NAFDAC AND CUSTOMS SEARCH FOR PLASTIC RICE CURRENTLY IN CIRCULATION

The search for the poisonous cereal coming on the heels of the alarm raised by some stakeholders over the influx of unmonitored and unregulated rice into the country through its various borders. It would be recalled that reports emanated yesterday that a Nigerian woman bought the synthetic rice rumoured to be imported from China by unscrupulous poeple for maximum benefits.

In an interview with Saturday Tribune, NAFDAC’s Director of Special Duties, Mr Abubakar Jimoh, said: “Immediately we read in the papers that plastic/fake rice was being shipped to Nigeria through our borders, our Acting Director General, Mrs Yetunde Oni, gave a marching order to all our NAFDAC formations scattered across the country.”

According to him, “at NAFDAC, we have what is called the Post Marketing Surveillance Directorate which is in charge of going round local markets to confirm the standards of foods that are being sold there. So, even if this rice beats Customs checkpoints at the border posts and gets into the markets, our men can still go there and seize them for destruction. This directorate goes about sniffing for substandard food and drug items in our markets.

The Acting DG has given our officers a marching order and they are currently combing markets all over the country for this plastic/fake rice.”   The Nigeria Customs Service has also intensified seizure of toxic rice illegally imported into the country.   The fears of consumers about the toxic/plastic rice particularly stemmed from the fact that Yuletide, known for the heavy consumption of rice in many homes, is here.   Nigeria shares major borders with Benin Republic at Seme Border (Lagos State), Idiroko (Ogun State), Saki (Oyo State) and Chikanda (Kwara State), and it is on record that all sorts of rice have passed through these routes into many Nigerian markets unnoticed.

Although the existence of unhealthy and toxic rice in many Nigerian markets has been confirmed by NCS and NAFDAC, the agencies said they had not found a grain of plastic rice in any local market.

As Nigeria's recession takes hold, Buhari's shine wanes

Lagos (AFP) - It's not Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's fault that Nigeria's economy is inextricably tied to the global price of oil, now half of its 2014 peak of over $100 per barrel.

But the president's response to the economic crisis has a growing number of people concerned that he doesn't have what it takes to rescue Nigeria from recession.

Warning signs appeared early. Buhari took six months after being elected to name a finance minister, then vowed not to "kill the naira" by devaluing it, against expert advice and with nefarious consequences.

His seemingly lackadaisical attitude to the crashing economy spooked investors who worried that he was ignoring the crisis.

Now critics are coming from all sides. In October, Buhari's wife Aisha told the BBC that she may not back him in the next election, suggesting that his government had been hijacked and he had lost control.

Buhari's response, that his wife "belongs to my kitchen", made Nigerians cringe. But what he said next was, politically, more revealing.

"It is not easy to satisfy the whole Nigerian opposition parties to participate in the government," Buhari said.

He can say that again. Over the past month, the president has repeatedly been stonewalled by lawmakers who want the executive to be more transparent about his economic policies and plans.

Early this month, Nigeria's Senate rejected Buhari's attempt to take on almost $30 billion in external borrowing to fund his record budget "due to lack of documents" supporting his request.

The Senate also "expressed surprise" at the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, who said it was considering jailing or fining people for holding dollars in an unconventional strategy designed to address a foreign currency shortage in the country.

"The measure is disruptive and counter productive, threatening to undermine many of the reform efforts... intended to boost investor confidence," the Senate said in a press statement Monday.

- 'Policy paralysis' -

"The president is having difficulty making any kind of legislative headway," John Ashbourne, economist at Capital Economics, told AFP.

"It adds to the sense that there's policy paralysis and when the economy is facing a difficult time we need some action. We can't get that if Buhari isn't able to negotiate."

Nigeria's economy contracted in the third quarter by 2.2 percent, with rebels in the oil-producing southern swamplands continuing to attack pipelines and businesses struggling to access foreign exchange.

"I think the recession is really starting to hurt," Razia Khan, Africa economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said.

"With the current shortage of foreign exchange clearly having a detrimental effect on growth, there is little evidence of any meaningful policy initiative that might be able to resolve this," Khan said.

"There is a concern that there isn't enough momentum, not enough is being done."

Ideally, Buhari's expansionary budget would have boosted growth. But the fiscal stimulus isn't materialising.

In October, the budget ministry said it was facing unanticipated revenue shortfalls and that it had spent only a little more than half of what was allocated for 2016.

Revenue shortfalls will persist as long as militants continue sabotaging the oil and gas infrastructure.

Today Nigeria's oil production is 1.6 million barrels per day, down 22 percent from the same period in 2015, with no signs the sabotage will stop.

