GPS fail on bus sends Belgian tourists on 1,200km detour

A group of Belgian tourists were sent on a detour of close to 1,200km (800 miles) after a GPS navigation error by their bus driver.

They were meant to arrive at the French alpine resort of La Plagne for a skiing holiday.

Instead, they ended up hundreds of kilometres away, close to France's border with Spain.

The aspiring skiers eventually arrived in the Alps a day later - and were greeted with plates of Spanish food.

"There are three entries for La Plagne in France, and I selected the wrong one," the driver told Studio Brussel radio station. Studio Brussel is the youth channel of the Flemish public service broadcaster VRT, that organised the trip.

Rather than head to the Alps, the bus driver drove from Leuven, in central Belgium, to the village of La Plagne, in the south-west of France.

The smaller, snow-free, La Plagne is near Spain, some 600km (400 miles) south-west of the ski resort.

One passenger, Sven Ceuppens, posted on Twitter: "We saw the Mediterranean and Carcassonne. #bus #lost #thirsty."

Mr Ceuppens told the BBC: "We had a hard time convincing the driver he was going to Spain and had a few laughs.

"It was a sleeper bus, so when I woke up at first light, all I saw were vineyards. Nice, but very uncommon if you want to ski.

"Immediately we knew something was wrong, but it took a map of France to convince the driver to distrust the GPS."

The bus driver turned back at Toulouse, and the group reached the correct La Plagne 24 hours late.

Organisers from Studio Brussel greeted them with plates of Spanish tapas.

Many of the tourists told Belgian television they had enjoyed the unexpected diversion.

Cameroon in for long fight as its youth join Boko Haram

Cameroon's security forces are predicting a drawn-out battle with Boko Haram as evidence filters out that the insurgents are now recruiting there.

"We don't doubt that Boko Haram is recruiting in Cameroon," said Col. Joseph Nouma, commander of Operation ALPHA, a special military operation set up by Cameroon's government to fight the Nigerian terrorist group.

He says communities bordering Nigeria have been emptied of men between the ages of 10 and 45.

"Many of them are found across the border in Nigeria, training with the terrorists," he told CNN.

This has made it difficult for the country's defense forces to adequately estimate the power of the terrorist group. Nouma said the number of militants may be greater than is widely believed, though there is no reliable estimate of the group's strength.

"Boko Haram is a permanent metamorphosis, dying every day but recruiting every day as well," says Col. Jacob Kodji, interim commander of the 4th Military Region. "And this complicates a lot of things for us."

Nouma agreed: "We kill them, but they keep on coming."

A heartbreaking discovery

Boko Haram is a Nigerian-based Islamic group whose purpose is to institute Sharia, or Islamic law. They have carried out a campaign of terror in northern Nigeria, killing thousands, taking hundreds captive, and occupying swaths of territory in Borno state.

As many as 200,000 Nigerians have fled to neighboring countries, creating an urgent humanitarian situation, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported last month.

For the past two years, Boko Haram fighters have been carrying out cross-border raids on Cameroon, slaughtering hundreds and torching entire neighborhoods. But as the country's defense forces -- later joined by battle-hardened Chadian troops -- turned up the momentum against the insurgents, the terrorists began to swell their ranks with Cameroonians.

Nouma said he believes "most of the worst attacks we have suffered" were carried out by Cameroonians fighting for Boko Haram.

Also, the militants' ability to hit several different places at once, and with precision, suggests that "there are people over here giving them information," Nouma said.

In January, Boko Haram struck Fotokol, a Cameroonian town separated by only a bridge from Gambarou, Nigeria, a stronghold of the Islamist extremists. The attackers killed more than 400 people.

Cameroonian and Chadian soldiers stationed there managed to kill 150 invaders. Among them was the son of Ahmadou Moustafa, a Fotokol resident.

For two months, Moustafa didn't know the whereabouts of his son, Akim, or what he was doing. He didn't find out until the aftermath of the fighting, when locals removed the veil on one of the dead attackers to reveal his 15-year-old boy's face.

"I was really shocked and embarrassed at the development," Moustafa said.

Brazil femicide law signed

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has signed a new law which sets tough new penalties for the killing of women and girls.

Murders linked to domestic violence will carry sentences of between 12 and 30 years.

President Rousseff said the new law sends a clear message to women that the state would protect them.

She said 15 women were killed daily in Brazil.

In other cases - such as the killing of a pregnant woman, a woman who's just given birth, girls under 14, or women over 60 - the new law provides for even longer jail terms.

The new legislation alters the criminal code to describe femicide as any crime that involves domestic violence, contempt or discrimination against women.

Similar legislation has been introduced in other Latin American countries such as El Salvador, which has the highest murder rate for women in the world.

