedly killed by a lady simply identified as Blessing, from Abakiliki in Ebonyi State. Narrating the tragic incident, the mother of the dead children who spoke with Sunday Sun at Ekwulumili Health Centre where she was recuperating from the shock, said that she was also attacked by the suspect. Mrs Okonkwo said that the eldest of her children, Chukwuebuka, was the first casualty.

According to her, the suspect allegedly hit him on his forehead with a hard object and dumped the lifeless body inside an underground tank in the compound before strangling his siblings one after the other. 
“I was to go for a burial ceremony with my husband at Ukpor on that fateful day and the children went to school. We initially left with the youngest one, Chinenyenwa but the vehicle we boarded was jam-packed with passengers and the baby started crying. Consequently, my husband said we should disembark and use our motorcycle but people around said the road was too dusty to ride with a baby on a bike.

I decided to go home and wait for our other children who went to school so that they would take care of the baby and enable my husband and I to make the trip with our motorcycle. “But long after school hours, the children didn’t come home. We went to the school and other pupils told us that our children had gone home. I looked for them along the roads they usually take to the house but I did not see them.

Thereafter, I urged my husband to go on his own and look for them, but he returned soon after, saying he had seen them coming home. Before my husband and I left for the burial, I gave them food and told them to go and stay with an old woman in the neighbourhood because we are the only occupants of that building, and I don’t like them staying alone in the compound. “We had stayed barely one hour at the burial ceremony when my husband said we should go home.

But before we left, my husband’s phone rang and I heard him say, ‘I’m in a burial’. So, as we got close to our home, his phone rang again and he told the caller that we were not back yet. I didn’t ask him who the caller was as we rode straight to the house.

“When we got to the elderly neighbour’s house, we were told that she had gone for prayers and that my children were not seen there. We got to the house and I opened the gate from behind believing that the children were inside the house. As we parked our motorcycle inside the compound, my husband pointed to the underground tank that was open. I became apprehensive because we don’t keep it open. But I said maybe the eldest might have drawn water from the well and had forgotten to close it.

I called Ebuka but there was no response. I ran into the sitting room and saw the three younger ones lying on the floor as if they were asleep. I ran out again believing that those three were sleeping. I continued to call Ebuka and looked into the tank and I didn’t see anything. “Later, I decided to wake up Ebuka’s immediate younger brother to ascertain the whereabouts of his brother. I called him but he didn’t wake up; I tried to rouse him but he was motionless and so were the other two. I cried to my husband that the children were dead and I concluded that since the three were dead, Ebuka might be inside the well.

There were marks of human nails on their necks that showed that they were strangled. One of them had faeces in his anus. “It was when my husband started crying and moved towards our bedroom, that the lady (suspect) emerged from the bedroom and asked him why he was shouting. Then, I advanced towards her and demanded from her, where she kept Ebuka’s body because I had seen the others she killed. I held her and she gripped me. When I freed myself from her grip, I rushed to lock one of the two gates and raised the alarm until neighbours came.

“Later, somebody rushed out and called the youths of the community before the local vigilante and policemen arrived. She was arrested along with my husband.” 

Sources told Sunday Sun that the timely arrival of the police and the local vigilante saved the suspect from being lynched. It was also gathered that Mr Okonkwo, a furniture maker, had been dating the suspect, a relationship his wife confirmed, and had been battling to stop.

When contacted, the couple’s landlord, Mr Sunday, who lives outside the community, described the alleged killing of the innocent children as unfortunate and declined further comment. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Anambra State, Mr Emeka Chukwuemeka, confirmed the incident and said the matter was being handled by the State Criminal Investigation Department in Awka, the state capital.

Algerian Hostage Crisis; Survivors tell their story!

The death toll from the bloody terrorist siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara climbed to at least estimated to be around 81 on Sunday, while 5 militants were reportedly captured; as Algerian forces searching the complex for explosives found dozens more bodies.

Many of the bodies were so badly disfigured they could not immediately be identified, a security official said.