- 'Military ruler' -

Talks with the militants in the south have been unsuccessful so far.

"President Buhari and his government have so far failed to hold constructive talks with militants," Rhidoy Rashid, oil analyst at Energy Aspects, said in a recent note.

"The Nigerian military has also continued its operations in the Delta, inflaming tensions while failing to disrupt the militants."

Investors are rattled and want to see a more concrete plan from Buhari's government, said Manji Cheto, risk analyst at Teneo Intelligence.

"I believe he continues to act as if he's a military ruler, there is a perception that has undermined the ability of policy makers within his government to take decisions," Cheto said.

"I genuinely think that he's pretty much run out of his goodwill."

Some polls are already reflecting that sentiment. Last year around this time, Buhari enjoyed an 80 percent approval rating, reported analysis firm BMI Research.

Compare that to this September, when his approval rating hit just 41 percent, with voters bearing the brunt of 18 percent inflation, slow business and sputtering electricity, the result of lower oil and gas output.

K-2SO rocks the new, extended 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' trailer

K-2SO is stepping up to be a force in the new Rogue One: A Stars Wars Story.

The droid (voiced by Alan Tudyk) takes center stage in the special, extended-look Trustthe Force trailer for Rogue One which was released late Friday ahead of its Dec. 16 release date.

K-2SO gets the ball rolling, voicing hollow support to rebel's rebel Jyn (Felicity Jones), based on Captain Andor's (Diego Luna) instruction.

"I'll be there for you," K-2SO tells Jyn. "The captain said I had to."

Charming

https://youtu.be/YWNvdoRnNv8

K-2SO then shows mad accidental fighting skills, catching a bomb thrown by a Stormtrooper while pointing out, "Imperial forces are converging on our present location."

He tosses the bomb over his shoulder with Schwarzenegger nonchalance and comically kills a bunch of Stormtroopers.

Double-charming.

The new trailer also gives a peek at how hard it is to bring down an All Terrain Armored Cargo Transport (AT-ACT). After a direct hit, that thing doesn't go down and churns back to life.

Fortunately, these rebels do have a back up plan.

Tickets for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first stand-alone film in the storied franchise, will go on sale Monday at 12:01 a.m. The group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction.

Mourinho sets Rooney Europa League goal

MANCHESTER (UNITED KINGDOM) (AFP) - 
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho challenged Wayne Rooney to lead the club to Europa League glory after the England captain broke United's European scoring record against Feyenoord.
Rooney, 31, scored his 39th European goal as United crushed Feyenoord 4-0 on Thursday, thereby closing to within just one goal of Bobby Charlton's all-time club scoring record of 249 goals.
United need just a draw away to Ukrainians Zorya Luhansk in their final Group A game to progress and Mourinho says Rooney can be the inspiration behind the club's first success in the competition.
"It's an amazing achievement, obviously," Mourinho told reporters when asked to sum up Rooney's feat in surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy as United's outright leading scorer in UEFA competitions.
"It will be even better if he can help to bring to the club the only competition that the club never won in its history, which is the Europa League.
"It's not the biggest competition, obviously, but it's a competition that Man United's history doesn't have. So let's try, let's push.
"I know that it's difficult. I know there are lots of matches in the knockout (phase).
"But let's try to qualify and if we qualify in Ukraine, then more matches to come and hopefully more goals for Rooney to score."
Rooney's performance followed a week of negative headlines after he supposedly 'gatecrashed' a late-night wedding party while on England duty.
Despite his milestone, the England captain missed out on the man-of-the-match award to his team-mate Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who marked his first start since September 10 with a fine display.
Mourinho said the Armenian playmaker had been left out of last weekend's 1-1 draw with Arsenal because he was not ready for the "pressure" of such a high-profile fixture.
- 'Premier League is different' -
While Mkhitaryan's direct running and neat footwork delighted the Old Trafford crowd, Mourinho said the former Borussia Dortmund star still had work to do.
"He just needs now to try to replicate this type of performance in the Premier League. The Premier League is different," said Mourinho, whose side entertain West Ham United on Sunday.
"He needs one more step. Obviously now confidence levels are higher.
"This performance gives him the right to believe that he can play the next match again and he needs to replicate this kind of performance in the Premier League, with more physicality, more aggression.
"He needs a little bit more of that, but the quality, we know why we bought him."
Rooney gave United a 35th-minute lead, starting the move in his own half and exchanging passes with Zlatan Ibrahimovic before coolly chipping Feyenoord goalkeeper Brad Jones.
Rooney teed up Juan Mata for United's second goal in the 69th minute and after an own goal by Jones, substitute Jesse Lingard sealed victory in stoppage time.
United leapfrogged Feyenoord to second place in Group A, a point below leaders Fenerbahce.
Feyenoord must now win at home to Fenerbahce in their final group game if they are to guarantee a spot in the round of 32.
"It's of course a result we didn't want," said beaten manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
"We could cope with Manchester for 70 minutes. The second goal was a big punch for us. We had a big chance to score the first goal.
"You know against Manchester, you don't get many chances, but we created one or two big chances to score the first goal. After 70 minutes, you could see the difference in quality."

