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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Passports? Show Your Tax!

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, on Monday said soon, Nigerians might begin to show evidence of tax payment before obtaining their passports.

Tunde Fowler said this at the 136th meeting of the Joint Tax Board which had the theme: "Increased Inter-Agency Co-operation to Enhance Tax Compliance and Optimise Revenue Collection" in Abuja.

"We did take a position and I believe it would be implemented in the very near future that before you get any services from the immigration department: renewal of passports etc, you'd have to show that you are a tax payer.

Dar es Salaam — Trouble bedeviling operations of the Dangote cement factory in Mtwara could derail the mega plant and blot the country's attractiveness for investment.

The $500 million (Sh1 trillion) investment by Africa's richest businessman Aliko Dangote of Nigeria was commissioned in October 2015 amid pomp and ceremony but high operational costs associated mainly with over-dependence on diesel have led to a slow down on production since the beginning of the last quarter of this year and a complete halt last week.

More than meets the eye

The factory's management yesterday cited "non-critical, technical issues" as the reason for suspending production but high placed, impeccable sources from within the government and in the Dangote Industries Tanzania Limited say there was more than meet the eye in Dangote operational problems.

Biafra, Scene Of A Bloody Civil War...

In this 2012 photo, Igbo men carry a Biafra flag during a protest in Nnewi, Nigeria. (AP)

At first, the mood at the demonstration staged on a high school playing field in the city of Aba, Nigeria, was almost festive. Dozens of demonstrators, calling for Biafran independence, waved red, black and green flags, and danced, clapped and chanted. Within hours, the military moved in and opened fire with live bullets.

The flags toppled and were picked up by soldiers who used the wooden flagpoles to beat protesters who had fallen, as others fled. The scene plays out on a video taken by a witness and offered to the rights group Amnesty International.

Lagos (AFP) - It's not Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's fault that Nigeria's economy is inextricably tied to the global price of oil, now half of its 2014 peak of over $100 per barrel.

But the president's response to the economic crisis has a growing number of people concerned that he doesn't have what it takes to rescue Nigeria from recession.

Warning signs appeared early. Buhari took six months after being elected to name a Finance Minister, then vowed not to "kill the Naira" by devaluing it, against expert advice and with nefarious consequences.

Editorial Board

Africa and the world cannot afford a failing economy in the continent’s most populous nation. Yet that is exactly what Nigeria might be getting: Its economy is on track to shrink by 1.7 percent this year, the official unemployment rate has more than doubled over the last two years, and inflation is at an 11-year high.

One concrete step President Muhammadu Buhari could take to address the crisis would be to eliminate the country’s disastrous foreign exchange controls. Instead, Buhari has made no secret of his desire to defend Nigeria's currency.

Clinton Is Playing With Fire By Backing a Recount in Wisconsin

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is playing with fire by allowing her unsuccessful Democratic presidential campaign organization to participate in an election recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

Marc Elias, the Clinton organization’s general counsel, said over the weekend that the campaign would take part in the Wisconsin recount without financially contributing to the operation. He also raised the possibility of joining the Third Party in recounts in two other closely contested states, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump, seething over what he and his top advisers perceive as Clinton’s reneging on her pledge to abide by the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, predicted that a recount in Wisconsin and the other states would not alter the results of the election.

Job Hazard: Collapsed Scaffolding Left 67 Dead In East China

BEIJING (AP) — Scaffolding at a construction site in eastern China collapsed into a deadly heap on Thursday, sending iron pipes, steel bars and wooden planks tumbling down on about 70 workers in the country's worst work-safety accident in over two years.

At least 67 people were killed by the collapse of the work platform at a power plant cooling tower that was under construction, state media reported. Two others were injured and one worker was missing.

The cooling tower was being built in the city of Fengcheng in Jiangxi province when the scaffolding tumbled down at about 7:30 a.m., an official with the local Work Safety Administration who would only give his surname, Yuan, said by telephone.

Clinton To Challenge Election Results....?

They claim electronic voting machine tallies in key states show discrepancies that hurt Clinton.

A group of computer scientists and election lawyers are urging Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to challenge her election loss, saying they have evidence the results in three key battleground states were compromised.

According to New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, the activists say electronic voting systems in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania produced discrepancies that hurt Clinton.

Pregnant And Unwed Pastor Refusing To Step Down

One of the things I love most about my church in New York, First Corinthian Baptist Church is the genuine love you experience when you walk through the door. They literally have a Smile ministry, people who smile at you, sincerely when you walk into the sanctuary for Sunday service. When people join the church, the congregation literally sings a song to them. A song including the lyrics, “We love you.” But it’s not just something they say, it’s something you feel and experience.

And it’s consistent.

Their reaction to one of our executive pastors turning up pregnant and unmarried, was also one of love.

And while the church was willing to embrace Pastor Desiree Allen with open arms, the process for her to shake off the shame and stigma was a separate process. One she wrote about extensively on her blog, NotCinderella.com.

More than 40,000 Nigerians demand action from Shell to clean up oil spills that have devastated communities for decades.

