Arik Air to Recommence Operations on Abuja – London, Heathrow route on 12th December

Arik Air, Nigeria and West Africa’s largest commercial carrier, is to recommence operations between Abuja and London, Heathrow by 12 December 2011 due to the positive and favourable outcome of negotiations between the UK and Nigeria governments on the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA).

It has been agreed that Arik will now receive two additional weekly slots at Heathrow Terminal 4 in order to operate a daily Abuja – London, Heathrow flight compared to five times weekly that the airline had operated from November 2009 until the end of the last summer schedule in 2011 when it suspended operations due to a number of extraneous factors.

The increased frequency on the route means Nigeria is now operating 14 of its 21 agreed frequencies between the two countries. The airline will operate a daily flight between the two capitals, complementing its daily Lagos – London, Heathrow service bringing Arik’s total frequency of flights between Nigeria and the UK to 14 per week. Arik will fly in to Terminal 4 operating a New Generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a two class configuration with 16 Business Class cradle style seats with 8.6’’ TV monitors and 126 ergonomically designed Economy Class seats with a pitch of 34’’.

It will depart Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja at 11:35am (local time) and arrive in London at 5:05pm (local time). The inbound flight will conveniently depart Heathrow at 9:45pm, arriving in to Abuja for 5:10am affording passengers time to connect on to any one of the 16 domestic destinations served by Arik from its secondary hub.

Sir JIA Arumemi-Ikhide CON, Executive Chairman and founder of Arik Air, commented:

“It had always been our intention to recommence flights between Abuja and London, Heathrow and I am very happy that we will meet that promise before the end of this year. Both governments and associated bodies have worked amicably and swiftly to resolve the issue, redress the imbalance and reciprocate on the agreed number of slots. We would like to thank The Federal Government of Nigeria for its unwavering support in this matter; the nation owes its Honorable Government a debt of gratitude for championing the cause of the aviation sector in Nigeria. This outcome will ultimately be in the long-term interest of Nigeria and her people. I would also like to pay a special thank you to the Honorable Minister for Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah OON, for her leadership and resolve in addressing this imbalance and seeking a solution that is to the benefit of the indigenous airlines for a change.

“As Nigeria’s largest airline it is imperative that we continue to fly the flag for the country and operate daily between London and Nigeria’s federal and economic capitals. The route has for many years been under-served and there was very little value for money being offered. Arik’s entrance in to the market in December 2008 and November 20 09 had addressed some of that and the increased frequency negotiated under these new terms goes a long way to addressing it further.”

Drogba 'rejects' Chelsea offer

Didier Drogba's agent has revealed he has snubbed Chelsea's offer of a one-year contract extension and vowed to "go where he is offered the most money" after turning down a loan move to AC Milan.

The 33-year-old Ivory Coast striker looks increasingly set to walk away from Stamford Bridge for nothing when his contract expires next summer. And his agent, Thierno Seydi, is weighing up lucrative options including possible moves to America, Russia or Asia.

"Didier has had the offer of a one-year extension from Chelsea. That does not suit us," Seydi is quoted as saying by The Sun.
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He added: "We know what we want, where we want to go and what offers we have. AC Milan came in for Didier on loan with an option to buy but I said 'No' straight away. Their offer did not interest us.

"At Didier's age, he has nothing left to prove as a player. He will go where he is offered the most money.

"It could be the United States, Russia, Qatar or somewhere else in Asia. Once you are well into your thirties you have to go to a club where you can be certain you'll be able to pay your bills.

"LA Galaxy are a possibility among many others. He has been linked with Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia, as they pay well. But neither Didier nor I have had an offer from them."

PC 2go: Download 2go Messenger for PC, Chat with Facebook/GTalk friends

2go messenger is a mobile messenger that allows you to communicate for free with your friends. It is a network of millions of people where you can setup your profile, meet new people, talk to friends, share files and pictures!

You can download 2go to your mobile phone from www.2go.co.za which you will also be redirected to if you go through www.2go.im or www.2go.com.ng


Before now, I was only using the 2go Messenger on my phone but when I checked the 2go website yesterday, I found the "PC 2go" link on it and I decided to give it a try to see if it will work on my laptop. I followed the steps and right now, I can "2go" on my laptop and stay connected to my 2go friends.

Below is the picture of the 2go software on my laptop:

So, How Do I download 2go to my pc and start chatting with my 2go friends?


Go to http://pc.2go.im/ on your pc.

On the Page, log in with your details. If you logged in successfully, you will then be directed to the download page. Click the 2go logo to start download. If you already have a supported version of JAVA (JRE) on your PC, the 2go MicroEmulator will be downloaded to your PC.

If you do not a supported version of JAVA software on your PC, you will be automatically redirected to download and install it to your PC before you will be able to download and install the 2go MicroEmulator.


Once you successfully install the2go MicroEmulator, you can launch it to start chatting with your friends.



Note: For now, Its better not to install it on a shared PC/cyber cafe PCs because anytime someone launches it, they will not be prompted to log in with their details, rather, they will be logged in automatically the account of the user that installed it.

