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Obama, Putin speak after Ukraine deal

PRESIDENT Barack Obama held a "constructive" phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Friday as he pressed for swift implementation of a deal framed to end Ukraine's deadly crackdown on protestors.
The call came at a prickly time in US-Russia relations with the two sides at odds over Ukraine, Syria and other issues, but also after Obama took pains to reject the idea that a new Cold War-style confrontation was brewing.
A senior US official described the call as "constructive" but also warned that the agreement reached in Kiev between the government and top opposition leaders was "very, very fragile."
Putin and Obama agreed that the Ukraine agreement needed to be swiftly implemented and that all sides needed to refrain from violence.
"President Putin affirmed that Russia wants to remain part of the implementation process. They also talked about the need to stabilize the Ukrainian economy and to get Ukraine back on a peaceful path," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
The call also touched on other issues including Syria, where Russia backs President Bashar al-Assad, to the fury of the United States, and the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Washington had offered staunch support for protesters in Kiev, demanding political concessions from the Moscow-backed government of President Viktor Yanukovych and had warned of "consequences" if violence, which killed 100 people did not stop.
The White House gave an initial welcome to the deal and praised European Union diplomats who helped to broker it.

- 'Courageous' opposition leaders -

White House spokesman Jay Carney said it was "consistent with what we have advocated in calling for a de-escalation of the violence, constitutional change, a coalition government, and early elections."
"We support the efforts of all those who negotiated this agreement, commend the courageous opposition leaders who recognized the need for compromise, and offer the support of the United States in its implementation," Carney said.
"We call for immediate implementation of the initial steps -- an end to the violence, amnesty and security normalization, and passage of the constitutional package in (parliament) -- to provide space for the negotiations to begin on formation of a technocratic coalition government."
Vice President Joe Biden had called Yanukovych on Thursday, warning that the United States was ready to impose sanctions if he did not halt attacks by his security forces on demonstrators which have killed nearly 100 people.
Yanukovych's dramatic decision to hold early elections and form a new unity government was met with caution by tens of thousands gathered on central Kiev's main square.
The deal was signed in the presence of EU envoys, Yanukovych and three top opposition leaders who included boxer turned lawmaker Vitali Klitschko.
A representative for Putin missed the meeting. The White House statement, however, said the deal had been "witnessed" by Russia.
Obama on Wednesday insisted that the United States did not see its many disputes with Russia as symptomatic as a struggle over a Cold War-style "chessboard."
Carney expanded on the president's remarks on Friday.
"The president is correct when he says that this is not about the United States and Russia or the West and Russia -- this is about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and their desire for the right to choose their own destiny," he said.

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Genevieve Nnaji Signs Over N70 Million Naira Endorsement with Polo

Genevieve Nnaji

Genevieve Nnaji has signed the dotted lines for one year endorsement deal with Polo designer company, makers of Polo wrist-watches, sun-glasses and others.
According to the information gathered, the one year deal is worth N75million.

Congratz Miss Nnaji

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Photo: Video Director Sesan Splashed Millions Of Naira in Buying A Tiger As Pet.

Sesan

Popular music video director, ^{Sesan Ogunro,} who lost his dad after a tragic robbery attack last Christmas showed off his ‘newest pet’ on Instagram some hours ago.

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I Don’t Have A Problem Acting Nude Because My Body Is My Laptop- Upcoming Actress

Sylvia Oluchy

Sylvia Oluchy, a fast rising actress in an interview with BestofNollywood, was asked if there’s a limit to what she can do on set and if she could go nude for a movie role and here is what the actress said;
''I don’t have any boundaries because my body is my laptop. Others have their laptops and files, what I have is my body and voice, Even the concept of nudity, I don’t have any problems what so ever, but it has to make sense, if it enriches the story and is done tastefully, I mean sometimes you can see nudity been done for a good reason, like in the west, they could take off their clothes to protest. Like I said, I don’t have problem with nudity, I just want it to make sense''.

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Lagos Ibadan Expressway To Be Delivered 12 Months Ahead Of Schedule

