President Barack Obama has led tributes to US actor and comedian Robin Williams, who has been found dead, aged 63, in an apparent suicide.
Marin County Police in California said Williams was pronounced dead at his home after officials responded to an emergency call around noon local time.
Williams was famous for films such as Good Morning Vietnam and won an Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting.
His publicist said he had been “battling severe depression”.
President Obama was one of many offering condolences to the actor’s family saying: “Williams arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.
“He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalised on our own streets.”
In the past Williams had talked, and even joked, about his struggles with alcohol and drugs.
He had recently returned to a rehabilitation centre to “fine-tune” his sobriety, the Los Angeles Times reported in July.
The local Sheriff’s office said Williams was found unconscious and not breathing at his home near Tiburon, north of San Francisco.
“At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made,” police said in a statement.
“Speechless”: Robin Williams accepts his 1998 Oscar for Good Will Hunting
His wife Susan Schneider asked that he be remembered for the joy he brought to the world
In a statement, Williams’ wife, Susan Schneider, said she was “utterly heartbroken”.
“This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken,” she said.
“On behalf of Robin’s family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin’s death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.”
Robin Williams won an Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting
Williams had three children from previous marriages.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1951, Williams joined the drama club in high school and was accepted into Juilliard School in New York, the prestigious American academy for the arts.
There, he was encouraged by a teacher to pursue comedy.
The actor was first known for his zany portrayal of an alien in the 1970s TV show Mork and Mindy, a character first seen in the sitcom Happy Days.
He was a regular stand-up comedian while continuing to act in such films as Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Mrs Doubtfire and as the voice of the genie in Aladdin.
While many of his roles were in comedies, Williams won the Oscar in 1998 for best supporting actor as a therapist in Good Will Hunting.
In a 2009 interview, the actor told Reuters his children often referenced his own struggles with alcohol when he told them off for bad behaviour.
“They went: ‘And you had a three-year drunken relapse’. Ah, thank you for bringing that back, my little happy creatures,” Williams joked.
In his final Instagram post two weeks ago, he published a photo of himself and his daughter as a toddler with the message: “Happy Birthday to Ms Zelda Rae Williams! Quarter of a century old today but always my baby girl. Happy Birthday @zeldawilliams Love you!”
Williams’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has become a makeshift memorial
Tributes have also been left outside the house in Boulder, Colorado used in Mork and Mindy’s title sequence
Fellow comedian Steve Martin tweeted he “could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul.”
Martin and Williams appeared on stage together during an 1988 Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot.
Comedian and talk show host Ellen de Generes tweeted: “I can’t believe the news about Robin Williams. He gave so much to so many people. I’m heartbroken.”
Idris Elba was photographed in London while on location as he gets into his character for an upcoming drama “A Hundred Streets”. The 41-year-old actor is shooting along with Gemma Arterton who is his wife in the film. See more photos below.
Idris Elba and Gemma Arterton with their kids in the drama.
Dr Yilkyes Bala lived the high life and was chauffeur-driven in a Bentley
But the ‘businessman’ was a criminal running an immigration racket
Investigators believe he helped 100 of his countrymen enter the UK illegally
A corrupt Home Office worker sold him refugee passports for £1,500 each
Dr Bala, 55, received a seven-year jail sentence from August 1st
Posing as a member of the Nigerian Royal family, he mingled with diplomats, captains of industry and senior police officers.
Dr Yilkyes Bala (left on the picture above) was chauffeur-driven in a black Bentley and hosted sumptuous dinners at the Dorchester to mix with society’s elite.
But the supposedly flourishing businessman was, in fact, a criminal mastermind responsible for an ambitious immigration racket.
Investigators believe he helped more than 100 of his countrymen, including most of his extended family, to enter the UK illegally under false and stolen identities.
At the centre of the scam was a corrupt Home Office worker who sold him genuine, but improperly issued, refugee passports for £1,500 each.
Bala then used his network of security companies to give the illegal immigrants references and jobs.
They could then ‘hit the jackpot’ and obtain a National Insurance number, giving them full citizen’s rights and access to State benefits.
