Kimi Raikkonen to join Ferrari as Fernando Alonso’s team-mate

Kimi Raikkonen will join Fernando Alonso at Ferrari in 2014.

The Finn, who won the world title with Ferrari in 2007 but was replaced by Alonso at the end of 2009, has signed a one-year deal with an option for 2015.
Ferrari, who will now have arguably the strongest driver line-up in Formula 1, have not yet announced the deal but are expected to do so imminently.
Raikkonen, 33, will replace Felipe Massa, who announced on Twitter that he will leave at the end of the season.
The Brazilian, who had earlier been informed of Ferrari's decision and has driven for the Italian outfit since 2006, said: "From 2014 I will no longer be driving for Ferrari.
"I would like to thank the team for all the victories and incredible moments experienced together.
"Right now I want to push as hard as possible with Ferrari for the remaining seven races.

Kimi Raikkonen

• Age: 33
• Races: 189
• Wins: 20
• Podiums: 75
• Pole positions: 16
• Best championship position: 1st (2007)

"For next year, I want to find a team that can give me a competitive car to win many more races and challenge for the championship, which remains my greatest objective!"

Massa came agonisingly close to winning the title in 2008, when he won the Brazilian Grand Prix, only to be deprived of the championship when Lewis Hamilton moved up into the fifth place he required on the penultimate corner of the last lap.
He has been linked with a move to Lotus, who are also considering Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg, another man who was in the frame at Ferrari before they decided on Raikkonen.
The decision to partner Alonso with Raikkonen is a dramatic change in philosophy by Ferrari, who have previously operated with a clear number one driver, both with Michael Schumacher from 1996-2006 and then with Alonso for the last four years.
Ferrari have now decided that having two lead drivers will be a more effective way of securing success - this was their policy when Raikkonen and Massa were team-mates in 2007-9.
The decision will be interpreted in some quarters as a snub to Alonso, but the Spaniard has been told of Ferrari's decision and is said to have accepted it.
The partnership and rivalry between the two men will be eagerly anticipated - Alonso and Raikkonen are widely recognised as two of the four best drivers in the world, along with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.
Alonso's relationship with McLaren, when he was team-mates with Hamilton in 2007, was famously turbulent, and the ructions led to him leaving the team just one year into a three-year contract.
Alonso has since made it clear that his problems at the time were not with Hamilton but with the team not delivering on promises that had been made to him about his status.
The deal for Raikkonen to rejoin Ferrari was completed on Monday.

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Raikkonen wins world title in Brazil

Ferrari wanted to replace Massa with someone who would provide more reliable performance and have for some time considered Raikkonen to be the best candidate.
But the decision needed to be approved by Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo.
Raikkonen had the option to remain at Lotus but the team were unable to provide him with the reassurances he requested that they had the technical and financial resources to compete at the front next year.
They have lost their highly rated former technical director James Allison to Ferrari and there have been delays paying Raikkonen's salary this year.
Raikkonen is the first driver to return to Ferrari after a previous spell since Austrian Gerhard Berger re-joined them in 1993 after leaving them at the end of 1989 to join McLaren.
When Raikkonen left Ferrari at the end of 2009 he still had one year on his contract, but the team needed to get rid of either him or Massa to make space for Alonso.
At the time, the team preferred to keep Massa. The Brazilian had out-scored Raikkonen on points in 2008 and through 2009 until he suffered a fractured skull in an accident at that year's Hungarian Grand Prix.
Although there were question marks about his recovery, the team felt they could not cast the Brazilian adrift in the circumstances.
Ferrari, having employed Raikkonen as the man they expected to take over from Michael Schumacher, also felt that the Finn had not shown the required leadership. They felt Alonso's more forceful nature would give them what Raikkonen had not.
But tensions have grown between Alonso and Ferrari this year after narrowly missing out on winning the title in both 2010 and 2012.
Now, Ferrari believe Raikkonen will provide more consistent support for Alonso and prevent any possibility of the Spaniard not producing his best.
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Kimi Raikkonen interview leaves BBC cold

Gareth Bale: Spurs 'consider rival bid to Real Madrid offer'

 By Dan Roan BBC chief sports correspondent

Tottenham have received offers from more than one club for Real Madrid target Gareth Bale.

