Messi made a joke out of Gerard Pique

Lionel Messi showed he has a sense of humour as he made a joke out of Gerard Pique after the Barcelona defender was named the Catalan Sportsman of 2015. 

Shobizz Blog - Gerard Pique

Pique, who attended the Catalan Sports Federation's gala with his partner, Shakira, seemed unusually nervous when he collected his award on the stage. 

After briefly losing his voice, the 28-year-old repeatedly began to bang his hand on his leg, before rubbing it as he tried to regather his composure. 

Watching on television at home, Messi picked up on his team-mate’s jitters and posted a video of the incident on his Instagram account. 

Alongside the video, he wrote: “How is the quadricep, Geri??? I hope it’s OK!!! Congratulations for the prize.”

Of course, the Argentina international accompanied his post with several laughing emojis. 

Presumably Pique, who’s known as one of the pranksters in the Barcelona dressing room, will already be plotting a way to get his own back.

Source from Goal

China Restaurant Explosion

At least 17 people were killed on Saturday after an explosion ripped through a restaurant in eastern China, state media said.
A gas cylinder exploded in a restaurant in the city of Wuhu in Anhui province, causing a fire, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Similar explosions happen relatively often in China, where safety regulations are often laxly enforced.
The incident is being investigated, local officials said on social media.
Giant explosions at a chemical storage facility in the northern city of Tianjin killed 165 people in August.

Turkey’s deadliest attackS

At least 86 people were killed Saturday in the Turkish capital Ankara when twin blasts ripped through groups of leftist and pro-Kurdish activists gathering for an anti-government peace rally, the deadliest attack in the history of modern Turkey.
The attack, near Ankara’s main train station, ratcheted up tensions ahead of Turkey’s November 1 snap elections which were already soaring amid the government’s offensive on Kurdish militants.
Bodies of the slain activists were seen strewn across the ground after the blasts, with the banners they had been holding lying next to them for the “Work, Peace and Democracy” rally.
Sixty-two people died at the scene of the blasts and 24 more then succumbed to their wounds in hospital, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told reporters in Ankara. He said another 186 people had been injured in the attack, 28 of them seriously.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the “heinous attack”, saying it was aimed at “our unity and our country’s peace.”
A Turkish government official told AFP that the authorities “suspect that there is a terrorist connection,” without giving further details. Reports said the authorities were investigating if a suicide bomber was involved.
Interior Minister Selami Altinok said he would not resign, denying there was a “security vacuum” in policing at the rally.
There were scenes of chaos after the blasts, as ambulances raced to get to the wounded and police cordoned off the area around the train station.
“We heard one huge blast and then one smaller explosion and then there was a great movement and panic. Then we saw corpses around the station,” said Ahmet Onen, 52.
“A demonstration that was to promote peace has turned into a massacre, I don’t understand this,” he said, sobbing.
Turkish police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators angered by the deaths of their fellow activists from the scene, an AFP correspondent reported.
– ‘Barbaric attack’ –
Amateur footage broadcast by NTV television showed smiling activists holding hands and dancing and then suddenly falling to the ground as a huge explosion went off behind them.
Reports said that hundreds of people in Ankara had rushed to hospital to donate blood for the victims.
The blast was the deadliest in the history of the modern Turkish Republic, surpassing the May 2013 twin bombings in Reyhanli on the Syrian border that killed over 50 people.
With international concern growing over instability in the key NATO member, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged Turkey to “stand united against terrorists.”
French President Francois Hollande condemned the “odious terrorist attack” while Russian President Vladimir Putin passed his condolences to Erdogan.
US ambassador John Bass said he was “appalled by the terrorist attack.”
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was hosting a meeting of top officials, including powerful spy chief Hakan Fidan, in the early afternoon to discuss the attack.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was to have been one of several groups that was to have taken part in the pro-peace rally.
“We are faced with a huge massacre. A barbaric attack has been committed,” said the HDP’s leader Selahattin Demirtas.
He blamed a “mafia state” and a “state mentality which acts like a serial killer” for the attack.
– PKK suspends activities –

Turkey’s deadliest attack - Shobizz Blog

The attack comes with Turkey on edge ahead of November 1 polls and a wave of unrest over the past few months.
An attack in the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc on July 20 targeting pro-HDP activists and blamed on Islamic State (IS) jihadists killed 32 people and wounded a hundred others.
The militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) accused Ankara of collaborating with IS and resumed attacks on the Turkish security forces after observing a two-year ceasefire.
Over 140 members of the security forces have since been killed while Ankara claims to have killed over 1,700 Kurdish militants in weeks of bombardments of PKK targets in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq.
With conspicuous timing, the PKK Saturday announced it would suspend all attacks — except in self defence — ahead of the polls.
“Heeding calls from Turkey and abroad, our movement has decided on a state of inactivity by our guerillas, unless our people and our guerilla forces are attacked,” Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella movement that includes the PKK, said in a statement.
The HDP performed strongly in the last election on June 7, winning 80 seats in parliament to deprive Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of an outright majority for the first time since it came to power in 2002.
The AKP then failed to form a coalition in months of talks, prompting Erdogan — who had been hoping for a large majority to push through reforms to boost his powers — to call another election on November 1.
The office of Davutoglu said that he had cancelled election campaigning for the next three days.

