Kim and Kanye just dropped $11 million for a 14,000-square-foot mansion in a gated community in Bel Air, CA.
The home, which is under construction, (pictured below) will have a gym, a movie theater, full hair and makeup salon, bowling alley, basketball court, indoor and outdoor pool.
Kim and Kanye have owned the house for a few weeks and they've already gutted it and are designing a 14,000-square-foot dream home in its place.
Office of Director of Voters Registration and ICT Department of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Headquarters which was gutted by fire in the early hour of Monday in Abuja
Lionel Messi has been crowned the world’s best player for a record fourth season running after being awarded the 2012 Ballon d’Or.Messi was considered the clear front-runner for the award after scoring 91 goals for club and country in 2012, breaking Gerd Muller’s 40-year-old tally of 85 goals for Bayern Munich and Germany in the process. The Argentine once again topped the polls ahead of Barcelona team-mate Andres Iniesta, the star player in Spain’s unprecedented hat-trick of international tournament victories, and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the last player to win the award before Messi’s four-year stranglehold on football’s most prestigious individual prize began. Arguably the best dribbler in football since compatriot Diego Maradona, Messi has become a deadly finisher in recent seasons. In March he set a Champions League record when he scored five goals against Bayer Leverkusen in a 7-1 victory, while a hat-trick against Granada just days later saw him break Barcelona’s all-time scoring record. His 14 goals in Barcelona’s failed Champions League campaign broke the competition’s record that he had previously shared with Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Those goals also helped him break the first of Muller’s records to fall to the Argentine in 2012, surpassing the German’s 67 goals in a season and setting a new record with 73 strikes in 2011-12. In spite of that, Messi admitted on Monday that 2012 may not be his finest season, after missing out on the Champions League and La Liga titles. “To be honest, I’m not that interested in my personal records, but in the team’s success,” he told reporters ahead of the ceremony. My objective is to improve with the team, which of course is easier when you win.”The trio were also named in the FIFPro World XI alongside Iker Casillas, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Xabi Alonso, Xavi Hernandez, and Falcao.World Coach of the Year award went to Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque, while Franz Beckenbauer was the recipient of the FIFA Presidential Award, “bestowed upon a person or institution that has made a superlative contribution to football without seeking to monopolise the limelight”.
A single lady believed to be in her early twenties has been raped to an unconscious state by four friends around Cemetery Road in Warri, a popular town in Delta State. The victim, who is now battling for her life in an undisclosed hospital, was said to have boarded a taxi cab with four male passengers from Odion Road to her residence in Aguowe Street, Off Mac Demot Road. The driver suddenly took a different direction towards Cemetery Road to the chagrin of the victim. The victim said she challenged the driver of the taxi but the other passengers drew a dagger and threatened to kill her if she raised any alarm. They, thereafter, drove down to a storey building on the Cemetery Road where the miscreants had a field day raping the victim until she became unconscious.However, luck ran out on them as the matter was reported to the Quick Response Squad of the Delta State Police Command in Warri, who swung into action and arrested three suspects - Akpofure, Seih and Obrakpo - all of Nos. 24, 64 and 66, Cemetery Road, Warri. Public Relations Officer of the command, ASP Famous Ajieh, who confirmed the arrests in Asaba yesterday, stated that the police were currently on the trail of the fourth suspect, one Ebeme.Ajieh said the arrested suspects had confessed to the crime, adding that one Black Berry phone used by the suspects in recording the rape action was recovered.
Unlike most celebrities, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West turned down a chance to rake in millions off their unborn child; rejecting a $3 million tabloid offer for the baby’s first pics.
Sources close to the couple said they have been flooded with lucrative deals from magazines clamouring to score baby Kimye’s coveted first photos, with offers ranging as high as several millions. We’re told the $3 million offer was from an overseas tabloid.
The couple however sources say has no plans to sell the pictures to anyone right now. We’re told they’re aware public demand will only increase over time — and still might consider offers in the future. But it doesn’t look as if K&K wants their baby in the full glare of the public as Kim and Kaye had earlier nixed the idea of their baby guest starring on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”
The couple’s stance is a pretty surprising, considering it’s become S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedure) in Hollywood to cash in post-baby-birth … — Brad & Angelina: $4.1 million for Shiloh in 2006, $14 million for their twins in 2008. J.Lo & Marc Anthony: $6 million for their twins.– Matthew McConaughey: $3 million for his son. — Christina Aguilera: $1.5 million for her baby. Jessica Alba: $1.5 million … the list goes on.