The Nigerian water is contaminated with oil and cancer-causing compounds such as benzene. It is what his people drink every day.

Lawyers for more than 40,000 Nigerians are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills.

Britain's High Court began hearing lawsuits on Tuesday filed by the Ogale and Bille people alleging that decades of oil spills have fouled the water and destroyed the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the Niger River Delta, where a Shell subsidiary has operated since the 1950s.

They brought their fight to Shell's home base because they say the Nigerian courts are too corrupt.

This Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, shows a jacket once worn by a Holocaust survivor in the Queens borough of New York. A woman hunting for bargains at a tag sale on July 4, 2015, found the jacket hanging in the back of an upstairs bedroom closet and bought it. She then donated it to the Kuperferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College, where it is the centerpiece of an exhibit about the life of the man who wore it, the late Ben Peres. (AP Photo/Frank Eltman)

NEW YORK (AP) — The blue and gray stripes struck Jillian Eisman like a lightning bolt.

She was rummaging through a packed closet during a Long Island tag sale when she immediately recognized the symbol of horror and hate: a jacket worn by a prisoner at the Nazi Dachau concentration camp during World War II.

"I knew exactly what it was, even before I saw the numbers (84679 on the chest)," said Eisman, who purchased the jacket for $2 at the sale last year and donated it to the Kupferberg Holocaust Center in New York City.

330KV Power Switching Station In Akwa Ibom

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday, inaugurated a 330KV power switching station in Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom.

The minister, at Ikot Inyang village in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom, said that the switch on of the station would boost electricity supply in the country.

He said that the station was expected to evacuate electricity from power plants in Alaoji, Afam, Calabar and Ikot Abasi and route same to Ugwuaji in Enugu up to Jos.

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Central and West African countries have promised to protect their tropical forests from being cut down to make way for palm oil crops, in a declaration signed on Wednesday by governments representing more than 70 percent of Africa's tropical forests.

Palm oil, one of the world's most widely used vegetable oils, is a fast-growing business and a major cause of tropical deforestation worldwide.

The seven countries that signed the declaration in Marrakesh, where international climate talks are taking place, want to expand into the $50 billion global palm oil market.

'Tombs Of Saints' Inspire And Divide In Northern Nigeria

Tomb of Usman dan Fodio, one of the most famous names in the nation's history, pictured in Sokoto state of northern Nigeria (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei)

Sokoto (Nigeria) (AFP) - Pilgrims must walk through three rooms, a foyer and a 200-metre-long corridor before accessing the dimly-lit chamber where Usman dan Fodio and two of his sons are buried in Sokoto, northern Nigeria.

Old women sit against the plastered white mud walls begging for money. Inside the tomb, more than a dozen visitors sit with their palms cupped and lifted upwards in prayer, seeking dan Fodio's blessing.

Textile trader Sammani Yusuf is one of them. He drove more than 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the city of Kano to visit the graves and ask for his bed-ridden mother to get better and his business to pick up.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, meets with National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” Sharbat Gulla at the Presidential palace in Kabul. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president on Wednesday welcomed home Sharbat Gulla, National Geographic’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl,” just hours after she was deported from Pakistan, the latest in the odyssey of the globally recognized refugee.

Gulla’s deportation came after a regional court in the Pakistani city of Peshawar convicted her on charges of carrying a forged Pakistani ID card and staying in the country illegally.

The case has drawn international attention and criticism of Pakistani authorities over their perceived harsh treatment of Gulla — and other Afghans who Islamabad says will be expelled as illegal immigrants.

Edward Snowden Kills Team Trump's New Conspiracy Theory ...

On Sunday, FBI Director James Comey declared for the second time that Hillary Clinton committed no crimes regarding her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. Unsurprisingly, the reaction to this news was a highly partisan one, and perhaps Comey did work some damage to the Clinton campaign (as was the main criticism of his poorly timed public announcement). We can only speculate about that until Tuesday ends.

Speaking of speculation, a conspiracy theory immediately popped up on Twitter after Comey issued his letter. The bureau took about a week to comb through 650,000 messages amid all of the unsavory flotsam that surely resides on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. This was a lighting fast result, but was it too speedy?

President Obama campaigns for Hillary Clinton in Kissimmee, Fla

President Obama mocked Donald Trump on Sunday after a new reportindicated that the Republican nominee’s aides had barred him from firing off his own Twitter posts.
“I can’t confirm it’s true. But apparently his campaign has taken away his Twitter. In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control, they said, ‘We’re just going to take away his Twitter,’” Obama said while campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Kissimmee, Fla.

Obama continued: “Now, if somebody can’t handle a Twitter account, they can’t handle the nuclear codes. If somebody starts tweeting at 3 in the morning because ‘SNL’ made fun of you, then you can’t handle the nuclear codes.”

"There's only so much these guys can do. These poor young men come by my house…."

President Barack Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha, are 18 and 15 now, prime dating age. And guys actually do go out with them, Obama said. "That happened, you know?" he told a North Carolina radio station on Friday. "The truth is, I'm pretty relaxed about it for two reasons.

