Nigeria union to press ahead with strike despite court ruling

A major Nigerian trade union says it will press ahead with a general strike on Wednesday, despite a court injunction against the action.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) announced that the strike would go ahead after walking out of talks with the government.
The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) called the strike after the government raised fuel prices by 67%.
The TUC, however, has said that it is suspending strike action.
Earlier, the National Industrial Court had ruled the strike should not go ahead because of the risk of civil disorder.
"The decision... is that strike continues tomorrow. We have reached a dead end," NLC President Ayuba Wabba said after the union's delegation walked out of a meeting with government officials.
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The government called the decision by the NLC, which represents millions of workers, "regrettable".
"Government, therefore, calls upon and advises all workers to respect the laws of the land and to desist from participating in an illegal strike action," said spokesman David Babachir Lawal.
The court order followed an application by Justice Minister Abubakar Malami.
"It is the order of this court that (the) status quo be maintained," Judge Babatunde Adejumo said in his ruling.
"The defendants are hereby restrained from carrying out the (strike) threat."
'Criminal'
The government announced last week that petrol prices would increase in a bid to ease crippling fuel shortages.
Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said that the move should stabilise the market and help end a fuel scarcity.
The NLC branded the price rise "criminal" and called for it to be reversed.
In 2012, the government was forced to back down on a similar price rise after nationwide protests.
Despite being one of Africa's largest oil producers, Nigeria has to import fuel to meet demand as its refineries are dilapidated and work at a fraction of their capacity.

Source: BBC News

Chinese city Wuhu embraces driverless vehicles

Chinese hi-tech firm Baidu has unveiled a plan to let driverless vehicles range freely around an entire city.
The five-year plan will see the autonomous cars, vans and buses slowly introduced to the eastern city of Wuhu.
Initially no passengers will be carried by the vehicles as the technology to control them is refined via journeys along designated test zones.
Eventually the test areas will be expanded and passengers will be able to use the vehicles.
"They want to be the first city in the world to embrace autonomous driving," said Wang Jing, Baidu's head of driverless cars, in an interview with the BBC's Click programme.
"This is the first city that is brave enough, daring enough and innovative enough to test autonomous driving," he said.
Efficiency drive
Mr Jing said the first phase of the trial would last about three years and would involve restricted areas in the city where buses, mid-size vans and cars would be tested.
After three years, the areas of the city in which the autonomous cars can drive will be expanded and the service will be commercialised to allow some of the three million inhabitants of Wuhu to use it.

After five years, he said, the whole city will be open to the driverless vehicles which will mix with human-driven cars, trucks and buses.
Mr Jing said the city was keen to use robot vehicles because they were a much more efficient way to transport people and goods.
The current model in which many households own a car was a "great waste" of resources, he said, because most of the time private cars stood idle. By contrast, he said, robot cars would be much more heavily used.
A study released this week suggested that greater use of driverless cars could promote congestion. The study by accounting group KPMG suggested the robot cars could be used widely by groups, such as the young and old, who do not usually drive thereby increasing the numbers of vehicles on the road.
Mr Jing said he hoped the Wuhu trial would lead to projects elsewhere.
"We are trying to give the experience and data to the central government so they can see the benefit and that will make it easier for us to push to other cities in China," he said. "We hope it will be a starting point that lets us take it to other countries."
Baidu is known to be working closely with German car maker BMW on the development of control systems for autonomous vehicles. The cars emerging from that partnership as well as others made by Chinese car maker Chery will be used in the Wuhu trial.
Many tech firms, including Google, and car manufacturers are also working on control systems for robot cars.

Source: BBC News

Jail sentence for YouTube pranksters

Four members of the controversial Trollstation YouTube channel have been jailed in connection with fake robberies and kidnappings.
The group were involved in a fake robbery at London's National Portrait Gallery and a fake kidnapping at Tate Britain in July 2015.
The channel, with 718,000 subscribers, has built a reputation for filming staged pranks around the city.
A fifth member was imprisoned in March following a bomb hoax.
"The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way.
"We hope these convictions send a strong message that unlawful activities such as these will not be tolerated in London," said Robert Short, of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Daniel Jarvis, 27, Helder Gomes, 23, Endrit Ferizolli, 20, and Ebenezer Mensah, 29 were sentenced on Monday at the City of London Magistrate's Court.
All four pleaded guilty to two counts of using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke unlawful violence for their involvement in the two hoaxes.
For the charge at the National Portrait Gallery, Mr Jarvis was sentenced to 20 weeks, Mr Mensah and Mr Gomes to 18 weeks each, and Mr Ferizolli to 16 weeks. All four were also sentenced to eight weeks for the fake kidnapping at Tate Britain, to run concurrently.

Trollstation member Danh Van Le was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment in March for his involvement in the fake robbery, and also to 24 weeks for a separate bomb hoax.
"Our aim was never to get away with breaking the law," a member of the group known as Light told the BBC at the time.
Light said the group hoped to continue but would "re-evaluate" their approach.
"We are a big influence and we try to use that positively," he said of the channel's large following.

Source; BBC News

Nelson Mandela: CIA tip-off led to 1962 Durban arrest

Nelson Mandela's arrest in 1962 came as a result of a tip-off from an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a report says.
The revelations, made in the Sunday Times newspaper, are based on an interview with ex-CIA agent Donald Rickard shortly before he died.
Mandela served 27 years in jail for resisting white minority rule before being released in 1990.
He was subsequently elected as South Africa's first black president.
Rickard, who died earlier this year, was never formally associated with the CIA but worked as a diplomat in South Africa before retiring in the late 70s.
The interview was conducted by British film director John Irvin, who has made a film, Mandela's Gun, about his brief career as an armed rebel, the Sunday Times said.