Nigerian born UK based designer, Shaun Akanbi, founder of Billy Boyce clothing line was stabbed to death in his London flat on Saturday December 22nd.The 26 year old budding designer also known as Moshood Abiola Akanbi, was found dead after police forced their way into his flat in Cedar Lodge, Exeter Road, Kilburn, around 4.45pm following concerns about his welfare.A postmortem gave the cause of death as multiple stab wounds to the torso.On January 4, 2013, police arrested two men aged 19 and 20 on suspicion of murder. The following day, Achraf Jandara, 20 of Laing House, Comber Grove, Camberwell, south London, was charged with murder. The other suspect was released on bail.
In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, the Ambassador of Switzerland to Nigeria, Hans-Rudolf Hodel, speaks about improvements in the Swiss financial system, the infamous Abacha loot and efforts of his home government in the international fight against global terrorism financing.
The Swiss banking system is famous for its secrecy. Some have argued that this has given rise to various forms of abuse, what is the situation today?
Our banking secrecy protects the privacy of bank clients, but it is not unlimited. If there are suspicions of criminal activities such as terrorism, organised crime, money laundering or tax fraud, it is lifted and authorities are given access to banking information. Banking secrecy is not a Swiss peculiarity; it exists in many other countries. No anonymous accounts exist in Switzerland (today). The bank is obliged to know the identity of the accounts holder and of the actual financial beneficiary.
What about the issue of money laundering?
Highly-developed financial centres run the risk of being misused to launder money and to finance terrorism. Money laundering has been recognised as an offence in the Swiss Criminal Code since 1990 and our Money Laundering Act of 1998 introduced due diligence obligations, particularly the obligation to report suspicious transactions. These apply to all financial intermediaries, not just banks, but also insurance companies, independent asset managers and so on. On February 1, 2009, various improvements in Switzerland’s anti-money-laundering arsenal entered into force, enabling Switzerland to stay abreast of the more sophisticated international standards. Switzerland’s legislation in this field is as rigorous as any in the world.
Money laundering and terrorism are linked in a lot of ways, what specifically is your home government doing in concert with the rest of the world to deal with this issue?
We are an active member of the Financial Action Force against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. At the international level, Switzerland has been at the front line of the fight against financial criminality. It is a founding member of FATF and has since been very active in contributing to strengthening its standards and their implementation. Important progress has been achieved by the revision of the FATF standards earlier this year. It will now be important that jurisdictions implement them effectively. As for Switzerland, we are currently in the process of analysing and implementing the changes to the Swiss regime of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing that might become necessary. The Federal Council appointed an interdepartmental working group to draw up recommendations on implementing the revised recommendations of the FATF by the first quarter of 2013.
Can you shed some light on your country’s efforts at ensuring that countries get back funds illegally taken from them, especially by leaders and organised criminals?
Switzerland has a fundamental interest in ensuring that assets of criminal origin are not invested in the Swiss financial centre. Swiss laws and procedures to combat money laundering, corruption and financing of terrorism are effective means of keeping out illicit funds of politically exposed persons.
What in specific terms have been your achievements in this area?
Together with the states concerned, Switzerland seeks ways of returning assets of illicit origin to their rightful owners. In the last 15 years, Switzerland has returned around CHF 1.7b (about the same amount in USD) to their countries of origin, which is more than any other financial centre.
Can you be more specific about some of these cases?
Individual cases attract considerable publicity on account of the high profile of the people and amounts of money involved. Examples include the Montesinos case, Peru, 2002; the Marcos case, the Philippines, 2003; the Angolese assets case, Angola, 2005 and of course the Abacha case, Nigeria in 2005.
The Abacha case is of particular interest to Nigerians, can you please elaborate?
I am glad to quickly elaborate on it. In December 1999, Nigeria presented to Switzerland a formal request for mutual legal assistance involving the former Head of State, Sani Abacha. Switzerland and Nigeria agreed to ask the World Bank to participate in the review of the use of the funds- in the framework of the budget-control process of various welfare projects. Additionally, Switzerland funded a project of an NGO network which monitored the use of the recovered funds in the various development projects.
How much of these funds were returned to Nigeria?
Through this mechanism, the entire $700m blocked in Swiss bank accounts have been returned to Nigeria. In the same context, proceedings for support of a criminal organisation are still pending in Geneva against Abba Abacha, the son of the former Nigerian Head of State. As this is an ongoing case, we can give no further information.
