Money Laundering Trial: Femi Fani- Kayode's Bail Might Be Revoked As One Of His Sureties Apply To Withdraw

Fani-Kayode, who is the Director of Media and
Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party’s
Presidential Campaign Organisation, is currently
canvassing arguments to exonerate himself of the
remaining two counts.

One Wale Ajisebutu has written to a Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to withdraw as a surety for a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, who is facing money laundering charges.

Ajisebutu was one of the two persons who stood as
sureties for Fani-Kayode in the fulfilment of the bail
conditions granted him by Justice Ramat Mohammed in
December 2008.

The bail was in the sum of N200m.
Ajisebutu’s application to withdraw was listed for hearing before Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia on Tuesday. It was, however, not taken as it was learnt that Fani- Kayode had written to the court seeking for an adjournment.

The surety said he was withdrawing because he had an
urgent need for the documents of his landed property, which he had deposited into the court’s custody.

Further proceeding in Fani-Kayode’s trial had been adjourned till March 26.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had charged him with 40 counts of money laundering.

It was the allegation of the anti-graft agency, that while he was Minister of Culture of Tourism and the Minister of Aviation, Fani-Kayode severally dealt in cash sums above N500,000 without going through any financial institution.

The alleged offence was said to have contravened Sections 15(1) (a) (b) (c) (d) and 15 (2) (a) (b) of the Money Laundering (prohibition) Act, 2004.

But Ofili-Ajumogobia, had on November 17, dismissed 38 of the counts for failure of the EFCC to prove the particulars of the offence.

Fani-Kayode, who is the Director of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation, is currently canvassing arguments to exonerate himself of the remaining two counts.

The counts read, “That you, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode on or before September 20, 2006, while serving as Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, made a transaction exceeding N500,000 which was not done through financial institution, by accepting cash payment of N1m, which sum was further paid into your personal account
number, 103450252601 with First Inland Bank PLc Apapa branch, now FCMB, through one Supo Agbaje, your administrative staff, now at large.

The world’s richest doctor (worth R150bn) was born and raised in South Africa

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the son of Chinese immigrants to
South Africa, is the world’s richest doctor and the
wealthiest resident of Los Angeles with a net worth of
almost R150-billion.

Soon-Shiong was born on 29 July 1952 and grew up
“coloured” in Port Elizabeth after his parents fled from
China during World War Two.

He finished high school when he was 16 and received his medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand at 23, finishing fourth out of 189 graduates.

He moved to Canada, then to the US, after doing an
internship at the all-white Johannesburg General Hospital where he was paid half the salary of everyone else.

Fighting cancer, making money

Soon-Shiong became well-known during the 1980s for
transplanting pancreas cells to treat diabetes.

He invented the world’s first protein nanoparticle delivery technology to treat breast cancer, doubling the response rate in patients.

He founded two drug companies, Abraxis and American
Pharmaceutical Partners, which he sold for R112-billion.

He holds 50 US patents, including that of block buster
pancreatic cancer drug Abraxane.

Revolutionising healthcare

Soon-Shiong founded Nantworks in 2001 to developed
technology that can analyse genetic data from tumours in mere seconds.

Through Nantworks Soon-Shiong aims to realise his vision of future cancer treatments where all sorts of technologies such as diagnostics, networked supercomputers and personalised mixtures of cancer drugs converge to manage cancer and achieve a sustained, disease-free state.

Giving his billions away

Forbes ranks Soon-Shiong’s fortune among the 100
largest in the US.

Soon-Shiong, as a member of the Buffett/Gates Giving
Pledge, plans to give away half of his sizeable fortune
while he is still alive.

To date has given away hundreds of millions of dollars and funds numerous healthcare projects in the US.

Movie Review: Cinderella Will Steal Your Heart

Magnificent! We all knew the story, yet directorKenneth Branagh still had the audience eager to see it unfold as witnessed by the applause at the end of this masterpiece. The regal sets, bizarre costumes and jaw dropping special effects make this fairy tale almost a reality. Lily James, the beauty fromDowntonAbby, is perfect asCinderella.Her dark brows juxtaposed against her pale complexion and blonde locks give her expressions heightened impact.

