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U.K. expels 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning; Moscow vows response (Associated Press)

Facebook bans far-right British group re tweeted by Trump (The Hill)

German parliament elects Merkel for a fourth term (CNN)

Slovakia's PM ready to resign amid journalist murder scandal (The Guardian)

U.S. focusing anti-Taliban effort inside Kabul (Associated Press)

The happiest country on Earth: The winner is ... (USA Today)

Suicide blast kills nine, injures 20 in Pakistan (Khaleej Times)

Vatican admits doctoring a photo of Pope Benedict's praise for Pope Francis (Los Angeles Times)

Australia considers fast-track visas for white South African farmers (The Guardian)

Assad may win Syria's war, but he will preside over a broken country (CNN)

Update! Tee Billz Files For Divorce From Tiwa Savage

Popular Nigerian singer, Tiwa Savage has allegedly filed for divorce from her estranged husband, Tunji Balogun, a.k.a TeeBillz.

According to media reports, all attempts by the couple to resolve their differences have failed, and Tiwa has decided to formally call it quit, citing ‘unsolvable issues’ as the reason for the decision.

However, Tiwa a.k.a ‘Marvin Record First Lady’, is yet to confirm nor deny the divorce issue.

The embattled couple have not been together since their marital crisis in 2016; Teebillz made their marital issues public as he wanted to commit suicide by attempting to jump into the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

The duo then engaged in ‘war of words’ on the social media, as Teebillz alleged infidelity, among other accusations, on the part of his estranged wife.

Tiwa, who shares a son with Teebillz, in turn granted a 45 minutes video interview to debunk the accusations.

However, fans and industry watchers had assumed all was now well with the couple when many of their friends, colleagues and family members intervened, urging them to reconcile their differences.

Tee Billz had to testify on social media that all was now well with him, after he went through rehabilitation process in the hand of a seasoned life style coach, Lanre Olusola.

He said: “The way I handle things now is completely different from how I acted in the past.

“I do better now because I know better, and If I had gone through the experience before now, it probably wouldn’t make sense to me until I go through some challenging situations.

“But I thank God that I have been able to overcome all those through the guidance of my coach.”

However, it seems things had taken a different turn as the estranged couple who were said to be resolving issues, have finally given up on each other.

Savage signed a recording contract with Mavin Records in 2012. She also signed a management and publishing deal with Roc Nation in June 2016, which she later confirmed via Instagram.

She co-wrote the track “Collard Greens & Cornbread” off Fantasia Barrino’s Grammy-nominated album, Bact to Me.

Savage was featured on Solar Plexus, a compilation album released by Mavin Records.

Her debut studio album, `Once Upon a Time,’ was released on 3 July 2013.

It was supported by the singles “Kele Kele Love’’, “Love Me (3x)”, “Without My Heart”, “Ife Wa Gbona”, “Folarin”, “Olorun Mi” and “Eminado’’.

Savage’s second studio album, `R. E. D’, was released on 19 December 2015.

It produced the singles “My Darlin’”, “African Waist” and “If I Start To Talk”.

She is a recipient of many awards including, MTV Africa Music Award, The Headies Awards, Channel O Music Award, Nigeria Music Video Award, and City People Entertainment Awards among others.(NAN)

Keep Your Digestive System On Track This Weekend

The weekend is a time when we all tend to overindulge on our favorite family recipes. While our bodies may excuse the extra calories, our digestive system isn’t always as forgiving, so it’s important that we find ways to help maintain our digestive health throughout the weekend.

However, while many understand the importance of good digestive health, some may not always know the simple steps to keep their digestive system on track.

“The holiday season can be a stressful and indulgent time of year for many people,” says nutrition expert Keri Glassman, founder and president of Nutritious Life and author of the new book “The New You and Improved Diet: 8 Rules to Lose Weight and Change Your Life Forever.” “Luckily there are easy steps one can take to improve their digestive health, including foods like certain probiotic yogurts.”

To ensure you don’t miss out on any of the holiday festivities this year, Glassman suggests these simple steps to help improve your digestive health:

• Have a “happy hour” snack!Before heading out to a holiday party, enjoy a nutrient-dense snack about a half hour before you go. Snacks like low-fat or non-fat yogurt can offer probiotics, protein, and Vitamin D, plus it’s convenient and easy to eat on the run.

• Incorporate healthy bacteria into your diet: by seeking out products with specific benefits, such as certain yogurts containing probiotics, which can help to regulate the digestive system. Factors such as stress, lack of sleep, antibiotics, illness, aging, and poor diet choices can often lead to an imbalance of your digestive tract bacteria.