US general "Hospital never a legitimate target"

The US commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that his forces would never intentionally target a hospital and that all requests from Afghan troops for air support are thoroughly vetted.
General John Campbell was testifying to US lawmakers five days after a US air strike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the disputed Afghan city of Kunduz that killed at least 22 staff and patients.
President Barack Obama has apologized to the medical aid agency but three investigations — by the US military, by NATO and by Afghan officials — are underway and the general would not be drawn on their progress.

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But, asked about unconfirmed allegations that Afghan troops had called in the US strike because wounded Taliban fighters were being treated in the hospital, Campbell said that would not be a justification.
“A hospital is a protected facility. We would not target a hospital,” he told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee in Washington.
“When the Afghans call for fire, that’s not an automatic response. Every day the Afghans ask me for close air support and we just don’t go fire some place,” he said.
“We go through a rigorous procedure to put aerial fires on the ground — A US process, under the US authorities.
“So we’ve got to figure out what happened in that case but I don’t want people to think that just because the Afghans call fire that there’s automatic fire anywhere they want it, that’s just not the case.”
Asked whether the presence of Taliban fighters in a hospital could justify a strike, Campbell said simply: “No.”
On Thursday, Doctors Without Borders said nine patients and 24 staff are still missing after the bombing of the hospital, bringing the potential total toll to more than 50 people.

11 dead as US military plane crashes in Afghanistan

Eleven people have been killed in a crash of a US military transport aircraft at an airport in eastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman has said.
The crew of six US military service members were among the dead, along with another five passengers, civilians who were contracted employees of the US-led international force, the spokesman said.
The incident took place at around midnight [19:30 GMT] on Thursday at Jalalabad airport.
The army spokesman said that there were no reports of enemy fire at the time and the incident was under investigation, however, the Taliban claimed it had shot down the aircraft.
The contractors had been working for "Resolute Support," the NATO-led training mission.

The C-130 Hercules, a cargo plane built by Lockheed Martin, is powered by four turboprop engines and is used extensively by the military to ship troops and heavy gear.
The aircraft can take off and land on rough, dirt strips and is widely used by the US military in hostile areas.

Jalalabad is located near the border with Pakistan.
Training mission
Most NATO combat troops pulled out of Afghanistan last year but a small contingent remains, including roughly 10,000 US soldiers.
The US soldiers, along with other NATO troops and private contractors, are focusing on training Afghanistan's national security forces.
The crash comes with Afghan forces battling the Taliban which has blighted the country since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The Taliban's recent advances in the city of Kunduz and neighbouring Takhar and Baghlan provinces highlight that a large and strategic patch of northern Afghanistan is imperilled by a rapidly expanding battlefield.
It is also seen as a game-changer for the fractious armed movement that has been dogged by a leadership crisis since the announcement in July of founder Mullah Omar's death.

Mali to build first West Africa solar plant

Shobizz Blog - Mali Solar Energy

Mali has signed an agreement with a Norwegian renewable
energy specialist to build west Africa’s first industrial-scale solar power plant, the company announced in a statement on
Friday.
Oslo-based Scatec Solar said it had signed up to build the 52 million-euro ($58 million) unit near the southwestern city of
Segou and run it for 25 years.

“This landmark agreement signals the government’s commitment to meet the nation’s growing energy demand and to
provide clean, renewable and affordable energy to our people,” 

Energy Minister Mamadou Frankaly Keita was quoted as saying.
The plant is expected to produce enough electricity each year to
power 60,000 typical family homes, while cutting annual carbon dioxide emissions by
about 46,000 tonnes.
Mali, a volatile, conflict-hit country of over 16 million people, has been plagued in recent years by chronic electricity outages.

Shobizz Blog - Mali Solar Energy..

The government reported last year that the country, which is
almost two-thirds desert, had managed to supply just 45
percent of its electricity demand in 2013.

The administration in Bamako says Mali’s EDM-SA energy
company — two-thirds owned by the state and a third owned by a subsidiary of the Aga Khan
group — is in crisis, failing to ensure an adequate supply
despite state subsidies worth 87.7 million euros in 2013.

“After several years of
development efforts in the region, we can now move forward with the first utility-scale solar plant in west Africa,” Scatec
Solar CEO Raymond Carlsen said.

