Day Of Tragedy - 77 Dead After Train Derails, Splits Apart In Spain

It was a tragic day for dozens of families in Spain as a speed train traveling from Madrid to the town of Ferrol derailed and crashed killing seventy seven (77) passengers. Read how CNN.com reported the incident after the cut….

KOLA BOOF ATTACKS IDRIS ELBA

 

Ms. Kola Boof today said that Idris Elba's role as Nelson Mandela  in the much anticipated Movie: Long Journey to Freedom is an insult. She was of the opinion that a South African actor could have played the role.

See the excerpt of her tweet....

"Idris Elba playing Nelson Mandela is a total insult. They could hire a South African actor. I won't support that b.s.movie."

Is she beefing Idris?

List Of Shameless Senators Who Voted In Favour To Legalize Underage Marriage In Nigeria

Shameless Nigeria Senate three (3) days ago voted to legalize the marriage of underage children in the Country. Below is how Naij.com reported it.  

We now know how senators voted on the constitution amendment bill which caused uproar in the senate on Tuesday.

The part up for ammendment relates to persons qualifies to renounce Nigerian citizenship. The constitution in Section 29 says anyone of age can do so.

Section 29(4) (b) says that” any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.” It means that even a child if married can be seen to be of full age and as such can renounce citizenship. The committee proposed that that provision be deleted.

When it was put to vote, 2/3 of members present voted for it which meant it was deleted. 

Senator Yerima had kicked and mobilised his fellow Muslims in the Senate which was threatening to cause confusion. Despite the senate president, David Mark insisting that it could no longer be revisited as it had been voted upon, Yerima continued his objection.

Due to the sensitive nature, Mark had to call for another vote. At this point the Senators who were in favour of this clause could no longer muster 2/3 of the votes that will retain Section 29, Clause 4 (b).

Senators still voted 60 votes to 35 votes for the clause to be deleted, but it did not satisfy the 2/3 requirement and so, according to the senate version, “any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.”

Thanks to Sen. Babafemi Ojudu (Ekiti Central, ACN), we have the full list of the senators who voted NO)

The senators who voted NO, that is those who did not want the clause deleted, include the following:

1. Sen. Abdulmumin M. Hassan (Jigawa South West, PDP)

2. Sen. Abdullahi Danladi (Jigawa North West, PDP)

3. Sen. Adamu Abdullahi (Nasarawa West, PDP)

4. Sen. Ahmed Barata (Adamawa South, PDP)

5. Sen. Akinyelure Ayo (Ondo Central, Labour Party)

6. Sen. Alkali Saidu A. (Gombe North, PDP)

7. Sen. Bagudu Abubakar A. (Kebbi Central, PDP)

8. Sen. Dahiru Umaru (Sokoto South, PDP)

9. Sen. Galaudu Isa (Kebbi North, PDP)

10. Sen. Garba Gamawa (Bauchi North, PDP)

11. Sen. Danjuma Goje Mohammed (Gombe Central, PDP)

12. Sen. Gobir Ibrahim (Sokoto East, PDP)

13. Sen. Gumba Adamu Ibrahim (Bauchi South, PDP)

14. Sen. Hadi Sirika (Katsina North, CPC)

15. Sen. Ibrahim Bukar Abba (Yobe East, ANPP)

16. Sen. Jajere Alkali (Yobe South, ANPP)

17. Sen. Jibrilla Mohammed (Adamawa North, PDP)

18. Sen. Kabiru Gaya (Kano South, ANPP)

19. Sen. Lafiagi Mohammed (Kwara North, PDP)

20. Sen. Lawan Ahmad (Yobe North, ANPP)

21. Sen. Maccido Mohammed (Sokoto North, PDP)

22. Sen. Musa Ibrahim (Niger North, CPC)

23. Sen. Ndume Mohammed Ali (Borno South, PDP)

24. Sen. Sadiq A. Yaradua (Katsina Central, CPC)

25. Sen. Saleh Mohammed (Kaduna Central, CPC)

26. Sen. Tukur Bello (Adamawa Central, PDP)

27. Sen. Ugbesia Odion (Edo Central, PDP)

28. Sen. Umar Abubakar (Taraba Central, PDP)

29. Sen. Usman Abdulaziz (Jigawa North East, PDP)

30. Sen. Ya’au Sahabi (Zamfara North, PDP)

31. Sen. Zannah Ahmed (Borno Central, PDP)

32. Sen. Ahmad Rufai Sani (Zamfara West, ANPP)

33. Sen. Ahmad Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central, PDP)

34. Sen. Bello Hayatu Gwano (Kano North, PDP)

35. Sen. Ibrahim Abu (Katsina South, CPC)

Some senators did not register to vote, while some abstained.

