Photo: US prepares $1B aid package for troubled Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry departs Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Ukraine,

BREAKING NEWS: Boko Haram attacks another Borno village, many feared killed

The police confirmed the attack but could not provide details.
Jakana Village in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State was on Monday night attacked by gunmen believed to be members of the Boko Haram.
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Jakana is 36km away from Maiduguri, the state capital, and about 20km from Mainok, the village where 39 people were massacred by the Boko Haram on Saturday.
‪Though details of the Monday night attack that lasted till around 3 a.m. are still sketchy for now, some of the villagers who were able to escape the attack said many may have been affected by the incident.
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We gathered that villagers from a neighbouring village of Auno had to flee Njimtilo, another village outside Maiduguri, upon seeing the skies being lighted by burning fire from the direction of the attacked village.
‪”We spent the nIght in Njimtilo village after running from our own village, Auno”, said an embattled villager, Bashir Adam.
He added that “even in Njimtilo we could still hear the sounds of shooting in Jakana. We hope our brethren there will survive this calamity that has befallen us”.
‪The Borno Police Public Relations Officer, Gideon Jubrin, confirmed the incident to journalists but said there were no details yet.
The Monday night attack in Jakana occurs about 24 hours after at least 32 people were killed by the Boko Haram in Mafa Village.
Mafa Village was also set ablaze by the terrorists in an attack that residents said lasted about 5 hours.
We gathered that the villagers in Mafa had been forewarned of the attack and many of them fled their homes about a week ago.
The warnings were allegedly handed down by Boko Haram members via leaflets dropped around the village.
According to the Senator representing Borno Central, Ahmed Zannah, the gunmen not only massacred the hapless villagers, but also razed down the entire village.
Mr. Zannah told journalists on Monday that two police officers died in a bomb explosion targeted at an Armoured Personnel Carrier while they were trying to evacuate injured victims.
“I have officially received a detailed report from my constituents in Mafa that 29 people among which was a woman died during the attack. Two policemen also died this morning as they went to evacuate injured people,” the senator said on Monday.
A resident of Mafa, Modu Yuraim, who survived the attack, told journalists in a telephone interview that “We have performed the burial of 32 persons, among them was a woman”.
Mr. Yuraim said the attackers came in various vehicles at about 8 p.m. on Sunday night and began to shoot sporadically. He said most of the houses, which were of thatched roofs, caught fire.
“They have set on fire the entire village, sparing nothing. All houses, all shops and government buildings were razed down completely; we have been devastated beyond what one can describe,” he said.

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Lagos, Microsoft sign MoU on e-governance

Babatunde Fashola	Jean-Philippe Courtois

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and the President of Microsoft International, Jean-Philippe Courtois, over the weekend in Lagos firmed up the memorandum of understanding (MoU) they entered into last year at Redmond, Seattle in the US, over e-governance and other initiatives that will make the state a knowledge-driven society.
Courtois, who was on his maiden visit to the country, said at Lagos House in Alausa that he was motivated by the level of commitment demonstrated by Governor Fashola in readiness to turn the state around within a short period of time to an e- driven state in all facets of life.
Discussing the progress made so far on the MoU, the governor said in respect of the Citizens’ Relationship Management (CRM), the state has deployed two functionalities on cloud services which will be moved to a private cloud with Dimension Data.
He said the two modules are CRM's Enquiries/ Complaints and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). According to him, they are systems that allow citizens reach the government through short message service (SMS) and designated call numbers similar to the 767 and emails. He promised that that the two functionalities would go public next month.
On e-health, the governor said with the visit of both the state government and Microsoft's team to the implementation site, the teams have come up with e-health solution that provides IT support to social health insurance programme and solutions such as clinical decisions support, data gathering, analytical capacity, integration with clinical laboratories/test result and biometric verification.
According to the governor, all these solutions will be delivered using the cloud for easy access by all health care practitioners in the state both from public and private facilities.
The governor added that progress had also been recorded in the area of education such as ease in students' registration, curriculum planning, academic planning, grade management as well as delivering instructional materials to students through the provided cloud computing solution.
Lagos State is partnering Microsoft Corporation to take advantage of all the innovative applications of the technology giant to help the state in establishing an e-governance platform towards improving service delivery by using platforms such as e-mail, SMS, internet and other mobile applications.
Under the MoU, Microsoft is to provide the state with the best of breed innovations such as cloud computing, citizens' relationship management, social health insurance platform, government dashboard and other productivity tools that will help in education, health, budget, finance, physical planning, transportation, and tax collection.

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BREAKING: Gunmen kill three police officers in Katsina.

Three police officers were shot dead this morning by Gunmen on motorcycles. The incident happened close to a village, Gidan Mutum Daya, in Kusada Local Government Area of Katsina State. The village is a border community between Katsina and Kano.

Shocking! Man hangs self in Ibadan

Alalubosa Suicide

An unidentified man was on Saturday discovered to have committed suicide by hanging from a mango tree on an undeveloped parcel of land along railway line at Alalubosa GRA, Ibadan in Oyo State.
Information gathered revealed that the body of the deceased was found where it was dangling from the tree by one of the people who had their shops along the rail line, when he went to defecate.
The person who noticed the body reportedly raised the alarm, attracting other workers such as mechanics and furniture makers around the place popularly called Mile 110.
The workers were said to have reported at Iyaganku Division of Oyo State Police Command but were told that the place where the body hanged was under the jurisdiction of Nigeria Railway Corporation police.
They reportedly went to Dugbe Railway police station but as at the time of filing this report, Sunday It was learnt that none of the police officers from the station had visited the scene.
Also, when Sunday Tribune went to the scene at about 5p.m., the body was still found hanging from the tree while flies buzzed round his pair of trousers which was wet with urine.

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I want a successor that will surpass my achievements – Fashola

Babatunde Fashola

I don't want to be the best governor of Lagos State. My interest in the next election for Lagos State is who will best protect and advance the interest of the state.
I prefer a successor that will surpass my achievements in office and advance the cause of Lagos State. I am not praying to be the best ever governor of the state, but I expect my successor to carry on the transformation agenda of the state without further delay.
I am not worried about the person who will succeed me, but I am concerned because I will be involved. I really hope that the person who will take over after me will be a lot better than me. I hope that the person can do in four years what it has taken us eight years to do. That I know will be beneficial to all of us.

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This is Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri

Windows Phone 8.1

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update will include Cortana, a personal digital assistant designed to rival Siri and Google Now. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have revealed to The Verge how Cortana looks and operates, replacing the built-in Bing search functionality on Windows Phone 8.1. While the feature is named after the Halo game series, Cortana will take the form of a circular animated icon instead of a female character. Cortana will animate when it’s speaking or thinking, forming a personality not dissimilar to Apple’s Siri.

Nicknames just like Siri

Just like Siri, Cortana will also allow Windows Phone users to set how they want to be addressed by the voice-activated assistant. Cortana can call users by their name or nicknames like "Master Chief" after the function is enabled in the settings. A key part of Cortana is its ability to save information and data in a Notebook system. Notebook will allow the Cortana digital assistant to access information such as location data, behaviors, personal information, reminders, and contact information. Cortana can also track flights or other mentions in emails, allowing it to generate notifications similar to Google Now.

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