Bing Renews Its Firehose Deal With Twitter

[TechCrunch]

Microsoft today announced that it has renewed its partnership with Twitter, giving Bing access to all of the public content Twitter's users create. The terse three-sentence announcement is short on details, but a Microsoft spokesperson told us it extends, for an unspecified amount of time, the deal the two companies made four years ago.

"The past four years partnering with Twitter have been great, and we're excited to continue that relationship in order to help deliver the best possible search experience," the spokesperson told us.

Unlike Google, Bing has made social search a cornerstone of its strategy. Its close relationship with Facebook has long given it the ability to highlight posts from the popular social network, as well as from Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Foursquare, Klout and other services in its social sidebar. With Bing's latest redesign, which dropped the number of columns on its search results pages from three to two, the social sidebar now features even more prominently on the site.

Twitter itself started giving access to its public firehose feed to partners in 2010, and it continues to keep a very tight grip on who gets access to this information. It's providing a full feed to large partners like Microsoft, Google and others, though a small number of select resellers like Gnip and DataSift can provide anybody with the right resources (both financial and technical) with access to this data.

[TechCrunch]

[joker]

The teacher told all the students to write an essay on a cricket match.

All the students immediately got to work. After a short while Akpos stood up to submit his work.

The teacher was shocked when she read what Akpos had written:

"It rained, so no match."

***Is it Akpos' fault?***

[ReadWrite]

   

Steve Jobs once described the iPad as, "the intersection between technology and liberal arts."

For Microsoft's Surface 2 tablet, the intersection may be at technology and a Master's of Business Administration.

The problem is that while most people who have gone to college have had at least a bachelors degree in liberal arts (or some other pursuit), only a small portion of those people go on to get an MBA. The Surface 2, like the Surface RT before it, struggles with a problem of identity. Is it a tablet? A notebook? To what exactly do you compare it?

The hardware for the Surface 2 is much improved from the Surface RT. In empirical observations, people that used the Surface 2 marveled at how much faster and more responsive it was to the than the RT. "Wow, it actually works like it is supposed to," one person said to me.

"Too bad," that same person continued, "that it is running Windows RT."

Herein lies the problem.

"The Surface 2 has some sort of personality disorder on what it is," said mobile analyst Chetan Sharma in an discussion with ReadWrite.

The Surface 2 running Windows RT 8.1 continues Microsoft's mixed messaging on exactly what the Surface is supposed to be: It's a tablet. It's a PC. It's everything you want it to be and more. The reality is not so clear cut.

What Is The Surface 2? The Surface 2 is a 10.6-inch touchscreen tablet running an ARM-based Nvidia Tegra 4 quad-core 1.7 GHz processor. It has a full-sized USB port, a 3.5 megapixel back camera and 5 MP front camera. It weighs about 1.5 pounds and has a kickstand on the back that has two positions. It ships with all the core Microsoft products—Office 2013 (with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), Skype, Internet Explorer, OneNote and Windows Marketplace. It has the ability to attach a smart cover/keyboard called the Type Cover 2.

The Surface 2 built-in dual kickstand is quite useful for working on a table or in your lap.  

For those that do not quite understand the difference between Windows RT and Windows 8.1, the differences have to do with hardware and functionality. Windows RT is based on ARM processor architecture. Just about every mobile device you have ever owned (iPhone, Android smartphones and tablets, Windows Phones) runs on ARM. It is considered more energy efficient than traditional x86 chips—which power just about every laptop, desktop or other PC you may have ever owned—that run Windows 8.1 and the Surface 2's bigger sister, the Surface Pro 2.

Surface 2 Type Cover 2 adds to the confusion: is it a tablet or a laptop?  

