World War II ships found undersea near Carolina  

Two sunken ships from World War II — a German U-boat and an American merchant vessel — have been found deep in the ocean off the coast of North Carolina, officials said Tuesday.

The ships clashed in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942 and were lost for more than seven decades in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Researchers led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries discovered the vessels about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from shore.

The discovery of the German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields offers “a rare window into a historic military battle and the underwater battlefield landscape of WWII,” NOAA said.

The ships were found 240 yards apart.

A German U-Boat in dry dock in Britain

They battled on July 15, 1942 when a convoy of merchant ships being escorted from Norfolk, Virginia to Florida was attacked by the German submarine.

“The U-576 sank the Nicaraguan-flagged freighter Bluefields and severely damaged two other ships,” NOAA said.
“In response, US Navy Kingfisher aircraft, which provided the convoy’s air cover, bombed U-576 while the merchant ship Unicoi attacked it with its deck gun.”
Both ships were lost within minutes and sank to the seabed, but only one, the German boat, suffered casualties, 45 in all.

The wreck site is considered a war grave for the German crew and is protected under international law.
“The Federal Republic of Germany is not interested in a recovery of the remnants of the U-576 and will not participate in any such project,” the German Foreign Office said in a statement.
“They are under special protection and should, if possible, remain at their site and location to allow the dead to rest in peace.”

The shipwreck was found in August by archaeologists aboard an NOAA research vessel

Malaysia’s defence minister hopeful MH370 will be found  

Hishammuddin Hussein: optimistic that MH370 will be found

Malaysia’s Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Wednesday his country was determined to find missing Flight MH370, as he was briefed by Australian officials leading the complex search deep in the Indian Ocean.

Hishammuddin, who is in the Western Australian port of Fremantle to inspect one of the search ships, the GO Phoenix, said the passengers and crew on board the Malaysia Airlines jet “remain in our thoughts and also in our prayers”.
“We must continue to hope because sometimes hope is all we have,” Hishammuddin told reporters.
“We will find MH370.”

The passenger aircraft was carrying 239 people, about two-thirds of them from China, when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. No sign of the Boeing 777 has ever been found despite a massive air and sea search.

The jet is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean after inexplicably veering off course.
Hishammuddin was acting transport minister when the plane went missing and led Malaysia’s search for the jet before Liow Tiong Lai replaced him in the transport portfolio in June.

During his visit he toured the GOPhoenix, a Malaysian-contracted vessel which is conducting the underwater search using sophisticated sonar systems.
The renewed underwater probe began in early October and more than 1,200 square kilometres (463 square miles) have so far been scoured without success, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.
GO Phoenix is expected to leave for the Indian Ocean search site on Thursday after its resupply in Fremantle.

The Australian-contracted Fugro Discovery departed the port last week and is set to arrive in the search zone Wednesday, said the ATSB, which is leading the search.
The Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen, which has since left the search zone, and the Australian-contracted Fugro Equator have been mapping the seabed since May before the underwater hunt.
The Fugro Equator is expected to finish its seabed mapping duties on Friday before it is outfitted with a sonar system so it can join the underwater search.

Hishammuddin met officials from the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, the Australian agency coordinating information about the search. He said Malaysia was dedicated in its support for the MH370 search.
“All that could have been done to find the plane at this point has been done,” he said.
“This is it, the next phase. The search goes on.”

Australian convicted in child sex sting with virtual girl  

The 10-year old Filipina called Sweetie

An Australian man caught in a global sting to trap child sex predators using a virtual 10-year-old Filipina called Sweetie has been jailed, in what is thought to be the first conviction from the operation, reports said Wednesday.

Dutch rights groups Terre des Hommes said in November last year it had used a computer-generated Filipina girl — dubbed “Sweetie” — in Internet chat rooms to ensnare paedophiles.
Over a 10-week period more than 20,000 predators from 71 countries approached the virtual 10-year-old asking for webcam sex performances and that more than 1,000 paedophiles had been identified as a result.

The group has said that several offenders have since been arrested after the information was passed onto police, including in Australia, Poland and the United States.
Australian man Scott Robert Hansen is the first person to be convicted in the online sting which snared 46 Australians, news.com.au reported Wednesday.
Court officials said that 38-year-old Hansen had been sentenced on three charges, including using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications to a person aged under 16, and possessing child exploitation material on Tuesday.

He was also charged with failing to comply with a sex offenders order.
“He was given a two-year sentence, suspended after 260 days he has already served in custody,” a court spokeswoman told AFP.
Terre des Hommes has said they did not approach anyone on the Internet but instead waited for people to approach Sweetie and ask for sex acts.

The rights group also stopped the conversation as soon as someone offered Sweetie money for sex acts.
Australian Federal Police are understood to have searched Hansen’s home following a web chat with “Sweetie” in which he was naked and masturbated, a spokesman for Terre des Hommes told news.com.au.

When the sting was revealed in 2013, Terres de Hommes said its researchers found the experience shocking.
“To put yourself in the shoes of a 10-year-old Filipina girl and seeing what some men want from you has been a shocking experience for them,” said its head of campaigns Hans Guyt.
“Some demands and acts were really obscene.”

