Ex-militant leaders set to reconcile aggrieved ex-MEND boss, Gov. Dickson

Ex-militant leaders from the South-South region under the aegis of Leadership for Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI) have announced the setting up of a five-man Reconciliation Committee to intervene in the feud between the former member of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Eris Paul and the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson.

Though the ex-militant leaders, dissociated themselves from the raging feud between the ex-MEND member known as ‘General Ogunboss’ and the governor, they said the setting up of the five man committee was to plead with both parties and affirm the need for support for the ongoing development efforts of the state governor.

Four killed in cult clash in Calabar

FOUR persons  believed to have lost their lives in  Calabar in the last two days in gun shootout  between two rival cult groups, the Vikings Confraternity and KK group.

One of those killed was a 40 year old traditional  chief in the Efut Esighi kingdom in Bakassi LGA whose name was given as Etim while he was taking his bath right in his house at Nqu Street, near the Palace of Obong of Calabar. An eye witness, Andem Ekpenyong Effiom who gave graphic account of the incident said the titled chief was believed to have been traced from Bakassi a day before but was shot yesterday night at about 7pm.

National Guard start pullout as protests in Ferguson turn calmer

                           
 By Scott Malone and Edward McAllister

FERGUSON Mo. (Reuters) - Missouri's governor ordered National Guard troops to withdraw from the riot-weary town of Ferguson on Thursday as tensions eased after nearly two weeks of racially charged protests over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Demonstrators were orderly for a second straight evening on Thursday, the calmest night in the St. Louis suburb since 18-year-old Michael Brown was gunned down by a white police officer on Aug. 9 under disputed circumstances.

Even as scores of boisterous but peaceful protesters returned to the streets, Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., urged them during a CNN interview "to go back to your regular life."

He expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support but criticized thugs and outside agitators who police have blamed for much of the lawlessness that accompanied earlier protests.

"This looting, all this other stuff ... it's not helping our boy. It's doing nothing but causing more pain, plus it's shaming his name," Brown's father said. "Go back home to your family ... Hug your kids. Hold onto them tight. Keep them close."

National Guard troops walk through a staging area located at a shopping center parking lot in Fergus …

Ferguson erupted in anger after the teenager's slaying, with nightly rallies frequently punctuated by looting, vandalism and clashes between protesters and heavily armed riot police, often ending in volleys of tear gas and dozens of arrests.

The turmoil has cast the community of 21,000 people into the international spotlight as an emblem of often-troubled U.S. race relations.

Although Ferguson is predominantly African American, its political leadership, police department and public school administration are dominated by whites. Civil rights activists say Brown's death was the culmination of years of police unfairly targeting blacks.

With civic leaders and clergy urging protesters in recent days to maintain order and leave the streets after dark, crowds have grown thinner in number and have become more subdued.

"I think we've turned a corner," said State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, a black officer placed in command last week of a local police force widely criticized for heavy-handed tactics that seemed to be stoking civil unrest.
National Guard troops stand guard at a staging area inside a shopping center parking lot in Ferguson …
                    
On Thursday night, Johnson and many of his officers mingled casually among protesters. The police presence was generally more low key than it had been since Brown was shot, but the night was not without incident.

Police made a number of isolated arrests of people suspected of instigating the earlier unrest, and tensions heightened briefly as protesters clamored around arresting officers, before members of the clergy members moved in to calm the crowd.

National Guard troops, who were deployed to Ferguson to assist police at the height of disturbances but have kept a relatively low profile during demonstrations, were ordered by Governor Jay Nixon to begin pulling out of the community.

"We continue to see improvement," Nixon said in a statement.

A member of the National Guard stands guard at a staging …
A member of the National Guard stands guard at a staging area inside a shopping center parking lot i …

A day earlier, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Ferguson to meet Brown's parents and other residents, and to review the status of a federal civil rights investigation he has ordered into Brown's slaying.                                                                                                                                            

Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, who viewed her son's body for the first time on Wednesday at a local morgue shortly before meeting Holder, said his assurances helped restore her faith that justice could be done.

"Just hearing the words come directly from his mouth, face-to-face, made me feel like, one day, I will," she told CNN on Thursday. "And I'm not saying today, or yesterday, but one day, they will regain my trust."

Brown's parents and supporters have been calling for the immediate arrest of Darren Wilson, 28, the police officer who shot their son. Wilson has been placed on leave and has gone into seclusion.

A local grand jury met on Wednesday to begin hearing evidence in the case, a process that St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said could last into mid-October.

National Guard troops stand at a staging area located at a shopping center parking lot in Ferguson,  …

Brown's family and protesters are demanding that the probe be turned over to a special prosecutor, saying McCulloch has a record of discriminatory handling of cases involving police accused of misconduct against blacks.

