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Saturday 1 October 2016

CBN governor’s wife released


CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele


Mrs. Margaret Emefiele, the wife of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has been released by her kidnappers.
Sources at the Police High Command told our correspondent Margaret and four others were released around 1am on Saturday (today).
Margaret, three women and a driver were attacked on Thursday along the Benin-Agbor Road and dragged into a nearby bush while their vehicle was abandoned.
The kidnappers were said to have demanded a ransom of about N100m.
A police source said, “The kidnappers released the victims around 1am. We found them around the bush beside the expressway where they were kidnapped. Investigations are ongoing.”

Why top fashion models never smile


They wear the world’s most beautiful and expensive clothes yet their faces are the picture of blank boredom.
Why do fashion models always look so miserable?
“You don’t smile. It is just not done,” said model Ty Ogunkoya as catwalk stars criss-crossed Paris for fashion week.
In his decade as a top model, the 26-year-old Nigerian-born Londoner has never once permitted himself a grin.
“I have modelled for everyone, and no one has ever asked me to smile,” he told AFP. “To be honest, it would feel weird if I did.”
“When I walk I think about something sad, like when my cat died,” added Klara, a 18-year-old Slovakian model. “It was run over by a bus.”
But do models really need to be so glum?
“Never forget it is the clothes they are looking at and not you,” Victoire Macon Dauxerre, a former model for Celine and Alexander McQueen, said she was told.
In her book, “Never Thin Enough”, she tells how she was warned to “never, ever smile”.
– ‘It’s so not done’ –
Her modelling agency’s catwalk coach taught her how to get the perfect “haughty killer look” by slightly dropping her chin and lifting her eyes at the same time.
Rising young star Matthieu Villot told AFP the reason for the unspoken ban on smiling was clear.
“They want to show the clothes and not our faces. If we smile we focus attention on our faces and not the clothes,” said the 22-year-old medical student.
Ogunkoya said he had been never told not to smile but “my whole preconception of modelling was moody guys and girls going down the runway… It is so not done they don’t have to say.”
Fashion historian Lydia Kamitsis said it was not always so.
The vogue for expressionless models is actually very recent, she said, dating from the rise of the Japanese designers Yohji Yamamoto and Commes des Garcon in the early 1980s.
“This was also the period of the supermodels (Cindy Crawford, Imam and Elle Macpherson) who very much had their own personalties, and it was a reaction against this,” she said.
“In the 1960s, when collections were first presented as shows, models often smiled, laughed and even danced to music.
– Walking clothes hangers –
“Now they are seen as walking clothes hangers. It’s all about effacing their personality… the clothes are it.”
Anthropologist Leyla Neri, the director of fashion at the New School Parsons Paris, agreed.
She dates the first appearance of moody, often scowling models to Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin in the 1960s.
It then sped up with the rise feminism and “women’s need to be taken seriously in their professional lives, so you see women striking strong, unsmiling poses in Armani suits.
“Men have never smiled on the catwalk because they never have had to smile to please,” Neri insisted.
“In the 1950s models smiled all the time, in fact they were kind of living dolls,” she added.
“With emancipation and designers like Yves Saint Laurent you get more a androgynous look, and women became more masculine and powerful.”
Contemporary designers have an “even more minimalist vision”, Neri argued. “They want the most neutral faces and bodies possible to show their work.
“They do not see their models as an ideal of beauty any longer. That is something that the public has not quite understood.”
Every few years, however, iconoclasts like French designer Jean Paul Gaultier send models out smiling.
Indian creator Manish Arora also cheers things up by casting his bohemian friends.
And several models ended up beaming through British designer Paul Smith’s last Paris menswear show.
“I didn’t tell them to smile,” he told AFP afterwards. “I have nothing against smiling. If the clothes make them happy, go for it,” he said.
Villot, who took part in that show but didn’t dare a smile, said models are often afraid to look too happy in case they end up looking ridiculous.
“The serious face you can do every time, but if you smile you don’t know how you are going to look.”
Ogunkoya agreed. “It’s easier to just walk and zone out. Smiling is definitely more of a challenge.”
But would he smile if asked? “Why not? You get asked to do the most random things in this job.”
AFP

