Nigeria/Benin

Wow at last Nigeria got it's first victory of the tournament and is moving on to the quarter finals, i cant but say thanks to Ivory Coast for the huge favour it did Nigeria by dealing with Mali.
I hope we would fare better against the hosts Ghana in the quarter-finals, would be expecting a hell of a game though. Up Nigeria.

African Cup of Nations

The periodical gathering of the best footballers in the African continent is here again,
as expected it lived up to it's hype and a lot of surprises came up going against bookmakers predictions.
For me the first surprise was Egypt against Cameroon, still can't come to terms with the outcome of that match, i never gave Egypt any chance. Another team not living up to it's billing is Nigeria, touted as the best footballing country in Africa, as a Nigerian i had a lot of optimism when the football jamboree kicked off in Ghana that my team would wrought wonders but with the outcome of the two matches i feel so disappointed.
I was skeptical when we had the first match against Ivory coast, with the names on that squad i was expecting a fight from a really formidable opposition and my fears played out, we lost. But being patriotic as i am i still believed in the ability of the Nigerian squad but the match against Mali which ended made me grin with anger, my grouse was i stayed up late (the first match 1am the second 3am) to watch my team and instead being rewarded i was punished.
But i still believe there is still a chance for Nigeria, as i switch nationality for the Ivory coast, Mali praying Didier Drogba and his cohorts wreck some damages to the Malian squad and give Nigeria a chance to progress in the competition.

Poisoned Websites attack visitors

Thousands of small web shops have been unwittingly poisoned with malicious code that infects PC users who visit. Security experts said the sophisticated attack had succeeded on a larger scale than many other similar attacks. Once installed on a Windows machine the malicious code steals passwords, browser data as well as login names for bank accounts and online games. The attack is proving hard to defend against for both sites being hit and PC users who are caught out. Big hitter Security researchers at ScanSafe, Finjan and Secure Works separately discovered the nest of poisoned websites. Estimates of how many sites have been enrolled into the attack vary. ScanSafe said it knew of about 230 but Secure Works and Finjan believe the total could be as high as 10,000. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan, said it had been following the attack since early December when it noticed an increase in the number of attacks using poisoned websites. "It's safe to say that there are thousands of these out there," he said. He added that it was hard to get an accurate picture of just how many had been hit because security firms had limited resources to scan all potential targets. Writing on the ScanSafe blog Mary Landesman said many of the poisoned sites were small "mom and pop" web shops rather than large web retailers. Despite this, she wrote, many had large numbers of visitors because they did well in web searches for particular products and services. Sites enrolled by the ongoing attack include trade papers, travel firms, ad brokers, estate agents, butchers, hotel booking sites and car spare specialists. Although all the websites that have become poisoned hosts use the same server and remote administration software, researchers have struggled to spot all the ways they are being compromised. "We know some of the methods," said Mr Ben-Itzhak, "they are trying to exploit known vulnerabilities in open source content management software that the sites are using." Spotting the attack code on a site was very difficult, he said, because every time a new user visited the code got a new, random five character name. If a visitor returned the malicious code identified them and did not launch a second attack. Open Windows Simon Heron, managing director of security firm Network Box, said: "It looks like the rootkit type technique that we have been worried about for the last two or three years. It's very clever." A rootkit hides itself deep inside an operating system in an attempt to avoid detection. Mr Heron said the code injected on the websites scanned the machine of any visiting Windows user to see if any one of 13 separate vulnerabilities were present. It looked for vulnerabilities in browsers, instant messaging programs, document readers and media players, he said. The code installs a small trojan through any one of these loopholes then lies dormant until a user types in data that it is interested in - such as login names for online banks or games such as World of Warcraft. As yet the trojan installed on a PC is not recognised by many widely used anti-virus programs. Philippe Courtot, founder and head of security firm Qualys, said small web shops and companies were increasingly becoming a target for criminally-minded hackers.

News

A passenger plane has crash-landed short of a runway at Heathrow Airport, ripping off part of its undercarriage.

All 136 passengers and 16 crew escaped from the British Airways flight BA038 from Beijing. Eighteen people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries.

An airport worker told the BBC the pilot on the Boeing 777 had said he had lost all power, and had been forced to glide the plane in to land.

All BA short-haul flights from Heathrow have been cancelled and others delayed.

BAA, the Heathrow operator, said it hoped to return to "near normal operations" on Friday, but advised all passengers to contact their airlines for up-to-the-minute information.

The worker also said the pilot had told him all the electronics had also failed.

"He said he had no warning - it just went," the worker added.

"It's a miracle. The man deserves a medal as big as a frying pan."

BA refused to comment on the report and said it would not speculate on the cause of the crash.

Police say the incident was not terror-related.

'Enormous bang'

Nearby Hillingdon Hospital said it had received 18 casualties, 12 women and six men. Some of them had been suffering from whiplash.