Algerian special forces stormed the facility on Saturday to end the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery, and the government said then that 32 militants and 23 hostages were killed, but that the death toll was likely to rise.

The militants came from six countries, were armed to cause maximum destruction and mined the Ain Amenas refinery, which the Algerian state oil company runs along with BP and Norway's Statoil, said Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said. The militants "had decided to succeed in the operation as planned, to blow up the gas complex and kill all the hostages," he said in a state radio interview. In addition to the bodies found at the site Sunday, a wounded Romanian who had been evacuated and brought home died, raised the overall death toll to at least 81.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday three Britons were among those killed in the raid on Saturday and that another three were believed dead, as is a British resident.

'The responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched a vicious and cowardly attack'—British Prime Minister David Cameron

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird denounced the "deplorable and cowardly attacks" and said Ottawa is closely monitoring the situation.

“The thoughts and prayers of our entire country are with the families and friends of the innocent lives lost," he said.

An ambulance enters an hospital located near the gas plant where hostages were 

kidnapped by Islamic militants, in Ain Amenas, January 19, 2013.

Al- Qaeda Claims responsibility

With few details emerging from the remote site of the gas plant in eastern Algeria, it was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final operation, but the number of hostages killed Saturday — seven —was how many the militants had said that morning they still had.

A freed Norwegian hostage was escorted to a police station in the town of In Amenas on Saturday, near the gas field complex.

In the past few days, survivors have told how they were strapped to explosives, and the apparent leader of the militants, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, confirmed he was ready at any time to blow up the hostages. "By Allah, we will blow them up if the Algerian army gets close to us," he warned in a recording broadcast on Saturday.

One Briton and one Algerian were killed in the first attack by gunmen on a bus on Wednesday morning before the militants stormed the complex, but witnesses told AFP nine Japanese workers also died in the first frantic hours.

                             

The gunmen, carrying nail-wrenches, shot dead three Japanese as they tried to escape before taking more hostages to the Japanese area of the site's residential compound, according to Riad, who worked for Japanese engineering firm JGC.

"A terrorist shouted, 'Open the door!' with a strong North American accent, and opened fire. Two other Japanese died then, and we found four other Japanese bodies" inside the compound, Riad said, choking with emotion.

Iba El Haza, an Algerian driver at the BP gas plant, told AFP the gunmen were armed with AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades and were interested only in keeping Western hostages.

"The terrorists said: 'You have nothing to do with this; you are Algerians and Muslims. We won't keep you, we only want the foreigners'," said the man, who escaped on Thursday during a rescue attempt by Algerian special forces.

Another Algerian survivor told Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper how the gunmen seemed to know their way around the site and the names of the people responsible for certain areas, as well as where keys were kept.

"The terrorists went to the alarm station, switched off the alarms, and forced the deputy manager to show them where the expats were," the unnamed man said.

"They rounded up the expats, making them all wear explosives around their necks while standing in a circle."

The Algerian workers were held separately and "were treated with kindness", he said, and eventually they were allowed to leave.

"I was allowed to go, but before I did, I saw many Brits killed," he said. "One Westerner trying to give first aid was blown up by the terrorists."

The gunmen tried to cut off the communications network to stop the hostages contacting the outside world, but some of them still managed to get through to relatives back home.

Stephen McFaul, a 36-year-old from Northern Ireland, sent a text message to his family saying: "Are you listening? Al-Qaeda have taken me hostage and they have a list of demands. They want the Algerian army to pull away from the base."

The kidnappers placed explosives around his neck, but he later escaped after a vehicle he was in crashed while coming under attack from the Algerian military, his brother Brian said.

Workers such as Alan Wright, 37, from Britain, managed to stay hidden for 30 hours before being rescued by the Algerian military.

Other hostages chose to take their chances with the desert.

A 57-year-old Norwegian man was among eight people who fled the gas complex on Thursday night, the Verdens Gang newspaper reported.

They spent 15 hours walking through the desert before arriving at the nearest town of In Amenas, exhausted and severely dehydrated.

