Michelle Obama Covers 'Vogue' April 2013

Michelle Obama graces the cover of Vogue‘s April 2013 issue, on newsstands March 26.

Here is what the 49-year-old First Lady of the United States, photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the shoot, had to share with the mag:

On the importance of family: “Our job is, first and foremost, to make sure our family is whole. You know, we have small kids; they’re growing every day. But I think we were both pretty straightforward when we said, Our No. 1 priority is making sure that our family is whole.”

On her mother Marian: “My mother doesn’t do interviews but let me tell you: She is not long on pretense. She’s the first one to remind us who we are. And it’s been very helpful having her living with us. . . We can check reality against her sensibilities.”

On what she’s learned from her husband, President Barack Obama: “Well, patience and calm I’m borrowing. Or trying to mirror. I’ve learned that from my husband, that sort of, you know, ability to not get too high or too low with changes and bumps in the road. . . to do more breathing in and just going with it. I’m learning that every day. And to the extent that I’ve made changes in my life, it’s just sort of stepping back and seeing a change not as something to guard against but as a wonderful addition. . . that can make life fun and unexpected.”

Presidency Denies Knowledge Of Boko Haram, Govs’ Talk

Nigeria:

The Presidency has denied knowledge of any ongoing dialogue between members of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, and a delegation of the Northern State Governors’ Forum.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters: Ahmed Gulak

It said as far President Goodluck Jonathan was concerned, members of the sect remained faceless since nobody had so far approached him on their behalf.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday.

Gulak was responding to a statement credited to the sect in which its members took exception to Jonathan’s statement during his recent state visit to Yobe and Borno states that members of the sect were “ghosts” and so he could not grant them amnesty as recommended by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III.

The sect, in a statement by Sheikh Muhammad Abdul’aziz, was reported to have said its members could not have been ghosts or a faceless association because they had been in dialogue and consultation with the Borno State Government and a delegation of the Northern State Governors’ Forum.

But Gulak said the President was not aware of such negotiation.

He challenged any governor currently talking with members of the sect to approach Jonathan and brief him on the ongoing talks.

He said as far as the President was concerned, until somebody approaches him to represent the sect,the report of ongoing talks was a speculation which Jonathan could not act on.

He said, “The President is not aware of any governor either from the North, South, East or West negotiating with Boko Haram.

“Let any governor that is negotiating with the sect come to the President and tell him that he is representing them and that he wants amnesty for them.

“As it is now, no governor has come forward to say that, so it is just a speculation and the President cannot work on mere speculation.”

Pope Francis's sister says he never wanted the job

María Elena Bergoglio, the sole surviving sibling of the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, said she had prayed fervently for her brother not to be made pope when he was a frontrunner in the 2005 conclave that followed the death of John Paul II.

"He didn't want to be Pope and when we chatted privately about it, we joked at the prospect and he would say 'no, please no'."

Speaking from her small , brown-brick bungalow in the shabby town of Ituzaingo in the old manufacturing belt south of Buenos Aires, she said that she had privately hoped her brother would not rise to head the Vatican.

Rare brain condition: woman who sees the world upside down

A woman's world has literally been turned upside down by a rare condition which causes her to see everything the wrong way up.

Council worker Bojana Danilovic, 28, sees everything upside down because of an extremely rare fault in the way her brain processes images.

That means she reads papers from the bottom up and even has special topsy-turvey official forms to fill in for her job at the Uzice town hall in Serbia.

'I was born that way. It's just the way I see the world,' said Bojana, an economics expert.A woman's world has literally been turned upside down by a rare condition which causes her to see everything the wrong way up.

Neurological experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in the USA say she is suffering from a condition called 'spatial orientation phenomenon'.

'They say my eyes see the images the right way up but my brain changes them.

'But they don't really seem to know exactly how it happens, just that it does and where it happens in my brain,' said Bojana.

'They told me they've seen the case histories of some people who write the way I see, but never someone quite like me,' she added.

Accident On Third Mainland Bridge Wednesday morning

See what a husband did to his wife

The pictures below is that of a young lady in her early 20s, whose husband battered on few days ago, in one of the Northern states in Nigeria. He reportedly later rushed her to the hospital when she fainted in his hands.  Our correspondence happened to be at the hospital at the time this woman was rushed in, and managed to take these shots.