Lagos Ibadan Express Way

FOR motorists and commuters eagerly awaiting the completion of the reconstruction work going on at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, relief would come earlier than anticipated as the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen at the weekend declared that the project could be delivered 12 months earlier than the initial 48 months schedule.
Speaking during an interactive forum with editors in his office in Abuja, Onolememen assured that with the pace of work and the mode of funding of the project, the contractors handling the project, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited and the Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), could deliver the road in 36 months, one year earlier than the schedule period for its completion.
He said the construction project, which would gulp a total of N167 billion is been executed using a financial architecture that commits the Federal Government to providing N50 billion within two years, while the balance of N117 billion is being sourced from the private sector.
“What we did was that the Federal Government will contribute about N50 billion into the common purse, and from the 2014 budget alone, we are contributing N25 billion and the final N25billion, which will now form the total of the Federal Government commitment to the project will be part of the 2015 budget. But beyond that, the outstanding money which totals almost about N120 billion is being raised through a private finance initiative and that was how the project was approved, and that is how we are actually realizing it.”
According to the Minister, the private finance initiative, which is driving the project, involves the Infrastructure Bank as fund arranger, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, as well as a number of banks and financial institutions. As a result of this funding arrangement, the road will be tolled to enable investors recoup their investments and also maintain the road.
“When you borrow money from the private sector to do an infrastructure project, the project itself should pay back for that infrastructure. It is one of the things we need to do to guarantee the sustenance of our private highways across the country.
“The Lagos Ibadan Expressway is a major economic arterial route. For government, doing that road is not just a social service; it is also an economic service. And because it is an economic route, it can benefit from private sector investments and such investments can be recouped even from the critical infrastructure itself,” he said.
Onolememen noted that the pace of work has been very impressive, adding that the contractors are moving faster than expected, just as he expressed optimism that the two sections would be completed before the 48-month period.
On the perennial disagreement between states and the Federal Government over the repairs and refunds of Federal roads within states, the Minister revealed that the Federal Government would soon offload Federal roads that are within five kilometers of cities to states. The policy is informing the construction of by-passes to remove the Federal Government from the responsibilities of internal roads in the state capitals.
“When we had the Council of Works meeting in Lagos in 2012, one of our resolutions at that meeting was that we are to create a-5Km radius around states capital or cities where Federal roads traverse. Federal roads basically ought to connect one state to another.
We are now experimenting with the creation of by passes, so that, we are not brought into the issue of urban alignment because it is not the Federal Government’s responsibility to provide urban alignments and accesses to residences, offices and businesses.
“The Federal Government doesn’t collect taxes from those people. It is the state government that collects those taxes, and they should be able to fix those roads.

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Fresh Plateau crisis claims 29

Communal Crisis in Plateau

TWENTY-nine people have been confirmed dead in the crisis between Barkin Ladi and Bokkos local councils in Plateau State.
   It was revealed that the attack took place in two villages one of which is Rakong near Kafi Abu.
Though the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Olakpe, confirmed the attack to journalists in Jos, but was silent on the number of people killed.
   According to him, “there was an attack in the area, but the quick intervention of the Nigeria Police, STF, SSS and Civil Defense brought the situation under control.”
   In the same vein the interim administrator of Barkin Ladi local council, Habila Dung, has confirmed the attack to journalists in Jos, saying only 10 people were killed during the crisis.

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WhatsApp claims 50b messages sent daily on its network

OVER The Top (OTT) messaging service, WhatsApp says that it now has over 430 million active users each month, which makes it the world’s largest dedicated mobile messaging platform.
At the DLD conference in Germany recently, WhatsApp CEO, Jan Koum, also revealed that the network now processes around 50 billion messages per day. He said that the messaging statistics is broken down into around 36 billion outbound messages and 18 billion inbound messages every day. That sort of number puts WhatsApp ahead of the estimated global daily text messaging volumes.
It also puts the recent revelations that the USA spy agency, the NSA is trawling 200 million text messages per day into some perspective. That’s 200 million out of 50 billion text messages, plus 50 billion WhatsApp messages, plus how ever many tens of billions sent by all the other OTT platforms. Already, global expenditure on telecommunications operator messaging services, including SMS and MMS was said to have declined for the first time in 2013 following its peak in 2012.
According to Strategy Analytics operator revenue from messaging services fell by almost four per cent last year to just below $104 billion.
The report noted that continued intense competition for subscribers between operators combined with the fast growing popularity of OTT instant messaging services like WhatsApp, Line Messenger and Tencent’s WeChat drive a 20 per cent fall in global operator messaging revenue by 2017.
Furthermore, Strategy Analytics explained that the projected 20 per cent decline in messaging revenue by 2017 would be more pronounced in regions with the greatest penetration of smartphones and data users, like North America and Western Europe, where SMS and MMS expenditure will decline by 38 per cent and almost 28 per cent respectively.
Director, Wireless Media Strategies (WMS), Nitesh Patel noted: “The fast rising popularity of smartphone messaging applications, both from smartphone vendors Blackberry and Apple, and independent messaging applications like WhatsApp, Line Messenger and WeChat, is significantly hurting both operator messaging volumes and revenue. While SMS volumes remained flat in 2013, operator revenue from messaging declined by almost four per cent.”
Strategy Analytics believed mobile operators must act on a number of fronts in order to mitigate the decline in messaging revenue, including bundling SMS into integrated price plans.
Director, Media & Apps, David MacQueen added: “While RCS/ RCS-e enables mobile operators both to evolve mobile messaging beyond SMS and MMS and keep operators relevant in mobile messaging, it will not offset the current decline in messaging revenue. We forecast that by 2017 there will be just below 180 million users of RCS/ RCS-e based services.
“However, RCS/ RCS-e messaging will contribute little direct revenue for mobile operators. To offset lower consumer spend levels, carriers should aim to tap opportunities such as mobile marketing, or increase innovation by opening up SMS platforms to businesses and the developer community."

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