Nigerian Times

Sunday, December 9, 2007; Page A23 SURE, HILLARY CLINTON HAS BEEN IN THE PUBLIC EYE FOR MORE THAN 15 YEARS, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW . . . 1.It's a story she seldom tells, not even in her autobiography. But Clinton, who opposed the Vietnam War, says she once tried to join the Marines shortly after the conflict ended. She recounted the failed enlistment one time when she was first lady, in a speech to female veterans in June 1994. She said she went to an Arkansas military recruitment office shortly before she married Bill Clinton in fall 1975. Once the Marine recruiter saw the bespectacled law professor, she told the group, he rejected her by saying, "You're too old, you can't see and you're a woman." N.B: Click the title to read the complete report.

Benet Allen reports. Dec. 10 - Two shootings at church buildings in Colorado leave four dead and six injured. Three people and the gunman were killed in two incidents in Colorado. It is unclear if the two shootings were connected, although witnesses described the gunman in each incident as being dressed in dark clothing. In Colorado Springs, staff at the New Life church said they had tightened security after hearing about the earlier shooting in a Denver suburb.

There were hot exchanges between the supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over The Oprah Winfrey show in Iowa , South Carolina, and New Hampshire . The following is the summary of my comments on the washingtonpost.com , Huff Post News and Topix . Oprah Winfrey and Senator Barack Obama need a reality check, because they are politically naïve and unrealistic. Barack Obama does not really know what it means to be the President of the greatest nation on earth and the challenges of leading the world. I have been well informed on the global role of America on earth, so, I can say who is capable of becoming the next President of the United States of America and that American patriot is, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, proud wife, mother and role model for American girls and women. Oprah Winfrey is neither a wife nor a mother and has no clue on raising children; talk less of leading a nation. I am disappointed that a black woman who refused to marry and does not want to have...

8 Dec 2007 00:39 Africa/Lagos Destroyed Videotapes Fail to Mask the Ugly Reality of Torture Congress, Justice Department Must Investigate Destruction of Interrogation Videotapes WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Open Society Policy Center (OSPC) today urged Congress to investigate the destruction of videotapes of interrogations by the Central Intelligence Agency and called for legislation requiring all CIA interrogations to be videotaped. "This is truly a case in which a destroyed picture speaks a thousand words," said OSPC Deputy Director Stephen Rickard. Intelligence experts believe that the CIA was afraid of how the public would react if they actually saw these interrogations in living color and knew that the tapes would provoke a strong reaction. OSPC called on Congress to conduct oversight investigations into the destruction of the tapes and to legislate a requirement that all CIA interrogations be videotaped. It also demanded that the Justice Dep...

9 Dec 2007 19:50 Africa/Lagos NEWSWEEK COVER: Holy Huckabee! Presidential Hopeful Mike Huckabee Says Being Attacked 'Means You're Doing Better' Huckabee: His Many Sides and Record as Governor Are Good Indicators of How He Would be as President NEW YORK, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee tells Newsweek he is about more than religion. "When people think I am a one-dimensional person, I realize they haven't done their homework on me ... I've been a governor for 10 years, and to have the resume I've built over that time on education, health care, transportation, the environment and jobs ... all that stuff is important and says a lot about what kind of governor I was and what kind of president I would be." (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071209/NYSU002 ) In the December 17 Newsweek cover story "Holy Huckabee!" (on newsstands Monday, December 10), White House Correspondent Holly Bailey and I...

Nobel Lecture December 7, 2007 By Doris Lessing The Nobel Prize in Literature 2007 On not winning the Nobel Prize I am standing in a doorway looking through clouds of blowing dust to where I am told there is still uncut forest. Yesterday I drove through miles of stumps, and charred remains of fires where in '56 was the most wonderful forest I have ever seen, all destroyed. People have to eat. They have to get fuel for fires. This is north west Zimbabwe early in the eighties, and I am visiting a friend who was a teacher in a school in London. He is here "to help Africa" as we put it. He is a gently idealistic soul and what he found here in this school shocked him into a depression, from which it was hard to recover. This school is like all the schools built after Independence. It consists of four large brick rooms side by side, put straight into the dust, one two three four, with a half room at one end, which is the library. In these classrooms are blackboards, but my frie...