Iniesta to play 600th game for Barca on Sunday



Barcelona's midfielder Andres Iniesta / AFP PHOTO

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique lauded Andres Iniesta’s behaviour as well as his ball skills ahead of the midfield maestro’s 600th Barca game at Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Along with Lionel Messi, Iniesta is Barcelona’s most decorated player ever with 29 trophies, but is even more loved across Spain for his winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final.
Iniesta is second behind only former teammate Xavi Hernandez as the player to make most Barca appearances.
“I had the luck to play with him and now to coach him,” said Enrique on Saturday.
“To evaluate these 599, possible 600 games tomorrow, is something that can only make everyone proud and not just for his performances.
“We can only enjoy him. Not just for what he has achieved, but how he has achieved it. For the values he has shown and what he represents to world football.”
Barca will once again be without the injured Messi for Enrique’s return to Balaidos on Sunday.
Enrique took charge of Celta for a season before returning to Catalonia in 2014, but endured an unhappy return last year as Celta inflicted his heaviest ever defeat as Barca boss in a 4-1 thrashing.
“Celta are a dangerous team for the players and idea they have of how to play,” added Enrique.
“They demand the most of you with and without the ball and make the games great to watch for the fans, but as complicated as possible for the players.”
Paco Alcacer is expected to drop out of the Barca side that won 2-1 at Borussia Moenchengladbach in midweek with the in-form Arda Turan taking his place alongside Luis Suarez and Neymar in attack.
AFP

I’ll continue to blame my predecessors for Nigeria’s woes – Buhari


President Muhammed Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said despite the criticisms of many, he would continue to blame his predecessors for Nigeria’s woes.
He said, passing the buck, which people have been frowning on, was important in order for Nigerians to know what went wrong with the country.
Buhari spoke at an event tagged, “The Conversation: An evening with creative youths,” held inside the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The event, attended also by the President’s wife, Aisha; Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and his wife, Dolapo; as well as governors and other top government officials, had “Creative youth as drivers of the change agenda,” as its theme.
Buhari said, “I am going to bore you with what we met. I know that I am being accused in the papers of passing the buck, but passing the buck is sometimes absolutely necessary to remind people who take things for granted.
“When we came in, I screamed to high heavens because I had promised a lot while seeking votes.
“I asked, where is the saving? There was no saving. There was no infrastructure, power, rails, roads, there was none. What did we spend the money on? I was told (on) buying food and petrol.
“Where were the billions going? We conducted a study and found out that the oil marketers were committing fraud on at least one-third of what they were importing, which was about 25 per cent of our foreign exchange.
“The youth must watch our elite, especially with the condition in which we have found ourselves. It is unpatriotic for anybody to pretend that economically we have no problem.
“I have bored you with this long explanation because there are things that could be hidden from you by those that have mismanaged the country in the last 16, 17 years.”
The President therefore tasked Nigerian youths to be alive to their responsibilities of holding their leaders and the elite accountable.



PresiPresident Muhammadu Buharident Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari

Obaseki’s Electoral Victory: Support For Progressive Governance -Ochei

APC Gubernatorial Candidate, Obaseki, Edo Indigenes

A stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and erstwhile Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Victor Ochei, says the party’s victory at Wednesday’s governorship elections in Edo State reaffirms the peoples’ resolve to support and promote credible and progressive governance in the past eight years in state. ?
Speaking at a post-election interactive session with journalists in Benin, Ochei observed that the collective resolve of the electorate to vote the APC candidate, Godwin Obaseki, as governor underscores the overwhelming acceptability the ruling party (APC) enjoys at the federal and state levels, owing to it’s people-oriented policy of security, anti-corruption and accountability in all spheres of national endeavour.
He further noted that this development attests to the fact that Governor Adams Oshiomole’s administration has made remarkable and positive impact on the state.
Consequently, he said “it is only logical and natural that a man of Obaseki’s pedigree has been voted to continue with the task of elevating Edo State to a higher pedestal in the comity of progressive states in Nigeria”
The former law maker revealed that the result of the election harbours a silver lining on Nigeria’s political horizon adding that such electoral statement has erased the hitherto prevalent regime of  impunity from Nigeria’s political sphere.
He also called on Nigerian populace to embrace the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government as it would be to the over all interest of Nigerians in the not too distant future.

