Monday, 8 April 2013

"Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher dead at 87!


Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady" who transformed Britain and inspired conservatives around the world by radically rolling back the state during her 11 years in power, died on Monday following a stroke. She was 87.





Britain's only woman prime minister, the unyielding, outspoken Thatcher led her party to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous term in office for a British premier in over 150 years.

A grocer's daughter with a steely resolve, she was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed trade unions, privatized vast swathes of British industry, clashed with allies in the European economic bloc and fought a distant and improbable war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentinian invaders.

She struck up a close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and declared that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a man she could "do business with".

"Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast," said Tony Blair, whose term as Labour prime minister from 1997-2007 he acknowledged owed a debt to the former leader of his Conservative opponents.

"Some of the changes she made in Britain were, in certain respects at least, retained by the 1997 Labour government, and came to be implemented by governments around the world," said Blair.

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a visit to Europe to return to Britain after the death was announced and British flags on government buildings and royal palaces across London were lowered to half mast.

President Barack Obama led an outpouring of tributes from the United States: "America has lost a true friend," he said.

Mourners laid roses, tulips and lilies on the doorstep of her house in Belgravia, one of London's most exclusive areas. One note said: "The greatest British leader" while another said to "The Iron Lady", a soubriquet bestowed by a Soviet army newspaper in the 1970s and which Thatcher loved.

But, in a mark of lingering anger at a woman who explained her belief in private endeavor by declaring "there is no such thing as society", someone also left a bottle of milk; to many Britons, for scrapping free milk for schoolchildren as education minister in 1971, she remained "Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".

The former premier died peacefully on Monday morning at the Ritz Hotel after a stroke. Having retreated into seclusion after being deposed by her party, the death of her businessman husband Denis in 2003 and creeping dementia had kept her out of the public eye for years. She had been in poor health for months.

Lord Bell, a spokesman for the family, likened her to her hero Winston Churchill - a comparison echoed on the recaptured Falkland Islands - while Cameron said she would go down as Britain's greatest peacetime prime minister.

"We've lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton," Cameron said. "The real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country."

The government said Thatcher would have a ceremonial funeral with military honors at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, which falls short of a full state funeral, in accordance with the wishes of her family. Parliament, where she deployed fearsome and forensic debating skills that drew on her training as both a research chemist and a courtroom advocate.

COLD WARRIOR

The abiding domestic images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with mass ranks of coalminers whose year-long strike failed to save their pits and communities; Thatcher riding a tank in a white headscarf; and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over the deeply unpopular "poll tax" which contributed to her downfall.

"I found her to be confrontational, dogmatic, abrasive, she attacked people in her own country and didn't listen to people in her own party," recalled Caspar Joseph, 51, a history teacher in Manchester. "She was destructive, nihilistic.

"I will be raising a glass. I have some 1992 Dom Perignon which I have been saving for either the birth of my first grandchild or the death of Margaret Thatcher ... but actually I might drink some Argentinian wine - her attitude was contemptible over the Falklands."

Some opponents said on social media that they would hold a party to celebrate her death while a website set up to ask if Thatcher was dead had received 180,000 likes by midday and was updated with a large block-capital "Yes.

To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree.

"The lady's not for turning", she once informed members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her policies. In power, she faced plotting inside her party from those who thought she was unreasonably divisive.

While often deeply unpopular at home, especially in the crippled industrial heartlands of the north, Thatcher's strength won her praise and high regard in Washington, Berlin and Moscow.

She formed a strong alliance against communism with Reagan and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down in 1989, though she opposed German unification, warning Gorbachev that a combined East and West Germany would come to dominate Europe.

"Thatcher was a politician whose word carried great weight," said Gorbachev, who sought to reform the Soviet Union and improved ties with the West but failed to avert its collapse.

Months before Gorbachev succeeded as Soviet leader, Thatcher famously said of him: "We can do business together".

'IRON LADY'

Brought up in a flat with no hot water above her father's grocery shop in the eastern English town of Grantham, Margaret Hilda Roberts learned thrift and hard work from her Methodist father Alfred before winning a place at Oxford University to study chemistry.

