Nigerian Times

The April 7, 2008 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 31), "Womb for Rent." Newsweek explores the often-misunderstood practice of surrogacy and the reasons why it is on the rise in United States, especially among military wives. Plus: the two sides of John McCain, the crusader and the pragmatist; Barack Obama's record and stance on affirmative action; why poor Afghani girls are becoming opium brides; and a review of Martin Scorsese's film, "Shine a Light" about the Rolling Stones. (PRNewsFoto/Newsweek) NEW YORK, NY UNITED STATES 03/30/2008 30 Mar 2008 18:07 Africa/Lagos NEWSWEEK Cover: Womb for Rent Number of Surrogate Mothers on the Rise in the United States Controversy and Negative Stereotypes Do Not Deter Many Women from Helping Others And Themselves NEW YORK, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The concept of surrogacy is decried by conservative Christians, viewed as a form of prostitution by far-left feminists and debated by medical ethicists ...

Has Morgan Tsvangirai 's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the elections in Zimbabwe? Morgan Tsvangirai The Zimbabwe Guardian reported that Tendai Biti, secretary general of MDC is claiming victory in the Saturday polls in Zimbabwe. "We have won this election; we have won this election," Tendai Biti announced at a press conference on Sunday. The results from the polling stations after the Saturday polls, show that MDC has won majority of the seats in Parliament for the main cities of Harare and Bulawayo. The MDC has claimed victory in the Masvingo province, Mashonaland West, Bindura Town Council in Mashonaland Central, and other strongholds of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). Papa Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe From all the indications, Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni , the independent presidential candidate backed by Arthur Mutambara 's faction of the MDC are going to end the notoriety and monstrosi...

Senator Hillary Clinton BILL CLINTON: I believe those are the three reasons you ought to be for her: She'd be the best for the veterans, she'd be the best commander in chief, and she would certainly be the best at managing this economy. And finally, according to the evidence today, she's also the most electable. She's running ahead of Senator McCain in Ohio; her opponent's running behind. She is ahead in Florida and Arkansas, a state that voted for me twice, 'cause I was the governor -- they sort of had to, I guess -- and voted for President Carter once. They haven't voted for another Democrat in 44 years. This week's survey in Arkansas: Senator McCain is leading Hillary's opponent by 16 points; Hillary's leading him by 15 points. So she can win this election. And, and, we need to change the direction of this country. But it won't be an easy race. John McCain is an...

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe "My message to the people of Zimbabwe is very, very simple. We have come a long way in this democratic struggle. We have another fighting opportunity against this dictatorship for food and jobs - give it a try. If Mugabe steals it the people of Zimbabwe will know that their vote has been stolen and that he would be ruling by decree. But this is a referendum on Robert Mugabe's misrule over the last 10 years. I don't think that any sane Zimbabwean will cast a vote in favour of Zanu PF or in favour of Mugabe." ~ Morgan Tsvangirai , Presidential Candidate and the leader of a faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change in an interview by Violet Gonda of SW Radio Africa on Friday March 7, 2008. Millions of Zimbabweans will go to the polls tomorrow, but, will the ruthless life President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugaabe allow a free and fair election? I have chronicled the agonies of those who are suffering and dying in...

Breakdown of Final Primaries Shows Some Hope for Clinton ~ by Robert Novak and Timothy P. Carney (more by this author) Posted 03/25/2008 ET Updated 03/26/2008 ET Outlook The overriding question in the Democratic presidential contest is whether Sen. Barack Obama(D-Ill.) has overcome the slump resulting from the controversy about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.)supporters are hoping for further controversy to slow down the Obama express. It is clear now that the nominee will be selected by the super-delegates prior to the Denver convention late in August. They will be guided in no small part by polls to determine which candidate is more electable. It is not the happy choice between two acceptable candidates it seemed a month ago. Rejecting Obama risks alienating the vital African-American vote. Accepting him is increasingly seen among Democrats as a risk. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is benefiting from the Democratic distress, but he and his campaign are a lo...