Hardware is of only tangential concern to what the Surface 2 is and does. For those who bought a Surface RT tablet last year, what they need to know is that it is indeed much faster, powerful, responsive and has a better battery. The battery may not quite live up to Microsoft's billing of it though. The Surface 2 promises seven to 15 days of idle time and up to 10 hours of video playback. You could cut that in half and you'd get a better approximation of the battery life of the Surface 2 is. In tests working with the tablet, the Surface 2 went from a full charge to near empty in about five hours, depending on the type of work. Idle time maxed out at about four to five days. If you compare that to the iPad—a device with perhaps the best idle battery time ever—the Surface 2 is found distinctly lacking.

Yes, Microsoft made good on its promise of speeds and feeds for the Surface 2. But as we have learned before, speeds and feeds are not necessarily the story.

What The Surface 2 Does (And Does Not) Do    

One of the biggest problems with the original Surface RT was that the operating system took away the Start button and could not toggle between classic Windows desktop modes and the Windows 8-style Start screen designed around Microsoft's "Hubs and Tiles" design principle.

The Start button and desktop mode is back in Windows RT 8.1—sort of.

The desktop in Window 8.1 RT is accessible through Microsoft's core group of apps: Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It is also present when using Microsoft's Window's settings and Help sections.

 

The problem with the desktop mode in RT 8.1 on the Surface 2 is that you cannot really use it as the default mode. If you are in the desktop, you basically have to have a Microsoft app running in the foreground. You can switch between apps and the browser, change Wi-Fi settings, keyboard settings and volume from the familiar bottom Windows desktop menu.

Unless you are using one of those Microsoft core apps, you had better get used to navigating through the Start Screen.

The Windows 8.1 RT Versions Of Microsoft Apps Windows 8.1 RT may come with the core Microsoft apps, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are perfect for a device that is primarily a touch interface. Microsoft Word is difficult to use in Windows RT 8.1 when using the touchscreen or the Type Cover 2. By default, Microsoft also wants to push you towards its cloud product—SkyDrive—to save files as opposed to saving them locally.

Basic functions become a headache in Window RT 8.1. Copying and pasting (which has never been good on touchscreen devices on any platform) is still difficult and navigating between different apps layered on top of each other can be an exercise in frustration. If you are trying to do anything more than a simple project on the Surface 2, it will require some learning and patience.

In short, for productivity, the Surface 2 is going to have a hard time replacing your laptop or PC.

The is general the problem with Windows RT 8.1 and the Surface 2: Microsoft wants you have a very, very Microsoft experience. Microsoft wants you to center everything around your Outlook identity. For instance, when you log onto Skype from the Surface 2, Microsoft will automatically merge your existing email address to sign on with the Outlook email address that you have when you set up the Surface. It is these types of closed-looped user experience conventions that can drive a person crazy on mobile platforms (Apple and Google are guilty of this to varying degrees, as well).

None of the major third-party browsers users have come to expect like Firefox, Opera, Dolphin or Chrome (forget about Safari on non-Apple devices) are available. It's an Internet Explorer world in Windows RT 8.1. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as Internet Explorer for RT 8.1 is a full-featured browser with intuitive gesture-based controls and generally fast loading times.

Start Screen, Gesture Controls & Multitasking Back on the Start Screen (which is essentially where you live in Windows RT 8.1), navigation is based on gestures on the Surface 2. You can move, delete and resize the Hubs and Tiles on the Start Screen to give yourself a dynamic and personalized experience with your favorite apps (if they are available, which is not always the case).

 

If you swipe up, you are brought down to the Windows RT 8.1 version of an app drawer. You can sort the apps by category, most used, date downloaded or alphabetically. To the right of the app drawer are Microsoft-specific apps and functions like the core Windows apps and accessories (Word, Paint, Notepad, etc.) as well as system functions like "Command Prompt," "Run" and "File Explorer." These types of system access controls are not generally visible on iOS and Android and could be seen as a benefit to Windows RT 8.1.