She met her wealthy husband Denis, a divorcee a decade her senior, at a Conservative dinner party. They married in 1951 but the young Thatcher faced snobbery from the party grandees: she was female and far too lowly.

"She was the shopkeeper's daughter from Grantham who made it to the highest office in the land," Cameron said. "Margaret Thatcher took a country that was on its knees and made Britain stand tall again."

As Conservatives and Labour traded power and blame for an economic and diplomatic decline in the early 1970s, Thatcher was maneuvering behind the scenes and surprised the party by winning the leadership from former premier Edward Heath in 1975.

She made her mark - after a makeover that changed her hair and her voice - by focusing on fiscal prudence and common sense - potent messages when made against the backdrop of the 1978-79 "winter of discontent" when strikes brought Britain's economy to a halt and the Labour government seemed in thrall to the unions.

"HANDBAGGINGS"

Thatcher's used confidence in her own views to test others' opinions but ruffled many feathers, especially among Conservatives barons who found her populist views on free enterprise for all both brash and corrosive to traditions.

Those who crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes referred to as "handbaggings".

Her personal credo, founded on competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a political philosophy still referred to as "Thatcherism".

Millions in Britain pay tribute to her radical policies, such as the selling off of public housing to its tenants.

"A lot of people, my contemporaries from where I grew up, didn't like her," said Mark Guard, a 48-year-old filmmaker who grew up in public housing. "But I bought my first property age 22. I thank her for getting me out of that council estate."

Placing a bunch of flowers outside her house, he added: "She was a very patriotic leader of this country and I think she changed it for the better."

But many recalled past bitterness, including in Northern Ireland where republican leader Gerry Adams said she had caused "great suffering"; she took a hard line during a hunger strike in which 10 prisoners died in 1981, and three years later she survived a deadly Irish bomb attack on her party conference.

Liam Porter, a 49-year-old Belfast Catholic said: "My first memory of her was she took the milk away from the schoolkids and then there was the hunger strike and the Falklands war.

"The first thing I thought when I heard it this morning was ‘ding dong the witch is dead'."

Thatcher clearly relished her strongwoman poster image and famously humiliated Geoffrey Howe, one of her most respected senior ministers, in front of the entire cabinet, helping to spur his resignation and her own downfall.

But behind the doors of her Downing Street residence she would insist on making tea for her ministers, take care over her impeccable outfits and relax with whisky and water after the 18-hour days which became the norm of her rule.

"Her outstanding characteristics will always be remembered by those who worked closely with her: courage and determination in politics, and humanity and generosity of spirit in private," said John Major, her successor as Conservative prime minister.

Thatcher's combative opposition to greater European integration antagonized allies in Europe and her own ministers but which still strikes a chord with those in Britain today who fear being drawn into the troubles of the struggling euro zone.

"She saved the pound and if we didn't have the pound we'd be another Greece or Portugal," said Jack Hikmet, who has owned a pharmacy in Thatcher's constituency of Finchley for 35 years.

In a few tense weeks at the end of 1990, Thatcher fell from power as some of her most senior ministers, including Howe, turned on her in what she said later was treachery. Thatcher never really recovered from her ousting.

"We are leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here," Thatcher said. For many, the tears she shed that day gave a shocking glimpse of human frailty behind the handbag.

The British economy had doubled in size under her rule.

Descending into dementia after years at the top table of world politics, Thatcher became almost a recluse, living out her life behind the white-stucco walls of her Georgian townhouse.

"Everyone wants to be immortal. Few are. Mrs Thatcher is," said Maurice Saatchi, the ad man behind some of her most potent election campaigns. "She developed all the winning arguments of our time: free markets, low tax, a small state, independence, individuality, self-determination. The result was a revolution in economic policy and three election victories in a row."

Txt culled from Reuters.






Adieu Gr8 one!


Mary J. Blige proudly shows off her curves in a bikini as she runs into the ocean on Puerto Rican holiday!

Ready to run: The 42-year-old split from her friends for a quick dip in the ocean


She's just wrapped up filming her latest movie in chilly New York City.
So Mary J. Blige welcomed the sunshine as she stepped out on the sand in Puerto Rico on Sunday in a figure-flattering bikini that hugged her famous curves.