The Representative of UN Women in Brazil, Nadine Gasman, said "the law identifies femicide as a specific phenomena. This kind of law is preventive in nature."

The new legislation deepens legislation sanctioned in 2006 by President Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Known as the "Maria da Penha" law, it paid tribute to Maria da Penha Maia, a woman whose ex-husband beat her for 14 years and attempted to murder her twice, leaving her paraplegic.

She is a notable figure in the movement for women's rights in Brazil.

The "Maria da Penha" law stated that aggressors were no longer to be punished with alternative sentences.

It increased the maximum sentence from one to three years.

It also ordered the removal of abusers from the home and banned them from proximity to the woman or children attacked.

During her term in office, President Rousseff has enacted other laws aimed at women and girls.

In August 2013, she signed legislation requiring all public hospitals to provide treatment against sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/Aids for rape victims.

It requires that victims be given access to emergency contraception, and in the case of pregnancy they have the right to an abortion, illegal in Brazil in most cases.

The Mexican immigrant who set up a global drone firm

Mexican immigrant Jordi Munoz says that waiting for his green card after he first moved to the United States made him feel as if he was living "in a big jail".

At the time he was 20 years old, and he and his girlfriend had set up home near Los Angeles.

Yet he could not legally work, or even enrol at a college, until he got the identity card that proved his right to live and seek employment in the country.

But instead of just sitting around during his frustrating seven-month wait back in 2007, Mr Munoz, a keen model plane enthusiast and computer programmer, started to build his own drone in his garage.

A drone, technically an unmanned aerial vehicle, is essentially a very high tech and stable version of a remote-controlled plane with a camera attached to take aerial photographs or record videos.

Using what parts he had to hand, Mr Munoz made the drone's autopilot system by taking the motion sensors from a games console remote control.

To attach the microchips to circuit boards he heated them up in a domestic oven.

Fast forward to today, and Mr Munoz, now 28, is the co-founder of the largest US-owned manufacturer of commercial drones.

The business, 3D Robotics, is expected to enjoy sales of $50m (£33m) this year.

Simone Gbagbo Ivory Coast's former first lady jailed

Ivory Coast's former first lady, Simone Gbagbo, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in the violence that followed the 2010 elections.

Gbagbo, 65, had been charged with undermining state security.

Her husband, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court.

More than 3,000 people died in the violence that followed the presidential poll after the ex-leader refused to accept defeat to Alassane Ouattara.

She and her husband were arrested in 2011 after troops stormed a bunker where the pair had taken refuge in the main city, Abidjan.

Boko Haram conflict: Nigerian allies 'retake Damasak'

A regional force has recaptured the Nigerian town of Damasak a day after launching a major offensive against militant group Boko Haram, sources say.

The Islamist group had held the town near the Niger border since November, part of territory it had captured since stepping up attacks in the region.

Military sources say about 10 Chadian soldiers and 200 militants were killed.

The campaign to push back Boko Haram comes days after the group pledged allegiance to Islamist State (IS).

The militants have been fighting an insurgency to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria since 2009, and in recent months the violence has increasingly spilled over into neighbouring states.

This has led Niger, Chad and Cameroon to send troops into Nigeria to help drive back the militants.

A convoy of more than 200 vehicles has been seen heading from Niger into Nigeria, while air strikes have also been reported.

On Friday, the African Union endorsed the creation of a regional force of more than 8,000 troops to combat the group.

SUGE KNIGHT'S LAWYER BOTH VICTIMS HAD GUNS

Terry Carter -- whom Suge Knight ran over and killed -- was packing heat, according to his own family.

Suge's new lawyer, Matthew Fletcher, told TMZ, after Carter died, his relatives called the L.A. County Sheriff and asked detectives if they had Carter's gun.  

Our Suge sources say after Carter was pronounced dead, his daughter showed up to retrieve his car and noticed his gun wasn't inside a bag in which it was routinely stored.

Fletcher plans to use the gun reference to prove Suge was ambushed by armed men ... both of whom Suge struck in the Tam's parking lot.

Cle "Bone" Sloan -- was hit by the vehicle someone took an object from Bone and placed it in his waistband.

Is this the best wearable device on the market?

Apple’s Watch does what Google Glass and Pebble’s smartwatch failed at - create a beautiful, elegant device that works as a piece of jewellery, without even switching it on.

Surprisingly light, the Watch oozes quality and attention to detail in the design and build.

Apple has gone to great lengths to show off the specialist materials used to make it, and it shows.

While in images it looks a little chunky, on the wrist it is a different story.

The rounded curve means it fits comfortably on the wrist, and the range of bracelets means there’s one for pretty much every taste. 

Sierra Leone athlete Jimmy Thoronka arrested in London

A sprinter from Sierra Leone who has been sleeping rough on the streets of London is facing deportation after being arrested.

