Full story posted at MSNBC

INAGBE BEACH, Nigeria – A pipeline explosion killed up to 200 people on the outskirts of Nigeria’s biggest city on Friday, leaving charred corpses on a sandy beach where locals went to tap into the pipe to steal fuel.

The Red Cross said the pipeline blew up while thieves were drilling into it, igniting about 500 nearby cans full of fuel. Theft of fuel or crude oil from pipelines is common in Nigeria.

The Full Story @ NY Times

Jacob Zuma, the former deputy president of South Africa who was once a front-runner for the presidency, has been acquitted of rape. While he still faces charges of corruption, Mr. Zuma retains enormous public support, especially among his ethnic group, the Zulus. Yesterday he apologized for having sex without a condom and announced that he wanted to resume his political career and might still run for president. The judge in the rape case ruled that the sex was consensual between Mr. Zuma, who is 64, and the 31-year-old daughter of one of his former comrades. But during the trial he admitted to behavior so irresponsible that his future political activity deserves to be limited to voting.

Where do we begin? Mr. Zuma said that his accuser indicated she wanted sex by the way she sat while wearing a knee-length skirt — an idea he repeated yesterday — and that it was his duty as a man to accommodate her. He said he had not used a condom to have sex with the woman even though he knew she was H.I.V.-positive because he thought the risk of catching the AIDS virus was low. He said he had chosen instead to shower after sex to minimize the risk of infection. Mind you, this is the man who once led the country's National AIDS Council. Unfortunately, Mr. Zuma's views and conduct are not rare in South Africa. Health officials say a sense of male entitlement to sex is a major contributor to the country's high rape rates.

Posted on behalf of Ify (Ngozi) Malo

Edu,

Thanks for the blog. I guess it makes for easier discussion on topics of interest without one getting lost in the maze of the class group mails. I´m currently in Spain and here, with the discovery of the “gospel” of Judas and the upcoming film of the Da Vinci Code, there is a heightened interest in knowing more about the figure of Christ: was he married to Mary Magdalene? How were the gospels written and are there historical proofs for them? Did Christ found a church or were the apostles the ones that invented it? What happened in the early centuries of the church? etc. I´ve done a bit of reading on this but I would like others to share their opinions.

Posted on behalf of Tony Odoh

My people, I welcome una oh. Due to my inability to keep track of all the e-mails that we exchange (using FGCEClassOf93@yahoogroups.com), I decided to setup this weblog for us. The way it works is that we post a topic of interest and then everyone has a chance to respond with comments.

Blogging has its advantages over traditional e-mail. For one, all posts and related responses are cataloged and saved in one place which makes it possible for everyone to return at a later date and review them. Also, we can use this forum to share video galleries and video clips (I have setup similar blogs before).

So, leave a comment and let's keep talking!

Chinedu (Orekie)