Who Should Be on This Year’s ‘100 Most Influential People’ List?

Time magazine has released the list of people who are worthy of being among the 100 most influential people in the world.

See below;

Alfonso Cuarón

Cuarón took home Oscars for Best
Director and Best Film Editing this year
for Gravity, which achieved its visual
effects using cutting-edge technology.

Benedict Cumberbatch

It was a marquee year for Cumberbatch,
who in 2013 appeared in everything from
box-office hit Star Trek Into Darkness to
the critically acclaimed 12 Years a Slave .

Lena Dunham

The Girls creator, writer and star is busier
than ever, but that hasn’t stopped her
from landing a reported $3.7 million book
deal and hosting Saturday Night Live.

Megan Ellison

You may not have heard of this 28-year-
old indie-film producer, but you’ve
probably seen some of the movies she has
made happen, including Zero Dark Thirty,
Spring Breakers and American Hustle .

Jimmy Fallon

The nicest guy in showbiz brought The
Tonight Show back to New York City and
perfected an airtight formula for creating
viral hits, all while becoming a first-time
father.

Jon Hamm

The award-winning actor who wows us as
Mad Men’ s brooding Don Draper makes
the leap to the big leagues with Disney’s
upcoming Million Dollar Arm .

Kim Kardashian

The reality star seems to be getting
everything she wants, thanks to baby
North, fiancé Kanye and that much
discussed Vogue cover.

Anna Kendrick

You couldn’t go anywhere last year
without hearing “Cups,” the earworm hit
sung by the actress in the cult hit Pitch
Perfect . And she just won rave reviews for
her SNL hosting debut.

Keegan-Michael Key and
Jordan Peele

The comic pair keeps us laughing with
their eponymous hit sketch series on
Comedy Central.

Jenji Kohan

After creating one of the buzziest shows
on Netflix, Kohan gets to prove that the
series isn’t a fluke when the second
season is released this summer.

Jennifer Lawrence

America’s best friend landed another
Oscar nomination for her role in
American Hustle and continues to
dominate the box office as Katniss in the
Hunger Games franchise.

Jared Leto

The multitalented entertainer racked up
plenty of golden trophies for his role in
Dallas Buyers Club and launched the much
discussed man-bun trend.

Matthew McConaughey

From rom-coms to Oscar-worthy, the
actor has reinvented himself to become
one of Hollywood’s most sought-after
stars.

Steve McQueen

Capturing hearts and minds with 12 Years
a Slave , McQueen is the first African-
American director to win Best Picture at
the Oscars.

Seth Meyers

The Saturday Night Live alum has stepped
out from behind the famous Weekend
Update desk and transitioned into a
lovable Late Night host.

Lupita Nyong’o

The red carpet’s It girl delivered an epic
performance in 12 Years a Slave — landing
her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
— and became the new face of Lancôme.

RuPaul

The drag superstar became an unlikely
pop star in the ’90s, topping charts and
becoming the face of MAC cosmetics. Now
his Logo series, RuPaul’s Drag Race , is
airing its fifth season and attracting
celebrity fans like Lady Gaga.

Amy Poehler

The comedian earned legions of fans for
her real-girl attitude and funny-girl
hysterics, and this year she won Best
Actress in a TV Comedy at the Golden
Globes for her role on Parks and
Recreation —all while hosting the show.

Robert Redford

The film legend, who also founded the
Sundance Institute and Film Festival 30
years ago, is — at 77 — still starring in
large studio films and indie flicks, all
while raising awareness for the
environment.

David O. Russell

The film director catapulted Jennifer
Lawrence to stardom, earned 10 Academy
Award nominations for American Hustle
and signed on to a TV drama, his first,
with ABC.

Meryl Streep

The legendary actress broke her own
record this year with an 18th Oscar
nomination for her performance in
August: Osage County .

Cecily Strong

The SNL funnywoman was promoted to
Weekend Update co-anchor, now opposite
Colin Jost.

Kerry Washington

The actress won rave reviews for her
performance as D.C. crisis manager Olivia
Pope on Scandal , one of ABC’s highest-
rated shows.

Matthew Weiner

Mad Men begins its seventh and final
season this month, a victory lap for a
show that has come to stand for the new
golden age of television.

Kanye West

The rapper-singer-designer won critical
acclaim with last year’s Yeezus and nabbed
a Vogue cover with fiancée Kim
Kardashian.

Shailene Woodley

The 22-year-old star of Divergent has
become a press darling in recent months
and will appear in The Fault in Our Stars .