“The Malian authorities have
demonstrated decisive will to tackle the nagging issue of
power supply.”
Scatec will own 50 percent of the Segou plant while the World
Bank’s International Finance Corporation will hold 32.5%, leaving the remaining
equity to local partner Africa Power 1.
The project is to be funded by a combination of traditional bank
borrowing, a loan from the World Bank’s Investment Climate
Fund and equity contributed by the partners.

SCOAN Collapse Building Tragedy Court to rule on July 8

Shobizz Blog - SCOAN Collapse Building

THE coroner court conducting investigation into the collapse of a building belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) has fixed July 8, 2015 to deliver judgment in the inquest.

The presiding Chief Magistrate, Oyetade Komolafe, fixed the date yesterday after parties made their final submission on the matter before the court. It would be recalled that on September 12, 2014, a six-storey building within the premises of the church collapsed.
Lagos State government therefore set up an inquest to ascertain the cause of the building collapse, identify the victims and how they died.

Founder and Senior Pastor of the church, Prophet Temitope Joshua, had initially linked the incident to a strange aircraft hovering above the building shortly before the structure collapsed. The CCTV video was subsequently released by the church on social media platforms showing the plane allegedly hovering over the building before it crumbled.

Various organisations testified as witnesses during the proceedings, which lasted about eight months, giving various reasons why the building collapsed.
T.B Joshua refused to appear before the inquest insisting that he was not under any obligation to testify before the coroner. Although an appeal he filed before a Lagos High Court was overruled, he still did not appear before the panel.

At yesterday’s proceedings, counsel to SCOAN, Mr. Olalekan Ojo in his final address insisted that external forces remain the cause of the tragedy.

He referred to the testimony of a 37 year-old graduate of Chemistry from the University of Maiduguri, Mr. Biedomo Iguniewe, who suggested that the building might have collapsed due to infrasonic radiation.
Ojo further argued on the testimony of another witness that the non-existence of a building plan as stated by the Lagos State Government has nothing to do with the structure of the building, which he
maintained was constructed according to standard.

Ojo submitted that the contract for the collapsed building was awarded to competent engineers
and if anyone must be questioned for the tragedy, it should be the engineers and not
the Synagogue Church.

He, therefore, admonished the Lagos State Government to take appropriate steps to regularise the building construction and approval applications shown to be pending with the relevant state agencies.
After listening to all the counsel, Magistrate Komolafe thanked everyone who helped the inquest to arrive at a just judgment.

He thereafter adjourned judgment till July 8, 2015.

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Nigerian Oil & Gas are the cheapest in Africa

A survey conducted by online vehicle marketplace, Carmudi.com has shown that Nigeria remains the only country in Africa with the cheapest price of petrol at $ 0.46, about N92 per litre or 5.6% of the national average income per day.

Shobizz Blog - Oil & Gas

The survey, carried out in eighteen countries in emerging markets where Carmudi operates, is a result of an infograpic created by Carmudi using the prices from the second quarter of 2015 and 2014 average income data.

The data were sourced from the Nigeria National Bureau Statistics, Philippines Bureau of Labour and Employment Statistics, The Pan African Bank, Crédit Agricole, Trading Economics, Global Petrol Prices, and World Vision. 2014 income data were used for all countries except Vietnam (2015) and Sri Lanka (GDP per capita).

The survey which examined the fuel price and general affordability of petrol in the eighteen emerging markets showed Nigeria with cheapest petrol price while “fuel prices look different in East African countries with significantly lower average incomes. For instance, in Rwanda, where fuel costs $1.17, about N230, the average person makes only $1.55 per day, about N310. This implies that one liter accounts for over 75% of a typical daily income, almost a
full day’s work.”
The report further noted: “In Indonesia, where fuel subsidies
have been cut by the government since early 2015, most people are forced to spend over 30% of their daily earnings to buy a single liter of petrol.
In Sri Lanka, a single liter of fuel costs $0.96, taking up to nearly 45% of the national average daily

“Fuel prices in Mexico, the world’s seventh largest oil producer, are similar to prices in
several Asian countries such as
Vietnam, where a liter is priced at $0.92 and $0.97, respectively.
Despite the similar prices, the average daily income in Mexico is almost three times more than
Vietnam. It takes 7.8% of a day’s wage in Mexico to buy a
liter; whereas, in Vietnam it costs more than 25% of the average daily income.”

The survey also showed that, “Fuel prices in the oil rich Middle East countries are incredibly low, and that, coupled with the high average daily income, makes it the best place to own a gas guzzler. Prices range from $0.15 per liter in Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer with average daily income of $143.60, $0.26 in
Qatar, the world’s third largest oil producer with average daily income of $382.60 to $0.47 in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s eighth largest oil producer with average daily income of $170.00.”
Speaking on what motivated the survey, Head of Global Communications, Carmudi, Kalie Moore said:

“The research was carried out because Carmudi is dedicated to providing relevant information about the automobile industry, as we have become the go – to place for everything auto.”