Hard worker: The My Life singer-songwriter is on holiday after wrapping up a film in New York CityHard worker: The My Life singer-songwriter is on holiday after wrapping up a film in New York City






culled  from mailonline.

Kourtney Kardashian's son Mason wears fashion forward sunglasses just like his mother as they head to Sunday church!

Style icon: Kourtney had obviously been determined to make Mason look trendy for his church visit



The youngster used the shades to accessorise his dapper sailor-style T-shirt, white trousers and Nike trainers.
His mother also wore chic eyewear in the form of some gold-rimmed Aviators. 

The 33-year-old also drew attention to her lithe legs by donning a pair of strappy gladiator boots.

Strutting her stuff: Kourtney Kardashian looked in fine form as she took her children to church in Los Angeles on Sunday

They were the finishing touch to a flattering ensemble, with Kourtney also slipping into a baggy silk blouse and a high cut miniskirt.
 



Fashion designer Marc Jacobs celebrates his 49th birthday in the company of new porn star boyfriend Harry Louis, 24 in Rio!





Iconic fashion designer Marc Jacobs is the kind of man who has everything. 
The best homes around the world, the most stylish cars and of course... a plethora of splendid clothes; in short, he'd be a bit of a nightmare to buy a birthday present for.
So it's lucky for the designer's friends that he treated himself to the gift of spending his 49th birthday today with his Brazilian porn star boyfriend.


Marc Jacobs Fashion mogul Marc Jacobs makes the most out of his Brazilian vacation with a trip to the beach with boyfriend Harry Louis on Ipanema beach.  When not splashing around in the water, the pair covered up with sunscreen and sipped on some coconuts.

Like any sensible birthday reveler, the New Yorker has been stretching the big day out. 
Jacobs, who split up with another Brazilian - Lorenzo Martone - last year, was spotted at the beach in Ipanema with his beau at the weekend. 
But today was the big day, and the excitement was obviously mounting when Harry tweeted:
Today is such an special day day... And it should be a notional holiday, at all countries, coz it's my baby's Birthday, lol. Luv U Marc.

Marc Jacobs Fashion mogul Marc Jacobs makes the most out of his Brazilian vacation with a trip to the beach with boyfriend Harry Louis on Ipanema beach.  When not splashing around in the water, the pair covered up with sunscreen and sipped on some coconuts.


The 24-year-old, who now lives in London, is quite the smitten kitten, even announcing on his 'about me' blurb on Twitter that he loves 'his BF.'
Initially, the pair refused to confirm or deny reports that they were dating. 

A photograph of the famed designer looking cosy at a Paris party with the adult film actor led to much-hyped speculation about the nature of their relationship.

Star: Harry Louis is a big name himself
According to Brazilian gossip site GPSBrasilia, Jacobs met the youthful and exotic-looking Mr Louis in the British capital. 

It's in his kiss! The relatively new couple share a moment on Marc's big day
Louis is a celebrity in his own right, in his own field. 

Born in Brazil, Louis began his sizzling career in Spain and in 2006, after supposedly having his heart broken, moved to the United Kingdom. 
He now has over 4000 followers on Facebook and fans of his English language blog regularly log on to catch up on news about his work and look at family photographs.
Louis is vocal about his love for his mother, who - he says - is his best friend. 
In an interview with Vogue earlier last year, Jacobs insisted that Martone was his closest confidente: 'We are best friends... We speak to each other, I don’t know, six times a day.

Inseparable: The couple couldn't keep their hands off one another today, they later changed from the beach and held hands









Mmmmmm........ "God created them male and female; Adam and Eve.......not Adam and James"!


Pastor arrested over robbery attack at MMIA dedicated 2 cars!


Niegria:




On Tuesday, Lagos State Police Command, paraded seven suspects of a robbery gang that attacked the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, last month, killed two policemen and injured several others.

