Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Avengers vs. The Dark Knight: Batman's Going Down!


The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises Marvel, Warner Bros.
Soon, there will be no debate as to what's the No. 1 comic-book movie of all-time—as far as the box office goes.
After the four-day, Memorial Day holiday weekend, The Avengers stands as the fourth-highest-grossing movie ever domestically.
And it's about to step on another hero's cape.
Perhaps as soon as Thursday The Avengers will leap over The Dark Knight and become the top-grossing comic-book movie ever, and Hollywood's third-biggest film of all time.
As things stand now, The Avengers is at an estimated $523.6 million domestically, per its studio; The Dark Knight is out ahead by just about $10 million.
The Avengers broke the $500 million barrier on Saturday.
It is the fourth movie ever to accomplish that feat; it is the fastest film to hit the mark, needing just 23 days.
The Dark Knight, by comparison, reached $500 million on its 45th day in theaters; Avatar, the all-time box-office champ, in 32 days.
If The Avengers performs like The Dark Knight did after the Batman movie's 23-day mark, then it'll be powerful enough to put another $100 million in the bank, and rival Titanic for the No. 2 spot on the all-time list.
And if the Marvel superhero movie performs like Avatar, then it'll have $335 million left in the tank, and the potential to make more history.
But as big and fast as The Avengers is, it's simply not performing like the James Cameron phenomenon, which barely dipped from weekend to weekend.
Here's a rundown of the five top-grossing movies of all-time, domestically, per the latest estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com stats:
  1. Avatar, $760.5 million
  2. Titanic, $658.5 million
  3. The Dark Knight, $533.3 million
  4. The Avengers, $523.6 million
  5. Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, $474.5 million

UNILAG students protest naming of varsity after Abiola

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LIVE UPDATES: Students pour out of their classes and hostels, protesting the renaming of the university
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UPDATE 15: Minor Accident! A security kiosk used by some students as platform collapsed under them. Fellow students cheered the collapse. No one was injured.
UPDATE 14: Some students protested up to Ikorodu road, while majority remained at the school gate. The students who protested to Ikorodu road are making their way back to school gate but the police have already occupied a section of the road back to the school gate. The police now between the two student groups.
UPDATE 13: Police officers now sandwiched by students. But they are keeping their cool so far. The protest is still progressing peacefully.
UPDATE 12: Police arrive the protest arena, in large numbers, but keeping a reasonable distance from the protesters. Students are not moved by their presence. No action from the police yet.
UPDATE 11: Stretch of road leading to the university gate from Yaba Junction now "occupied" by protesting students. "Occupy UniLag" logo goes viral in social media.

UPDATE 10: The arrested student was fighting with a member of the Nigerian Legion who is a guard on of the school's hostels. University security said the guard was drunk and has been arrested too. The guard is handcuffed to a burglary proof.
UPDATE 9: The university security have arrested a protesting student. He is taken into custody. The security officials are 'beating' the arrested student in the custody room.
UPDATE 8: The protest has been peaceful so far. Apart from UniLag security officers, dressed in blue, the police is yet to arrive the protest arena. The school's Chief Security Officer was spotted at the begining of the protest.
UPDATE 7: The protest at UniLag gate grows bigger as a detatchment of students who went to protest at the E-Centre Yaba retunrs to the gate protest arena with hundreds of Medical students, dressed in their lab suits, from Idiaraba.
UPDATE 6: Protesting University of Lagos students are on onward march towards Akoko area. Students from the College of Medicine Idiaraba just joined the protest. The medical students came in chnating "No MediMAU"
UPDATE 5: Faculty Association leaders are persuading fellow students to go back into the campus. The persuations seems inefective at the moment. Students are still gathered at the protest ground near the school's entrance gate. Both students and lecturers are protesting the name change.
A lecturer told our reporter that some of them teach "for the name."
UPDATE 4: "We have always doubted the intelligence of this government and this has confirmed it. This is sensless. Unilag was establish by an act of parliarment. We will go to court." Says chairman ASUU Unilag, Oghenekaro Ogbinaka
UPDATE 3: Acting VC of University of Lagos in company of the school's registrar are standing on a Danfo bus, begging students who have blocked the school's entrance gate to go back to their hostels. They students respond "ese, ese o, ese o, e wa ma lo" meaning, Thank you, you can now leave.
UPDATE 2: Officials are begging students to go back to campus saying, "We are with you." Students shouted "NO".
The university's Director of Student Affairs, Professor Olukayode Amund, is begging the students and calling for caution.
He told our reporter, "We were all taken aback. There was no due consultation and they said this is a democracy."
A student, Bolanle Ajayi, said, "Change of name is the least of our problems. Besides, there is MAPOLY, already named after Abiola.
UPDATE 1: The students are now outside the university main gate creating a human blockade to all vehicles trying to access the school. They are chanting, "We no want."
Vehicles are turning back as the students insist the acting vice chancellor must address them. 
BREAKING NEWS
Reports reaching of us indicate that thousands of students of the University of Lagos are protesting the change of name of the school announced this morning by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The students are chanting anti-government slogans, saying the president's decision is the worst he had ever taken. They vowed to resist the renaming of the institution.