Germany's Merkel cannot afford to bail out Deutsche Bank: media



German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives to sign a book of condolence for former Israeli 
President Shimon Peres at the embassy of Israel in Berlin, Germany, September 30, 2016.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel cannot afford to bail out Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) given the hard line Berlin has taken against state aid in other European nations and the risk of a political backlash at home, German media wrote on Saturday.
The government denied a newspaper report on Wednesday that it was working on a rescue plan for Germany's biggest bank, as its shares went into a tailspin fueled by a demand for up to $14 billion from U.S. authorities for misselling mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis.
Germany, which has insisted Italy and others accept tough conditions in tackling their problem lenders, can ill afford to be seen to go soft on its flagship bank, the Frankfurter Allgemeine wrote.
"Of course Chancellor Merkel doesn't want to give Deutsche Bank any state aid," it wrote in a front-page editorial. "She cannot afford it from the point of view of foreign policy because Berlin is taking a hard line in the Italian bank rescue."
The Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote that Merkel would be breaking a promise to taxpayers if she were to bail the bank out, which could spell disaster for her re-election bid next year as the anti-immigration AfD party gains ground.
The AfD is already benefiting from a backlash against Merkel's open-door refugee policy, making huge gains in two regional elections last month and hitting an all-time high of 16 percent support in an opinion poll last week.
"A state aid package would drive voters into the arms of the AfD," the Sueddeutsche wrote in an editorial.
"Domestic political considerations make it unlikely that Berlin would play this joker. Even more unlikely is that the European Commission would agree. The political risk would be simply too high."
Shares in Deutsche Bank recovered somewhat on Friday from a record low early in the day after a report that it was close to a cut-price settlement of $5.4 billion instead of $14 billion.

The bank, the U.S. Department of Justice and the German finance ministry all declined to comment on the report.
The crisis also prompted Deutsche Bank's normally reticent Chief Executive John Cryan to publish a letter seeking to reassure staff the bank was stable and hitting out at "forces" that wanted to weaken trust in the bank.
The Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote on Saturday: "Deutsche Bank has to win back ground here because as exaggerated as the reports of an existential danger to the bank may have been, just as obvious are its continuing difficulties."
"Trust is a bank's most important currency."

Clinton leads Trump by 5 points: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks as Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens during their first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, U.S., September 26, 2016.              REUTERS/Rick Wilking
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks as Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens during their first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, U.S., September 26, 2016


Democrat Hillary Clinton has a 5 percentage point lead over Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday, roughly the same advantage she has held all month.
The survey result showed little movement following Monday night's presidential debate, the first of three debates before the Nov. 8 election.
The Sept. 23-29 national tracking poll showed that likely voters support Clinton over Trump by 43 percent to 38 percent, while another 19 percent said they would not pick either candidate.
Clinton has mostly led Trump in the poll this year, and her level of support has been 4-5 percentage points higher than Trump's in each of the last four weeks.
In a separate poll that included alternative party candidates, Clinton led the field by 4 percentage points. Among likely voters, 42 percent supported Clinton, 38 percent supported Trump, 7 percent supported Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and 3 percent supported Jill Stein of the Green Party.
Monday's debate was the most watched presidential debate in U.S. history, with an estimated 84 million people tuning in for the 90-minute exchange. Some 56 percent of Americans adults who watched the debate said Clinton won, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
Voters appeared to be warming up to both candidates in Friday's poll. Some 48 percent of likely voters said they had an overall favorable view of Clinton, compared with 45 percent in the previous week, while 46 percent said they had a favorable view of Trump, up from 44 percent the week before.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English in all 50 states. The poll included 2,501 people who were considered likely voters due to their registration status, voting history and stated intention to vote in the election. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points.
National opinion polls have differed this year in how they measure support for Clinton and Trump. Some polls, like Reuters/Ipsos, try to include only likely voters, while others include all registered voters. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll also gathers responses every day and reports results twice a week, so it often detects trends in sentiment before most other polls.
An average of major opinion polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics showed Clinton ahead of Trump by 2.9 percentage points on Friday, or 47.3 points to 44.4, slightly lower than the previous margin of 3 points on Wednesday, but well up from 0.9 point on Sept. 19.

