Al-Mustapha’s 15-year journey to freedom!

After about 15 years of incarceration, based on a series of allegations including extra-judicial killings under the regime of the late Abacha, his new found life came on the heels of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which on Friday discharged and acquitted him of the murder of the late Kudirat Abiola.

Al-Mustapha’s travails, as confirmed by him while testifying during his trial before the Lagos High Court, started soon after his former boss died on June 8, 1998.

The former CSO to the Head of State was schemed out of the military politics, which eventually threw up Gen. Abudusalami Abubakar as the new Head of State.

 Some months after the new government became comfortable on its seat in 1998, al-Mustapha was posted out of the Presidential Villa to Enugu, where he was first accused of being in possession of Abacha’s property.

The late Kudirat Abiola

Before he was subsequently arraigned for the murder of Kudirat in 1999, he faced a number of panels over series of allegations, one of which was the importation of ammunition from Libya to remove Abubakar as the Head of State.

Late MKO Abiola and slain wife 'Kudirat Abiola'

 He also faced the Special Investigation Panel set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, which succeeded Abubakar’s.

The investigation of the SIP was what culminated in his arraignment alongside Shofolahan, son of the late Head of State, Mohammed Abacha; Rabo Lawal, a Chief Superintendent of Police, who was the head of the Mobile Police Force Unit in the Presidential Villa.

 After the case was moved away from the Magistrate’s Court, the four men were arraigned before Justice Augustine Adetula Alabi on two counts of murder and conspiracy.

Later,the case was then transferred to another judge following al-Mustapha’s application that it should be transferred from Justice Ade-Alabi.

They were re-arraigned before Justice Dada in 2008.

As the matter dragged on, in a judgment similar to the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court on July 11, 2002, discharged and acquitted Mohammed Abacha on the basis that no evidence linked him with the alleged crime.

Al-Mustapha was appointed Chief Security Officer to the Head of State with a Special Strike Force Unit during Abacha’s military regime (November 17, 1993 – June 8, 1998).

Court Convicts Governor Sule Lamido’s Son For Money Laundering!

Aminu Sule Lamido, the 34-year old son of Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for money laundering, was Friday convicted by Justice Fatu Riman of the Federal High Court, Kano, and ordered to forfeit 25 per cent of the undeclared sum of $40,000.

But the governor’s son won’t be serving any jail term. He will walk free after forfeiture of the 25 per cent of the undeclared sum.

Aminu was arrested on December 11, 2012 at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport on his way to Egypt for failure to declare the $50,000 in his possession. He only declared $10,000 to the Nigerian Customs Service.

When he was arraigned before Justice Riman on Monday February 4, 2013, Aminu pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded in prison pending hearing of his application for bail.

The charge against the accused reads: “That you Aminu Sule Lamido on or about 11^th day of December, 2012 at the Mallam Aminu International Airport, Kano within the Jurisdiction of the Federal High Court while transporting in cash, the sum of $50,000 (Fifty Thousand Dollars Only) from Nigeria to Cairo, Egypt, falsely declare to the Nigerian Customs the sum of $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars Only) instead of the said sum of $50,000 (Fifty Thousand Dollars Only) as required under Section 12 of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act Cap F34 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and Section 2(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 2(5) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011”.

At the resumed hearing on February 5, 2013, Justice Riman granted the accused person bail in the sum of N8million and two sureties in like sum.

In the course of trial, which got underway April 19, 2013, the prosecution called four witnesses and tendered documents which were admitted as exhibits. One of its witnesses, Sanusi Ahmed who is an operative of the EFCC, told the court that the accused person only registered $10,000 in the Nigerian Customs Declaration Form only for a search to reveal that he had $50,000 on him. He identified the Customs Declaration Form when it was shown to him. The document was accepted by court as exhibit 1.

The two witnesses called by the defence are the Chief Press Secretary to the Jigawa State Governor, Umar Kyare and the wife of the accused, Samira Aminu Sule.

At the last adjourned date, July 9, the court reserved ruling for July 12, after the parties had closed their cases and adopted their written addresses.

In convicting the accused person, the trial court held that the defence had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Naked Swimmer Distracts Homeowner During Robbery!

