EPL Preview: Chelsea V. Manchester City [5:00pm

The biggest English Premier League game of the weekend is undoubtedly the Chelsea vs Manchester City matchup at Stamford Bridge in London today, November 25th. Chelsea will be hoping their home advantage & new coach earn them all the three points at stake.

Both teams are coming off a disappointing week in the Champions League. Man City was held to a 1-1 home draw against Real Madrid which ultimately condemned them to the less prestigious EuropaCup while Chelsea were handed a lesson in goal scoring in Turin where they fell 3-0 to Italian champions, Juventus.

City hasn’t lost a game in the league yet and go into this game in second place with 28 points from eight wins and four draws. Chelsea also come into this match sitting in fourth place just behind West Brom. They have seven wins, three draws and two losses in league play. A win against City here would put them right back in the middle of the title race after having only managed to earn two points in their last four league matches.

In their last 10 meetings, Chelsea has won six games against City while the Manchester club has won the other four. They last met in the Community Shield in august and City won 3-2 after Chelsea had a man sent off. City has scored 25 league goals this season with Chelsea right behind them at 24. City’s defence is the best in the league after conceding just 10 goals against Chelsea’s 13.

City manager Roberto Mancini has a lot of power upfront with four world class strikers to choose from – Carlos Tevez, Sergio Agüero, Mario Balotelli, and Edin Dzeko. He also has attack-minded players in David Silva and Samir Nasri not forgetting the ever dependable Yaya Toure. Fernando Torres could return to the starting XI under new Chelsea manager Rafael Benítez, after coming on as a substitute against Juventus.

Chelsea will have to play without skipper John Terry as he’s injured and it looks like English international midfielder Frank Lampard will also miss the game. For City, they will also be without their captain as Vincent Kompany will likely miss the contest after being injured against Madrid. Defenders Micah Richards and Joleon Lescott are also questionable.

Chelsea (Possible, 4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Mikel; Mata, Hazard, Moses; Torres.

Manchester City (Possible, 4-4-2): Hart; Maicon, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy; Silva, Y Touré, Barry, Nasri; Agüero, Tévez.

Swansea City v. Liverpool -2:30 PM

Southampton v. Newcastle United -4:00 PM

Chelsea v. Manchester City -5:00 PM

Tottenham Hotspur v. West Ham United -5:00 PM

Secret Second World War Message Found On Dead Pigeon

Britain’s top code-breakers have been stumped by a secret code found on the leg of a dead pigeon with a message from Second World War attached to it.

The code on the pigeon stuck in a chimney for the last 70 years may never be broken, said a British intelligence agency.

The remains of the bird were found by David Martin in Surrey, southern England, while he was cleaning out a disused fireplace at his home earlier this month.

Experts at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s main electronic intelligence-gathering agency have been struggling to decipher the message since they were provided with it a few weeks ago.

The message, a series of 27 groups of five letters each, was inside a red canister attached to the pigeon’s leg bone.

The agency said it may be impossible to decode it without more information, some of which could come from the public, BBC News reported.

“Without access to the relevant codebooks and details of any additional encryption used, it will remain impossible to decrypt,” a GCHQ spokesman said.

Inside the canister was a thin piece of paper with the words “Pigeon Service” at the top and 27 handwritten blocks of code.

The message is consistent with the use of code books to translate messages which were then encrypted.

However, without knowing who the sender, Sjt W Stot, is or the intended destination, given as ‘X02’, it is extremely difficult to decipher the code, GCHQ said.
Although the code books and encryption systems used should have been destroyed, there is a small chance that one exists somewhere.

Two pigeon identifying numbers were written on the message with the bird given to GCHQ at the start of the month.

“We didn’t really hold out any hopes we would be able to read the message because the sort of codes that were constructed to be used during operations were designed only to be able to be read by the senders and the recipients,” said GCHQ historian Tony, who asked that only his first name be used.

“Unless you get rather more idea than we have of who actually sent this message and who it was sent to we are not going to find out what the underlying code being used was.”

Experts believe there are two ways the message might have been coded; one is with a so-called one-time pad, where a random ‘key’ is applied to a message. If the key is truly random and known only to sender and recipient; the code can be unbreakable.

Another option is that this code was based on a specific, and now probably destroyed code-book put together for a particular operation so the maximum amount of information about that operation could be relayed in the shortest message.

A spokesman for GCHQ said it was “disappointing” that the message brought back by a “brave” carrier pigeon cannot be read.

“It is a tribute to the skills of the wartime code-makers that, ¬despite working ¬ under severe pressure, they devised a code that was undecipherable, both then and now,” he added.

The Curator of the Pigeon Museum at Bletchley Park, north of London, Britain’s main code-breaking centre during Second World War, is also trying to trace the identity numbers of the pigeon found in the message, according to GCHQ.