 

Windows RT 8.1 employs a new trend in gesture control that has become popular in 2013: off-screen swipe. The concept is that you start your finger off of the touchscreen and swipe onto it to open a menu or function. BlackBerry 10 has several of these types of functions and certain Android devices can launch Google Now by swiping up from the bottom of the touchscreen. In Windows RT 8.1, there are two off-screen swipe gestures that work from anywhere in any app: the navigation menu and multi-screen multitasking.

 

If you swipe off-screen from right to left, you open a navigation menu where you can search the device, share a file, go back to the Start Screen, manage devices on your network or go to systems settings. This is pretty standard fare but makes for easy navigation from any app.

If you swipe from the off-screen on the left to the right, this is where you can get into the multi-screen, a multitasking feature unique to Windows 8.

 

You can combine basically any two apps on the multi-screen function. For instance, if I am writing an article and need source material from my email, I can have Word open on the right and email open on the left (I wrote most of this article that way before having to transfer to a laptop to finish it). The screens can be resized by quarters to take up 75%, 50% or 25% of the screen. This can be very useful if you are working in an app or a browser and want to keep an eye on your email, Skype, Twitter, Facebook or other communications apps.

The user interface and app switching for the multi-screen control can be a bit confusing. When you swipe from off screen from left to right, you get the last app you used. If you want a different app, you have to hold the app and drag it back to the right and place it back in a menu of apps that are currently open. The "right back to left and switch" motion has been users biggest complaint with multi-screen and multitasking on Windows RT 8.1.

 

Who Is The Surface 2 Really For? The app-switching multi-screen process is the perfect example of what makes the Surface 2 a confusing and wonky device. Yes, you can multitask from one screen. But it is not a classic Windows-based desktop operation, where you can layer one app window on top of the other and switch between them at a click. It's a PC concept on a tablet device with a mobile user experience. While it works well enough once you figure it out, it is a little confusing and suboptimal to the workflow and experience of the device. That statement could apply to just about everything on the Surface 2.

 

In the end, the Surface 2 is just a confused device. It is a tablet that has a long list of PC functions and user interfaces that make it difficult to use. It has aspects of a PC that are pigeonholed into a tablet experience. In the end, both sides lose out.

Microsoft wants small-to-medium businesses to use the Surface 2 for productivity. It wants professionals to use the Surface 2 as a "business on the go" device. Mobile analyst Sharma notes that many SMBs are not running Office these days and developers are not writing apps for a Windows RT platform that has marginal marketshare.

"The notion that productivity comes from Office apps is a misconception," Sharma said. "SMBs are looking at iOS."

The Surface 2 is not going to replace your Macbook Air. It has trouble coming up with the use case to replace your iPad, especially with the paucity of third-party apps. Business professionals might find some use cases for it, but those same use cases can be found in the iPad and most Android tablets as well. Microsoft could streamline the messaging, segmentation and targeting of the Surface 2 better, but there is still not going to be much interest outside of the enterprise where Microsoft still has significant leverage.

"Consumers just aren't that interested in Windows," Sharma said. "Microsoft can't really target iOS or Android users. People aren't going to switch."

So, if the Surface 2 is a consumer dud, does not work for SMBs and is of marginal use for business professionals and is a tablet and/or a PC with some confusing user experiences, the ultimate question is simple but impossible to answer: who is the Surface 2 for?

"Microsoft employees," Sharma joked.

In the end, that may be the brutal truth of the Surface 2 and Windows RT.

[Mirror]

The recently reported gory rape of a two-year-old baby by a police corporal in Mararaba, a neighbouring town to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, last week, triggered the anger of senators as they subsequently advocated stricter sanctions against paedophiles, writes GEORGE OJI

There seems to be no doubt that either way it's perceived, it offends human imagination. Could it have been caused by sheer insanity or madness? Or was it driven by one of those beliefs that having intercourse with an underaged person would cure certain ailments or diseases?

Or better still, was it a case of living out the paedophilia character in one? These were some of the puzzles that the senators set out to unravel as they debated the act that involved a police corporal, one Anthony Onoja, who raped a two-year-old Chinwendu Onwudiwe recently.

