NIGERIA RETAINS NUMBER FIVE IN AFRICA

photo: Super Eagles players celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final match against Burkina Faso at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa

Nigeria yesterday retained number five in Africa in the latest FIFA ranking of national teams, which was released by world football governing body, FIFA.

There were no changes to Africa’s top five teams, as Cote d’Ivoire is still Africa’s number one national side, a position the Elephants have held for nearly two years.
However, two of the top five, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali have lost five points and four points respectively despite retaining their positions on the log.
Nigeria also retained number 35 in the world, while Cote d’Ivoire are now ranked 18 on the overall rating, while Ghana, Africa’s second best on the ranking are 24 in the world, with occupying number three in Africa and 32 in the world.
Algeria is Africa’s fourth on the table and 34 in the world, while Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tunisia and Zambia are ranked sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th in Africa respectively.
On the global scene, Spain, Germany, Colombia and Argentina maintained their top positions from the previous ranking without losing or gaining any point.

Privatization: FG hands over PHCN to new investors Sept 21

The Federal Government will hand over privatized successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to private investors on September 21, 2013, if the investors pay on schedule.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, PBE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, disclosed this in an interview in Abuja.

He disclosed that the PHCN privatization was expected to earn the Federal Government about $2 billion.

Dikki said: “To purchase this Power Holding Company, over $2 billion will be paid by the bidders, and that is because the investors can see a clear investment horizon. They don’t have to go and lobby anybody, all they require is to meet the technical requirement, go to the regulatory authority, apply for licence and they are limited by their own ingenuity and their access to the capital.

“When they pay by September 21, we will hand over the companies to them or anybody who pays earlier and then they begin to operate.

“Labour issues have been resolved and the implementation committee on settlement of the PHCN staff terminal benefits commenced payment of N118 billion to the over 20,000 PHCN staff, at the beginning of this month”.

The BPE boss said the privatization programme of the Federal Government had significantly opened up the Nigerian economy by creating the right atmosphere for greater private sector participation in several key sectors.

Nigeria: 2013 Imagine Cup - We Will Do Country Proud, Arulogun Assures

After a good presentation and outing Tuesday before panel of international judges at the ongoing 2013 Imagine Cup software students competition, the world's premier student technology competition holding in St. Petersburg, Russia, the mentor of team Nigeria, 'Team LifeSaver from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Dr. O.T. Arulogun has said with optimism that the students were prepared to do Nigeria proud and bring the Cup home.

Already, more than $1million in cash and prices are available to student competitors. Over the past ten years, more than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries have participated in the Microsoft Imagine Cup annual competition.

This year, there will no elimination in rounds at the ongoing worldwide finals as all finalist teams will remain in the competition until winners are announced on the last day of the event this week.

With their amazing solution and great supports from National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Dell, Nokia and MainOne, Dr. Arulogun, who is a lecture in the department of Computer Science and Engineering of the university having witnessed the brilliant presentation of the four best software incubators from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ilefe, (OAU) and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (Lautech) Ogbomoso, Oyo respectively said that, "that was a good beginning.

"The students are well equipped. That was a good outing. Iam very optimistic that Team Nigeria will fly Nigeria flag well by coming out as the best team in the national finals in the category of World Citizenship. Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso is among the best school of Technology in Nigeria with a strong IT resources"

READ MORE HERE....VANGUARD

A MICE THAT SKATES AND SURFS AT THE SAME TIME???

These gnarly little dudes "drop the vert ramp" and get airborne on mouse-sized toy skateboards in a mouse-sized skate park built by Shane Willmott in his Gold Coast, Australia backyard. Willmott, who has been training mice to surf for about 10 years, said he decided to teach them to skate because it was too cold in winter to take them to the beach.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Heightens Risk of Dangerous Leg and Lung Blood Clots

Rheumatoid arthritis significantly increases the risk of potentially fatal blood clots in the legs and lungs, reveals a large nationwide study published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Between 11% and 30% of people who develop a blood clot in the legs, known as a deep vein thrombosis or DVT, or a blood clot in the lungs, known as a pulmonary embolism, or PE, die within 30 days of their diagnosis, the evidence suggests.

Several studies have shown that chronic inflammation, which typifies rheumatoid arthritis, is linked to a heightened risk of thickened blood, but rheumatoid arthritis is not generally thought of as a risk factor for DVT or PE, say the researchers.

They therefore tracked the health of most of the population of Taiwan (23.74 million people) through the country's compulsory national insurance scheme between 1998 to 2008, and included a further monitoring period up to the end of 2010, to find out if rheumatoid arthritis increased the risk of potentially fatal blood clots.

Just fewer than 30,000 people developed rheumatoid arthritis during this period, and their details were entered into a national (catastrophic illness) registry of the National Health Insurance Database (NHIRD). By way of comparison, they were matched with almost 117,000 healthy people of the same age and sex.