Pigeons were used extensively in the war to carry vital information to Britain from mainland Europe. Flying at speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour, they could travel distances of up to 1,000km but were vulnerable to hungry hawks and bored soldiers, who used to take pot-shot

Student Protesters Disrupt Examinations At The University Of Abuja

There was pandemonium at the two campuses of the University of Abuja located at Gwagwalada and Airport Road area of Nigeria’s federal capital territory Abuja as students went on a rampage to protest the non-accreditation of some of their courses.

The protest, which commenced at 6:00 AM, was started by Engineering students. Many students soon joined in blocking the main gate of the school to protest harsh conditions of education and general mismanagement of the university by officials the students regard as incompetent and irresponsible.

Some students said the university is in poor condition as inhabitants of the girls hostel  lack of water supply which forces them to fetch water from the boys hostel. Student leaders of the protest said the school is also bedeviled with overpopulated classes, cancelled lectures, lack of library facilities and lecture halls as well as the refusal of the school authorities to allow for independent student union elections.

The protests quickly spread as several students took to the street just as some of their colleagues began sitting for their first semester examinations, which ought to start on Monday.

The protest led to the cancellation of examination in various classes  slated for the day as lecturers and invigilators abandoned the two campuses to safety.

The examination was meant for the school's regular students.

The grudge of the protesting students at the Engineering faculty was the non-accreditation of their courses despite the assurance given to them by the school authority.

The accreditation panel of the National University Commission had recently refused to certify some of the courses being run by the university.

Some of the courses are in the Faculty of Engineering, Agriculture and Sciences.

The Federal Ministry of Education had earlier promised to take some of the students to other universities for the completion of their courses because of the non-accreditation of their courses, but that had not happened.

When it dawned on the students that the government and the school officials were just fooling them, they  embarked on the strike that crippled the school today.

Carrying several placards with messages like, "Don't destroy our future", "Stop deceiving us", "We want to graduate as engineers, not technologists", the students vowed to continue with their actions on Tuesday if the government does not act on their grievances.

It is not clear if the protesting students will allow their colleagues to sit for examinations slated for Tuesday.

Soldier Filmed Colleagues Killing Captives

International news agency, REUTERS, on Sunday reported that it was in possession of an amateur video showing Nigerian soldiers shooting unarmed captives in broad daylight in Maiduguri, Borno State

It said the video was sent to it by a soldier, who claimed to have witnessed the shooting. Reuters quoted the unnamed soldiers as saying that he was present when the soldiers shot the captives about two weeks ago.

Maiduguri is the seat of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, and there have been many clashes between military operatives and the sect members.

The report said, “In the grainy footage, a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd looks on a few metres away. “Please don’t fire,” the man says in Pidgin English.

“He tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pickup truck to the left. A Nigerian soldier shouts “come out”, and drags him off it, shoving him on the ground.

“One of them kicks him in the head. Then he and another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and the man lies still next to the others.”

According to Reuters, another video from the same source, which he said was taken after the executions, shows soldiers piling up about 24 bodies in two heaps on the ground from the back of a military truck.

Nigerian army spokesman, Colonel Mohammed Yerima, told Reuters that he had not seen the video but that the events must have been staged.

“How can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics. They will do the killing, say it’s the military and then Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It’s not possible for Nigerian troops to act in this way,” Yerima was quoted as saying.

There have been several allegations of improper conduct against the Nigerian soldiers in the Joint Task Force in charge of maintaining peace in the North-East where Boko Haram members have staged many attacks.

But the military has always denied complicity in the crisis in the zone.

The Guardian of London on November 2, 2012 reported a similar case of soldiers shooting dead many during raids in Maiduguri, quoting witnesses and hospital staff.

According to the reports, three witnesses said soldiers from the JTF raided several neighbourhoods in Maiduguri late on November 1 and arrested or shot dead dozens of young men.

“More than 30 bodies were brought in by the JTF and most of them were young men,” The Guradian quoted one nurse at a hospital in the town, Yagana Bukar, as saying.

Amnesty International said in a report released on Nov. 1 that the JTF had committed human rights abuses in its fight against Boko Haram.

The report said the JTF had carried out executions in the streets and tortured people without charges ever being brought.

culled from informationnigeria.org

Polytechnic Graduates Lament Disparity Between HND, University Degree

The leadership of National Association of Technologists in Engineering, NATE, has appealed to the Federal Government to release the white paper on the Ernest Shonekan panel on the disparity between Higher National Diploma, HND, and university degree.

The National President of NATE, Dr. Leo Okereke, made the appeal weekend while addressing a press conference in Owerri.

“Mr. President Sir, 11 years is more than enough time for a circular to be issued in the civil service.

“We urge you to demonstrate the political will to release this long awaited circular,” Dr. Okereke pleaded.

NATE leadership expressed serious worry that products of polytechnics were known not to rise beyond level 14 in the civil service, adding that many of them had been frustrated out of service when their juniors were promoted above them on account of their HND qualification.

Dr. Okereke recalled with grief that instead of implementing the government white paper, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, who was head of service at the time, convened another meeting at the instance of National Council on Establishment.