"One is [their mom] Michelle. She's taught—she's such a great example of how she carries herself, her self-esteem, not depending on boys to validate how you look or you know, not letting yourself be judged by anything other than your character and intelligence," he said. "And hopefully I've been a good example in terms of how I've shown respect to my wife. So I don't worry about it because they're really solid, smart girls—young ladies now."

Obama with the girls when they aren't on a coffee date.

And anyway, Obama has a fail-safe: "The other reason is because they've had Secret Service. There's only so much these guys can do. These poor young men come by my house and…."

"They have no idea—" the radio host remarked.

"No, they have an idea. I describe for them…." Obama then laughed. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, a bunch of hopeful guys shivered.

http://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a23461/president-obama-on-sasha-malia-obama-dating/

FBI stands by decision not to charge Clinton after review of additional emails

FBI Director James Comey delivered his second shock to the presidential campaign Sunday by announcing that there would not be any charges involving the newly found e-mails tied to Hillary Clinton.

In a letter sent to congressional leaders two days before Tuesday’s election, Comey said his agents had “been working around-the-clock to process and review [the] large volume of e-mails,” the discovery of which he revealed just nine days earlier

“During that process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state,” he wrote.

Mom Is Abruptly Kicked Off Of Her Flight. Little Does She Know It’s For Her Own Good

When the airline company Southwest learned something personal about one of the passengers on their flight, they stopped the plane and kicked her off. And it ended up being one of the most awesome things they could have done for her.

While Peggy Uhle was on the plane ready to take off from Chicago, Illinois to catch a connecting flight in Columbus, Ohio, the plane stopped on the tarmac and returned to the gate. The flight attendant approached Uhle and told her to get off the flight.

America Created ‘HIV/AIDS’ To Kill Black People – Thabo Mbeki

The HIV/AIDS epidemic was first reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) back in 1981. Almost immediately, rumors began to spread like wildfire that the deadly virus was concocted to destroy the Black race. But how could such a theory develop?

From the time HIV/AIDS hit the mainstream news, many Blacks believed that it was created in a laboratory and spread by the CIA with the goal of killing Blacks. However, round-the-way Black folk weren’t the only ones to believe in this conspiracy theory.

Case in point, post-apartheid South African President Thabo Mbeki once accused the U.S. government of manufacturing the disease in their military labs and world-renowned Kenyan ecologist, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Wangari Maathai used her international spotlight to give credence to the conspiracy theory about the creation of HIV/AIDS. After accepting her prestigious honor, the first African female Nobel laureate used her acceptance platform to state, that the deadly virus was created as a biological weapon by the west to wipe out Africans:

You might not have heard that banana is the number 1 consumed food in the United States, even more commonly consumed than oranges and apples combined.

Yet, every now and then, there is some new exotic fruit that is popularized as the newest health revolution, so we often underrate bananas.

However, you should remember that these fruits are extremely beneficial and offer various health benefits. Despite their delicious taste, bananas are rich in numerous nutrients, natural sugars, vitamins, and fibers.

This is another milestone set by Beijing to be in the court of the great powers, those whose currency refers. As of January 1, the yuan (or remimbi) rub shoulders with the US dollar, South African rand and the Botswana pula in the pockets of the people of Zimbabwe.

It must be said that the situation in this country is special. He has no national currency since 2009. The failed land reform President-dictator Robert Mugabe has led to a severe economic crisis that the government tried to stop cranking printing money. Result: hyperinflation than 500,000,000,000% according to the IMF. In 2009, the face value of the last break of the Zimbabwean dollar circulated by the national bank of the country had reached a surreal level: 100.000 billion!

For most 13-year-old’s, school, work, and play top off their day by day plans, however that is not the situation for Ugandan youngster Nicholas Luwuge. His fantasy of supporting his mom with the goal that she can appreciate a decent life has worked out on account of reasonable sparing propensities and a can-do mentality. In a meeting with the Monitor, Luwuge uncovered that he fabricated a two-room home for his mom with a shoestring spending plan of $1,174.

“My mom was living in a wooden house, yet I profited. In this way, I chose to build one for her. I utilized blocks, stones and bond. I was replicating the style utilized by the previous region administrator, Nalunga Bunjazm, whose house has a firm establishment,” he clarified.

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Dr Adedunmola Oluwo, a 24 year old Nigerian lady from Abeokuta, Ogun State, went against all odds to achieve a feat most people would consider impossible…

The recently graduated medical Doctor, who attended University of Debrecen Hungary, challenged herself to start not one or two businesses while in Medical School but four unique businesses. Aside from owning these four businesses, she was the only one running it as a one-man team with no help whatsoever.

At the age of 17 when she moved to Hungary for her studies, she started her first business, Hair by Dedun, as a means to get extra cash for monthly stipends but ended up making more than enough from the business. As an inquisitive lady, she decided to try her hands on baking just for the fun of it and luckily for her, a friend tasted one of her delicious cakes and placed the first order.