McCulloch, whose father was a police officer killed in the line of duty by a black man, has promised a fair and impartial investigation. State Senator Jamilah Nasheed arrived at McCulloch's office on Thursday with petitions calling for his removal from the case.

"I am here to deliver a message to Bob McCulloch that the people do not have any confidence in him," Nasheed said. "The people's opinion is that he totally has no ability to do the right thing."

SIGNS OF EASING TENSION

Despite lingering expressions of anger and distrust, the atmosphere in Ferguson appeared to be growing calmer.

National Guard troops stand guard at a staging area inside a shopping center parking lot in Ferguson …

"Things are de-escalating," said Roy Harris outside Original Reds B-B-Q, located on West Florissant Avenue, where many of the protests have taken place.

The restaurant has boarded up its windows, but written in large letters in red paint on the plywood planks is the promise: "We will be back." Workers were selling sandwiches in the parking lot next to an outdoor meat smoker.

Only six people were arrested overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, far fewer than the scores detained on previous nights. As of Thursday afternoon, the total number of arrests since the uproar began in Ferguson had climbed to just over 200, most for failing to heed orders to disperse, police said.

Outside a fast-food restaurant blocks away from where Brown was shot, a small group of young black men held a homemade wanted poster for Wilson.

"For us he is a wanted man. It is time for calm and peace but only if they bring him to justice," said 23-year-old Dontey Carter, shirtless with a scarf wrapped around his head.

Russian aid convoy drives into Ukraine

 

IZVARYNE, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press reporter has seen the first trucks in a Russian aid convoy crossing into eastern Ukraine after more than a week's delay amid suspicions the mission was being used as a cover for an invasion by Moscow.

Trucks loaded with water, generators and sleeping bags are intended for civilians in the city of Luhansk, where pro-Russian separatist fighters are besieged by government forces. Shelling of the city has been ongoing for weeks.

The relief supply mission is proceeding despite both sides in the conflict ignoring pleas for a cease-fire.

The Red Cross has said it needs assurances of safe passage from all sides to bring in the supplies. So even without a formal cease-fire, Ukrainian forces could be constrained in their movements as the trucks begin arriving Friday.

Why US Special Forces failed to rescue James Foley

US intelligence officials still know relatively little about the workings of Islamic State militants. James Foley may have been traded by insurgent groups before ending up in IS hands, which complicates the intelligence picture.

The failed attempt to rescue journalist James Foley before he was killed by Islamic State militants – and the ongoing efforts to track down other American hostages before it’s too late – illustrate a glaring shortcoming in US military capabilities: that good US military intelligence on these militant groups is in short supply.

Although the Pentagon greenlighted the deployment of Special Operations Forces (SOF) to Syria – along with the US military’s most high-tech air and ground components – the mission did not result in a rescue.

“Unfortunately, the mission was not successful, because the hostages were not present at the targeted location,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Recommended: Do you understand the Syria conflict? Take the quiz

Even so, defense officials sought to put a positive spin on the mission. “This operation, by the way, was a flawless operation,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a briefing with reporters Thursday afternoon. “But the hostages were not there.”

The Pentagon’s unusual confirmation of a failed Special Forces mission – made at the behest of the White House – was in large part an effort to reassure the American public that the United States has not sat idly by during the meteoric rise of the Islamic State (IS).

But the news drove home the point, too, that US intelligence officials still know relatively little about the workings of IS.

Pentagon officials bristled at this implication, however. “Was this a failure of intelligence? No,” Secretary Hagel insisted. “The fact is that intelligence does not come wrapped in a package with a bow. It is a mosaic of many pictures, many factors.”

The problem, he added in a favorite Pentagon maxim, is that “the enemy always has a say in everything.”

True, hostage rescue operations using Special Forces are “extraordinarily complicated” under any circumstances, says Rick “Ozzie” Nelson, a nonresident fellow in the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

That’s in large part because “high-value hostages are high-value assets to our adversaries, and they’re going to do what they can to preserve that asset, so they are going to be kept in highly protected, inaccessible places,” he says.

This is further complicated by the fact that as Al Qaeda leadership has been fragmented through US military strikes, the jihadist movement has become more diffuse as well, with “increasing numbers of groups and jihadist fighters,” says Paul Scharre, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security who previously served as a specialist on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance programs at the Pentagon.

Mr. Foley, for example, may have been traded and bartered by different insurgent groups before ending up in IS hands, which in turn complicates the intelligence picture.

