15 killed as gunmen invade Rivers communities!

Reports says that no fewer than 15 persons were feared killed in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State by some rampaging gunmen.

It was gathered that the assailants, who were all armed with AK-47 rifles, rode into the area with six motorcycles and operated from 9pm on Wednesday till the early hours of Thursday.

A source in the are told The PUNCH that while three persons were shot dead in Ede, one of the communities in the area, one person lost his life in Obite.

In Egite community, two persons were killed by the trigger-happy gunmen while two others were injured.

The source told our correspondent that four persons were shot at close range in Egita community while one also died in Obiosimiri community during the raid.

“In Akabta community, the gunmen killed one person and injured an undisclosed number of people. So far, 15 persons were killed during the night raid by the gunmen.

“They (gunmen) began their operation at about 9pm on Wednesday night till early this (Thursday) morning. As I speak with you, some of our people, who were injured, are in the hospital,” the source from Egi clan in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni added.

The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin, confirmed the attack but said eight people were killed. he added that investigations into the killings had begun.

Mexican Drug Lord Taunts the Authorities With Videos!

Drug lords in Mexico normally try to stay out of the limelight, amassing an army to help hide them and employing plastic surgeons to alter their features. Not Servando Gómez, one of the most sought-after kingpins and a leader of a brutal gang that gave rise to vigilante groups in Michoacán State, who in recent months has made regular appearance on television, news media websites and YouTube.

In his latest online video, Mr. Gómez, known as “La Tuta,” or the teacher, is shown in a video posted this week drinking beer and chatting with the son of a former governor of Michoacán, suggesting his gang’s deep infiltration of the political class. The two men laugh and joke about several public officials. The Mexican authorities said Wednesday that they are investigating the circumstances of the video, which was leaked to the news website Quadrantin, and will seek to question Rodrigo Vallejo, the son of the former governor, Fausto Vallejo, who stepped down in June. His resignation occurred days after a picture of his son with Mr. Gómez was leaked to newspapers.



Rodrigo Vallejo said in a Facebook post that he was forced to attend the meeting and that the video was edited in a manner that made him look guilty. His father said in a letter posted to Facebook and Twitter that Rodrigo was forced to attend the meeting because he had been kidnapped. Michoacán is one of Mexico’s most violent states, in large part because of the killings, kidnappings and extortion by the criminal group Mr. Gómez leads, the Knights Templar.

Vigilante groups, fed up that local and state police had done little to stop the gang, sprang up over the past year to protect the people from the gang violence, leading the federal authorities to swoop in and restore state control. They allowed several members of the vigilantes to join a “rural defense force” to work alongside the federal police, though questions have been raised if the vigilantes themselves are turning into yet another menace.

Several leaders of the Knights Templar have been arrested or killed — Mr. Gómez’s son was arrested last month — and security experts said the gang has been weakened. But Mr. Gómez’s ability to remain at large, and his defiance in the media, has left some in Mexico wondering if he has eluded capture for so long because local officials are protecting him.

“He has political authorities on his side and, even more importantly so, the protection and support from local communities as well,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst at a Mexico City consulting firm. “It is very difficult to break down a network like that.”

The YouTube videos featuring Mr. Gómez, posted anonymously, show him denouncing leaders of the vigilante movement as criminals themselves, defending himself as an "altruist" handing out money to women and children in town squares, and vowing to die before getting caught.

In January, when the Mexican federal police and the army began an offensive in the western state of Michoacán to restore order and hunt for Mr. Gómez, a crew from Channel 4 News in Britain managed to track him down and broadcast an interview with him from an undisclosed location. He talked about his difficult childhood, his transition from schoolteacher to crime boss and details of his gang’s operations, such as the ingredients used to make methamphetamine. 

Michoacán’s chief security official was arrested on organized crime charges after another video surfaced a few months ago, showing him meeting with Mr. Gómez.
Security experts said criminal gangs often corrupt local and federal officials, but the Knights Templar has taken it to extremes in the absence of government authority in Michoacán.

“It is a crime group that highly values a fluid communication and close relation with local politicians, and that is where a big part of their success derives from,” said Mr. Guerrero, who studies organized crime in Mexico.

Still, Mexican officials have promised they will capture Mr. Gómez. “He is cornered and with his hands tied,” said the federal security commissioner for Michoacán, Alfredo Castillo. He made the statement back in March.