According to senior sources at White Hart Lane, Real's £86m bid for the 24-year-old Welshman is not the only one being considered.
Spurs insist no final agreement has yet been reached with the Spanish giants.
However, Real Madrid still remain on the brink of sealing a world record transfer for Bale after days of negotiations.
The identity of the second bidder is not known, although Manchester United have been linked with the winger this summer.
In a further twist, it has emerged that Spurs have approached Chelsea with a view to buying a player - thought to be Juan Mata - to replace Bale.
Spurs were close to signing the Brazilian winger Willian last week before a late bid from Chelsea beat them to his signature.
Losing out to their London rivals has delayed Spurs finalising the departure of Bale, and Mata had been identified as a potential replacement.
Spurs are frustrated that Chelsea are refusing to sell a player who could now find himself behind Willian in the Stamford Bridge pecking order.

When markets go dark: 8 reasons for exchange shutdowns

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When the trading floor goes dark

The Nasdaq, the US’s second-largest stock exchange, halted trading for three hours in the middle of the day on Thursday, the latest in a string of technological snafus for stock markets — and the Nasdaq in particular.
The Nasdaq — where companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Intel list their stock — didn’t reopen for trading until about 35 minutes before the market closed. Some saw the trading shutdown as yet another blow to already-fragile investor sentiment, adding to distrust in markets that has been fueled by other recent snafus.
It’s not the first time an exchange has shut down. Natural disasters, presidential assassinations, terrorism, societal unrest, panic-induced selloffs and even squirrels have shuttered exchanges around the globe. Take a look.

Video Game Lets China Seize Islands From Japan

Players can shoot Japanese soldiers as they defend the disputed islands in a Chinese army training game released to the public.

A gamer plays Glorious Mission in an office in Shanghai

The islands are under Japanese control

China has released a computer game originally designed to train its army which allows players to defend contested islands in the East China Sea.

The  Diaoyu islands, or Senkaku to the Japanese, have been at the centre of a decades-long dispute between the two Asian powers and there are regular skirmishes off its coasts.
To celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the Chinese have released an online game called Glorious Mission Online.
Players can shoot Japanese soldiers, who drop dead shooting up a small Japanese flag with its red sun styled to resemble a bullet wound.
Glorious Mission Online was developed by Giant Interactive Group, a Chinese developer and publisher, in collaboration with the PLA for use in training simulations.

Japanese and Chinese vessels near the disputed islands

"Players will do battle alongside the PLA, with guns in hand, and tell the Japanese: 'You will not violate our sovereign territory!'" says a statement on the game's website.
The PLA was interested in having a 3D interactive game for simulations with virtual replicas of their weapons, said Richard Chiang, a spokesman for Giant Interactive.
Mr Chiang said: "The military was 100% behind this game. Rather than playing the same foreign games like Call Of Duty and being American Marines shooting Russians or whatnot, Chinese can actually play as Chinese soldiers."
The row over the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, which has been administered by Japan since 1971,  has badly affected relations between Beijing and Tokyo.
Japan's defence ministry declined to comment on the game's release.

Apple Ban Overturned By Obama Administration

The White House move marks the first time since 1987 that a US administration has vetoed a product ban ordered by the trade panel.

The White House has stepped into a patent war between Apple and Samsung by vetoing a ban on imports of iPads and iPhones in the US.

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) in June banned the import or sale of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G distributed by AT&T Inc, saying the devices infringed a patent owned by the South Korean electronics giant.
But US Trade Representative Michael Froman vetoed the ban, saying his decision was in part based on its "effect on competitive conditions in the US economy and the effect on US consumers".
The decision marks a setback for the South Korean electronics company. However, Mr Froman said Samsung could continue to pursue its case through the courts.