Nigerian senate passes anti-gay Bill

Human rights groups have expressed dismay and outrage at the news that Nigeria’s senate has voted in favour of a bill which will criminalise gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection.

It will make it illegal to register gay clubs or organisations, as well as criminalising the “public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly”.

Under the proposed law, couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

“The bill will expand Nigeria’s already draconian punishments for consensual same-sex conduct and set a precedent that would threaten all Nigerians’ rights to privacy, equality, free expression, association and to be free from discrimination,” said Erwin van der Borght, the director of Amnesty International’s Africa program.

The bill, now much more wide-ranging than its initial draft, must be passed by Nigeria’s House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan (pictured) before becoming law.

However, public opinion and lawmakers’ calls for even harsher penalties show the widespread support for the measure in the deeply religious nation.

“Such elements in society should be killed,” said Senator Baba-Ahmed Yusuf Datti of the opposition party Congress for Progressive Change, drawing some murmurs of support from the gallery.

Gay sex has been banned since British colonial rule in Nigeria, but religious leaders in the country have long pushed for harsher penalties for homosexuality and supporters of gay men and women.

In September, the Anglican Primate of Nigeria called gays and lesbians “evil” at the wedding of tribal royal Princess Ewere Efeizomor, telling the room that God had created women as a “helpmates” for men.

“What is being known now as gay and homosexuality is contrary to God’s plan for human sexuality and procreation,” the Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh said.

“It is against the will of God, and nobody should encourage it, and those who do will earn for themselves the damnation of the Almighty.”

Commenting on the new development, George Broadhead, secretary of UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust, said gays and lesbians already face open discrimination and abuse in a country divided by Christians and Muslims who almost uniformly oppose homosexuality.

“In the areas in Nigeria’s north where Islamic Sharia Law has been enforced for about a decade, gays and lesbians can face death by stoning,” he said.

“It seems that there is a very real threat that this barbaric bill will become law and if it does, Nigeria will become the most homophobic nation in Africa.

“It is clear that the impetus for such legislation has come from religious sources.”

Michael Jackson doctor gets 4 years in jail, no probation

Dr. Conrad Murray (C) blows a kiss to an unidentified member of the courtroom audience after he was sentenced to four years in county jail for his involuntary manslaughter conviction of pop star Michael Jackson November 29, 2011.

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Dr. Conrad Murray (C) blows a kiss to an unidentified member of the courtroom audience after he was sentenced to four years in county jail for his involuntary manslaughter conviction of pop star Michael Jackson November 29, 2011.
Photograph by: Mario Anzuoni, AFP/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, Tuesday was sentenced to four years in jail and denied probation for his conviction on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor gave Murray the maximum sentence and said he physician engaged in "money for medicine madness that is simply not acceptable to me."

Murray, 58, dressed in a gray suit and purple paisley tie, sat emotionless through the sentencing. Just before being led out from the courtroom, he blew a kiss to an unidentified woman who shouted "we love you" to the convicted killer.

Outside the courtroom, Jackson's mother Katherine, who daily attended Murray's trial that started in late September and ended on Nov. 7, said "the judge was fair."

"Four years is not enough for someone's life. It won't bring him (Jackson) back, but at least he (Murray) got the maximum" sentence, Katherine Jackson told reporters.

Yet, even though he was sentenced to four years in jail, Murray may spend only months behind bars due to extreme overcrowding in Los Angeles County where he will serve time.

He has 60 days to appeal the sentence.

"Thriller" singer Jackson, who rose to fame in the late 1960s and '70s as a member of the Jackson Five and had a stellar solo career in the 1980s, died of a drug overdose in June 2009, principally from the use of the surgical anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid. That drug had been obtained and administered to Jackson by Murray at the singer's rented home.

A jury convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter, or gross negligence, after witnesses testified propofol should not be administered at home and, if it is, must be given only with the proper life-monitoring equipment on hand. It was not.

Prosecutors painted a picture of Murray trying to cover-up evidence of propofol and lying to doctors about its use.

Murray's defense claimed Jackson might have administered a fatal dose of the drug to himself, but the jury did not agree.

NO LENIENCY FOR MURRAY

Key to the sentencing were several factors including money — Dr. Murray had negotiated a $150,000 per month salary to care for Jackson ahead of a series of concerts in London — and a TV documentary made during the trial, but aired after it was over, in which Murray denied any feelings of guilt.

"Not only isn't there any remorse, there's umbrage and outrage on the part of Dr. Murray against the decedent," Judge Pastor said, in noting the documentary.

The sentencing was attended by several members of the Jackson family including Katherine, sisters La Toya and Rebbie, and brothers Jermaine and Randy.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren argued that Murray should not be given leniency. He said the doctor was negligent from the moment he began to care for Jackson, and after finding Jackson lifeless in his bed on June 25, 2009, Murray failed to quickly call paramedics, hid evidence of propofol and lied about its use to emergency room doctors.

"The defendant was playing Russian roulette with Michael Jackson's life every single night," Walgren said.