She is simply splendid while Cate Blanchett, as the evil Stepmother, terrifies and yet gets the biggest laughs when her delivery is spot on. Richard Madden as the Prince has all the right moments, but his pitter- pat -appeal is a tad short for a Prince of one's fantasies. Kenneth Branagh directs with perfection and gives longmoments between the Prince andCinderella. These moments allow them to fall in love in lingering romantic silence.And how nice that the four mice were sparred.

Iso feared the evil stepmother Cate Blanchett would do them in with her adorable, but evil cat, but the cruelty in this film is kept to a minimum. Perhaps there could have been more.Cinderelladoes not suffer as much as she did in my memory. Her suffering seems to be replaced by her need to forgive and to be kind.

Opposite from a selfless Ella are her stepsisters, Drisella and Anastasia who are played respectively by Sophie Mc Shera and Holiday Grainger with bubbly enthusiasm.But the highlight of the film is fairy god mother Helen Bonham Carter who steals everyone's thunder when she turns a pumpkin into a gold chariot with the mice as horses andlizards and ducks asCinderella'sentourage. Together they drive her golden pumpkin a la mode to the ball given by the King.

The purpose of the ball is to find a bride for the Prince whose heart is spent pining for a younglass he met in the woods while hunting. He never learned her name. But as we all know this lass was Ella, who later is dubbedCinderelladue to nights sleeping by the fire while its cinders leave smudges of charcoal on her face.

Branagh's direction begins slow and small and builds to a crescendo and climax guaranteed not to let your fantasies down. The stellar castis so well coiffed in period fairy garb that some are barely recognizable. Stellan Skarsgard, as the Grand Duke, is a nasty piece of work and good at this, while Derek Jacobi who plays the King spreads wisdom and concern with each utterance. After the Palace Ball the Prince combs the countryside looking for the beauteous spirit who stole his heart, but who left her glass slipper. When lo and behold, he has been among the Palace's caped and masked troops looking for the mysteriousCinderella.

As the King's guard searches for her, Captain, Nonso Anozie, plays good while the Grand Duke plays bad cop. These two workwell together and add gravitas at a moment when the ho hums could have set in.Writer Chris Weitz keeps the dialogue active and modern, but not cutsie or filled with clichés. My only criticism is that the Prince lacked a tad bit of sensuality which could have made him more charming. But leaving the theatre the applause warmed my heart and I left with memories of the goodness and kindness of aCinderellawho never grows old.

Kwankwaso Berates Fayose Over Unguarded Utterances, Says His 'Day Of Reckoning' Is Imminent

Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has berated
his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose, over what he
called the latter’s unguarded utterances.

The Governor who led the Hausa community in Lagos,
in a visit to the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, to plan for the forthcoming election, used the occasion to react to
what he calls the seeming disrespect for elders by Fayose.

Kwankwaso was reacting to Fayose’s various
vilifying statements about Buhari and that he
(Kwankwaso) and former vice president, Atiku
Abubakar, were secretly working against the All Pro­
gressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen­
eral Muhammadu Buhari.

The Kano State governor, while fielding questions
from journalists during the visit, said Fayose should
be mindful of the fact that the day of reckoning would
soon come.

Read His Statement In Part:
“I have this belief that in this part of the country are
people who are positively cultured. This part of
Nigeria we have very respectful people, ranging from
Awolowo, Shonekam, Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, Asiwaju
and so on and so forth.

“But anytime I listen to this young man in Ekiti State,
I feel terribly embarrassed as a governor and I feel
bad for Yoruba people.

“This young man, I don’t know what went wrong, I
used to know him, although I was not very close to
him. Of course when I was a governor, he was not a
governor, he was governor after I left Government
House in 2003.

“These days if I look at him, I think many things are
wrong with his words and even his mouth. You tell him
that he should learn how to respect elders.

“Even those of us who are governors with him are his
seniors and in this business of politics, like all other
businesses, I think seniority should be respected".

The White House’s strange, illogical response to Netanyahu

To all those who imagined President Obama would not let Iran keep its illegal nuclear program and then get a green flag for breakout after 10 years , you were wrong . Yes, Obama actually is capitulating entirely after years of saying that negotiations would make clear Iran had to give up its nuclear ambitions . It was his argument that Iran wanted to be included in the family of nations , and later ( after he opposed sanctions ) his argument was that sanctions had forced Iran to the table . But now he concedes all that was wrong .