The decision, dealing a blow to Samsung, was welcomed by Apple

It is the first time since 1987 that a US administration has vetoed a product ban ordered by the trade panel.
Samsung said it was "disappointed" at the lifting of the ban.
"The ITC's decision correctly recognised that Samsung has been negotiating in good faith and that Apple remains unwilling to take a licence," it said in a statement.
Apple welcomed the news and applauded the administration "for standing up for innovation".
It added: "Samsung was wrong to abuse the patent system in this way."

US Trade Representative Michael Froman

The Apple products targeted by the ITC ban are more than a year old, though some models such as the iPhone 4 remain solid sellers.
Apple sells more than 100 million iPhones annually, but it does not break down sales by models.
Apple and Samsung have been waging a global patent war since 2010, filing multiple lawsuits against each other over the design and functionality of their devices.
Apple argues Samsung's Android phones copy vital iPhone features. Samsung is fighting back with its own complaints.
Last year, a federal court ruled that Samsung owed Apple $1bn in damages for infringing on non-essential Apple patents.
But the judge refused to impose an import ban on Samsung phones and later struck $450m from the verdict, saying the jurors miscalculated.
The case is set for a rematch in an appeals court.
Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones. Analysts estimate it outsold Apple nearly two to one in the first three months of the year.
However, Apple's smartphone business is more profitable.

The keys to inspired leadership

Bill Gates writes about leadership lessons he has learned. (Stefan Postles/Getty Images)

Leadership. What is it, exactly? What are the hallmarks of leadership? And why does it seem so hard to find good leaders?

The topic was at top of mind for a number of LinkedIn Influencers this week. Among them: JP Morgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon — who recently succeeded in keeping his CEO and chairman title at the bank, Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, Yahoo! Inc product leader, Anand Chandrasekaran and Johns Hopkins Medicine International CEO Steven Thomson.

JPMorgan Chase & Co's Jamie Dimon. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Each brought a different perspective to leadership, including highlighting characteristics of good leaders, passing on lessons learned from volunteer work and sharing insights from one of the world’s most famous investors.
A look at leadership, from people who’ve been there and done it.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co
“Leadership is an honor, a privilege and a deep obligation. When leaders make mistakes, a lot of people can get hurt. Being true to oneself and avoiding self-deception are as important to a leader as having people to turn to for thoughtful, unbiased advice,” Dimon writes in his Influencer post on the hallmarks of a good leader. “I believe social intelligence and ‘emotional quotient,’ or EQ, matter in management. EQ can include empathy, clarity of thought, compassion and strength of character.”
Other traits upon which Dimon expounds: discipline; high standards; the ability to face facts (even when they aren’t pretty); openness; building a setup for success; morale-building; loyalty; meritocracy and teamwork; fair treatment; and humility.
Then there’s what Dimon calls the “grey area of leadership” that are open to interpretation.
“This grey area contributes to the complexity of the challenges that leaders — and those who govern them — face.” Among them: motivators, compensation and performance.
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Gates, in his inaugural Influencer post, writes about what he has learned from famous investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. Gates writes that Buffett’s “brilliant way of looking at the world” doesn’t just apply to building a business.
“It’s not just about investing. [Buffett] has a whole framework for business thinking that is very powerful. He says a shareholder has to act as if he owns the entire business, looking at the future profit stream and deciding what it’s worth.”
“Use your platform. He’s been willing to speak frankly and criticize things like stock options and financial derivatives [in his company newsletter]. He’s not afraid to take positions, like his stand on raising taxes on the rich, that run counter to his self-interest.”
“Know how valuable your time is. There are only 24 hours in everyone’s day. Warren has a keen sense of this. He doesn’t let his calendar get filled up with useless meetings. On the other hand, he’s very generous with his time for the people he trusts. He gives his close advisers at Berkshire his phone number, and they can just call him up and he’ll answer the phone.”
Anand Chandrasekaran, product leader at Yahoo
Chandrasekaran, who leads Yahoo’s global search business, writes on the leadership lessons he has learned from volunteering around the world, concluding that “our best work comes when purpose, passion and profit are aligned. However, experiencing moments when you can feel them coming together are few and far between.”
Lessons include:
“Playing for the long term. One of the first things I learned was that any problem you're  tackling … has been around for decades, if not centuries. When one is tackling such a long-term challenge by definition one develops a long term mindset.”
“Assuming positive intent. We've all been there — speculating what someone's intent is. Partnerships between volunteer groups are uniquely driven by deep trust and shared purpose. It's incredible how things get simplified when one starts by assuming positive intent by all the other parties in any interaction.”
“Problems without passports. Very few things (especially challenges) that come along can be solved by one person. Collaboration is not a luxury, but a necessity.”
Other influencers who weighed in on leadership this week:
Steven Thomson: CEO of Baltimore, Maryland-based Johns Hopkins Medicine International. Thomson offered solutions to the traps which trip up many promising leaders.
Michael Moritz: Chairman of California-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital wrote on the delicacy of conveying the truth.
Influencers is an occasional column that takes a peek at what LinkedIn Influencers, thought leaders in their fields, have to say about topics or events in the news.

