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- British girl, 4, and her grandmother treated in hospital after being attacked by Barbary ape during visit to Gibraltar nature reserve
- Top city lawyer who lied on his CV that he had been to Oxford and Harvard quits his job after being exposed as a fake
- Minister of Aviation Stella Is More Concerned About Her Beauty ––Fani-Kayode
- SHAME: Mob Lynches 3 Nigerians For Kidnapping In Guinea
- SEE Genevieve Nnaji's Cries About Her Inability To Get A Man
- Rapé Of NYSC Girl: Court Frees King, Says It Was Not Rapé
- CUSTOMER SERVICE/CALL CENTER JOB 90K MONTHLY
- Genevieve Nnaji Says She Is Single And It's Going Very Well
- Photos: Angry Chinese Girl Who Says Her Boy Friend Cheated On Her Slaps Him Severally On The Streets
- Alesha Dixon and Nigerian beau Azuka Ononye welcome daughter
- Photos: Nigerian acid attack victim Naomi Oni has eyebrows restored
- Ventures Africa's Richest People in Africa 2013 List
- Grandmother used sledgehammer, knife to kill baby, prosecutors allege
- Please donate to Associated Air crew members who survived crash
- Obama calls Boehner as stalemate continues over shutdown, default
| Posted: 09 Oct 2013 11:02 AM PDT  A British four-year-old girl and her grandmother were rushed to hospital after a 'terrifying' ape attack on Gibraltar. They were pounced on when they came face to face with a Barbary macaque while visiting the Upper Rock nature reserve. The monkey bit the four-year-old, known only as Sophia, above the ankle and then went for the grandmother, named Jean, who suffered serious bruising and scratches to her arm.  | ||
| Posted: 09 Oct 2013 10:51 AM PDT   A top City lawyer has been exposed as a fake after it was discovered that he lied on his CV that he had been to Harvard and Oxford universities. Dennis O'Riordan, 51, said that he had attended the top institutions to get jobs at a string of banks, barristers' chambers and solicitors' firms during his five-year legal career. He was forced to quit his job as special consultant at Paul Hastings after his lies were revealed as a result of a job application to an unnamed barristers' chambers. On his CV, he claimed he:
He was finally reported to the professional body for barristers, the Bar Standards Board, who suspended him from practice for three years.  | ||
| Minister of Aviation Stella Is More Concerned About Her Beauty ––Fani-Kayode Posted: 09 Oct 2013 10:39 AM PDT  My advice and counsel to her is to grow up and stop being petty. She is meant to talk like someone who befits her office and not like a market woman. I do not like joining issues with women publicly which is why I was very gentle with her in my essay though I made my point. But this particular woman is endangering the lives of our people with her incompetence and insensitivity and we cannot just keep quiet. This is a woman under whose watch almost 200 people have been killed as Aviation Minister and instead of focusing on how to save lives her obsession has become smearing and abusing Femi Fani-Kayode. This is a woman who only yesterday told Nigerians that "accidents are inevitable" and that they were "acts of God." This is a woman who thinks more about how her headscarf looks, her jewellry and the jewellry of others more than she does about protecting Nigerian air travellers. If anyone should bury her head in shame, it is her and not me. After just under 200 of our fellow citizens have been killed under her watch instead of abusing her critics and those of us that have expressed our concern and offered our advise she should be seeking repentance from God and tendering her resignation. She should be attempting to encourage the Nigerian people and assuage their fears rather than indulging in petty and cheap sideshots and an futile press war. Instead of comforting the families of those that were lost she is opening her mouth and abusing me. What a shame! Under her tenure we have beautiful terminals but deadly and blood soaked skies. Our skies have become a death trap because she really doesn't care. My advice to her is to shut up, get serious and focus on doing her job rather than attempting to smear me with her filthy lies and malicious innuendos. I raised some serious issues in that essay that were clearly above her education level and I avoided personal insults. That is what civilsed people do. She should learn from that and address the issues that were raised rather than spend her time trying to kill the messenger. When someone says that God is the author of fatal crashes you know that it is not the same God that we worship as that person. It is the devil that causes accidents and kills people and not God. You can say that a fatal accident is an act of God only if the devil is your god. When I speak and write I am under the influence of one thing and one thing alone- the Spirit of the Living God who sees through her and who knows her for what she is. She is the one that is under the influence of one thing or the other and not me. She is the one whose hands are filled with blood. She is the one that must bury her head in shame and no-one else. I will pray for her because she needs it and I will pray for Nigeria too. May God deliver us from these people. By Chief Femi Fani-Kayode  | ||