But the racket, which continued for up to 16 years, unravelled when the Home Office employee was caught out.
This week Bala, 55, was starting a seven-year jail sentence from August 1st, after a jury convicted him of conspiring to breach immigration laws.
A judge at Canterbury Crown Court said the charming fraudster was ‘at the hub’ of a ‘significant conspiracy’ to beat UK border security.
The conviction is an embarrassment for those who mixed with Bala, including the Nigerian Ambassador and senior officers at City of London Police.
The charming conman referred to himself as ‘His Royal Highness Prince Yilkyes Bala Finok Tonglele PhD State Crown Prince’.
He even carried an identity card claiming to be ‘prince of princes’ in the Nigerian Plateau State Council of Chiefs.
Investigators found he did not inherit the honour, but he claimed it was bestowed on him later in life, and they have been unable to disprove this.
Bala travelled to Britain in the early 1980s before studying administration at Greenwich School of Management as part of a philosophy doctorate.
He already claimed to have a degree from the now-defunct Clayton University, in Missouri, U.S., long suspected as a ‘buy-a-degree’ college.
He went on to set up a network of companies and claimed that at one stage they employed 900 people across Europe, Asia and Africa.
The core business was supplying security guards to the construction industry, including one firm based in Knightsbridge, Central London.
His companies, which included Golden Shield and Mayfair and Knightsbridge Guarding, also provided alarm monitoring, VIP bodyguards and uniformed guards for offices.
Within two decades Bala, a father of six, was living in a £1.3million home in leafy Beckenham, South East London.
He joined the Croydon branch of the Masons and sent his daughters to fee-paying Blackheath High School.
But a huge investigation, which Bala claimed cost up to £10 million, unravelled his empire and exposed him as a ruthless conman.
Officials discovered a corrupt Home Office employee based in Croydon had improperly obtained more than 200 refugee passports.
In genuine cases they are used as travel documents for those claiming asylum in Britain, often fleeing religious or political persecution.
But the official was illicitly applying for them in the name of non-existent relatives of genuine refugees.
At least 91 documents were posted to addresses linked to Bala, who ran the Armour Group chain of companies with offices across the capital.
They were then used as the foundation for applications to remain in the UK as he and his accomplices ran rings around immigration officials.
Those linked to Bala used every trick in the book to beat border controls, from urgent medical visas to travelling as domestic servants.
Some were so shameless that they changed their names by deed poll back to their original identities within weeks of adopting the persona of a non-existent refugee.
Among those given false identities so they could remain in Britain were Bala’s second wife and his brother.
After his arrest, Bala boasted to officials that he was allowed up to seven wives, ‘and a few more on the side’.
Investigators found his home stuffed with paperwork linked to his businesses, with documents in his garage filling two vans alone.
Because of the complex web of his businesses it took the Home Office two years to prepare the case against him.
The illegal immigrants caused chaos in Government systems once they had obtained their new identities.
One man was uncovered by his fingerprints when he was caught drink driving on two occasions, first under his real name and then in a false one.
In some cases, illegal immigrants had already failed to gain citizenship under one name so simply adopted a new identity to try again.
Official company minutes for Bala’s security companies recorded the same people attending meetings under different names.
Bala’s second wife Giwo Tonglele, 46, was also convicted of conspiracy to facilitate illegal entry of persons into the UK and was jailed for five years.
Their former employee Casmir Ekwuhga, 42, was jailed for four years for taking part in the conspiracy, holding a refugee passport illegally and using it to obtain a driving licence fraudulently.
Jailing them, Judge Heather Norton said the scam was well organised.
She said: ‘These documents were created to order. Each one of you was involved in deceiving the immigration authorities. You were at the hub of the whole enterprise.
‘The motive was simple.It was to provide identities for employees, relatives and friends. It was a significant conspiracy.’
More than 100 illegal immigrants linked to the scam have been arrested, but only a small number are believed to have been convicted and deported.
