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Who rules the Welterweight boxing division of the world…undefeated champion, American Floyd Mayweather Jr, or Filipino challenger, Manny Pacquiao?   This is the question that would be answered at the MGN Grand Garden Arena, where both boxers will slug it out tonight in Las Vegas.

Challenger, Manny Pacquiao, ran from home at the tender age of 12 following a fall-out with his father who killed and ate his pet dog.   Then he stowed away on a Manila-bound ship to sleep in streets, work as garden hand and at construction sites, before going into boxing at 16.   On the other hand, champion Mayweather jr, was born in Michigan, but bred in New Jersey, USA into a boxing family of a father and fighting uncles.
While global boxing pundits rate and rank Pacquiao as the underdog, Mayweather is favoured to remain unbeaten.   If Mayweather's boxing skills and prowess is anything to go by, he should chalk-up a $200m record purse, the highest in boxing history tonight.   Mayweather is a General in the right, with a near-flawless savvy defence, perhaps one of the greatest ever.   He has an uncanny ability to wear-out opponents and unblemished instinctive decisions even under intense pressure to stay on and pick his points, round after round.
The champion is a ring master with street smartness to go rugged and dirty if he has to.   The American is not easily hit because of his defensive skills. He has a very healthy boxing chin; an attribute he displayed in his bout against Mosley.   The son of New Jersey-based illegal drugs trafficking father, who was jailed for the crime and a mother, who was also a drugs addict, is a boxer who is always able to hold and fight on when hurt before unleashing his master punch … his opponent, Pacquiao was knocked-out byJuan Manuel Marquez's right hand in 2013.
Going for the champion are his strength, power, fist, knuckles, strong arms and killer punches.  His right hand, uppercut and hooks are deadly weapons which aided him to knock-out 28 of his opponents in his 47 bouts.   If challenger,Filipino philanthropist and single individual charity institution in the Philippines, Pacquiao ever dreams to stop Mayweather undefeated streaks, he should come into the ring tonight with an antidote for the American's shoulder Roll and defense that have become his trademark.  With a tiny waist, broad shoulders and Rotator cuffs, he is able to guard and hide his chin and head behind his hunched shoulder, sideways and his right hand.

Name it, 'THE BEST EVER' as Floyd is called by his boxing disciples, has it…sharp jabs and right leads enable him to meander and launch explosive attacks on opponents from the ropes; from the ring cente r, he also commands great authority where he effectively employs fast jabs and well-timed right leads.   And his right hand leads, is a counter to Pacquiao's Southpaw stance, just as his left hooks.
Mayweather's military-precision timing practiced repeatedly during training sessions and exhibited during fights, makes him a Roll master and with which he renders his exceptionally skillful opponents ordinary.
A great foot worker, Mayweather is a boxer who can fight going forward or backwards in the ring and his sublime work, balance padded by a solid lead left foot, allow him time and space which often place him in advantageous angles to throw his punches.
Psychologically, Floyd Mayweather has the mental strength to power his 'never-beaten-before belief, a supreme confidence on his skill and his TBE – The Best Ever.   If Pacquiao decides to go reckless, Mayweather possess the radar to exploit this.