Kanye West willingly went to hospital: report

Kanye West willingly went to the hospital, a new report claims.

The rapper, who was reportedly being examined for exhaustion Monday, was never strapped to a gurney or placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold, unidentified sources told People magazine.

"He was not restrained," one of the sources told the celebrity news outlet. "He went freely."

The source said the "Fade" singer was suffering from sleep deprivation and had his wife Kim Kardashian West at his side after she abruptly canceled an appearance at Denise Rich's Angel Ball in Manhattan Monday night.

"Family and friends are around. Kim is being amazing," the source said.

"He went to the hospital at will under the advice of his physician. He's fine," the source claimed.

An unexplained confrontation did go down at a gym before first responders rushed to help West at the home of his trainer Harley Pasternak on Monday, but the singer wasn't found to be a danger to himself or others, People reported.

"There was a small altercation at the gym, but he was deemed medically stable and decided to seek medical help at his doctor's request," a source cited separately by People claimed.

"We're super confident he's going to pull through," the source added.

West, 39, shocked fans by cancelling the remaining dates in his Saint Pablo tour shortly before his personal physician reportedly called 911 to get him help.

The sole survivor of a family killing spree wonders: ‘Why am I the one who was left?’

Laila Siddique was on her way to examine a patient at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center when her phone began to tremble. The 25-year-old medical student glanced at the screen. It was a text from her father.

Nasir Siddique kept in close touch with his two children. He had come to the United States from Pakistan as a young man, enlisted in the Army and slowly risen through the ranks, working at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2010. He had traded the cigars and whiskey of his youth for a tightknit family, a large house in Bel Air, Md., and Friday prayers at a Baltimore mosque. And he’d recently landed a job as deputy environmental chief at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a century-old military base where he once served as a military officer.

At 57, with a military pension, the new job, a loving wife, and a son and daughter both studying to become doctors, Nasir Siddique had many reasons to be happy.

Instead, he was deeply disturbed.

“Two reasons for my stress,” began his text to his daughter on Sept. 28 at 10:48 a.m. “1. Very stressful job at APG. 2. APG Commander and Director of Public Works took us to tour the inside of a very old historical house (by the main golf course) last month being prepared for demolition.”

“They should not have taken us inside this very old and unsafe house at all,” he wrote. “I have been feeling different since this tour.”

He’d told her about the house once before, but now he seemed more agitated.

“How have you felt different since the tour?” Laila texted back.

“Love you,” he answered.

Her phone, normally buzzing with messages from her father, her mother,Zarqa, and her 19-year-old brother, Farhad,went quiet.

When Laila left the hospital that evening, she called her dad but he didn’t answer. Neither did her mom, an aide to children with disabilities at an elementary school, or Farhad, a junior at the University of Maryland. When her brother’s roommates told her he hadn’t been seen all day, Laila called the police.

It was well after midnight when there was a knock at Laila’s apartment door in Hershey, Pa. When she opened it, four strangers handed her a number to call, then sat with her as she dialed.

“Your mom was found dead in her bathroom, and then your brother and father were found dead at the University of Maryland,” she recalled a detective saying. “It seems like your dad killed your mom and brother and then he killed himself.”

Nearly two months later, Laila Siddique is still struggling to understand what happened. Prince George’s County police and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office believe Nasir carried out the violence. They point to physical evidence, including a gun registered to Nasir that was found in his hand and an apparent suicide note.

But Laila refuses to believe that her father could be what criminologists call a “family annihilator” — someone who kills their partners and children before turning their weapon on themself. Instead, she wonders whether he could have been framed or somehow forced to commit the killings.

Her family and much of her community also reject the official explanation. How, they demand, could the doting family man they knew for decades kill his wife, his son and then himself?

For Laila, the doubt and grief are compounded by the fact that she is suddenly, irrevocably alone.

“Why am I the one who was left?” she asked. “We were all together, all the time. It should have been all of us. I don’t get why I am still here.”