“Hostages may be traded for weapons, for territory. Government forces could give a hostage to a rebel group in exchange for leaving them alone in certain areas,” says Mr. Nelson, whose last military assignment before retiring from the Navy was with the Joint Special Operations Command.

Even when the intelligence picture is clearer, “one of the things people may not be aware of is that in Iraq and Afghanistan, when SOF would go on raids and go after terrorist networks, a huge number of those raids ended up in the person you’re looking for not being there,” Mr. Scharre says.

But even failed missions can be of intelligence value, analysts note.

“If the hostage had spent time at the site, you might have access to people who had been holding him at one time,” Nelson says. Then it might be possible to pick up information about “everything from when was the last time the hostages ate to their health, to what rank or role do you have in this terrorist organization, to what are your next set of battle plans?” he adds. “You rarely walk away with nothing.”

Even the grisly video of the execution itself is being scrubbed now by intelligence analysts, Nelson notes. “We now dust for electronic prints the way we used to dust for fingerprints. Every piece of intelligence is a piece of intelligence we can use,” he says. “Who was standing next to Foley in the video? Where did it happen? These are electronic clues.”

Americans among 12,000 foreign fighters in Syria: US

Washington (AFP) - Some 12,000 foreign jihadists from 50 countries, including Americans, have gone to fight in Syria since the conflict began, the US State Department said Thursday.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that more than 100 US citizens have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to join the conflict.

They have traveled to join radical groups including the Islamic State (IS), militants fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria who have expanded into neighboring Iraq.

"We think that there are approximately 12,000 fighters from at least 50 countries in Syria -- foreign fighters, including a small number of Americans -- that may have traveled to Syria since the beginning of the conflict" more than three years ago, said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

"They may all not still be there," she said, without revealing an estimated number of Americans.

US officials have been unable to identify an organized recruitment effort aimed at US citizens, as is the case in Europe.

Washington has publicly stated that Western fighters pose an especially dangerous risk, especially when they return to their countries of origin.

In late September, President Barack Obama is scheduled to host a Security Council summit with other heads of state focusing on the acute threat posed by foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq.

During his August 12 visit to Sydney, Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington and Australia agreed to take concerns about the threat posed by jihadist foreign fighters in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere to the United Nations

Arsenal Watching Carvalho And Khedira In Midfielder Hunt

                                  
Arsenal are monitoring both William Carvalho and Sami Khedira, report the Telegraph, as Arsene Wenger seriously considers signing a central midfielder after captain Mikel Arteta suffered an injury that could keep him out for some time.

Arteta will definitely be sidelined for a fortnight after he sustained a knock during their Champions League 0-0 draw at Besiktas, although the Gunners fear that this absence could be even longer.

This will put even more pressure on Arsene Wenger to secure a new defensive midfielder, which looks to be the final position which Arsenal want to strengthen after a busy summer in the transfer market that has seen Alexis Sanchez, Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina and Calum Chambers arrive at the Emirates Stadium.

Both Carvalho and Khedira are believed to be on Wenger’s radar, with the latter looking set to leave Real Madrid after Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that he had rejected a contract offer at the Bernabeu.

Arsenal were linked with Khedira earlier in the summer, but they baulked at the demands of both club and player – although these may now be lowered with the impasse that seems to have been reached.

Carvalho, meanwhile, is rated as one of Europe’s finest young defensive midfielders and the Sporting Lisbon man is expected to join one of Europe’s biggest clubs sooner rather than later.

Why Stephen Keshi may not return as Nigeria coach

Aug 21, 2014 14:09:00

The 52-year-old is fast loosing touch with the financial difficulties encountered by the country’s football authorities and might have already taken charge of his final game

SPECIAL By Lolade Adewuyi

There are strong indications that Stephen Keshi may not return to the Nigeria coaching job if his demands are not trimmed to fit into the financial reality of the Nigeria Football Federation.

The 52-year-old is seeking for an improved contract before signing back to lead the Super Eagles to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

Having earned 5million Naira a month in his previous spell in charge, the former national team captain has requested for a new pay structure where he wants between 10-15m Naira per month.

However, as revealed by Goal last week, the NFF has said it does not have the means to pay the coach more than the 5m Naira that he was paid previously. If they could reduce it further, they would. 

Goal has now learnt that the NFF is under increasing pressure from the Sports ministry to cut its spending going into the new year. This will adversely affect the amount of money the NFF is able to spend on competitions and coaches at all levels.

With the increasing profile of other sports like athletics, weightlifting and wrestling where Nigeria picked up important medals at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Sports ministry is looking to concentrate on more than just football.

As preparations increase towards the next Olympic Games in Rio, it is perceived that the Sports ministry and National Sports Commission will look to put more money in sports where the country has opportunity to win medals.