Three quarters (77%) of those who developed rheumatoid arthritis were women, and the average age at diagnosis was 52. Around one in five were over the age of 65.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis were more likely to have other underlying conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart failure and fractures, than were those in the comparison group.

But even after taking account of these influential factors, and allowing for age, patients with rheumatoid arthritis were still significantly more likely to develop potentially fatal blood clots, the analysis revealed.

They were more than three times as likely to develop a DVT, and twice as likely to develop a PE as those without the condition, the figures showed.

Furthermore, rheumatoid arthritis packed the greatest punch in the under 50s, who were almost six times as likely to develop a DVT and more than three times as likely to develop PE than were either middle aged (50 to 65) or older adults.

Zambia: Facebook Without Internet Coming (see how to go about it here)

AIRTEL Zambia has introduced a facility which will allow subscribers to access Facebook without being connected to the Internet.

Managing director, Charity Lumpa said the move is meant to provide customers with an improved and advanced subscription service.

Ms Lumpa said the recently introduced facility had excited customers across the country.

"Facebook without internet can be used by dialing *446# from the mobile phone. Once dialled, a menu will appear on the screen.

"One only needs to enter the Facebook username and password to log in. Updating your status is completely free, but using other features such as posting on the wall, checking notifications and adding friends is not free," she said.

The system will automatically ask the customer when they access features of the service and they will receive short messaging systems (SMS) with the subscription details.

Ms Lumpa also announced that Facebook without the internet did not have any additional roaming charges and that the service was designed to work on all types of mobile phones.








FONETWISH

Fonetwish is a facebook application which help us to facebook from your mobile phone for free without internet .With this application we can update status,post on friends wall,chat ,view notifications,send message,view friends request etc without any internet connection.

The mail advantage of fonetwish is that it will work on any phones ranging from non java mobile phones to smart phones.Since this does not need browser or internet ,it can be used in java unsupportable phones also

HOW TO INSTALL FONETWISH??
First login to your facebook account and search for fonetwish app or you can go directly from here
When you enter the fonetwish application page ,it will ask for your phone number.Enter your phone number and click confirm.

After entering phone number,type *325# from your mobile and press call.
Now phone will show an alert ‘your application is received and will send menu shortly‘
Now a message will be shown to enter your facebook username.Enter your email or username.
Now send FBID<your mail id > to 53250 to login to your facebook account.

IS IT COMPLETELY FREE TO USE ??

Updating your status is free but for other features like posting on wall, checking notification is not free.It is actually a subscription service and for using features other than updating status chargers 1 rs per day in india.You can unsubscribe from this subscription by typing *325*22#.Also there is a character limit is 140 words.

This facility is available for service providers like Airtel, Aircel, Idea, Videocon, Loop Mobile and Tata Docomo in India.If you dont have a gprs or internet plan activated in your phone,you can use this facebook application and use facebook for free

Nagasaki Marks 68th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing

Nagasaki mayor criticized Japan's government for lacking effort in international nuclear disarmament as the country marks the 68th anniversary of atomic bombing on the southern city.

Mayor Tomihisa Taue said at Friday's ceremony that Tokyo's refusal to sign a statement rejecting unconditional use of nuclear weapons at an international disarmament meeting in April betrayed the global society's expectations.

He said Japan should take leadership as the only country attacked by atomic bomb. He offered his support for the reconstruction of Fukushima devastated by the 2011 nuclear crisis.

The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, The first on Hiroshima killed 140,000 people and the Nagasaki bomb killed another 70,000. The attacks prompted Japan's World War II surrender.

Jilted lover sets corps member, friend ablaze

When in November 2012, Winifred Okey, received a call-up letter to begin her National Youth Service Corps programme in Rivers State, she was extremely happy. This was because she wanted to be posted there so that she would be close to her friends, who were staying there.

The 23-year-old graduate’s happiness was however cut short after she was set ablaze at the corper’s lodge in Asari Toru Local Government by her ex-boyfriend.

It was learnt that Winifred, a graduate of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, was in her room in company with her roommate when her ex-boyfriend set their room ablaze.

Our correspondent, who spoke to members of her family in Lagos, learnt that the incident occurred on July 19, 2013.

A member of the family, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “Winifred was the first child of the family. She has a younger sister, Ruth. We were all in Lagos when we received a call from NYSC that Winifred was in a critical condition so her parents travelled to Rivers State immediately.

“We learnt that her former boyfriend in the university, went to her room at night, emptied a keg of petrol on the door and set the building on fire. Other residents rushed to the scene and were able to rescue Winifred and her roommate, but Winifred had been badly burnt.

