Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Iowa State
University in Ames, Iowa. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)DES MOINES, Iowa — Hillary Clinton wants Iowa voters to consider gun control when they caucus in two days. At
her event on Saturday, Clinton was joined by gun control activists Mark
Kelly and Gabby Giffords. Emotions ran high as Giffords, who was
wounded in a mass shooting and still struggles to speak, suggested
Clinton is the best candidate to “stand up to the gun lobby.” For
her part, Clinton, who is normally far more subdued even when making a
forceful point, raised her voice in anger and incredulousness as she
argued America’s gun laws must change. “When
I’ve traveled around Iowa the last couple of months, I have heard about
… what happens when children, young children, toddlers, kids in
elementary school find that loaded gun in the closet or under the bed,”
Clinton said. “I’ve heard the stories. I’ve seen the news reports about
the ones who are killed. … What is wrong with us? How can we continue?”
Gabrielle
Giffords, with her husband, Mark Kelly, embraces Hillary Clinton during
a “get out the caucus” event at Iowa State University. (Photo: Justin
Sullivan/Getty Images)Though
she didn’t mention his name, the elephant in the room was clearly
Clinton’s top rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.). Painting Sanders as
not being a strong supporter of gun control has been one of the main
attacks from the Clinton campaign during their primary fight.Clinton
said her gun control policies would be “consistent with the
Constitution” and claimed she is regularly approached by gun owners and
hunters who agree with her stance.“I
agree with President Obama. The steps that he announced are ones that I
fully endorse, executive action, put more resources into the work of
doing the background checks, going after the gun dealers who are so
irresponsible,” Clinton said. “But none of it will stick if it’s not a
voting issue and, as you go to caucus Monday night, please think about
this.”
Democratic
presidential candidate former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley leads
attendees in a song after holding a town hall at Grinnell College in
Grinnell, Iowa, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)DES
MOINES, Iowa — On Monday night, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s
tiny band of supporters will be the center of attention in Iowa
precincts across the state.O’Malley
had only 3 percent support in the final Des Moines Register-Bloomberg
Politics poll, but because of the Byzantine rules of the Democratic
caucusing process, his supporters could end up deciding the incredibly
close race between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.In
each of the state’s 1,681 caucusing locations, a candidate must get 15
percent of voters to be considered viable during an initial count that’s
taken at the beginning of the evening. O’Malley isn’t expected to reach
that threshold in the vast majority of precincts, which means his
supporters will be up for grabs — they must either choose another
candidate, or their vote will not count.Wooing
voters who back candidates that fail to meet the threshold has made a
big difference in elections in the state in the past: John Edwards
finished a surprise second in 2004 thanks in part to Dennis Kucinich’s
supporters defecting to him. And Bill Richardson’s backers joined Barack
Obama’s camp in 2008.The
Clinton campaign is arming its precinct captains with special software
to help them figure out how to keep O’Malley supporters from defecting
to Sanders’ camp, BuzzFeed News reported Saturday. Meanwhile, Sanders’
precinct captains are being told to beef up on their O’Malley knowledge
so they can entice his fans over to their side and to offer them
delegates for the county convention as inducement.“You
might have to cut a deal,” said Mitch Henry, a Democratic activist who
was leading a small training for Sanders precinct captains Saturday
afternoon in a coffee shop in Des Moines. “Let’s say in this case you
have 10 O’Malley supporters. You would maybe offer them a delegate. You
could say to them, ‘OK, you 10 come over, we give you a delegate.’”This
is a largely symbolic concession — the O’Malley supporters’ votes would
go to Sanders in the caucus, but in the county conventions later on,
their delegate could switch back to supporting O’Malley.If horse-trading fails, there’s always the power of persuasion.“I
would definitely beef up on the O’Malley top 5 issues, see what they
are,” Henry told the precinct captains. Henry, who supported Sanders
until a little more than a month ago, added that he believes most
O’Malley supporters’ second choice is Sanders.“Talking
to a lot of O’Malley supporters, there are a lot of ways Bernie lines
up on the issues. A lot of them will say the environment [is their top
concern], and Bernie is clearly superior to Hillary on the environment,”
said Bri Steirer, a precinct captain for the Drake University area.But
the Sanders plan to convince O’Malley fans with delegates and issues
may not be able to compete with Clinton’s scheme. The Clinton campaign
has trained its precinct captains to use software that calculates when
it benefits Clinton to give O’Malley supporters a few of their votes in
order to block them from defecting to Sanders. That means Clinton
supporters would help O’Malley become a viable candidate in precincts
where she would still carry the day.A
Sanders precinct captain, Darlene Lawler, asked Henry about whether
Bernie supporters should be trying to do the same thing — helping
O’Malley become viable in cases where it would help Bernie.“I
would not give them three or four people to be viable because you just
don’t know what could happen,” Henry said, adding that the “math” can
get complicated as the night goes on, and it’s easy to make a mistake.
Ivanka
Trump is a busy woman. In addition to working full-time as executive
vice president of development and acquisitions at the Trump
Organization, she spearheads the 
You’ve spoken often about hating the “Can you have it all?” question. Why does it bother you so much? It
implies that there’s only one right way to live your life, and that’s
just not true. Having it all means different things to different people.