In a photo from his retirement ceremony in 2010, Nasir Siddique stands ramrod straight in his dark green Army dress uniform, his lieutenant colonel’s silver oak clusters shining. Next to him smiles Laila, at 19 taller than her father. Next to her is her mother, Zarqa, and then a baby-faced Farhad in a baggy white shirt and crimson tie.

Nasir’s military career was an unlikely one. There are less than 6,000 Muslims serving in the armed forces. When Nasir enlisted in 1981, following in the footsteps of his older brother Aasi, the number was even smaller.

Nasir was not a brawny soldier. He was barely 5-foot-4 and never saw combat, instead specializing in budgeting and monitoring air quality on bases. He became a U.S. citizen in 1984 while on active duty at Fort Riley in Kansas. Three years later, he earned a degree in engineering from Kansas State University and a promotion to second lieutenant.

“He wanted to make one-star general,” Aasi Siddique said.

It wasn’t long before Nasir added another title: husband. He met Zarqa at a family wedding in Pakistan. She was nine years younger with striking, wide-set eyes. They exchanged love letters in Urdu before marrying in his home town of Sahiwal in 1989.

Laila was born two years later; Farhad in 1996. They were a Muslim military family trying to fit in with those around them. Laila’s earliest memory is of her parents stringing up Christmas lights at their house in Davenport, Iowa.

She was in fifth grade when the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Her father, assigned to Aberdeen Proving Ground, explained to her that people might see or treat them differently now.

At work, Nasir stressed the values Islam shared with Christianity and Judaism. When Pakistani friends sent him articles criticizing the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, Nasir politely ignored them. And when Aasi suggested that 9/11 was an inside job, Nasir teased his older brother over the idea.

He didn’t pray five times a day, but he regularly attended Friday prayer at the Islamic Society of Baltimore as well as events at Bel Air’s Islamic community center. He and Zarqa hosted frequent dinners, for which she would spend hours baking guests’ favorite desserts.“ Uncle Nasir,” as he was called, took pride in dispensing career advice or loans to family members and friends. He was quick to laugh, his friends said. And he was fiercely protective of his children.

During the more than five years he worked at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, where he was a congressional fellow, he woke up at 3:30 a.m. and commuted 150 miles each day rather than uproot his family again.

“He and my mother talked [on the phone] the entire train ride” back, Laila said. “He was always home in time for dinner.”

Nasir was bored by retirement, his brother said. He sold the family’s 3,000-square-foot house in Bel Air and bought one nearly twice as big as an investment. He took an honorary position on Maryland’s commission on military monuments but hardly ever attended the quarterly meetings.

Then, in April 2015, Nasir landed the environmental job at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Built in 1917, the base had served as the Army’s main chemical-weapons testing site for mustard gas, napalm, sarin, hydrogen cyanide and other deadly substances — a mission that left it one of the most polluted places in the country and the object of a massive cleanup effort.

“Since then, a complete transformation has taken place,” Vance Hobbs, APG’s environmental division chief, told an Army publication in 2013.

As Hobbs’s new deputy, however, Nasir inherited a difficult job. There was still plenty of hazardous material to dispose of at APG, and Nasir, despite his master’s degree in environmental health science, struggled to shoulder his new responsibilities.

“He said his job was very stressful, and he was thinking of a change,” recalled Mian Saleem, one of Nasir’s closest friends.

Base officials declined to comment on Nasir’s performance or his state of mind. Kelly Luster, director of communication at APG, said the base is assisting investigators and “therefore it would be inappropriate to answer your questions at this time.”

Work wasn’t the only source of anxiety. Nasir’s mother died in March, and Nasir took it very hard, his brother said: “He could not hold his emotions.”

There were other hints something was amiss. He complained to Aasi that family members weren’t liking or commenting on his Facebook posts. And when Hobbs was sick, Nasir seemed overwhelmed by the task of substituting for his boss — even for a day.

“Thinking back, that was the first red flag,” Laila said. When her father told her he was going to fill in for Hobbs for a week in August, Nasir was filled with dread.

When Laila saw her father at a wedding a few weeks later, he said his fears had been realized. During his week as acting chief, his superiors had taken him on a tour of the abandoned house near the 16th hole of the base’s Ruggles Golf Course. The visit to the century-old house — with its peeling paint, wraparound porch covered in creepers, and black turret rising above the greens — had shaken him.

The tour guide said that the family that owned the house had mysteriously disappeared nearly a century ago and that the house had been haunted ever since, Nasir recounted. The guide also pointed out the rotting carcasses of a pair of vultures that had been trapped inside the

The Washington Post A century-old abandoned house on the edge of Aberdeen Proving Ground. Nasir told his daughter he didn’t feel the same after entering it.

