ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria's electoral commission chairman says the oil-rich country's National Assembly election has been postponed until Monday over polling problems.

Attahiru Jega made the announcement Saturday as the nation should have been voting. But in many areas, ballot papers and results sheets never made it to polling places.

Several states stopped their polls because of such problems, leading to a breakout of violence in one city.

Jega says: "It is an emergency."

Saturday's election was scheduled to decide who should occupy seats in the country's National Assembly, positions worth more than $1 million in salaries and perks. It also was the true test for Nigeria's electoral commission to prove it could overcome the nation's history of flawed polls. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/nigeria/?p=5904

Colonel Gaddafi suffered a massive personal setback today when one of his sons was allegedly killed in a suicide air mission on his barracks.

Khamis, 27, who runs the feared Khamis Brigade that has been prominent in its role of attacking rebel-held areas, is said to have died on Saturday night.

A Libyan air force pilot crashed his jet into the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli in a kamikaze attack, Algerian TV reported following an unsubstantiated claim by an anti-Gaddafi media organisation.

Khamis is alleged to have died of burns in hospital. The regime denied the reports.

It was claimed he died in the same compound hit by RAF cruise missiles hit by coalition forces last night.

Loyalists have been photographed with shrapnel from the missile that struck the building and throughout the day there has been no information on Gaddafi's whereabouts.

Libyan state TV has claimed that 48 people were killed in the weekend attacks, causing friction between the west and the Arab world but the Ministry of Defence said it wasn't aware of civilian casualties. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=13146

An explosion struck near a church Sunday morning in a restive Nigerian city beset by religious and ethnic violence where hundreds have been killed in the last few months alone, authorities said. There was no immediate information about casualties.

It was not clear what caused the explosion in the city of Jos, an epicenter of massacres and targeted killings between Christians and Muslims. However, the explosion comes after soldiers recently discovered a truck loaded with explosives, detonators and more than 33,000 pounds of ammunition.

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The explosion also comes ahead of crucial April elections in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

"There has been an explosion," said Yohana Audu, a local spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, who said he had no immediate details about casualties. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=13069

ABUJA, Nigeria – The top contenders in Nigeria’s coming presidential election faced each other in a spirited televised debate Friday night weeks before voters choose who is going to lead Africa’s most populous nation.

But an empty podium stood in the place for President Goodluck Jonathan, who skipped a rare televised encounter in an oil-rich nation that became a democracy a little more than a decade ago.

Yet Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party repeatedly came up as three opposition candidates battered and blamed it for the rampant corruption and ineffective government plaguing the oil-rich country.

“The public treasury is a trust,” former military ruler and perennial presidential Muhammadu Buhari said. “Nobody can tamper with it and get away with it.” Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=12927

I don’t care about the number of ditto heads and hapless jobbers who would come to his defense when this piece plays. But my candid assertion is that the character called Aliko Dangote who prides himself as an entrepreneur is neither that.

Nor is he a brilliant businessman as some are inclined to trumpet. Instead, through and through, he is a criminal, pure and simple. How else would one rightly characterize or designate an individual like him who relies on and exploits the shameful patronage-clientage system that pervades the Nigeria project to steal and loot resources that don’t even emanate from or belong to the part of the land, i.e. the upper Niger where he’s from, to enrich himself in such a crass manner?

Go down the list if you may, what unfolds is the pathetic story of this so-called commodity trader who emerged over-night in stupendous wealth by participating in wholesale “sell-off of state-owned corporations, presidential aircraft” and extensive government-owned property of all sorts. My dossier on him reveals that ever since he was introduced to the persistent scourge, Olusegun Obasanjo—I’ll return to him anon—a few years ago by a certain Igbo carry-go female politician who is now an ambassador somewhere in the British Isles, this criminal has grown more brazen by the day in the ways he steals and loots and carts away the resources that abound in especially other parts of the areas that the British called Nigeria. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=12923

A FORMER Nigerian soccer player and his wife had their young daughter with them when they were caught smuggling cocaine into Brisbane, a court heard.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Commonwealth prosecutor Kylie Ward explained most of the submissions in the case were done in writing because of the language difficulties for both Wasiu Sanni, 52, and his wife Mutiat Sanni, 52.

Ms Ward, in her written submissions, said Mr and Mrs Sanni raised the interest of Customs Officers when Mr Sanni could not name any of the Australian cities they intended to visit.

