Our source, who has heard tracks from “Waves,” tells us West shouldn’t be so cocky: “It’s not the greatest album ever made. The people he’s getting feedback from are not the same as when he’d go to Jay Z to get feedback. Now, it’s from Kris Jenner. The stuff he’s done lately is dumbed down because of the Kardashians, but he’s still brilliant"
The 23 year old Brazilian/Barcelona superstar is currently dating Jhenny Andrade, a Brazilian Octagon girl and TV host and also a UFC fighter. She was pictured supporting Neymar at the Nou Camp shortly before the new year, and the pair have been besotted since. More pictures after the cut...
I'm sorry, I would never support stripping and humiliating a child in this manner. I think stealing from his mum was absolutely horrid but there are other ways to punish a child other than stripping him naked. Plus he's 9. Many of us stole from our parents when we were that age or a little older. Our brains don't function properly at that age...meaning we don't know better! Mum shouldn't have done that!
The hip hop star revealed this during his guest appearance on new talk show Kocktails with Khloe. In a raunchy game of f**k, marry and kill, Tyga was asked to choose between sisters Khloe, Kim and Kourtney. Tyga who was seated next to Scott Disick was asked to specify which he would go for:
"I'll probably marry Khloe, probably f**k Kim and probably kill Kourtney. You know this is my dog right here. it goes both ways, you know? This is a really hard question" he said
He also admitted that he wants to marry his girlfriend Kylie, by saying: 'I would marry her.’
When it was Scott's turn to answer the same question he told Khloe without hesitating:
''If I really had to: Bang you, kill Kim and marry my girl for sure"
The 32 year old curvy model hit the gym today hours after the twitter spat between herself, Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West. She wore a bright yellow top and a black leggings which highlighted her incredible curves, her top had a crude slogan emblazoned on it which read: Make eye contact while eating banana". More photos
Here is an update on the report of Gloria Izuakor, pictured above, whose husband, Jude Izuakor, inflicted this deep cut on her face after beating her at their home in Festac town, Lagos, yesterday January 27th.
Gloria said her husband came back home with a friend and met her mopping the floor and immediately started beating her. Human Rights activist, Joe Odumakin who shared the news online, said the husband was arraigned before the Apapa Magistrate Court today. The Chief Nagistrate, G. L Hotepo granted him bail in d sum of N100, 000 and 2 sureties wit evidence of tax payment. The case has been adjourned to 4th of March. See more photos...
Yesterday, Amber Rose blasted Kanye West after he attacked her ex Wiz Khalifa on twitter and made comments about her son with Wiz. Amber said she got involved because Kanye mentioned her son. Below are some of the things she supposedly said on a podcast that will be released on iTunes Friday. Amber says kids are off limits and that shows your character. Kids are innocent babies and u never talk about them.
Amber sais she is not surprised Kanye would say that cuz she knows him. "He is a fucking clown". She said last week Kanye came out with a song saying her son is her meal ticket and she didnt say anything cuz he is a cornball.
She added that Kanye calls her a stripper and what not but took her around the world and they dated for 2 years. "He still talks about me in songs, he still talks about me all day".
When Amber was asked about the fingers in booty, she said: "Dont talk about my kid, thats all i gotta say", She would never had said anything if Kanye didnt mention her kid. She would have kept it cute if it was Wiz and Kanye only- Second time this week Kanye has talked about her baby.
British airports such as Gatwick are increasingly used as entry points to the European Union by Nigerian trafficking gangs seeking alternatives to perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings, Spanish police have warned. BBC News quoted a crime squad officer in Barcelona as saying his team had bust a notorious Nigerian crime organisation running a network of trafficked prostitutes across the city. The gang, Supreme Eiye Confraternity (SEC), also "using forged documents and passports to fly its Nigerian victims into places like Gatwick," Xavier Cortes, head of anti-trafficking at Catalonia police, said in a BBC interview.
The number of people identified as potential victims of human trafficking in Britain rose by 21 per cent to 3,309 in 2014, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) said last year. The nationality of the victims was known in only 2,100 cases of which nearly 9 percent were Nigerian, the agency's data showed. Below is a special report by BBC:
"The world of Nigeria's sex trafficking 'Air Lords'"
Last year, the BBC's Sam Piranty was given access by the Catalan police, Mossos D'Esquadra, to an investigation into a Nigerian sex-trafficking gang. He spoke to traffickers and women rescued from sexual slavery before filming an early morning raid in November, which led to 23 arrests. He also discovered that the gang is now using London as a gateway into Europe.
