50 cent charged with domestic violence and vandalism in Los Angeles court

50 cent with Joy

Singer 50 Cent aka Curtis Jackson was on Monday charged with one count of domestic violence and four others on vandalism on Monday where he entered a not guilty plea to the charges in a Los Angeles County court Monday according to CNN.com.

50 cent is accused by former girlfriend and mother of his son, model actress Daphne Joy of kicking her and turning upside down the bed room during an argument at her home in the neighborhood of Los Angeles on 23, June according to prosecution.   It is also alleged that Jackson Curtis caused a $7,100 damage to property and freed the scene just before police arrived. The candy shop singer is said  to have broken into Joy’s bedroom and kicked her several times after an argument.    

 The 37-year-old artist -- whose real name is Curtis Jackson -- was ordered to return to the Van Nuys, California, courtroom on September 4 for a pretrial hearing for one count of domestic violence and four counts of vandalism, according to a court spokeswoman.

According to prosecution, broken chandeliers and furniture throughout the home were found by police scattered in Joy’s house. The bedroom closet had been ransacked, with clothes littered all over the floor. Also in the sitting room was a broken television and lamp. .

If found guilty of all five counts, the 37 old would face up to five years in jail and paying fines worth $46,000. Our efforts to reach Curtis Jackson were futile as he declined to comment of the matter.

Meanwhile Daphne Joy and Curtis Jackson have been together for a few years in an exclusive relationship according to her lawyer's statement said. "They had a child and now Daphne's No. 1 priority is to ensure both her and the baby's safety during this difficult time. We also hope everyone will respect her and the baby's privacy." The statement added.

Source: CNN.com

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Luanda Angola’s capital is world’s most expensive city

Part of Luanda city

Luanda Angola’s capital has for the second time in three years been proclaimed the most expensive city world over for expats according to Mercer a renown human resources consulting firm. Luanda takes the lead from Tokyo which topped all cities last year.

The high cost of leaving in the South African country is attributed to Hotels which are said to be the visitor's biggest expense. Despite the booming construction in the city coupled with an increasing number of hotel construction, prices have generally remained high. For instance at about $500 one can spend a night for a five-star hotel, $370 for an average four-star and $325 for a medium level guesthouse. A meal in a good restaurant may go for $100 per person.

The exorbitantly high cost of leaving is however, not commensurate with peoples’ incomes. There is a colossal disparity between income levels. For instance, were as a mid-level expat professional might earn $ between $8,000-10,000 a month, a low income earning housemaid parts home with $300-500. In fact majority of the citizens cannot afford such services and basically stay in the suburbs of Luanda.  Angola relies mainly on the oil sectors with little domestic production. The former war ravaged country, had its economy crippled by the 27 year insurgency. The population was significantly annihilated during the rebellion leading to low domestic production. As a result most of the commodities used are imported from outside and the government heavily taxes them making survival very expensive.

There are however, a few affluent isolated populations in and around Luanda who can afford Escalades and Range Rovers. However, going by the number of people who can afford such expensive services, one would wonder where the demand for such expensive services comes from.

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19 televisions and radio stations hosted on the UBC mast to be momentarily switched off

 UBC is planning to upgrade their equipment in response to the digital migration program which should be completed before December this year of 2013. According to a notice released by acting managing director, Mr. Kihika Paul on July 31 asking all managers of the affected 19 radios and television stations to switch off their equipment before work starts. He said “this will allow contractors to remove the existing antennae and replace them with new ones”.

"UBC in partnership with Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is in the final stages of implementing the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) project for greater Kampala. We have reached the time of replacement of the antenna system to meet DTT requirements and this necessitates switching off all services to enable rigging work to complete the installations within the shortest possible time," Kihika added.

The list of affected tv stations includes; all UBC and its sister stations, NTV, NBS, WBS, Urban, CCTV, CRI, Citizen, East Africa TV, ITV, LTV, Miracle, Top and Record. The affected radio stations include; Sanyu FM, Super FM, BBC, Citizen Radio, East Africa Radio.

Mr. Kihika’s statement had indicated that the stations would be off from Friday August 2 up to Sunday August 4. However, reports indicate that this has been changed to Sunday for 12 hours.

He further said "We hope to complete the work on Sunday but if we don't, we shall have to extend to Monday (August 5)."  Kihika also explained that “the disruption is clear in the tenancy agreement which has a clause that allows interruption in their broadcast in need be”.

The closure on Friday to Sunday would have serious implications as many stations would have wanted to air out the celebrations to mark Kabaka Ronald Mutebi's 20th coronation anniversary. In addition several managers have indicated that they would lose a lot of revenue for in those busy weekend days.

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Snowden Leak: US government through NSA can spy on anybody using internet.

 

red dots indicate the sites

According to a story exposed by the Guardian on Wednesday, the US’s National Security Agency uses a program called Xkeyscore which tracks and makes available everything one has ever done on the internet including; searches, browsing history, content of your emails, social platforms, online chats and your metadata with much ease.