She said a drug detection dog gave a positive reaction to Mr Sanni and a bag containing child’s clothing.

Ms Ward said the Sannis were later taken to hospital where 74 pellets of white powder were collected from Mr Sanni, and 77 from Mrs Sanni.

It was discovered that in total Mrs Sanni was concealing 913.1 grams of powder, which was 53.7 percent pure cocaine for a total weight of the drug at 490.3 grams.

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ABUJA–there credible evidence on the ground that shows that Nigeria is allegedly a cursed state, every indicator on the ground, legalistic-ally and otherwise demonstrate the aforementioned cursed statehood of ours” Republic Report New York has learnt.
Still in a state of incommunicado, Nigeria-Washington Lawyer, Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye for over a month now, has been held in a state of incommunicado by Federal government of Nigeria through Economic And Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja. According to Ugwuonye they have refused to take him to court and have refused to release him to his family.
[PHOTO: Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye held in a state of incommunicado for more than a month in Abuja, Nigeria by EFCC; EFCC has refused to charge him to court]

 
In a communicated smuggled out of his EFCC’s prison Abuja, states that Emeka Ugwuonye has not been able to speak to his children and/or his ailing mother. He wrote, “It is about 3 am in Nigeria and I am writing these updates from the underground cell in which I  have been held unlawfully by the Nigerian Government for a month. Indeed, I can only guess what time it is as there is no time-keeper in the cell. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=12761

Jemma Benjamin, 18, was kissed by fellow university student Daniel Ross, 21, at his home after a night out together.

But Miss Benjamin suddenly slumped onto the sofa – and died in front of Mr Ross’s eyes.

The inquest heard Jemma died from SADS, a rare heart condition which kills 500 people in Britain each year.

Mr Ross, who had known Miss Benjamin for three months, tried desperately to save her before paramedics arrived on the scene.

But the inquest heard nothing could have be done for Miss Benjamin, who was described as a “picture of health”.

Mr Ross told police that he and Miss Benjamin had been friends for three months – but that was the first time they had kissed.

He said: “It was not a segxwal relationship but we saw each other a couple of times a week. Read full story: http://indepthafrica.com/women/?p=755

Few love more fervently than the middle-aged and lonely. Which is why last week’s revelation that divorcee Kate Roberts lavished £80,000 on a handsome American soldier – only to find out he was a fictitious creation of a heartless gang of Nigerian conmen – came as yet another salutary warning that not everything is what it seems on the Worldwide Web.

Kate, who had to sell her house to pay off her debts, is one of a rising tide of women (and a number of men) who have fallen for a new and worrying crime phenomenon: the romantic scam or rom scam.

One widowed grandmother, identified only as Jean, lost more than £100,000 to a fake soldier who told her he was raising a teenage son alone. She answered his calls for help with bills, school fees and getting his ‘son’ out of military prison. Read more: http://indepthafrica.com/nigeria/?p=721

Britain’s amplest bosoms heaved a ­collective sigh of relief last week when ­Bravissimo, a lingerie label for larger sized Bosom s, announced the arrival of the L-cup to its range.

The company says customers ­squeezing themselves into a KK-cup — a size launched two years ago to meet increasing demand — have been campaigning for larger bras ever since.

And although an L-cup remains far larger than the national average, there can be no doubt that when a High Street chain sees reason to ­supply it, demand is growing — and so, it would seem, are our Bosom s.
Generous proportions: Terri Smith has L-cup Bosom s

Generous proportions: Terri Smith has L-cup Bosom s

For women such as 21-year-old Terri Smith, from Stourbridge, West ­Midlands, who wears an uncomfortable KK-cup, the L-cup could provide welcome relief from the daily agony that comes from ­forcing herself into ill-fitting underwear. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/women/?p=667

A growing number of marriage break-ups are being blamed on Facebook as love cheats are caught online.

Lawyer Emma Patel has revealed that EVERY divorce she has dealt with in the past nine months has involved the social network website.

Married couples meet other users online and send 'flirty messages'  or have 'inappropriate suggestive chats' which spouses can use in divorce cases.

Sites like Second Life, Illicit Encounters and Friends Reunited are tempting couples to cheat on each other.

Ms Patel, the head of family law at Hart Scales & Hodges Solicitors, in Dorking, Surrey, said that she had dealt with 30 divorces since May last year - and all involved Facebook.