It's 08:00 in the Catalan Police Headquarters on the outskirts of Barcelona and Xavi Cortes, head of the anti-trafficking unit, waits patiently for his 22 teams to confirm they are in position. Finally, he gives the order.
Two-hundred-and-fifty officers quietly climb out of their police vans. Single file, each team approaches a residential building watched by a few surprised neighbours.
On reaching the door, one of the masked police officers uses his fingers to count down. Three, two, one. The door is knocked down, the silence shattered, the officers rush inside.
The raid results in the arrest of the leaders of a Nigerian-based group running an international sex-trafficking ring in Barcelona. It's known as the Supreme Eiye Confraternity (SEC), or the Air Lords, and 23 people are now behind bars, with European Arrest Warrants issued for those who have left the country.
This operation was 18 months in the planning and involved monitoring more than a million phone calls, tapping dozens of mobile phones and months of surveillance.
Cortes and his team first came across the group in 2011 during a forgery investigation, but quickly discovered it was a huge network trafficking women and drugs.
He asks me to look at his screen. On it is a map detailing all the locations they have identified where members of the SEC operate. Cities are marked in Europe, North, West and East Africa, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia.
Eiye in Yoruba, the main language of south-western Nigeria means "bird". The group's insignia is an eagle and each city containing members is called a "nest", with the "mother nest" in Ibadan, about 100km (60 miles) north-east of Lagos.
The group was started at the University of Ibadan in the 1970s, and the original intention was to make a positive contribution to society. Over time, however, many members went astray, committing violence in Nigeria and delving into crime abroad.
The group now traffics human beings and narcotics (cocaine and marijuana) and forges passports. It has also facilitated the transport of stolen crude oil into Europe.
"They are able to earn money in many ways, but we are focused on human-trafficking and the victims," says Cortes.
His second-in-command, Alex Escola, then tells me something remarkable.
"You know, one of the tappings showed us that last year, on 7 July, around 400 members of SEC met in Geneva. They had a big meeting, all together."
It was an audacious display of arrogance. In a city where many of the world's global institutions are headquartered, including numerous UN agencies, a global criminal institution held its own parallel international gathering and no-one tried to stop it.
Benin City, Nigeria, is a human-trafficking hub, and a good place to observe how the criminal operation works.
After long negotiations, our team manages to speak to a recruiter, whose job it is to find girls. The recruiter explains that they either approach girls directly or through their families offering fake jobs abroad in a supermarket, or as a cleaner.
However, not everyone is tricked. Many women approach the recruiters themselves, often in full knowledge that they will be working as a prostitute in Europe. Some parents, also aware of this, approach recruiters on behalf of their children.
Destiny, who was 19 when she was trafficked to Spain three years ago, told me she knew sex would be involved but had never imagined she would be turned into a sex slave.
"If you live in Benin, there are many girls who came back from [Spain] with lots of money. They told us they had to have sex sometimes," she says. "We are not stupid but I did not know I would be beaten and raped and have to have sex every night of the week."
NGOs in Benin City say many of the recruiters now look outside the major cities in order to find girls who have not heard their warnings about the reality of life for trafficked women, or the stories of those like Destiny who have returned and are now alerting others to the dangers.
Once recruited, the girls are then taken to Lagos or to northern Nigeria where they are picked up by men known as "coyotes" or "trolleys"
The journey to Europe is perilous. Wire taps reveal how coyotes transporting women were stopped by armed groups in the deserts of Niger or southern Libya demanding thousands of euros for them to pass.
"One phone call from a coyote to SEC showed how a coyote was saying, 'I have a gun on my head and they want money,'" says Cortes.
A woman who was herself trafficked tells me about other horrors.
"The journey took weeks," says Sarah, who arrived in Spain in 2013 at the age of 21. "One of the girls kept asking for water. The men did not like it so they threw her out in the desert in Libya. They left her and we continued the journey. They told the boss on the phone that she was killed by terrorists. We were not human beings. We were animals."
Once girls are trafficked across the desert, they are then taken to "keepers", who often rape them before they cross to Europe.
"When we got to Libya they put us in a house," says Sarah. "This is when I knew we would not be working in a supermarket. One man was taking care of us. He would have sex with us, rape us. Then I became pregnant."