Jimmy Thoronka, 20, was his country's top 100m runner but did not return home to Africa after the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year amid Ebola fears.

Homeless Thoronka says Ebola had killed his immediate family in Sierra Leone.

The Met Police said he was arrested on Friday for immigration offences and is now with the UK Border Force.

A Home Office spokeswoman said only: "We cannot comment on individual cases, but there is assistance available for people to return home when they are not entitled to remain in the UK."

Thoronka said he could not return to his home country as he could not make it there alone and so stayed with friends in Leicester before going to London.

"Some days I get no food at all. I wash in public toilets and sleep in the park," he told the Guardian.

An appeal started by Cambridge student Richard Dent on Friday afternoon to raise money for Mr Thoronka stood at £12,000 just over 24 hours later.

Mr Dent, who has never met Mr Thoronka, said he was "very affected" by his case and wanted to do something to help.

A separate petition has gathered more than 1,000 signatures.

Thoronka arrived in Glasgow with his team-mates in July, just as the Ebola outbreak in his home country was declared a public health emergency. The death toll from the virus in Sierra Leone is now more than 3,500.

Thoronka said his visa ran out last year and he had not been working illegally, nor claiming benefits or housing and understood the legal implications of remaining in the UK after his visa had expired.

Up to 30 of the country's athletes wanted to extend their visas past September last year to stay in the UK - two were tested and given the all-clear for the disease on their arrival in Scotland.

Thoronka, described by Sierra Leone Athletics Association Abdul Karim Sesay as "a brilliant sprinter, a natural athlete and extremely fast", competed in one 4x100m relay at the Games, but failed to win any medals.

HARRISON FORD NOT A FLIGHT RISK

Harrison Ford may be 72-years-old, but he's still airworthy -- even in a 70-year-old plane -- according to experienced pilots and mechanics who have personal knowledge of the actor's aviation skills.

We called around to various pilots who fly vintage aircraft, and several have had first-hand experience with Ford. They say his motor skills are good and he is thorough and professional when it comes to inspecting the planes he flies before takeoff to make sure they're airworthy.

There's no FAA rule that knocks a private pilot out of the air after a certain age, but all pilots over 40 must get evaluated every 2 years for vision, hearing, blood pressure and mental acuity. They also have to prove their flying skills.

Ford has logged 4,000 hours in the air with various aircraft. As for the one that crashed, however, some pilots have reservations, especially when it comes to the engine. The Kinner engine that quit on Harrison "isn't the most reliable," so claims a pilot who is very familiar with the aircraft. But several people we spoke with say the plane in question was well-maintained and "solid." 

And the pilots we spoke with all said the proof of Ford's flying abilities were validated on a Venice golf course Thursday ... he laid it down as safely as possible, without an engine

Source: TMZ

Igbos Extract Commitment from Agbaje

Mr Jimi Agbaje

Dissatisfied with what they described as their unfair lot in the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in Lagos State, the Igbos under the aegis of Aka Ikenga, the umbrella group of Igbos in Lagos, sunday extracted commitment of a fair bargain from the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Mr Jimi Agbaje.

The meeting, which took place last night in the Victoria Island home of Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe, extracted the commitment of better treatment of Igbos in Lagos, from Agbaje.

In an opening remark, the president of the Aka Ikenga, Mr Goddy Uwazurike, had said the forth coming election will be a contest in which the Igbos will have to battle for freedom from certain individuals who have so-to-say, annexed the state.

Agbaje, who spoke for about 20 minutes, ran through the prisms of his campaign programme and promised fair and equal treatment to Igbos, in terms of appointment, employment and business.

He particularly promised that he will attend to all the needs of traders at the Ladipo Market where he will build a pedestrian bridge across the Oshodi-
Apapa expressway to “save our people who are daily dying on that road”.
He also said he will build car parks and toilets to make business transactions in the market to be better, so the traders be better contributors to the growth and development of the state.

He emphasised that the talk about the fight for freedom is not only by non-indigenes, but also by indigenes, “because we have a situation in Lagos where there is so much vested interest where one or two people have had to hold all of us in bondage. And we have to fight to be liberated from it”.

He condemned the practice of government appointing “Babaloja” (market leader) from outside, stressing that “in all these things we are in the struggle together”

Earlier, Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Co-ordinator in the entire southern states, Mr Peter Obi had told the gathering that Jonathan is their best bet given that Buhari has no economic blue print and has become old and ineffective, stressing that the issue of corruption was not peculiar with the Jonathan administration, pointing out that it is a society’s problem as people are too keen on celebrating  suddenly rich people without bothering to check what they do.

Obi noted that Jonathan’s tackling of the historical fraud in the distribution of fertilizer as well as refurbishment of railway lines are some indications of his performance capacity, declaring that “I believe he will favour our people.”