In another account reported in the US media, an Algerian driver named only as Brahim told how he joined about 50 people, including three foreigners, in escaping through the metal fence surrounding the complex.

"As bullets rang out non-stop, we cut holes in the metal fence with large clippers, and once through, we all started running," he said.

"We were quickly taken in by the special forces stationed just a dozen meters from the base. I didn't look back."

                

Historian says that the big surprise is that the terrorists have not targeted energy plants until now.

President Obama, Vice President Biden Swearing In Ceremonies

   

President Obama was quietly sworn into office for a second term just before noon in a brief and intimate ceremony, ahead of Monday’s far showier public inaugural celebrations. The ceremony, which lasted less than two minutes, satisfied the Constitutional requirement that the president’s swearing-in take place by noon on the Jan. 20 after an election.

                            

The president, surrounded by family in the ornate White House Blue Room, was administered the oath by Chief Justice John Roberts. With Obama's hand resting on a Bible used for years by Michelle Obama's family, the president vowed "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States," echoing the same words spoken by the 43 men who held the office before him.

The oath was administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in the White House Blue Room, an elegant, gilded space with a sweeping view of the South Lawn.

                         

The chief justice administered the oath faithfully and Mr. Obama repeated it accurately, unlike the situation four years earlier, when Mr. Roberts inverted a few words during the public swearing-in, Mr. Obama echoed the errors, and the oath had to be repeated in private later. The chief justice, who had relied on his famously prodigious memory in 2009, this time took no chances: He read the oath from a printed text.

After they finished, President Obama shook the hand of Justice Roberts, turned to the crowd and said: “Thank you, everybody,” before leaving the room.

In sharp contrast to the ceremonies planned for Monday, with their blaring patriotic music, pealing of bells, and parade of thousands of human and equine participants, the ceremony on Sunday was small and understated.

Witnessing the Blue Room ceremony were family members of the president, including his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia.

                           

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in earlier at his residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, using the same 19th-century family Bible he has used in every swearing-in ceremony since he entered the Senate in 1973.

                            

At Mr. Biden’s request, the oath was delivered by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor who read from a printed text to avoid any chance of mistake. He was surrounded by family members, including his wife, Jill.

Afterward, Mr. Biden shook the justice’s hand, turned to a large audience of family, friends and close political associates, and expressed his warm thanks. Justice Sotomayor, he noted, was due in New York and had a car waiting to take her to Union Station. “Madame Justice, it’s been an honor, a great honor,” he said.

Mr. Biden then left for Arlington National Cemetery, where he joined President Obama in laying a wreath before the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The US Constitution requires the oath of office to be taken by noon on 20 January, that falls on a Sunday so the public inauguration will take place on Monday.

Residents in northern Malian town lynch Islamist

Residents in the northern Malian town of Gao which has been under Islamist rebel control since mid-2012, on Saturday lynched a prominent Islamist leader in retaliation for the killing of a local journalist earlier in the day, residents and the office of Mali's president said.

It was gathered that Gao residents, have previously protested against the strict imposition of Islamic law but, if confirmed, the lynching would be a first of a fighter by civilians.

The incident comes after over a week of French air strikes on Islamist positions sought to break the grip of al Qaeda-linked fighters on northern Mali.

Gao journalist Kader Toure was killed for having been suspected of working with foreign radio stations, according to Issa Idrissa Toure, a former colleague.

"Islamic police commissioner Aliou Toure was killed by the youth in revenge," Mazou Toure, a Gao resident added.

Telephone networks in Gao are not working but both sources said they received the information from people who had traveled outside the town.

French broadcaster RFI interviewed a Gao resident by satellite telephone who gave a similar version of events. Meanwhile, the official Twitter feed of the office of Mali's president also reported the information.

Toure, the police commissioner, was a local recruited by MUJWA Islamists who took control of Gao in June last year.

He gained notoriety when he was reported to have cut off his own brother's hand as fighters imposed a strict form of Islamic law across northern Mali.

French war planes have bombed Islamist bases in Gao but residents said a number of fighters still remain in the town.