Justin Timberlake: The secret of his success

(Photo: Getty Images)

Teen pop idols tend to disappear when their fans grow up. So how did child star Justin Timberlake become one of America’s biggest stars? Greg Kot explains.

Justin Timberlake and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis lead this year's MTV Video Music Award nominations with six each.

Justin Timberlake is only 32, but his CV is already stuffed with Grammy Awards, critical accolades and multi-platinum albums. His recent one, 20/20, his first studio release since 2006, is the year’s biggest-seller so far in the US, with a sequel on the way in September. In between, he’s squeezing in a few stadium concerts with his pal Jay-Z, as one half of Legends of the Summer, which is shaping up to be  one of the summer’s biggest tours.
But his most impressive accomplishment just might be that he hasn’t turned into Shaun Cassidy, Tiffany or any number of former teen idols. Nobody thinks of him as the former singer in N’Sync anymore, let alone a Mouseketeer.
For what might’ve been, check out 19-year-old Justin Bieber. “I’m an artist and I should be taken seriously,” Bieber complained at the Billboard Music Awards a few weeks ago. This from a guy who tried to smuggle his pet monkey across international borders. He appears to have entered the temper-tantrum stage of his kiddie-pop years, prompting many pundits to question whether he’ll have any kind of career left once he hits adulthood.
Such is the way for most pop idols who find fame around the same time they reach puberty. The usual lifespan for most is about three or four years, and then they become punch lines or has-beens. Each decade had a few who burned holes in the hearts of adolescents and then burned out when their audience grew up. The ‘60s packaged the Monkees and the Cowsills; the ‘70s served up Bobby Sherman, the Partridge Family andthe Osmonds,; for a brief time in the ‘80s, it was all about Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and New Kids on the Block; the ‘90s produced Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync; and the 2000s brought the flourishing of the Disney/Nickelodeon franchise and the emergence of Lindsey Lohan, Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus.
A cunning plan?
So how did Timberlake avoid tumbling from pin-up to afterthought like so many others before him? He had a sense of humour, for starters. Even as N’Sync was selling millions of albums to giddy pre-teens, he appeared to be in on the joke. A few seconds say it all in the video for one of the group’s biggest hits, Bye Bye Bye: the music stops and a curly-haired Timberlake lifts his head, smiles slyly, laughs and darts off. Who really knows if that’s Timberlake’s little take-the-money-and-run inside joke, but it sure plays that way in retrospect.
The turning point arrived with his 2002 solo debut, Justified. The energetic and surprisingly sophisticated mix of dance tunes and ballads, pop and soul, instantly cast him as an adult, and earned comparisons to the Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson, another teen star who grew into a substantial artist (at least until it all started to go horribly wrong in the ‘90s). Timberlake took his notoriety to a whole new level when he accidentally-but-not-really ripped Janet Jackson’s costume during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time, which gave the world the indelible phrase ‘wardrobe malfunction’. Even that bit of naughtiness couldn’t tarnish the singer’s likeability rating, though. He dutifully apologised at the Grammys a few weeks later and went home with two awards.
Hollywood beckons
A series of films followed and then a second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, another leap in ambition with its suite-like songs. On tour, he presented himself not just as a piece of gyrating eye candy, but as a serious musician and band leader, a lithe, loose-limbed singer-songwriter fronting a 12-piece band.
Yet as his Hollywood profile ramped up, questions arose about whether Timberlake would ever make another album. The carefully orchestrated campaign to introduce 20/20 was his response. The music pushes even further than its predecessor, with seven songs clocking in at seven-plus minutes.
The album’s genre-busting sprawl is another example of Timberlake’s survival instinct. He’s surveyed the musical landscape and realises he can’t compete with Nicki Minaj or Katy Perry for sheer pop pizzazz. So instead he’s moved into a hybrid area, gliding through a series of Frank Ocean-like moves in the way he’s mixing and matching styles. It’s a bit of a stretch – too often 20/20 sounds unfocused, emotionally remote, a series of unnecessarily busy arrangements that convey ambition more than heart.
As resilient as Timberlake has been, he still has a way to go as an artist. When he appeared at the Grammys this year, wearing a tuxedo in a sepia-toned Cotton Club-style big-band setting, he looked fantastic, a suave retro-soul man for the 21st Century. But as this former teen idol surely realises, making sophisticated music for adults requires more of an investment than just looking good. Somehow, one senses Timberlake will figure it out. He usually does.
Greg Kot is the music critic at the Chicago Tribune. His work can be found here:
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Nelson Mandela biopic to have world premiere at Toronto