A revelation by XKeyscore training materials, provided by Snowden to The Guardian indicates that using XKeyscore they are able to scan through all the database of your information without your authorization, no court clearance, and no warrant.

The program user just completes a simple form with some little information about you, and your online history exposed.

The training guide provided by Snowden avers XKeyscore was instrumental in capturing 300 terrorists by 2008. The materials were dated 2010 but with the speed at which technology is changing, the program may have become even much more sophiscated.

When reached out for a comment, the NSA for comment, the organization defended their program, emphasizing that it was used legally to obtain information about "legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests."

"XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA's lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system," the agency said in its response. "Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks.

"In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring. Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law. These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully -- to defend the nation and to protect U.S. and allied troops abroad."

XKeyscore discovery to the public comes after  PRISM, an extremely divisive surveillance program that said to allow security agency to access the servers of major Internet organizations including Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, YouTube and Skype, among others.

Therefore watch out on everything that you do on the internet well knowing that someone unauthorized is watching on you.

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Berlusconi loses tax fraud final appeal faces one year in Jail

Supreme Court in Italy has maintained a prison sentence given to former Prime Minister Silvio Burlusconi for hedging of tax. In the case it was alleged that Berlusconi's media empire had inflated the price it paid for film distribution rights to with an intention of avoiding taxes.

Following his conviction last October, Mr Berlusconi was sentenced to four years but they were reduced to one year under the pardon law of 2006. He appealed against the sentence and the five-year office ban out of all the 30 counts. Other appeals which are pending in other convicted cases include; arranging for a police wiretap to be leaked, having paid for sex with an underage prostitute and published in a newspaper.

Given his advanced age of 76, he faces either community service or house arrest. However, being a senate member the former PM enjoys the immunity of arrest. Berlusconi was also banned from holding any public office for at least five years a decision which he strongly opposes.

The multi-billionaire however, has hope as the court ordered a reexamination of a five-year ban for holding any public office. The review of the five-year ban will permit Mr Berlusconi to maintain his senatorial seat and to stay leader of centre-right People of Freedom Party.

After the ruling, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano urged the country to stay calm saying: "The country needs to rediscover serenity and cohesion on vitally important institutional matters which have for too long seen it divided and unable to enact reforms”.

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Zimbabwe: Vote counting continues amid claims of rigging

voters in long cues

Vote counting and tallying by Zimbabwe’s electoral commission (ZEC) has entered the second day following Tuesday’s polls. Zim citizens yesterday voted in the country’s general election following the recent referendum which introduced presidential term limits.

Tuesday’s polls have been described as having been peaceful but largely compromised according to monitors. Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s challenger called the elections a "huge farce", just a day after his attempt to dislodge President Robert Mugabe from power.

The Movement for Democratic Change boss already cried foul on Thursday during a press conference saying that the election had been heavily manipulated and was below standards by any scale. Tsvangirai said "The shoddy manner in which it has been conducted and the consequent illegitimacy of the result will plunge this country into a serious crisis,”

"Its credibility has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affect the legitimacy of its outcome. It is a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people." He added.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network said on Thursday that Up to 1 million people was denied chance to vote due to their names missing from the register.

The spokesman for the Zanu-PF Rugare Gumbo, has however, dismissed claims of sham poll. He described the Zimbabwe Election Support Network as British and America’s sycophants. He asked "What do you expect from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network anyway?

"They are sponsored by the Americans and the British to destabilize our elections. As you could see for yourself yesterday's election was peaceful," Mr. Rugare said.

About information on Zanu PF twitter account claiming landslide victory in Wednesday's election, Gumbo said results were not official and that they were awaiting official results from ZEC who have the mandate to release electoral results by law. He further said "I am the national party spokesperson and I haven't said anything about election results. It's all hogwash”. "If it doesn't come out of my mouth, it is not credible." He added.

Another official from Zanu FP who did not want to reveal his identity said that Morgan Tsvangirai’s movement for Democratic change should accept the will of the people. He added that those were kicks of a dying horse and that MDC had been buried.

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Uruguay passes marijuana bill

House of representative majority members has passed a bill legalizing the use of marijuana. The controversial bill was first presented last year by Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro. It was passed by 50 lower house members out of the 96 MPs following a heated 13 hour long debate. The bill was also backed by the president and his government. Mr. Jose Mujica the president says “the measure will remove profits from drug dealers and also divert users from using harder drugs”. 

Other supporters of the measure argue that the fight against drug trafficking had become futile and the country had to devise alternative. Most of the backers belong to the ruling centre-left Frente Amplio coalition which dominates the parliament.

Uruguay is set to become the first country to legalize, control the production and distribution and sale of marijuana. If approved only the government would have the mandate to sell marijuana.

Under the arrangement, buyers above 18 will have to be registered in a database and would be limited to buy from licensed pharmacies up to 40 g each month and to grow a maximum of six plants at home. The measure excludes foreigners.

The bill was passed amid criticism from foreign powers and clerics. Recently the pope on his visit to Brazil appealed to Uruguay not to legalize what he called trading death.

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