Younger than Nigeria but beating the recession



A shot from the Nigerian fashion film OmiImage copyrightAWCA
Image captionFashion film Omi has won an award in Milan

As Africa's most-populous country turns 56, many Nigerians may not be in the mood for celebration - preoccupied as they are with the ongoing recession.
In our series of letters from African journalists, Didi Akinyelure, the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award Winner, looks at a fresh crop of young, enterprising men and women who have more reason than most to celebrate Nigeria's 56th year of independence.
For Nigerian businesses, 2016 has indeed been a challenging year. The oil-dependent nation is presently in an economic downturn, largely because of the drop in oil prices.
As a consequence, the prices of goods and services have gone up and for many businesses profits are thin.
But some fresh, young entrepreneurs are bucking the trend.
"Whatever direction the economy goes, there are always opportunities," says Obinna Onunkwo, one of the Nigerians who is changing the face of the property scene.
Maryland Mall in Lagos, NigeriaImage copyrightPURPLE CAPITAL
Image captionMaryland Mall opened in Lagos' Ikeja suburb in June this year
He and his business partner Laide Agboola - who are both under 40 - have just completed the development of a $25m (£19.2m), 7,700-sq-metre retail centre in Lagos.
Nigeria's retail sector has seen significant growth over the past five years and savvy investors like Mr Onunkwo tapped in early.
They managed to convince investors that the Maryland Mall in Ikeja was a bankable project.
Laide Agboola (L) and Obinna Onunkwo (R)Image copyrightPURPLE CAPITAL
Image captionLaide Agboola (L) and Obinna Onunkwo (R) believe there are opportunities even in a downturn
After five months of pitching to investors last year, they were able to raise funds.
Mr Onunkwo believes the key to their success was that they ensured any loans they took were in the local currency, the naira, and not dollar loans.
A good decision as the naira has weakened significantly over the past year.

'People need to rent even in a recession'

Sulaiman Balogun, co-founder of ToLet.com.ng - a Nigerian online property search portal, will remember 2016 as the year the cash came in.
He and his business partners - Fikayo Ogundipe, Dapo Eludire and Seyi Ayeni - have succeeded in raising $1.2m.
ToLet.com.ng foundersImage copyrightTOLET.COM.NG
Image captionThe ToLet.com.ng founders started their business with only $400
This is quite a feat as banks and financial institutions in Nigeria are not keen to lend to new businesses because of a lack of credit records and insufficient collateral.
Enterprising technology-driven businesses like ToLet have to prove themselves, sometimes with very little capital, in the hope that big time venture capital firms take notice.
After meeting at university, Mr Balogun and his partners started their business in June 2012, when they were in their twenties and at a time when online property search websites were not popular in Nigeria.
The partners raised $400 from their personal savings and with family support embarked on their business journey.
A year after launching their property platform they managed to raise $230,000 in seed capital from online business builder, Spark.ng, and this made a significant contribution to the growth of their business.

Didi Akinyelure:
Didi Akinyelure
"They prove that it is possible to diversify away from oil - and show the enterprising spirit of the country as it celebrates its 56th year"

However, their big break came last month, when they caught the eye of Frontier Digital Ventures, a company passionate about online classifieds businesses, and they successfully secured additional funds.
Two key things have been the secret to their success.
"We anticipated the recession and kept costs low," says Mr Balogun.
"And people still need to look for homes to rent in a recession."

'Go beyond Africa'

For Papa Omotayo, a 40-year-old Lagos-based architect, looking to markets outside Nigeria can help entrepreneurs weather an economic slump.
"Make sure your reach goes beyond Africa," says Mr Omotayo, the founder of AWCA, a multi-award winning ideas development agency.
He has been driven to change the way the African continent is portrayed globally, through art and creativity.
Papa Omotayo (L) and Maki Osakwe (R)Image copyrightAWCA/LAKIN OGUNBANWO
Image captionA film by Papa Omotayo (L) and Maki Osakwe (R) has just won an award at the Fashion Film Festival Milano
Teaming up with 29-year-old Maki Osakwe, creative director of Maki Oh, a fashion brand worn by the likes of Michelle Obama, Lupita Nyong'o and Solange Knowles, the two produced a short fashion film entitled Omi.
It just bagged the Best New Director award this week at Milan's fashion film festival.
Mr Omotayo says diversity is the secret to his success - ensuring that Nigeria's arts and culture scene reaches beyond Africa.
And although he has seen a shift in the spending power of Nigerians this year, his creative business has not slowed down as much as expected, and he is confident that more opportunities will open up for him.
These young entrepreneurs are making headlines - in spite of Nigeria's recession.
They prove that it is possible to diversify away from oil - and show the enterprising spirit of the country as it celebrates its 56th year.