Among the suspects, was the General Overseer of The way of Joy church located in Egbe, a Lagos suburb. The clerg , identified as  Pastor Ibikunle Olarewaju John (pictured top left), confessed to Crime Guard during the parade, that he administered  an oath of secrecy on the gang members, on the day they attacked the Muritala Mohammed Airport. There's more...see it after the cut
Members of the gang  discovered to have come all the way  from Kwara, Osun, Ibadan and Ogun states, during interrogation, confessed to have attacked same airport last year,where they carted away  N600 Million.  They also stormed the  airport on again on March 13, 2013 at about 7.30 pm.
But this time around, they were reportedly engaged in a gun battle by two policemen attached to Apapa division said to be on  official assignment at the airport. Unfortunately for the policemen, they were gunned down in the process. But before they breathed their last, they managed to kill a member of the gang.

The robbers said to have succeeded in carting away over N10 Million from a Bureau-De -change operators,  went straight to  their hideout inside a bush in Ijebu-Ode, where they shared their loot.

Dedicates cars with members from loot
In this interview with Pastor Ibikunle, he disclosed that his share of the loot was N500,000. But investigation carried out by Crime Guard, showed that he might have got more than that.  A  suspected member of the gang confirmed Crime Guard’s claim. A further attestation to this claim, was the discovery that Pastor Ibikunle bought two cars  apparently from his share of the loot, two weekes later.

During Crime Guard’s visit to The Way of Joy Church, located on Alliu Street, Egbe, Thursday, it was discovered that the church was built with planks. And locating the church was a difficult task, as there was no sign board. It took Crime Guard  about an hour search to locate it.

On closer look , it was discovered that the church had been  sealed. Although, no one agreed to talk about Pastor Ibikunle and the church when approached, apparently for fear of being arrested .
Finally, a man who pleaded anonymity  opened up and asked :“Are you a member of the church”? The reporters shook their heads.

He further said, “ if you know what is good for you, better leave there before you will get yourself into trouble. The  white garment church was sealed last week after the arrest of the Pastor.. Some policemen came last week and arrested him and before we knew it, we started hearing he was a member of a robbery gang. Even , the whole newspapers in Nigeria carried the news two days ago”
Before his arrest, Pastor Ibikunle was said to have dedicated two vehicles ,during which he hosted members of his church and friends to a buffet.

“Although he is an easy- going fellow who by every dint of appearance never exhibited any character  of  a robber. We usually saw people coming in and out of  the church on  daily. And on Sundays, there were usually church services.
Towards the end of the month, he treated his members and  friends who came in posh cars to a party, in celebration of his newly purchased cars. It was not long that we heard he bought them with the proceeds from the robbery  operation at the airport. It was after his arrest that I believed the popular saying that facial appearance is indeed deceptive”, another resident who earlier declined to speak on the issue said.

Wife absconded with children
From Crime Guard’s findings, it was discovered also that when operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery  Squad stormed  the clergy’s one-room apartment  located on the same building with the church, to effect  his arrest, his wife was not at home.

On arrival, she was said to have visited  Ikotun, Ejigbo and Idimu police stations in search for her  husband. She was said to have  also raised alarm that he could have been abducted by men in police uniform.

But when news of her husband’s alleged indulgence in criminal activities reached her, she was said to have been spelled bound.

A  family friend to the Ibikunles told Crime Guard that, “ she came crying to us that some men in plain clothes came to pick her husband. But when she discovered the truth at SARSs where we eventually found him, she broke down. At first she did not believe the claim, as she thought it could have been  cooked up. But when her husband confessed to her, she said that was the height  she could take from him.
“More painful according to her, is the fact that she said she asked her husband where he got the money with which he bought the cars , only for him to tell her it was given to him by someone  who got healed of a terminal disease after a deliverance section with him.”
As at the time Crime Guard visited, Mrs Ibikunle was nowhere around the church’s premises. But a neigbour later  revealed that she was seen packing her belongings out of the house, with her children. The resident could however, not say her whereabouts. Since the arrest, no church member had reportedly come to worship there.