In his very odd response to Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’ s speech , Obama did not dispute he is making these huge concessions and he did not argue they are wise. Instead , he argued Netanyahu said nothing new ( well, Obama knew he had bargained away an awful lot, but many Americans did not , which is why Obama had to put it out there in an interview on the eve of Netanyahu’ s speech ) . And Obama groused that Netanyahu did not provide an alternative.

Let’ s take the latter argument . There is a whole list of
problems with the president’ s complaint .

First, the speech did contain an alternative: Hold firm
and increase sanctions . Many have said Netanyahu is
insisting on regime change . But that is not correct. He’ s demanding that Iran change its behavior , just as Obama was supposed to be demanding that Iran give up its quest for nuclear weapons . Maybe the president should say exactly what he promised : If no deal was reached , he’ d be the first one back asking for more sanctions .

Second, since when does a president demand that an ally , whom he has ignored and who has found the fatal flaw in his negotiations ( the details of which Obama has tried to conceal) , come up with a solution to get him out of his mess ? Some chutzpah. If the deal is bad, Obama has said no deal is better. What was his alternative supposed to be if no deal was the better course of action?

Third , the original deal in Obama ’ s mind is “unattainable , ” as Susan Rice insisted, because Iran said no. But how does he know Iran won’ t stay at the table or change its mind . A regime that has cheated and still is cheating and has concealed its illegal program, you might suspect , would conceal its threshold for economic pain and come up with all sorts of threats to try to keep what it has already acquired .

Perhaps Obama is just a rotten negotiator — just as we saw in his dealings with the Castros.

Fourth, I thought the president had said Iran is
“isolated , ” and his policy was working. If Iran is truly
isolated , why does he fret so that the alliance won ’ t hold together?

His arguments made no sense for all these reasons and
more because they are not real arguments, but excuses — excuses to conceal that his negotiators were inept , excuses to avoid the perception that he failed to understand the nature of the regime, and excuses for not having gotten more leverage .

It is also fascinating that Obama does not dispute
Netanyahu’ s accusation that he is seeking an alliance
with Iran to defeat the Islamic State . That in a way is a
far more grievous and fundamental error than his
nuclear negotiations posture, for it involves selling out all our allies in the region and cozying up to a nation that wants to destroy Israel , tyrannize its own people and sponsor terrorism . How could we conceivably go along with all that ? Perhaps Obama imagines that if we give Iran the bomb and let it run amok , it will change its ways. But the regime’ s behavior has gotten worse . What victorious dictatorship voluntarily gave up territory and weapons?

The president throws a fuss and tosses insults, and his
loyal lapdogs in Congress pretend to be “ insulted, ” but
right about now in Jerusalem , Cairo , Amman and Riyadh our allies are shaking their heads in disbelief.

The president is as feckless and confused as they feared . They stand unprotected by the United States as they stare into the jaws of a regime bent on destroying them . Well, perhaps they , too , will come and speak to Congress . Or Congress can invite Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Czech President Milos Zeman. It would be interesting to see whether they share Netanyahu ’ s views or Obama’ s .

And the invited guests don’ t even need to say anything new or offer us an alternative. Just tell America what they think . They can ’ t all be “electioneering ” or out to create trouble for Democrats ,can they ? Maybe it is Obama who is isolated , not Iran.

Russia's Putin says he doesn't want rerun of gas rows with Ukraine

Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he did not want a gas conflict with Ukraine similar to ones that took place in the past, and that Kiev only had enough pre-paid gas from Russia to last two days.

Moscow cut off gas supplies to Kiev from June until
December in a dispute over pricing and unpaid bills that
marked the third such stoppage in a decade, after price rows in 2006 and 2009.

Previous "gas wars" have led to supply disruptions to
Europe, which gets around a third of its gas from Russia, and 40 percent of this via Ukraine.

Gas supplies to Europe have been unaffected by the latest row, but Ukraine's chaotic finances have left it struggling to keep up with regular pre-payment for its gas from Russia's state-controlled producer Gazprom.

"(There is) pre-paid gas for exactly two days, no action has been taken yet," Putin told a governmental meeting on Wednesday.

