US Warns Citizens Against Travelling To 20 Nigerian States

According to the travel advice on the Department of State's website, the United States of America has warned its citizens against travelling to 20 states in Nigeria due to security concerns with the North-Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where the Boko Haram terrorists were more brutal, topping the list.

It read: “The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of travelling to Nigeria and recommends that U.S. citizens avoid all travel to Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states because the security situation in northeast Nigeria remains fluid and unpredictable.The Department of State strongly urges U.S. citizens in Nigeria to consider their own personal security and to keep personal safety in the forefront of their travel planning. This Travel Warning replaces the Travel Warning for Nigeria dated February 5, 2016.

"The ability of the Mission to provide assistance to U.S. citizens in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states remains severely limited. The Department recommends against all but essential travel to the following states due to the risk of kidnappings, robberies, and other armed attacks: Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, and Zamfara.

"The Department also warns against travel in the Gulf of Guinea because of the threat of piracy. Based on safety and security risk assessments, the Embassy maintains restrictions for travel by U.S. officials to the states listed above; officials must receive advance clearance by the U.S. Mission for any travel to those states.

“ The U.S. Mission advises all U.S. citizens to be particularly vigilant around government security facilities; churches, mosques, and other places of worship; locations where large crowds may gather, such as hotels, clubs, bars, restaurants, markets, shopping malls; and other areas frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers.

Obama Calls On Republicans To Reject ‘Unfit’ Trump

President Barack Obama of the United States today called on Republicans to reject Donald Trump in some of his strongest comments yet about the party’s White House nominee, saying he is “woefully unprepared” and “unfit” to be president.

“This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly where they are distancing themselves from statements he’s making,” Obama said of the party’s top brass including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain.

“There has to be a point in which you say, ‘This is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party.'”

Obama’s comments at a White House press conference came amid a roiling war of words between Trump and the father of a slain US soldier who rebuked him as having “sacrificed nothing.”

Trump also has come under fire for remarks in a television interview in which he appeared not to be aware of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea after its takeover from Ukraine.

“I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president,” Obama said. “I said so last week. He keeps proving it.”

“The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that made extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia means that he’s woefully unprepared to do this job.”

“There has to come a point in which you say ‘enough’,” he said, in a comment directed at Republicans.

“The alternative is the entire party and the Republican party effectively endorses and validates the positions being articulated by Mr Trump. As I said in my speech last week, I don’t think that represents the views of a whole lot of Republicans out there.”

AFP

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TERROR: Islamic State claims Nice massacre

The Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for the truck attack that killed 84 people in Nice on France's national holiday, a news service affiliated with the jihadists said Saturday.

Amaq quoted an IS security source as saying one of its "soldiers" carried out the attack "in response to calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting (IS)". 

Attempted coup:161 dead, almost 3,000 detained- Turkey PM

Binali Yildirim, Turkish Prime Minister said 161 people were killed in the coup attempt against the government, with 2,839 soldiers now detained on suspicion of involvement.

Yildirim also declared the situation in his country was "completely under control" after thwarting a military coup aimed at toppling his government.

"The situation is completely under control," said Yildirim in Ankara, flanked by the ministers of justice and interior as well as Turkey's top general outside his offices in the capital.

This Day, The World Champion GOES Home.

                 By Owei Lakemfa.

 

Today, the World Champion, Mohammed Ali will be laid to eternal rest. Exactly a week ago, the greatest sportsperson ever, was eternally knocked out.  He was the world champion on and off the ring fighting and winning bouts against injustice, racism, religious  discrimination and  warmongering. He became the very symbol of what was boxing, so much that when he left, the game  suffered. He carried the hopes of millions of people into the ring. To the lowly and oppressed around the world, he was their champion. To him, boxing was not just sports or a profession; it was an elongation of American and world politics; a political struggle between the strong and the weak. Whipping some of his opponents in the ring, was like lashing the American establishment and their collaborators.
Ali’s  greatest victory was popularizing boxing and using it for popular causes. With his mesmerizing footwork which reminded one of  the displays of James Brown and Michael Jackson on stage, he  transformed boxing into an art. With Ali, boxing became a mass entertainment; so much that even ordinary folks poured  out into the streets as early as 2am to chant songs in his praise as was the case in Zaire and many parts of Africa including Nigeria in 1974.
From him, boxing sprouted poetry like  “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.” Indeed, he was so fast that many of his opponents and even people at the ring side didn’t see some of his most devastating blows. For instance which blow fell the mountain, Sonny Liston or rugged George Foreman in the October 30, 1974 Rumble in the Jungle? He joked  about his lightening speed “I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”
He turned boxing into a science  by mapping out every inch of the ring, measuring his steps as well as those of his opponents. To him, boxing was like a guerrilla warfare; he withdrew when his opponents attacked, and attacked when they tire. This system which he perfected in the Foreman fight, he called ‘Rope-a-dope’ He had been scientific all along without the world realizing it. For instance, when he announced the round otherwise tough opponents would fall,  and they did, he wasn’t being prophetic or mere talkative. What he did was study each opponent including their  strength and weaknesses, style and ability to deliver and absorb blows, and  compared them with his. He then taunted and psychologically  assaulted them  before and during the fights. The result in many instances was that he was able, with slight margins of error, to predict the outcome of his fights. Sure he needed courage to surmount what seemed impossible such as a 22-year old boxer taking on a fearsome  champion like Sonny Liston who had knocked out very strong opponents including  world champion Floyd Patterson within two rounds. But to Ali, nothing was impossible as “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

Ali also turned the sport into political rallies where proponents and opponents  of particular political causes like the war in Vietnam, gathered to spur on those they support. For instance, it was a sacrilege  and criminal for an American  citizen to refuse a call up to serve his country no matter how wrong the establishment could be. But Ali challenged that  at great financial and personal costs including imprisonment, when he refused the call up to fight in Vietnam. He was to articulate an unassailable philosophy on wars  when he said “Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change”
 On February 17, 1966 in rejecting the call up join the American Military in the criminal war in Vietnam, Ali argued “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?... I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.”
Ali knew his refusal to answer the call to enlist in the Vietnamese war would cost him millions of dollars, backlash from the establishment, ban from boxing and a likely jail term. But he was ready to risk all for his beliefs and the sake of the oppressed. He was to say “You lose nothing when fighting for a cause ... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about.”
Before his battle against the Vietnamese war, he had taken other risks such as joining the   Black Muslims (The Nation of Islam)  which wanted a separate country for African Americans with capital in Chicago, and being publicly identified with Brother Malcolm X seen at that time as the greatest threat to  America. Malcom X who had been fundamental in converting  Ali to Islam, had also made moves to drag the United States before the United Nations for hundreds of years of crimes against the Black people.
Ali was unapologetic about the choices he made even where they offended his country’s establishment. For him, he had a right to a foothold on American soil. He proclaimed  “I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
Given the race relations in America, when Ali proclaimed “I am the Greatest” he was making not just a bold, but also courageous  statement. He proclaimed his greatness at a time when the Blackman in United States counted for little, his life did not matter and was not allowed to vote.
Despite  such pronouncements, Ali remained a humble man who connected with people all over the world. He explained his general outlook “I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.”
 Ali  was unmatchable,  could not be duplicated, impersonated or cloned; he will continue to live in the hearts of millions of people across the world and in history. Goodbye, the compassionate champion of the oppressed people. 
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