My God, I can no longer recognize the face that I see in the mirror. Where was the radiant bride that stood here merely five years ago? Where was the young woman full of hope, full of love and full of the promises of a brand new life ahead of her?

For the woman who stands here now seems no longer a woman at all. Gone was the light in her eyes that used to be the envy of all. Gone was the blush on her cheeks that used to be caressed with tenderness and love. Those eyes are now swollen from endless tears. Those cheeks are now shadowed by bruises and scars.

I have been transgressed and defiled, and I have allowed it all! I have allowed it for the most cliché reason of all. O how I thought I loved him, but the truth is that I don’t even know how to love my own self. How conceited indeed can a woman be? To think that she could change the man who doesn’t even want to change himself? Am I a God who can look into the hearts of men and seek the goodness that can be drawn from each one? Even God doesn’t force us to change if we wish to be stubborn and go our own sinful ways. Indeed, I am no God, and neither is the man I have worshipped so wrongfully all these years.

My God, help me to see things as they really are, not as I would have it. Help me to forgive myself as you have forgiven me, to love myself as you have loved me. Help me to know what love really is that it may take root in my heart and that it may bear fruit for others to also find their way. I used to think that love is being able to give everything even if it hurts. God it hurt so much! But now I know that love, even if it may hurt sometimes should never be at the expense of self-respect and dignity; love, even if it may entail sacrifice should never be at the expense of being shattered and broken.

For true love, if it is true indeed always brings wholeness and peace, and bears the fruit of goodness upon all who give and receive it. Love is not a matter of control or manipulation. Love is an invitation and a gift that can only be received with openness and a grateful heart. Help me find my way O God, not only for myself but more so for my beloved children. Help me to provide for them not only their material needs, but their emotional and spiritual longings as well.

Truly I have a long way to go and a great many more battles to face, but I dare to begin now God. I begin with your forgiveness and your love. I begin with your providence and healing. Help me through it all O Lord and one day soon, I know I will be able to see that radiant and beautiful bride once again.

This prayer of a battered wife was written by HIYAS on: Itakeoffthemask.com

Why Pope Francis is something of a surprise

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina - now Pope Francis - was not widely considered the top candidate heading into this week's conclave.

Habemas Papam, “We have a pope.” And the name of the man to emerge on the balcony in  Vatican City is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina.

The church leader that believing Roman Catholics call the “successor” of the apostle Peter and “the vicar of Christ” will go by the name of Pope Francis and is the first non-European pope in modern times, and the first from a developing country.

The much-awaited choice is something of a surprise, as the new pope was not foreshadowed prominently on the short lists of various experts, though the 76-year old was said to be the runner-up to retiring Pope Benedict in the 2005 conclave.

Cardinal Bergoglio, a Jesuit intellectual who reportedly eschews the ornate trappings of church power – he travels by bus – was elected in a swift five votes of a conclave of 115 cardinals, and immediately appeared to say the Lord’s Prayer to crowds on the Vatican plaza.

Like his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI who resigned last month, the first head of the Catholic church to do so in 600 years, Pope Francis is said to be theologically orthodox and socially conservative. He has opposed Argentina’s gay marriage laws, has been fiercely pro-family, and is also known as an advocate for the poor. In church terms, he is seen as a master conciliator who will be adroit at healing many of the rifts and scandals over finances and pedophile priests that have dogged the Vatican in recent years.

The conclave appeared to steer away from popular choices like the cardinals of New York and Boston, Timothy Dolan and Sean O’Malley, as well as the local Italian favorite  Angelo Scola.

He was elected by a conclave that overwhelmingly shares the conservative views of Benedict who has held sway as an enforcer of orthodoxy in the Vatican since 1982.

As John Allen of the national Catholic Reporter writes, “Either John Paul   or Benedict XVI appointed each of the 117 cardinals who will cast a ballot, including 11 Americans, so there will be little ideological clash. No matter what happens, the church almost certainly wont reverse its ban on abortion, gay marriage or women priests.”

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Quincy Adams