| SHAME: Mob Lynches 3 Nigerians For Kidnapping In Guinea Posted: 09 Oct 2013 10:36 AM PDT  "Death to Nigerians! Enough is enough, stop! The Nigerians must leave," chanted the crowd. A rumour quickly spread across the city that the child had been taken by a group of Nigerians, prompting an angry crowd to gather which security forces were unable to control. An AFP journalist confirmed that he saw two of the Nigerian bodies in the morgue. Hundreds of angry rioters, young and armed with stones and bottles, managed to grab one of the suspected kidnappers from a police car as officers stood by powerless, according to the AFP journalist. Police fired warning shots and tear gas in an effort to disperse the mob, but they were unsuccessful. The police called for reinforcements and soldiers from Economic Community of West African States currently in the country were deployed in the town and managed to restore some sense of calm in the afternoon. The Nigerian embassy in Bissau, where many Nigerians sought refuge, was surrounded by security forces for protection. Many shop-owners in the city closed because of the violence. The latest abduction came at a tense time in Bissau, as in the past fortnight several incidents of kidnappings and other crimes have been reported to the police. In other to prevent any Nigerian from taking a child out of the country illegally, the authorities have enforced a travel ban on unaccompanied children and any adults travelling with infants who they cannot prove are relations are immediately arrested.  | ||
| SEE Genevieve Nnaji's Cries About Her Inability To Get A Man Posted: 09 Oct 2013 10:22 AM PDT   f you've been wondering why the likes of Nollywood actresses Genevieve Nnaji and Rita Dominic are still in the struggle to find a man to marry them, then you can have an idea of their predicament through this. One of the ladies, Genevieve in particular, has cried out that it is not easy dating a man these days and she took time to outline her challenges and copied a fellow single actress, Rita Dominic. See her complains below:  First, Genevieve confirmed that she is still single.  Here she poured out her heart on how difficult it's been for her to get a man of her own.  | ||
| Rapé Of NYSC Girl: Court Frees King, Says It Was Not Rapé Posted: 09 Oct 2013 10:16 AM PDT  Justice Oyejide Falola of the Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun gave the verdict on Tuesday, putting an end to a three-year sexual case that has brought national attention on the traditional king, and his accuser, the beautiful Miss Helen Okpara. The Judge said Miss Okpara failed to show bruises on her private part as evidence that she was raped. Delivering judgment, Justice Falola said that the plaintiff, Miss Helen Okpara, failed to tender enough exhibits to convince the court beyond reasonable doubt that she was indeed raped by the monarch. The judge also held that Helen, who accused the monarch of raping her at his private residence in Osogbo, failed to prove that she was raped in the course of her sexual affair with the King. The Judge said a case of rape could only be established with exhibits such as bed sheet, the victim's pant and a medical report indicating forceful penetration, adding that the prosecutor failed to tender all these. He further said the prosecutor failed to show to the court the plaintiff's torn clothes as she had claimed in her submissions before the court. While stressing that a case of rape must be proved with injuries sustained on the private part as well as other parts of the body, Falola said the court was not convinced that Miss Okpara sustained any injury. Justice Falola also said the court was able to establish the fact that Okpara and the monarch had been having regular sexual relationship before a misunderstanding ensued between them. Hmmmn... could it be that Ms Okpara just wanted to blackmail her lover, the king, and get some cash?  | ||
| CUSTOMER SERVICE/CALL CENTER JOB 90K MONTHLY Posted: 09 Oct 2013 10:07 AM PDT   Address: Visit 82 Allen Ave Ikeja, opposite Mainstreet bank Lagos. Or call any of the Client Executive Officers NB: Accommodation available at a small fee for those that do not reside in Lagos. Weekend option available for those currently working. You can call the numbers below: •Mike 08092298673 •Stephanie 08137234351 •Bunmi 08128693392 •Funmi 08065642110 •Crystal 08137766764 •Desola 08163749903 •Chioma 07063310536 •Monday 08130360372 Website: www.lagostelecom.com Promo has been called off, call any of the client executive officers for current discount code.  | ||
| Genevieve Nnaji Says She Is Single And It's Going Very Well Posted: 08 Oct 2013 12:06 PM PDT | ||