Robin Wright

Her work as the ruthless Claire
Underwood in House of Cards earned the
actress an Emmy nomination and a Best
Actress Golden Globe, the first for a
Netflix performance.

David Letterman

In a year that saw the veteran comedian
surpass Johnny Carson as the longest-
running late-night TV talk-show host,
Letterman announced that he’ll retire in
2015, leaving late night’s landscape wide
open.

To vote visit  time.com/55765/time-100-2014-poll-movies-tv/   for more details.

BBC picks interest in @Ciaxin’s disappearance

The disappearance of Ciaxon who twitted the picture of Soldiers during Sunday March 30th jail break,has gone international.

BBC report;

A man who live-tweeted from the scene of
an attempted jailbreak in the Nigerian capital
Abuja 12 days ago, has disappeared.
Activists believe he may have been arrested,
and have launched a Twitter campaign for
his release.

The hashtag #FreeCiaxon and the Twitter
handle @ciaxon have been trending in
Nigeria since late on Wednesday. There’s
also a lot of discussion about it on Facebook.
On 30 March, the man who runs the @ciaxon
account found himself at the scene of a
dramatic fight between Nigerian security
forces and detainees trying to escape from
the State Security Service (SSS)
headquarters.

It was big news in Nigeria. The SSS HQ is a
stone’s throw from the presidential palace, and the
detainees were – according to officials – suspected
militants from the notorious group, Boko Haram.
Official sources say more than 20 people were
killed.

Much of the news came from social media
sources at the scene – like @ciaxon. It’s believed
Yusuf Siyaka Onimisi – also referred to as Isiaka
Yusuf – runs @ciaxon. He tweeted developments,
including a series of images showing both the
attackers and Nigerian soldiers.
The pictures were
picked up by news outlets in the country. But
since then, there has been complete silence on
Twitter from @ciaxon. And the silence has not
been just virtual. Yusuf Siyaka Onimisi’s brother
Sanusi told BBC Trending that he has not been
able to reach him since that day. His car has been
left abandoned. “Nobody has given us any
information. We are in the darkness. It’s inhuman,
it’s very, very unfair,” he says. When a friend
contacted Yusuf Siyaka Onimisi’s workplace to
ask where he was, he was told he had been
arrested.

The SSS has not responded to confirm or deny
Yusuf Siyaka Onimisi’s detention. But Nigerians
have taken to social media to demand answers.
“How can you arrest people for taking pictures –
this is the 21st Century,” says Fola Lawal, a
Nigerian now based in Qatar, who started the
Twitter hashtag #FreeCiaxon. “I would have done
the same in his shoes. It’s called citizen
reporting.”

Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission has
started an investigation into his whereabouts.
High-profile figures, including the World Bank’s
former Africa vice-president Obiageli Ezekwesili,
have tweeted calling for his release. “It’s very,
very important this gets attention,” says lawyer
and writer Ayo Sogunro, who’s been researching
and tweeting actively about the case. Critics say
the government is trying to regulate social media.
The irony in this case, says Sogunro, is the tweets
from the @ciaxon account were broadly
supportive of the security forces.

Reporting by Cordelia Hebblethwaite

UN to go dark globally

Lights dimmed at UN Headquarters to observe
Earth Hour in 2012. UN Photo/Bo Li

The United Nation has announced that the Organization will shuts off the lights later this evening, at its iconic Headquarters complex in New York and other facilities
around the world in
observance of “Earth Hour,”

This is an annual annual global event,which is done  to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change and promoting substantial energy consumption.

“Earth Hour” is organised by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to encourage individuals, companies,
organizations and Governments throughout the world to switch
off their lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m., local time worldwide.

However,the U.N in a statement said, “For the last few years, the UN Headquarters in New York, its offices in Geneva and many
other UN facilities around the world have joined other international landmarks participating in
Earth Hour.

“This year, the UN is going the
extra mile and turning off all non-essential
lights at its NY campus for three hours, from
7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., local time.”

Libya army base Suffers Terrorist Attack

A car bomb has allegedly struck the Libyan Military academy on Monday, living at least 8 people dead.

The attack which was said to have targetted the Soldiers,who just graduated from the academy,had been said to have resulted in the death of more than a dozen people.

The bomb blast occurred at the city of Benghazi at the early hours of Monday.

However, The Libyan Government has acknowledge that it was a “terrorist act” and a three days mourning has been declared.