“He was disturbed when he went to the mansion,” said Aasi, who talked to him afterward. “Quite disturbed.”

A few weeks later, on Sept. 17, Zarqa’s birthday, he seemed fine. He woke his wife up with flowers, then took her and their children out for a day of her favorite things, from cupcakes in Georgetown to shopping to crab cakes in Baltimore. “It was perfect,” Laila said.

On Sunday, Sept. 25, Nasir showed up late to a social gathering. Normally impeccable, Nasir was unshaven, his shirt untucked. When one friend made a joke, Nasir bristled, saying he wasn’t in the mood that day.

“Everybody was asking him what’s up,” Saleem said. “He was not regular.”

Three days later, Laila’s phone buzzed as she strolled through the hospital.

“Two reasons for my stress,” she read, never guessing that within hours, her whole family would be gone.

‘It has killed my family’

“This is where they found Zarqa’s body,” Aasi said.

It was a bright Sunday afternoon in early October, a week after the funerals, and the Siddique house was still full of mourners. Outside, on a patio overlooking four acres of perfectly mowed grass, cousins dressed in black smoked cigarettes. In the kitchen, family members made tea. And in the master bathroom, Laila and Aasi stared down at the beige marble tile that 10 days earlier had been covered in blood.

“This is where they found my mom,” Laila echoed quietly.

According to police, Nasir Siddique shot his wife in the head as she was getting ready for school. He then climbed into his red Jeep Wrangler Sport, with its U.S. Army stickers, and drove to Farhad’s apartment in College Park.

The last person to see the 19-year-old pre-med major alive was his roommate, Ahmed Hamayun, who stuck his head into Farhad’s room before going to class at 10 a.m.

“He was still sleeping,” Hamayun said.

Nasir arrived at the apartment building sometime before noon. A surveillance camera captured footage of the Jeep pulling up and then parking in the lot.

The Jeep stayed there for nearly 12 hours until, after a frantic search, Hamayun and another roommate found it around 10 p.m. The passenger-side window was broken, and the dashboard lights were on. “I saw Farhad’s dad’s head on the steering wheel,” Hamayun said. “I was too nervous to see if he was okay.”

Inside the car, police found Farhad slumped in the passenger’s seat. A bullet had gone through his head from left to right, shattering the window. Nasir had an entrance wound under his chin and an exit wound near the top of his skull. His .38 revolver, registered in his name years before, lay in his hand, police said.

When officers called the Harford sheriff’s office, deputies — sent to the house earlier by Laila — were already standing over Zarqa’s body. A bullet found at the scene matched Nasir’s revolver.

© Family photo The Siddiques — from left, Farhad, Laila, Zarqa and Nasir — at a wedding in 2016. When Laila posted the photo on Facebook, she labeled it, “My perfect family.”

Inside the Bel Air house, deputies also found two notes. The sheriff’s office has refused to release them, but Laila and Aasi described their contents to The Washington Post.

“Last comment,” begins one, scrawled in black ink. “There is too much stress in my job at APG. Wish it could be corrected by the leadership. It has killed my family & everything.”

At the end of the note, Nasir’s name is printed and signed above the date: Sept. 28, 2016. Another note, titled “Last will” and similarly signed and dated, left the family’s assets to Laila and Farhad.

“There is no evidence that anyone other than Nasir Siddique was involved,” said Lt. Dave Coleman of the Prince George’s police force, adding that the notes are “evidence that he planned these events.”

Instead of evidence of Nasir’s guilt, however, Laila and her uncle see the notes as signs of his innocence.

“Why would he mention my brother in his will if he was going to go kill him?” Laila asked. “It’s odd.”

“The signature does not look like his signature,” Aasi said. “Somebody made him write something.”

Aasi has many conspiracy theories about what could have happened that morning, most of them involving the base.

“Maybe he was given mind-control drugs,” Aasi said, citing decades-old Cold War experiments at APG in which soldiers were given mind-altering substances, including LSD. Maybe the visit to the abandoned house was a threat, he said. Maybe he was framed. “Maybe Nasir knew too much.”

But there is no evidence that APG played any role in the shooting rampage, investigators said. And the ghost stories involving the abandoned house are easily debunked, said Jacob Bensen of the Historical Society of Harford County. Known as the Malcolm Mitchell house, it was named after its owner, who made a fortune canning corn and other foods. Bensen said there is no record of any calamity at the house and that its history is unexciting: It was used as office space by the base but is now slated for demolition.