•  Work from the inside. The digestive system is where vitamins, nutrients, and minerals are absorbed, so it’s important to take good care of it. Eat a variety of produce, stay hydrated and add probiotics (found in foods like certain yogurts) to your diet for your digestive health and overall well-being.

•  Hydration, hydration, hydration: After overindulging, it is absolutely crucial to keep your body full of fluids. Water is one of those essential elements for a healthy digestive system. Adequate hydration gives your digestive system the proper moisture it needs to properly function.

• Stay active: Exercise can help create a healthy digestive environment by allowing food to move through the large intestine much quicker, which also decreases the amount of water lost in the stool. Intestinal muscles that contract during exercise also contribute to the more efficient movement of stools…

Top Tips For Millennial Preparing For Retirement

1. Establish Disciplined Saving Habits

Develop the habit and discipline of setting aside a specific percentage of each paycheck for future needs. Besides acting as an emergency fund, you want a continually growing savings account and/or investment fund that will be of significant size after 20 or 30 years.

This will entail learning to balance expenses and debt against your savings goals. A good strategy may employ in this regard is the 50/30/20 rule. This financial rule of thumb says you should use only half your income on basic necessities, 30% on “wants” like vacation or entertainment, and 20% on building savings and paying down debts.

Remember, this is only a general rule; so depending on your income and situation, you may need to adjust the numbers. But there’s nothing wrong with starting off with the 50/30/20 approach, see if it works well for you, and then tweaking it a bit only if necessary.

2. Invest in Quality Health Insurance

If you work in the US and buy insurance there, definitely explore Medicare part A B C D plans: full Medicare Advantage allows you to add prescription drug coverage, including vision and dental insurance, and put a cap on how much you can pay out of pocket.

Health insurance costs are on the rise in the US. Premiums for employer-based plans rose 3% between 2015 and 2017, and the pre-subsidy cost of insurance on the exchanges rose 25% during the same period.

Keeping yourself healthy and minimizing healthcare costs is key to protecting the money you saved for retirement. Your health is your most important asset, so don’t overlook this aspect of preparing for your retirement years. Even if you work in the health industry, you will have a lot of doubts once you have to choose a plan for the retirement.

3. Invest in Whole Life Insurance

If at all possible, opt for whole over term life insurance. Whole life builds a cash value over time that you can tap into and repay, when necessary, without canceling the policy. And the death benefit is paid out regardless of when precisely you pass away.

Whole life gives you an extra “piggy bank” to draw on in tough times without depleting your savings account. Plus, you don’t have to save money to cover your “final expenses” or for an inheritance for your kids, because the insurance policy takes care of all that – freeing up more money to save.

4. Buy Instead of Rent as Soon as Feasible

I haven’t mentioned investing in stock and bonds and other securities, but of course, that’s another piggy bank you can use for retirement. But here I want to mention what many uses in lieu of investment securities – real estate. Renting may make more sense for you right now, and that’s fine. But if you can save up to meet the down payment requirement (normally 20%) and keep your credit good so you get approved for the mortgage, buying instead of renting can help you during retirement.

First, you could sell a large house you don’t need anymore and move to a smaller, less expensive retirement home (and save the price-difference). Second, you can use the equity in your home for short-term loans and even get a reverse mortgage to live off if all else fails.

WAEC Adjusts Timetable To Enable Muslims Observe Juma’at

he West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has bowed to pressure, and is ready to amend the part of its 2018 SSCE Examination that clashed with the Friday Jumah prayer.

The affected subject is Chemistry 1 and 2, which was originally slated for 2pm to 5pm on Friday, April 20, 2018.

Following reactions from Muslim organisations, the Director of Public Affairs, WAEC Nigeria, Mr Demianus Ojijeogu has confirmed the slight amendment to Premium Times.

Mr Ojijeogu said: “For the sake of the people who will go to the mosque, the exam will be delayed till they come back”.

According to him, “the paper will be delayed till 2:30 pm or 3 pm, when the Muslims will return from the mosque.”

Prof Ishaq Akintola, Prof Abdulrazaq Kilani, Dr Saheed Ashafa and Hajia (Barrister) Mutiat Toyosi Orolu spoke with Premium Times, which exclusively investigated and reported the story.