The said misdeed took place in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, sometimes last month. The incident was, however, brought to the attention of the Senate through a motion sponsored last week by Senator Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom, North) and entitled, "Cruelty against infants."

The lawmakers were informed that, but for the rather belated report by the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, which was aired on Sunday, October 20, during one of its special news features; Newsline, the incident would perhaps have passed unnoticed; as one of those numerous unreported cases of abuses that take place against the Nigerian children almost on daily basis across the nooks and crannies of the country.

According to the NTA report, the incident had taken place about two weeks before it was drawn to the attention of the media house, which led to the report. There were also reports that the alleged police corporal who committed the crime took advantage of his office to suppress the report from getting to the fore. Senator Esuene, who said she was greatly moved by the report, promptly cashed on the incident to rush a motion to the Senate so that the red chamber would broadly look at the growing acts of cruelty to babies, involving their being kidnapped, abused and often sold as commodities.

As distasteful as the rape case was, the lawmaker said she was miffed that about two weeks after it was reported to the police, the service was yet to take any actions against the perpetrator. What was perhaps, more worrisome to the lawmaker on the matter was that Onoja's case was not the first time police officers were involved in intercourseual abuse of infant girls in the country, yet the matter would be swept under the carpets.

The major concern of the lawmaker who is the chairperson, Senate Committee on Women, Youths and Children was how to shield and protect numerous innocent minors, who are very vulnerable to different forms of abuse by unscrupulous persons in the society. What to do, particularly on the issue of the rape by the police of infants and minors? Esuene said there was need to promptly arrest this impunity and weed out bad eggs and protect the image of the Nigerian Police. How to go about it?

She urged that the Inspector General of Police to cause the prosecution of the culprits and report back to the Senate in two weeks time. But the snag here is first, according to our jurisprudence, the police can only investigate the matter and hands off the issue of prosecution to the Attorney General. Secondly, the law under which the lawmaker wants the perpetrators to be tried on, which is the Child Rights Act, has not been fully ratified by all the 36 states of the federation.

By her admission too, the Nasarawa State government is one of those states that is yet to append its signature to authenticate the act. In which case, given the federalist structure of government, the Inspector General of Police can only push the State Commissioner of police to expedite action on the investigation of the matter but cannot direct the Nasarawa State Attorney General to go ahead with the prosecution.

The lawmaker noted that sections 31 and 32 of the Child rights Act, make the matter a criminal offence, which attracts life imprisonment or 14 years imprisonment, depending on the nature of the abuse. The motion by Esuene was perhaps the long expected opportunity many of the senators were awaiting to vent their spleen on the activities of paedophiles in the country.

For instance, Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers North-West) who was one of the vocal contributors to the motion, was very quick to caution on the grave dangers paedophiles constitute in every society they are found. But first, he corrected the misinformation and made the point that acts of rape and paedophilia have been part of human history for as far as minds can go back, noting that what happened to Baby Onwudiwe was not new because it has been happening all over the country and elsewhere.

According to the lawmaker, a paedophile is a paedophile. To further buttress this position, he described Onoja who has done this act as a paedophile, noting that, "if you move him to Bauchi, to Katsina, anywhere, he will still repeat the same act." For him, the reason why people are not afraid of committing this kind of offence, particularly in Nigeria is because at the end of the day, they know that nothing will happen. Drawing from experiences from other climes, Abe revealed that in other societies, what is done is that the government takes time to ensure that once you have shown any tendency of abusing children, you are not allowed to come into contact with children. In which case, you cannot be a Church worker, you cannot teach in any environment where children are left to move freely, and that wherever you go to live, the neighbours are informed that the person has this kind of history and so people can watch their children and not allow the person to have access to them. He argued that why the problem has persisted in Nigeria was that we have weak law enforcement; the state is weak and ineffective and unable to control the situation. According to Abe, "if we need to tackle this problem, we will have to tackle the enforcement structure because, that is exactly where this problem lies.