India tax evasion amnesty uncovers hidden billions


Indian currency at a cash counter inside a bank in Calcutta in June 2012Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionUndeclared income or "black money" is a huge issue in India
A tax evasion amnesty in India has prompted tens of thousands of people to declare more than $9.5bn (£7.3bn) in undeclared income and assets.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the four-month window that ended on Friday brought in 64,275 declarations.
All were offered immunity from prosecution in return for paying tax, a surcharge and a penalty.
It is estimated that the government could raise nearly $4.5bn (£3.4bn) from the scheme.
Undeclared income or "black money" is a huge issue in India.
The government contacted about 700,000 suspected tax evaders earlier this year, urging them to declare hidden income and assets.
They were told they would not be pursued by the authorities if they came clean and paid a penalty.
Those who came forward included a group of street food owners in Mumbai who are said to have declared nearly $7.5m.
Tweet by Indian PM Narendra ModiImage copyrightTWITTER
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says that despite the huge numbers, the amount declared is only a fraction of the country's undisclosed earnings.
It does not account for money stashed in Swiss banks and overseas tax havens which some government investigators believe amounts to around $500bn, he says.
During India's 2014 elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to crack down on corruption and black money.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, he declared the amnesty "successful", saying it was "a great contribution towards transparency and growth of the economy".
The government says the money raised will be spent on public welfare.
Authorities have been under pressure to act following the release of the so-called Panama Papers in April that lifted the lid on how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth. About 500 Indians were among those named.

Pope Francis conducted mass in an almost empty stadium



Pope Francis says Mass in Tbilisi, 1 OctoberImage copyrightVINCENZO PINTO
Image captionPope Francis says Mass in the Tbilisi stadium
Pope Francis has said Mass in a largely empty stadium on a visit to Georgia after the majority Orthodox Christian Church asked followers to stay away.
Orthodox believers were asked not to take part in Roman Catholic services and a Church delegation due to attend also stayed away.
But Church officials said the decision had been taken by mutual agreement.
It was one of the smallest crowds seen at an outdoor papal Mass during Francis's foreign trips.
People who did attend in the capital Tbilisi said afterwards that the papal visit was good for Georgia.
"This is a very significant event, both for the country and for faithful from the whole Catholic parish," Keti Khitarikhvili told Reuters news agency.
"He is a true pope, he is not just a religious figure, but also a very political figure. Because I think that with this visit, the role of Georgia will be raised measurably on the world stage."

Why Georgia?

Pope Francis (left) is greeted by Patriarch Ilia in Tbilisi, 30 SeptemberImage copyrightEPA
Image captionPope Francis (left) was greeted by Patriarch Ilia in Tbilisi on Friday
With a Roman Catholic population of under 1%, it was not an obvious destination but the Pope has made a point of reaching out to Orthodox churches to overcome doctrinal differences which split the two communities in the 11th Century.
The late Pope John Paul II visited Georgia in 1999, and he was treated as the Vatican head of state, rather than a religious leader.
Georgia, a small country (population 4.3 million) in the Caucasus Mountains, shares an Orthodox culture with the regional superpower, Russia, but the two fought a brief war in 2008.
Vatican attempts to mend ties with the Russian Church have so far not resulted in a papal visit there. On the other hand, Georgia aspires to join the EU and Nato.

Why the boycott?

According to the Associated Press, only a few thousand people attended the Mass in the Meshki stadium, which has a capacity of 25,000.
The Orthodox patriarchate said on its website: "As long as there are dogmatic differences between our churches, Orthodox believers will not participate in their prayers".
One Georgian priest told AP it was a protest against Catholic attempts to convert Orthodox Christians.


"Can you imagine how it would be if a Sunni [Muslim] preacher came to Shia [Muslim] Iran and conducted prayers in a stadium or somewhere else?" Father David Klividze asked. "Such a thing could not be."
Nonetheless, the Church leader, Patriarch Ilia, had welcomed Pope Francis on Friday as his "dear brother" and toasted him saying "May the Lord bless the Catholic Church of Rome".
Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili did attend the Mass. Other politicians may have stayed away because of forthcoming elections, for fear of upsetting devout voters.

Where next?

On Sunday, the Pope is due to visit neighbouring Azerbaijan, which has fewer than 300 Catholics in its overwhelmingly Muslim population.
However, religious coexistence is a major theme for Pope Francis who visited Muslim-majority Turkey in November 2014.