| Photos: Angry Chinese Girl Who Says Her Boy Friend Cheated On Her Slaps Him Severally On The Streets Posted: 08 Oct 2013 12:02 PM PDT  The man was accused of cheating on the woman after bringing another girl back to his flat in Hong Kong. After his girlfriend took him out to the street and began berating him, a crowd of onlookers gathered and started filming the scene, which has since been posted on YouTube.  The 20-year-old woman, named Cheng, was later arrested on suspicion of common assault, while the victim, 23-year-old Chui, was taken to hospital. The alleged assault happened last Friday in the Kowloon City area of Hong Kong, after Chui took a girl to his flat despite the fact he was going out with Cheng. She made him kneel on the pavement in full view of passers-by, and accused him of going behind her back by inviting in the other girl - who was standing next to the couple throughout the fight. However, he insisted he had not asked the girl to come to his flat, saying: 'Listen to me first before beating me.' Cheng then started slapping Chui across the face as he screamed, 'You're slandering me!', and urged the other girl to corroborate his story. The scene was filmed by an onlooker, who commented at one point: 'At least break up with her if you're not fighting back.' As other bystanders started to intervene in the altercation, Cheng shouted, 'None of your business!' Most witnesses took Chui's side, with one woman telling him: 'Stand up, ditch this ugly girl, you deserve better.' One passer-by called the police, leading to Cheng's arrest. A police spokesman told South China Morning Post: 'Police received a report at around 5.10pm on October 4 outside 38 San Ma Tau Street in Kowloon City. 'Police who arrived at the scene arrested a female, aged 20 and surnamed Cheng, for common assault. A victim, aged 23 and surnamed Chui, was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment.' After video of the incident was posted online, it attracted more than 700,000 hits in less than three days.     | ||
| Alesha Dixon and Nigerian beau Azuka Ononye welcome daughter Posted: 08 Oct 2013 11:57 AM PDT     The members of the association of Undertakers in Lagos have finally revealed their anger with the family of late Agagu and what they are expected the family to do. Below are the revelations: Deinde Harrison is the boss of Ebony Caskets, here is what he told Encomium on the matter... What happened between your association and the late Olusegun Agagu family over the burial? After the plane crash incident, they approached about three of us undertakers. Before they approached us, we had heard that they were going ahead with the burial and we felt slighted. We felt that if any member of the Agagu family had perished in the air crash, I am sure they would have postponed the burial. Somebody that was helping them to give their father a befitting burial did not only loose his life but that of his son and four members of his staff and yet they were behaving as if nothing happened. That was why we felt it was a slap on our face, therefore we weren't going to participate in the burial. Did you eventually agree with them because they eventually buried the man with another casket? No. I think they must have gotten the new casket in Ondo state or somewhere else. But for us here in Lagos, we refused to do it. They must have gotten those who did the burial in Ondo state or anywhere else but not from Lagos. So those pallbearers were not from M.I.C, who were already stationed in Akure Ondo State? Not at all. We in Lagos state after the incident held a meeting and agreed among ourselves not to partake in the burial. We called an official of the Ondo state government who told us in confidence that they advised against the Family going ahead with the burial on that Friday October 4, 2013, because of the people who lost their lives in the plane crash. He said since they were not the owners of the corpse, they couldn't stop them from burying it. Ondo state government lost a commissioner and four other officials in the plane crash. The state Government through the official also denied awarding the burial contract directly to Mr Tunji Okusanya. According to the official, the government dealt directly with the family through Mr Femi Agagu, late Gov Agagu's younger brother and former chief of staff in Ondo state when his late brother was the governor and Feyi Agagu, the first and only son of Late Olusegun Agagu.  | ||
| Photos: Nigerian acid attack victim Naomi Oni has eyebrows restored Posted: 08 Oct 2013 11:54 AM PDT    The acid burned off the skin on her face and scalp and left her temporarily blinded. She lost her eyelids, eyebrows and some of her hair in the assault. Fortunately doctors have been able to rebuild her her features, including taking skin from the back of her ear to make new eyelids for her and now new eyebrows. See more more photos after the cut.    