David Fairclough, of the Home Office, said Bala was brought to justice after a ‘long, complex and painstaking investigation’ and said the case should serve as a warning to others.
Article was originally published on the UK Daily Mail website.
Air strikes target frontlines around Kurdish capital of Irbil
Deployment of US combat troops on ground ruled out
Parallel operation to drop food for civilians on Mount Sinjar
US warplanes bombed Islamic militants outside the Kurdish capital of Irbil on Friday, pulling the US back into Iraq conflict for the first time since President Obama withdrew ground troops in 2011.
After initial strikes outside the city, the US military launched a second and third round later in the day. Then, early on Saturday morning, the US military announced it had conducted a second airdrop of food and water for thousands of refugees trapped in Iraq’s Sinjar mountains.
The first strikes were limited to the frontlines around Irbil to relieve intense pressure on US-backed Kurdish fighters, but the White House signaled it could expand its military commitment.
That would come only once a more “inclusive” government was formed in Baghdad, giving better representation to Iraq’s alienated Sunni minority. However, the Obama administration stressed that sending combat troops back into the country was not an option.
The first 225kg laser-guided bombs were dropped in mid-afternoon by two fighter jets flying from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf. They targeted a howitzer that fighters from the Islamic State (Isis) movement were using to shell Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga.
After a pause of a few hours, a second and third wave of bombing resumed in the evening with attacks on Isis lines outside Irbil, the largest city in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, with a population of 1.5 million inflated by thousands of Arab refugees from fighting elsewhere in Iraq.
The drone hit an Isis mortar position near the city, the Pentagon said, about three hours after Friday’s first fighter jet strike. A second pass by the drone killed suspected Isis militants when they “returned to the site moments later”.
Over an hour later, four more FA-18 Super Hornets hit an Isis vehicle convoy of seven vehicles while it was parked near the city, as well as a mortar position. Two passes by the jets dropped eight laser-guided bombs.
Together, the three strikes suggested an air campaign to protect Iraqi Kurdistan was beginning to take shape, marking the return of US aircraft to combat in Iraq.
An AP correspondent at the scene reported six bombs dropped at the front at Khazer, the site of a camp for displaced Iraqi Arabs just outside Irbil, abandoned in the face of the Isis offensive. Peshmerga fighters had been told to withdraw from their positions just before the sorties began, but even so, one of the bombs landed within 100 metres of their lines.
Hours earlier, US military transport planes had launched a parallel operation to drop food and water for 40,000 civilians, Kurds mostly of the Yazidi faith, who are besieged on Mount Sinjar, on the western edge of Kurdistan’s boundary with the rest of Iraq. The air drops came after reports that children among the stranded population were beginning to die of thirst on the bare, parched mountainside.
The chief spokesman for the Pentagon, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said early on Saturday that the air strikes had been followed up by further relief drops. Three planes delivered 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees. Included were more than 28,000 meals and more than 1,500 gallons of water.
Britain said the RAF would also take part in the mission to airdrop food for the stranded Yazidis. David Cameron said it was the world’s duty to help religious minorities “in their hour of desperate need”. The prime minister welcomed the American air strikes, but a Downing Street spokeswoman said Britain was “not planning a military intervention”.
The White House stressed the limited aims of the operations, aware that one of Obama’s proudest achievements in office has been the extrication of America from Iraq after eight grueling years of war.
A spokesman said that any additional support would be conditional on the formation of an “inclusive” government in Baghdad, a reflection of longstanding American discontent with the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who the US and other western officials accuse of pursuing narrow sectarian goals in favour of his fellow Shias, and at the expense of the Sunni minority and national cohesion. One of the US arguments against using force against Isis earlier was that it might relieve pressure on Maliki to open up his government or step down.
The White House pledged that any additional support to a new government would not be prolonged and would not involve ground troops. The US vice-president Joe Biden phoned Iraq’s president, Fuad Masum to discuss the strikes and press Baghdad to quickly form a new government, the White House said. “The vice president emphasized the threat Isil presented to all Iraqis and affirmed the US commitment to support Iraq and all of its citizens – from north to south – as they work to defend the country against this international threat,” it said in a statement.