Natural ways to treat constipation

Six most effective ways to Treat Constipation  are:

•  Take plenty of water, intake of water is known to solve constipation problem for ages. When you’re experiencing it, just take 5 – 7 glass cup of water or if you can take more depending on body mass and temperature of the environment, you can take more water.
• Wonder natural herbs for constipation is Ginger and Dandelion root, these two herbs are known to treat constipation overtimes and they work wonderfully.
• Eat natural fiber food. Natural fiber foods are Vegetables, Whole grains, Nuts and seeds, Beans and legumes, and Fresh and dried fruits.
• Do regular exercise daily, this will help improve the problem of constipation.
• Antacid consumption must be reduced to minimal, this means that you will redesign your diets in such a way that you wouldn’t suffer from heartburn and acidity.
• Constipation is usually easier to prevent than to treat. Following the relief of constipation, maintenance with adequate exercise, fluid intake, and high fiber diet is recommended. Children benefit from scheduled toilet breaks, once early in the morning and 30 minutes after meals.

Psychologically Causes of Constipation

Voluntary withholding of the stool is a common cause of constipation. The choice to withhold can be due to factors such as fear of pain, fear of public restrooms, or laziness. When a child holds in the stool a combination of encouragement, fluids, fiber, and laxatives may be useful to overcome the problem.

Are there any other ways you deal with constipation in a natural way? Feel free to make your contribution using any of our comments form below as your comment will be highly appreciated

rapper swae lee girlfriend marliesia calls out blac chyna for sleeping with her man

Weeks ago, Blac Chyna, 29, became the biggest trending topic after her sex tape with ex-boyfriend Mechie surfaced on the Internet.

Days later, the mother of two confirmed she’s dating a fast-rising rapper, YBN Almighty Jay, 18, an apparent move which many say was to divert attention from her sex tape leak.

Now, she’s been called out by Marlesia Ortiz, the girlfriend of rapper Swae Lee,  22, one half of the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd with his brother Slim Jxmmi.

Marliesia took to her Instagram stories to accuse the model of sleeping with her man, and for this she has decided to end her relationship with the rapper,  saying “Y’all can have each other.”

 

The post Rapper Swae Lee’s girlfriend Marliesia calls out Blac Chyna for sleeping with her man  appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.

The Most Of The Worst Airports Are In Nigeria – Dele Momodu

Publisher of Ovation magazine and public analyst, Dele Momodu in his article this weekend titled 'Before The Rest Of Africa Leaves Us Behind', writes about his experience during his recent tour of African countries and how he thinks Nigeria is still far behind.

Fellow Nigerians, I've been on tour of Africa, as I mentioned recently on this page, and I've covered parts of East and West Africa in the past two weeks. My conclusion and verdict is that things are happening out there while we are free to delude ourselves that we are the giant of Africa. The things that make us the giant, exceptionally brilliant citizens, humongous population, energetic manpower, fertile land, beautiful weather, we've refused to turn into useful assets but rather into liabilities.

I won’t bore you with too much details of the countries visited but will summarise the things we lack and why we are lagging behind and what we need to do speedily to catch up and ultimately overtake the comity of other nations in their march towards genuine progress, development and advancement.

Nigeria parades some of the worst airports in Africa today. Let no one preach to me that it is because the PDP government stole the money meant for the airports. As a matter of fact the Goodluck Jonathan administration made some remarkable effort compared to our own government of change which in nearly three years has revamped only the runway in Abuja. The most disgraceful airport for a seat of government is the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

I plead with President Muhammadu Buhari or Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to pay unscheduled visits to that disgraceful airport, I’m sure they will shed tears. Next they should please come to Lagos and ignore the Presidential wing and head to the odoriferous sections ordinary mortals like us use regularly and I’m certain they would be warmly received by some putrid spirits.

It is unexplainable how we can continue to disgrace our dear beloved country without a care in the world. There is no other country you have to give your passport first to secret service agents before you queue up again in front of Immigration officials. There is no airport you get accosted by countless uniformed officers at the entrance of departure and at the exit of arrival. There is no airport where on arrival, all passengers must exit the airport in one direction only and no taxis within range. This is the situation in Lagos. Let me not talk about the rickety elevators and escalators. We are indeed a most difficult race. The only reasonable and professional airport is the MM2 in Lagos which is privately owned.

I saw better airports in much smaller country. By the time Ghana opens its Terminal 3 very soon to the public, it would be about the best in West Africa. This was a project that was substantially worked on under the Government of President John Dramani Mahama. The cargo section which is already in operation is wearing the powerful signature of Swissport as its operators. The Immigration section at the Kotoka International Airport is one of the most advanced in Africa complete with cameras for iris and fingerprinting machines for data capturing. We have neither despite our being prone to terrorism.