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| Ventures Africa's Richest People in Africa 2013 List Posted: 08 Oct 2013 11:30 AM PDT  The combined fortune of Africa's 55 billionaires is $143.88 billion. The average net worth of the members of this exclusive club is $2.6 billion, while the median age of the richest people in Africa is 65 years. The oldest billionaires are Kenyan industrialist, Manu Chandaria, and Egyptian property tycoon, Mohammed Al-Fayed, both aged 84. The youngest billionaires are Mohammed Dewji of Tanzania and Igho Sanomi, a Nigerian oil trader. They are both 38 years old. Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt lead the pack with the highest number of billionaires at 20, nine and eight respectively. Algeria, Angola, Zimbabwe and Swaziland only have one billionaire each. In all, there are 10 African countries represented on the list. Three women made it into the rankings. The richest of them is Folorunsho Alakija, a Nigerian fashion designer and oil tycoon worth some $7.3 billion by our estimates.See the full list after the cut...  1. Aliko Dangote $20.2 billion Industry: Manufacturing Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria Age: 56 Marital Status: Married Africa's richest man started building his fortune three decades ago after taking a business loan from his maternal uncle to begin trading in commodities such as flour, sugar, rice and cement. In the early 2000s, he started producing these items himself. His Dangote Group is now the largest manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa and owns sugar refineries, salt processing facilities, a beverage manufacturer and a string of cement plants across Africa. In October 2012, Dangote sold a controlling stake in his flour milling company to Tiger Brands, a South African manufacturer of consumer goods. He pocketed $190 million from the sale. Dangote's biggest asset is Dangote Cement, a $20-billion (market cap) cement manufacturer with operations in 14 countries and an annual production capacity of 30 million metric tonnes. In June this year, South Africa's Public Investment Corporation acquired a 1.5-percent stake in the company for $290 million. Dangote is also Africa's most generous philanthropist. Within the last 12 months, he has given away over $100 million to causes ranging from youth empowerment to flood relief, religious causes and education. His younger brother, Sani Dangote, is Vice Chairman of Dangote Group.  2. Allan Gray $8.5 billion Industry: Financial services Country Of Citizenship: South Africa Age: 75 Marital Status: Married This media-shy South African moneyman controls two investment companies that collectively manage over $50 billion in assets. After Gray received an MBA from Harvard, he worked for eight years at Fidelity Management and Research in Boston before returning to Cape Town in 1973, when he founded Allan Gray Limited, now the largest privately owned asset manager in South Africa. It is also the most successful with assets under management at approximately $30 billion. According to inside sources at the company, Allan Gray's global mandate share portfolio has achieved an average annual return of 28 percent since 1974. Keys to success include rigorous research and the consistent application of Allan Gray's ages-old and time-tested investment approach of buying heavily into companies whose share price is less than their intrinsic value. Gray is also the founder of Orbis, an asset manager in Bermuda, which he founded in 1989. Orbis has over $21 billion under management. Gray's son, William, is President of Orbis and equally serves as portfolio manager of the Orbis Funds. Gray and his family are the controlling shareholders of Allan Gray Limited and Orbis. In 2007, Gray endowed his Allan Gray Orbis Foundation with $130 million, the single largest charity gift in Southern Africa at the time. The foundation funds scholarships for poor but promising South African high school students.  3. Mike Adenuga $8 billion Industry: Oil, telecoms Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria Age: 60 Marital Status: Married Nigeria's second richest man made his first fortune in his mid-twenties by distributing lace fabrics and Coca- Cola, and by handling lucrative government contracts during the regime of former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida. In the early nineties he founded Conoil Producing, an indigenous oil exploration and production outfit that was the first Nigerian company to strike oil in commercial quantities. Today, Conoil Producing's assets produce more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day. Adenuga's other holdings include Globacom, a Nigerian mobile telecommunications network that boasts more than 25 million customers in Nigeria and Republic of Benin. He also owns a 74-percent stake in Conoil PLC, a petroleum marketing outfit listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.  4. Folorunsho Alakija $7.3 billion Industry: Oil Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria Age: 62 Marital Status: Married Africa's richest woman sits atop Famfa Oil, a Nigerian oil company that owns a 60-percent stake in OML 127, one of Nigeria's most prolific oil blocks located at Nigerian offshore Agbami deepwater field. Daily production at OML 127 stands at over 200,000 barrels per day. Alakija studied fashion design in England in the eighties, returning to Nigeria to found Supreme Stitches, a Nigerian fashion label which enjoyed patronage from the more successful women in Nigerian high society. One of her clients was Maryam Babangida, the wife to former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida. Alakija is believed to have ridden on the crest of this relationship to acquire an oil block in 1993 at a relatively inexpensive price. Famfa immediately entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep Water Petroleum (a subsidiary of Chevron and Brazil's Petrobas), ceding a 40-percent stake to the two companies. Famfa owned a 60-percent interest in the block until 2000, when the incumbent Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, forcefully acquired a 50-percent stake in the block, transferring it to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation – a government-owned oil company. Famfa Oil immediately went to court to challenge the acquisition in a case that dragged on for 12 years. In May 2013, the Nigerian Supreme court reinstated the 50-percent stake to Famfa Oil. Alakija also owns $200-million of real estate in the United Kingdom.  