I spent 14 hours in the bush waiting for the gang members—Pastor Ibikunle
Speaking with Crime Guard, Pastor Ibikunle revealed that he spent 14  hours in the gang’s hideout, inside a bush in Ijebu-Ode area of Ogun State, on the day of the robbery attack at the international airport.
Hear him, “ Before  that day, one of them, Asiwaju, said I should come and administer an oat of secrecy on members of his gang. I invited them to come to my church but they said they would not want to  arouse  suspicion. At the end, I went to Ijebu-Ode.  I waited at a designated point before a member of the gang came and took me to their hideout inside the bush.
I administered the oath on them about 1pm. You will not understand if I start explaining because it is a spiritual thing. I said some incantation into a horn and added some other things.
I waited there until they came back around 11.30pm.,before  leaving next day, with N500,000. I was  instructed not to tell any one about what transpired. I swore, that is all my involvement. I never followed them to rob”, he said.
Asked if he informed his wife about his mission, he replied, “ No, I did not. I only told her when leaving that I was going to pray over night for a ‘big man’ who would not like to come to our area. And when I came back, I told her the money was given to me by the ‘big man’”.

I regret my involvement
In an emotional laden voice, Pastor Ibikunle looked at Crime Guard , battling hard not to betray his emotion, “ Am I going to die? He asked with a tear filled eyes. Ah! he exclaimed. I would have remained in my cubicle as a poor man than heeding the advice of the gang. Now,  I am left without nothing! My condition is even worse.
“I’m appealing to every member of my church  to forgive me for embarrassing them. This is the devil’s handiwork. I can not even face members of my family now…”, the 37 year-old father of  two paused and bent his head, refusing to speak any further.

Source: Vanguard 

Pope installed as bishop of Rome!





Pope Francis was formally installed as bishop of Rome on Sunday and he urged lapsed Catholics not to be afraid to return to God. 
 
Francis celebrated a Mass before thousands of people in the Rome Basilica of St. John in Lateran to formally take possession of the cathedral in his capacity as bishop of the Italian capital, his other major role along with the papacy. 

Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, has indicated that he intends to embrace his role as Rome's bishop as well as leader of the 1.2-billion-member Catholic Church. 

Since his election on March 13, he has referred to himself more often as "bishop" than "pope" and is expected to visit many of Rome's parishes, a practice he maintained in Buenos Aires. 

In his homily in St. John's, whose adjoining palace was the residence of most popes until the 14th century, Francis urged Catholics who had strayed from their Church to have the courage to return. 

"God's patience has to call forth in us the courage to return to him, however many mistakes and sins there may be in our life," he said, speaking in Italian. 

Pope Francis installed as bishop of Rome, appeals to lapsed faithful

Francis has inherited a Church weakened by sexual abuse of children by priests in many countries and allegations of corruption in the Vatican. 

Many have said their faith was shaken by the scandals. Francis, who is expected to make new appointments to clean up the Vatican's often dysfunctional bureaucracy, urged Catholics to let God back into their lives. 

"We hear many offers from the world around us; but let us take up God's offer instead: his is a caress of love. For God, we are not numbers, we are important, indeed we are the most important thing to him; even if we are sinners, we are what is closest to his heart," he said. 

Thousands of people who could not get into the packed basilica gave Francis a rousing welcome outside as he rode around a large square in an open jeep. 

They applauded as he unveiled a plaque re-naming part of the square after Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.

Wesley Snipes released from prison!


Blade' star Wesley Snipes has been released from jail early after serving nearly 28 months of his 36-month sentence for avoiding to pay millions of dollars in taxes.





    Snipes was released on Tuesday (02.04.13) after serving almost 28 months of a 36-month sentence for not paying millions of dollars worth of taxes.

    It is reported he will be monitored by New York Community Corrections Office and remain under house arrest until July 19.

    The actor was convicted of three misdemeanour counts of failing to file tax returns in 2008, but remained free, pending appeal, until he surrendered to begin his three-year sentence in December 2010.

    Wesley, 50, served his time in at McKean, the northwest Pennsylvanian Federal Correctional Institution.

    When he spoke in court at the time, the star had called himself "naive" and admitted he hadn't be educated well enough in "law and finance."

    He said: "I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance."

    Following the original verdict in 2008, his attorney Robert Bernhoft spoke of Wesley's "integrity".

    He added: "Mr. Snipes has always been committed to doing the right thing, and after this trial is over he'll make whatever amends are required. This is a man of integrity."