Apart from assistance in the arena of curbing financial crimes, in what other area is your country and Nigeria collaborating?
Swiss-Nigerian relationships have developed very dynamically over the last few years. We concluded a migration partnership in 2011 and have jointly started to initiate innovative projects such as a project enabling Nigerian expatriates in Switzerland to teach young people in Nigeria in the field of automotive engineering. We also have a “Swiss Scholarship” for young Nigerian technicians to get specialised training at Nestlé Nigeria. Thanks to a pilot project on police cooperation, inaugurated in 2011, several members of the Nigerian police visited Switzerland to enhance operational co-operation with selected cantonal authorities in the fight against drug trafficking. Additional activities such as the capacity-building of the Nigeria immigration authorities, the support for Nigeria in the implementation of a protection policy for internally displaced persons, or for cooperation in the multilateral dialogue and development are also taking place. In 2011, both governments agreed to hold regular human rights consultations and to engage in joint project work regarding human rights and policing. More thematic priorities were discussed and further projects are in the pipeline.With regards to trade and economy, we are working together to make the Nigerian market known to increasingly interested Swiss businesses. Nigeria is Switzerland’s second most important export market in sub-Sahara Africa. Nigeria is importing mainly machinery, chemicals, pharmaceutical products and textiles from Switzerland. Switzerland is mainly importing crude oil from Nigeria. At the end of 2010, Swiss business invested 255.5m CHF into the Nigerian market, up from 201.7m CHF in 2009. Swiss companies in Nigeria employ about 4000 people.
The Federal Government has denied reports that it was planning to spend N60bn to buy mobile phones for farmers. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina said this in a statement on Friday.Adeshina, however, confirmed that the FG was planning to distribute 10 million mobile phones to farmers, but failed to disclose the exact amount the purchase would cost.He explained that the mobile phones would be used to scale up the access of farmers to improved seeds and fertilizers to millions of farmers directly. He said, “My attention has been drawn to the issue of N60bn to be spent on phones for farmers as reported on some media sites and papers. “The information is absolutely incorrect. My permanent secretary was totally misquoted out of context. There is no N60bn for phones anywhere.” He noted that the policy the ministry was promoting was to get mobile phones to farmers as part of its agricultural transformation agenda to connect farmers to information.Others are to expand their access to markets, improve their access to savings and loans, and help them to adapt to climate change dynamics that affect them and their livelihood.He said, “Nigeria has 110 million cell phones, the largest in Africa. But there is a huge divide: the bulk of the phones are in the urban areas.“The rural areas are heavily excluded. For agriculture, which employs 70 per cent of the population, that means the farmers are excluded and marginalised. “In today’s world, the most powerful tool is a mobile phone. As the Minister of Agriculture, I want the entire rural space of Nigeria and farmers to be included, not excluded, from advantages of the mobile phone revolution. The Federal Government has denied reports that it was planning to spend N60bn to buy mobile phones for farmers.The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina said this in a statement on Friday.Adeshina, however, confirmed that the FG was planning to distribute 10 million mobile phones to farmers, but failed to disclose the exact amount the purchase would cost.He explained that the mobile phones would be used to scale up the access of farmers to improved seeds and fertilizers to millions of farmers directly.He said, “My attention has been drawn to the issue of N60bn to be spent on phones for farmers as reported on some media sites and papers.“The information is absolutely incorrect. My permanent secretary was totally misquoted out of context. There is no N60bn for phones anywhere.”He noted that the policy the ministry was promoting was to get mobile phones to farmers as part of its agricultural transformation agenda to connect farmers to information.Others are to expand their access to markets, improve their access to savings and loans, and help them to adapt to climate change dynamics that affect them and their livelihood.He said, “Nigeria has 110 million cell phones, the largest in Africa. But there is a huge divide: the bulk of the phones are in the urban areas.“The rural areas are heavily excluded. For agriculture, which employs 70 per cent of the population, that means the farmers are excluded and marginalised.“In today’s world, the most powerful tool is a mobile phone. As the Minister of Agriculture, I want the entire rural space of Nigeria and farmers to be included, not excluded, from advantages of the mobile phone revolution.” The distribution of the phones, he noted, would be facilitated through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communications Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the Ministry of Women Affairs. ”The distribution of the phones, he noted, would be facilitated through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communications Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the Ministry of Women Affairs.