“A communiqué was issued at the end of the parley that the Office of the Head of Service should proceed to issue implementation circular without further delay. This is where the matter has been since 2009,” Okereke lamented.

culled from informationnigeria.org

Buhari: Boko Haram Did Not Nominate Me As Their Mediator

Contrary to the news making the rounds that the Boko Haram sect has nominated Former Head of States, General Muhammadu Buhari as the mediator between them and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the proposed peace talk, the retired Military General has denied knowledge of his nomination.

According to the National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Engr Buba Galadima, the national leader of the CPC is not aware of the appointment: “As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him,he said he has not even heard about it.”

Galadima said: “He (Buhari) said the whole thing to him, is just speculation. And since nobody has contacted him as a person for him to even know who is behind what, and what are the motives of the whole exercise, he would not speak to the press.”

He revealed that Buhari, the 2011 presidential candidate of the CPC, further told him that as an elder statesman and a patriotic Nigerian, he will continue to pray until peace and tranquillity return to Nigeria.

It would be recalled that the sect had said in a telephone press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno that they would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and now Senator, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the federal government.

Abdulaziz claimed he had the mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau, disclosing that the sect was highly offended due to what happened three years ago (referring to the killing of the sect’s leader, Mallam Mohammed Yusuf).

Speaking on to the development, the CPC national publicity secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashekun, has lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over Buhari’s nomination.

Fashekun described Buhari’s purported nomination as “the latest gambit in the desire of this organically corrupt PDP-led Federal Government in diverting the attention of the unsuspecting Nigerian public from the on-going massive looting of their common patrimony.”

Fashekun also said: “Without any scintilla of equivocation, General Muhammadu Buhari has never been directly or remotely connected with any insurrection or insurgency against the Nigerian nation and her people. He remains the quintessential patriot that continues to magnetise the very best across the ethno-religious boundaries within the Nigerian nation-space.”

The party chieftain accused the PDP of being responsible for the growing insecurity in the country, insisting: “As we have stated in an earlier communication, the (PDP), as a corporate entity, is the harbinger of the insecurity travails of the Nigerian people for the sole reason of ensuring perpetuity in governance.”

Fashekun listed the three categories of Boko Haram and alleged that the PDP-led government is sponsoring one of them.

“From recollection of events of the last two years, there are three variants of the Boko Haram: the original Boko Haram that is at daggers drawn with the Nigerian authority for the extra-judicial killing of their leader; the criminal Boko Haram that is involved in all criminality for economic reasons and of course, the most lethal of all, the Political Boko Haram, which this PDP-led Federal Government represents.

“The President, Goodluck Jonathan, had once alerted the nation of the ubiquitous presence of Boko Haram in his government, a fact aptly amplified by his erstwhile National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi.” He further drew instances from the revelations made by State Security Service. “Undoubtedly, the latest revelations by the State Security Services (SSS) on the complicity of the top echelon of the PDP leadership in Boko Haram activities aptly bear testimony of the noxious subterfuge to extirpate the essence of our nationhood,” he said.

Baba and his style

Boko Haram: Obasanjo Makes Reference To Jonathan As A ‘Weak Leader’

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, blamed president Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, to fester and grow into a monster that is out of control by his failure to act on a report submitted to the government.

The former president was speaking at a lecture delivered by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi in celebration of  Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s 40th anniversary as founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri in Delta State. Obasanjo also tasked Nigerians to choose between a strong leader who might adopt unusual approach to tackle a problem or a weak leader who will leave the problem to fester.

While responding to a question from a pastor from Borno State on how he could forge any form of unity with those who are perpetuating violence in the northern part of the country, Obasanjo went philosophical, saying: “Boko Haram is an ill wind that blows nobody no good.”

The former president also narrated his experience when he visited the hot-bed of Boko Haram, Borno, on a fact-finding mission and blamed the government’s inability to act on his findings as reason why the problem grew to “become something else.”

“Whichever way, you just have to attend to it. Don’t leave it unattended to. On two occasions I had to attend to the problem I faced at that time. I sent soldiers to a place and 19 of them were killed. If I had allowed that to continue, I will not have authority to send security whether police, soldier and any force any where again. So, I had to nip it in the bud and that was the end of that particular problem,” he said.

Obasanjo was however quick to admit that not all problems might require a tough stance as according to him, “if you say you don’t want a strong leader who can have all characteristics of leaders including God fearing, then have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours.”

Theformer president was also quick to dispel insinuations that he single-handedly foisted president Jonathan on Nigerians saying that he didn’t give all the votes that brought him to power. But he did give a remedy when he said, “the beauty of democracy is that power rests in the people, and every elected person would seek your votes to come back; if you don’t want him, he won’t come back.”

And like he has been advocating over the last couple of days, the erstwhile PDP BOT Chairman charged Nigerians to stand up and take their destinies in their own hands, reminding them of a Yoruba adage, “if you say it the way it is, you will die; if you don’t say anything at all, you will die, why don’t you say it and die?

culled from infromationnigeria.org