Lucky Norway family wins national lottery three times

Each time the 29-year old petrol station attendant from tiny Austevoll island off Norway's west coast gives birth, someone in her family wins the national lottery.

"This is completely insane... we don't even play the lottery that often," Oksnes said only days after the family collected 12.2 million crowns ($2.12 million) with their third lottery win in six years.

Lost diaries help solve "young Mona Lisa" mystery

A package of diaries said to have been posted to the United States from Britain in the 1960s could provide a vital clue to the origin of a controversial portrait presented in Geneva last month as Leonardo da Vinci's original "Mona Lisa."

But in a twist typical of the intrigue-prone world of art, the diaries -- notes by early 20th century British connoisseur and collector Hugh Blaker -- disappeared and the Washington address they were sent to seems never to have existed.

"Those papers could well provide the key to pushing back the provenance of this version of the 'Mona Lisa' by at least 150 years," Robert Meyrick, an academic and expert on the largely forgotten Blaker.

And, of course, to helping establish if the so-called "Isleworth" variant of the world's most famous painting in the Paris Louvre could indeed be an earlier -- and priceless -- portrayal by Leonardo of the enigmatic, smiling lady.

Blaker, an unsuccessful painter who as a museum curator and dealer had a reputation for recognizing lost Old Masters, found and bought the "younger Mona Lisa" in 1913 -- in, he later said, a nobleman's country house in Somerset in western England.

Sure it was a real Leonardo, he kept it at his home in the London suburb of Isleworth -- giving it its informal identity tag -- until it passed to his sister Jane on his death in 1936.

But Blaker told no one the name of the country house or of the seller. Meyrick, who was invited to the Geneva presentation to talk about the bachelor connoisseur, is keen to solve that mystery for a biography he plans to write.

Picture of the day

This mans' wife bought iron pampas for her husband.
And he joyfully wears it, he even some times shows it to his his friends.
(bro's them if you your wife buy this kind burglary for, you go gree wear am talk true)
hehe..............

Halik Becomes the First Person in the World to Survive Without a Heart or Pulse

A 37-year-old man from Czech Republic recently became the first man to live without a heart for six months.

Jakub Halik, a former firefighter lived without a pulse for six months after undergoing pioneering surgery in April when doctors removed his heart and replaced it with mechanical pumps, according to The Sun.

On April 3rd, Halik became the second man to undergo the revolutionary procedure after the first patient, Craig Lewis, died a few weeks after surgery in Texas in 2011. The father-of-one had been in peak physical condition until he collapsed and doctors found an aggressive tumor growing inside his heart.

Biafra War: Igbo Leaders Deceived Their People →Ofeimun

Poet, literary and social critic Mr Odia Ofeimun has said Biafran war leaders should be sent to the Nuremberg Trial for crime against humanity.

He said those leaders are supposed to be tried for deceiving the Igbos to fight a war they were not prepared for.

Ofeimun said this yesterday at Freedom Park, Lagos while reacting to the controversy stirred by Chinua's Achebe's latest war memoir, There Was A Country.

Ofeimun was a guest at the Book Party organised by The Committee For Relevant Art, CORA.

According to him, "the Igbo leaders who deceived their people to fight the civil war without arms and ammunition should be tried for crimes against humanity. They were not prepared for the war, yet they made use of their propaganda machine to deceive the igbos to fight the war.

“They didn't tell their people the true situation of things. Chief Obafemi Awolowo met Odumegwu Ojukwu and told him, 'My friend you are not prepared for the war.’"

Odia also said Achebe is too serious a writer to be involved in such a controversy., adding that the author of the popular novel, Things Fall Apart, left so many things unsaid in the book.

In his latest book, Achebe claims that former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, retd., and the then Federal Commissioner for Finance, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, used starvation as a weapon of war which caused the death of over two million Igbo people.

Here’s an excerpt from the book that has stirred the heated debate:

Police Brutality: Court Grants Journalist ₦100M for Assault

Nearly three years after being assaulted and battered by men of the Nigerian Police Force and officials of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in Abuja, a senior reporter with TheNEWS Magazine / PM News, Mr. Desmond Utomwen, has been awarded the sum of N100 million as damages against the bank by an Abuja High Court.

Mr. Utomwen, supported by the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, had dragged the bank and the Nigeria Police Force before the court for battering and assaulting him while officially investigating a protest at the Area 3, Garki branch of the bank by some customers who had accused the bank of inexplicable and irregular withdrawals via ATM from their accounts domiciled at the bank on Friday, December 11, 2009

Police Brutality: Court Grants Journalist ₦100M for Assault

Nearly three years after being assaulted and battered by men of the Nigerian Police Force and officials of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in Abuja, a senior reporter with TheNEWS Magazine / PM News, Mr. Desmond Utomwen, has been awarded the sum of N100 million as damages against the bank by an Abuja High Court.

Mr. Utomwen, supported by the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, had dragged the bank and the Nigeria Police Force before the court for battering and assaulting him while officially investigating a protest at the Area 3, Garki branch of the bank by some customers who had accused the bank of inexplicable and irregular withdrawals via ATM from their accounts domiciled at the bank on Friday, December 11, 2009

Kogi residents now use boats

Although 21 states of the federation are affected by record floods, Kogi appears worse hit. Three weeks after the rise in water level, movement in and out of the state is now via boats, canoes and ferries.

Being  a confluence town and a neighbouring city to the nation’s capital, a number of travelers are currently stranded in the city due to the inundated roads which has affected the Abuja-Lokoja expressway with a number of bridges and roads, submerged.

People are now paying operators of boats and ferries to convey them and their goods in and out of the city.

The state government has  assured that efforts are being made to reduce the effect of the disaster caused by this unprecedented flood.

Customs seize Indian hemp worth N3.2 million, stashed in a Car’s Engine

A couple has been arrested by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) for smuggling 30 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa, locally known as Indian hemp in the Gbaji-seme area of Lagos.

The machine compressed hard drugs valued at N3.2 million was concealed in the engine compartment of a Kia- salon car from the Republic of Benin.

Handing over the suspects and exhibits to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) official, the Comptroller of the Seme Area command of the NCS, Mr Othman Salleh warned smugglers to steer clear of the border post.

Groom abducted during wedding

The Kwara State police command have commenced investigation into the abduction of a 35-year- old petrol attendant kidnapped during his wedding and found five days after.

The reason behind the abduction has remained a daunting task for the police and mystery to family
members of the victim.
The spokesman of Kwara State police command, Mr Femi Elubode, said though he had received calls
on the incident, the A Division Police Station at Challenge, Ilorin where the incident was said to
have been reported, had not briefed his office. ”And if we are not officially briefed of any incident,it will be difficult to know the level of investigation,.I have not been briefed yet,” Elubade said.
Sunday Vanguard reliably gathered that the two-day wedding preparation between the victim, Zubair Aliyu Balogun, and his heartrob had commenced on Thursday, September 27, only for him to disappear on Friday morning, and his whereabouts remained unknown for five days.
After intensive search by family members,and sympathisers, the groom was found naked by an
Okada rider in a bush at Kangu-Olunlade village Ilorin where he was purportedly dumped by his
abductors early Tuesday morning, October 2, 2012, drenched in the early morning rain and was
shivering.
Zubair, who was said to have begged the Okada rider to call members of his family, was then taken
to a private hospital where he was later traced.
The victim had since been hospitalised.

Contacted, head of Balogun-Fulani family, where the victim hails from, Alhaji Mahmud Durosinlorun Atiku Fulani, said there was no suspicion prior to the abduction, vowing that the family would use all legal and spiritual means to get to the root of the matter and fish out the perpetrators.