Photos: Suntai Spends New Year Eve With Wife, Twins In German Hospital

The wife of Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba state, Hauwa Danbaba Suntai, on 13th December 2012, put to bed twins in Germany, even as she awaits the recovery of her husband who is also hospitalised there after suffering life-threatening injuries from a plane crash.

Controversy followed governor Danbaba Suntai’s treatment abroad as some reports said he is brain damaged and might never be fit to rule the state again but to put paid to the various speculations and rumors surrounding his well-being, his wife and their twins (boy and girl), visited the governor on new year’s eve in hospital.

The pictures from the visit will be good news for indigenes of Taraba state and supporters of the governor who have been yearning to know the current state of their governor.

RECUPERATING GOV. DANBABA SUNTAI (M) OF TARABA, WITH HIS WIFE, HAUWA (L), AND A FAMILY FRIEND, PRINCE TITA NBALAM (R) AND HIS THREE WEEKS OLD TWINS IN A CAFETERIA OF A GERMAN HOSPITAL ON MONDAY

GOVERNOR DANBABA SUNTAI, HIS WIFE & TWIN BABIES IN THE CAFETERIA OF A GERMAN HOSPITAL ON MONDAY

 InformationNigeria

House Passes Senate’s Fiscal Cliff Bill

By Igor Volsky

After threatening to amend the Senate’s fiscal cliff bill to include spending reductions, the House passed the measure Tuesday evening by a vote of 257-167, with 85 Republican votes. 151 Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and 16 Democrats voted against the bill. The “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012” now goes to President Obama for his signature.
During debate, Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) urged Republicans to support the bill, arguing that it “settles the level of revenue Washington should bring in.” The GOP has indicated that it would not support revenue increases in the upcoming battles to raise the debt ceiling, turn off the sequester cuts, and keep the government running through a continuing budget resolution. Instead, conservative lawmakers in both the House and the Senate have said that they will take advantage of these critical debates to extract deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
“I just don’t want the gentleman’s statement that this settles permanently how much revenue will be made available,” Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI) said in response to Camp. “The President has made clear there has to be a balanced approach and no one should be misled into thinking otherwise. No one.”
As the House began voting on the measure, Grover Norquist gave his blessing, tweeting that since the vote took place in the new year — after the Bush tax cuts have technically expired — “Every R voting for Senate bill is cutting taxes and keeping his/her pledge.”

Update

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) explains why he voted in favor of the bill: “When you like something, you vote for it. …I wasn’t afraid.” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who usually doesn’t vote, also backed the measure.

Update

In a statement from the White House, President Obama praised the bill as “one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy.” But he admitted that “the deficit is still too high” and called for a balanced approach of raising new revenues by closing tax loopholes and eliminating deductions for rich individuals and corporations and cutting government spending. Obama called Medicare the “biggest contributor to our deficit” and said that Congress must “find a way to reform our program without hurting seniors who count on it to survive.” He also drew an important line in the sand, reiterating that he “will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up, through the laws that they passed.” If Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, Obama said, “the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.”
TP

“I will buy you a cheap, second-hand phone” – Obasanjo to journalist whose Blackberry was smashed

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the weekend caused a mild drama when he sighted PREMIUM TIMES’ correspondent at the Government House in Ogun State.
The reporter tried to take a picture of the former president standing beside former Nigerian leader, Ernest Shonekan, with his camera phone, but got a dramatic response from Mr. Obasanjo.
“You again,” the former president said. “That was how your blackberry phone was smashed.”
One of Mr. Obasanjo’s children, Oba, had smashed the blackberry phone of the PREMIUM TIMES journalist for taking the picture of the fire at the former president’s house last week in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital.
Obasanjo to buy second hand phone
The journalist complained to Mr. Obasanjo about the destroyed phone and asked the former president what he intends to do about it.
The former number one citizen again responded in his characteristic dramatic and jocular manner.
“I will buy you another one, but if you don’t mind, it has to be a fairly used and with cheaper price,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
At the end of the day’s programme, our correspondent again approached the former president, requesting to follow him to his house to collect the promised blackberry phone; but Mr. Obasanjo turned it to another round of comedy.
“You this Ijesa man, I suspect you are the one who set my house on fire, and you want to come there again, I will buy your phone for you when I return from abroad.”
After making the statement, the former president entered into his vehicle, smiled and waved to the reporter.
 DailyPost

Varsity Staff Kidnapped In Delta

Denedo, Vanguard gathered was abducted while returning from the New Year service at 1:00am, Tuesday, by eight gunmen who laid siege at the front of his residence.
 According to a family source, the unsuspecting Denedo who drove in his Nissan Pathfinder Jeep with registration number BKW 18 AA, Delta was abducted as he came down to open the gate to drive into his compound in the university community.
 The source, who pleaded anonymity, said Denedo was driven in the Nissan Jeep by the suspected kidnappers to a yet unknown destination shooting sporadically into the air to scare people away from attacking them.
 Speaking further, the source said the kidnappers were yet to establish contact with the lecturer’s family.
Naij

