Sanders' three-state sweep

Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders reeled off three victories on Saturday in the caucuses in Hawaii, Alaska and Washinton State, but Hillary Clinton still has a big delegate lead and poll numbers that give her good reason to look forward to November.

He won Washington state with an estimated 72% of the vote, Hawaii by 71% and 79% in Alaska.

But his victories highlight her lingering weakness among the liberal voters she would need to win the White House in November's election.

Buhari faults last administration's inability to cushion the effect of the dip in Oil Prices

Prince Alwaleed had said this not too long after the dip in Oil Price.

As can be seen from the figure below, it seems what the Prince had forecast is playing out before our visible eyes.

  

Nigeria, with huge exports of the commodity within the period of high price should before now possess all it takes to stimulate her economy. All we see is a contrary. Who gets the blame?

 

Buhari had said: “The fall of oil prices is a disaster. If from 1999, oil sold above $100 per barrel with an export of about two million barrels per day, how come Nigeria failed to make some arrangement to cushion the effect of a probably volatile oil market? Again, it shows failure of the last administration.

Buhari Assures: next three years will be result-driven

Muhammadu Buhari - Nigeria's President

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday responded to talks that his administration has not done anything since coming to office last May, promising to deliver on his election promises in the next three years.

Speaking at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, the President sought Nigerians’ understanding to enable his administration meet their expectations.

He said with the National Assembly’s passage of the budget and savings of over N3 trillion in the Treasury Single Account (TSA), things would begin to move fast.

Turning to his party leaders, the President said: “I will like you to continue to make sacrifice. I know you are being harassed since the election, with people saying that they have not seen anything on the ground. Well if you have any explanation that could be accepted, it is that you have three more years to go.”

The President added: “When we came in after 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), there were 42 ministries. We reduced them to 24; removed 21 Permanent Secretaries.

“So, imagine the volume of work …So, you have to appreciate the position we are in”.

The agencies, Buhari said, had to be pruned and their boards reconstructed following the reduction of ministries.

Banks not in support of 'mafia state'; says Zuma is giving them headache.

South Africa’s  main banking group said interference in the government by private groups is threatening the nation’s constitutional democracy, adding to a chorus of criticism over allegations that businessmen linked to President Jacob Zuma influenced cabinet appointments.

The Banking Association of South Africa, which includes all major banks in the country, was commenting on an uproar over Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas’s claim last week that he was offered a promotion to the Treasury’s top spot by members of the Gupta family, who are friends of Zuma’s and in business with his son. 

South Africans have described this sort of influence as “state capture.”

“We must be clear that ‘state and corporate capture’ is an euphemism for blatant corruption,” banking association Managing Director Cas Coovadia said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. 

“We remain deeply concerned and disturbed that the worrisome trend of undue and illegitimate influence and interference in the state continues to represent a clear and present danger and threat to the stability of our constitutional democracy.”

Patient kills doctor; then commits suicide

Police say a patient shot and killed a prominent New Orleans-area doctor inside his hospital office, before turning the gun on himself at a fast food restaurant.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene Thursday after 911 calls started coming from the hospital. Authorities say Dr. Elbert Goodier III, 75, died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The attack happened when Dr. Goodier was treating a patient on the East Jefferson General Hospital campus.

Police have identified the gunman as John P. Thomas, 73, of Kenner, Louisiana.

After shooting the doctor, police say Thomas walked across the parking lot to a Wendy's restaurant. When officers approached the front door, witnesses said he turned the gun on himself. Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dr. Elbert Goodier III

There's no motive in the case, but the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said Thomas was a patient of Dr. Goodier, a well-known urologist.

The Sheriff's Office said Thomas had no criminal history. His family said he suffered from an undisclosed mental illness, according to the police statement.

In a Facebook posting, the hospital's President and CEO Mark Peters wrote that the killing was a tragic loss and that "Dr. Goodier was respected and beloved by all who had the privilege of knowing him."

Nigeria terror leader Shekau reappears looking defeated: seems the end is near for Boko Haram

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau appeared on video for the first time in more than a year on Thursday, rejecting rumours about his death but appearing to signal his time in charge of the Nigerian jihadist group may be coming to an abrupt end.

In a message that contained none of the defiant bluster, taunts and denunciation of political leaders of previous videos and will likely be interpreted as an admission of defeat, the dejected-looking Shekau declared in the Hausa language: “For me the end has come”.

Brussels attack: ISIS claims attack that killed 30 in Belgian capital

ISIS claimed to strike yet again on European soil Tuesday, saying its "fighters" launched attacks on the airport and a subway station in Belgium's capital that killed at least 30 people and wounded about 230 more.

The atmosphere in Belgium has been tense for months, with the authorities warning of possible threats and pursuing terrorists. Tuesday's attacks followed on the heels of last week's capture of Europe's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, in a bloody raid in Brussels.

"We were fearing terrorist attacks," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters Tuesday. "And that has now happened."