Malaysia Plane Crash: Co-Pilot spoke last words

               Photo credit to BBC

There is a possibility that the co-pilot of the missing Malaysia plane which has been missing for weeks,made a last statement before the plane disappeared.

According to report by BBC news,it was gathered that the officials in Malaysia believe the co- pilot of the missing flight MH370 spoke his last word to ground controllers before it vanished.

At a news conference on Monday,it was made known by the chief executive of Malaysia
Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahy
that co-pilot Fariq
Abdul Hamid had calmly said “all right, good night”
shortly before the plane disappeared.

Investigators from different part of the world have been involve in torror searching of the plane,but some people believed the plane pass through the Bermuda triangle.

Morover, twenty six countries have been involved in the searching of the missing plane,which has 239 people on board.

“Today, I can confirm that search and rescue
operations in the northern and southern corridors
have already begun,” Malaysian Transport Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference on
Monday.

However,It is not clear whether the last words came before or after one of the plane traffic device went off.

Satellite data shows hijacked Malaysian plane was last seen flying towards Pakistan

Investigators say the missing Malaysia Airlines jet
was hijacked, steered off-course and could have
reached Pakistan. A Malaysian government official
said people with significant flying experience could
have turned off the flight’s communication
devices.

The representative said that hijacking theory was
now ‘conclusive’, and, as a result, police have
raided the luxury homes of both the captain (right)
and the co-pilot (left)

The search operation has now been focused on
two ‘corridors’, one which extends from  north
west from Thailand to the Kazakstan-
Turkmenistan border and the other which opens
out into the southern Indian Ocean. Continue…

Cuntries in the plane’s potential flightpath have
now joined a huge diplomatic effort to locate the
missing passengers, but China described the
revelation as ‘painfully belated’.
While Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak
refused to confirm that flight MH370 was taken
over, he admitted ‘deliberate action’ on board the
plane resulted in it changing course and losing
connection with ground crews.

The plane’s communication system was switched
off as it headed west over the Malaysian seaboard
and could have flown for another seven hours on
its fuel reserves.

It is not yet clear where the plane could have
been taken, however Mr Razak said the most
recent satellite data suggests the plane could have
headed to one of two possible flight corridors.
Countries in the plane’s potential flightpath have
now joined a huge diplomatic effort to locate the
missing passengers, but China described the
revelation as ‘painfully belated’.

While Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak
refused to confirm that flight MH370 was taken
over, he admitted ‘deliberate action’ on board the
plane resulted in it changing course and losing
connection with ground crews.

The plane’s communication system was switched
off as it headed west over the Malaysian seaboard
and could have flown for another seven hours on
its fuel reserves.
It is not yet clear where the plane was taken,
however Mr Razak said the most recent satellite
data suggests the plane could have headed to one
of two possible flight corridors.

The last radar contact was made at 8.11am on
March 8 along one of the corridors, seven hours
and 31 minutes after take off, but the plane could
have deviated further from these points.
U.S. investigators have not ruled out the
possibility that the passengers are being held at an
unknown location and suggest that faint ‘pings’
were being transmitted for several hours after the
flight lost contact with the ground.

NASA has also joined the international search
operation, analysing satellite data and images that
have already been gathered.

Malaysian authorities and others are urgently
investigating the two pilots and 10 crew members,
along with the 227 passengers on board.

Source: Daily Mail UK

Chinese satellite find suspected crash site of missing Malaysian flight

A Chinese satellite searching for missing
Malaysian Airlines flight has found what is being
described as three ‘large, floating objects’ in the
South China Sea, UK Daily Mail reports

The potentially crucial development comes
on the fifth day of the search for the Boeing
777 seems to corroborate the testimony of a
New Zealand oil worker who claims to have
witnessed the crash of the missing airplane
early on Saturday morning. Coni

It is also in the original search area under
the flight’s original search path and appears
to discount the theory that the aircraft turned
back towards Malaysia and crashed
hundreds of miles away on the other side of
the Malaysian peninsula.

‘IIt’s where it’s supposed to be,’ Peter Goelz, a
former National Transportation Safety Board
managing director, told CNN remarking on the
‘great skepticism’ about reports the aircraft
carrying 239 passengers had turned around to go
back over Malaysia.

‘I think they’ve got to get vessels and aircraft
there as quickly as humanly possible.’
The new suspect crash site is about 140 miles
from the flight’s last radar contact as broadcast
by its transponder.