Women who insist they will not work as prostitutes are tied up in a position called "the crocodile". Their hands tied to their feet, they are left for days with no food or water. Some are left to die as an example to others.
Keepers often get the women pregnant prior to making the crossing to Spain. With a child or pregnant, they stand a better chance of not being deported, and the men can use access to the child as a form of blackmail to keep the women under control.
Two years ago, at a time when the coyotes reported Libya had become too dangerous, recorded phone calls show that the girls were taken instead to Greece, via Yemen, Iran and Turkey. And today, as the Mediterranean becomes more difficult to cross - and the authorities try harder to detect traffickers - the SEC has begun to use airports in the UK more frequently.
"This is a more expensive option for the group," Cortes tells me. "They use forged documents and passports from Nigeria to fly into places like Gatwick. The language is also easier for them. These documents are expensive though and need co-operation of people working in the government to get."
One evening in Barcelona, I head out with the undercover surveillance team. At around 10pm, plain-clothes officers in an unmarked car drive me to Badalona on the edge of the city.
We are taken to a top-floor flat where police have spent hundreds of hours watching the house opposite. A light is on in the window and shadows move between the curtains, before someone appears on the balcony - a madame.
Most of the women that make it to Europe live in flats with a few other women and their madame - almost always a trafficked woman, who has managed to pay off her debt. Girls arrive knowing they must earn a sum, which may be from 30,000 to 60,000 euros (£22,000 to £44,000), before they will be free.
There are two ranks of madame. Lower-ranking madames prowl the streets - many on la Rambla, the main tourist strip in the centre of Barcelona - constantly texting and calling their girls to check on their whereabouts. Girls are told to earn about 500 euros (£370) a night to stay in the madame's good books.
But clients, mostly tourists, may pay as little as 20 euros (£15) for sex, so this is often impossible.
After a night's work, girls return home and divide their earnings into three. One part goes to pay for the flat, the second to pay for food and the third goes to the SEC. If they are not earning enough or refuse to work, the madames may beat them.
Higher-ranking madames collect money from their subordinates to pass on to local SEC leaders known asibakkas. Always men, the ibakkas run the whole operation. They facilitate payment through the hawalasystem - a form of money transfer based on trust and one that is difficult to trace.
bakkas make sure that if any of their girls step out of line, their families back home are threatened. Family members have been known to be abducted and "disappeared" when girls refuse to pay their madames.
One woman, Jessica, who was trafficked to Spain in 2009, says two of her daughters, now in their early 20s, left home in Benin to escape the gang. One is in Dubai, the other in Morocco waiting to cross to Spain.
But in escaping one group of traffickers, they have put themselves in the hands of another.
"In order to pay the debt, they will be prostitutes too," says Jessica.
Tragically, this is not an isolated case.
It's a few days after the raid and Cortes seems content. Back in the office, dressed in full uniform, he details the large quantities of phones, computers, fake passports and documents seized at the time of the arrests.
Despite that, there is a hint of frustration in his smile.
"The size of the network means those arrested will be replaced," he says.
According to recent wire taps, one of the major European co-ordinators of the group is looking to restructure the gang. The ibakka, based in London, was trying to get his 95 other European counterparts together for a meeting.
This kind of organised crime cannot simply be tackled locally. Arresting madames and taking women off the streets merely increases the demand for more women from Nigeria. This is an organised crime group, run by men, operating across the world. This is a network which requires a global police response.
Senate President Bukola Saraki, has responded to a letter from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to him and Speaker of the House of Representative Yakubu Dogara in which the former president condemned the leadership of the National Assembly for planning to buy more cars. Saraki in his reply which was released today January 28th, said members of the 8th Senate are committed to good governance, transparency and accountability and will be responsive to the current economic realities of the country. Read full text of his response after the cut...
Yesterday, I acknowledged that I received a letter from former President Olusegun Obasanjo in which he called the attention of the National Assembly to some issues.
I will want to assure President Obasanjo that the leadership and membership of the 8th Senate are committed to good governance, transparency, accountability, due process and responsiveness to the economic reality of our nation. It is for this reason that the legislative chamber has introduced bold and progressive reforms in the management of the finances of the National Assembly.
This is of even greater importance during a tough fiscal period for our country. Like i said during my closing address at the plenary after our debate on the 2016 Budget, the Senate must lead by example in terms of our own funding, budgets and accountability – showing, beyond doubt, value for money. I have canvassed that we must lay bare the budget of the Senate, nay the National Assembly and its affiliated institutions.