The "working assumption" is that the attackers came from the network behind November's massacres in Paris, which left 130 dead, Belgian security sources said, while cautioning it is very early in the latest investigation.

Apple and the FBI clash; technology wins

There has been a current war raging between technology and government policy. Apple has used encryption technology to protect user data on the iPhone. But they left a crack in the armor, and the FBI wants to create policy to jump through that tiny crack in order to decipher what is on Syed Farook’s phone.

What this tells us is that encryption works. If the FBI or NSA could break strong encryption, then they would remove the memory chips from Farook’s iPhone, copy the data and run it through a cloud of government computers to read the files. But they can’t. That explains to us that encryption works.

So instead, the FBI has used the All Writs Act law from 1789 to convince a federal judge to force Apple to write a special version of iOS to unlock the iPhone of a bad fellow in 2016. If that sounds unlikely, well, it just might work.

If this policy wins in court and the FBI forces Apple to break open Farook’s phone, it won’t stop there. Apple will begin living the nightmare of hundreds of state and federal judges demanding exactly the same thing. And that’s just the beginning; governments around the world will join in with their demands. Apple will be forced to unlock phones from Beijing to Moscow, phones of both bad guys and protesters fighting repressive regimes.

When policy wins a round against technology, it often runs amok.

J. Zuma battles to save presidency as filth piles up and ANC warns of 'mafia state'

Jacob Zuma faces a battle to save his presidency as ruling party leaders prepare for a showdown this weekend over a controversy engulfing the government that one top official said is threatening to turn South Africa into a “mafia state.”

The meeting of the African National Congress’s decision-making National Executive Committee comes after revelations that the Guptas, who are Zuma’s family friends and business partners of his son, offered ministerial posts to ruling party officials.

On Wednesday, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas said he rejected a proposal made personally by the Gupta brothers that he take over the finance ministry position.

“We need to deal with this; it will degenerate into a mafia state if this goes on,” ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe told Bloomberg Thursday by phone. “The fact we are talking about this so boldly now shows that things are going to change.”

The country’s worst political crisis since the NEC recalled Thabo Mbeki as president in 2008 comes at a time when the economy is threatened with recession and hovering close to a junk credit rating, and just months before the country is due to hold municipal elections. 

Fani-Kayode asks Buhari to end Agatu Killing

Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to protect the lives and property of Nigerians by urgently putting to an end the mass killings in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Fani-Kayode in a statement yesterday said the "bloodletting by the Fulani herdsmen" is a curse on the nation, adding that the more such act is tolerated by the government, the more the destruction and mass murder of innocent Nigerians in the area.

"Injustice and wickedness to others, particularly to the weak, innocent, vulnerable and defenceless in our society attracts God's wrath. President Buhari needs to put a stop to the carnage being unleashed on the Nigerian people."

"I am calling him out and I am speaking for those that do not have a voice and the victims of these barbaric acts. Buhari must protect the Nigerian people."

He must call the perpetrators of these diabolical acts to order and he must punish them.

"Are the 500 Idomas that were killed in Agatu not human beings? Thousands of people have been displaced and many families have lost their homes and loved ones at the hands of these Fulani herdsmen who come from another world yet no-one appears to care," he said.

NNPC didn't remit N3.2tr in 2014 - Auditor General

The Auditor-General's latest annual report has revealed a string of irregular or fraudulent expenditures running into trillions of naira.

Mr. Samuel Ukura's 2014 annual audit report, coming about six months late, named the NNPC, office of the former National Security Adviser, the National Assembly and the Force Headquarters as some of the major culprits.

Submitting the report to the Clerk to National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasua, Mr Ukura revealed that the NNPC, for example, did not remit the sum of N3.2 trillion into the Federation Account in 2014.

He said: "The examination of NNPC mandates to CBN on domestic crude oil sales and reconciliation statement of technical sub-committee showed that N3, 234,577,666,791.35 was not remitted to the Federation Account."

He added: "The review of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) limited sales profile on Gas has shown that $235million was not paid to the Federation Account but transferred to some undisclosed Escrow accounts". He said the relevant documents were not made available for the verification of the said $235million.

Over 172 Nigerians Deported From Libya

172 Nigerians deported from Libya have returned to the country under the voluntary returnee programme organised by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM.

Spokesperson for the Nigerian Immigration Service, Ekpedeme King, who confirmed the return of the deportees, said that the voluntary returnee programme done in conjunction with the European Union and the Italian government, supports stranded illegal migrants willing to go home to return to their countries.

Mr Ekpedeme said that the deported Nigerians are suspected to have stayed back in Libya for different periods not more than nine months, after failed attempts to enter Europe from Libya.

He said that more Nigerians are still camped at the immigration detention camp in Libya which also houses nationals of other countries who are yet to volunteer to return home.

The immigration spokesperson said forceful deportation is not yet an option as the International Organisation for Migration is still in dialogue with the illegal migrants to encourage more voluntary repatriation.