Friday’s air strikes were framed as being a necessary step to protect a US joint operation centre in Irbil, used to coordinate defences with peshmerga fighters.
“The fact of the matter is we have people in Irbil and if Irbil is allowed to fall, they will be at risk,” Ben Rhodes, the national security council spokesman, said.
The president’s orders gave his commanders discretion to use air power to protect US military advisers and diplomats in Irbil and Baghdad, and to break the siege of the Yazidis on Sinjar.
It was unclear how long the air strikes around Irbil might last, or how America might extricate itself from an ever-evolving and deepening conflict. Isis has proved itself a formidable force, which has rapidly spread its control over a large swath of Syria and Iraq, capturing oilfields and one city after another. Its fighters have declared themselves eager to take on American troops. They have seized control of a dam near Mosul, which if destroyed, could unleash a 20-meter wall of water on the valley, engulfing Iraq’s second largest city.
The first US combat operations in Iraq since 2011 began at a 1.45pm local time when the two FA-18 Hornets took off from the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier in the Gulf.The humanitarian airdrop operations over Mount Sinjar were carried out by giant C17 transport planes flying from an unnamed US base in the region.
On a visit to India, the US defence secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters that more than 60 of the 72 bundles of food and water airdropped on to the mountain had reached the people stranded there.
However, the Yazidis remained encircled by Isis forces, who view their ancient faith as heretical and have executed dozens – possibly hundreds – of Yazidi men during their advance across the region.
Hundreds of Yazidi women have been taken captive by Isis and are being held in schools in Mosul, Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq’s human rights ministry said yesterday. He said the ministry learned of the captives from their families. “We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them,” Amin told The Associated Press. “We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values.”
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it was caring for 4,000 Yazidi refugees who had managed to cross the border into Syria. It said the refugees, mostly women, and children, were dehydrated and had survived for up to six days by hiding from Isis militants in the Sinjar mountains.
“Everything humanly possible must be done to prevent further tragedy from occurring on Mount Sinjar. Whether coming overland or through airdrops, there needs to be a coordinated response to ensure aid reaches the 40,000 people stranded on the mountainside,” Suzanna Tkalec, IRC’s Iraq director, said.
Also on Friday, British Airways announced that it was temporarily suspending flights over Iraq, while Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines suspended their flights into Irbil, which had been an island of calm in Iraq’s pervasive violence in the years since the US-led 2003 invasion.
A representative of Iraq’s most influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for a more comprehensive international intervention to support the Iraqi government. “The condemnation and consolation statements in support of the affected people, or sending some humanitarian aid, is not enough. Rather, solid plans, in cooperation with the Iraqi government, should be put in place to confront and eliminate the terrorists,” said al-Sistani’s spokesman Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie in his sermon in the holy city of Karbala.
Director general Margaret Chan says west African countries’ health systems need international help to manage infection.
The World Health Organisation has declared the Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency, but it is not recommending general bans on travel or trade.
The global body said the Ebola outbreak – the largest and longest in history – was happening in countries without the resources to manage the infections, some with devastated healthcare systems still recovering from war, and called on the international community to help.
“Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own,” said Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director general. “I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible.”
The current outbreak began in Guinea in March and has spread toSierra Leone and Liberia, with some cases in Nigeria. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola and the death rate has been about 50%.
The virus has an incubation period of up to 21 days, meaning symptoms do not necessarily show before then.
The WHO emergency committee unanimously agreed, after two days of meetings in Geneva and teleconferences with representatives in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, that the outbreak was “an extraordinary event”, meeting all the conditions for a public health emergency, Chan said.
Miners Shot Down premieres on Wednesday, 13 August 2014 at 22h00CAT on Witness, Al Jazeera’s flagship documentary strand. The multi-award-winning documentary will screen daily until 16 August 2014, the two-year anniversary of the Marikana massacre it investigates.
In August 2012, mineworkers in Lonmin, one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines, began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days into the strike, the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. The police insisted that they shot in self-defense, but Miners Shot Down tells a different story.
Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Show Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers. What emerges is collusion at the top, spiraling violence and the country’s first post-apartheid massacre.
The documentary has been a festival favourite, opening leading international documentary festivals like One World and Sheffield, and winning Best Film at One World in Prague; Movies That Matter in The Hague; and The Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival in Myanmar.
In South Africa, it’s won awards from the two leading festivals for documentaries, scooping the Special Choice Award at Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in June and both the Best South African Documentary and Amnesty International Human Rights Awards at Durban International Film Festival in July 2014.
The Durban jury said, “Miners Shot Down emerged as the overall winner of the award for its profoundly moving portrayal of the Marikana miners’ massacre. The human rights abuses so vividly portrayed include the right to life, the right to justice, the right to protection by the police, the right to know, the right to peaceful protest and the right to human dignity. This film is particularly important in South Africa at the present time, given the Farlam Judicial Commission currently investigating the tragedy.”
The ongoing Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the massacre began in October 2012 and recently had its deadline extended again until 30 September 2014.
Screening times: 13 Aug 22.00 CAT| 14 Aug 14.00 CAT | 15 Aug 03.00 CAT | 16 Aug 08.00 CAT
What people are saying:
“Rehad Desai’s beautifully filmed and uncompromising documentary, Miners Shot Down, is about so much more than the massacre by police of 34 striking workers at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana in August 2012. The film offers a unique prism through which to view contemporary power relations in ‘democratic’ South Africa (and perhaps globally) where the unholy trinity of capital, politics and security were (and are) pitted against labour…” Marianne Thamm, Daily Maverick
“Literally left me speechless… The world looked different when I emerged from the cinema. It doesn’t often happen to me.” Charl Blignaut, CityPress
“Important, comprehensive and damning… Essential viewing.” Encounters South African Documentary Festival.
If anyone has the skills to make a speech about feminism go viral, it’s Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Lagos-based writer whose ideas are as complex as her language is straightforward. Previously best known for her fiction, Adichie delivered a TEDx Talk in 2013 so nuanced and rousing, Beyoncé sampled it in her empowerment anthem “Flawless.” Titled“We Should All Be Feminists,” Adichie’s oration weaved together human stories from her youth in Nigeria with a complicated discourse about gender roles in the modern world and a literal textbook definition of “feminism,” which she read aloud about halfway through. Today, the speech comes out in eBook form, which you can purchase here. Reached by phone in Lagos, Adichie spoke to Vogue.com about the overwhelming success of her speech and what it means to talk politics with the whole world.
What was it like to have your ideas about feminism go so viral?
It felt strange and surprising. I had done one TED Talk and I felt that I had already said what I could, in fact, say, and I didn’t think I had anything else worth talking about. But then I also realized the one thing I cared about is gender, feminism. So I said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” But I thought, This is not going to be popular, because it’s obvious that feminism for many people is a bad word, even if you believe in it, the word is off-putting. I thought seven people would care. I was surprised, but pleasantly so.
Is it always the goal of a writer to reach as many people as possible?
I don’t think in those terms. For this speech, it was an audience of mostly Africans, an audience I wanted to reach. I remember when I started off, just having a sense of push back, I knew that it was a subject that wasn’t popular, so when people stood up and clapped, that was success. My expectations had been low, so I was just surprised.
Was it received in ways that you hadn’t anticipated?
I was surprised that some of the young men that I’ve heard from, mostly Nigerians, who I thought of as so retrograde that they could not be saved, actually started to think about and talk about gender. I heard from a friend who works in Lagos that it started this intense debate at her work, and not that everyone was so wonderful, but that at least people were talking about it. We don’t really talk about gender, and I’m very much a believer in the power of discourse, in having conversations, of trying to reach out.
Is it important to speak to men as much as to women?
Yes, absolutely. When I think about gender, I think it’s a shame that it’s thought of as women’s business. Why aren’t men interested? It concerns both. The ideas are harmful to women, but to accept them also reduces men, the ability, the intelligence, the way so many people would be so much happier if we raised boys differently. I really do believe that men and women should all be feminists.