READ MORE HERE (THE PUNCH)

Unlock Chromecast's incognito mode to keep your browser history clean

Chromecast is a pretty neat little gadget, but there are some things you might not want showing up in your browser history -- we'll leave it to your imagination as to what those things might be. With that in mind, the folks at Android Central have put together a brief walkthrough to explain how to use incognito tabs with Chromecast. It's pretty much the same way you'd access any extension in Chrome's disposable browser session: just type in "Chrome://extensions," find the Google Cast section and select the "Allow in incognito" option. While we're the last people to judge how you choose to use your dongle, some things should probably be kept private.

ParkMe updates Android app with real-time street parking info Mobile

Most of us know the stress that comes with parking your wheels pretty muchanywhere in the city; if you're like us, you vow to hide out in the countryside and never return after each white-knuckled experience. But those are empty words more often than not, and we foolishly come back for more. ParkMe has been a lifesaver for these frustrating situations, but Android users have only been able to look for available parking garages -- until now. The company just rolled out an update that now offers motorists real-time street parking information, giving you the price and likely availability of metered locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and a few other cities. The feature has already been available for iOS, but this will serve as a handy tool for the millions bearing Google's mobile OS in-hand. Just remember to let your passengers do the navigating -- we won't encourage you to ParkMe and drive.

Textbooks now available through Google Play Books in US, iOS app updated to match

Google promised us that it would offer textbooks through Google Play Books this month, and it's living up to its word. American students can now buy educational titles or rent them for six months, with prices frequently undercutting paper editions. Appropriately, Google has updated its Google Play Books app for iOS to support rentals like its Android and web counterparts. The launch is a painful reminder that the fall semester is just around the corner, but college-goers who want to be prepared can check out the source links.


SOURCE: Google Play, App Store

Muslim holy day bloodied by bombings in Pakistan, Afghanistan

Attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan targeted mourners, killing at least 44, many of them women and children.



The living were honoring the dead on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday when militant bombers struck, killing at least 44 people in two attacks that coincided with one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar.

The heaviest toll was inflicted in the Pakistani city of Quetta, in western Baluchistan province, where nearly half the top police commanders in the province died when insurgents shot and killed a police inspector, then bombed his funeral hours later, where most of the province’s police commanders had gathered. At least 30 people were reported dead and 40 wounded.

click to read more from startribune world

Popularity contest: Genevieve floors Omotola again!

For quite sometime now the criteria for measuring popularity,especially among entertainment stars have been all about the social media. And the best way to go these days have been to see who has the highest number of fans or followers on Twitter.

Lady Gaga made a big hit with her followers base last year by creating her own social media platform because she got so big and couldn’t just stick with Twitter with her traffic of followers. Now, the Nollywood stars up there, though not in the class of Lady Gaga, are Genevieve Nnaji and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde. The duo are not exactly sworn enemies but the rivalry between them can light up a building.

At the last count, Genevive Nnaji beat Omotola on twitter with an excess of 100,000; landing her with 380,000 followers with Omotola claiming 231,000 followers. Funny enough, even Tonto Dikeh, with all her ups and downs, has brushed off Omotola in the race, boasting a good 237,000 followers. 

NGO asks Fashola to apologise for ‘deporting’ Anambra indigenes

A non-governmental organisation, Citizens Network for Peace and Development, CNPD, has condemned the ‘deportation’ of some indigenes of Anambra State by the Lagos State Government and asked Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN, to apologise for the action.

The Director-General of CNPD, Comrade Preye Dressman, who led the group on a courtesy visit to Vanguard Regional Office, Abuja, said that the action of the governor was capable of causing ethnic crisis in the country and that if not tackled immediately it could have ripple effects.

According to him: “The action of Lagos State Government is capable of attracting ethnic reprisals which in turn may generate into a crisis that might not easily be contained by government.

“We believe that every citizen of Nigeria as provided by the constitution has the right to live freely in any part of the country irrespective of his/her status, tribe, or religion. We therefore advise that the authorities concerned to show maturity in resolving the issue.

“If Lagos governor claimed he had written to the Anambra State government, does it justify him to dump the people at the time and place they were dumped?” Dressman asked.

Bricklayer ingests 83 wraps of cocaine

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has apprehended a 46-year-old bricklayer, Chukwudi Ugankwo, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, after testing positive to drug ingestion.

It was learnt that Ugamkwo ingested 83 wraps of cocaine, weighing two kilogrammes. The NDLEA said it was one of the highest quantities of drugs ingested at a time by a suspect this year.

NDLEA Airport Commander, Hamza Umar, said Ugankwo was on his way back from Brazil when he was caught.

He said, “Ugankwo was detected with the help of scanning machines during the screening of passengers on an Asky Airline flight. The case is under investigation.”

Ugankwo, who was said to have four children, lived at Alor village, Anambra State.

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