IntelliBriefs: The Niger Delta Crisis

Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua I won April polls, Yar'Adua tells tribunal Vanguard Online Edition - Saturday, 08 December 2007 © Vanguard Online Edition The fact is, since the local and international monitors have provided facts and figures to prove that the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) rigged the presidential election last April, and even Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua agreed that the election was far from being fair and free, therefore, it is contradictory for him to turn around and claim that he won the presidential election based on the final result of the corrupt Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The government has failed to probe the death of over 700 people who were killed during the April polls and the political thugs of the PDP who attacked, maimed and murdered hundreds of people all over Nigeria have not been prosecuted for their crimes. A 17-year-old school girl who was gang-raped by the political hoodlums of the PDP in Osun state in southwestern Nige...

Dec 8 2007 The groom Larry and his bride Lucy . Google's co-founder and billionaire Larry Page and his Stanford girlfriend Lucy Southworth are wedding today on Richard Branson's Caribbean Necker Island. Larry and Lucy snuggle inside the Google Jet . Former US president Bill Clinton and wife Hillary are among the invited dignitaries invited to the wedding, including Bono of U2. The VIPs will be flown on private jets from around the world to wedding ceremony. The Google Jet Larry Page, 34, is worth over $18 billion, from the fortune he made from Google, the world's most popular search engine, he invented with his classmate, Sergey Brin, at Stanford University in 1998. Larry and Lucy smooching on the Google Jet Page's fiancee, Lucy Southworth, 27, is a PhD student in "biomedical informatics" at Stanford University, and also has a masters degree in science from Oxford University. Page's party has booked out the entire island, which has space for only 28 guests...

Bye Bye Mugabe

Muammar al-Kaddafi Muammar al-Kaddafi to Meet With Nikolas Sarkozy on December 10 Meeting of Leaders Occurs As Libya Continues to Strengthen Relations Across European Union Libya's Leader Calls for Political Stability in Africa as Key to Improving Lives Across African Continent PARIS and TRIPOLI, Libya, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Libya's Leader, Muammar al-Kaddafi, will meet with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy on December 10th as part of his tour with key allies on the European continent. In addition to meeting with Mr. Sarkozy, while in Paris Libya's Leader will grant a rare interview with France's widely watched Channel 2. Libya's Leader and Mr. Sarkozy last met in late July and discussed a range of vital topics, including peace in Darfur and growing the Libyan-French strategic partnership in Africa. The Libyan Leader's meeting with Mr. Sarkozy marks another important step in the continuing growth of relations between the two nations. While in Paris,...

General Wesley Clark General Wesley Clark sent me a very important letter by e-mail today on how much we must do our best to support Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for her victory in the presidential caucuses in Iowa . Dear Orikinla, For the next 28 days, I'm doing everything I can for Hillary. I'm hitting the campaign trail for Hillary in Iowa so I can talk to voters, make phone calls, and do whatever I can to help her campaign win. I've known Hillary for 24 years, and I've seen what she can do. That's why I'm traveling for her in Iowa, because I know that helping her in this race is the most important thing I can do at this moment. There are just 28 days until the Iowa caucuses, and the race there is a dead heat. It's so close that anything -- no matter how small it may seem -- can make a difference. It could be one group of voters I talked to yesterday. It could be a donation you make today that puts Hillary over the top. I know from experience that eve...

6 Dec 2007 01:24 Africa/Lagos Blackwater Statement Regarding Private Security Companies in Iraq MOYOCK, N.C., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Blackwater fully supports the memorandum of agreement signed today by the Department of State and the Department of Defense regarding private security companies operating in Iraq on behalf of the US Government. Blackwater has always supported the identification of contractor standards and clear rules of accountability. Increased coordination and constant review of procedures will provide even better value to the Government. Blackwater looks forward to complying with new rules as we continue to serve the United States Government. Source: Blackwater CONTACT: Anne Tyrrell, +1-703-852-4320, atyrrell@blackwaterusa.com, of Blackwater Web site: http://www.blackwaterusa.com/

Nigerian politics is boring. The posts on this board are enough to support my conclusion, because most of the topics are duplications of other topics and having challenging discussions is like wasting your time. There are only very few informed commentators on the Politics discussion board of Nairaland and the rest are not different from the crowd at Oshodi market in Lagos, Nigeria. The majority of the Nigerian electorate are non-literates and semi literates who are always intimidated by the criminal politicians and that is why local thugs like chief Lamidi Adedibu can be accepted by his people and the likes of the ex-president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The return of the primitive native. Dr. Pat Utomi and others of the Nigerian intelligentsia should not have joined the Nigerian politicians, because it is a waste of quality time to engage them in issues of the state when most of them are not political leaders or women, but opportunists. I hardly blog on Nigerian politics, because the...