The three objects are large, measuring 43ft by
59ft, 46ft by 62ft and 79ft by 72ft.
‘Chinese satellites have found smoke and floating
objects … At present we cannot confirm this is
related to the missing aircraft,’ said Li Jiaxiang,
China’s civil aviation chief on Thursday.
The site is also near where South China Sea oil rig
worker Michael Jerome McKay today described
seeing what he believes to be the plane burning –
in one piece for 10-15 seconds – flying at a high
altitude slightly off from the standard route of
planes that cross the sea shortly after the plane
vanished.

‘There was no lateral movement, so it was either
coming toward our location, stationary, or going
away from our location,’ he wrote in a letter to his
employers about the sighting on Saturday and
seen by ABC News.

Deputy general director of Vietnam’s air traffic
management, Doan Huu Gia, confirmed he had
been sent an email from McKay, the BBC reported.
‘We received an email from a New Zealander who
works on one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau.
‘He said he spotted a burning [object] at that
location, some 300 km southeast of Vung Tau.’
Vietnam has already searched the area where
Chinese satellites showed objects that could be
debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jet but a
plane has been sent to check the area again,
Vietnamese military officials said.

‘We are aware and we sent planes to cover that
area over the past three days,’ Deputy Transport
Minister Pham Quy Tieu told Reuters. ‘Today a
(military) plane will search the area again,’ he
said.
And on Thursday morning Vietnamese authorities
said two military jets searching for clues top the
missing Malaysia Airlines jet found no wreckage at
the location a Reuters journalist on board said.

Aircraft repeatedly circled the area over the South
China Sea but were unable to detect any objects,
said the journalist, who flew aboard a Antonov 26
cargo plane for three hours.

China’s State Administration for Science,
Technology and Industry for National Defense
announced the discovery of the images in the area
where rescuers first started looking on Saturday –
along with other images of what appear to show
an oil slick tracing the surrounding area.

The images were captured on March 9 – the day
after the plane went missing, but were somehow
not released until Wednesday. There were 153
Chinese nationals on board the flight.

China’s State Administration for Science,
Technology and Industry for National Defence
gave no reason for the delay in releasing the
images – or why it has not passed the pictures to
Malaysian authorities.

Culled from UK Daily Mail

Letter from Africa: Our dreams are valid

Lupita Nyong’o said the colour of this dress
reminded her of Nairobi

In our series of letters from African journalists,
broadcaster and media trainer Joseph Warungu
reflects on the aftermath of Lupita Nyong’o’s
historic success at the Oscars.

Although the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony has
come and gone, its after-effects are still being felt
in Kenya.

The first wave of activity happened soon after
Lupita Nyong’o was announced Oscar winner for
best actress in a supporting role in 12 Years A
Slave.

The media, especially on Twitter, went wild with
jubilant Kenyans sending and sharing the news, joy
and jokes.

One Kenyan created much laughter by asking:
“Which is this Oscar guy that Lupita has won over?”

Yet others began to wonder whether it was now
time to seriously analyse what the waters of Lake
Victoria – on the shores of Kisumu in Western
Kenya – actually contained.

That region of the country and its Luo community
have made global history for a second time.

‘Dream big’

It was the home of both Barack Obama’s father and
Lupita Nyong’o’s family. Indeed, her father, Anyang
Nyong’o is the Senator for Kisumu county and
some of Kenya’s sharpest minds come from this
region.

And thanks to her comments, we now have a blue
Nairobi. The Kenyan capital has always been
known as the green city in the sun, because of its
parks and trees. Although with weather patterns
running amok, it often feels like the great sun in the
city.

But not any more. Thanks to Lupita’s comment that
the beautiful light blue dress she wore at the
Oscars reminded her of Nairobi, we now have
Nairobi blue.

Whether this is a new colour, city, dress or state of
mind, I can’t tell.

What I know for certain is that Lupita’s “your
dreams are valid” statement in her acceptance
speech has become a catch-phrase and a rallying
call for Kenyans, especially the youth, to dream big.

You’ll now hear young artists and upcoming
entrepreneurs saying that they will push
themselves to rise to the highest ranks – because
their dreams are valid.

‘Collective heart failure’

Lupita’s victory at the Oscars is a demonstration
that the African craft of telling or portraying stories
is at the highest global standard.

Lupita Nyong’o’s success has made many Africans
proud of their identity

Ivorian footballer Didier Drogba has shown Africa’s
talent on the sports field

Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says the story
of Africa is often over-simplified

The fact that she won and faced the world without
lightening her dark skin complexion, or extending
her short African hair, makes another statement –
that an authentic African identity does not have to
be negotiable for Africa to be heard loud and clear
across the planet.

