Fire breaks out in Bangladesh building where 377 die!

Fire broke out on Sunday in a garment factory that collapsed in the Bangladeshi capital, complicating attempts to find any survivors of a disaster that has killed 377 people.

Fire service officials said the blaze had been started by sparks from cutting equipment used by rescuers.

Police said the owner of the factory, Mohammed Sohel Rana,

was arrested on Sunday trying to flee to India, as hopes of finding more survivors from the country's worst industrial accident began to fade.

Rana was arrested by the elite Rapid Action Battalion in the border town of Benapole, Dhaka District Police Chief Habibur Rahman told Reuters, ending a four-day manhunt that began after Rana Plaza, which housed factories making low-cost garments for Western retailers, caved in on Wednesday.

Bangladesh television showed Rana, a local leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, being flown by helicopter to the capital Dhaka, where he will face charges of faulty construction and causing unlawful death.

Authorities put the latest death toll at 377 and expect it to climb higher with hundreds more still unaccounted for.

Four people were pulled out alive on Sunday after almost 100 hours beneath the mound of broken concrete and metal, and rescuers were working frantically to try to save several others still trapped, fire services deputy director Mizanur Rahman said. One woman was pulled out of debris by rescuers but died, fire service officials said.

"The chances of finding people alive are dimming, so we have to step up our rescue operation to save any valuable life we can," said Major General Chowdhury Hassan Sohrawardi, coordinator of the operation at the site.

About 2,500 people have been rescued from the wrecked building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

Officials said the eight-storey complex had been built on spongy ground without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers - mainly young women - entered the building on Wednesday morning despite warnings that it was structurally unsafe.

A bank and shops in the same building closed after a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars on Tuesday.

Police said one factory owner gave himself up on Sunday following the detention of two plant bosses and two engineers the day before.

Anger over the disaster has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police using tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to quell demonstrators who set cars ablaze.

Garment workers blockaded a highway in a nearby industrial zone of Gazipur on Sunday demanding capital punishment for the owners.

The main opposition, joining forces with an alliance of leftist parties which is part of the ruling coalition, called for a national strike on May 2 in protest over the incident.

NCAA grounds Rivers state Gov. Amaechi’s private jet for “operating illegally”!

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has grounded Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi’s private jet due to the “status of the controversial aircraft.”

In a press conference on Saturday, acting Director General of the NCAA, Joyce Nkemakolam, said the aircraft is “operating illegally in the country.”

The aircraft was first grounded temporarily at the Akure Airport on Friday when the governor traveled to Ekiti state for the funeral of deputy governor of that state, Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka.

During his return trip from the funeral, officials of the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority, NAMA, at the Akure airport delayed his flight for one hour on the grounds that his pilot was not properly documented with the control tower.

General Manager of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Mohammed Datti, explained that before a pilot lands, it is recorded by the control tower, which in turn gives the go-ahead for take off.

At the time, Datti denied allegations that the temporary grounding of Amaechi’s controversial jet was politically-minded.

But in a statement by David Iyofor, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Amaechi, the Rivers State government condemned the temporary grounding in Akure as “shameful and ludicrous.”

Iyofor claimed the plane had been grounded over “vague issues” and said the governor’s pilot had filed all the right paperwork.

The spokesman says NAMA’s claim that the pilot’s lack of proper documentation was the sole cause of the grounding is a “blatant lie.”

“All they kept saying was that they were just obeying directives, it was beyond them and we should call Abuja,” Iyofor said in the statement.

He added that Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and four other members of the House of Representatives who accompanied the governor in his private jet “are living witnesses to that charade.”

Explaining the new decision on Saturday to more permanently ground the aircraft, Mrs. Nkemkalokam said the Bombardier-BD700 Global Express, with registration N565 RS was operating on an expired clearance approval.

She said: “By our records, the last flight clearance for this aircraft was approved for operation on Thursday, March 28, 2013 on Accra – PH – Accra and to terminate on April 2, 2013. With this development, the aircraft has exceeded the extra two days or 48 hours leeway for it to leave the country.”

The NCAA boss further noted that “while still operating illegally, the aircraft has been sighted in several places including Owerri and Akure.”

“The owner of this aircraft according to the certificate of registration is Bank of Utah, trustee of Salt Lake City, Utah USA. The clearance for the aircraft was sought by Cavernton Helicopters on March 27, 2013.”

“Consequently, this aircraft in reference is hereby grounded at any airport that is located right now in the country” she announced.

