Court of Appeal stops Soludo's candidacy again

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has once again told Charles Chukwuma Soludo, candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), to perish the thought of becoming the governor of Anambra state in the forthcoming gubernatorial election scheduled for February 6, 2010.

The court this morning restated its earlier order that Mr. Soludo could not feature as the PDP's flag bearer. The ruling followed a suit filed by disaffected aspirants asking the court to determine that Soludo became the PDP’s candidate in an irregular and shady manner.

Our investigations indicate that Soludo was imposed as the PDP candidate by a triumvirate of forces – Umaru and Turai Yar’adua, erstwhile chairman of the PDP board of trustees, Tony Anenih, and former Nigerian Vice President Alex Ekwueme.

Soludo, a controversial former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was foisted as the governorship candidate after widespread violence and lawsuits led to a stalemate in the party’s primaries.

The court found that the grounds of appeal against Soludo's candidacy were strong and that it would serve the interest of justice if he was restrained from parading himself as the party's candidate.

The lead justice has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to strike out Soludo's name from the list of candidates pending the determination of the final appeal.

Yar’adua won’t return anytime soon, but his inner circle moves to retain power

Despite sponsored media reports by pro-Yar’adua groups, impeccable sources familiar with the condition of the ailing Nigerian ruler have again told Saharareporters that Yar’adua “will not be returning to Nigeria anytime soon, if he does at all,” in the words of one of them.

The latest briefing by our sources is consistent with several disclosures by our correspondents on Mr. Yar’adua’s health status. “His return date is uncertain, but it won’t be soon,” said one of our sources. This position is further strengthened by an official declaration by the Nigeria’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Abdullahi Garba Aminchi, who last week told members of the foreign media that “only Yar’adua’s doctors could determine his date of return to Nigeria.” Our sources indicated that Yar’adua’s health took a bleak turn last week after three major organs had failed within a 24-hour period heightening fears that his condition might never improve to the point that he could quickly return back to Nigeria as planned by members of his kitchen cabinet. The unofficial but close-knit kitchen cabinet is led by his wife, Turai, and includes his Minister of Agriculture, Abba Ruma, his Chief Economic Adviser, Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, the governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki, and former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori. The group had orchestrated media reports and told political groups loyal to them that Yar’adua was returning last weekend. Amongst the group, only Turai has unfettered access to Yar’adua in the intensive care unit of the hospital where he is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The group’s main motivation was the desire to keep control of power until such a time that Yar’adua can return to Nigeria. “Given his current state, the earliest he can be brought would be late in December, if the group decides to damn the consequences of bringing him dead or alive,” said our source.

Is this the kind of president in Jonathan Goodluck?

Dear Editor Sir: It is unfortunate and looks like if the Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan transmutes to President of Nigeria, through the expected constitutional means, Nigeria may not fare better either. Judging from his utterances then good governance, transparency and rule of law in Nigeria have been thrown to the dogs.

On Friday December 11, 2009, many newspapers were awash with Vice-President’s unguarded statements concerning the situation with future Presidential elections and the Anambra 2010 gubernatorial election. Jonathan and the PDP hierarchy at their Party’s NEC meeting on November 10, 2009 showcased their stocks-in-trade, which are disobedience to rule of the law, arrogance and win-by-rigging posture.

Hear the Vice-President: “If you conduct presidential elections 100 times and bring angels from the moon to conduct them, PDP will still win”. He spoke as if he is God. Then hear the PDP NEC members: “INEC cannot stop us in Anambra; Soludo remains our candidate for Anambra 2010”. Though there are few exceptions like Governor Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and a PDP BoT member Chief Don Etiebet who have openly canvassed for APGA Peter Obi against their own, on the forthcoming Anambra’s 2010 gubernatorial election.

The Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and that of the PDP NEC members made mince meat to the Nigeria’s ‘rebranding’ project. One thing is that PDP has set out to rig any future elections; but it looks very obvious that citizens now know their rights and would in subsequent elections insist that their votes count. The present ruling party should not throw mud at the masses and expect them not to be on their guard. PDP members should start to learn how to allow transparency in all things that involve all Nigerians; they can continue to do otherwise within their party as is the case presently.

Cosmos Erhabor,

Mississippi Street,

Maitama-Abuja.

Sierra Leone woman barred from becoming chief

Members of a Sierra Leone traditional group have besieged a woman's house and stopped her from going home after she launched a legal bid to become a chief.

Elizabeth Simbiwa Sogbo-Tortu was barred from an election to the chiefdom because she was a woman.

She lost an initial appeal against the ban - a ruling condemned by women's rights groups who are vowing to take her case to the Supreme Court.

A BBC correspondent says politicians are afraid of angering traditionalists.

The BBC's Umaru Fofana in Freetown says the politicians also do not want to antagonise women - making them afraid of the whole issue.

Women are barred from becoming chiefs in the Northern Province and most of the east but they are allowed in southern Sierra Leone

CACOL files fresh petition against Ibori's "Kangaroo judge" and the former chief judge of the federal high court

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has called on the National Judicial Council, (NJC), through the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Idris Kutigi, to kick Justice Marcel Awokulehin off the James Ibori kangaroo trial in Asaba.
In a follow-up petition dated 11 December, CACOL drew the attention of the NJC to the abominable misconduct of Justice Abdullahi Mustapha, the former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, and Awokulehin.
It said that removing Awokulehin from the case is the right thing to do as whatever decision the judge takes would be wanting in credibility and embarrass the judiciary.
Recalling the embarrassing history of the Ibori trial, the Coalition called upon Justice Kutigi, “in the name of all that is good, not to allow Mr. Justice Awokulehin deliver a ruling that would cast aspersions on the neutrality of the bench in this case, and thereby erode people’s confidence in the judiciary as an arm of government that is expected to be the last sanctuary of hope for the oppressed. In the petition, which was copied to The President; the President of the Senate; the Honourable Speaker, House of Representatives; the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation; and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, CACOL called on the NJC to intervene before the matter becomes a national embarrassment. Justice Awokulehin is scheduled to deliver a judgement quashing Ibori's money laundering charges on December 16 2009. Ibori paid the judge $5 million for the "ruling" seeking to quash 170-count charges filed against him by the EFCC.

Cocaine-yacht gang facing prison

A gang arrested off the Cornish coast as they tried to smuggle cocaine valued at £10m into the UK are facing jail.

Their 35ft yacht Ronin was en-route from the Caribbean with 91kg of cocaine on board when it was stopped by a Royal Navy ship in September 2008.

Southwark Crown Court heard the boat had been tracked by customs officers.

Douglas Wood, 59, of Sandwich, Kent, was convicted on Friday of conspiring to evade the prohibition on importing cocaine.

Skipper David Coxon, 43, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on-shore organiser Patrick Walsh, 40, of Watford, Hertfordshire, have already admitted their role in the plot.

The court heard that Walsh, using a false name and passport, went on a scouting trip in 2008 to port of Spain in Trinidad in search of a ship.

In March, he bought the Ronin and experienced sailor Wood was recruited to make sure the vessel was seaworthy.

In July, Wood and Coxon sailed the Ronin to Guyana on the Caribbean coast of South America, where they picked up their cocaine cargo, wrapped up in 1kg packages.

The pair set off from Guyana on 8 August and arrived in British coastal waters five weeks later.

But customs officers had been tracking their progress and Wood and Coxon were caught with the drugs when the Ronin was boarded by personnel from the HMS Argyll on 12 September.

The gang members are expected to be sentenced on 18 January at Southwark Crown Court.

3 police officers among 5 people indicted in race-related beating

Five people, including three police officers, have been indicted in the fatal race-related beating of a Latino man in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Two indictments charge the five with federal hate crime charges, as well as obstruction of justice and conspiracy, authorities said in a written statement. A federal grand jury handed up the indictments last week, and they were unsealed Tuesday.

Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky are charged with a hate crime for beating Luis Ramirez in July 2008 while shouting racial epithets at him, according to the department. Ramirez died two days later.

"Following the beating, Donchak, Piekarsky and others, including members of the Shenandoah Police Department, participated in a scheme to obstruct the investigation of the fatal assault," the Justice Department said. As a result, Donchak faces three additional counts of conspiring to obstruct justice and related offenses, officials said.

Shenandoah Police Chief Matthew Nestor and two other officers are charged with conspiring to obstruct justice in the Ramirez investigation. Nestor and a fourth police officer are named in a third indictment and charged with extortion and civil rights violations related to police corruption, the Justice Department said.

In June, an all-white Pennsylvania jury convicted Donchak and Piekarsky, then 19 and 17, of misdemeanor simple assault in Ramirez's death and acquitted them of felony counts including aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and hindering apprehension. The two were sentenced to up to 23 months in the county jail. The incident divided the small, rural mining town of Shenandoah into camps for and against the youths and became a flash point for racial tensions nationwide.

Burma opium production up amid tension in north

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says there has been a worrying rise in the extent of opium cultivation in Burma.

According to a new UN survey, the amount of land used for growing opium has increased by almost 50% since 2006.

The UN drugs agency says the cultivation of opium poppies has risen in Burma for the third year in a row.

This is undermining efforts to rid the country of its dependence on profits from illicit crops, it says.

Over 31,000 hectares of land are now devoted to growing opium, an increase of 11% compared to one year ago.

This is still a far cry from the 1990s, when Burma was the world's largest opium producer, part of the infamous Golden Triangle.

However the head of the UN drugs agency, Antonio Maria Costa, says "the trend is going in the wrong direction".

Mr Costa says increased instability in north eastern Burma is driving the rise in drug cultivation, with ethnic militant groups using drug profits to buy arms.

The UN agency is also warning that the region is becoming a major producer of synthetic drugs like amphetamines.

Mr Costa has called for a renewed commitment from governments and donors to tackling the drug problem in south east Asia.

A Nation in Crisis and the Urgency of National Reform-A communique from the Achebe Colloquium

Being a Communiqué issued at the end of the Chinua Achebe Colloquium in Providence, U.S.A. on December 11, 2009. The Achebe Colloquium on Africa at Brown University, recognizing the crisis at the moment in Nigerian history, invited scholars and government officials from Nigeria, Europe and the United States to examine the problems and prospects of the upcoming Nigerian elections and to suggest solutions. The Colloquium was well attended by delegates from around the world. Highlights of the Colloquium included the insistence by the Convener, internationally acclaimed literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe, “that peaceful elections are not impossible in Nigeria”. The Colloquium notes the fact that elections in Nigeria have become progressively worse in quality over the years, and that this fact has gravely affected the country’s international strategic significance. Among the resolutions advanced at the Colloquium are the following:
1. National Dialogue. The Colloquium acknowledges the fact that it has taken over three decades to bring Nigeria to the current decadent state. The country is at a critical moment that requires urgent intervention through a National Dialogue to consider issues of constitutional review and electoral reforms. The present crisis is an opportunity for Nigerians to discuss and adopt a new approach to deal with recurrent socio-political problems. Nigeria’s experience in the last ten years shows that the country’s democratic institutions have dangerously retrogressed. Nigerians as well as members of the international community, including other African nations, are deeply concerned about Nigeria’s fading international significance, Nigeria’s crisis of identity, and her future as a corporate entity.
2. The Colloquium calls for free, fair and credible elections as a way of arresting and then reversing the downward spiral witnessed during the 2003 and 2007 election cycles. The Colloquium notes that the role played by the Nigerian judiciary during this period has been positive but uneven. The forthcoming Anambra elections will be a litmus test of the political will of the Federal Government and her agencies to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2011 and beyond.
3. The Colloquium calls on the National Assembly to ensure that the Executive arm of government adopts, as a matter of urgency, the report of the Justice Uwais-led Electoral Reforms Commission (ERC). The set of reforms should be enacted into law in time for the 2011 general elections. The Colloquium notes that the autonomy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as recommended by the ERC is paramount for free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria.