Homeless Heir To $300 Million Huguette Clark Fortune Found Dead

A homeless man who was the long-lost relative of reclusive New York railroad heiress Huguette Clark and a potential heir to her $300 million fortune has been found dead in Wyoming.
Timothy Henry Gray, Clark's 60-year-old half great-nephew, was found dead under a Union Pacific Railroad overpass in Evanston, Wyo., on Thursday, NBC News reports. Children who were sledding nearby found Gray's body.
Temperatures in Evanston, a mining town, had hit a low of 0 in recent days. The coroner said it appears the homeless heir, who could have inherited $19 million of Clark's $300 million fortune, had died of hypothermia, according to NBC. There was no evidence of foul play.
Gray's siblings said their homeless brother disappeared after their mother died in 1990, according to the Associated Press. If Gray did not have a will, his siblings could receive his share in addition to their own, NBC explains.
Gray was the adopted great-grandson of former U.S. Sen. William Andrews Clark, a wealthy copper miner, railroad builder and the founder of Las Vegas. Huguette was the youngest of William's seven children.
Huguette died in May 2011 at 104 years old, after living as a recluse for decades, the New York Times previously reported.
In the 1930s, she removed herself from Manhattan society and lived in solitude for the next quarter-century in her Fifth Avenue apartment surrounded by her dolls. In the 1980s, Huguette checked herself into a New York City hospital. She lived in hospitals around Manhattan until her death.
Huguette's $300 million estate was contested by her extended family and several parties close to her. Two wills signed by the heiress spawned the legal conflict. One stated her fortune would be given to relatives, while the other, signed six weeks after the first, said none of her money would go to family members.
HuffingtonPost

“The violence in Nigeria could be a sign of the end times” – President Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has questioned whether deadly Islamist attacks on churches in his country and other violence worldwide could be signs of coming “end times”.
Jonathan, speaking after 15 Christians had their throats slit last week in the country’s northeast, also suggested Islamist extremist group Boko Haram aimed to take over the Nigerian capital Abuja, but vowed the group would be defeated.
During comments Sunday in which he mentioned attacks on churches in Nigeria, Syria’s war and the situation in the Central African Republic, where rebels have pushed their way across the impoverished country, Jonathan spoke of the Biblical end times.
“I was just wondering, could this be a clear way of telling us that the end times are so close?” he told the church congregation, according to a recording of his remarks heard by AFP.
Some Christians believe in the idea of chaos in connection with the second coming of Jesus Christ, commonly referred to as the “end times”. Such beliefs are based on passages in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.
Jonathan was speaking at an evangelical Christian church service in the capital. The church belongs to the EYN denomination, common among Christians in the violence-torn northeast, where Boko Haram is based.
Local media quoted the church pastor as saying 109 EYN members have been killed and 50 branches burnt.
Violence linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria has left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Muslims and symbols of Nigerian authority have often been their targets, but the group has also specifically targeted Christians, including suicide bombings of churches.
This Christmas season has however been notably less bloody than in 2011, when scores were killed in attacks on churches and other locations.
Jonathan has previously accused Boko Haram of seeking to destabilise the government and incite a religious crisis in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.
On Sunday, while speaking of the rebels in the Central African Republic, Jonathan said: “They were quite close to taking over the capital city, just as Boko Haram is taking over Abuja for me and those working in government to run and hide somewhere else.”
He vowed however that Boko Haram would not succeed and that the violence would be brought under control.
“If the idea of Boko Haram is to stop Nigerians from worshipping God, they will not succeed,” he said.
“If the idea of Boko Haram is to stop government from providing the dividends of democracy, they will not succeed…. God willing and with our commitment, the excesses of Boko Haram and other criminal organisations will be brought to a reasonable control.”
Jonathan spokesman Reuben Abati did not respond to a phone call to further explain the president’s comments.
 DailyPost

Idris Wada Discharged From Hospital

GOVERNOR IDRIS WADA AND PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN WHEN THE LATTER PAID HIM A VISIT IN THE HOSPITAL BEFORE HE WAS DISCHARGED LATER THAT SAME DAY

While we reported earlier today in our news that the chief medical director of Cedarcrest hospital Abuja, Dr. Felix Ogedengbe had declared that Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State who was injured in an auto crash last week that claimed the life of his ADC would soon be discharged, we can confirm to you that he was actually discharged on Monday morning.
Wada, who has been receiving treatment for a broken thigh at the private hospital located in Garki II Abuja, was brought there about 8 p.m on Friday night after being stabilized at the Specialist Hospital, Kogi, where he was taken to immediately after the accident, left the hospital around 9 a.m. yesterday in the company of his aides, amidst tight security.
InformationNigeria