The group however expressed disappointment at the unfulfilled promises of the Jonathan administration noting that Jonathan administration’s failure to build or maintain roads in the South-east axis of the country was a great disservice to the people of the region.

“We feel very disappointed that more than four years after, we cannot drive from Enugu to Port Harcourt, or from Onitsha to Enugu”, one or the members complained.

Source: ThisDay

China trade surplus hits new record as exports grow

China's monthly trade surplus hit a record $60.6bn (£40.3bn) in February, as exports grew and imports slid back.

Exports were up 48.3% year on year to $169.2bn, and imports dropped by a fifth to $108.6bn, said the country's General Administration of Customs.

The growth in exports was well ahead of analyst expectations.

China's economy grew by 7.4% in 2014, its weakest for almost a quarter of a century, and recent indicators show signs the slowdown is continuing.

Holiday factor

Customs officials put the surge in exports down to a flurry of activities by companies to get orders processed before the Chinese New Year, which fell in the middle of February this year.

"Affected by the Spring Festival factors, export companies in the country again rushed to export ahead of the holiday and only resumed working after it," a statement said.

The surplus figure stood at $8.9bn in the same period last year.

But he Lunar New Year had fallen on 31 January in 2014, followed by a week-long national holiday, which meant it provided a weak comparison with this February.

For the first two months of the year, China's trade surplus has totalled $120.7bn, following the $60bn surplus in January.

"We still see strong headwinds facing China's exports this year," said ANZ economists Liu Ligang and Zhou Hao in a research note.

Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday announced a lowered growth target of "approximately 7%" for this year, and cut the trade growth target for 2015 to "around 6%".

South African rapper Flabba 'stabbed by girlfriend'

A woman has been arrested in South Africa for allegedly stabbing and killing a well-known local rapper.

Nkululeko Habedi, known as Flabba, 38 died, in his home in Alexandra, a Johannesburg township.

Police have told local news that his girlfriend will be charged with murder and will appear in court "within 48 hours".

Mr Habedi became popular after he joined award-winning rap group Skwatta Kamp.

South Africans have taken to social media to send their condolences to his family and friends.

Buhari Restates Commitment to Empower Women

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has restated his commitment to the empowerment of Nigerian women by ensuring that the rights of women as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution, are protected under his government.

Buhari’s position was contained in a special message to Nigerian women, in commemoration of the International Women’s Day.
“My plan for Nigerian women has been made clear in ‘My manifesto and vision for Nigeria,’” Buhari said. “However, I would like to use this special opportunity that the world has set aside to celebrate women, to reiterate my personal commitment to the advancement of Nigerian women in Nigeria and in the Diaspora.”

In his ‘My Manifesto and Vision for Nigeria’ document released to the media in December 2014, Buhari guaranteed that women will be adequately represented in government appointments.

He also promised to provide greater opportunities for females in education, job creation, and economic empowerment.

“I will recognise and protect women empowerment and gender equality with special emphasis on economic activities in the rural areas,” he said.

He added that he would use the party structures to promote the concept of reserving a minimum number of seats in the states and National Assembly, for women.

“Women all over the world are playing an ever increasing role in moving their nations forward,” Buhari said, “both in and outside government.”

“In keeping with the times, my government will ensure that Nigerian women are given the opportunity to rise and play an even more prominent role in moving out great nation forward,” he said.

Doping culture in cycling 'still exists' according to Circ report

Cycling continues to struggle with widespread doping, according to a landmark report into the sport's troubled recent history.

Set up last January to investigate how cycling so badly lost its way during the 1990s and 2000s, the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (Circ) has heavily criticised the sport's leadership throughout that era.

Its 227-page report, published on Monday, clears the International Cycling Union's (UCI) bosses of outright corruption but censures them for a litany of failings.

Foremost among these are that the UCI did not really want to catch cheats and therefore turned a blind eye to anything but the worst excesses.

The report's authors also accuse former UCI presidents Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid of failing to follow their own anti-doping rules and showing preferential treatment to disgraced former champion Lance Armstrong.

A total of 174 anti-doping experts, officials, riders and other interested parties were interviewed. These are the main points:

• One "respected cycling professional" believes that 90% of the peloton is still doping, another put it at 20%

• Riders are micro-dosing, taking small but regular amounts of a banned substance, to fool the latest detection methods

• The abuse of Therapeutic Use Exemptions, sick notes, is commonplace, with one rider saying 90% of these are used to boost performance

• The use of weight-loss drugs, experimental medicine and powerful painkillers is widespread, leading to eating disorders, depression and even crashes

• With doping done now on a more conservative basis, other forms of cheating are on the rise, particularly related to bikes and equipment

• Doping in amateur cycling is endemic