What was your first thought when Beyoncé asked if she could sample the song?
I’m so bored by this question, but I will say that I’m happy that my thirteen-year-old niece calls herself a feminist—not because I made the speech, but because of Beyoncé. Having attained the status of “cool” to my niece is wonderful.
You have a sense of humor in the speech—can humor help convey important political points?
I approach it as a fiction writer. I really believe in the power of narrative—it humanizes the story. When I talk to people, I try to come from a place of not knowing at all. I didn’t fall down from the sky with all this knowledge. When I talk about all the bullshit ideas about gender, I also believed many of those ideas and they are things that I still struggle with.
Has it resonated differently in Nigeria than in America?
The issues are largely the same, but they manifest differently. I think maybe there is one big difference: I’ve talked to lots of American women who say they thought feminism was no longer relevant. But many Nigerian women say, “I never thought about it at all.” They always thought it was a foreign thing. I also notice that American women, European women, very easily start to think that the problem of gender is much worse in Nigeria than it is where they are from. They look deeply concerned. They want to know what we can do to help save Africa. I start to think, Maybe you should look in your backyard! All over the world it’s a problem.
Are there solutions similar throughout the world, too?
Yes, yes. And it’s this: I do think that it might be a little too late for certain generations, so it has to start in the smallest places for future generations. It’s what we tell the kids in school, what we tell our sons and daughters. It’s in class when there’s a math question—it’s that we don’t assume the boy knows. Little things.
Your 2013 book Americanah is being made into a movie by Lupita Nyong’o. Does that kind of Hollywood exposure frighten you a little?
I don’t really think very much about it. I’m just sitting here trying to write a good sentence. The kind of fiction I write isn’t the kind of fiction that Angelina Jolie or George Clooney seem likely to make into a movie, so you don’t think it’s going to happen. Particularly withAmericanah, I was writing the book I was trying to write and having fun, and I never thought it would translate into a movie. But also, I just think that books are much more interesting than films, and there’s a part of me that resents that the world is much more interested in movies. People say, “Congratulations, you have a film!” But I think, What about the book?
I will say, particularly because it’s Lupita, who I admire very much, I’m excited. I love the space that she occupies. I love that she exists. So I’m quite happy. But it’s not for me a measure of success.
What is a measure for success?
Being read. Being read by people who get it. For me, success is that I have a book out and maybe I get an email from a friend of a friend who I don’t really know that speaks to what the book is about. That people get it: That can keep me depression-free for a month. That it means something to someone else, particularly in a positive way. A woman said to me, “Your book made me feel less alone.” That is success.
Take a look at our ankara festival, floral prints, and gorgeous stripes from Stella Jean. The ankara African print has been having a booming moment for some time now, and brands like Stella Jean are at the forefront of showcasing the beauty of the colourful African print fabric to the rest of the world.
With more and more non-African men and women embracing the ankara fabric, it’s a sure festival for this bold fabric that has been worn by African men and women for decades. And for Stella Jean, the label combines other beautiful and colourful fabrics such as floral prints and stripes in its collections.
Take a look at the ankara festival collection with loads of prints and gorgeous stripes. Whether you’re looking for a piece of well-tailored skirt, a blazer, or a dress, you’ll find something that suits and looks chic on you. Good luck as you up your fashion game.
All of these floral prints, gorgeous stripes, and ankara attires are from the Stella Jean Spring-Summer Collection 2014. Stella Jean’s pieces are mostly worn by top celebrities, socialites, and the likes. Take a look at all of them and you will surely find something to add to your wardrobe.
What do you think of this ankara festival, floral prints, and gorgeous stripes that we have shared from Stella Jean’s beautiful collection for the spring and summer season? Did you find something you like from this ankara festival, floral prints, and gorgeous stripes from Stella Jean? What do you think about the collection and fabric combinations? Share your views by leaving a comment below. We cannot wait to see and read your comment.
Nigerian recording artist D’Banj and Dr. Sipho Moyo, Africa Executive Director for the ONE Campaign, discuss the upcoming U.S.-African Leader’s summit.