My Story: by Governor Amechi

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers has spoken out about the circumstances surrounding Friday’s grounding of the state-owned aircraft by the National Airspace Management Agency.

Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, David Iyofor, the governor, in a statement, described the entire saga as shameful and ludicrous.

Read the entire statement below:

We had set out from Abuja in the morning of Friday April 26, 2013 to Imo State to attend the funeral rites of the younger sister of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. Our plane, a Bombardier jet owned by the Rivers State Government, landed at the airport in Owerri. It was in Owerri that the pilot of our plane was first tipped off that there is a plot to ground our plane in Owerri that Friday.

Fortunately for us, we took off from Owerri airport and arrived at Akure airport en-route to Ekiti for the burial of the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State Funmilayo Olayinka without any incident. On the flight to Akure was the Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal who we met in Imo State and was also heading to Ekiti for the burial of Mrs Olayinka. Also on the flight were the Governor of Rivers State Rt. Hon, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Director-General, Nigeria Governors’ Forum(NGF), Asishana Bayo Okauru, Kalabari prince and politician Prince Tonye Princewill, some aides of the Governor and me.

Once our party left the Akure airport for Ekiti, our pilot went to the airport offices to make statutory airport payments and fees, file his flight plan and declare his manifest. After filing his fight plan and declaring his manifest, our pilot was told to go and see the Controller. The Controller bluntly told him that the Rivers Government plane would not be allowed to leave the airport. In other words, the plane had been grounded! He said that the plane should have been grounded in Owerri. The Controller on duty at the airport in Akure mentioned some vague issues relating to the customs papers of the plane, which has been flying in Nigeria for many months? That didn’t make any sense to the pilot. He enquired on whose orders the plane was being grounded, he was told that it was the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA). And that he should reach the NAMA MD.

By the time our party, which now included four House of Representatives Honourable members- Mohammed Sani Idris Kutigi, Daniel Rayeineju, Idris Ahmed Wase and Ifedayo Abegunde- returned to the Akure airport, there was confusion everywhere. Speaker Tambuwal, the Honourable members and Governor Amaechi and his team, were all stranded at the airport. The plane that brought Speaker Tambuwal and Governor Amaechi to Akure could not leave Akure airport. Calls were being made as these two democratically elected leaders, furious and perplexed, tried to fathom what could have caused this monumental embarrassment to them and their offices.

After trying fruitlessly for some time to get the plane released, Speaker Tambuwal then offered to fly Governor Amaechi to Port Harcourt with the plane(another small aircraft) that brought the other four Honourable members to Akure. To accommodate Governor Amaechi in the small aircraft, one of the House of Representatives members offered his seat to the Governor .

The pilot of the Rivers State Government plane was already locking up the aircraft for us to leave for Lagos by road when a call eventually came through that the plane could now leave. The Controller received a directive to allow the plane fly out of Akure. The decision to let us go, we later learnt, was due to the pressure brought on the aviation authorities by Speaker Tambuwal.

It is indeed most shameful and ludicrous that NAMA and the Aviation authorities are now saying that they grounded the Rivers State Government plane because the pilot did not file a flight plan and declare a manifest. That’s a blatant lie. A big fat one at that. The pilot filed the flight plan and manifest, and paid all the statutory airport fees and charges shortly after the plane arrived at the Akure airport in the afternoon. If the pilot filed a flight plan and manifest at the airports in Abuja and Owerri, where he flew from same day, why won’t he then do the same in Akure? It is instructive to note that all through the traumatic time we spent in Akure, no official of the airport or aviation staff came to tell Governor Amaechi that we were grounded because our pilot “refused to file a flight plan and manifest.” 

All they kept saying was that they were just obeying directives, it was beyond them and we should call Abuja. Speaker Tambuwal and the other four members of the House of Representatives are living witnesses to that charade.

NAMA and the aviation authorities should explain to Nigerians why an aircraft owned by a State government, that flew the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and a democratically elected Governor of a State who also is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, would be grounded at an airport for no just cause?

DAVID IYOFOR
Chief Press Secretary
To The Rivers State Governor

Culled from Premium Times

Mississippi Man charged for sending poisonous letters to Barack Obama!

A Mississippi-based martial arts teacher has been charged in connection with poison-laced letters sent to US President Barack Obama and a US senator.

41-year-old James Everett Dutschke was charged with possession of the biological agent ricin, and attempting to use it as a weapon.

He was arrested at his home in Tupelo just after midnight.

Ricin is a highly lethal poison made from castor beans, though the substance found on the letters is believed to be in a crude form that would prove far less lethal.