Murky events: Karen Allen, BBC Southern Africa Correspondent, Johannesburg
The events leading up the the arrest of Nelson Mandela, on a dark night near Durban in 1962, have always been murky. In the era of Cold War politics, Mandela, then leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), was considered a terrorist and a threat to the West.
As Mr Rickard put it, he was "the most dangerous communist" outside of the Soviet Union, although Mandela always denied being a member of the party.
Rumours have circulated for years that the CIA trailed Mandela but the agency resisted previous attempts to shine a light on its alleged involvement in his arrest. Rickard's admission will bring renewed pressure to declassify documents from the time.
The ANC's spokesman Zizi Kodwa said he believed the CIA was still meddling in South African affairs and collaborating with those wanting "regime change".

The future president led the armed resistance movement of the banned ANC, and was one of the most wanted men in South Africa at the time of his arrest.
His ability to evade the security services had earned him the nickname "the black Pimpernel".
He was posing as a chauffeur when his car was stopped at a roadblock by the police in the eastern city of Durban in 1962 and he was detained.
"I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming... that's where I was involved and that's where Mandela was caught," Rickard is quoted as saying.

Source ; BBC News

Nigeria arrests 'Avengers' oil militants

The Nigerian army has arrested several suspected members of a militant group called the "Niger Delta Avengers" (NDA), thought to be behind recent attacks on oil pipelines in the south.
The country's oil production has been severely disrupted by the attacks.
US oil giant Chevron shut down an offshore platform this month after an attack claimed by the Avengers group.
Many militants joined an amnesty programme in 2009 after an insurgency in the oil-rich delta region.
Nigeria has long been Africa's largest oil producer, but its economy is currently facing difficulties due to the recent drop in global oil prices and its output is now behind that of Angola.

Most of Nigeria's oil wealth comes from the Niger Delta, an area which remains poor and underdeveloped.
Previous insurgent groups said they were fighting so local people could benefit more from their region's natural resources.
Oil spills have also resulted in environmental devastation over the years.
Who are the Niger Delta Avengers? By Chris Ewokor, BBC Africa, Abuja
There are still very few independently confirmed details about the group, which announced its formation three months ago.
On its website, it says it is fighting for an independent state on behalf of the people of the Niger Delta and is prepared to "cripple Nigeria's economy" in pursuit of its aims.
It mocks President Muhammadu Buhari for never having visited the "creeks of the Niger Delta" and criticises him for the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leading member of a group which backs the creation of a breakaway state of Biafra in the south-east.
It boasts about its members being "young, educated, well travelled...and educated in east Europe".
Its tactic of attacking oil facilities in the region, announced in February, has caused havoc in the sector, with production levels in the country now reported to have fallen to their lowest for more than two decades.
One attack on an underwater Shell pipeline in February showed a high level of technical expertise, forcing the shutdown of a terminal which normally produces 250,000 barrels of oil a day.
Many locals suspect that some former oil militants excluded from the amnesty programme could be behind the group.
But speculation is rife and everyone has their own theory about who is to blame.
Whatever the case, the group's growing stature is a major headache for President Buhari, whose government is already grappling with Boko Haram's insurgency in the north-east.

Source ; BBC News

How an unarmed 78-year-old man saved his two young sons from Boko Haram

A 78-year-old Nigerian man has told how he single-handedly rescued his captive sons from the Boko Haram militant group.

Madu Zaromi says that his home in Damasak, in the north-eastern state of Borno, is in an area of the country that remains under the control of the Islamist organisation.

President Muhammadu Buhari claimed in February that Boko Haram no longer hold "any territory" in Nigeria. However, this is commonly understood to be an exaggeration by the former general, as he attempts to follow through on his crucial election promise to defeat the insurgency.

In an interview with Nigeria's Daily Trust magazine, Mr Zaromi suggested that Boko Haram retains control over areas of its former stronghold in the north-east. He described his hometown as a "ghost town" where "[gun]fire" can still be seen at night.

Source

Female Rapper Discloses Her Love For Sarkodie

Eno
So you may know Eno, the  lady who ‘refixed’ Joey B and Sarkodie’s Tonga and earned some acclaim and happens to be one of the few female rappers around.

Well, she had appeared on eTV’s The Late Nite Celebrity Show yesternight to talk about her career, love life and celebrity crush.

On her career, the Ashaiman based emcee said:

“It hasn’t been that easy for me as a female rapper. Even the industry don’t have category for Best Female Rapper but there’s Best Female Vocalist and Best Rapper and others. Even though there is a category for Best Rapper, the recognition is low. If the industry tries to push us, we will go far and I want to believe the industry felt there wasn’t any lady rappers but I’m here now”. I didn’t come to make a U Turn in the music scene and go away. I’m here for the long haul. Things like marriage won’t stop me from  rapping

I will like to marry a rapper. I love Sarkodie but he is engaged.

When Giovani, the show’s host asked  who her  celebrity crush was, but she revealed:

“I used to fight with my friends over Davido. My friend will be like she is Queen Davido and I will tell her I’m the real Queen Davido. But I’m over that now. I just loved him. But he was just by the way till I found Chris Brown.” adding that, “as for the Ghanaian stars I see them as my brothers, I love Stonebwoy because he is my school mate and area boy. But it’s also interesting to note that my school nurtured a lot of stars. Sarkodie, Yaw Siki, Stay J and MixMaster Garzy”.

Source: gossipmama.com