Most readers of the Huffington Post in support of Barack Obama are ignorant of the present realities. Most of the Republicans and Independents who were voting for him are now wiser and they are now returning to the GOP. The polls have shown that John McCain is now the most popular of the three presidential candidates. If Hillary Clinton is not the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, the GOP will retain the presidency. The only way to defeat the GOP is the united front of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton should be the President and Barack Obama, the Vice President. Barack Obama boasting about his lead in pledged delegates, states and popular votes is schoolboy logic. That kind of political rationale cannot win the presidential election. Most of the supporters of Hillary Clinton will vote for John McCain if she is not the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. John McCain knows that he would be favoured by the instability in the Democratic Party, becaus...

26 Mar 2008 08:30 Africa/Lagos National Office Week Says: Stop the Clock! LONDON, March 26/PRNewswire/ -- - With Photo The clocks go forward 1 hour to British Summer Time this Sunday 30th March. National Office Week is calling on the government to end the annual 'spring-forward - fall-back' clock change by permanently securing the UK to British Summer Time (BST). An on-line petition - which has so far gathered 40,000 signatures - on Stop The Clock - enables UK workers to add their voice to the growing groundswell for change. The petition will be taken to Downing Street during National Office Week, which takes place this year from May 12 - 16. Debi Arnold, director of National Office Week, says: "The arguments for changing the clock each year are diminishing whilst the arguments for change are gathering increasing momentum. Not only would it put the UK on a time zone parity with mainland Europe, which would suit the business community, it would considerably reduce t...

A Big Win for Judicial Supremacy, a Big Loss for Government Language Lawyers and Another Example of Real Change by Newt Gingrich (more by this author) Posted 03/25/2008 ETUpdated 03/25/2008 ET Parents "do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children." So wrote a California judge in a case that has ominous potential for the estimated one million-plus American families who have opted out of the public education monopoly and choose to educate their children at home. Although the ruling is being appealed to the California Supreme Court, as it now stands, the 166,000 California children who are home schooled are truant, and their parents are criminals. Welcome, as the Wall Street Journal editorialized , to a "strange new chapter" in the "annals of judicial imperialism." No Teaching Credentials? No Home Schooling. For background, you should know that although California's compulsory education law requires that all children between the ages o...

Osama bin Laden 25 Mar 2008 00:10 Africa/Lagos Eye On The Ball? While Bin Laden Urges Followers to Fight in Iraq, Clinton and Obama Deny That It Is A Key Terrorist Battleground WASHINGTON, March 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Republican National Committee: Late Last Week, Osama Bin Laden Urged His Followers To Go To Iraq And Fight Alongside Their Fellow Terrorists: Bin Laden Urged His Followers To Fight In Iraq, Which He Terms "The Nearest Field Of Jihad Today." "Bin Laden added that Palestinians who are unable to fight in the 'land of Al-Quds' a Muslim reference to Jerusalem should join the al-Qaida fight in Iraq. 'The nearest field of jihad today to support our people in Palestine is the Iraqi field,' he said." (Maamoun Youssef, "Purported New Osama Bin Laden Audio Urges Holy War To Liberate Palestinian Territories," The Associated Press, 3/20/08) -- "[Bin Laden] Also Called On The People...

23 Mar 2008 17:04 Africa/Lagos NEWSWEEK: Cover: When 'Barry' Became Barack Newsweek Reconstructs Time When Obama Moved from Using 'Barry' to Formal Barack and Impact it Made on Him 'It was when I Made a Conscious Decision: I Want to Grow Up,' Obama Says NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- When Sen. Barack Obama moved from using the name Barry to Barack, his formal name, it was part of his almost lifelong quest for identity and belonging -- to figure out who he is, and how he fits into the larger American tapestry. Part black, part white, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, with family of different religious and spiritual backgrounds -- seen by others in ways he didn't see himself -- the young Barry was looking for solid ground. At Occidental College, he was feeling like he was at a "dead end," he tells Newsweek, "that somehow I needed to connect with something bigger than myself." (Newsweek: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080323/...

Arthur Miller once described a good newspaper as “a nation talking to itself.” If only in this respect, the Huffington Post is a great newspaper. It is not unusual for a short blog post to inspire a thousand posts from readers—posts that go off in their own directions and lead to arguments and conversations unrelated to the topic that inspired them. Occasionally, these comments present original perspectives and arguments, but many resemble the graffiti on a bathroom wall. The notion that the Huffington Post is somehow going to compete with, much less displace, the best traditional newspapers is arguable on other grounds as well. The site’s original-reporting resources are minuscule. The site has no regular sports or book coverage, and its entertainment section is a trashy grab bag of unverified Internet gossip. And, while the Huffington Post has successfully positioned itself as the place where progressive politicians and Hollywood liberal luminaries post their anti-Bush Administration...