Dutschke is expected to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Oxford. He faces up to life in prison, if convicted.

Earlier in the week, Dutschke insisted he had nothing to do with the letters. Dutschke's attorney, Lori Nail Basham, said she had no comment

If found guilty, Dutschke faces maximum possible penalties of life imprisonment and a US250,000 dollar (192,000 euro) fine.

His arrest comes days after US prosecutors dropped charges against another man, Kevin Curtis, who was released after a search of his home revealed no incriminating evidence.

Curtis, a professional Elvis impersonator, has had a running feud with Dutschke and suggested he may have been framed by him.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika recovering in Paris hospital!

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been transferred to a hospital in Paris after suffering a minor stroke on Saturday.

State media has said his condition is not serious.

The 76-year-old, who is serving his third term as president, is seen as a key stabilising factor in the oil exporting country of 37 million people.

Elected in 1999, Bouteflika is one of a generation of leaders who have ruled Africa’s biggest country since Algeria won independence from France in 1962.

It is thought unlikely that he will seek a fourth term when his presidency ends in 2014.

It is not yet clear who might take over the country which supplies a fifth of Europe’s gas imports and cooperates with the West in combating Islamist militancy.

Religious police deem Omar too sexy for Saudi Arabia!

 Omar Borkan Al Gala, an actor, poet, and photographer, is deemed so sexy, in fact, that he’s been thrown out of Saudi Arabia due to the danger he poses to members of the opposite sex.

 

Recently, three men were deported from Saudi Arabia as religious authorities deemed them “too handsome” amid fears that women would get too attracted to them and lose control of themselves.
The Arabic Elaph newspaper reported that the men, delegates from the United Arab Emirates, were attending the annual Jenadrivah Heritage and Culture Festival in the capital, Riyadh, when they were thrown out by Saudi Arabia’s religious police.
They were deported because authorities deemed them “too handsome” and worried that women would “lose their minds, tear their clothing off, and throw themselves at their feet”.
The Mutaween, a government-recognised religious police force that is responsible for enforcing varied interpretations of Islam’s Sharia law, decided to deport the men from their country for “moral” reasons.
Since then, there has been something of a media scramble to identify the three beauties, and Omar Borkan Al Gala has just let the world know he is one of the men, albeit through a series of clues. While he has made no official confirmation, a number of websites have posted pictures of Omar, saying he is one of the three handsome men.
And the photographer, who appears to wear eye-liner and stare moodily into the distance in many of his shots, has done little since to damp down the speculation by posting a link to the original news article on his
On his page, he wrote: “This is what written in newspapers in over the world.
He wrote elsewhere: “The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.”
His Facebook page has more 140,000 likes and about 37,000 talking about him, and Omar can probably expect the numbers to rise.

Presidency warns of “dire consequences” in Niger Delta if Jonathan is not re-elected!

Presidential aide, Kinglsey Kuku, said insecurity will return to Niger Delta if President Jonathan quits.

A presidential aide has warned of “dire consequences” in the oil rich Niger Delta should president Goodluck Jonathan fail to secure a fresh term in 2015.

In a startling remark to U.S. officials in Washington on Thursday, Special Adviser to the president on Niger Delta, and chairman, presidential amnesty programme, Kingsley Kuku, said current relative peace in the Niger Delta is tied to the continued stay in office of Mr. Jonathan, and strongly urged the American government to back his presidency.

Mr. Kuku, who spoke at a session with officials of the U.S. State Department led by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (Bureau of African Affairs), Donald Teitelbaum, told the Americans that only Mr. Jonathan can guarantee peace in the restive region and hence, the compelling need to persuade him to seek re-election in 2015.

“It is true that the presidential amnesty programme has engendered peace, safety and security in the sensitive and strategic Niger Delta. Permit me to add that the peace that currently prevails in the zone is largely because Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who is from that same place, is the President of Nigeria. That is the truth.

“It is only a Jonathan presidency that can guarantee continued peace and energy security in the Niger Delta,” Mr. Kuku said.

The presidential aide said the consequences would be dire if the U.S. gets distracted by the activities of terror cells in parts of northern Nigeria, and takes its attention off the Niger Delta.

“Terrorism is a global phenomenon. President Jonathan inherited the situation in northern Nigeria and he has adopted a multifaceted approach to tackle this unfortunate situation. So far, profound results are being achieved,” he said. “But I insist that this must not distract the U.S. and the international community from giving the Niger Delta region of Nigeria the requisite attention.”