The group said it wanted to raise the alarm about a largely unknown but quickly spreading new form of child exploitation that has tens of thousands of victims in the Philippines alone, known as webcam child sex tourism.

2015: APC denies adopting presidential candidate  

Chief John Oyegun, National Chairman of the APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa state on Wednesday denied insinuations that its leadership had adopted a presidential candidate ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Mr Philip Shekwo, Chairman of the party in the state, told NAN in Lafia that APC had not adopted any candidate.
 According to him, aspirants are still emerging while consultations are ongoing. He urged party supporters and other Nigerians to disregard such information in the interest of peace.
“Candidates are still canvassing for support and I assure you that the party has not taken any such decision. At the appropriate time, we shall take a decision on the party’s candidacy if need be.
“I urge members of the public, especially our party supporters, to disregard rumours going round that APC anointed a presidential candidate ahead of 2015.
“Such information is not only false but unfounded,” Shekwo said.

He also urged all aspirants seeking for an elective position on the party’s platform to have decorum and decency in their electioneering.

He said that decorum and decency during campaign would bring peace and unity among party members.
Shekwo appealed to party supporters to be law abiding and respect constituted authority in the interest of national development.

The chairman said that the party would continue to initiate more people-oriented policies to fight poverty, unemployment and youths restiveness.

He called on the people of the state to support the party in its efforts to improve their welfare.
Shekwo also appealed to eligible voters to come out en-mass and collect their permanent voter cards.
He said that voters should protect their votes during the 2015 general elections.
The chairman also canvassed support for Governor Tanko Al-Makura’s administration beyond 2015, to enjoy more dividends of democracy.

Insecurity should not stop voting in any part of Nigeria – APC 

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC, National Publicity Secretary

Nigeria’s main opposition party on Tuesday expressed concern that swathes of voters could be disenfranchised by Boko Haram violence at next year’s elections, undermining the credibility of results.

The country’s elections chief conceded last week that a ballot may be impossible in some parts of the northeast worst hit by the violence but it was “unlikely to affect the outcome… nationally”.
But Lai Mohammed, spokesman of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), said some five million people were registered to vote in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, worst hit by the violence.
“This is largely an opposition stronghold,” Mohammed told AFP. “Five million voters by any standard is huge.”
If a large percentage were unable to access polling stations because of unrest or a military lockdown, the APC would “not be comfortable” with the national result, he added.
The head of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, said last week that it was “inconceivable” that unrest could prevent voting in throughout all three states.

But even if people in some areas were prevented from voting, it would not affect the credibility of the election, he added.
Nigeria, which is home to 170 million people, on Friday claimed to have brokered a ceasefire with Boko Haram, which wants to create a hardline Islamic state in the country’s north.
But violence continued at the weekend and questions have been raised about the credibility of the group’s purported negotiator.

The APC is a new coalition of the main opposition parties that ran against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011.
Mohammed said its broad base would make the February 14, 2015, vote “like no other election in Nigeria’s history”, with APC governors currently controlling 14 of the country’s 36 states.
Analysts have warned that primaries to choose a presidential candidate could fracture the party.
Major players such as former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar are already in the race.

The APC is expected to select an ethnic Hausa from the mainly Muslim north to run against President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian.
Jonathan faced intense internal pressure to step aside in favour of a northerner to honour an unwritten rule on rotating the country’s leadership.

But the president appears to have fought off his rivals and is expected to declare his re-election bid soon.
Mohammed said the APC would consider “the religious sensibilities of Nigerians” when picking its candidate but that tribe and faith were not the key factors.
“We will work towards what we think is best for the country,” he said. “It is not a matter of ‘it must be north’ or ‘it must be south’.”

Asari Dokubo threatens to deal with Lai Mohammed, APC tells IG  

Alhaji Asari Dokubo

The All Progressive Congress (APC) has written the Presidency, Police and State Security Service over statements attributed to the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mr. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, threatening to deal with the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The letter signed by the National Secretary of the party, Hon. Mai Mala Buni reads: “The attention of our party has been drawn to comments made by the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mr. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, that included a threat of violence against our National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

“The threat, contained in an interview granted to the online newspaper Premium Times by Mr. Asari Dokubo on Friday, Oct. 17th 2014, follows a press statement which was issued on behalf of the party by Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Oct. 8th 2014, asking the Federal Government to explain the reported presence of Mr. Asari Dokubo on the plane that transported US$9.3 million cash to South Africa.

“In the interview, Mr. Asari Dokubo said while he would adopt a civilised response to Mr. Mohammed by first suing the APC spokesperson for his remarks,” adding that, Dokubo warned that should the courts fail to deliver justice, he will resort to “self-help by using his hands and any other means to deal with Mr. Mohammed”.

“We find this threat totally abhorring, dangerous, unacceptable and uncivilised, and therefore wish to request that you call Mr. Asari Dokubo to order and invite him to explain what he means by his threat to resort to self help. We have attached a copy of the said interview to this petition.