She claimed the site acted a 'virtual third party' in break-ups. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=8061

Two goals from Peter Odemwingie, taking his total for the season to eight, enabled West Brom to halt an alarming sequence of six successive defeats and prove that Blackpool are not quite the miracle workers of popular belief.

Both these teams seem to regard attack as the best form of defence so, to no great surprise, it was an unusually open, thoroughly entertaining game. As is their pleasing custom, Blackpool played with three up front, and nearly had their enterprise rewarded after only 67 seconds, when DJ Campbell was inches the wrong side of Boaz Myhill’s right-hand post after shooting on the turn from near the penalty spot. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=7117

Accused Victoria Bynes: She claims she accidentally splashed petrol on her boyfriend’s lap

A jealous girlfriend took her ‘burning love’ for her boyfriend a step too far by allegedly setting his private parts on fire.

Witnesses claim Victoria Bynes doused her boyfriend in petrol before setting him ablaze with a lighter.

As Andrew Williams rolled around in agony trying to put out the flames, the 29- year-old calmly drove away from the scene.

When police arrived they found Williams with second and third degree burns to his genital area and stomach. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=6810

A naked housekeeper, who killed a client because he ‘got too tough’ in bed, faces a life sentence if convicted of murder.

Thomas Cordero, from the Bronx, was found by lawyer John Conley on rentboy.com – a site which offers the services of Nood cleaners.

The pair became frisky as Cordero was cleaning and when Mr Conley wielded a knife as the men became passionate in bed together, the 41-year-old allegedly took the weapon off him and stabbed him to death.

Cordero said that his naked body had sent the 50-year-old wild. ‘It’s because I have a nice ass,’ he told police.

Mr Conley died in his bed at the apartment in Eastchester, New York, in October 2001, but Cordero was only implicated in 2007 when police identified him on close circuit surveillance footage. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=6799

Dressing for the office: German bosses can order women workers to wear bras but they must be white or flesh-coloured to avoid being see-through

A court in Germany ruled today  that bosses have the right to order female employees to wear bras in the workplace.

Furthermore, the length of a lady’s fingernails can also be determined by her immediate superiors and hair must be clean and groomed.

Men can sport beards, but the boss has a right to order it to be kept well trimmed and not become a Robinson Crusoe castaway version. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=6809

The Telegraph reported two women who became pregnant despite having contraceptives implanted in their bodies.

Kimberly Heales and Jane Wilkinson, both 22 and from the UK, had life-turning events after having known that they conceived despite having received contraceptive implants for some time.

Heales gave birth last year while Wilkinson is expected to deliver her first child later this month.

They are among the 82,000 women who had been fitted the popular device– Implanon–last year that claims 99% effectiveness for reproduction control. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=6509

Victor Moses is ready to pledge his future to Nigeria, IndepthAfrica.com understands.

The Wigan starlet has impressed at the DW Stadium since moving to the club from Crystal Palace almost 12 months ago.

Moses, who is currently sidelined with a dislocated shoulder, is an England Under 21 international. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=6819

West Bromwich Albion are hoping Peter Odemwingie will be able to shake off an ankle injury in time for Saturday’s game against Blackpool.

Odemwingie has endured various injury troubles since joining the Baggies from Lokomotiv Moscow last summer and has already been sidelined by knee and calf complaints.

He is now carrying an ankle problem and required an injection in order to play in West Brom’s 3-0 defeat at Fulham last week. Read More: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=6838

Irrepressible Jose Mourinho added to his collection of titles on Monday when he won the first FIFA Coach of the Year award.
The Portuguese, now with Real Madrid, was given the accolade after leading Inter Milan to a treble of Champions League, Serie A and Italian Cup last season.

http://indepthafrica.com/sports/mourinho-wins-world-coach-of-the-year-award/

Messi was on a three-man shortlist with Barca team-mates Xavi and Andres Iniesta but, despite Spain’s World Cup triumph, the Argentina forward came out on top in the voting.
He becomes the first winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or, which merges France Football magazine’s European Footballer of the Year prize with the FIFA World Player of the Year. The awards were based on the votes of the coaches and captains of national sides as well as global journalists.

Messi scored more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues in 2010, with 42 goals in 36 La Liga games, as well as finishing top scorer in the Champions League in 2010 with 12 goals in 12 games.
He totalled 60 goals for the year for club and country.