"I would ask the prime minister and Gazprom to pay more attention to this, given that no one needs conflicts similar to those in previous years. We are ready to strictly fulfil (our) contractual obligations, but under pre-payment only."

The European Commission helped to negotiate a "winter gas deal" between Moscow and Kiev, under which Ukraine paid off some of its gas debts and imported over 1 billion cubic metres of gas. The deal expires at the end of March.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to discuss a summer
package later this month, with Kiev winning an assurance at EU-mediated talks this week that it would not have to pay for energy delivered to rebel-held areas.

With economic output falling and a pro-Russian rebellion simmering in its eastern industrial heartland, Ukraine's gas consumption is likely to fall to some 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) this year from 42.5 bcm in 2014, the UNIAN news agency quoted the energy minister as saying.

More than 30 coal miners trapped underground after deadly explosion in Ukraine

DONETSK, Ukraine — An explosion ripped through a coal mine before dawn Wednesday in war-torn eastern Ukraine, killing at least one miner and trapping more than 30 others underground, rebel and government officials said. One injured miner reported seeing five bodies.

The explosion at the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk, an eastern city under separatist control, was not caused by shelling, rebel authorities said. Eastern Ukraine has been wracked by fighting between government forces and Russian-backed rebels for almost a year, a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people.

The blast Wednesday occurred more than 1,000 metres
underground as 230 workers were in the mine, separatist authorities in Donetsk said in a statement, blaming a mixture of gas and air — a common cause of industrial mining accidents.

Rescue operations were continuing and at least 157 workers had been evacuated from the mine, Donetsk rebel officials said.

One lightly wounded miner being evacuated, who gave his name only as Sergei, told The Associated Press that he saw five bodies being pulled out, but provided no further details.

Another injured miner, 42-year-old Igor Murynin, said at a hospital in Donetsk that he was blown off his feet by the impact of the explosion.

“When I came to, there was dust everywhere. People were groaning,” said Murynin, who doctors said had burns over 20% of his body.

Murynin said the mine had installed new equipment and that nothing appeared to be out of order.

The rebels said 14 miners were sent to medical centres in Donetsk, and a doctor there, Emil Fistal, was quoted as saying that at least six were in grave condition.

There was no immediate way to reconcile the varying
numbers given of miners working, injured, possibly trapped or dead.

The speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Volodymyr Groysman, said he can confirm only one death, pedaling back on an earlier claim that 32 miners had died. It was unclear what his source for the information was, since rebel authorities do not
answer to the government in Kyiv.

“For now, I can say only that 32 people are below ground. One person has died,” Ivan Prikhodko, administrative head of the Kyiv district in Donetsk, where the affected mine is located, told Donetsk News Agency. “Until rescuers get to them, speaking about how many people have died would be unethical, to say

A mine rescue services representative, Yuliana Bedilo, also said only one death had been confirmed.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in Kyiv that rebels had prevented a team of 60 Ukrainian rescue workers from reaching the mine to provide assistance. But leading rebel representative Denis Pushilin denied that Ukrainian authorities had offered any help.

“If we truly need assistance, we will turn to Russia,” Pushilin was quoted as saying by the Donetsk News Agency.

Separatist officials trickled into the grounds of the mine throughout the morning, but all refused to respond to questions or provide details about how many workers were still trapped. That stance frustrated many miners’ families.

He was supposed to retire next year. Everyone is angry that they say on TV that 32 people died but nobody tells us anything,” she said.

Miners arriving for their morning shift, hours after the
accident, complained volubly about the long history of safety violations at the Zasyadko mine, which is considered particularly dangerous for its high methane content.

One, who gave only his first name, Kostya, said two of his brothers had been injured in earlier blasts at the same time

“We work like crazy for peanuts. We want this place to be safe. We want our children to be able to work here,” he told the AP.

The mine has a history of deadly accidents, including one in November 2007 that killed 101 workers, and two more in December 2007 that killed 52 miners and then five more workers.

Ninety-nine people were killed in Ukraine’s coal mines in
2014, according to mining safety oversight bodies.

Thirteen of those deaths were a direct result of the war in the east, where mines have frequently been struck in artillery duels between rebel and Ukrainian government forces.