Turai Yar’Adua orders gold and diamond removed from Aso Rock

In a sign of increased uncertainty about Umaru Yar'adua's ability to return to Nigeria's presidency, his wife, Turai is anxiously moving to protect her most prized possession from the presidential lodge in Abuja also known as Aso Rock Villa.

Saharareporters learnt that the Turai Yar’adua has commenced the removal of a cache of gold and diamond kept in the inner recesses of the presidential villa. The precious metals, described by our sources as “large in quantity,” are tied to a business co-owned by Turai and her daughter, Nafisat Yuguda, but run on their behalf by a Lebanese businessman Joseph Zeitoun and his Nigerian wife, Zainab Zeitoun. “The fact that the First Lady is removing the jewelry from Aso Rock shows that the president’s condition may not be that good,” said one of our sources.

Nafisat, Yar'adua's daughter who is married to Governor Isah Yuguda of Bauchi, recently arrived in the US to give birth to their first baby.

The Zeitouns operate the jewelry business for the Yar’aduas out of the pricey shopping mall called Dunes Center. The jewelry shop, named Nafeez, is located in Suite 105 at the Dunes Center on 44 Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja. General Jeremiah Useni (ret.) allocated the land to Zainab when he was the minister of the Federal Capital Territory under the Sani Abacha regime.

Mr. Useni briefly dated Zainab. Our sources said that Zainab was then also dating Joseph at the time, but introduced the Lebanese to Useni as her business partner. The sources revealed that Zainab hit it big when she was introduced to Turai and “the First Lady found her partnership very rewarding.” One of our sources said the Zeitouns helped open Turai’s eyes to the tremendous profits that she could reap from the jewelry business. The sources said Turai had used “First Lady” pressure to force male and female government officials as well as business owners to purchase expensive gold and diamond from her front jewelry business.

Saharareporters has reported on Turai’s extensive business deals, making her one of Nigeria's sleaziest First Ladies. A source close to the Yar’aduas said that Turai “exploits every opportunity to make money – through kickbacks, the charging of $30,000 fee for anybody who wishes to see her, and establishment of phony foundations through which unscrupulous businessmen are forced to make donations that are then rerouted into her personal accounts.”

Our sources further revealed that the m=Minister of Agriculture, Abba Ruma, maintains an apartment at the Dunes center and holds business consultations in the building. The Zeitouns have received huge contracts to construct "Agricultural Storage Silos" and have helped the Yar'adua family developed properties acquired in Abuja.

Saharareporters also learnt that Zainab and Joseph Zeitoun were responsible for planning and executing the “Arabian Nights” theme for the gaudy and opulent weeklong wedding of Nafisat Yar'adua and Governor Yuguda. The wedding featured Senegalese music sensation, Youssou n'Dour, who performed alongside imported Lebanese belly dancers.

When our reporter called the telephone numbers on the Nafeez business card obtained exclusively by Saharareporters, the lines had become inactive.

Dunes Center

6000 Megawatts of excuses: The Minister’s Cave

With just two weeks left to go before the end of the year, it can be stated categorically that there is absolutely no chance that the government will meet its stated target of supplying 6,000 MW of electricity. Everybody in PHCN knows it. The Minister of Power knows it. Even uninitiated folk in the streets know it. And yet, the government and its friends in PDP continue to stake their reputations and credibility on this chimerical target, suggesting somehow that not only will this target be achieved, but that, once achieved, the problems in the power sector will miraculously be resolved. This is curious behaviour indeed.

