Abducted former Foreign Affairs minister, Bagudu Hirse, regains his freedom

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse, who was kidnapped in Kaduna state on Sunday November 20th, has regained his freedom six days after his abduction. Hirse was rescued by security operatives in Kaduna state this morning.

Confirming this development, the spokesman of the Kaduna Police Command, Aliyu Usman, said he was hale and hearty when he was rescued and has been reunited with his family.

Usman added that no ransom was paid to secure his release. Hirse was abducted by three masked men outside the home of President Buhari’s nephew, Mamman Daura, at Inuwa Road in Kaduna Metropolis.

Exclusive photos from Don Jazzy's surprise birthday party last night

Friends and colleagues of Nigeria's most accomplished music producer, Don Jazzy, threw him a surprise birthday party last night at Escape. The guest list included Iyanya, Dr. Sid, Reekado Banks and more. All preparations and the guest list were kept top-secret leaving Don Jazzy surprised but the biggest highlight of the night was the presentation of Don Jazzy with a bottle of the John Walker & Sons Private Collection 2015 Edition. Don Jazzy will be one of 100 people in Nigeria to own a bottle that cost N500,000. See more photos

Actor, Richard Mofe Damijo writes an open letter to 'the boy child'

The veteran actor took to Instagram to write an open letter to the boy child.

In the letter, he addressed the effects of social media on the male gender, how to address a lady and the importance of respect and fear of God. Read the beautiful piece below...






Dear Son, I'm writing to you today because there is no day "internationally" set aside for the "boy child", so, tired of looking on in horror as you constantly shock and embarrass me, this is from daddy to you.
I'm shocked at how many of you carry yourselves here on social media. I am shocked at the things you L O L at. I am worried at the way you speak
to and about women. I am frightened at the kinds of things that inspire and motivate you.
I am concerned that the women who get your attention are not the virtuous, brilliant types but the frivolous party, skimpily clad ones.
I am disappointed to see that the pictures you fall over yourselves double tapping are not the inspirational quotes or of clean, beautiful modest women but of women with their breasts, thighs and bottoms spilling over.
I cringe at how many of you blatantly use swear and curse words at women like it makes you cool.
I am distraught to see that many of you insinuate that a man who loves and stays with one woman is a wimp, that a man who publicly displays and speaks about his love for his woman is a "jew man", that a man who is more interested in deeply spiritual and intellectual pursuits should be shamed...
I am worried son, deeply worried.
My dear son, being uncouth, indecent, unintelligent is NOT cool and contrary to what you think, the man who stays on social media looking for naked ladies to validate, smart people to shame, brilliant people to tear down, celebrities to attack are NOT men but little boys battling low self esteem issues.
A real man loves God and is not ashamed to show it. He loves and respects women. He does not ask for nudes and if any misguided woman sends him her nudes respectfully deletes it and not use it as a blackmailing tool. A real man reads, yes, he reads a lot. He picks his mentors wisely, thinks before he speaks and reads his comments over and over before he hits send.
Dear son, do not let the "anonymity" of social media make you a fool rather use it to shine and be kind, reasonable and sensible at all times because that is the man I desire to see you be.
Love,
Daddy

Hilary Clinton campaign announces it will join vote recount efforts

Read the report from CNN below.

Hillary Clinton's campaign said Saturday it will take part in efforts to push for recounts in several key states, joining with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has raised millions of dollars to have votes counted again in Wisconsin.

But, in a post on Medium, Marc Elias, the campaign's counsel, said the campaign's own investigation has not uncovered any evidence of hacking of voting systems.

In the campaign's most detailed comments to date on the recount, Elias wrote that while the campaign was not going to contest the results itself, it has decided now to take part in the effort to "ensure that it is fair to all sides."
But President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday dismissed the recount and said that "the election is over."

"The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, 'We must accept this result and then look to the future,'" Trump said in a statement, which called the recount "ridiculous" in a headline.
The President-elect blasted the Green Party's effort as a "scam" and accused the party's nominee, Jill Stein, of trying to reel in donations that she won't actually spend on a recount.

"This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn't even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount," Trump said. "This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing."

Green Party officials filed Friday for a recount in Wisconsin after reports of voting discrepancies.
Wisconsin Green Party co-chairman George Martin said that the party was seeking a "reconciliation of paper records" -- a request that would go one step further than a simple recount, which is expected to begin next week, and that he hopes will spur an investigation into the integrity of the state's voting system.

"This is a process, a first step to examine whether our electoral democracy is working," Martin said.
Elias said the campaign had been quietly investigating accusations for a while and had received hundreds of requests that it do so.

"Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides," Elias wrote on Medium.

"If Jill Stein follows through as she has promised and pursues recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, we will take the same approach in those states as well," he added.
Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said the team would not have sought the recount on its own and that they see no evidence of tampering so far.