The protesters are heading towards the school gate and are about pouring into the streets.
The school was renamed after the late businessman, politician and philanthropist, Moshood Abiola.

Monday, May 28, 2012

HORROR: Dozens Of Children Slaughtered In Syria


                                 
syria
pictures of covered body.
                     
UPDATE -- AFP reports that the Free Syrian Army is no longer committed to Kofi Annan's peace plan.

(Reuters) - The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists said was an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising.

The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town of Houla on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room.

The carnage underlined just how far Syria is from any negotiated path out of the 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"This morning U.N. military and civilian observers went to Houla and counted more than 32 children under the age of 10 and over 60 adults killed," the head of U.N. team monitoring the ceasefire - which has yet to take hold - said.

Photo Of An Injured Child

                                 syria

"The observers confirmed from examination of ordinances the use of artillery tank shells," Major General Robert Mood said in a statement, without elaborating. "Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever carried out this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible."

Activists said Assad's forces shelled the town of Houla on Friday evening after security forces killed a protester and following skirmishes between troops and fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency fighting Syria's rulers, who belong to the minority Alawite sect.


A British-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Houla residents fled, fearing more shelling. It said one person was killed in the northern town of Saraqeb when troops fired on a protest against the killing.

Syrian state television aired some of the footage disseminated by activists after the killing in Houla, calling the bodies victims of a massacre committed by "terrorist" gangs.

It also showed video of bodies with what looked like gunshot wounds to the head, sprawled on bloodstained mattresses.

Activists distributed footage appearing to show protests in Aleppo, the largest city in the north.

FAMILIES KILLED

A member of the fragmented exile group that says it speaks for Syria's political opposition said Assad's forces had killed "entire families" in Houla in addition to the shelling.

"The Syrian National Council (SNC) urges the U.N. Security Council to call for an emergency meeting ... and to determine the responsibility of the United Nations in the face of such mass killings," SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said.

Although Annan's six-week old ceasefire plan has failed to stop the violence, the United Nations is nearing full deployment of a 300-strong unarmed observer force meant to monitor a truce.

The plan calls for a truce, withdrawal of troops from cities and dialogue between the government and opposition.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the violence as a "massacre", and said he wanted to arrange a meeting in Paris of the Friends of Syria, a group that brings together Western and Arab countries keen to remove Assad.

Fabius said that "U.N. observers need to be able to complete their mission and the U.N.-Arab League's joint special envoy's exit plan has to be implemented immediately".

In a statement, Arab League head Nabil Elaraby called the killing in Houla a "horrific crime", urging the U.N. Security Council - where Russia and China have protected Syria - to "stop the escalation of killing and violence by armed gangs and government military forces."

Syria calls the revolt a "terrorist" conspiracy run from abroad, a veiled reference to Sunni Muslim Gulf powers that want to see weapons provided to an insurgency led by Syria's majority Sunnis against Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that recent bomb attacks may have been the work of "established terrorist groups" and urged states not to supply arms to either the government or rebel forces.

"Those who may contemplate supporting any side with weapons, military training or other military assistance, must reconsider such options to enable a sustained cessation of violence," he told the Security Council in a letter.

