12-Year-Old Boy Executed By Sri Lankan Army Because His Father Was A Rebel Leader

The photographs of Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of Velupillai Prabhakaran, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, were taken in May 2009 at the end of the government’s conflict with the rebels.

The first pictures appear to show the child in the custody of Sri Lankan forces and he is seen sitting on a bench wrapped in a blanket and eating some food.

But photographs taken hours later on the same camera show him lying on the ground, topless and his chest riddled with bullet holes. He has five holes to his chest and experts say he was shot at close range.

The pictures, which feature in documentary No Fire Zone, show the boy was alive when he was captured and was executed later, says the film’s director Callum Macrae.

He told The Independent: ‘They show he was held, and even given a snack, before being taken and executed in cold blood.’

A picture taken hours later shows the boy lying dead on the ground with up to five bullet wounds to his chest The Sri Lankan government have always claimed that Balachandran was killed in cross-fire but Mr Macrae said the photographs ‘rule out’ that possibility.

Mr Macrae said the fact that the boy’s dead body was photographed is also alarming. He said: ‘That these events were also photographed and kept as war trophies by the perpetrators is even more disturbing.

The body of Villupillai Prabhakaran was showed on state television in May 2009 as Sri Lanka’s government declared an end to its 26-year civil war. There were also suggestions he had been shot at close range as part of his skull was missing.

Sri Lankan army spokesman Brigadier PR Wanigasooriya told The Independent that there had been repeated ‘lies, half truths and rumours’ said about the country.

“The world is getting dangerously crowded with crazy people.”

Kidnappers kill two Mobile policemen, abduct four Agip staff

Unknown gunmen, Monday, killed two escort mobile policemen and adopted four other staff of Agip Oil Company in Okpai, Kwale in Delta State.

The gunmen, numbering about six, were reported to have accosted the coastal bus conveying the workers  back home from work at the Agip Okpai/Beneku field operated by Agip and Sterling at about 4 p.m. and short dead the two mobile  escort policemen before carefully selecting about four members of staff from the bus and taken to an unknown destination.

The identities of the two dead mobile policemen and the four abducted Agip staff could not be ascertained

Though no contact had been made at press time, no ransom had also been demanded by the abductors.

Delta Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Famous Ajieh could not be reached for confirmation but security sources and staff confirmed the abduction of some of their colleagues.

Pirates kidnap six foreigners in Nigeria, demand N200m ransom

Gunmen who kidnapped six foreigners off the Bayelsa coastline are demanding a ransom of N200 million, the police in Bayelsa have said.A Russian, three Ukrainians and two Indian sailors were abducted on Sunday when their vessel was attacked off the coastline.

The Police Public Relations Officer of Bayelsa Command, Mr Fidelis Odunna, confirmed the development in a telephone interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa.

Odunna said that the Police Anti Kidnapping Squad was already trailing the suspects to secure the victims’ freedom.

“We have already dispatched our men to track down the kidnappers.

“Contact has been established with them and they are asking for N200 million,” he said.

NAN recalls that Gov. Seriake Dickson recently signed into Law a bill prescribing death penalty for Kidnapping in Bayelsa.

“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” ― Aristotle

Boko Haram circulates leaflets, warns civil servants, politicians, traditional rulers

Nigeria:

boko haram sect

The Joint Task Force (JTF )spokesman Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa  has urged residents to disregard leaflets being circulated by suspected terrorists on impending attacks in Maiduguri. He gave the warning on Wednesday after confirming the killing of three persons after an explosion in Maiduguri.

In his speech, “The attention of the JTF has been drawn to some leaflets allegedly printed and circulated by Boko Haram terrorists group containing a message from their leader Abubakar Shekau.

“The message contained threats and warning to civil servants, politicians, traditional rulers and security agents that the sect has not made any reconciliation with the government and has not declared a cease fire.

“The JTF wishes to advise law abiding members of the public to disregard such publications and consider them as part of the terrorists propaganda strategy to keep the civil populace in captivity.”

Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell 

Goldie Harvey’s autopsy result released… died of hypertension

The Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, in an autopsy on late Nigerian pop star, Goldie Harvey, revealed that the musician died of ‘hypertensive heart disease’ which triggered "intracerebellar haemorrhage.'..


What is intracerebellar haemorrhage?

Intracerebral hemorrhage occurs when a diseased blood vessel within the brain bursts, allowing blood to leak inside the brain. (The name means within the cerebrum or brain). 

The sudden increase in pressure within the brain can cause damage to the brain cells surrounding the blood. If the amount of blood increases rapidly, the sudden buildup in pressure can lead to unconsciousness or death. Intracerebral hemorrhage usually occurs in selected parts of the brain, including the basal ganglia, cerebellum, brain stem, or cortex.

What causes it?

The most common cause of intracerebral hemorrhage is high blood pressure (hypertension). Since high blood pressure by itself often causes no symptoms, many people with intracranial hemorrhage are not aware that they have high blood pressure, or that it needs to be treated. 

Less common causes of intracerebral hemorrhage include trauma, infections, tumors, blood clotting deficiencies, and abnormalities in blood vessels (such as arteriovenous malformations). 

Who gets it?

A ruptured blood vessel will leak blood into the brain, eventually causing the brain to compress due to the added amount of fluid.

Intracerebral hemorrhage occurs at all ages. The average age is lower than for ischemic stroke. Less common than ischemic strokes, hemorrhagic strokes make up about 12 percent of all strokes.

Prime Minister Resigns Amid Tunisia Crisis

Tunisia's prime minister resigned Tuesday, elevating a political crisis that has shaken a country seen as a model for the region's Arab Spring democratic transitions.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he would step down after his own party refused to back his demand for a new government of independent technocrats. Mr. Jebali's plan, an effort to stanch a crisis sparked this month with the assassination of one of the government's main political critics, has driven a wedge between him and his own ruling Islamist Ennahda Party.

His resignation stands to deepen the tension between the country's ruling Islamists and the predominantly secular opposition, especially if Ennahda tries to replace Mr. Jebali with a more conservative and controversial prime minister. Among the names being circulated as possible successors are Ennahda leaders who are seen as hard-liners likely to spark fierce objections among the opposition and more agreeable moderates.

But many Tunisian political leaders, both within Ennahda and the opposition, believe the broadly popular Mr. Jebali is likely to return as prime minister at the helm of a new more inclusive government. Such a deal would allow the party to show it stood firm against Mr. Jebali's calls for a technocrat government but avoid being accused of forcing the popular leader out of office. If that happens, it would likely ease tensions in the country significantly.

Before the latest round of political uncertainty, Tunisia stood as a model of democratic change in the region, known for its 2011 popular uprising that overthrew dictatorship and kicked off the Arab Spring. But the Feb. 6 assassination of leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid, a fierce critic of the Ennahda-led government, threatened to derail that transition.

"The goal was to save the country and stop the violence with a neutral government, free from political fighting," said Mr. Jebali, who is Ennahda's general secretary. "I am still convinced this is the best way forward.... But it became clear to me that this initiative did not have the necessary support of the parties."

Mr. Jebali's Ennahda Party and Ennahda's junior coalition partner, the secular Congress for the Republic Party, were the only parties opposed to his plan.

Ennahda said it hopes to tap Mr. Jebali once again to form a government. After announcing his resignation Tuesday night, Mr. Jebali said he would consider accepting such an offer if the next government enjoyed broad political support, if there was a firm date set for new elections and if the Constituent Assembly wraps up drafting the country's new constitution, which has taken months longer than planned.

Mr. Jebali issued his call for the Ennahda-led government to be replaced with one of independent technocrats just hours after Mr. Belaid's killing. He publicly pledged to resign if Tunisia's political parties didn't back his call.

The proposal enjoyed broad support within Tunisia and among the opposition, who feared Ennahda's control over sensitive ministries such as the interior was being abused to rein in the party's political foes. Ennahda officials deny that.