 

Elba is one of several actors to have portrayed the former South African president on screen

The film version of Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom is to have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

Luther's Idris Elba plays Mandela in the biopic, one of a host of titles confirmed by organisers on Tuesday.
Others include The Fifth Estate, a film about Julian Assange starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the WikiLeaks founder.
The Railway Man starring Colin Firth and August: Osage Country with Meryl Streep will also debut at the event.
The 38th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) runs from 5 to 15 September.
Other films that will screen for the first time include 12 Years a Slave, the new film from Shame director Steve McQueen, and The Invisible Woman, actor Ralph Fiennes's drama about Charles Dickens.
Additional British film-makers in the line-up include Stephen Frears, Roger Michell and The IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade, who will use the festival to launch his comedy The Double.
Titles already tipped for awards success include Dallas Buyers Club, in which Matthew McConaughey plays a Texan who takes on the medical establishment after being diagnosed HIV positive.

 

 

Rush, Ron Howard's film about racing driver James Hunt, will have its international premiere

The festival will close with Life of Crime, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch, featuring characters previously seen in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.
Piers Handling, chief executive officer and director of TIFF, said the first round of films "offers a taste of the powerhouse line-up at this year's festival".
"These are the works that will have everyone talking because they capture the mood of the times."
Toronto is now regarded as a crucial launchpad for films hoping to impress voters and juries during the annual film awards season.
Silver Linings Playbook won its top prize last year, the first of many David O'Russell's romantic comedy amassed in the run-up to February's Oscar ceremony.
Some are already tipping Elba for accolades for his work in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which tells of the anti-apartheid campaigner's rural upbringing and how he coped with being in prison for 27 years.
Naomie Harris plays Winnie Mandela in Justin Chadwick's film, which is scheduled to have its UK release next January.