5. Nicky Oppenheimer $6.5 billion Industry: Mining, investments Country Of Citizenship: South Africa Age: 68 Marital Status: Married Diamonds are not forever. In November 2011, Nicky Oppenheimer made the momentous decision to sell off his family's stake in De Beers, the world's largest diamond producer, to mining behemoth Anglo American. The landmark $5.1-billion deal ended the Oppenheimer family's eight-decade control of De Beers, which began when Nicky's grandfather, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, took over the firm in 1927 and consolidated the company's global monopoly over the world's diamond industry. In 2011, E Oppenheimer & Sons, the family-owned investment firm which Nicky controls, partnered with Temasek, the investment firm of the Government of Singapore, to form Tana Africa Capital, a $300-million private equity fund that invests in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and agriculture sectors.  6. Johann Rupert $6.1 billion Industry: Luxury goods and retail Country Of Citizenship: South Africa Age: 63 Marital Status: Married Johann Rupert is the chairman of Swiss-based luxury goods company, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, which owns premium brands such as Cartier, Dunhill, IWC Schaffhausen, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin, among many others. It is the sixth largest company on the Swiss stock exchange and the third largest luxury goods company in the world. Johann's father, Anton Rupert, founded a small cigarette manufacturing operation, Rembrandt, in his garage in 1941 with a £10-investment. Rembrandt became incredibly popular among young South African smokers and by the 1950s, was already one of the leading tobacco firms in the continent. Anton, ever the visionary, diversified from tobacco into the industrial and luxury branded goods sectors, splitting Rembrandt into two divisions: Remgro (an investment company with financial, mining and industrial interests) and Richemont (the Swiss-based luxury goods group). Johann is chairman and the largest individual shareholder in both companies. He also owns two of South Africa's best-known vineyards, Rupert & Rothschild and L'Ormarins, and founded the Franschhoek Motor Museum, which houses his personal collection of over 200 antique motor vehicles.  7. Nassef Sawiris $5.2 billion Industry: Construction Country Of Citizenship: Egypt Age: 53 Marital Status: Married Nassef Sawiris is the youngest of the three sons of Egyptian billionaire and founder of the Orascom conglomerate, Onsi Sawiris. He heads Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), one of the largest companies in the North Africa region. In January this year, Nassef announced that OCI was exchanging all global depositary receipts of the company for newly issued shares of OCI NV on the NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam or in exchange for cash. A consortium of investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, provided the $1 billion in fresh capital required to pay off investors. The overwhelming majority of the shareholders accepted the buyout offer, which subsequently led to the company's delisting on the EGX. Nassef also serves as a director at Lafarge, the French cement giant, and the Dubai international Financial Exchange.  8. Gilbert Chagoury & Family $4.2 billion Industry: Construction Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria Age: 67 Marital Status: Married The Nigerian-Lebanese industrialist and diplomat is a co-founder of the Chagoury Group, a large, multi-faceted Nigerian conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, construction, real estate, hospitality and healthcare. Gilbert was born in 1946 in Lagos by Lebanese immigrant parents. After studying at the College des Freres Chretiens in Lebanon, he returned to Nigeria where he kick-started his business career. In 1971 he started GrandsMoulins du Bénin Flour Mills, a milling company in Cottonou, Republic of Benin, which formed the foundation of the Chagoury Group. Today, the Chagoury Group owns five flour-milling companies in Nigeria and Republic of Benin. Chagoury's milling operations collectively produce over 3,700 metric tonnes of wheat flour every day. The Chagoury Group also owns a glass bottle manufacturing plant and a plastic bottle manufacturing operation. Other assets include Eko Hotel, a five-star Hotel in Lagos, and Hotel Presidential, a five-star hotel in Port Harcourt. One of the newer companies within the group is South EnergyX, a real estate development company that is developing Eko Atlantic, a new $6-billion metropolis on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. When completed, Eko Atlantic is expected to provide residential accommodation for up to 250,000 people. Chagoury's property portfolio also includes Ocean Parade, a series of 14 tower blocks overlooking a lagoon in Banana Island, Nigeria's priciest residential community. Gilbert Chagoury's career has not been without controversy. In 2001, in a British court, he admitted to helping the family of deceased Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha, transfer $300 million into foreign accounts. He returned the money and was indemnified of charges.  