I could not believe my eyes when I landed in Dakar, Senegal, last week at its brand new airport opened by the obviously visionary President Macky Sall, only last December. It is such a beauty to behold. Even the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, which was destroyed by a towering inferno years back, has since been restored to its old glory and expanded to cater for millions of passengers. The international Airport in Kigali is very small but running efficiently. My favourite part is the Immigration area where you pay $30 for visa on arrival without stress and thereafter pass your bags through x-ray machines instead of a multitude of officers rummaging through your luggage. I hope Rwanda would drastically reduce the time passengers have to spend clearing security on departure and also improve on the quality of food and services in the Business Class lounge. Rwanda has become a country of choice for me as an example of a serious country that wants to engage the world in serious business.

No nation can be considered civilised without putting certain things in place. One of such is infrastructure. Electricity is on top of the priority. Many African countries have improved their power generation, transmission and distribution processes. Too much politicisation and bureaucracy has turned Nigeria into a jinxed nation despite the billions of dollars spent and obviously wasted by successive governments. As a matter of fact, one of the most ambitious power projects in our country has already gone to international arbitration because of the excessive power show in Abuja.

Every effort to upgrade our power sector has met with foolish resistance. Whereas, Ghana again, under the former President John Dramani Mahama, was able to fix the erratic power outages, nicknamed Dumso Dumso, within two years. And the Ghana Electricity Company was very creative by rationing and rotating power supplies to different zones interchangeably.

I can list a myriad of problems facing us but the biggest is the failure of leadership. Our leaders have blatantly refused to do the needful. The biggest of all the afflictions is ethnicity which turns otherwise intelligent human beings into morons. Most of our problems would evaporate and disappear the day we are ready to exorcise the demon of ethnicity. I saw the evidence of this thesis in Rwanda where everyone must regard each other as Rwandese rather as Tutsis or Hutus. It has become a crime to so describe any citizen of Rwanda.

On the contrary, Nigerian leaders prefer to be identified as local champions instead of being global personalities. Our clannishness has stultified us beyond reason. I used to be an incurable optimist but recent events have turned me into a paranoid pessimist and unless we urgently rescue our country back from those who are too short-sighted to see the power and strength in the indivisibility of Nigeria, this union may collapse like a pack of cards.

No Nigerian should be treated like a second class citizen in his own country. No ethnic group should feel superior to another. Every Nigerian should treat the other as equal partners. The next set of Nigerian leaders must be scrutinised and confirmed to be those who are detribalised and religious-tolerant. Nigeria has suffered too much as a result of unbridled parochialism.

As we approach our next general elections, we must prepare to find, select and elect leaders who would detach us from the superstitions that have held us down for far too long than normal at this time and age. We must seek leaders with an acceptable modicum of education. This is not an attempt to deride those who have no formal education. My mum who brought me up had none but she knew the value of education and invested her modest resources in us. Nigeria is too blessed with geniuses to keep settling for leaders without substantial education. Education and exposure to modernity should help reduce our proclivity for backward behaviours.

We must make up our minds about what we want as a people. Do we want to remain forever backward in the name of ethnicity, religion and incredible propensity for material acquisition? Everyone in the world is trying to break free from a useless past, why can’t we emulate them? Our universe today is knowledge driven, why do we continue to wallow in ignorance? Until we fix our education which has collapsed, almost irreparably, our country is doomed. I was regaled with stories of how the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, is turning his country into a technology hub in Africa. 

I have no doubt that even our ruling government in Nigeria has some of the brightest guys who would readily match their counterparts anywhere in the world, but we won’t give them the chance to function optimally. We all remember how Professor Yemi Osinbajo was able to unite Nigerians last year in the middle of the threat of secession from Nnamdi Kanu and his Biafran agitators. If APC had continued along the new path created by the Vice President, things would have been much better for the government and our country by now.

We saw an Acting President who was visiting everywhere and interacting with politicians across divides without discriminating against anyone. The erudite scholar gave us all a sense of pride and place. But soon after the President returned from his medical sojourn in the United Kingdom, things fell apart. We returned conveniently to our perfidious ways. Some people even accused the Vice President of working to outshine his boss despite is avowed loyalty to his principal. Why would anyone change a winning strategy that everyone was already applauding? If the President had maintained that tempo and pace of activities, perhaps the APC would have saved itself from the present calamity. If the APC fails in next year’s general election, it would only have been a severe punishment for its recalcitrance and myopic nature. Things should always be done according to merits.

The youths who wish to take over power from the elders should also be fully prepared to work very hard and not sit down, arms akimbo, expecting a miracle from heaven. Their only qualification should never be that they are young and youthful. They must be accomplished in their own rights and market their credentials energetically. There is no point taking over power only to continue the monumental mess of the past.

It shall be well with Nigeria…