Wonders will never end...... In Crossville Tenn, a man and woman asked if the woman could take a skinny dip, and then the man said he was leaving to get cigarettes, according to the Crossville Police Department.

But while the woman swam naked and the distracted homeowner watched, someone robbed the home of nearly $1,000 in jewelry, cash, a handgun and prescription drugs, police said.

"We've seen numerous distraction methods - asking for help looking for a dog, asking for help with gas for a stranded car and then people come back and find their home was burglarized," Crossville Police Department Det. J.C. Hancock said. "They just took it a new level using a naked woman."

Police said they have eliminated suspects but have not been able to locate the alleged criminals.

Hancock said he was surprised to see the method these burglars used.

"Every time I think I've seen it all, there's something new," he said.

According to ABC News affiliate in Nashcille, Tenn, the incident happened on June 27. The victim, Stephen Amaral, 54, said he gave the 30-something woman a towel when she was done swimming.

"I escorted her outside and invited her to church, but she said she didn't have time for that, she wasn't ready for that," Amaral told News 2.

Amaral told News 2 he did not notice the theft until after the woman had already left.

"They cleared me out and I just feel violated," Amaral said.

Amaral told News 2 he formerly used the handgun as a Mississippi deputy and he planned to pass it on to his grandchildren.

The Crossville Police Department said the investigation was ongoing.

Malala Yousafzai addresses UN!

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban, has told the UN that books and pens scare extremists, as she urged education for all.

Speaking on her 16th birthday, Malala said efforts to silence her had failed.

She was shot in the head on a school bus by Taliban gunmen because of her campaign for girls' rights.

The speech at the UN headquarters in New York was her first public address since last October's incident in Pakistan's north-western Swat valley.

Malala has been credited with bringing the issue of women's education to global attention. A quarter of young women around the world have not completed primary school.

'Afraid of women'

After the shooting, Malala was flown from Pakistan to the UK for treatment, and now lives in Birmingham, England.

Amid several standing ovations, Malala told the UN on Friday that the Taliban's attack had only made her more resolute.

"The terrorists thought that they wobut nothing changed in my life, except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born." would change my aims and stop my ambitions," she said, "

She continued: "I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists and extremists."

Malala - who is considered a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize - said she was fighting for the rights of women because "they are the ones who suffer the most".

"The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens," added Malala, who was wearing a pink shawl that belonged to assassinated Pakistan leader Benazir Bhutto. "They are afraid of women."

She called on politicians to take urgent action to ensure every child has the right to go to school.

A passionate campaigner for female education, Malala addressed more than 500 students at a specially convened youth assembly."One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also addressed Friday's session, calling Malala "our hero".

The schoolgirl, who set up the Malala Fund following the attack, presented a petition of more than three million signatures to the UN secretary general demanding education for all.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened the session, telling the youths gathered they were a "new superpower" in the world, and appealing to them to help overcome obstacles to accessing education.

The event, described by the UN as Malala Day, was organised by Mr Brown, now the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

He said: "Getting every girl and boy into school by 2015 is achievable.

"Malala says it is possible - and young people all over the world think it is possible," he said.

Aid agencies say that female access to education in Pakistan is a particular problem.

They say that the country ranks among the lowest in terms of girls' education enrolment, literacy and government spending.

Unesco and Save the Children released a special reported ahead of Malala's speech.

It found that 95% of the 28.5 million children who are not getting a primary school education live in low and lower-middle income countries: 44% in sub-Saharan Africa, 19% in south and west Asia and 14% in the Arab states.

Girls make up 55% of the total and are often the victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompanies armed conflicts.

Kate Middleton: Inside Her Final Days of Pregnancy Before Baby's Birth!

Pregnant -- for not much longer -- at the Palace! With a due date of July 11, Kate Middleton is spending the very last days of her first pregnancy safely ensconced at Kensington Palace. "Kate has been sensible and stayed in London," a source tells US Weekly of the Duchess, 31, who recently decamped from Anglesey, Wales, where husband Prince William is stationed as a Royal Air Force Search and Rescue pilot. "She was so relieved that she did not go into labor early while in Anglesey with William," the source admits.

