NIGERIA - A number of powerful emirs have turned down a fellow emir's lobby for President Goodluck Jonathan in readiness for the February polls. 

The emirs, The Nation is reporting, have decided to remain neutral and support anyone who the electorate votes in. 

The newspaper's source said: “The Emir has been telling his colleagues that Jonathan has been fair to the North and to avoid a dent in the North/South south relationship, the President should be allowed to have a second term in office.

“Some of these Emirs and royal fathers pointed to the volatility of Northern politics and opted to take the back seat to await the people’s choice. Remember how a special adviser was burnt to death in the Second Republic for querying the Em ... Read more »

Police say a shooting has injured five people near a club where Grammy-winner Chris Brown was performing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Police say Brown escaped any injury in the early Sunday morning shooting. The San Jose Mercury Newssays the shooting happened near San Jose's Fiesta nightclub, where Brown was performing for a private party. Cellphone video posted online by fans appears to show Brown wincing as the shots rang out nearby, then being ushered away by others.
Police say all five people injured in the shootings are expected to survive. Police say they have detained several people. No information was i ... Read more »

Buses belonging to President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign team were vandalizedand burned down yesterday in Jos. (Buhari has already given his response here)

President Jonathan's spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, has responded on behalf of the President through his Twitter account.

The tweets below capture the Presidency's opinion of the episode:

When Hollywood gathers for the 72nd annual Golden Globes on Sunday night, real-world events may loom over what's usually one of the industry's most carefree and rollicking evenings.
The three-hour ceremony, which NBC will televise live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, beginning at 8 p.m. EST, comes on the heels of the deadly terrorist attack in Paris at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. It also follows Hollywood's own international incident over provocative parody: the hacking attack against Sony Pictures prompted by the North Korea farce "The Interview."
Yet Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can be counted on to exercise their right to free speech in the duo's third year in a row hosting. The night's Cecil B. DeMille Award hon ... Read more »

Jennifer Hudson will make her Broadway debut in the fall when the musical "The Color Purple" returns.
The Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe winner will play Shug Avery, a sultry blues singer, in the production directed and designed by John Doyle, who received a director's Tony in 2006 for his own Broadway debut, "Sweeney Todd."

It's Hudson's first musical theater role since her award-winning turn in the 2006 film "Dreamgirls." Further casting and a specific theater were not announced in a statement released Friday by the show's publicists.
Doyle opened his production of "The Color Purple" in 2013 in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Music and lyrics are by Grammy winners Brenda Russell, Allee Willis a ... Read more »