The United Nations has accused Assad's forces and insurgents alike of grave human rights abuses, including summary executions and torture.

Ban has also expressed fear that Syria's conflict will destabilize neighboring Lebanon, whose delicate sect-based politics has been shaken by tensions among Lebanese foes and friends of the uprising in Syria.

In the latest episode, gunmen in northern Syria snatched a group of Lebanese Shi'ites this week as they were returning from a religious pilgrimage, sparking the worst unrest in years in the Lebanese capital.

Uncertainty over their fate increased tension in Beirut on Saturday, a day after Lebanon's top officials said the release of the hostages and their return home was imminent.

The prime minister said on Friday afternoon they had been freed, but by Saturday there was still no sign of them. A member of the SNC said they were still in captivity, further angering a crowd that had gathered at Beirut's airport to meet them.

BIG BROTHER UPDATE: GOLDIE AND PREZZO MAKEUP


                       

If you think the ‘romance’ between Upvillers Prezzo and Goldie is over after their heated argument, then you’d better think again!

On Friday, Prezzo had told Goldie that she takes him for granted and treats him like a beanbag. After that, the two spent the next 24 hours managing to avoid each other.

But by evening, nerves were calmed and the tension evaporated into thin air. After dinner, Goldie and Prezzo got into the jolly mood as they joined the other starmates in the Upville singing and dancing.

Prezzo and Goldie then drew closer and closer to each other, giggling and making funny faces. The Kenyan musician tugged at his Nigerian counterpart who warmed up to him and finally let her guard down.

All is back to normal….for now.

Football Star Who Was Wrongly Accused Of RAPE And Jailed 6 Years Wants $219,000 Compensation


A former high school football who was wrongfully accused of rape and sentenced to six years in prison now wants the State of California to pay him for every day he had spent behind bars.
Attorneys representing 26-year-old Brian Banks said their client is entitled to $100 a day for every day of his incarceration under state law.
Banks was exonerated this week after his accuser, Wanetta Gibson, admitted she had made up the whole story of sexual assault ten years ago and had been reluctant to come forward because of a large settlement she received from the school district.
Wanetta Gibson, contacted Banks to say he had not raped her - but would not admit it to prosecutors as she feared she would have to pay back $1.5 million won in a case against the school

The Los Angeles Times has reported that Gibson also had been worried it would affect her relationship with her two children, now aged four and five.
Banks, a once sought-after linebacker, collapsed in tears in the courtroom on Thursday when his case was moved to dismissal.
Banks' exoneration came after Gibson sent him a friend request on Facebook when he left prison in February of 2011 with a tag. In a message, she explained she wanted to 'let bygones be bygones'.
Banks's lawyer, Justin Brooks, told KPCC that Gibson and Banks met and she was caught on video saying there there had been no kidnap and no rape, and would help him clear his record.
Yet she refused to repeat the story to prosecutors as she feared she would have to return a $1.5million payment she won after her mother brought a suit against Long Beach Schools.
She was quoted as telling Banks: 'I will go through with helping you but it's like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don't want to have to pay it back.'

The 26-year-old has said he does not plan to pursue legal action against his accuser, and Los Angeles prosecutors have said it is unlikely Gibson will be charged with making false accusations, saying it would be a tough case to prove.
BANKS AND HIS MUM
Banks was jailed after Gibson accused him of rape in 2002, when he was just 16 and being heavily recruited by a number of colleges, including USC, which had offered him a full scholarship.
He was on the way to the school office to talk about his college applications when he bumped into Gibson, a fellow student, and they went to a stairwell to make out, Brooks told KPCC. He pointed out that they did not have intercourse.
He explained that Banks said something to upset Gibson and they parted on bad terms. She later accused him of kidnapping her, dragging her across the school and raping her in the stairwell.
Investigators tested her but found no physical evidence of rape, Brooks said. Banks maintained they had not had sex and all sexual contact had been consensual.