Manny Pacquiao may be the underdog in to-night's bout, but it seems to suit him because psychologically, the Filipino son of a very religious mother who wanted her son to become a priest believes that he has always triumphed when under-rated.   Manny's Trainer Freddie Roach believes that his ward will heap the champion to stop him from holding the boxing world hostage.  He is confident that the Filipino challenger will stand up to Floyd to-night and cut his antics "and put a bully in his place."   Aside height, reach, frames and weight, both pugilists look squared up to square-up in the roped square tonight for honor, prestige, fames rather than money … the purse is a factor though.
On paper, Manny should not stand a chance, but if you are a believer in divine interventions, then you caould tag along the school that holds on victory for the Filipinos and his Trainer Roach would say, "David didn't have a chance against Goliath."
Both fighters also seem to have quite reputable hands as Trainers.   Freddy Roach, Manny's handler was a rated Feather, Super Feather and Lightweight boxer from Massachusetts.   Born in 1960, Freddie had a total fight of 53; he won 40 with 15 via knock-outs and losing 13.   The Irish/French Canadian descent was one of the best world known trainers having been voted Trainer of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013.   He is the former coach of former UFC Welter weight champion, Georges St. Pierre, 8 Division Manny Pacuiao, 5-time and 4 Division world champion Miguel Cotto, former WBC Middleweight champion, Julio Ceaser Chavez Jnr   as well as top prospects Jose Benavidez, Peter Quillin and Vanes Martirsyan.   Pacquiao's Corner man Freddie, had also handled former 2-time world champion and notable women champion, Lucia Rid Ryker.
For the champion Floyd Mayweather, his uncle Roger Mayweather, born on April 24, 1961 a year younger than his opponent's coach, is also a retired fighter, who won two major titles in two different weight classes.   Throughout his career, he fought many champions in the 1980s and 90s.   Roger is a member of the Mayweather Boxing Family whose brother was a former International Boxing Organization (IBO) Super Featherweight champions and his nephew.   Nick named Black Mamba; Roger was an orthodox boxer, a stance he has inculcated in his nephew, Floyd Jr.   He had 72 fights, won 59, recorded 35 knock-outs and lost 13.

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The powers of a 58-year old Nigerian man, Christopher Omigie, who is a self acclaimed witch doctor has failed to help him out of the long arms of the law.
Omigie was sentenced to 14-years in a USA federal prison for providing drug traffickers with magical and "supernatural" protection.
During the recent court hearing, prosecutors told the presiding judge, Judge Marcia Crone, that Omigie presented himself to drug traffickers as a witch doctor who had the powers to prevent them from being arrested while they smuggled banned drugs and was paid "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to give supernatural protection from law enforcement.‎
"Omigie was consulted by drug traffickers in the Cesar Barrera and David Bazan drug trafficking organizations on a daily basis and before, during and after each drug transaction.

The supernatural protections rendered involved card readings, massages (by Omigie) with magic ointments, cutting of the skin with razor blades and the topical application of magic powder, the use of magic amulets, magic belts, magic coconuts and magic rocks.

According to the Prosecutors, Omigie demanded the smugglers not to have sex or take a shower after they had applied his magical products so as not to "not diminish the potency" of his work.
"Magic 'law stay-away' candles were also burned in order to protect drug traffickers from law enforcement detection.
Omigie would regularly return to Africa, at drug traffickers' expense, to re-new his supernatural powers."

Omigie's attorney, Jonathan D. Goins in Houston, criticized the US prosecutors for calling his client a "witch doctor", arguing that Mr Omigie was a respected chief in Nigeria



"Mr. Omigie is a Nigerian tribal chief, a title he inherited from his father, and he is a native doctor. The term 'witch doctor' is both pejorative and wrong."

Goins said his client had a "minimal" role in the drug scheme and that his sentence is "greatly out of proportion."


"While Mr. Omigie was involved in this drug scheme, he was not a major figure in this, and in fact his involvement was extremely limited and minor," he said.

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The Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a girl, Kensington Palace has announced.‎
The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth of the couple's second child, who weighed in at 8lb 3oz.
Both mother and baby are "doing well", the palace said.

The Duchess gave birth at 8.34am and the delay between then and an announcement just after 11.15am is understood to have been so the couple could tell their families.
The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and the baby's uncle Prince Harry had been informed and the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are "absolutely delighted", Clarence House said.
The Duke of Cambridge's uncle Earl Spencer said: "It's wonderful news - we are all thrilled for all four of them."
Crowds of media and well wishers rushed to see a town crier announce the arrival on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in London.