“I hope the U.S. is aware that with peace and stability in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s economy will remain buoyant enough to empower the Federal Government to contend with terrorism and other forms of insecurity in other parts of the country.

“However if we allow anything to hurt the peace in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s economy will be endangered and energy security in Nigeria and even America will not be guaranteed. The attention and interest of the U.S. in Nigeria must remain the stability of the Niger Delta and the easiest way to ensure this is to encourage President Jonathan to complete an eight-year term,” he said.

Mr. Kuku, who has pushed for talks with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, after the group warned of restarting fighting in the region, told the session that the Niger Delta continues to yearn for attention and development.

“In spite of the peace that prevails in the Niger Delta now, the issues that led to militancy in the first place are yet to be properly addressed. The issues of development, greater say in the control of the resource that comes from the place, issues of environmental remediation, youth unemployment among others are still there,” he said.

“However, the agitators are prepared to patiently await development as long as one of their own, Dr. Jonathan remains the President, and I think this is one thing the American government should reflect seriously on.”

In response, Mr. Teitelbaum acknowledged his country was worried about the activities of terror cells in northern Nigeria, but said the U.S remains committed to deepening of the peace in the Niger Delta.

He said that the U.S. views the Niger Delta amnesty programme as a huge success, and pledged that the State Department will brief other organs of the U.S. Government on possible ways of offering technical support to the amnesty programme.

At a separate meeting with members of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in Washington DC on Thursday, Mr. Kuku challenged investors, particularly Americans, to leverage on the relative peace that the amnesty programme has engendered in the Niger Delta to invest in the region.

He told the members that following the proclamation and the acceptance of amnesty by former agitators in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s economy witnessed astronomical growth as crude oil production, which had declined to as low as 700,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2009, has been rising steadily and currently stands about 2.6 million barrels per day.

Mr. Kuku however warned that unless the thousands of youths being offered skills and vocational training by the Amnesty Office become gainfully employed, peace may once again elude the Niger Delta.

“We were given the mandate to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate these ex-agitators. We are doing just that and peace has returned to the Niger Delta as several of the ex-agitators are now very busy in schools and vocational centres across the world. But what becomes of them after their training is our biggest challenge now. On our part, we have done our best but we now need the practical support of all persons and nations who truly seek and want peace in the Niger Delta, to join efforts to create employment opportunities for our youths,” Mr. Kuku told the American investors.

The CCA President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Hayes, said the Council was irrevocably committed to attracting American investors to Africa.

“I do not care what you say” – Nollywood’s Stella Damasus reacts to reports of her 3rd marriage!

Following the reports that went around blogs and other media yesterday about Stella Damasus’ secret wedding (and third) to producer and actor, Daniel Ademonikan, the actress and singer came out swinging on her  personal blog yesterday – giving the middle finger to the “blogs and websites” “saying things they know absolutely nothing about”.

See full text of her blog below:

I have Been trending for the past two days now. Day one was about people wishing me well and praying for me on my birthday. Day two is now filled with gossip, scandals and all sorts, but that is as far as the so called journalists and bloggers are concerned. As far as I am concerned I had a blast on my birthday and I will not allow other human beings steal my joy regardless.I choose to enjoy my life because I know I deserve it. Nobody went through my own trying times with me and I did not go through any with others.

When God decides to bless me, turn my mourning to dancing, turn my tears to laughter and turn my anger to happiness, no man on earth can change it or spoil it.

Truth is, I laughed when I saw some of the blogs and websites quoting and saying things they know absolutely nothing about. Writing things they have heard without concrete evidence, ghosts that cannot show their faces and ask direct questions. But they believe and think that they can wake up one day and decide people’s fate and destiny. Unfortunately they are made to feel important because people hate to read  positive things and achievements, but give them juicy gossip and all of a sudden you become the most popular writer who has gist on everybody.

I realized that when I write blogs and articles about important information, encouragement, education and positive things, only twenty percent out of a hundred actually read it and leave comments. The other eighty percent jump at the gossip and scandals and then start to ask me stupid questions. These are people who have not communicated with me in ages but all of a sudden they feel the need to profess undying friendship and a listening ear. The fact that they believe I have the time or energy to respond to the most trivial issues baffles me.

Let me repeat myself in case some of these people missed it. “I really do not care what you say or write, the truth is who God has blessed no man can curse” , and if you believe that trying to turn a wonderful birthday  into a global gossip game will make me feel bad then I am so sorry this Stella is not as stupid as you think”

For those who want to really see pictures to satisfy their curiosity, please enjoy.