But Mr. Jebali's plan infuriated many of Ennahda's leaders, with some accusing him of betraying his party. Already reeling from mounting criticism of the government, the normally disciplined Islamist movement found itself reckoning with a public split among its senior leadership.

To many in Ennahda, relinquishing control over government to technocrats after a little over a year in power would be an admission of failure. Many feared it would doom their prospects for re-election in a vote expected this year. They argue that it is their right to govern since they won elections in fall 2011 and that turning to unelected technocrats at every impasse would undermine confidence not only in Ennahda, but also in the democratic process.

For the past week, the country has waited to see whether Mr. Jebali or his party's leadership would blink first. Political party leaders across the spectrum have huddled in daily negotiations, hoping to convince Ennahda to back Mr. Jebali's proposal or else to hammer out an alternative government acceptable to both sides.

Over the weekend, Ennahda's 120-member Shura Council met to hear out Mr. Jebali. Mr. Jebali, a veteran member of Ennahda who served 15 years in jail, argued that a technocratic government would ensure a smooth transition until the next elections, whose date hasn't been set yet, and ensure Ennahda doesn't shoulder all the blame for government missteps, said Ennahda Shura council member Osama Saghir.

Mr. Jebali failed to convince a majority of the council. Roughly 70% of Ennahda's leadership voted against Mr. Jebali's proposal, Mr. Saghir estimated.

On Sunday and Monday, Mr. Jebali held more negotiations with Tunisia's various party leaders at his offices in the Tunis suburb of Carthage, trying to find a compromise that would include both independent technocrats and party-appointed ministers.

But Ennahda and the secular opposition clashed over which ministries would be turned over to independents and which would remain in Ennahda's hands. The opposition demanded that the Islamists give up control over the ministries of interior and justice, since those are the ones that are most likely to be used to suppress political rivals or influence elections. Ennahda—represented at the talks by party leader Rached Ghannouchi and Amr Larayedh, a controversial hardliner—balked, say people present at the talks.

Opposition party leader Noaman Fehry, whose Gomhury Party is part of a coalition that is widely forecast to be Ennahda's biggest challenger in the next elections, said Ennahda's leadership has indicated it would be willing to give up control of those ministries if more opposition parties agreed to join the government.

"They want people like us to join the government and to accept part of the failure," said Mr. Fehry. "We don't see the need to get into the government now and throw them a lifeline."

Attempts to broker a compromise in recent days were complicated by the all-or-nothing stance Mr. Jebali staked out on early in the crisis and by his fellow party members' equally adamant rejection of that proposal. Mr. Jebali's resignation may prove a means for both sides to climb down and save face before agreeing to a compromise, said Mr. Fehry.

Nollywood Veteran, Justus Esiri Dies!

This is beginning to look like a not too pleasant year for Nigerian Entertainers as we're still mourning the passing away of Goldie, another movie icon, Justus Esiri, has died. 

According to different sources and his son's confessions, Justus Esiri's family lost him to diabetes caused by old age.

Before his death, Justus Esiri was a member of the Order of Niger (MON). He came into limelight in the early 80's through the popular Village Headmaster TV series. 

He has also featured in many interesting Nollywood movies. He also attended Prof. Weners Institute of Engineering, West Berlin, 1967 and the Ahrens School of Performing Arts in 1968. 

Justus Esiri, detoured into motion picture production in 1968 as a staff of the Schiller Theater, Berlin, Germany, where he stayed till 1976. 

During the 1977 FESTAC held in Lagos, he choreographed the Modern Dress exhibition.

Justus Esiri’s death comes two months after Enebeli Elebuwa died in an Indian hospital, also Pete Eneh died of untreated leg infection on November 15, 2012 at a private hospital in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria,  and eighteen months after legendary actor Sam Loco also took his bow.

Late Mr Esiri was married to his wife Omiete and together they had six children, one of them being Dentist-turned pop artiste Dr SID.

 

May his soul, R.I.P

“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” ― Antonio Porchia