In an earlier contingency plan, the Duchess of Cambridge would have been flown via helicopter from Anglesey for a 70-minute, 277-mile flight to St. Mary's Hospital in London, where she plans to give birth naturally barring complications. The source adds that William, 31, has "been with Kate as much as possible, coming up to be with her whenever he is off shift . . .Much of that time was the two of them at Kensington Palace."

Face-To-Face With Heart-Eating Cannibal, Syrian Rebel Commander!

The story turned out to be true in its most important aspect – a ritual demonstration of cannibalism – though when I met the commander, Abu Sakkar, in Syria last week, he seemed hazy on the details.

“I really don’t remember,” he says, when I asked if it was the man’s heart, as reported at the time, or liver, or a piece of lung, as a doctor who saw the video said. He goes on: “I didn’t bite into it. I just held it for show.”

The video says otherwise. It is one of the most gruesome to emerge from Syria’s civil war. In it, Abu Sakkar stands over an enemy corpse, slicing into the flesh.

“It looks like you’re carving him a Valentine’s heart,” says one of his men, raucously. Abu Sakkar picks up a bloody handful of something and declares: “We will eat your hearts and your livers you soldiers of Bashar the dog.”

Then he brings his hand up to his mouth and his lips close around whatever he is holding. At the time the video was released, in May, we rang him and he confirmed to us that he had indeed taken a ritual bite (of a piece of lung, he said).

Now, meeting him face-to-face, he seems a bit more circumspect, though his anger builds when I ask why he carried out this depraved act.

“I didn’t want to do this. I had to,” he tells me. “We have to terrify the enemy, humiliate them, just as they do to us. Now, they won’t dare be wherever Abu Sakkar is.”

Along the way, he lost another brother, many relatives, and countless of his men. His parents were arrested and he says the police rang him so he could hear them being beaten.

“Put yourself in my shoes,” he says. “They took your father and mother and insulted them. They slaughtered your brothers, they murdered your uncle and aunt. All this happened to me. They slaughtered my neighbours.”

He goes on to talk about the man whose flesh he held in his hands: “This guy had videos on his mobile. It showed him defiling a mother and her two daughters. He stri*ped them while they begged him to stop in the name of God. Finally he slaughtered them with a knife… What would you have done?

“If we don’t get help, a no-fly zone, heavy weapons, we will do worse – you’ve seen nothing yet”

Brazillian Woman Who Auctioned Her Virginity For $780,000 Now Says She Was Tricked!

The woman who became an Internet sensation by auctioning off her virginity for $780,000 now says that she was tricked and exploited — and that she’s still a virgin.

Catarina Migliorini, a 21-year-old woman from Brazil, told The Huffington Post by email that the highly publicized Internet auction last October, organized by filmmaker Justin Sisely, has turned into a giant fiasco.

“I felt I was a victim … I was misled by Mr. Justin Sisely,” Migliorini said. “I believe he is trying to defraud me and others.”

Sisely was supposedly filming a documentary entitled ”Virgins Wanted,” which would explore the lives of Migliorini and Alex Stepanov, a male counterpart who was also auctioning his virginity.

A 53-year-old Japanese millionaire who identified himself online as “Natsu” placed the winning bid for Migliorini. But when she went to meet him in a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, he didn’t match the description Sisely gave her. Nor did they ever have s*x.

What’s more, she claims Sisely didn’t cover her traveling expenses or give her the money promised.

Sisely denies Migliorini’s claims. “We have the footage to prove otherwise,” he told HuffPost by email. He also says she breached her contract as an actress.

When Sisely first announced the documentary in May 2010, he said it would culminate with both of the virgins having s*x. However, the promise of s*x was not set in stone, Migliorini claims.

“Justin made me believe this was a serious documentary about young virgins and said that there might or might not be an auction at the end of the documentary,” she said.

But after Sisely and Migliorini met in Bali, the auction had already been publicly announced, forcing Migliorini into a corner.

“I agreed to go along with it, because Justin said it would be the best way to draw attention from the media about the project,” she said.

In exchange for her participation, Migliorini said she was supposed to receive 20 percent of documentary sales and all of the money from the winning auction bid of $780,000. Neither has materialized, she claims.

Migliorini now believes that “Natsu” doesn’t exist. She never had s*x with him, and proudly describes herself as a virgin.