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Harold Ekeh has a very tough decision to make. The 18-year-old Long Islander has waited anxiously for weeks since sending off his college applications. But he didn't expect this. Harold has been accepted by every single one - including all eight Ivy League schools. It comes a year after another high schooler from Long Island, Kwasi Enin, was met with the same news. He chose Yale....

The European Union observer group to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria has described President Goodluck Jonathan's conduct as a shining example that other world leaders should emulate. Leader of the delegation, Mr Santiago Fisas, gave the commendation after holding a closed-door meeting with the out-going President in his office. The five-man delegation was at the Presidential Villa to congratulate Dr. Jonathan for allowing a peaceful electoral process and conceding defeat. The group, which came to present the preliminary report on the outcome of the elections, said that the fact that President Jonathan conceded defeat saved Nigeria from degenerating into...

In coastal Maine, a youthful priest from Nigeria now tends to parishes long comprising millworker and fishing families, a stark reflection of how the Catholic Church is changing both here and across the globe.

Boko Haram fighters have been murdering dozens of young women and girls they had taken as 'wives' and using children as 'expendable cannon fodder', the U.N.'s human rights chief said today. As the Islamist militant group has retreated from parts of northeastern Nigeria, 'gruesome scenes of mass graves and further evident signs of slaughter,' has been brought to light, Zeid Raad al-Hussein told a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Boko Haram's reported use of children as shields and human bombs would, if confirmed, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. This comes in response to...

Boko Haram was a vehicle for Muslim political interests inside and outside Nigeria to destabilize the oil-rich country. By the end, even the Obama administration made it clear that Muhammadu Buhari, the Muslim ex-dictator who had seized power in a coup before being overthrown, was their choice. Simpson reports that Secretary of State John Kerry “made a mockery of the administration’s pretext by hinting in January meetings with both Jonathan and Buhari that the Obama administration might allow weapon sales after the election.” Now the election came out their way, but the weapons sales may be surplus to requirements. Boko...

A spokesman for Gen Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) party praised Mr Jonathan, saying: "He will remain a hero for this move. The tension will go down dramatically." The APC issued a statement after the result was announced, calling for "calm, sober celebrations" and warning supporters not to attack opponents. "He or she is not with me, whoever does that," the new president said. ... It is the fourth time the former military ruler, 72, has sought the presidency. He ruled Nigeria from January 1984 until August 1985, taking charge after a military coup in December 1983. Mr Jonathan had...

Plunging oil prices have been an economic windfall for U.S. consumers, primarily through greater savings at the pump. In energy-reliant countries around the world like Angola, however, the effect has been far less beneficial. Social and economic turmoil in countries like Venezuela and Russia—largely because of the swoon in global oil prices—has drawn attention away from Angola, an OPEC member that is Africa's second-largest oil producer. The country churns out 1.75 million barrels of oil per day, according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA). The sub-Saharan country is hugely dependent on oil production to generate revenue for its economy, which...

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. "We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any...

At least 2,000 jobs will likely be lost in New Mexico’s oil and gas industry in the coming months because of sharp declines in the price of crude oil, according to estimates by the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency on Sunday described President Obama's Middle East policy as one of "willful ignorance," saying the administration needs a clearer strategy for dealing with conflicts emerging across the region. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that recent developments in the Middle East are moving in a bad direction for the United States, with Iran "clearly on the march" to influence events in a "regional sectarian war." “At the end of the day, we have just this incredible policy confusion — never mind what our strategy is to...

The full-scale social engineering of President Barack Hussein Obama in the elections of countries where he has no business being seeks to install radical Islamists to power. Even though it’s s a provable deadly blueprint that’s putting the West at great risk, no one is calling him on it. Obama’s been on the trail of replacing Christian leaders with Islamic ones before he became president, starting with Kenya where he actively campaigned to elect Islamic defender Raila Odinga in 2007. Obama got away with it because following a violent post-electoral crisis, Odinga took office as Prime Minister in April...

When the notorious Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 278 school girls [1] from the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria last year, Michelle Obama began a Twitter hashtag campaign [2], #BringBackOurGirls. But behind the scenes, the Obama administration was undermining Nigeria’s efforts to take the battle to the terrorists. Obama refused to sell Nigeria arms and supplies critical to the fight, and stepped in to block other Western allies from doing so. The administration also denied Nigeria intelligence [3] on Boko Haram from drones operating in the area. While Boko Haram was kidnapping school girls, the U.S. cut petroleum...

Follow link to read article with complete links to sourced material: NiceDeb: The reason Obama hasn't been helping Nigeria fight Boko Haram will make you sickAccording to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, more than 13,000 people have been killed in the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009. Some estimates put the carnage as high as 17,000 deaths. Between July 2013 and June 2014 alone, an estimated 7,000 people died in incidents related to the insurgency. Boko Haram – which means “Western education is forbidden” – recently pledged allegiance to ISIS. When these formidable jihadists rampaged through Nigeria, last year – kidnapping schoolgirls,...

President Obama released a message to the Nigerian people to "highlight the opportunity that the upcoming elections present for all Nigerians to stand together". The video is part of a multi-faceted Administration effort to press for a peaceful outcome for elections now slated for March 28 and April 14. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone last week in separate calls with President Goodluck Jonathan and his leading challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). On Saturday, a joint U.S.-UK appeal was issued by Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secerary Philip Hammond.

Locals from Damasak reported that the militant Islamic group passed through town shortly after troops from Niger and Chad secured it. Group members killed 50 and kidnapped 400 to 500 women and children as they left. Damasak had recently been freed by troops from Chad and Niger. Souleymane Ali, a local trader, told Reuters that the militants took 506 women and children, and killed about 50 of them. “We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them,” he added.

Readers: do you think the tweet was done because Rice did not know about the death of her literary hero, or did she exploit the death to give oxygen to boss Obama’s message to the people of Nigeria? Susan Rice is as phony and hypocritical a National Security Advisor as she was President Barack Obama’s first ambassador to the United Nations. Just as she blanketed the TV airways in 2012 to reinforce the Obama administration’s position that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, was the result an an...

Susan Rice, our national security advisor, is supposed to be a bona fide expert on Africa. And the credentials she brings to her job are impressive. Former ambassador to the United Nations, graduate of Stanford, Rhodes Scholar, and author of a prize-winning dissertation at Oxford on African affairs. Yet, yesterday, she sent out two tweets mourning the burial “today” of the most famous Nigerian of the last 50 years. But our sharp-as-a-tack expert on Africa didn’t realize that the man had died two years ago. Business Insider noted the beclowning, as the tweets were hastily deleted once the gaffe was...

...Brent for delivery in May fell 1.1% to $54.71 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $45.64 a barrel, down 2% from last week’s close. Both contracts gained last week with U.S. crude snapping a four-week losing streak. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s influential oil minister Ali al-Naimi told a conference in Riyadh that there was no conspiracy behind the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision last fall to maintain its output target. He said the group could have lost market share if it...

Nigeria has drafted “hundreds of mercenaries from South Africa” in its fight against Boko Haram. South Africans have a long-standing reputation as being among the best mercenaries in the world, and have been present in one form or another in most African conflicts for the past two decades.

Dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their 'husbands' before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama. Witnesses said the Islamist militants feared they would be killed by advancing soldiers or separated from their wives when they fled the town. They killed the women to prevent them from subsequently marrying soldiers or other so-called non-believers, they said. Sharifatu Bakura, 39, said: 'The terrorists said they will not allow their wives to be married to infidels.'