In the arc of our own lives, even, we have different priorities at
different times. What’s incredibly important and fulfilling today is
very different from what I thought was important and fulfilling at 22.
So the definition of happiness and fulfillment evolves. You have to
discover for yourself what your priorities are and what’s important to
you. That’s how I like to think about my life.
– The former president highlights major achievements of his tenure.
– He reveals some secrets on stabilizing Africa’s dwindling economies.
The former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has revealed secrets of how he tackled Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria, while he was still at the helms of affairs.
Jonathan said that one of his greatest tools for fighting the war against against the sect, was education. He made the disclosure while addressing a press conference at the Geneva Press Club on Wednesday, January 27.
The former commander-in chief gave details of his post presidential focus and touched on some of the roles his administration played in key areas of the Nigerian and West Africa polity.
Ex-president Jonathan honoured in Switzerland.
Though this event is billed as a press conference on a Better Security and Education for West Africa, for the sake of time, I will focus on my experience in government which gave me a practical demonstration of how education impacts on security.
I will thereafter touch on my post presidential focus which is on advancing democracy and good governance in Africa and increasing access to opportunity for wealth generation in Africa.
If you peruse the official UNESCO literacy rates by country, what you will find is that all of the top ten most literate nations in the world are at peace, while almost all of the top 10 least literate nations in the world are in a state of either outright war or general insecurity.
As I have always believed, if we do not spend billions educating our youths today, we will spend it fighting insecurity tomorrow. And you do not have to spend on education just because of insecurity. It is also the prudent thing to do.
Nigeria, or any African nation for that matter, can never become wealthy by selling more minerals or raw materials such as oil. Our wealth as a nation is between the ears of our people.
It is no coincidence that the northeast epicenter of terrorism in Nigeria is also the region with the highest rate of illiteracy and the least developed part of Nigeria.
In Nigeria, the federal government actually does not have a responsibility for primary and secondary education, but I could not in good conscience stomach a situation where 52.4% of males in the northeastern region of Nigeria have no formal Western education.
The figure is even worse when you take into account the states most affected by the insurgency.
83.3% of male population in Yobe state have no formal Western education. In Borno state it is 63.6%.
Bearing this in mind is it a coincidence that the Boko Haram insurgency is strongest in these two states?
So even though we did not have a responsibility for primary and secondary education going by the way the Nigerian federation works, I felt that where I had ability, I also had responsibility even if the constitution said it was not my responsibility.
Knowing that terrorism thrives under such conditions my immediate goal was to increase the penetration of Western education in the region while at the same time making sure that the people of the region did not see it as a threat to their age old practices of itinerant Islamic education known as Almajiri.
For the first time in Nigeria’s history, the federal government which I led, set out to build 400 Almajiri schools with specialized curricula that combined Western and Islamic education. 160 of them had been completed before I left office.
I am also glad to state that when I emerged as President of Nigeria on May 6th 2010, there were nine states in the northern part of the country that did not have universities. By the time I left office on the 29th of May 2015, there was no Nigerian state without at least one federal university.
Now the dearth of access to formal education over years created the ideal breeding ground for terror to thrive in parts of Nigeria but there are obviously other dimensions to the issue of insecurity in Nigeria and particularly terrorism.
You may recall that the fall of the Gaddafi regime in August 2011 led to a situation where sophisticated weapons fell into the hands of a number of non state actors with attendant increase in terrorism and instability in North and West Africa.
The administration I headed initiated partnership across West Africa to contain such instability in nations such as Mali, which I personally visited in furtherance of peace.
And with those countries contiguous to Nigeria, especially nations around the Lake Chad basin, we formed a coalition for the purpose of having a common front against terrorists through the revived Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
Those efforts continue till today and have in large part helped decimate the capacity of Boko Haram.
Another aspect of the anti terror war we waged in Nigeria that has not received enough attention is our effort to improve on our intelligence gathering capacity.
Prior to my administration, Nigeria’s intelligence architecture was designed largely around regime protection, but through much sustained effort we were able to build capacity such that our intelligence agencies were able to trace and apprehend the masterminds behind such notorious terror incidences as the Christmas day bombing of the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state.
Other suspects were also traced and arrested including those behind the Nyanya and Kuje bombings.
Not only did we apprehend suspects, but we tried and convicted some of them including the ring leader of the Madalla bombing cell, Kabir Sokoto, who is right now serving a prison sentence.
But leadership is about the future. I am sure you have not come here to hear me talk about the way backward. You, like everyone else, want to hear about the way forward.
I am no longer in office, and I no longer have executive powers on a national level. However, I am more convinced now than ever about the nexus between education and security.
My foundation, The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, was formed to further democracy, good governance and wealth generation in Africa.
Of course, charity begins at home and for the future, what Nigeria needs is to focus on making education a priority.
Thankfully, the administration that succeeded mine in its first budget, appears to have seen wisdom in continuing the practice of giving education the highest sectoral allocation. This is commendable.