5 Dec 2007 18:25 Africa/Lagos Man Bitten by 450-lbs Tiger Near Los Angeles YARMOUTH PORT, Mass., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A man was critically injured in a tiger attack at an animal sanctuary northeast of Los Angeles. Chris Orr, a caretaker, was bitten in the neck by a 450-pound Bengal tiger and, according to news reports, remains in intensive care. Orr was attacked as he cleaned the enclosure of a 4-year-old tiger named Alexander. The attack occurred at Shambala Preserve, which is run by the actress Tippi Hendren. The sanctuary has 65 cats, including lions, tigers, leopards and servals. "This just goes to show that big cats are, were, and will always be wild animals," said Josephine Martell of IFAW. "There are 15,000 thousand big cats just like this one in captivity all over the United States. You can never take the wild out of these animals, no matter what you do." The primary caretaker looked away for a moment "and it [the tiger] just jumped,...

Dear Iowans, Compliments of the season. We thank God for keeping us alive and well and we are glad and grateful for His goodness and mercies. I am an African artist, poet and blogger who is an American at heart. As you look forward to the Presidential Caucus in January, remember your motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain". I am proud of the Iowa voters for supporting Bill Clinton in 1992 and in 1996 and for voting for Al Gore in 2000. Yes, you voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and it shows that you are indeed democratic and patriotic. I want to share the letter that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sent to me on Monday with you and ask you to give her all your support all the way. "Dear Orikinla, It has been 316 days since we started this journey. I've been working my heart out from the very first day of this campaign, because your support deserves nothing less. And you've been right there with me, every step of the way. In Iowa, we're i...

Dear Orikinla, It has been 316 days since we started this journey. I've been working my heart out from the very first day of this campaign, because your support deserves nothing less. And you've been right there with me, every step of the way. In Iowa, we're in a dead heat. There are only 31 days until the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the race to the White House. With so little time to go, what you and I do in the coming weeks will decide this race. We are setting fundraising goals on a week-to-week basis, and this week we must raise $1.25 million to ensure we have the resources we need to win. You've already done so much to help me during the past 316 days. Will you contribute today so I can win the Democratic nomination for president? Click here to contribute and help me win . Think about what we can accomplish if we win. We can finally end the war in Iraq. We can make sure every last man, woman, and child in this country has affordable, quality health care. ...

4 Dec 2007 14:45 Africa/Lagos Sub-Saharan Africans to Brief Hill on Negative Impacts of International Monetary Fund Policies in their Countries WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by ActionAid USA: WHAT: Sub-Saharan Africans to Brief Hill on Negative Impacts of International Monetary Fund Policies in their Countries WHERE: Room 2220, Rayburn House Office Building WHEN: Friday, December 7th, 2:00 pm WHO: Ms. Tigidankay Kamara-Willis, Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Sierra Leone Ms. Rose Wanjiru, International Partnership Development Coordinator, ActionAid Kenya Ms. Martha Kwataine, Malawi Health Equity Network, Malawi CONTACT: Sandy Krawitz, Communications Director, ActionAid USA 202-492-7207 sandy.krawitz@actionaid.org Sub-Saharan African civil society representatives will brief Capitol Hill staff and media on the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) macroeconomic policies on their health and educa...

What Did You Achieve For The Benefit Of Nigeria In 2007? What did you achieve for the benefit of Nigeria and the rest of the World in 2007? This question is directed at all Nigerians. As the year 2007 ends, it is only natural to reflect on what happened in your life and the lives of others in Nigeria and the rest of the world. How did you fare as a citizen of Nigeria? My focus is not on how much money you made for yourself or your family, but how much contributions you made for the benefit of your community and the rest of humanity. Greediness is actually the root of corruption the cankerworm of destruction that has made Nigeria one of the most corrupt and poorest countries on earth. The acquisition of status symbols of luxury and prestige are not achievements for the benefit of Nigerians, because they do not contribute to the development and advancement of Nigeria. They are just your own trophies and you can celebrate them nevertheless, but if they are not important, relevant, and sig...

4 Dec 2007 00:06 Africa/Lagos Clinton, Thompson Win First Presidential 'Primary' Nation's Social Studies Teachers Flex Voting Muscles and Choose '08 Contenders Pearson Sponsors Presidential Primary at National Council for the Social Studies Annual Event SAN DIEGO, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee are the top choices for the 2008 Democratic and Republican nominations for President of the United States, according to the nation's first Presidential "Primary" of voters at the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference in San Diego. Sponsored by Pearson, more than 700 of the nation's social studies teachers flexed their voting muscles and put the principles they teach about every day into action by casting their votes. Senator Clinton won her party's nod with 41.9% of the vote. Senator Thompson was the Republicans' top choice wit...