Meanwhile, at Buckingham Palace a framed notice of birth was put on display on a ceremonial easel on the forecourt to officially announce the birth.
Just like when Prince George who was born in July 2013, Kate was looked after by a similar team of doctors and nurses.
Kate, who suffered hyperemesis gravidarum, or extreme morning sickness, early in her pregnancy, was a number of days overdue and had been taken to the hospital at 6am from her nearby home Kensington Palace.
The birth of a girl will have been a surprise to the royal couple, who had chosen not to find out the sex of their baby in advance.
The Prince of Wales, however, will be overjoyed as he made no secret he wanted his second grandchild to be a girl.

Prime Minister David Cameron led the congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their new daughter, writing on Twitter that he is "absolutely delighted for them".

‎In a funny development, betting fever has intensified since news of the birth broke. Many players are now betting on the possible name for the new baby with William Hill saying it has taken more than £55,000 in new bets in the first three hours since it was announced. William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: "Alice and Charlotte are still the favourites, but keep an eye out for Rose and Grace."

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Budding singer and 'Woju' crooner, Oluwatobiloba Daniel Sikiru Anidugbe, otherwise called 'Kiss Daniel' was 21 yesterday, May 1, 2015 and he dropped a new song 'Laye'  to celebrate his birthday.
Apart from his trending new song, a photo of the singer planting a 'kiss' on the cheeks of a female fan has also gone viral online.
The photo was taken during his last trip to Dublin where he performed at Seyi Law's concert.

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Pop singer Chidinma may be heading to the altar soon following a hilarious stage proposal at the Calabar pre-Trek gig last night ahead of today's opening Star Music Trek concert.
Chidinma, who came in as a surprise performer for fans, had a wonderful time at the pre-Trek gig. While interacting with a Calabar Comedian on stage, she was asked to repeat a statement in Efik which she did, only for the audience to burst into uncontrolled laughter.
Upon asking what it was that she said, it was revealed that she had just accepted a marriage proposal in Efik in front of a huge Calabar crowd.
Chidinma will be performing at this year's inaugural Star Music Trek concert today May 2, 2015 alongside Burna Boy, Cynthia Morgan, Oritse Femi, DJ Big N, Gbenga Adeyinka, Sean Tizzle and others at the Calabar Municipal Garden, Marian Road, Calabar.

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News obtained by BlackBox Nigeria has it that former Manchester United Captain has lost his wife, Rebecca to cancer. 

The 36-year-old who now plies is trade for QPR has released the following statement on QPR's website:‎
'My soul mate slipped away last night. Rebecca, my wonderful wife, passed away peacefully after a short battle with cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
'She was a fantastic loving mother to our three beautiful children. She will be missed as a wife, sister, aunt, daughter and granddaughter. She will live on in our memory, as a guide and inspiration.
'Myself, my parents Janice and Julian, along with Rebecca's parents Lesley and Stephen, would like to thank our families, friends and my club colleagues who have rallied around in these desperate days, weeks and months.
'I would also like to express my gratitude for the dedication and expertise of the staff led by Professors Johnstone and Clarke at the Royal Marsden. Their valiant efforts to prolong Rebecca's all-too-short life will not be forgotten.
'Our grief, as a family, is total. We would appreciate being allowed to mourn privately.'

Ferdinard's former club Manchester United has also expressed shock at the death. Posting on the club's twitter page moments ago, Manchester United wrote "The news of Rios Ferdinard's wife's passing is truly shocking and heartbreaking. Deepest condolences to Rio Ferdinard and family. #RIP"

Rebecca, who married Ferdinand in 2009, leaves behind three children with the QPR defender – Lorenz(9), Tate(6) and Tia(4).