We must be able to identify people who have this tendency, we must ensure that we do not allow them come in contact with children and any school or Church that employs anybody to work with children without checking to know their history or if they are in the paedophilia register will be penalised; they will pay a fine or be convicted themselves of the same offence.

Unless we take practical steps to protect our children, they will not be protected." Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North), on his part, blamed the incidence on morals, which he opined is hugely deficit.

"Something is fundamentally wrong with us morally in Nigeria," he observed, regretting that, "yet we have more Churches and more Mosques springing up. As Christians or Muslims, none of these two religions permit this kind of thing. There is need for us to go back to the basics of our religion."

While observing that people often commit such heinous acts of rape or murder for the reasons that they are insane or want to make money or want to cure certain diseases or ailments, he said he was at sea regarding the rape by Onoja, because his reason(s) for engaging in the act remains inexplicable. The lawmaker stated that as far as his instincts could lead him, "This man is not a mad man, he is not insane.

On the contrary, he is a sane person." Lawan, who expressed complete loss of confidence in the Nigerian Police to intervene in the matter meaningfully, noted that, "As far as the Nigerian Police are concerned, I have difficulty to have confidence in the IGP to bring any report here. More worrisome is that one of theirs is involved. I don't know if it is going to work. While I do not have an idea how to go about this, I believe that for the IGP to bring a report on this is not likely to work."

In his concluding remarks, Senate President David Mark expressed equal bemusement as his colleagues regarding the gory rape by Onoja and such similar acts by men and officers of the Nigerian Police Force, stressing that, "We cannot have words adequate enough to condemn this act." Mark was of the view that the reason why people obey laws is because of fear of punishment.

He isolated Nigeria as one of the few countries where people hardly face the long arms of the law when they commit crimes. According to him, "Crimes are committed all over the world, not only in Nigeria.

The difference is that when crimes are committed here, first we do not find the people and when we do, we do not punish them." Mark's panacea for having a lawful Nigeria is that we must begin to punish those who commit crimes no matter how small or big and irrespective of who they are.

Regarding the rape by Onoja, the Senate President had no qualms prescribing for capital punishment for the law enforcement corporal, insisting that, "I believe that this particular case must attract maximum punishment in whatever way we look at it."

[Mirror]

For long, infrastructure in Ekiti State practically turned into public nightmare. Today, the story has changed. There is a new lease of life in the state with robust infrastructural development through Kayode Fayemi's Midas touch. ABIODUN NEJO reports

When on October 16, 2010, Dr. Kayode Fayemi was sworn in as governor of Ekiti State, he did not mince words about his developmental vision for Ekiti and his mission in office while delivering his inaugural address.

Among others, Fayemi, who described the state of infrastructure and public utilities in the state as "public nightmare", promised to improve on the infrastructure in the state and as well, industrial development which are key in the bid to banish poverty in the state and people's lives.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure, Mr. Kayode Jegede, said the state of decay of the infrastructure in the state before the inception of the present administration was better imagined than described.

Water treatment plant at Efon Alaaye He said: "Water was not flowing at all anywhere in the state, many communities in the state were in darkness as they could not access electricity from the national grid, necessary physical infrastructure needed in the capital city were not in place. Worse still, the state did not have an e-mail, much more having anything to do with ICT."

The road situation in the state before Fayemi came to office, according to the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Roads, Hon. Sunday Adunmo, "was terrible and messy," making one to conclude that there was no road in the state.

Adunmo, who said there was nothing to write home about the road situation inherited from the ousted Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government in the state, said "the roads in all parts of the state were in a total state of disrepair. What we had then was road revolution as signpost on vehicles without the translations on the roads."

With the low revenue from the Federation Account and the abysmal low internally generated revenue, IGR watchers had always believed there was little or nothing the Fayemi government could do about the parlous state of infrastructure on ground at that time. This was why many doubting Thomases had taken Fayemi's promises at the inception of the administration as empty promises.