In reality, come December 31st, we are likely to still be generating under 4,000 MW. The excuse for falling far short of the target will no doubt be that we were not able to source sufficient gas. Indeed, it would appear that the excuse of ‘lack of gas’ has taken the place of the ‘lack of rain’ excuse we used to hear from NEPA when the lights went out. However, the issue of insufficient gas supply was known about long before the Minister came up with the 6,000 MW target. It has little to do with Niger Delta militancy or the actual availability of gas, and more to do with the insane hallucination that potential gas providers can be begged or bullied into providing gas at a tenth of international gas prices. They never have and they never will. And no amount of delusional thinking is going to alter that basic economic reality. So, why then are we being kept in the dark? Why then, almost seven years since we celebrated Senator (now Governor) Liyel Imoke’s achievement of meeting the target of 4,000 MW are we still in the same position, after spending an additional N1trillion that cannot seem to be accounted for? When, in February 2008, President Yar’Adua said that “there is no better evidence of our narrow focus than our nation’s dismal power sector, even with our prodigious gas reserves," as he inaugurated the “Committee for the Accelerated Expansion of Nigeria’s Power Infrastructure," many thought he was being serious.

In Defence of Kegiri, Dangote’s Amputee

Writing about the prevailing pains, trauma and frustration of Celestine Vigale.Kegiri, the 34-year-old skilled carpenter and wood specialist reminds me of two seminal books I read with passion as a secondary school student: God’s Bits of Wood (1960) and A walk in the Night and other stories (1962). The former was written by Sembene Ousmane (January 1, 1923 – June 9, 2007), my departed friend, a celebrated Senegalese writer, Marxist and film director. The book is a fictional work set in colonial Senegal, the French speaking West African country. The theme of workers strike permeates the book. Workers strikes’ in the book is triggered by the poor working conditions of the railway workers. The latter was authored by Alex La Guma (1925 - 1985), the famous South African journalist, author and anti-apartheid activist. In the above novella, he fictionalized the suffering of workers in Apartheid South Africa. Ousmane and La Guma are deeply concerned about the predicament of the working peoples be they in Senegal, Mali or South Africa. Whether workers at the railway stations, mining pits or cement factories, working class peoples always bear the blow of injustice, greed and manipulation by those who control the means of production.

Craig Sweeney victim's payout "significantly increased'

A young girl abducted and sexually assaulted by paedophile Craig Sweeney on early release from jail has had her compensation "significantly increased".

The girl, then three, was taken from Rumney, Cardiff in January 2006 and sexually assaulted by Sweeney, then 24.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (Cica) had awarded £12,000.

Their solicitor said the girl's mother believes the new award "more accurately reflects the incredibly serious nature of the injuries" her daughter suffered.

Sweeney drove to England and threw the girl out of the car after a police chase.

He was jailed for life in June 2006, but was told he could seek parole after just over five years.

The increased amount to be paid by the Cica to the victim, who is known only as Child A and is now seven, was decided by a hearing of the tribunals service in Newport on 10 December.

Corruption threatens "soul and fabric" of U.S.: FBI

Corruption, whether in the form of crooked officials, financial fraudsters or even philandering sports stars, is tearing at the fabric of U.S. society and is the country's No. 1 criminal threat, a senior FBI agent said on Tuesday. Addressing businessmen in Florida, where financial fraud cases jumped by 42 percent in the last year, FBI Miami Division Special Agent in Charge John Gillies said failures in personal ethics and integrity sowed the initial poisonous seeds of corruption in a society. Gillies said transgressions by high-profile public servants and even perceived social role models, like top golfer Tiger Woods, currently embroiled in allegations that he had extramarital affairs, sent the signal to young Americans that cheating and stealing were acceptable. "Where do our children learn this? They see us, their elected officials, their sports stars, they see how they act and they figure, 'well it's OK,'" he said, citing the case of Woods, whose early morning car accident in Florida last month triggered a storm of media questioning of his clean-living reputation. "Money can't buy everything," Gillies said in a speech to the West Boca Chamber of Commerce in Boca Raton, Florida. The special agent, who manages high-profile cases in Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America, in no way suggested Woods had committed any criminal offenses. Florida police issued Woods a ticket for careless driving last week and said no criminal charges would be filed. He quickly paid the $164 fine, his lawyer said. Police also said no allegations of domestic violence were leveled. Gillies, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, called corruption in all its multiple forms, whether in law enforcement or in the judicial system, or involving tax cheats and fraudsters, "our number one criminal threat" in the United States. "It really gets at the soul and fabric of the United States when people are out there corrupting ... it all starts with simple ethics violations," Gillies said.