I equally canvassed the need to strengthen the capacity of the legislative institution to carry our effective oversight of the executive arm so that we can ensure the budget leads to the realization of the policy objectives of the Buhari Administration. Again, let me reiterate my position in the speech I made this morning on the need for us to work towards blocking all areas of revenue leakages while also strengthening the anti-corruption agencies so that the little resources that are now available will serve the interest of the overwhelming majority.
As a former President and a father of the nation that we all hold in high esteem , I intend to reply the letter and outline the actions the Senate is taking to address his concerns.
In conclusion, I appreciate President Obasanjo for his consistent role in always reminding those of us in government about our responsibilities to the general public and offering timely advise where necessary.
Singer Tiwa Savage shared this very adorbale photo on her Instagram page and wrote
"Good Morning yummy mummies as most people are starting their day, we've probably been up for a few hours now as babies know how to interrupt our beauty sleep but that's ok because we love them more than anything. Anyhow Jamil is 6 months now and this morning I thought I heard him trying to say DaDa, Ahhhhh I just quickly started saying MaMa MaMa MaMa before my husband heard, I mean I carried you for how many months, you come resemble your papa, now you wan come say daddy name first. Rara o, I go do ojoro LOL but all jokes apart every new stage with your baby is so amazing, from first smile to first words to first steps. What was your babies first words".
In an interview with International news channel, France24, Former President Goodluck Jonathan, said that the current administration is still using the equipment his administration bought while he was in government.
“The new government is working hard and I believe they are still using the equipment we procured. The budget is still being debated, no new equipment has been bought, so even those equipment the president is using to prosecute the war against Boko Haram are those equipment we procured and I believe that with what we left behind and the new ones they will acquire, this issue of Boko Haram will be taken to a logical conclusion. When Boko Haram started in Nigeria, we had no terror experience. Yes we had armed robbery and other common crimes, but terrorism was different because the people involved were not afraid to die. So, you need a different mechanism to confront terrorism, you need superior technology, so that you will be able to stop them even before the attack. We never had the equipment, but when we were confronted, we started acquiring and before I left office we built reasonable capacity and I believe with what we left behind and also with what the new government will acquire, they will be able to prosecute this terror war to a reasonable conclusion” he said
When asked to speak on the ongoing $2.1 billion arms deal scandal, Jonathan said
"This issue always comes up but I always insist that the matters are being investigated and they are in our own courts and in Nigeria where our issues are before the courts, you don't make comments on it. It is considered prejudice. But one thing you will also realize is that for us to have conducted elections across the country, all parts of the country, that means that we prosecuted the war against Boko Haram to a reasonable level. Otherwise, we couldn't have been in position to conduct elections across the country and we couldn't have fought Boko Haram with bare hands. This issues of corruption, issues of misuse of funds, being investigated before the courts and I wouldn't want to compromise the position of our laws because while I served as the President of Nigeria, I made sure that the judiciary had their own independence. I made sure that there is maximum separation of powers between all arms of government. So haven left office, I don't think I will be the person that will say things that will be detrimental to the judicial processes" he said
Police are hunting for the man pictured above after he attacked a woman as they were riding a southbound 3 train around 9:30 p.m. on TuesdayJan. 26th. The woman told police the man yelled: "I will chop you up on this train," before slicing her hand with a machete.
According to the victim identified as Natalie Lewis, 29, she was waiting for the 3 train with her sister at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station. After all three boarded, the man yelled, "I will chop you up on this train!" "I’ll find your ass at home!" the man shouted at Lewis, who snapped photos of him as he taunted her, the sources said. "The police aren’t here now. You’re trying to get help from the crowd. They can’t help you! I can just chop you and they can’t do nothing!" the man ranted. He then reached into his black messenger bag and pulled out the 2-foot machete — covered in cloth — and slashed at Lewis. He shouted to her. "Why are you blocking the door?" The man then sliced Lewis just before he fled the train at a nearby station.
Lewis was treated for a 2-inch wound on her hand, but she did not need stitches, police said. Police said the attacker is approximately 5-foot-9 and about 175 pounds.
President Muhammadu Buhari declared late Wednesday in Nairobi that he was yet to be convinced that Nigeria and its people will derive any tangible benefit from an official devaluation of the Naira. Speaking at an interactive meeting with Nigerians living in Kenya, President Buhari maintained that while export-driven economies could benefit from devaluation of their currencies, devaluation will only result infurther inflation and hardship for the poor and middle classes in Nigeria's import-dependent economy.