The new Mercedes CLA250 borrows from the familiar

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Apparently Mercedes-Benz product planners see this as a salient strategy for growth, as the company's flashy new CLA rips a page right out of its larger CLS's book. The CLS, the original "four-door coupe”, has spawned so many imitators since its 2004 debut that it is only fair, Mercedes should be permitted to copy it, too.
On the eve of the 2013 Detroit auto show, Mercedes revealed its plan for recruiting a new generation of customers to the three-pointed star, and it took the form of a racy, nominally affordable compact sedan.
The CLA, like the CLS, features a low, sloping roofline and four doors with frameless windows in the manner of a coupe. But as anyone who has viewed the CLS from the back seat, the design invites rear passengers to bang their heads on the doorframe during ingress and egress.
Those lines do look slippery; according to Mercedes, the CLA's 0.23 coefficient of drag, a measure of aerodynamics, is the lowest number ever for a production model.
The car also breaks ground as Mercedes' first front-wheel-drive model for the US market. In an interview after its introduction on 13 January, Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler, the Mercedes parent, told BBC Autos that the CLA was based on the same front-drive platform used by the diminutive A-Class and B-Class hatchbacks in other markets.
"The US market isn't very fond of hatchbacks, as we are in Europe, so this car should be well-received", he surmised.
The result is very close to the Acura TSX in size and specification, and it is young drivers who grew up with front drive that the company is targeting with the CLA, which will start for less that $30,000 when it goes on sale in September. An all-wheel-drive 4Matic version will follow in 2014, as will a more powerful twin-turbocharged engine.
While the CLA has an entry-level luxury price, all of the expected Mercedes technology is present. A collision-alert radar system is standard equipment, along with a 5.8-inch infotainment display.
Power is from a 208 horsepower, 2-litre 4-cylinder engine driving the front wheels through a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. A 2.2-litre diesel engine is available for Europe, but is a long shot for the US, Zetsche said. The car's base engine in Europe will be a smaller-displacement gasoline engine developed in partnership with Renault and Nissan, he added.
Whether the CLS can, like Bowie, top the charts recycling old ideas remains to be seen, but Zetsche is undaunted. "We never talk about future volume," he said, "but we are very confident this car will be a success.”

OJB thanks Governor Rotimi Amaechi for the $100, 000 donation

OJB thanks Governor Rotimi Amaechi for the $100, 000 donation

I'm sure by now you all have heard that Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi donated $100, 000 to music producer, OJB Jezreel, who is down with a kidney ailment.

The money was transferred to OJB's account on Friday July 5th. Lagos State governor, Raji Fashola was also in touch with OJB's family and facilitated the stages of dialysis OJB is undergoing at LASUTH. The ailing pioneer music producer has thanked Governor Amaechi for his generosity.

"I really thank God for Governor Amechi's kind heart. All I can say is that God will fight his battles as he saved my life. I also thank all Nigerians from all works of life who heeded my appeal for funds to go for my kidney transplant. God bless everyone.

Lauryn Hill begins her prison sentence

Lauryn Hill begins her prison sentence

Four months after she was sentenced to 3 months in Federal prison for tax evasion, Grammy award winning singer Lauryn Hill has turned herself in...

From TMZ

Lauryn Hill has just reported to federal prison in Connecticut, where she will begin her 3 month sentence for tax evasion.

Officials tell TMZ ... the former Fugees singer was booked into the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury at 11:15 AM EST. (Yesterday July 8th)

We're told the FCI is a "minimum security type facility" where inmates live in "barracks type" housing.

We're also told 38-year-old Hill will not be isolated in the facility -- and will be housed with the general population.

Nigerian writer Tope Folarin wins Caine writing prize

Nigerian writer Tope Folarin wins Caine writing prize

This is delightful news. Two Nigerians have won the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing two years in a row. Last year, Nigerian writer, Rotimi Babatunde, won the prize for his story Bombay's Republic - a book about Nigerian soldiers who fought in the Burma campaign during World War II. And this year, another Nigerian has won. His name is Tope Folarin, a US-based writer. He won the prize for his story - Miracle - a short story set in an evangelical Nigerian church in Texas.

Tope, who was shortlisted with three other Nigerians and a Sierra Leonean for the prize, received $15,000 at an event that held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Congrats to him.

After text fight with 15yr old son, 50cent rewrites his will, cuts him off

After text fight with 15yr old son, 50cent rewrites his will, cuts him off

After an embarrassing text message exchange between 50 Cent and his 15 year old son Marquise leaked online, (If you missed it, read it HERE), 50cent has cut him and his mother off his will. He also blamed Marquise's mother for the leak to Radar Online. See what he wrote on Twitter a few hours ago after the cut...