Proudly African, Lupita even gave the Western
world collective heart failure as they struggled to
pronounce her second name correctly.

As an ever-optimistic believer that Africa will soon
take over the world, I feel the time has come for
the continent to dream mega and now use its own
voice to narrate the African experience.

Hollywood is one of the biggest factories and
exporters of Western culture and the American
experience. And Africa is a big importer of the
same.

‘Global fashion’

But the boot is gradually shifting to the other foot
with Africa already exporting its sporting talent, its
innovations and some of its culture from sources
such as the Nigerian Nollywood film industry.

The Nollywood film industry is booming

Now we must export our thinking. When the world
begins to think what we think and why we think it,
our story will move from what author Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie describes as the single story, to
being understood in its truly complex weave of the
African.

For this to happen we have to believe that our
dreams are valid and that only we can validate
those dreams.

It’s also about believing in ourselves as Africans –
that we can change the world, even if it’s one
colour at a time.

Lupita’s Nairobi blue certainly seems to have the
potential of becoming the new black on the global
fashion scene.

SOURCE: BBC NEWS

World Wide Web born at CERN 25 years ago

The image on the cover page of Tim
Berners-Lee’s proposal for the World Wide
Web in March 1989 (Image: CERN)

In March 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist
working at CERN, submitted a proposal to
develop a radical new way of linking and
sharing information over the internet. The
document was entitled Information
Management: A Proposal . And so the web
was born.

The first website at CERN – and in the world –
was dedicated to the World Wide Web
project itself. Last April CERN initiated a
project to restore the first website, and to
bring back the spirit of that time through its
technical innovation and the founding
principles of openness and freedom.

In 1993 CERN put the World Wide Web
software in the public domain. CERN made
the next release available with an open
licence, as a more sure way to maximise its
dissemination. Through these actions, making
the software required to run a web server
freely available, along with a basic browser
and a library of code, the web was allowed to
flourish.

“Beyond CERN’s role in helping us understand
the universe, it was a great place to work in
1989,” said Tim Berners-Lee. “CERN was an
early adopter of Internet protocols, and their
support for a Royalty-Free Web has been a
key to its widespread adoption today.”

Now Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) and the World Wide
Web Foundation are launching a series of
initiatives to mark the 25th anniversary of
the original proposal.

In addition, Berners-Lee and the Web
Foundation are launching “The web we
want ” campaign to promote a global
dialogue and change in public policy to ensure
that the web remains an open, free, accessible
medium – so that everyone on the planet can
participate in the free flow of knowledge,
ideas and creativity online.

SOURCE: CERN

New York buildings explode and collapse

At least two women die as suspected gas blast
destroys two Harlem buildings, with more than a
dozen others hurt.

Two multi- use buildings have collapsed in New
York ‘s east Harlem neighbourhood, killing at least
two women and injuring more than a dozen other
people .

The buildings , located on the east block of 116 th
street and Park Avenue , exploded and collapsed at
about 13 :00 GMT on Wednesday, according to police.

” It was an explosion and a building collapsed,” a
spokesman for New York police department told the
AFP news agency , giving no further details .

New York’ s Mayor Bill de Blasio later said that the
explosion ” destroyed two buildings” that sat above a
ground -level church and a piano store.

A witness who lives across the street told CBS news
that he saw the building on fire and that his relatives
living further away also felt the blast.

” I saw a lady running with no shoes on. It was
crazy,” he said. “First of all, I thought it was an
earthquake . I got calls from my family who felt it too
and that was all the way up town. ”

Gas- like odour

The New York fire department told AFP that 168 fire
fighters had responded to the explosion at the six –
storey buildings.

The fire department said they believed the collapse
was triggered by a gas explosion, but investigations
were ongoing as rescue workers continued to search
for people in the rubble.

” Con Edison, which is one of the gas companies
here, said that they were responding to a gas – like
odour just before the explosion occurred, ” said Al
Jazeera’ s Morgan Radford, reporting from the scene.

” Just before the explosion a resident in a
neighboring building complained of a gas odour to
Con Edison , officials said.

Alfonso Quiroz , a spokesman for the gas company
said they ” dispatched a crew two minutes later and
the crews arrived just as the explosion occurred .”
He added that Con Edison is ” looking at any
connection “.

Michael Parrella , a spokesman for the fire
department, said: ” It ‘s a very active scene. It ‘s a
very chaotic scene.”

All train services in and out of Grand Central
Terminal were cancelled until further notice due to
the explosion.