Four of those admitted were BA crew members, but the pilot was not thought to be among them.

By Thursday evening, 17 had been discharged, but one woman with suspected concussion was admitted overnight.

Seven of those treated in hospital were British and three were Chinese. The nationalities of the others are not yet known.

The incident happened on the south runway at 1242 GMT, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown was due to leave Heathrow for China and India. His flight was delayed because of the incident.

Witnesses described the plane coming in very low and landing short of the runway, before skidding across grass and tarmac.

Part of the undercarriage, including two wheels were torn off, and there was some damage to the wings.

The runway was initially closed, but reopened later to take-offs only. The north runway remained open throughout the incident.

A telephone helpline has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or relatives on 0800 3894193.

The Department for Transport's Air Accidents Investigation Branch has launched an investigation.

In a statement, it said initial findings would be released within 48 hours, followed by a more detailed, but still preliminary, report within 30 days.

'On its belly'

Paul Venter, who was on board the plane, said he had been aware of a problem just as the plane was about to land.

"I could hear the undercarriage come out, and the next moment the plane just dropped," Mr Venter said.

"When everything came to a standstill, I looked out of the window and the undercarriage was gone and the plane was on its belly."

Eyewitness John Rowland said: "The plane's wheels collapsed, doors were flown open.

"On its approach it took the runway too low, just missing the roof of my cab.

"It crashed into the runway, debris was flying everywhere, there was an enormous bang and it skidded sideways."

Another eyewitness, also a taxi driver, said the plane flew over "so low you would think you could lean out the window and touch it".

"It passed over my vehicle at something like 20ft and over the perimeter [fence] at 15ft before it plunged into the runway," he told the BBC.

'Near miracle'

Fire crews doused the plane in foam to prevent its fuel tanks catching fire.

And BA said the cabin crew had done an "excellent job" evacuating passengers via the emergency chutes.

Chief executive of BA Willie Walsh said he was "very proud" of the crew and the Boeing 777 was an "excellent aircraft".

"We train hard for incidents such as this, and all that training has paid off today," Mr Walsh said.

BAA said it was doing everything possible to avoid further delays and cancellations on Friday.

It said in a statement: "Heathrow has received special dispensation from the Department for Transport to make some night flights and have notified local residents who may possibly be inconvenienced by this exceptional circumstance."

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly paid tribute to those involved in the incident and said she was "relieved" there had been no serious injuries.

"British Airways have assured me that they are doing everything possible for the passengers and crew involved," Ms Kelly said.

"The next step is to find out what happened and why."

HEATHROW AIRPORT Opened: 1946 Runways: 2 Terminals: 4 (5 by Mar 2008) Land area: 1214ha Movements per year: 469,560 Passengers per year: 67.7m World rank (by passengers): 3 Source: BAA

Aviation expert Kieran Daly, from Flight International magazine, said not a single Boeing 777 had been lost in a crash since the aircraft was launched in 1995.

A total of 221 flights out of a normal 1,300 were cancelled on Thursday, Heathrow's operator BAA said. Most of those were to short haul destinations.

A further 24 flights bound for Heathrow were diverted to Stansted, Gatwick and Luton Airports.

John McDonnell MP, whose Hayes and Harlington constituency includes Heathrow, said the incident underlined concerns about extending the airport.

"This is a near miracle that neither passengers or anyone on the ground has been seriously injured," Mr McDonnell said.

Courtesy BBC.co.uk

Raves

Being following the events as the jostle for caucuses votes continue especially with the Democratic party with the two front line candidates Hilary and Obama. Being so impressed with Obama's run run so far, i bet no one thought he would go this far especially against the powerful Clinton's.
I believe Obama would do great if he eventually gets the nomination and wins the president.
Anyway it goes, history would still be made: The first female American President or the first African American President.
Go Go Obama.

More reading

Being falling so much with works of Robert Greene recently, just finished reading the ''48 laws of power'' and i got the ''Art of seduction'' too and one of his latest works "33 strategies of war".
Just can't get enough of Robert Greene, heard he is working on another book in collaboration with 50 cents(one of his disciples) titled ''50th law''can't wait for it to be completed.

Thinking Aloud

Recently, being reading this book authored by Robert Greene titled 48 laws of power and it's really changing my mind set. Got some of his laws/views i strongly disagree with anyway but the book's being fun all the way.

2008

Just a quick question to everyone out there,

What do you want to achieve in 2008?

As for me, some extra bucks would do,
get closer to God,
and be more friendly.

A Beautiful 2008!

HAPPY NEWYEAR

Just wanna say a happy new year to everyone,
2007 is gone with's it fanfare and loads of happenings.
Need i say more? was really a great and fufilling year for me: saw and conquered.

Sure do believe 2008 is here with a lot, in Kuala Lumpur at the third largest open space in the
world, 2008 was welcomed with fireworks and a lot exictement .
Wishing everyone a prosperous and fufilling 2008.