Category: News

  • Rescue workers link courage to Ogogoro

    Rescue workers link courage to Ogogoro

    From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    Even as the entire neighbourhood stank offensively, the rescue workers told Sunday Sun that they were hired by the Local Government officials to help bury the 127 bodies in a mass grave dug in the sandy beach. He, however, failed to disclose how much they were paid for their services.

    But more importantly, Ganiyu revealed that they drank a lot of “Ogogoro” (local gin) to be able to muster courage for the task.
    “As you see us so, we dey drink plenty Ogogoro. That na wetin give us power to withstand this horror,” he said.

    Here.

  • 3rd term: Marry a two-time divorcee?

    3rd term: Marry a two-time divorcee?

    From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    Temitope Kolaru
    No! Take a good look at me. Do I look like somebody who would go into a relationship with a man who has been there two previous times? A two-time divorcee? I mean, not even a second-hand man, a third-hand man for that matter. My brother, no way o! I can’t do it. Men can no longer be trusted. To marry such a man, one would invariably be digging her grave.

    Here.

  • Why insist on the surrender of Ratko Mladic

    From The New York Times:

    Rather than linking talks to one arrest, the European Union should ask if a deeply brutalized society like Serbia’s is a worthy partner for integration, regardless of the disposition of any one war criminal. Making General Mladic a totem for what Europe really needs — Serbia’s transformation — stunts the union’s ability to understand and encourage that process.

    Fixation on General Mladic is of a piece with the naïve thinking behind much Western foreign policy from the Balkans to Baghdad. Similarly optimistic claims were made when former President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested, but five years later, Serbia’s politics still haven’t advanced enough. Oh — maybe that’s because we haven’t gotten General Mladic.

    Here.

  • Farmer's gallows sales attacked

    Farmer's gallows sales attacked

    From the BBC:

    David Lucas, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, said he had been selling execution equipment to countries including Zimbabwe for about 10 years.

    Amnesty said the export of gallows, which will be made illegal by an EC regulation in July, was “appalling”.

    But Mr Lucas said the trade was not sick and “business is business”.

    He added some people deserved the death penalty.

    Here.

  • Amputee Arrested for Burglary

    Amputee Arrested for Burglary

    From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    Timothy, who gained entry into the house at about 10am, was said to have thrown one of his crutches into the compound and used the other one to leap over the fence.
    Having succeeded in jumping into the compound, the suspect allegedly broke the bulglary proof in one of the windows with a stick and gained access into the Oluwa’s sitting room.

    As he was ransacking the house for money and other valuables, he heard a noise outside the compound. Suspecting that the owners of the house had returned, ended his operation abruptly and limped out of the house. Outside a crowd was waiting for him.

    Here.

  • Bloody Liar

    From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    Asked about how the tongue was chopped off, Abdul explained that it was possible that the nails of Paulina did the damage while she was struggling to pull out her fingers from Chinyere’s mouth.
    “The tongue is a soft tissue. It could have been chopped off by Paulina’s nails. Chinyere herself could have unconsciously chopped off her tongue when Paulina slapped her in the face. But definitely, there was no evidence either from the two ladies or eye-witnesses that Paulina chopped off the tongue.

    “They were not kissing each other and the tongue can never allow itself to be chopped off carelessly like that”, the 2 Division PRO said.
    Here.

  • Zuma sorry for not using condom

    Zuma sorry for not using condom

    From the BBC:

    Mr Zuma remained composed as he answered journalists’ questions.

    But he became visibly upset when a journalist challenged him on his admission made in court and widely reported in the media, that he had showered after sex to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

    “If you’ve been in the kitchen, my dear, peeling onions, you wash your hands afterwards,” he said.

    Here.

  • Heavy fighting for Somali capitol

    Heavy fighting for Somali capitol

    From the BBC:

    “Every corner of the city, the militias of the same rival groups have taken up positions to prepare for more lethal fighting… there is no cold place in an inferno.”

    The Islamic courts have restored order to some parts of the city by providing justice under Sharia – Islamic law.

    The alliance of warlords recently created the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.

    Here.

  • African Union Official Is Hacked to Death in Darfur

    African Union Official Is Hacked to Death in Darfur

    From The New York Times:

    “Janjaweed, janjaweed!” the crowd shouted, grasping at a Sudanese man who works for Oxfam, the British aid organization, as he tried to flee the melee in a car. They were using the local term for the Arab militias who have aligned with the government and carried out brutal attacks on non-Arab villages across the vast arid, countryside of Darfur, a region the in western Sudan the size of France.

    The anger in the swirling crowd was palpable when they set upon the aid worker, a Sudanese man who has been working as a primary health coordinator for Oxfam for many years. One young man wielded a knife that came so near the worker’s flesh it sheared his shirt. Women tugged at his legs. Boys in filthy white robes wielding sticks and rocks smashed the windows of the United Nations car in which he was trying to get away.

    Here.

  • Wedding Reception Ends in Tragedy

    Wedding Reception Ends in Tragedy

    From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    He also denied killing young Tope Alawoya in a fit of anger.
    According to him, trouble started when the victim gave him a blinding slap across the face, for casting aspersions on his parents.