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The Nigeria Medical Association has accused Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, of deliberately denying workers their six months' salaries.‎
The Chairman of NMA Action Committee in the state, Dr. R.A. Adebayo, said in a letter to the governor and a copy of which was made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Friday, that the governor had collected up to March, 2015 allocation but he refused to pay doctors and other workers.
NMA also alleged that Aregbesola had deliberately made himself unavailable for dialogue with the association over the issue.
It said a meeting called at the instance of the state Head of Service with the National President of NMA, Dr. Kayode Obembe, and the Chairman of NMA in Oyo State branch, Dr. M.B Olatunji, based on the ultimatum given to Osun State Government led to many "discoveries."
The association said, "Despite the non-payment of six months salaries to doctors and other civil servants in Osun, contractors and political office holders have been the beneficiaries of the available revenue accrued to our state from the federation account.
"Our association therefore concluded that the non-payment of six months salaries to our members as well as other civil servants is not a matter of government inability but unwillingness to pay."

The NMA, however, accused the governor of paying political appointees who they said earned jumbo pay while workers who were paid peanuts were left to suffer.
The association therefore called on Argebsola to pay workers' salaries without further delay, saying the governor should be held responsible for any action taken by doctors if their salaries were not paid.
But Agebesola blamed the alleged mishandling of the nation's resources for the inability to pay workers regularly.
In a statement sent to our correspondent by his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, the governor said, "With transparent handling of national resources, the days of revenue crisis in Nigeria will soon be over and workers will once again be assured of their place of priority. We are committed to furthering our achievements in Osun State as far as the welfare of workers is concerned."

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After a long battle with stroke, veteran actor Peter Bruno has died. The actor died in the early hours of yesterday, Friday May 1st.
His son, Peter Bruno Junior, who is also an actor took to Facebook to announce his passing.
"In the early hours of today, my father, friend, teacher, confidant passed on." he wrote

Recall that Late Peter Bruno had complained for years, accusing his colleagues, even the ones he mentored in the industry, of abandoning after he fell ill.
"Since this thing happened there has been no single actor that called me to ask about my condition. It is a shame on their part. Would they say they don't know that I am sick? 'I had a stroke and that was the end of it" he had lamented before death finally took him to join his colleagues in the likes of Pete Eneh, Sam Loco Efe, Justice Esiri, Ashley Nwosu, David Ihesie, Enebeli Elebuwa and some other veteran actors who passed on recently.

Burial arrangements for the great Iroko that fell is yet to be announced by family.

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As the military onslaught to rid Sambisa forest of Boko Haram terrorists continue, another set of 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the forest on Thursday.
A statement from Defence headquarters said the women and children have been evacuated to join others at the screening center.
"This set is in addition to the previous individuals earlier rescued during the ongoing operation in the area" it said.
"The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages of civilians and destroying all terrorists camps and facilities in the forest" DHQ said.

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Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini says Yaya Toure's hamstring injury is likely to rule the midfielder out for their next two Premier League matches, starting with Sunday's clash with Tottenham .
The Ivorian was substituted at half-time during Saturday's 3-2 win over Aston Villa after suffering the setback, and Pellegrini confirmed on Friday that Toure will miss Sunday's trip to White Hart Lane and is highly doubtful for the visit of QPR a week later.
"Yaya is injured. I think he will be out at least one more week. It will be difficult for him to play against QPR," explained the Chilean, who is also set to be without captain Vincent Kompany (thigh) this weekend.
Pellegrini added: "Kompany is progressing and maybe next week he can be ready. Stevan Jovetic is also injured but no one else."

Yhemmie_blaq‎

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Tragedy struck in two separate incidents in Lagos, yesterday, when a three-month-old infant, Abiodun Alabi was roasted to death while 57-year-old Mr. Edwin Nwosu also suffered burnt.
Both incidents occured overnight in Badagry and LASU-Ojo area of Lagos during two separate fire outbreaks.
The Badagry incident occurred at Wazobia Junction, Tako 11, when a nursing mother, who is an occupant of a self contained apartment, went for a vigil, leaving the infant, a female, in custody of her 10-year-old son. She was alleged to have carelessly lit a candle in the apartment.
It was learnt that her husband rarely comes home because he is a transporter.
Unfortunately, the boy left both his younger one and the candle at home and headed for a neighbour's apartment to watch television and eventually passed the night with them.
It was gathered that the candle however burnt out completely and escalated, which led to the outbreak that consumed the entire apartment and roasted the infant to death before help could come.