In a brief interview, Jan Michael Green, one of Nasir’s co-workers at APG, said his breakdown “had nothing to do with the building” he toured. Asked whether Nasir was exhibiting signs of stress at work, he replied, “No doubt.”

Family annihilators are rare, but stress can trigger them. The number of familicides more than doubled after the recession to 42 in 2009 before declining to just 15 in 2013, according to professor Neil Websdale, director of the Family Violence Institute at Northern Arizona University. The attackers are usually men with histories of domestic abuse, he said, but occasionally one will be “a pillar of the community . . . the reputable man whose world basically falls apart and he takes the family down with him.”

“Sometimes the forces that drive these offenses,” he added, “are inexplicable.”

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Laila resents expressions of sympathy from those who believe her father was capable of murder. He wasn’t, she says.

‘My family is gone’

Nasir had always wanted to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. But when Laila called, she was told that Arlington wouldn’t accept someone suspected of a serious crime — a policy confirmed by the cemetery officials. Even when she found her family a plot at King Memorial Park in Baltimore, the Army refused to provide an honor guard. Of the 200 people who attended the triple funeral, none were in uniform.

“My dad had so many Army friends,” she said. “Not one of them has reached out.”

Instead, Laila faces a flood of sympathy from strangers who believe her father is a murderer. He must have had an undiagnosed mental problem, they say. Was he on medications for depression, anxiety or some other condition? Had he shown signs of stress?

But Laila, a woman of science, has no interest in posthumously diagnosing her dad. She said her father was not on medication and was no more stressed than usual.

“People are like: ‘Oh, she’s in denial. She’s in denial.’ Yeah, I’m in denial,” she said, “in the sense that I can’t believe my family is gone, but I can see clearly that this just isn’t who my dad was.”

There are moments when she thinks about quitting medical school. “The three most influential people in my life are gone,” she said, “so what’s the point of continuing, of trying to achieve?” She said she knows her parents “were excited for me to get married and have grandkids. But now, it’s hard for me to see the point of doing things like that.”

She is tempted to use her inheritance to leave Maryland for good — and the memories of the life she lost on Sept. 28. Instead, she is trying to carry on as her parents would have wanted her to. She returned to Pennsylvania State University earlier this month and is preparing to sell the large house her father bought just two years ago.

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Laila Siddique shows off the purple-and-orange den where her father and brother watched Baltimore Ravens and Orioles games together. The house is now up for sale.

As she walked around the house in October, she paused at the entrance to the purple-and-orange den where her father and brother watched Baltimore Ravens and Orioles games together. Jerseys still hung on the walls. Video game controllers lay on the carpet where they had last been flung.

For a moment, she imagined herself in her brother’s shoes.

“If I could go back in time to that day, if my dad called me to get in the car, I would still get in,” she said. “I would run down and get into the car — without a second thought.”

Kylie Jenner shares NSFW topless pic with Tyga for his 27th birthday

Happy Birthday, Tyga!

The rapper turned 27 on Saturday and in honor of his special day, his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, took to Instagram to share two very intimate (and NSFW!) pics.

In the first photo, the 19-year-old reality star appears topless, wearing only a pair of unbuttoned distressed jeans and nude pointy toe stilettos, as she straddles her beau. The rapper rests his head on her chest, with his right hand grabbing ahold of her voluptuous booty.

"Happy birthday baby," she captioned it, accompanied with a red lip emoji.

The second photo, which was shot in black-and-white, was equally racy, but far less serious, as the adorable duo hugged each other while laughing. "Irreplaceable," Kylie wrote.

The lip kit maven also took to Snapchat, sharing a photo of herself using a custom "Happy Birthday Tyga" filter, which featured a cartoon version of the pair.

Dressed in a blue-and-red flannel and New York Mets baseball cap, the birthday babe followed suit, also sharing a few selfies on his own Snapchat story.

And it appears Tyga was feeling quite nostalgic on Saturday. "Back then it was all a dream," he captioned a throwback pic of himself rapping. "Thank you for your love and support #27."

On Thursday, Tyga was in for a treat when Kylie and his 4-year-old son, King Cairo, whom he shares with ex Blac Chyna, threw him a surprise birthday bash, complete with balloons, several cakes and delicious bites.

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Rapper M.I.A. accuses Beyoncé, Madonna and Rihanna of stealing her sound

British rapper M.I.A. believes a trio of pop heavyweights are stealing her music.

“I’m fine with Madonna or Beyoncé or Rihanna being inspired by my work, but I would like them to then go, ‘Yeah, this immigrant who came out of nowhere influenced us, so maybe not all of them are f--ing terrible,” she told Q magazine.