    He said: “ I know something was behind what happened to me. The way it happened, it was as if I was under the influence of supernatural forces. It couldn’t have been the two bottles of beer. I am a drinker. As he just hammer me the slap, make him for no go, na him I just break the bottle buaaaa for his head.”

    Here.

  • Who Exhumed my Mother's Corpse?

    Who Exhumed my Mother's Corpse?

    From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    The whole tomb was upturned, the marble tomb stone unearthed and the corpse exhumed in broad day light by some persons, who were allgedly accompanied by thugs meant to silence any oppositions. The corpse was accordingly taken to unidentified place.

    Here.

  • Cheney Switches From Scowls to Smiles

    From the Washington Post:

    A day after scolding Russia for retreating on democracy, Vice President Cheney flew to oil-rich Kazakhstan yesterday and lavished praise on the autocratic leader of a former Soviet republic (Nursultan Nazarbayev) where opposition parties have been banned, newspapers shut down and advocacy groups intimidated.

    Here.

  • In Afghan Poppy Heartland, New Crops, Growing Danger

    From the Washington Post:

    On a recent day in April, when U.S. aid officials flew to Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, with several journalists, they were greeted on the tarmac by a commando-style security team that instructed the visitors on what to do if their vehicles were shot at or bombed, issued everyone flak jackets and closely guarded their convoy at every step.

    When the group arrived at a tiny cucumber and eggplant patch, heavily armed Afghan and foreign security guards surrounded it. Later they fanned out across empty poppy fields, and stood guard along a dusty cobblestone road being built by former poppy farmers who are paid $4 per day by USAID.

    Here.

  • McClellan Sticks to Message Till the End

    McClellan Sticks to Message Till the End

    From the Washington Post:

    “This country is on a solid track under this president because of his leadership.”

    “We’re more interested in looking at the results, not the polls.”

    “We are winning in Iraq.”

    Here.

  • The Fix-It Man Leaves, but The Agency's Cracks Remain

    From Dana Priest, Pulitzer prize winner at the Washington Post:

    One senior European counterterrorism official, asked recently for his assessment of Goss’s leadership, responded by saying, “Who?”

    Goss, then the Republican chairman of the House intelligence panel, was handpicked by the White House to purge what some in the administration viewed as a cabal of wily spies working to oppose administration policy in Iraq. “He came in to clean up without knowing what he was going to clean up,” one former intelligence official said.

    Here.

  • Goss Forced Out as CIA Director; Gen. Hayden is Likely Successor

    From the Washington Post:

    Members of Congress privately predicted that Hayden, who once enjoyed tremendous support on the Hill, would face a contentious confirmation process over the Bush administration’s domestic spying program. Other sensitive issues, such as the existence of secret prisons abroad for terrorism suspects, also are likely to arise.

    “The calculus is that would be true about anybody at this point. Given all the other stuff, like secret prisons, the confirmation is going to be tough for anybody,” a senior administration official said.

    Here.

  • Some Saw Moussaoui as Bit Player, Juror Says

    From the Washington Post:

    Brinkema replied with a smile, noting that Moussaoui had yelled “America, you lost! . . . I won!” after the jury delivered its verdict.

    “Mr. Moussaoui, if you look around this courtroom today, every person in this room when this proceeding is over will leave this courtroom, and they are free to go anyplace they want,” she said before pronouncing the mandatory life sentence. “They can go outside, and they can feel the sun, they can smell fresh air . . . but when you leave this courtroom, you go back into custody. In terms of winners and losers, it is quite clear who won yesterday and who lost yesterday.”

    “That was my choice!” Moussaoui interrupted.

    Here.

  • In Image War, U.S. Shows Video of Bumbling Zarqawi

    In Image War, U.S. Shows Video of Bumbling Zarqawi

    From The New York Times:

    As the camera rolls, Mr. Zarqawi is flummoxed by how to fire the machine gun until an aide walks over and fiddles with the weapon so it discharges. Another scene shows Mr. Zarqawi hand the weapon off to several other insurgents, who absent-mindedly grab it by its scalding hot barrel.

    And after his shooting scene, Mr. Zarqawi walks away from the camera to reveal decidedly non-jihadist footwear: Comfortable white New Balance sneakers.

    Here.

  • Race Attacks that Stain Russia

    Race Attacks that Stain Russia

    From the BBC:

    Yuri Belyaev is one of its authors. He describes himself as a racist. He claims widespread public support for his views.

    “Russians are fed up with being humiliated in their own country. Negroes have more rights here and immigrants own all the property,” he told me.

    He makes light of the current wave of attacks saying, “The resistance you see for now is of the most innocent kind.”
    Here.

  • Living with Race Hate in Russia

    Living with Race Hate in Russia

    From the BBC:

    Standing in a Moscow Metro carriage for the first time, the young Gabonese man was thrown forward when the train started with a jolt and he grabbed a pole to keep his balance, brushing the Russian man’s hand.

    Without a word, the Russian withdrew his hand, produced a handkerchief and proceeded to wipe it demonstratively in front of the other passengers.

    Here.