After the second voting, Yerima tried to get up to thank the Senate Present and his colleagues in an attempt to claim victory, he was shouted down and booed.

Here is the photos of the list:

Is there any way these Senators can make good Laws  for the Country?

Purported letter from Taliban to Malala Yousafzai: Why we shot you

In a letter to a Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head on her way home from school, a senior Taliban commander purportedly tells her that she was targeted not because she advocated education for all girls, but rather for her criticism of the militant group.

The letter attributed to Adnan Rashid was released just days after 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai took the stage at the United Nations, where she delivered an emotional plea for the right to go to school on behalf of all children.

Malala was 15 when gunmen jumped on her school bus and shouted her name, scaring other girls into identifying her, in the Swat Valley on October 9, 2012. The attack sparked massive protests. 

"The Taliban believe you were intentionally writing against them and running a smear campaign to malign their effort to establish an Islamic system in (the) Swat Valley, and your writings were provocative," according to the letter, which was dated Monday and released to CNN by a Pakistan intelligence source.

"You have said in your speech ... that the pen is mightier than the sword. So they attacked you for your sword not your books or school."

CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the letter, but its validity has been generally accepted by Pakistan intelligence officials.

Rashid made headlines last year after the Taliban broke him out of a Bannu prison, where he was serving a life sentence following his 2003 conviction for his role in the attempted murder of former President Pervez Musharraf. Nearly 400 prisoners were freed in the jailbreak, which authorities believe was staged to get Rashid out, a former Pakistani Air Force officer.

In the letter, Rashid said he was writing -- not as a Taliban leader -- to say he was shocked by the shooting, and to express his regret that he did not warn Malala ahead of time of the attack.

The letter went on to say that the Taliban supports the education of women, as long as it adheres to Islamic law.

He urged her, according to the letter, to return to Pakistan and "use your pen for Islam and the plight of the Muslim community."

Gordon Brown, the U.N. special envoy on global education, blasted Rashid's letter.

"Nobody will believe a word the Taliban say about the right of girls like Malala to go to school until they stop burning down schools and stop massacring pupils," he said in a statement released Wednesday.

This summer in Pakistan, a teacher was gunned down in front of her son as she drove into her all-girl school. A school principal was killed and his students severely injured when a bomb was tossed onto a school playground at an all-girl school in Karachi in March.

In January, five teachers were killed near the town of Swabi in the volatile northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the United Nations says.

And, in June, a suicide bomber blew up a bus carrying 40 schoolgirls as it made its way to an all-girl campus in Quetta. Fourteen female students were killed.

Source: CNN.com

Outspoken Putin critic Alexei Navalny hit with prison sentence

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to five years in jail for theft on Thursday, an unexpectedly tough punishment which supporters said proved President Vladimir Putin was a dictator ruling by repression.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who led the biggest protests against Putin since he took power in 2000, hugged his wife Yulia and his mother, shook his father's hand and then passed them his watch before being led him away in handcuffs.

"Shame! Disgrace!" protesters chanted outside the court in Kirov, 900 km (550 miles) northeast of Moscow. Some supporters wept and others could barely hide their shock and anger.

State prosecutors had asked the court to jail Navalny for six years on charges of organising a scheme to steal at least 16 million roubles ($494,000) from a timber firm when he was advising the Kirov region governor in 2009.

But even a five-year sentence means he will not be able to run in the next presidential election in 2018 or for Moscow mayor in September as he had planned. Some political analysts had expected the court to hand down a suspended sentence, to keep Navalny out of prison but rule out any political challenge.

The United States and European Union expressed concern over the conviction, saying it raised questions about the rule of law in Russia and Putin's treatment of opponents.

Russian shares fell on concerns the ruling could provoke social unrest, after a case that has led to comparisons with the political "show trials" under Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

In a last message from court, Navalny, 37, referred to Putin as a "toad" who abused Russia's vast oil revenues to stay in power, and urged his supporters to press on with his campaign.

"Okay, don't miss me. More important - don't be idle. The toad will not get off the oil pipeline on its own," he wrote on Twitter.

Two people were detained in a small protest in Kirov. At least 3,000 gathered near the Kremlin in Moscow and at least 10 people were detained, with police going into the crowd to pluck out people who held up portraits of Navalny. Some motorists honked their horns in support of the protests.

Rallies were also held in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg in the Urals but no big clashes were reported.

Public support for Navalny is limited, and Putin remains popular with many Russians. The independent Levada polling group had put the opposition leader on only about eight percent support in the Moscow mayoral election, but put Putin's job approval rating at 63 percent in June.

Source: Naij.com