President Jonathan At The 2013 Nigerian Army Day Celebration In Abuja

PHOTONEWS: President Jonathan At The 2013 Nigerian Army Day Celebration In Abuja

Photo Credits: State House Photos

Venezuela And Nicaragua Offer Asylum To Edward Snowden

Venezuela and Nicaragua have offered asylum to Edward Snowden, the US whistleblower who is believed to have spent the past two weeks at a Moscow airport evading US attempts to extradite him.
The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daneil Ortega, made the asylum offers on Friday, shortly after they and other Latin American leaders met to denounce the diversion of a plane carrying the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, due to suspicions that Snowden might have been on board.
The invitations came as Snowden sent out new requests for asylum to six countries, in addition to the 20 he has already contacted, according to WikiLeaks, which claims to be in regular contact with the former National Security Agency contractor.
Most of the countries have refused or given technical reasons why an application is not valid, but several Latin American leaders have rallied together with expressions of solidarity and welcome.”As head of state of the Bolivarian republic of Venezuela, I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young Snowden … to protect this young man from persecution by the empire,” said Maduro who, along with his predecessor Hugo Chávez, often refers to the US as “the empire”.
The previous day, Maduro told the Telesur TV channel that Venezuela had received an extradition request from the US, which he had already rejected.A copy of the request, seen by the Guardian, notes that Snowden “unlawfully released classified information and documents to international media outlets” and names the Guardian and the Washington Post.
Dated 3 July and sent in English and Spanish, it says: “The United States seeks Snowden’s provisional arrest should Snowden seek to travel to or transit through Venezuela. Snowden is a flight risk because of the substantial charges he is facing and his current and active attempts to remain a fugitive.”It adds that he is charged with unauthorised disclosure of national defence information, unauthorised disclosure of classified communication intelligence and theft of government property.
Each of these three charges carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
Describing Snowden as “a fugitive who is currently in Russia”, it urges Venezuela to keep him in custody if arrested and to seize all items in his possession for later delivery to the US. It provides a photograph and two alternative passport numbers – one revoked, and one reported lost or stolen.Maduro said he did not accept the grounds for the charges.
“He has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the US spying on the whole world,” Maduro said in his latest speech. “Who is the guilty one? A young man … who denounces war plans, or the US government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate president, Bashar al-Assad?
“The Bolivian government, which has said it would listen sympathetically to an aslyum request from Snowden, said it too had turned down a pre-emptive US extradition request.
Ortega said Nicaragua had received an asylum request from Snowden and the president gave a guarded acceptance.”We are an open country, respectful of the right of asylum, and it’s clear that if circumstances permit, we would gladly receive Snowden and give him asylum in Nicaragua,” Ortega told a gathering in Managua.
So far, the countries that have been most vocal in offering support are close allies of Venezuela. Ecuador has also expressed support for Snowden, though the government there has yet to decide whether it would grant aslyum. It is already providing refuge for the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for about a year.
Many in Latin America were furious when the Bolivian president’s flight from Russia was denied airspace by European countries, forcing it to land in Vienna, where Morales had to spend more than half a day waiting to get clearance to continue his journey.
Morales said the Spanish ambassador to Austria arrived at the airport with two embassy personnel and asked to search the plane. He said he refused.The Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, acknowledged on Friday that the decision to block Morales plane was based on a tip that Snowden was on board.
“They told us that the information was clear, that he was inside,” he told Spanish TV, without clarifying who the tip was from.It is assumed the US was behind the diversion, though US officials have said only that they were in contact with the countries on the plane’s route.France has apologised to Bolivia.
Morales said when he finally arrived in La Paz: “It is an open provocation to the continent, not only to the president; they use the agent of North American imperialism to scare us and intimidate us.”At a hastily called meeting of the Unasur regional bloc, many governments condemned the action against Morales plane.
“We are not colonies any more,” Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, said. “We deserve respect, and when one of our governments is insulted we feel the insult throughout Latin America.
“The Argentinean president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was also present, along with a senior representative of President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil.Regional support may make it easier for the country offering asylum to resist US pressure for extradition. But whether Snowden can make it to South America remains uncertain, as are his current circumstances. He has not been seen or heard in public since he flew to Russia from Hong Kong.
WikiLeaks says it is in touch with him and that he has widened his search for aslyum by adding six new countries.In a tweet, the group said it would not reveal the names of the nations “due to attempted US interference”. [Uk Guardian]