But Fayemi is ever persuaded that the presence of necessary infrastructure as roads, power, water, security, and orderliness serve as enabling environment for investment, which he believed was necessary in the state to change it from its civil service orientation to an industrial economy.

As such, as soon as he settled down in office, the governor began processes of holistic transformation of the state along the line of his administration's Eight-Point Agenda which had infrastructural and industrial development as second and sixth items respectively on it.

The governor, through honest execution and implementation of the various intervention programmes in the areas of infrastructure and industrial development, no doubt, has achieved remarkable visible success in the present physical outlook of the state which is now an incentive to investments.

Ado-Iyin road This, no doubt, is why the governor, three years after, can beat his chest and say: "Our administration has achieved very significant progress in the area of infrastructural development across the state. We have worked hard to create the optimal physical environment that would stimulate economic activities, as well as improved security of lives and property."

In view of the importance of roads to the socioeconomic development of the state and indeed, any society, the governor did not mind committing a chunk of the bond he sourced from the capital market to the construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads across the state.

The result: Good roads today litter the state even in the rural areas and places erstwhile believed to be impossible with over 700 kilometres made up of intrastate and township roads completed by the present government, while many others are ongoing.

Adunmo said the less than N20 billion investment in roads was targeted at attracting investors to the state; ensuring comfort, safety and security of road users; aiding transportation of farm produce and as well boosting agriculture; among others.

The new look roads in the state have, no doubt, engendered accelerated growth in socio-economic activities and strengthened the state's competitiveness and attractiveness to both domestic and foreign investors and thus increased citizens' propensity to access economic opportunities.

Among roads completed by the administration are the dualisation of major roads in Ado Ekiti; 24km Ikogosi- Ipole-Iloro-Efon Road; 17km Ijero-Ipoti-Ayetoro Road; 17km Ilawe-Igbara Odo-Ibuji Road; 17km Ijan- Ise Road; 11.5km Ado-Ilawe road; and 10.75km Ado- Afao Roads.

Others which are ongoing included the 43km Oye-Ikun-Otun Road; 25.6km Ilupeju-Ire-Igbemoijan road; Ikere township roads; 12km Isan-Obon Ayegunle Road; Ijero township roads; and 11.4km Iropora-Epe-Araromi-Ijero Road.

As access to power supply remains an incentive for establishment of businesses – small or large scale – and a means of checking rural-urban drift, the Fayemi administration considered it a priority, hence the investment in the sector to benefit the populace.

Among the administration's intervention in this regard are provision of street lights in major streets of Ado Ekiti such as Ajilosun through Okeyinmi to Adebayo area and as well the popular Irona Street to make the state capital befitting of its status and as well improving security situation.

Also, over 150 transformers have been purchased and distributed to boost power supply in several communities across the state and intensify electrification of other numerous communities leading to a massive boost in economic activities and further unlocking citizens' access to diverse opportunities.

Moreover, the administration had in three years completed rural electrification of 15 new towns while the project is ongoing in the 16th community, a feat which the governor's Special Adviser on Infrastructure, Jegede, said surpassed what successive governments did in seven years in only six towns.

The water sector in the state has also received a fair share of the Governor's Midas touch as potable water now gets to over 55 per cent of the population of the state through the ingenuity of the Fayemi administration.

The governor, who did not hesitate to investigate the reason for the erstwhile parlous state of water supply in the state and the way out, embarked on massive rehabilitation and turn-around maintenance of the water facilities, laying of pipelines to increase reticulation, improving the power situation at the water facilities.

The administration has also put in some new water plants for some of the small towns, Ido Ile, Okemesi, Efon, Ipole Iloro, Erijiyan, and as well been able to make the Mary Hill Reservoir in Ado functional in addition to reforms to sustain the efforts and a water policy.