She continued: "They don’t even think like that. They go ‘Yeah, maybe me stealing the stuff says she’s all right. She should be thankful we’re stealing it.’ But sometimes you just think, ‘f--k, I have to pay some bills,’ you know?'”

The British rapper, born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, who is mostly known for her hit "Paper Planes” also suggested Bey had more assistance than most artists get.

“Beyonce comes from the school of Michael Jackson-ness. Where the family built an entire world to support you, from when you were a child. I never had that luxury," the singer, whose parents immigrated to England from Sri Lanka, said.

Fans on social media immediately slammed the "Bad Girls" performer on Twitter.

"For all we know Beyoncé Rihanna and Madonna still think "M.I.A." means "missing in action," one wrote

Another added, "M.I.A gone end up MIA if she don't leave Beyoncé name out her mouth."

The 41-year-old fired back and labeled her critics racist.

“Industry offended I offended Beyonce, then spent 6 months telling me they can't market brown >LOLZ.

Domino’s begins delivering pizza to customers’ homes with drones!

#Domino #Drones – Domino’s begins delivering pizza to customers’ homes with drones : Domino’s, one of the world’s largest pizza delivery firms, has been working with Australian company Flirtey on drone-based deliveries for some time. But it’s now started bringing pizza direct to paying customers with its autonomous aerial vehicles, in what it says are the first such commercial deliveries anywhere in the world.

Currently, only a select group of customers can get their pizzas delivered by drone in New Zealand, but the two companies say they plan to further expand availability of the unconventional delivery method, offering “increasing scale in the near future”.

Flirtey’s autonomous drone technology and “complex safety systems” have been combined with special Domino’s packaging to ensure that customers can expect their food to arrive safely in urban environments, with drones able to fly through “a variety of weather conditions and flight paths".

Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Mejj said:

• We are thrilled with the results of our trials, and look forward to expanding DRU Drone by Flirtey soon.
• We invested in this partnership, and technology, because we believe drone delivery will be an essential component of our pizza deliveries, so even more customers can receive the freshest, hottest pizza we can offer.

He added that, in the future, Domino’s hopes that “more customers can expect to receive a freshly-made order within our ultimate target of 10 minutes.” The autonomous Flirtey drone itself is made from a range of carbon fiber, aluminum and 3D printed components.

The drone lowers the pizza to its delivery destination via a tether, and Flirtey says that it has “built-in safety features such as low-battery return-to-safe-location programming and auto-return-home commands in case of low GPS signal or communication loss.”

Domino’s is no stranger to exploring the use of technology to improve its operations. Earlier this year, the company showed off a prototype delivery robot based on military technology. A few weeks later, Microsoft revealed the Domino’s Pizza Bot as part of its Bot Framework, allowing Domino’s customers to order pizza from a digital customer agent. Source: neowin

Bill Cosby delivered a legal blow - again

Bill Cosby's repeated efforts to get criminal sexual-assault charges against him thrown out were dealt another blow Wednesday, when a Pennsylvania judge denied two of his motions to dismiss. 

In documents filed in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia, Judge Steven O'Neill denied Cosby's motion to dismiss the charges based on "deprivation of due process rights."  Cosby argues his rights have been violated because a previous district attorney promised years ago he would not be prosecuted.  

O'Neill also denied Cosby's motion for a hearing during which his lawyers planned to question the "competency" of other women who have accused him of sexual assault over the last five decades. And O'Neill said no to Cosby's request for a behind-closed-doors hearing to question these potential witnesses. 

But Cosby's effort to suppress a damaging 2005 deposition, in which he acknowledged obtaining drugs to give to women he sought for sex, is still up in the air. O'Neill said in the documents filed Wednesday that his findings on that point will be issued in advance of more hearings in the Cosby case set for Dec. 13 and 14. 

Those hearings will also deal with the question of whether the 13 other accusers can testify at the trial. 

Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with an encounter with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his house in suburban Philadelphia in 2004. Cosby says the encounter was consensual; Constand says he drugged her and molested her.

More than a decade later, five dozen other women have come forward to accuse Cosby of drugging and/or raping them in episodes dating back to the 1960s. District Attorney Kevin Steele, who filed the charges against Cosby in December 2015, wants to call up to 13 of these other accusers to testify at a trial next year to highlight Cosby's alleged prior history of bad acts.

Cosby's lawyers have been fighting to toss the charges for months in multiple hearings before O'Neill, the latest on Nov. 1 and 2. The 79-year-old former entertainment icon argues that the charges are too old, that he was promised protection from prosecution, that the testimony of other accusers would be prejudicial, and that his poor eyesight (he says he's blind) would make it impossible for him to recognize witnesses and remember events from decades past. 