Blackwater denies covert CIA help

Guards from American security company Blackwater participated in CIA raids on suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times says.

It reported that the raids revealed a greater level of involvement between the spy agency and Blackwater than previously acknowledged by either.

Blackwater said it was "never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Operations".

It was employed to provide security at bases for CIA staff.

In response to the New York Times article, a spokesman for Blackwater - now called Xe Services - said: "Blackwater USA was never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.

"Any allegation to the contrary by any news organisation would be false."

'Snatch and grab'

The New York Times quoted various unnamed current and former Blackwater employees and agency staff describing so-called "snatch and grab" raids on suspected insurgents in Iraq from 2004 to 2006.

"Instead of simply providing security for CIA officers, they say, Blackwater personnel at times became partners in missions to capture or kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, a practice that raises questions about the use of guns for hire on the battlefield," the newspaper reported.

The company began work with the CIA providing security round the perimeter of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, then moved to accompanying staff on missions.

The sources said they then became more deeply involved by planning the safest way to carry out operations to prevent any casualties among CIA staff.

The Nation Dangles as Yar’Adua Pines Away

A very ominous sign hangs over the badly battered country called Nigeria presently and all flow from the present deteriorating state of health of President Yar’Adua. Apart from the palpable confusion that presently envelope governance, one would be damned to deny that the power mongers and the speculators that live off government are making their nocturnal shrifts to take advantage of what is obviously a lacuna that is now so obvious in the nation’s seat of power.

Even with the thick patch of pan cake being spruced on what is a delicate situation, most Nigerians know that the country is dangling on the precipice, shorn of a leader and bereft of any sense of mission.

For whoever can bet on it, the dangers ahead are so real and much more complicated than they have been made to look. It goes far beyond the self serving permutations of a notorious political party for untrammeled and infinite power. It goes beyond the craving of a hideous cabal for the traps of office. It goes beyond the mad and deadly struggle to take advantage of the huge lacuna that has prevailed in the country’s seat of power since Yar’Adua was forced down on us all by the grand principality himself.

What is very certain to happen is that in the near future, something is going to give and this flows from the risky political cobweb that birthed the Yar’Adua presidency? The looming danger may hasten the doomsday prophecy about Nigeria’s possible implosion into chips of disparate ethnic nations in the near future. The certain fate that hangs over this unfortunate country obtains in the gravy aftermaths of having an infirm president. The early warning signals obtain in the present rancor and deep division over whether Yar’Adua should resign or continue ‘ruling’ Nigeria from the sick beds of foreign hospices. It obtains in the intra-class intercalation that debate has spawned such that huge questions are being raised over some peoples’ consistency in the struggle so early in the day; when the real battle is yet to begin.

Murdered radio presenter had 'severe head injuries'

Police investigating the "brutal" murder of a radio presenter at her home in Glasgow have revealed she died as a result of "severe head injuries".

Nasim Jamil, 54, who worked on Asian community radio station Awaz FM, was discovered by her daughter at her flat in Byres Road on Wednesday night.

She was last seen alive earlier in the day and is believed to have attended a doctor's appointment.

Police are studying CCTV footage from the area where Mrs Jamil lived.

Forensic officers are examining her flat and door-to-door inquiries are under way. A mobile police office has been sited on Byres Road.