I feel that what people in my position, statesmen and former leaders, ought to be doing is to help build consensus all over Africa, to ensure that certain issues should not be politicized.
Education is one of those issues. If former African leaders can form themselves into an advisory group to gently impress on incumbent leaders the necessity of meeting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommended allocation of 26% of a nations annual budget on education, I am certain that Africa will make geometric progress in meeting her millennium development goals and improving on every index of the human development index.
Data has shown that as spending on education increases, health and well being increases and incidences of maternal and infant mortality reduce.
In Nigeria for instance, average life expectancy had plateaued in the mid 40s for decades, but after 2011, when we began giving education the highest sectoral allocation, according to the United Nations, Nigeria enjoyed her highest increase in average life expectancy since records were kept. We moved from an average life expectancy of 47 years before 2011 to 54 years by 2015.
I had earlier told you about the connection between education and insecurity.
I believe that it is the job of former leaders and elder statesmen to convince executive and legislative branches across Africa to work together to achieve the UNESCO recommended percentage as a barest minimum.
I intend to offer my services, through The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, for this purpose and I invite interested organizations to help us make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, this, in a nutshell are some of my thoughts for a better security and education for Africa and I will now entertain your questions,” the statement reads.
The Vanguard reports that the conference was well attended, with an audience made up mostly of diplomats, policy makers and journalists.
When
Ronald Jackson found a text he thought was rude and inappropriate on
his then-12-year-old daughter’s phone in September 2013, he took the
cell away. But the child’s mother, Michelle Steppe, balked at his action
— and she called the police.Story: 
But
Steppe insisted that the phone belonged to her, and three months after
Jackson refused to return it, he got a citation in the mail for theft of
property. He was offered a plea deal in January 2014 if he would return
the phone. Instead, Jackson hired an attorney and requested a jury
trial.The
case moved to Dallas County and, unbeknownst to Jackson, a warrant was
issued for his arrest. The police showed up at his door around 2 a.m. in
April 2015, and Jackson was handcuffed and taken to jail.Story: 
Although
Jackson won the case and is allowed to keep the phone, he said he has
had to separate himself from Steppe and his daughter because of this
incident. “I can’t ever have a relationship with them again,” he said.
Bernie Sanders speaks to reporters at the White House after his meeting
with President Obama. At his side is his wife, Jane. (Photo: Kevin
Lamarque/Reuters)Days
before Iowa voters decide the first battle of the 2016 White House
race, Sen. Bernie Sanders emerged from a rare face-to-face meeting with
Barack Obama on Wednesday denying that the president was trying to tip
the Democratic primary scales in Hillary Clinton’s favor.Sanders,
speaking in front of the West Wing after his 45-minute Oval Office
visit, also talked up his chances in Iowa, New Hampshire, and beyond —
but played down the odds that he would upset Clinton in the Hawkeye
State the way Obama did eight years ago.“I’m
not saying we can do what Barack Obama did in 2008. I wish we could,
but I don’t think we can,” the Vermont senator said. “If there is a
large turnout, I think we win; if not I think we’re going to be
struggling.”Asked
whether he had asked the president for his endorsement, Sanders laughed
and replied: “Of course not.” He also disputed the widely held view
that Obama has tried to convince Democratic voters to support Clinton.What
the president has tried to do, what Vice President Biden has tried to
do, is to be as evenhanded as they could be,” he insisted. “And I know
there was some discussion the other day about a Politico interview in
which he was tipping the scale towards Secretary Clinton — I don’t
believe that at all.“I
think he and the vice president have tried to be fair and evenhanded in
the process, and I expect they will continue to be,” he said.Asked
whether Clinton has overplayed her ties to Obama, Sanders grinned and
replied: “I think the people of Iowa will make that decision in a few
days.”With
enough snow on the White House grounds to recall the senator’s home
state of Vermont, Sanders had arrived around 11:35, accompanied by two
aides and his wife. The foursome entered the West Wing through a side
door that is frequently used by powerful visitors and keeps them well
out of range of media questions.Obama’s
public schedule listed a meeting with Sanders at 11:45 a.m., followed
by lunch with Vice President Joe Biden at 12:30. The timing resembled
that of a blind date between two wary Washingtonians, who agree to have
coffee together but only with a firm time for the interlude to be over, a
frequently unsuccessful effort to limit any awkwardness at “goodbye.”
But White House aides later let reporters know that Sanders would likely
take questions.The meeting came days after Obama made clear in an interview with Politico that he viewed his former secretary of state, 
What’s $250,000 a month in rent when you’re a billionaire?Mariah Carey 
The statement further said: “In another development, one of our
units located in old Marte repelled an attacked by BHT and in the
process, killed 21 terrorists, while 3 soldiers were wounded during the
encounter. One Anti Air Gun, 10 AK47 rifles,1 FN rifle,7 x 60mm MOR
bombs, qty 342 rounds of 12.7mm, Qty 507 rounds of 7.62mm ammunitions, 1
Toyota Hilux, 1 Land Cruiser vehicle, 1 IED with charger were captured
from the terrorists.