Other key steps taken by the Fayemi administration to reposition the infrastructural development of the state include: Award of contracts for the supply and installation of High Lift Pumps for eight communities; Procurement of 2500KVA power generating get for Ero Dam to ease water supply to people in 10 local government areas of the state; Purchase and distribution of over 100 transformers to boost power supply in several communities across the state and intensive electrification of other numerous communities; Increase in water supply from 25% to 52% and reactivation of all mini-dams in the state; Provision of trucks and equipment to the state fire service and donation of operational vehicles to the Swift Response Squad as well as two Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC, and newly-established Army base in Ekiti.

Also, towns and villages not currently connected to the national grid have also been provided with electricity including the Oke Ako, Irele and Otunja communities in Ikole LGA and Ilupeju-Ijan in Gbonyin LGA.

But Jegede, who said the present over 55 per cent water supply level was still below the 80 per cent target for 2014, assured that the target was achievable with ongoing efforts.

He said: "With our investment, we have been able to push it to over 55 per cent now. But we are not there yet; our target is minimum of 80 per cent, but we are hopeful of achieving that in the next one year.

"It is still work in progress. We are very confident that with the assistance of the World Bank and the European Union, and our own funds, we would be able to aggressively move towards it."

In the area of ICT, among other achievements including e-government, e-learning and the biometric payroll system, the state government two months ago began the laying of a fibre-optic cable in some parts of the capital city for faster means of internet access.

The idea, according to Jegede, "is that we want to make Ekiti State a knowledge-based economy so that the average person in his house, school or office can have ICT at an affordable cost and high speed.

"Then you will be able to do lot of interesting things. You can even sit here in Ado Ekiti and earn money from around the world. It is still a means of wealth creation for the people to move the state from a civil service economy," he said.

Other infrastructure in place by the administration include the Legacy Projects and other public buildings in the state capital as part of the designs to ensure the state capital has necessary infrastructure.

They are the Civic Centre, the New Government House, the State Mega Pavilion and the New Governor's Office which are at different stages of completion, while the new State House of Assembly, Deputy Governor's Office and Oluyemi Kayode Stadium rehabilitation among others have been completed.

The administration has also inaugurated an urban renewal programme and a beautification project which have, in addition to the infrastructure development, transformed the physical outlook of the capital city where the pilot schemes have taken off.

However, the result of the infrastructure development is that Ekiti is now a destination of choice to investors who now find the place attractive to operate, coupled with the Fayemi administration's industrial dream and peace and security, thus the stage is set for industrial revolution in the state.

[Mirror]

Uganda is holding the military commander of Congo's defeated M23 rebel movement after he surrendered, a Ugandan officer said on Thursday, allaying fears that it could still take up arms again.

Sultani Makenga's whereabouts had been unclear since Tuesday's declaration by the M23 that it was ending its 20-monthold insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, worrying some that he could be hiding with plans to regroup.

His surrender will be seen as a major achievement for the Congolese army, with the backing of a U.N. force, as it strives to restore calm in a region racked by war for two decades.

But analysts have warned against too much optimism for a sustained peace in the east of the vast nation, where the M23 was only one of several armed groups in the mineral-rich region.

"I can confirm to you he (Makenga) is with us," the senior Ugandan officer, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

"He surrendered to us yesterday (Wednesday) and we're holding him somewhere and some other commanders of his," he said, adding the group of rebels would be held at an undisclosed location until a peace agreement was signed. The Congolese government had no immediate comment.

The M23 group declared an end to its military campaign and said it would seek political talks after Congolese troops routed them from their hideouts with the support of a U.N. force of African troops with a mandate to intervene.

"We have roughly about 1,500 M23 combatants who surrendered to us.

We have disarmed all of them and we're in the process of documenting and categorizing all their weapons," said Captain Ronald Kakurungu, army spokesperson for Uganda's Western region.

That number of 1,500 is higher than most previous estimates of the strength of the M23, which experts had generally believed to have dwindled in recent months to a few hundred.