The President added that he had no intention of bringing further hardship on the country's poor who, he said, have suffered enough already.
Likening devaluing the Naira to having it "killed", President Buhari said that proponents of devaluation will have to work much harder to convince him that ordinary Nigerians will gain anything from it.
The President also rejected suggestions that the Central Bank of Nigeria should resume the sale of foreign exchange to Bureaux de Change (BDCs), saying that the Bureau de Change business had become a scam and a drain on the economy.
"We had just 74 of the bureaux in 2005, now they have grown to about 2,800," President Buhari noted.
He alleged that some bank and government officials used surrogates to run the BDCs and prosper at public expense by obtaining foreign exchange from government at official rates and selling it at much higher rates.
"We will use our foreign exchange for industry, spare parts and the development of needed infrastructure.
"We don't have the Dollars to give to the BDCs. Let them go and get it from wherever they can, other than the Central Bank," President Buhari told the gathering.
The President reaffirmed his conviction that about a third of petroleum subsidy payments under the previous administration was bogus.
"They just stamped papers and collected our foreign exchange," he said.
The President appealed to Nigerians studying abroad to bear with his administration as it strives to address the challenges they are facing as a result of new foreign exchange measures.
He said that he was optimistic that the Nigerian economy will stabilize soon with the efficient implementation of measures and policies that have been introduced by his administration.
Sen. Dino Melaye says he respects former President Olusegun Obasanjo but called him out for allegedly introducing bribery to the National Assembly. According to a report by TheCable, Dino said this while reacting to the letter Obasanjo sent to members of the Senate on January 13th where he berated them over their plans to buy more cars. He said;
“I have tremendous respect for president Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo. Elder statesman, respected pan Africanist and committed patriot. I went through the letter written to all senators and members of the house of representatives. The letter I can see is a misplacement of anger,” he said.
"Our leader is mistaking the eighth national assembly as the same senate assembly that defrauded him in 2007. Those who collected his money and refused to implement the 3rd term agenda. I appeal to baba that we are not the ones please. After nine years of that bribery saga, the first of its kind, I expect forgiveness to have taken place. There was the case of bribery introduced by the Obasanjo regime in the desperate attempt to remove speaker Ghali Umar Na’abba from office then. In fact, there was open display of that bribery money on the floor of the house. That government exposed the national assembly to corruption and easy money. I hope this is not in an attempt to cover up and distract attention from the Halliburton and Siemens corruption allegations. While I am against corruption anywhere in Nigeria, I will not support accusations based on anger and vindictiveness. The eighth senate should also look inwardly and purge herself of all the deliberate misgivings of the past. Nigeria must work and we must support the anti corruption stand of the Buhari administration. God bless Nigeria.”
Following Kanye's very public meltdown yesterday, the internet has gotten down to business in very a characteristic manner, churning out memes satirizing the spat. See some memes after the cut..
A U.S company stimulated statistics has revealed that Arsenal will win the league, Leicester will finish in the top four, Man United will miss out on the Champions League again and Norwich, Sunderland and Villa will be at the bottom of the table.
The predicted table is based on each premier league match for the remainder of the season being simulated 10,000 times to get a vital statistics. According to it, Arsenal are in pole position to win the Premier League this season despite currently being three points off league leaders Leicester, The Gunners have a 45.3 percent chance of finishing top of the table, three percent better than Manchester City. However it's bad news for Manchester United, as the statistics suggest they'll miss out on champions league for the second time in three years, with Tottenham and Leicester filling the other top four spots.
According to this same report, Leicester have just a 4.4 percent chance to finishing top of the league, less than 5.6 percent chance of a very fit Spurs, United have a 48 per cent chance of making the top four, but are predicted to fall two points short of Leicester in fourth spot, and despite their bad start to the season, Chelsea still have a 3.3 per cent chance to make the Champions League.
At the other end of the table, Aston Villa stand next to no chance to surviving the drop. The statistics claim that they have a 99 per cent chance to going down, Sunderland are poised to follow them down, while Norwich and Newcastle will battle it out to the end.
I just quickly started saying MaMa MaMa MaMa before my husband heard, I mean I carried you for how many months, you come resemble your papa, now you wan come say daddy name first. Rara o, I go do ojoro LOL
but all jokes apart every new stage with your baby is so amazing, from first smile to first words to first steps. What was your babies first words".