None of his lawyers' arguments have been persuasive to O'Neill, who has set a trial for no later than June 2017.

Still pending is whether a deposition he agreed to give in a civil suit that Constand filed against him in 2005 can be used as evidence against him at the trial. Cosby's other accusers have said the deposition shows Cosby's alleged "pattern" in encounters with women he sought for sex.

Steele has cited the deposition, parts of which were released in the summer of 2015, as "new" evidence against Cosby that spurred the charges against him — the only criminal charges so far.

“The judge’s rulings today get us one step closer to presenting our evidence at trial and furthers our pursuit of justice for the victim in our case,” Steele said in a prepared statement.

Cosby's lead lawyer, Brian McMonagle, has yet responded to the judge's rulings. 

Cosby's lawyers say he's legally blind:

Rae Sremmurd Discuss #MannequinChallenge Success on ESPN's 'SportsCenter'

As the #MannequinChallenge continues to make a big impression on the pop culture world, Rae Sremmurd stopped by ESPN's SportsCenter on Monday to discuss the success that it's brought them. After joining the show's cast and crew for their own Mannequin Challenge to open the segment, Rae Sremmurd talked about how they got involved in the viral video craze.

"I was going through Twitter and I seen a video of little high schoolers doing a Mannequin Challenge and I thought it was cool. I brought it to everybody and was like 'We're gonna do one.' We did our video to 'Black Beatles' and made the freshest video ever and it just went crazy, dumb viral mannequin," said Slim Jxmmi. Swae Lee explained that he was impressed with the teens' unique idea. "I was like, man, that's creative. Gotta get that bread for it though," he said.

According to Jxmmi, capitalizing on the success won't be a problem for them. "I don't think Ear Drummers is going to escape the paycheck though. It's coming to us," he said. "Black Beatles" recently hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, so he's likely correct in that regard.
After being asked what their favorite versions of the challenge were, the pair expressed appreciation for the videos from the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Paul McCartney. There's been so many versions that they seem to have lost track, finding out on the air that Michelle Obama and LeBron James had done a version as well.

Dwayne Johnson Is People's First Non-White Sexiest Man Alive in 20 Years

It's always an honor for anyone to be named People's Sexiest Man Alive, but for Dwayne Johnson, it means a little more…

The half-Samoan, half-black actor is the first non-white male to receive the title since Denzel Washington in 1996—20 years ago!

Needless to say, Johnson is stoked about the opportunity and admitted he feels like he's reached a "pinnacle" point in his career. However, that's not to say he didn't struggle for many years in order to get here.

"When I was growing up here in Hawaii, I was like 13, 14 years old, I was doing a lot of things that I shouldn't have," he revealed to the publication. "I was getting arrested multiple times but at the same time, always very respectful to my teachers and elders. I was unsure of who I was and who I wanted to be."

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People's Sexiest Man Alive Through the Years

Johnson's family struggled financially when he was growing up, so he was determined to play football and help them afford a better life.

"I played football for 10 years with one goal, which was to play in the NFL, which meant we'd never be evicted again. It meant that I could buy my parents their first home, their cars, whatever they wanted."

However, he never ended up making it. "That failure was tough; that was a tough pill," he admitted.

People

After that, the actor reevaluated his life with just a few dollars and some dreams.

"I literally looked in my wallet and I had a five, a one and change. So I rounded it up to seven. It was a real rock bottom for me and I didn't know how defining or how meaningful seven bucks would be only until years later in my life," he explained.

Shortly thereafter, he found himself transitioning into Hollywood and trying to make it in the WWE. "I was met with skepticism and some cynicism of where I came from and the world of wrestling. Because you've got to prove yourself," he said. "But there wasn't a blueprint for me to follow. It wasn't like, 'Oh, there's this half-Samoan, half-black wrestler and you just do it like him.'"

Today he's the highest paid actor, and he's glad no one paved his path for him. "What's even better is that no one did it before me," he added. "I've got to make up my own rules myself."

But he's not the only one who appreciates the hard work, heart and effort he put into building his empire...even Zac Efron is pumped for his Baywatch co-star.

"Your personality is the most attractive," Efron tweeted. "Underneath the rippling muscles is a caring heart. Congrats 2 the sexiest man alive- love you dawg."

Johnson responded, "Luv u back brotha and appreciate your kind words. For the record, your [bicep emoji] are 'rippling.' Mine are more in that jacked egg yolked space." 

LOL! We love the bromance.