D’Banj discussed the Do Agric campaign’s 2 million petition signers who are calling out to African leaders for more investments in agriculture to fight poverty and create jobs. Dr. Moyo said our campaign struck a chord because African citizens petitioned their own leaders with their concerns over agriculture and are pushing for these leaders to keep their commitments to investments.
D’Banj said the African Leaders Summit’s theme of “investing the next generation in Africa” will be important this week for leaders to help expose “the wealth in Africa.” Moyo hoped conversations between President Obama and African leaders focus on agriculture and energy as ways to unlock Africa’s economic potential.
The UK Police has Offered a monetary reward to get information on a murder suspect that fled to Nigeria.
The reward is a £10,000 offer.
The suspect is Nigerian Jeffrey Okafor who left the UK on 17 August 2009, a few days after the murder.
The family of a children’s television actor murdered outside a London club have made an emotional appeal for information as the police offer a £10,000 reward.
Carl Beatson Asiedu (pictured above), who appeared in CBBC’s MI High series, was stabbed to death five years ago aged just 19.
Police believe they know the identity of his killer but have been unable to find him for five years after he allegedly fled to Nigeria.
Jeffrey Okafor left the UK on 17 August 2009, days after the murder, and was last captured on CCTV boarding a flight to the country at Heathrow Airport using his brother’s passport, the Metropolitan Police said.
Four men, including Okafor’s brother, have been convicted of charges relating to the murder but police are offering £10,000 to anyone who can help them trace the man they believed stabbed the teenager.
Mr Asiedu, the son of a pastor and a midwife, died in the street after being stabbed in the heart in the early hours of 1 August 2009.
Known as DJ Charmz, he had just performed a set at the Club Life nightclub in Vauxhall, south London, and was walking to a car with friends when he was attacked.
Police said another group approached and an argument broke out with one of Mr Asiedu’s friends, apparently over a “trivial” college dispute.
Mr Asiedu and his friend Peter Lama, who survived, were stabbed in the following attack, while their friends fled.
They returned to find Mr Asiedu collapsed in the road and tried to drive him to hospital but despite first aid from police and paramedics, he was pronounced dead in the car.
His father, John Asiedu, said he will never be free of the pain of his son’s death and suffers fresh grief every time he hears of a stabbing.
He said: “Part of me died with him and I have to carry on living with what is left of me. Carl’s tragic death has changed my view of life, people, the justice system and the world.
“I would urge Jeffrey Okafor to do the right thing and give himself up. I believe there are people in Nigeria who know him but don’t know who he really is.
“I believe he is living comfortably with a new life. Sometimes I wonder how such killers can lead normal lives with their families and friends who sometimes protect and shield them from the law.
“I am still serving the life sentence of sorrow and pain embedded in my consciousness.”
Detective Inspector Alison Hepworth, from the Met’s murder division, said Okafor could be living a “comfortable life” in Nigeria while his family’s heartache continues.
“We know there are people in UK supporting him in his new life in Nigeria and are shielding him from facing justice,” she added.
“I would appeal to those people – his friends or family – if you have in some way helped to aid his escape, now is your opportunity to do the right thing and tell us where he is.”
Junior Okafor – the suspect’s brother – was sentenced to four years imprisonment in 2010 for assisting his brother’s escape to Nigeria.
Members of the group involved in the confrontation with Mr Asiedu’s friends, Bolaji Kako-Are and Abu Mansaray, were convicted of violent disorder in 2011 and each sentenced to three years in prison.
Another of Okafor’s associate’s, Junior Ademujimi-Falade, was found guilty of violent disorder and manslaughter and jailed for eight years in 2011.
Scotland Yard has been working with Nigerian authorities in their efforts to trace Okafor.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 0208 721 4005, calling Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or by emailing jeffreyokaforwanted@met.police.uk.
Screening times: 13 Aug 22.00 CAT| 14 Aug 14.00 CAT | 15 Aug 03.00 CAT | 16 Aug 08.00 CAT