The thinking is that while male football provides just one medal, wrestling, weightlifting, power lifting and athletics will provide better opportunities for Nigeria to make a good showing in Brazil.

Hence, the funding for football in 2015 and beyond will become static. Therefore, there would be no justification for paying Keshi much more than he is already taking, even where it is owed sometimes.

The NFF is also going to find it difficult to raise more money from major sponsors GLO, Guinness and TomTom as they have refused to increase their financial standings due to the allegations of corruption flying around.

Perhaps the falling out with kit manufacturer adidas will bring about a better contract with the other major sportswear companies. This is yet to be seen.

While President Goodluck Jonathan is a keen admirer of Keshi’s work and has told the NFF to keep him by all means, the president rarely uses overwhelming influence to get things done and wouldn’t do it right now since he understands the limited finances of the sports ministry and the Glass House.

The only option that could see Keshi receive between 10-15m Naira for his new contract is if President Jonathan decides to pay the coach directly from the coffers of the Presidency.

This is also a very unlikely possibility seeing the enormous other issues that Aso Rock is dealing with going into the 2015 general elections.

It is also important to understand that president Aminu Maigari’s faction in the NFF does not like Keshi’s personality having taken the shine off them following the success of Afcon 2013. This is one of the main reasons why the renewal of his contract was delayed till after the World Cup in June.

Even if the other faction led by vice president Mike Umeh gets into office after the next NFF elections, it will still face the issue of lack of funds to pay Keshi according to his demands.

                                                                Keshi | End of an era?

Last week, Keshi’s agent Emmanuel Ado stated that the coach will not be taking a slave contract, that anything less would be demeaning to the profile of the highly successful trainer.

Yesterday, Keshi told Brila FM of his frustration with the NFF conditions: “If really NNF is serious, they are not going to propose the same condition that I had for two and half years, expecting me to take it for another four years. That means they don’t want me, indirectly they are telling me they don’t want me.”

He even went as far as saying that he passed up offers from other countries to pursue continuing his job with Nigeria, even picking the squad to play Congo and South Africa for next month’s Afcon qualifiers while out of contract.

“I’ve missed a lot of opportunities from other countries. It’s not only South Africa, I had Gabon and co., I can’t wait anymore. I wish the team well. I am happy with the players but you know my career also needs to move,” he said.

While Keshi has stuck to his guns and wouldn’t go back to the 5m Naira he was paid in his previous contract, Goal learnt that there are coaches willing to take the role for 3m Naira.

With another World Cup in four years time, there’s no pressure on the NFF since they have just won the Afcon and will gladly give the job to any coach who will work according to their terms.

Keshi’s time with the Super Eagles might sadly have come to an uncelebrated end.

Lagos female doctor dies of Ebola

NIGERIA’S battle against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) suffered a major setback Tuesday.  The senior female doctor quarantined for having primary contact with the index case, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, is dead. Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, Senior Consultant and Endocrinologist at First Consultant Medical Centre Ikoyi, Lagos, died Tuesday evening, bringing the number of persons that have died because of the virus in the country to five.

2015 Elections: We won’t allow masked security men – Jega

ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Wednesday, said it would not allow the use of masked security agents to safeguard the 2015 general elections, saying that “any security personnel deployed for the election must be someone identifiable”.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega who made the position of the Commission known during an interactive session he had in Abuja with both local and international Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, involved in monitoring elections in the country, described the emerging trend of using hooded security men for elections as “highly worrisome”.

Drug blocks Ebola-like virus in monkey tests

An experimental drug treatment can help monkeys survive an otherwise deadly infection with a tropical virus called Marburg, which is similar to Ebola, researchers said Wednesday.

The findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine could speed efforts to bring to market a drug treatment against Ebola, a deadly hemorrhagic virus that is sweeping across West Africa in the largest outbreak to date.

There is no available drug or vaccine for Ebola, which has killed 1,350 people and infected 2,473 since March in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Guinea and Liberia.

Liberia’s Ebola clampdown turns violent

Violence erupted in an Ebola quarantine zone in Liberia’s capital Wednesday as authorities struggled to contain the deadly disease, while new suspected cases in Asia sparked fears of it spreading from Africa.

Four residents were injured in Monrovia’s West Point slum when soldiers opened fire on crowds and used tear gas as they tried to evacuate a state official and her family from the quarantined quarter.

The crackdown in Liberia comes as authorities around the world are scrambling to stem the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 1,200 people across west Africa this year.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf quarantined West Point and Dolo Town, to the east of the capital, and imposed a night-time curfew as part of new drastic measures to fight the disease.