See the wedding dress that took a whole year to make!

The dress in making:
This dress - "with a traditional feeling, but using modern techniques," Ralph explained - required 3,900 hours of hand embroidery (162 days if you worked round the clock); 


40 different types of bead; and 


25 different types of Swarovski crystal. 


The underlayers are tulle, hand-printed with a metallic Chantilly-lace effect, to give depth without weight - drawing on the grandeur yet airiness of Listri's work.










This is simply....W.A.O.....

Half Of A Yellow Sun out in Nigeria Cinemas from 1st August!

The film Half Of A Yellow Sun, written by Award winning writer Chimamanda  Ngozi Adichie, and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Genevieve Nnaji, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Onyeka Onwenu, zack Orji, to mention a few.....

will be in every cinema in Nigeria from AUGUST 1.....



Don't miss it!

Boko Haram Working To Seize Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi And Nasarawa States—Intelligence Source!

According to SaharaReporters, a high-level Nigerian security source has revealed that Nigeria’s intelligence agencies received “credible reports that Boko Haram has developed an ambitious plan to overwhelm and take over Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states.”

The source said the Islamist terrorist group plans to carry out its design by intensifying its bombings and choosing locations that would yield high casualty figures.

The source said “Their move is to encircle [Nigeria’s capital city of] Abuja and increase the level of political instability in the country,”.

The high-level intelligence agent disclosed that the shape of the terror group’s plans have emerged from the confessions of some Boko Haram insurgents who were captured recently. “We have also acquired a lot of information about their [Boko Haram’s] plans through our interrogation of Aminu Sadiq Oguche.” 

Mr. Oguche, who was recently extradited to Nigeria from Sudan, is accused of masterminding some of the recent high-profile bomb blasts in Nigeria, including explosions at a bus station in Abuja that claimed more than 100 lives. 

In addition, security agents have gleaned “significant and useful intelligence” from interrogating one Mohammed Zakari, described as “the chief butcher” of Boko Haram. Mr. Zakari was recently arrested in Bauchi, capital of Bauchi State.

The source said that Nigeria’s security agencies are stepping up counter-insurgency measures to forestall Boko Haram’s plans to spread its tentacles to the states they are targeting.

“Apart from information we have gathered from interrogating suspects, we are also tracking critical conversations by the group’s hierarchy and examining sensitive documents recovered after recent raids on their bases in Bauchi, Jigawa and Borno states,” the source said.

The source added that President Goodluck Jonathan and a few other government officials had been briefed about the new threats by Boko Haram as well as the outline of the plans to counter the group’s ambitious push.

A senior Islamic scholar in Northern Nigeria, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said his group was cooperating with the government to defeat Boko Haram. “We discussed with President Jonathan when we met during the end of the Ramadan fast and told him that we are ready to help stop Boko Haram. But we also told him that this is something the government must take action on. We’re doing our own, but we have limitations,” he said.

Kelsey Grammer forgives man who killed his sister!

The Cheers star Kelsey Grammer forgave the man who raped and killed his sister, Karen Grammer, in 1975 while testifying at the parole board hearing for inmate Freddie Glenn via video conference on Tuesday.

Glenn, who was 18 at the time of the murders, was convicted of killing two men and Grammer's sister after kidnapping her from a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs where she worked, and is serving a life term at the Buena Vista Correctional Facility.

"I want to believe you have actually changed your life," an emotional Grammer said to Glenn. 

"Things you say, I accept a lot of it..I accept that you live with remorse," Grammer later continued. 

"But I live with tragedy every day."

At one point, Glenn interruped Grammer to apologize. "Thank you," Grammer said. 

"I accept your apology. I forgive you. However, I cannot give your release my endorsement. To give that a blessing would be a betrayal of my sister's life."

Glenn said at the hearing. "I thought I would die. I thought I would be killed," 

"I think I deserve a second chance."

He was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was changed to a life term when Colorado's death penalty was overturned.

Alicia Keys Announces she expecting!

Alicia Keys announced on her forth wedding anniversary that she and hubby Swizz Beatz are expecting their second child together.



"Happy Anniversary to the love of my life @therealswizzz!! And to make it even sweeter we've been blessed with another angel on the way!! You make me happier than I have ever known! Here's to many Here's to many many more years of the best parts of life!".