Defense attorney Ed Chernoff sought leniency, saying the crime was Murray's first and he had a long history of quality treatment to patients. He asked the judge to look at Murray's "book of life" and not just the one chapter regarding Jackson.

"He can do things for the community on probation. Things that he could never do sitting in" a jail cell, Chernoff said.

He also said Murray will also suffer from the infamy of his conviction for the death of a man who was so famous and beloved by so many people.

"Whether he is a barista. Whether he's a greeter at Wal-Mart, he's really going to be the man who killed Michael Jackson," Chernoff said.

But Judge Pastor disagreed and said Murray engaged in a "pattern of lies" that the judge characterized as a "disgrace to the medical profession."

In a news conference after the sentencing, defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan said he believed Pastor was "openly hostile" to Murray during the trial and sentencing.

District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose office prosecuted Murray, noted that overcrowding in area jails would lessen the four years considerably. "Dr. Murray's sentence, in terms of true incarceration, might be very short," he told reporters.

How long Murray stays behind bars is up to the the Los Angeles County sheriff who oversees the jails packed with offenders of violent crimes. Inmates convicted of non-violent crimes such as Murray's can be discharged by the sheriff to ease overcrowding.

In addition, Murray was ordered to pay some court fees, and another hearing was set for prosecution claims that he may owe more than $100 million in restitution to Jackson's family.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Michael+Jackson+doctor+gets+years+jail+probation/5784010/story.html#ixzz1GcDAzEOY

Sean Kingston, Rick Ross, others for Calabar Festival

In keeping up with the tradition of making the famous Calabar Festival more exciting, foremost American musicians, Sean Kingston and Rick Ross, are among the dignitaries lined up to perform in this year’s edition of the festival.

Chubby Jamaican-American singer, Kingston popularly known for tracks such as “Beautiful Girls” would perform at a Reggae Night scheduled to hold on the 16th of December , at the U. J. Esuene Sports Stadium.

Also to perform on that night would be King Wadada, Nyore, General Brown Bread, Kandy Sea, Chantaman, Prince and Princess, Betsy Akan and Chris X.

American rapper William Leonard Roberts II, better known by his stage name Rick Ross, would rock the city on Calabar Rocks Night on December 28, alongside the likes of P-Square, Banky W, Wizkid, Ojb Jezreel, Stunt and Julius Agwu at the U. J. Esuene Sports Stadium.

Also to perform in this year’s Calabar Festival is Kool and the Gang, an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group.

The soul and funk group would perform at the Governor’s Masked Fete on December 20, at the Tinapa Water Park. Also to perform the same evening would be Sugar Band, Temitayo George and Bassey Ebong.

Kool and the Gang, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964, went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and funk, progressing to a smooth pop-funk ensemble, and in the post-millennium creating music with a modern, electro-pop sound. They have sold over 70 million albums worldwide.”

The Cross River Commissioner for Information, Mr Patrick Ugbe, had assured, “We expect that the carnival this year would be much, much bigger than last year, because it has been growing year after year.

Last year there was virtually no space on the streets. This year we expect it to be bigger, but we are ensuring that everything would be in place. The Calabar Festival this year would be much much bigger than the previous ones we have been having. Artists lined up are more exciting this year.” said the organisers.

Nigeria mourns death of civil war leader

(Reuters) - Chukwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military leader of the breakaway state of Biafra during Nigeria's 1967-70 civil war, died Saturday after a long fight for health following a stroke, his family said.

More than 1 million people are estimated to have died during the conflict which followed a failed coup attempt in 1966 by army officers from the Igbo ethnic group in southeast Nigeria.

A counter-coup a year later brought a military government to power under Colonel Yakubu Gowon.

Nigeria's first 30 years of independence from Britain in 1960 were punctuated by a series of coups and military rule only came to an end in 1999.

Nigeria still suffers from almost daily violence in the north which stems from ethnic and religious tensions among a population of some 150 million split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan praised Ojukwu, who was 78, as "one of the great personalities of his time who stood out easily as a brave, courageous, fearless, erudite and charismatic leader."

Igbo youths in Ojukwu's southeast homeland flooded the streets chanting "our friend is gone."

"This is a very, very painful loss to me, the Igbo and Nigeria," said Chibuzo Anyanwu, an industry worker in Abia state in the southeast.

"It marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new one for all. His death calls for sober reflections by Igbo and Nigerians on the disadvantaged position of people in the Nigerian nation."

Ojukwu, the son of a wealthy businessman, lost the battle to maintain southeast Nigeria as independent Biafra in a conflict which brought some of the first images of Africans starving to death to Western television screens.

Although Biafrans gained sympathy globally, few countries recognized it as a separate nation and the civil war dragged on until early 1970, mostly as a stalemate.

Nigeria's south-east had recently discovered vast oil wealth and was considered a key region for the unity and development of the West African state.

Ojukwu fled into exile in the Ivory Coast after the civil war but was later pardoned and in 1999 formed the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) party, which he led until his death.