[The InfoStrides]

The  dualization  of the Abuja-Lokoja  road route no 50, section 3, which is a major link between the Northern and Southern parts of the country, is 90-percent near completion.

While speaking to the National Good Governance Team, led by the representative of the Minister of Information, Mr. Kinsley Osadolor, the Site Agent, Engr., Patrick Omenya informed that the Abaji-Kotonkarfi road being handled by Bulletin Construction Co Ltd, is one of the major routes used in transporting goods and services from the South to the North and vice versa.

He noted that over the years, the route has generated lots of traffic, due to increased activities and population of Abuja, resulting in frequent road hazards, adding that the construction of the additional lane and rehabilitation of the existing one will dualize the road to take care of the increased traffic volume, minimise accidents, reduce travel time and improve the economic and social benefits of the project corridor and the nation in general.

Engr. Omenya also informed that additional funding which was procured from the SURE–P has boosted the performance of the contractors.

While responding, the leader of the National Good Governance Team and representative of the Minister of Information, Mr Kinsley Osadollor expressed confidence in the progress of work, adding that completion of the project is assured with the resumption of adequate funding and support from the SURE-P proceeds.

[FIFA]

[/t]

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - NOVEMBER 08:  The Nigerian team arrive at the stadium before the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 Final between Nigeria and Mexico at the Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium on November 8, 2013 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  (Photo by Richard Heathcote - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

[TechHive]

   Whatever you think of their products, there's one segment where Microsoft has unquestionably led: advertising. Ane—the bizarre, wonderful anime that Microsoft has put together for Internet Explorer—falls squarely in that category.

Meet Inori Aizawa, the "anime personification" of Internet Explorer. Inori has her own Facebook page, which appeared at the end of October, during the AFA13 conference in Singapore. A screencap of the anime is credited to "Zi Rong and Team CACANi."

MicrosoftMicrosoft's Inori Aizawa  "When I was younger, I used to be a clumsy, slow, and awkward girl," "Aizawa" says. "However, just like the story of ugly duckling, people told me that I have really matured and changed over the years. I feel confident in my abilities now, and I'm eager to show you what I can do."

The Verge describes Microsoft's anime fetish over the past few years, which has been mostly confined to its Asian customers.

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[TheNation]

Communities affected by flood in Agenebode, Etsako East Local Government Council of Edo State, received free malaria treatment and mosquito-treated nets yesterday.

The drugs and mosquito treated nets were donated to the communities by the Agbami Partners which comprised Chevron Nig. Ltd, Star Deep Water Petroluem Limited, Famfa Oil Limited, NNPC,Statoil and Petroleo Brasileiro Nigerai Ltd. It would be recalled that over 20 communities in Edo State were affected by the flood disaster which occurred last year.

Speaking at the occasion, the Director, Star Deepwater Petroleum, Mr Jeffrey Ewing, said they are implementing the Roll Back Malaria in the affected communities in order to add value to the lives of the people and contribute positively to the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

According to him, "today's event is another indication of the partner's determined efforts to improve primary health care delivery in Nigeria.

" Malaria is a major killer disease severely affecting mostly children

under five years of age and pregnant women.

" But besides malaria, the Agbani partners have also implemented awareness programme on HIV and AIDS, diabetes and other diseases in several communities across the six geo political zones in the country".

Chairman of Etsako East Local Government Council, Prince Suleiman Afegbua, who declared the programme open, expressed joy over the gesture and urged the beneficiaries to make good use of the mosquito-treated nets.

The Okumagbe of Weppawano, who was represented by Chief Oshomah Akenabor, commended the Agbami partners for coming to the aid of the flood affected communities, assuring that "our people make good use of the mosquito treated nets and also adhere strictly to the prescription of the malaria drugs distributed to us."

 

The post Flood:  Communities receive free malaria treatment in Edo appeared first on The Nation.

[TheNation]