Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and 2011 Elections in Nigeria

"President Goodluck Jonathan recent ambition to contest in the 2011 elections in Nigeria has drawn a lot of concerns and reactions in the country especially amongst the Northerners as it is widely believed by so many that at least a Northerner should have to take over from President Goodluck Jonathan at the end of this first four years tenure of late President Umaru Yar'Adua towards completing the supposed eight years tenure as a dream of every democratically elected politician in Nigeria."

info4u: A TEST OF FAITH

info4u: A TEST OF FAITH

A TEST OF FAITH

Richmond is a picturesque town in North Yorkshire, England. Its castle, built just after the 1066 Norman Conquest, affords a commanding view across the valley of the river Swale, leading to the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The television documentary THE RICHMOND SIXTEEN has revealed an important aspect of the castle’s modern history-the fate of 16 conscientious objectors imprisoned there during World War 1. What happened to them?

CONSCRIPTION

Following Britain’s declaration of war in 1914, patriotism swept some 2.5 million men into the armed forces. In the face of increasing army casualties, however, and the realization that the war was not going to end as quickly as the politicians had promised, “recruiting became less a matter of entreaty, more a matter of pressure,” comments war historian Alan Lloyd. So for the first time in British history, in March 1916, single men were conscripted into the armed forces.

Two thousand tribunals were set up to hear appeals, but few, if any, of those who objected on the grounds of conscience were granted total exemption. Most conscientious objectors were ordered to join the noncombatant corps, set up to support the war machine. Those who refused to join were still viewed as conscripts and were court-martialed. They were dealt with harshly and imprison, often in terrible, cramped conditions.

THE RICHMOND SIXTEEN

Among the Richmond sixteen were five International Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were then known. Herbert Senior, who became a Bible Student in 1905 at the age of 15, wrote some 50 years later: “We were put into cells that were more like dungeons. They had probably not been used for years, as there was [five to seven centimeters] of debris on the floors.” Graffiti and writing now faded and in places illegible, that prisoners drew and wrote on their whitewashed cell walls have recently been made public. They consist of names, messages, and drawings of loved ones, along with statements of faith.

One prisoner simply wrote: “I might as well die for a principle as for lack of one.” Many messages include references to Jesus Christ and his teachings, and there are also carefully drawn replicas of the cross-and-crown emblem, used at that time by the International Bible Students Association (IBSA). Herbert Senior records that he drew on his cell wall the “Chart of the Ages” from the Bible study aid THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES, but it has not been found. It may be lost along with other writings on the walls in the main cell block or elsewhere. Another inscription reads: ‘Clarence Hall, Leeds, I.B.S.A. May 29th, 1916.sent to France.’

TO FRANCE-AND BACK

War casualties in France and Belgium were increasing at an alarming rate. War minister Horatio Herbert Kitchener and British General Douglas Haig desperately needed more troops, including married men, who by May 1916 were also being conscripted. To strengthen their hand, officials decided to make an example of conscientious objectors. So at gunpoint the Richmond Sixteen were illegally loaded on a train, their hands in irons, and secretly taken to France by a roundabout route. There on the beach of Boulogne, says HERITAGE magazine, “the men were tied with barbed wire to posts, almost as if they were being crucified,” and made to watch the execution of a British deserter by firing squad. They were told that if they did not obey orders, the same fate awaited them.

In mid-June 1916, the prisoners were marched before 3,000 troops to hear their sentence of death, but by the time Kitchener had died, and the British prime minister had intervened. A postcard with a coded message had got through to authorities in London, and the military order had been countermanded. General Haig was ordered to commute all death sentences to ten years penal servitude.

Upon their return to Britain, some of the 16 were taken to a Scottish granite quarry to do “work of national importance” under appalling conditions, says an official report. Others, Herbert Senior among them, were sent back to civil, not military, prisons.

LEGACY

In view of the fragile state of the cell walls, a comprehensive exhibition at Richmond Castle, now under the care of English Heritage, includes a virtual-reality touch screen that enables visitors to scrutinize closely both the cells and their graffiti without damaging them. Student groups are encouraged to understand why conscientious objectors were prepared to suffer punishment, imprisonment, and possible execution for their sincerely held beliefs.

The Richmond Sixteen successfully “brought the issue of conscientious objection to public attention and began to win acceptance and respect for it” This led to a more understanding approach by the authorities when dealing with those who registered as conscientious objectors during WORLD WAR II.

In the year 2002, pleasant garden in the castle grounds was dedicated in part to the memory of the Richmond Sixteen as a tribune to their moral convictions.

info4u: A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery ...

info4u: A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery ...: "Allen and Violet Large won their fortune in July and decided to donate 98% of it, saving the rest - around £130,000 - for a rainy day. 'We ..."

A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery have given nearly every penny away.

Allen and Violet Large won their fortune in July and decided to donate 98% of it, saving the rest - around £130,000 - for a rainy day.

"We were quite happy with what we had and the way we were going," said Mr Large, a 75-year-old retired welder.

"We have no plans. We're not travelers. We're not night-prowlers. We're not bar-hoppers."

After taking care of their family, the Larges donated the rest to churches, fire departments, cemeteries and the Red Cross, as well as hospitals where Mrs Large, who has cancer, has undergone treatment.

Mr Large said he and his wife decided a week before they picked up their winnings to give most of it away.

He said they had worked for 30 years in Ontario and put away money every year before retiring and returning home to Nova Scotia.

"We weren't millionaires before but we had enough to keep us going in our retirement years," said Mr Large.

Word of the couple's generosity has generated a wealth of attention from the media. "We're not used to all this attention," Mr Large said from the couple's modest home in Lower Truro.

"We're just plain, old country folks."

THE SPOUSES THAT KNOWS THEMSELVES

1.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's favorite food?
2.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's date of birth?
3.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's favorite color?
4.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's hubby?
5.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's size of shoe?
6.Who is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's best friend?
7.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's middle name?
8.When did your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's finish his/her primary school education?
9.When last did you stroll out?
10.When last did he/she said I Love You?

HEPATITIS B: A SILENT KILLER

  The liver filters poisons from the blood and performs at least other important functions. That is why hepatitis inflammation of the liver can devastate a person’s health. Hepatitis may result from excessive alcohol consumption or exposure to toxins. Most often, though, viruses are the culprit. Scientists have identified five such viruses and believe that there are at least three more.

  Five viruses are known to cause hepatitis, the three most common being designated A, B, and C. Other viruses are also suspected. The symptoms of all forms of hepatitis can be flu like and may or may not include Jaundice. Many people particularly children, have no symptoms. With hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the liver may already be several damaged by the time symptoms appear.

  Just one of the five hepatitis B and virus (HBV)-kills at least 600,000 people a year, compared to the toll of taken by malaria. More than two billion people nearly one third of the world’s population have been infected with HBV, and most recovered within months. For about 350 millions, however the disease became chronic for the rest of their lives, whether they have symptoms or not, they will have the potential to infect others.

  Proper medical care, started early, can help some with chronic HBV to ward off serious liver damage, but more are unaware that they have been infected, as only a specific blood test can detect HBV. Even routine liver function test may come back normal. Thus, HBV can be a silent killer, striking without warning. Obvious symptoms may not appear until after infection. By then, either cirrhosis or cancer of the liver may be developed. These diseases take the life of 1 in 4 HBV carriers.