Mrs Jamil, who was widowed and lived with her daughter, was found in her third-floor flat at about 1950 GMT on Wednesday.

Det Ch Insp Louise Raphael, who is in charge of the investigation, said officers were trying to establish a motive for the killing.

Ex-officer tried for 'Dirty War' crimes in Argentina

An ex-navy captain dubbed the Blond Angel of Death has gone on trial in Argentina with 18 others for kidnap and torture during military rule.

Alfredo Astiz and the other defendants are accused of abuses at the Navy Mechanics School detention centre.

He is accused of involvement in the disappearance of dozens of people, including two French nuns.

Between 10,000 and 30,000 people are believed to have been disappeared during the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship.

Mr Astiz is alleged to have had a central role in the abduction and disappearance of the nuns, Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, investigative journalist Rodolfo Walsh and several founders of a human rights group, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

He is said to have helped security forces by infiltrating meetings of the Mothers at a church in Buenos Aires.

Leonie Duquet was thrown from a plane during one of the many "flights of death" during which the military disposed of prisoners.

Her body was washed ashore and she was buried in an unmarked grave, until her remains were formally identified in 2005. Alice Domon's remains have never been found.

Mr Astiz denies any knowledge of such flights and argues that he was following orders to protect Argentina from extremist violence.

The Argentine courts have identified 250 navy personnel who worked in the Navy Mechanics school at the time - some 70 have been charged so far.

News from Saudi Arabia-A blog on Yar'adua's condition

I just woke up to read this idiotic piece dished out to Nigerians. First, let me say, that beyond all reasonable doubt that if the diagnosis and the muddled up information dished out by the demons in PDP are true, then Mr. Yar'dua is not coming back to Nigeria, at least NOT on his feet.

Please do not get me wrong, do not mistake my take as being cold hearted or see me as a woman without African compassion in her. In fact I feel all these because I was once in the shoes of Mrs Yar'dua. Not that my own man had his kind of influence or money, but I loved him with all my heart all the same.

OK, look at this, the man is not able to speak or he is inaudible if he does. No mam/sir, the man cannot speak at all. The man is on a ventilator, he is intubated to secure the airway because someone did not have the presence of mind to intubate him, secure his airway, hyperventilate him en route to Saudi Arabia, so he SUFFERED ANOXIC NEURO DAMAGE. It takes only 3mins and at best 5 mins for any one to suffer irreversible brain damage without oxygen. So, his fool of a doctor putting him on oxygen via nasal cannula will only give the man nose bleed without making much difference. . Doctors flown in from Germany and America will not make a difference.

Akwa Ibom State: $3.1 million “Etuk money” spills bad blood within government

The report of the $3.1 million money laundering involving the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has created sharp division and suspicion within the state cabinet. Mrs. Emem Etuk, a Deputy General Manager, Victoria Island Branch (3) of Platinum Habib Bank (BankPHB) was arrested on 11 November 2009 by security operatives at the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos with $3.1 million suspected to belong to the Akwa Ibom State Governor.

Mrs. Etuk’s inability to offer a plausible explanation as to how she came about such a huge amount, or her mission, led to the escalation of the case to the Police Force headquarters in Abuja after she had been detained in Lagos for two weeks. Details of the financial scandal were unknown until SaharaReporters’ revelation earlier this week. Following our exposé, the governor’s agent, one "Centre for Media and Development" has issued a statement defending the governor and dismissing the link between the scam and the governor. Assuming the role of the police and the court, the Magnus Eze-led group submitted that their own investigations had exonerated the governor and that the money was meant for 2009 hajj pilgrims. SaharaReporters can reveal however that whereas the airlift of pilgrims started on 25 October, by 11 November when Mrs. Etuk was arrested, most pilgrims had departed and all travel plans had been concluded. Sources in Government House, Uyo, revealed that the Governor, who became disturbed about how the matter broke in the media after he had successfully suppressed the incident for four weeks following its occurrence, has ordered a secret investigation to unravel those who leaked the information to the press.