“We take the unwarranted threat very seriously, in view of the antecedents of Mr. Asari Dokubo and his propensity to violence, and will definitely hold him personally responsible if anything untoward happens to our National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
“Since ours is a country that operates under the rule of law rather than the laws of the jungle, we believe anyone who is aggrieved over any issue should resort to the courts to seek redress,” the statement read.

Fayemi spent N50m on two beds, says Fayose

One of the Fayemi and his wife, Bisi's bedroom
Government House

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has accused his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of spending N50m on beds in his and his wife’s bedrooms in the newly built Ekiti State Government House.

He claimed in a statement made available to journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday that what was spent on the two bedrooms, their toilets and bathrooms was in the region of N100m.

The statement titled “N3.3bn new Government House Is Fayemi’s Show of Wickedness To Ekiti People,” was signed by his Special Assistant on Information and Social Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka.

But Fayemi, through his media aide, Olayinka Oyebode, said the allegation   was more about The Comedy of Errors. He advised Fayose to stop the theatre of absurd.

The statement by Olayinka described the new government house as an act of insensitivity to the plight of Ekiti people, many of whom, could not afford to feed once in a day.

According to the statement, no progressive-minded Ekiti person would see the “out-of-this-world luxury” provided with over N3.3bn borrowed funds for Fayemi, his wife and children and will not weep for the state and its people.

It claimed that the bed on which Fayemi slept before he left government   was   N30m while that   of his wife was over N20m.

 The second bedroom

The statement read in part, “Between Fayemi and his wife, what was spent on their bedrooms, toilets and bathrooms will be in the region of N100m.

“How can a responsible government use borrowed funds to provide this kind of luxury for the governor and his family alone in a state where a lot of people cannot afford to feed more than once in a day?

“People should ask the former governor what was really wrong with the abandoned governor’s lodge used by his (Fayemi) predecessors?

“Shouldn’t such funds expended on the hilltop edifice have been used to resuscitate the moribund textile factory in Ado-Ekiti that was turned to lock-up shops to provide employment for our teeming   youths?

“Also, was Fayemi living in that manner of opulence before he became governor? Was he sleeping on a body-massaging bed and bathing in an electric-controlled Jacuzzi?

“Here is Fayemi, who could not pay workers salaries, owing them two-month   salaries before he left. A Fayemi, who out of sheer wickedness refused to pay pensioners N2.4bn pension and gratuities; N400m workers leave bonus, N700m subventions to parastatals and tertiary institutions and remit N2.4bn four months’ cooperative society’s deductions from workers salaries preferring to use N3.3bn borrowed funds to provide luxury for himself, his wife and children alone.

“This is wickedness!’’

The statement quoted Fayose as being alarmed at the waste of Ekiti resources to provide comfort for a single family out of the thousands of households in the state.

It added, “The governor would have preferred to sell out the property and use the fund to provide basic amenities and employment opportunities for the people.”

The statement also alleged that Fayemi was planning to buy a helicopter if he had returned to office for a second term because the plan was for him “to run government from the comfort of Oke-Ayoba Government 

 House and move from there to anywhere he wanted without the people seeing him.”

It added, “That’s also the reason he (Fayemi) refused to renovate the Governor’s Office, leaving it in a state of disrepair because he knew that he was not going to use the office during his second term.

“Also, contract for the maintenance of the property was already awarded for N150m per annum.

“When we visited the Government House for the first time yesterday, Mr Governor was like; how I wish I can sell off this place or turn it to commercial use? It is simply wicked for a governor to be more interested in this manner of ostentatious comfort at the expense of the people.”

Fayose, according to the statement, wondered “if the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whom Fayemi and his so-called progressives claimed as their role-model, lived in any government house, much less of building an Emperor-like house for himself.”

“Did the late Adekunle Ajasin build a monarchical government house for himself? Did Baba Lateef Jakande live in any government house? These are great Yoruba sons, who recorded landmark achievements as premier of the old Western Region and governors of Lagos State and the old Ondo State respectively.

“The duo of Ajasin and Jakande were able to impact tremendously on their states because they did not like to waste public funds on the provision of luxury for themselves.”

The statement said that “left for Governor Fayose, he won’t use that aristocratic government house because it is a symbol of oppression in itself.”

The statement added, “He(Fayose) will prefer to live where Ekiti people can easily see him, touch him, eat with him and discuss the progress of the state together.

“But abandoning it would amount to colossal waste of public funds; but Governor Fayose will not hide himself from the masses.”

Fayemi’s media aide, however dismissed the allegation by Fayose, saying “I have taken a guided tour of that place and I don’t think I have seen such an outcry.

“I don’t know where they got their figure from; it sounds absurd. I ‘ll advise them to stop this theatre of absurd. Governance is a serious business and I am appealing to them not to reduce it to a joke.

“They are turning Ekiti into a circus show and they should stop it. It is childish and puerile for them to have come up with that figure. There is nothing ostentatious about Dr. Fayemi’s lifestyle: the lodge is there as a property of the state.

“Whether Fayose stays there or not is his cup of tea. The new government house is a legacy building. Dr. Fayemi did not go with it to Isan-Ekiti; it is for the state. It is not about personal aggrandisement; it is a befitting edifice for the state. Go to other states of the federation and see their government houses. Ekiti state deserves the best.”