The LASU-Ojo incident where the 57-years-old suffered burns occurred in a storey building at No. 10 Mayegun Street, Franklas Busstop just opposite the Lagos State University, LASU-Ojo Road when the victim was fuelling a generating set which suddenly went up in flames.
The inferno affected his thighs and limbs but response promptly came from the Lagos State Fire Services.
Confirming both incidents, Director of the state fire services, Razaq Fadipe condemned the use of candles for domestic use.
He advised people to go for rechargeable lamps in place of candles: "There are rechargeable lamps which are bright and affordable. We should go for these instead of endangering our lives by burning candles."

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Thousands of passengers were stranded at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on Friday night as scarcity of aviation fuel grounded most international flights.
According to PUNCH, it was observed that the passengers had arrived the airport and proceeded to check in, but waited for hours without being attended to at the various counters.
It was only when some of the passengers started protesting that officials of South Africa Airways disclosed to them that flights had been cancelled due to scarcity of aviation fuel.
There was no official at the Arik Air office and counter to attend to the worried passengers.

‎However, our correspondent gathered that the scarcity of aviation fuel had taken a huge toll on airline operations with Arik Air declaring on Saturday morning (today) that it had lost an estimated $9m since last week to disruptions of its operations.
The airline said the scarcity of aviation fuel had adversely hit its operations, that it was forced to scale down its flights to 20 per cent capacity out of over 100 flights daily .
Its Managing director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, said it had put series of contingency plans in place to ensure it does not shut down its operations because of the scarcity of aviation fuel.
He said the airline flew to neighbouring countries in West and Central Africa to source for aviation fuel at a ridiculously high rate to sustain its operations.
Ndulue said Arik Air now flies to Ghana, Cameroon and Benin Republic to source for aviation fuel.
He said if the fuel situation did not improve the airline may not operate flights, as the alternate arrangement was costing the airline much money with the attendant inconveniences to passengers.

Ndulue said since last Thursday when the scarcity of aviation fuel intensified, Arik Air had over stretched its bounds to secure the over 800,000 litres needed for its daily operations.
"For over one week now, aviation fuel scarcity has impacted negatively in our flight operations. It has become very bad that we have to scale down our flights graduallym
"In the last one week it has become increasingly difficult to sustain our operations owing largely to scarcity of aviation fuel," the Arik Air MD said.
Getting fuel to fly to our international destinations has become extremely expensive, because we have to source fuel from Kano, Cotonou , Cameroon and Accra to sustain our operations .
Because if the huge quantity of fuel averaging about 800,000 litres needed daily for our wide body aircraft it becoming very difficult
He said, "If the situation does not improve in the coming days, we may not return to normal flight operations.
"We appeal to passengers for their understanding on account of the inconveniences they are going through arising from the flight disruptions."
He added, By today, the disruption of flights has reached its lowest ebb forcing us to carry out only 20 per cent of our operations . With the attendant loss of over one million dollars daily the scarcity is constituting additional costs to our operations."

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Evaluation and Research in the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps, Aminu Nabegu, has said the Federal Government would soon deploy teachers to teach Yoruba language in Brazil.‎
Aminu said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the two countries were already discussing the modalities for the implementation of the programme.
He said once the agreement was reached the government would deploy the teachers and some cultural experts to Brazil.
"The Yoruba-speaking communities, which reside in the Bahie region of Brazil, are the major target for this programme.
"That is where we have large numbers of people believed to be the descendant of the Odudua,'' he said.
Aminu said a centre for the study of Yoruba culture and language had been opened in Brazil.
The Director also said a similar programme had been extended to Yoruba-speaking communities in Benin Republic.

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