Yet his then lawyer encouraged the promising student to plead no contest to the kidnap and rape charges, warning Banks he could get 41 years to life in prison if convicted.
Expecting he would serve just 18 months instead, he followed the advice and pleaded no contest. He was in prison for six years.
While there, his case was taken on by Brooks, a lawyer who head the California Innocence Project.
'Brian’s story is so compelling, and his case for innocence so clear, we knew we had to take this on,' said Justin Brooks. 'Brian lost a huge part of his life when he was unjustly sent to prison.'

Brooks said Banks has remained on probation under electronic monitoring, has had to register as a sex offender and has had trouble getting a job.
After the exoneration on Thursday, Banks added: 'My only dream in the world is just to be free... For years, I felt like a toy with the switch cut off, sitting on the shelf.'
Banks continues to train for what he hopes will be a future chance at a football career in the NFL.
'This is a kid who was a superstar,' Brooks added. 'He would be playing the NFL now if this hadn't happened.'

Naked man shot, killed by Miami police after chewing another man’s face off: cops


miamiherald.com A naked man, allegedly biting another man’s face, was shot and killed by police. The second man is hospitalized. Related Stories President Obama speaks out on Trayvon Martin shooting; Miami students protest against lack of arrest Man trying to break up pit bulls shoots mom in leg: report Miami Beach Memorial Day Weekend violence leaves one dead, three cops hurt, several wounded Famed spoken-word poet Will Da Real One gunned down in front of his poetry cafe NYPD detective shot in Miami NYPD detective critically wounded in Miami Powered by Inform A Miami cop was hailed as a hero Sunday for fatally shooting a naked, crazed cannibal who refused orders to stop chewing on the face of another nude man. Officials said the courageous officer saved the victim from being killed, but the growling, carnivorous culprit left the man’s face mauled beyond recognition. “Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,” Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police told the Miami Herald. Detectives were still trying to identify the victim, believed to be a homeless man, and his flesh-eating attacker Sunday. The name of the cop who shot the maniac was being withheld by authorities. NAKEDWIRE27N_1_WEB local10.com Scene at a bike path off the MacArthur Causeway near Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami where a naked man was reportedly spotted eating another man's face about 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The critically injured victim was treated in the intensive care unit of the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. Police sources told CBS Miami that the victim’s entire face was eaten in the attack. The Hannibal Lecter wanna-be kept biting the victim’s face even after being shot once, prompting the officer to unleash a deadly barrage of gunfire to stop the savage attack. The shooting happened within feet of Memorial Day weekend traffic zooming by on the MacArthur Causeway, which connects downtown Miami to South Beach. Sgt. Altarr Williams, of the Miami police’s homicide unit, said the suspect was not armed, but that did not make him any less dangerous. “There are other ways to injure people,” Williams said. “Some people know martial arts, others are very strong and can kill you with their hands.” The bizarre, zombie like encounter unfolded at 2 p.m. Saturday on a pedestrian walkway alongside the bustling six-lane MacArthur Causeway. Police said a woman witnessed the two naked men fighting and flagged down the cop, described as a “road ranger.” Another witness, Larry Vega, told local news station WSVN that the attacker “was like tearing [the victim\] to pieces with his mouth.” But the attacker “kept eating the other guy away like ripping his skin,” Vega said. After spotting the suspect on top of the victim — chewing at his face — the officer used a loudspeaker to order the attacker to stop and back away from the injured man, police said. When the suspect ignored repeated orders, the cop opened fire, officials said. Part of the confrontation involving the cop was caught on security cameras outside the nearby Miami Herald building. The video showed the cop drawing his gun, but his use of deadly force was obstructed by monorail tracks running over the walkway. The video also shows the bare legs and feet of both men sprawled on the walkway, the victim flailing his legs in apparent pain. Cops did not reveal if detectives have determined why the men were both naked. Police sources theorize that the attacker could have been in the throes of “cocaine psychosis,” an effect that heats up a drug user’s body temperature, making him strip in an attempt to cool down. But officials said they won’t know if the nude attacker was under the influence of drugs until an autopsy and toxicology exam are completed. “As with all active investigations, there are many details that cannot be discussed until we have gathered all the facts,” the police department said in a statement Sunday. “Detectives are still trying to gather details and urging any passersby who might have seen something to contact them.

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