9. Nathan Kirsh $3.6 billion Industry: Real Estate, Distribution Country Of Citizenship: Swaziland Age: 82 Marital Status: Married Nathan Kirsh made his first fortune after he founded a successful corn milling business in Swaziland. He deftly reinvested his profits in food distribution and real estate. The bulk of his fortune is held in various property and distribution companies. His investment company, Kirsh Holding Group, owns a 50-percent stake in Swazi Plaza Properties – the company that owns the largest shopping mall in Swaziland. He also owns a 29-percent stake in Minerva, a London-based property developer, and a 63-percent stake in Jetro Holdings, which operates Jetro Cash and Carry stores and Restaurant Depots in the New York City area. Jetro enjoys a near monopoly in supplying wholesale goods to small stores and restaurants in the New York City area and had revenues of over $6 billion in 2013. Kirsh is also the largest individual shareholder in Magal Security Systems, a developer and supplier of control systems and intruder detection systems.  10. Christoffel Wiese $3.4 billion Industry: Retail Country Of Citizenship: South Africa Age: 72 Marital Status: Married The South African businessman is the chairman and greatest individual shareholder of Shoprite, Africa's largest discount retailer. After studying Law at the University of Stellenbosch, Wiese took up a job as an executive director at Pep Stores, a discount clothing chain his parents co-founded. In 1979, Pep Stores diversified into groceries through its acquisition of Shoprite, a small South African retail chain. When Wiese became chairman of the company in 1981, he changed the company's name to Pepkor and made a series of acquisitions including Ackermans, a prominent clothing chain. He went on to list Shoprite on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. He owns a 15-percent stake in the $7-billion (market cap) company. While his Shoprite stake remains his biggest asset, he also owns significant stakes in other Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies, including Invicta Holdings, PSG Holdings, Tradehold, and private equity firm, Brait. Other assets include a private game reserve in the Kalahari and Lourensford Wine Estate.  | ||
| Grandmother used sledgehammer, knife to kill baby, prosecutors allege Posted: 08 Oct 2013 11:18 AM PDT  Left to babysit her 6-month-old granddaughter, a suburban Chicago woman instead turned on the infant, bludgeoning her and cutting her throat, prosecutors said Monday. Alfreda Giedrojc is being held without bail after a court appearance Monday afternoon, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office. She was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her granddaughter, Simonton said. The girl's father brought her to Giedrojc's home in the southwestern suburb of Oak Lawn on Sunday while he helped with repairs on a nearby home, Simonton told Olokunbolablessing.blogspot.com "Her father and grandfather had stepped out of the grandparents' house for a short time when this horrific event took place," Oak Lawn police said in a written statement on the death. While her husband was away, Giedrojc laid the child on the floor, pulled a sledgehammer from a nearby closet and swung it down on her head and body several times. She then picked the baby up and used a carving knife to slit her throat when she was still alive, Simonton said. Oak Lawn Det. Mike Kaufmann said the 61-year-old Giedrojc expressed remorse for the child's death when questioned, and investigators have found no record of previous arrests or mental illness. Attempts to reach the public defender assigned to represent Giedrojc were unsuccessful Monday evening.  | ||
| Please donate to Associated Air crew members who survived crash Posted: 08 Oct 2013 11:09 AM PDT   Account details Oluwatosin Samson - Fidelity Bank - Acct number 6016185549 or Access bank - 0018012231 I'm waiting to get Queeneth's bank details...  | ||
| Obama calls Boehner as stalemate continues over shutdown, default Posted: 08 Oct 2013 11:05 AM PDT  There were news conferences and a high-level phone call between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, but no immediate sign of progress on reopening the government a week into a partial shutdown or reaching a deal to avoid the first-ever U.S. default next week. Obama called Boehner on Tuesday morning, and the White House then announced the president would make a statement and take some questions from reporters at 2 p.m. ET. Earlier, Boehner demanded that Obama and Democrats negotiate with Republicans on steps needed to end the shutdown that began on October 1 and raise the nation's debt ceiling before the deadline for default on October 17. "Americans expect us to work out our differences, but refusing to negotiate is an untenable position," Boehner said, adding that Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are "putting our country on a pretty dangerous path" by rejecting GOP calls for talks. Obama has refused to negotiate on the shutdown or debt ceiling, calling the need to fund the government and increase its borrowing power constitutional responsibilities that must be free of partisan politics. The White House and Boehner's office agreed that little changed in the phone call Obama made to the speaker at 10:45 a.m. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said Obama reiterated his refusal to include the debt ceiling and a short-term spending plan to end the shutdown in negotiations on broader policy issues. A White House statement said Obama "is willing to negotiate with Republicans -- after the threat of government shutdown and default have been removed -- over policies that Republicans think would strengthen the country." Obama also urged Boehner to allow a vote in the House on the Senate-passed measure to reopen the federal government, and called for quick action on raising the debt limit, the White House statement said. In both cases, Obama said the House should pass "clean" proposals that don't have partisan amendments pushing GOP priorities, according to the statement. Economists warn that failure to increase the amount the government can borrow to pay its bills would mean a spike in interest rates that would ripple through the U.S. economy, as well as other ramifications. "If there was a problem lifting the debt ceiling, it could well be what is now a recovery would turn into a recession or even worse," Olivier Blanchard, an International Monetary Fund economist, said Tuesday. The shutdown that began when Congress failed to authorize government spending for the new fiscal year that started October 1 entered its second week, while the October 17 deadline to raise the debt ceiling looms ahead for political leaders locked in partisan stalemate. Boehner and conservative Republicans want to leverage the situation to wring concessions on deficit reduction and Obama's signature health care reforms from the White House and Democrats. So far, the president and Senate Democrats have rejected the GOP efforts, causing the impasse that is escalating public anger against all the parties involved, especially Republicans, according to recent polls. To keep up pressure on Obama and Democrats, House Republicans will propose a measure to set up negotiations on the debt limit and other fiscal issues, as well as one to guarantee paychecks for essential government workers are issued on time during the shutdown, GOP sources said Tuesday. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a GOP leader in the House, said a negotiating committee with Democrats and Republicans from both parties could pass a short-term extension of the debt ceiling while doing its work. "I suspect we can work out some mechanism to raise the debt ceiling while negotiations are under way but we're not going to simply raise it without talking about the deficit," Cole said. It was unclear if his description would satisfy Obama's insistence that the debt ceiling increase must be separate from political negotiations. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York called the GOP proposals the latest in a series of "new gimmicks" that avoid the need to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling before broader negotiations. "We have a simple plea with them: Let's open up the government, pay our debts, and then we'll discuss anything they want in a forum in which they want to discuss it," Schumer said. "It's more of the same right now." Boehner didn't mention the GOP proposals at a morning news conference, but he told reporters he wanted "conversation" with Obama and Democrats "to resolve our differences." Asked about any preconditions for such talks, Boehner said he wasn't "drawing any lines in the sand." In the Senate, Reid could file a proposal as soon as Tuesday to raise the debt ceiling without addressing any deficit reduction issues demanded by Republicans, a Senate Democratic leadership aide told CNN. Sources told CNN that the Democratic plan would resolve the debt ceiling issue for at least a year, and perhaps through the 2014 congressional elections. The move would be the first volley in what will be a torturous political struggle in coming days over the federal borrowing limit leading up to next week's deadline to raise it. Most Republicans would shy away from a bill that doesn't specify spending cuts or other policy changes in return for the increased borrowing authority.  Photos: Key players in the shutdown debateDemocrats are hopeful some Republicans would vote across the aisle to prevent the potentially catastrophic economic repercussions of a default. If Senate Republicans require all the time-consuming steps available to them to delay action on the debt ceiling measure, a final vote might not take place until two days before the deadline for raising the borrowing limit, the Democratic aide said. Such a Senate measure would increase pressure on the GOP-controlled House to do the same. But Republican House leaders have made clear they will insist on concessions from Democrats before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. Obama reiterated Monday that he will not negotiate with Congress while the country was under threat of a possible debt default. "We're not going to establish that pattern," Obama said, adding that "we're not going to negotiate under the threat of a prolonged shutdown until Republicans get 100% of what they want" or under the threat of "economic catastrophe." At the same time, the White House signaled a willingness to accept a short debt limit increase that would allow time for broader negotiations. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that "I'm not ruling out" a debt ceiling increase of any particular length of time, adding he believed a longer one was better because it would provide certainty after what Obama characterized as "manufactured crises" over similar brinkmanship in recent years. "Our position is only that it ought not to be a political football, because it's a dangerous political football," Carney said. "And you know, fumbling that football can cost you a lot more than seven points. It can tank the economy." Economists warn of dire fiscal impacts from failing to raise what is called the debt ceiling, such as a reduced U.S. credit rating that would spike borrowing costs. The economic blow and questions about America's fiscal fidelity could bring a global slowdown, Obama has warned. Boehner and Republicans kept up the pressure on Obama to negotiate with them over the debt ceiling, characterizing it as an unprecedented unwillingness by a U.S. president do so. "There's never been a president in our history that did not negotiate over the debt limit. Never. Not once," Boehner said Tuesday, adding that Obama negotiated with him over the debt ceiling in 2011. On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell later said divided government means the two parties have to negotiate solutions. "Until Senate Democrats accept that reality, these crises will only be harder to resolve," McConnell, R-Kentucky, said. However, one of Obama's top economic advisers, Gene Sperling, told a Politico breakfast on Monday that "the era of threatening default has to be over." "If you sanction through negotiation the legitimacy of somebody threatening default, then that is going to happen over and over again," Sperling said. "So sanctioning negotiations with someone threatening default is not going to end the risk of default. It is likely to increase the chances that we as a country eventually default or even perpetually threaten our full faith and credit." At issue is how to reach an agreement to fund the government in the newly started fiscal year and raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit. Conservative Republicans intent on shrinking the government while trying to weaken Obamacare demand that any agreement on funding and raising the debt limit include their priorities. "The debt ceiling is there for a purpose. It's like the smoke alarm," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. "Democrats want to unplug the smoke alarm, and Republicans want to go out and fight the fire." Boehner has insisted that a deal to raise the debt ceiling must include deficit reduction steps that would lower costs of entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. However, he appeared to move away from the demand of the tea party conservative wing of his GOP caucus to dismantle or defund the health care reforms passed by Democrats in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court last year. Obama and Democratic leaders want what are known as "clean" measures to fund the government for a short period and increase the debt limit, with no accompanying provisions involving contentious deficit reduction measures or GOP efforts to weaken Obamacare. Once such measures are passed, they say, negotiations can take place on a full budget for fiscal year 2014 that began on October 1 and other issues such as reducing spending on entitlement programs. Last week, a House Republican said on condition of not being identified that Boehner told GOP colleagues in private meetings he would not allow a government default to occur. But Boehner has remained adamant that an increased debt limit requires accompanying spending cuts. On the shutdown, Obama and Democrats say the House would pass a Senate spending plan to end it if Boehner allowed a vote. A CNN survey shows that 18 Republicans would join all 200 House Democrats in supporting the plan, exceeding the 217 majority needed for it to pass. At the same time, the CNN survey showed that fewer Republicans were willing to join Democrats in a procedural move called a discharge petition that would force Boehner to hold a vote. Cole said Tuesday that Boehner told his caucus at a morning meeting that no such vote would take place. "He basically said we're going to have a negotiation" instead of caving to Democratic calls to vote on the Senate version, Cole said. Tea party conservatives forced Boehner to add anti-Obamacare amendments to the Senate spending plan that would end the shutdown, and the Senate and Obama rejected them. According to Cole, the effort to dismantle Obamacare through the budget negotiations appeared dead. "I think it's been overtaken by the debt ceiling," he said, adding that one specific proposal to repeal a tax on medical devices under Obamacare could be part of the broader negotiations by the special committee being proposed by House Republicans. Reid suggested Monday that the Senate measure would pass the House if put to a vote, and Americans would realize the government was shut down "for no apparent reason." Both Obama and Reid said Democrats were open to negotiate "anything" -- with the president specifically mentioning health care -- once the government shutdown ends and the debt ceiling gets increased. House Republicans, however, fear losing their leverage in any talks by giving up those two points without any concessions. In a new national poll released Monday, most respondents said the government shutdown was causing a crisis or major problems for the country. While the CNN/ORC International survey also indicated that slightly more people were angry at Republicans than Democrats or Obama for the shutdown, both sides were taking a hit. According to the poll conducted over the weekend, 63% of respondents said they were angry at the Republicans for the way they have handled the shutdown, while 57% expressed anger at Democrats and 53% at Obama. "It looks like there is more than enough blame to go around, and both parties are being hurt by the shutdown," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, borrowing money to meet the nation's obligations won't be possible, CNNMoney's Jeanne Sahadi reported Monday. Instead, Sahadi reported, lawmakers would have a few options to choose from that would have to be implemented right away -- cut government spending for the military and other discretionary programs by up to 33% every month; cut mandatory spending such as entitlement programs by 16% every month, and raise taxes by up to 12% every month.  |
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