So? ... A Note from Michael Moore Monday, March 24th, 2008 Friends, It would have to happen on Easter Sunday, wouldn't it, that the 4,000th American soldier would die in Iraq. Play me that crazy preacher again, will you, about how maybe God, in all his infinite wisdom, may not exactly be blessing America these days. Is anyone surprised? 4,000 dead. Unofficial estimates are that there may be up to 100,000 wounded, injured, or mentally ruined by this war. And there could be up to a million Iraqi dead. We will pay the consequences of this for a long, long time. God will keep blessing America. And where is Darth Vader in all this? A reporter from ABC News this week told Dick Cheney, in regards to Iraq, "two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." Cheney cut her off with a one word answer: "So?" "So?" As in, "So what?" As in, "F*** you. I could care less." I would like every American to see Cheney flip the virtual bird at t...

I have already sent a formal letter of protest to the Government of the People's Republic of China and signed the petition of the Human Rights First on the complicity of China in the genocide in Darfur , Sudan. China sold over $55 million worth of arms to Sudan from 2003-2006. China supplied the assault rifles, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank weapons, and mortars used by the ruthless Sudanese military and the Janjaweed in Darfur. For decades, hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested and incarcerated for their dissenting opinions and religious beliefs. Tibetan nuns have been raped in detention and in 1994, a Tibetan nun was tortured to death. The recent attacks on Tibet have only made things worse and I am now calling for the boycott of the Beijing Olympics by all people of conscience. We must petition the International Association of Athletics Federations , IAAF, to support the boycott of the Beijing Olympics. There is no guarantee of the safety and security o...

Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole In a historic judgment on Thursday March 20, 2007, The Chairman of the Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice Peter Umeadi, ruled that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole , the gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress political party scored 166,577 votes against 129,057 for Professor Oserheimen Osunbor, the gubernatorial candidate of the incumbent People's Democratic Party, therefore Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was the actual winner of the 2007 April gubernatorial election in Edo state. Justice Umeadi said: "The First Petitioner, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, is hereby declared the elected Governor of Edo State of Nigeria; he is the candidate who has scored the highest number of valid votes cast during the April 14, 2007 governorship election in the state, and has satisfied the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and the provisions of Sections 40 and 147 (2) of the Electoral Act 2006.” "The election of Senator (Prof.) Oserhei...

You American supporters of Senator Barack Hussein Obama are the most naive, ignorant and unrealistic voters on planet earth. There is no way Barack Obama can win the presidential election without Hillary Clinton, but Hillary Clinton can win the presidential election without Barack Obama. The political uproar over Jeremiah Wright is enough reason for the GOP to turn all Republicans, Independents and other Americans against the election of Barack Obama. All they need to do is to keep on pressing play to repeat the video on YouTube, MySpace, and other mass media channels till November.Facts are facts.Facts do not lie.Barack Obama's speeches cannot delete the audio-video record of what his Spiritual Adviser for over 20 years said and this is the man Obama looks up to for guidance?Americans may be naive, but they are not fools. Senator John McCain is already behaving like the President-elect by going on tour of Iraq, meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and looking ahead ...

Accept the Obama Invitation by Newt Gingrich Posted: 03/20/2008 Print This Forward Feedback Digg This! Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama gave one speech in Philadelphia this week, but he made two different presentations. The first was an apology and attempted explanation for his 20-year relationship with a preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is viciously anti-American, racist and anti-Semitic and for his membership in a church which had honored Louis Farrakhan. The second presentation was an eloquent but fundamentally inadequate speech about racism and poverty in America. It was an invitation to a national dialogue that conservatives and all Americans should accept. A Failure of Judgment? Or a Failure of Honesty and Courage? Sen. Obama's first presentation was very troubling. It offers two possibilities for judging his character, both of which are unsettling. The first possibility is that Sen. Obama did not notice the racism, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism coming from t...