"We note we are guarding our prerogatives now that someone else has launched a recount. Not sure what you could point to to suggest there is anything here that calls the results into question," he told CNN.
In addition to Trump's total combined margin of victory in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania being only about 107,000 votes -- by contrast, the Florida margin in Bush-Gore was 537 ballots -- Elias said concerns about Russia's interference in the election continue to raise concerns.
"This election cycle was unique in the degree of foreign interference witnessed throughout the campaign: the U.S. government concluded that Russian state actors were behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and the personal email accounts of Hillary for America campaign officials, and just yesterday, the Washington Post reported that the Russian government was behind much of the "fake news" propaganda that circulated online in the closing weeks of the election," he wrote.

A senior administration official said in a statement that there is no evidence of any hacking.
"The federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyber activity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on Election Day," the official said. "As we have noted before, we remained confident in the overall integrity of electoral infrastructure, a confidence that was borne out on Election Day. As a result, we believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective."

The Clinton campaign has met with lawyers, data scientists and analysts to assess anomalies in the results that would suggest a hacked result. Private meetings with outside experts involved sharing both groups concerns about the data and findings.

Clinton's team said they investigated every theory presented and examined laws and practices pertaining to recounts, contests and audits.
"And most importantly, we have monitored and staffed the post-election canvasses -- where voting machine tapes are compared to poll-books, provisional ballots are resolved, and all of the math is double checked from election night," Elias said. "During that process, we have seen Secretary Clinton's vote total grow, so that, today, her national popular vote lead now exceeds more than 2 million votes."

The campaign plans to move forward in monitoring activities to better understand the results.
"In the coming days, we will continue to perform our due diligence and actively follow all further activities that are to occur prior to the certification of any election results," he said.
It is "unfortunate" that all states don't conduct "post-election" audits.

"Wisconsin and Pennsylvania conduct post-election audits using a sampling of precincts. Michigan and many other states still do not," Elias wrote. "This is unfortunate; it is our strong belief that, in addition to an election canvass, every state should do this basic audit to ensure accuracy and public confidence in the election."

Senator Florence Ita Giwa with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock Villa

Senator Florence Ita Giwa visited with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock Villa on Friday. More photos after the cut...

Lady Gaga's pet dog has its own £2000 Louis Vuitton bag

Lady Gaga was spotted totting around her pampered pooch in a £2000 Louis Vuitton dog carrier. The luxury item is made specially for pets and is like a mobile cage so that owners can carry their furry friends with them wherever they go.

Indian boy, whose face and body are covered in tumours, believes 'the gods have cursed him.' (Photos)

16 year-old Indian boy, Mithun Chauhan, has his entire face and body covered in large swollen lumps, which Indian doctors have identified as neurofribroma, noting that there is no cure for the severest form of the disorder. Like most 16-year-old boys, Mithun Chauhan's mind is occupied by three things: Going to school, playing with his friends and meeting girls. But after a rare genetic condition left his body covered in large swollen lumps, he has convinced himself that he is destined to go through life alone.

According to MailOnline, Mithun spends every waking hour of his life inside their home in Navada, Bihar of India, because his swollen face frightens locals, who have branded him 'Ghost Boy'.

'Why have the gods condemned me to a life like this?' says the teenager, through the inflamed lumps around his mouth. 'It is because of the way I look that my friends have abandoned me. Now nobody wants to play with me, it because of my looks that I cannot go to school or simply take a stroll in the neighbourhood.'
Mithun’s family claims the sores spread across his body after a doctor in Bihar state gave him the wrong medicine to treat a painful mole when he was five. The swelling around his face then grew so severe that he struggles to eat, see or breathe.


'After taking the medicine, my child's face started swelling. His entire body turned red like copper,' said Mithun’s father, Ramji Chauhan, who makes around £3 a day as a labourer.
Ramji and his worried neighbours feared the gods had 'cursed' the boy, so they prayed every day and performed every ritual they could think of to cure him. It was not until recently when they took him to medical expert Dr Ashwini Dash, that he was diagnosed with neurofibroma, a very rare genetic disorder that causes tumours to grow along your nerves.

However, medical expert have said that Mithun could be treated to help him manage to see and eat. According to the doctors, the operation, would be done in phases and would cost at least Rs 300,000 rupees (£3,500). The Doctors have also told Mithun’s dad to take him to more advanced facilities in Delhi or Mumbai but Ramji says he barely earns enough to feed his family.

Mithun's parents are desperate for him to get an education but until his condition is treated no schools will accept him as a student for fear he 'would scare away the normal kids'.

According to MailOnline, Mithun was admitted to a local primary school aged eight but on his first day, the children were revolted by the sight of him.

'They called me a ghost and started running for their life as if they had a seen a real one,' said Mithun.
And unlike his childhood friends, Mithun said he cannot even bear to look at his own reflection or go out in public.

'I am really scared of the image that I see in them... I usually stay at home during the day to avoid people. If women and children see my face, they freak out and run away saying, "Ghost! Ghost! My parents have forbidden me to go out at night as people tend to get more scared of seeing my face at night.