Apple iOS 8.3 Will Have 300 New Emojis, Including Racially Diverse Options

Emojis are small digital images that are accessible through virtual keyboards used for expressing emotions on smartphones, tablets and PCs. If you enjoy using emojis on your iPhone, then you may be happy to hear that 300 more have been added to the keyboard in iOS 8.3. The current set of emojis include an Asian man wearing a gua pi mao cap and an Indian man wearing a turban, but there are no black people represented. This will change when Apple AAPL -0.62% devices are updated with iOS 8.3 because several of the tiny cartoon emojis will be available in six new skin tones.

Apple is also adding many more relationship- and gadget-related emojis. For example, same-sex relationship emojis like families with two mothers and two fathers will be added. The new gadget emojis that are being added includes an iPhone 6 and an Apple Watch as a replacement to the traditional watch digital image. Emojis for 32 more country flags will also be added in iOS 8.3. iOS 8.3 is available for developers now and should be released to the public within the next few months. The diverse emoji options will be applied to the new version of Mac OS X too.

80 years old American missionary kidnapped in Kogi

Reverend Phyllis Sorto

An 80-year-old American missionary, Rev. Phyllis Sortor, has been abducted by unknown gunmen in Kogi State.

The kidnapping is coming barely two days after a director at Adavi Local Government Area, Abdulazeez Ohere, who was kidnapped last week, was released.

The Department of State and Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, are working with Nigerian authorities to find Sortor and are still awaiting word from her kidnappers.

Sources said the kidnappers, who invaded Emi-Woro, a village in Ajaokuta Local Government Area at about 10am on Monday, where the woman ran a Nursery/Primary School, forcibly pulled her out of the office, scaled the fence and took her away through the forest behind the school.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Sola Adebayo, confirmed the incident and disclosed that their men had secured the school.

He said the command has appealed to the villagers to assist the police with useful information that could lead to the arrest of the kidnappers.

90's Rapper Vanilla Ice, Arrested in Residential Burglary - Police

Vanilla Ice, 47, real names Robert Van Winkle, was a popular 90s rapper and is now TV host. Recent reports say he has been arrested for stealing furniture from inside a home in Florida close to the one he was renovating.

The rapper is facing burglary and grand theft charges, according to NBC. The burglary happened sometime between December 2014 and February at a home in the 100 block of N. Atlantic Drive, Lantana Police said.

It's all connected to Ice's TV show, "The Vanilla Ice Project." Ice was renovating a nearby home and allegedly thought it was a good idea to go to the abandoned place and take the items in question.

Apparently, even though the house was vacant, the rightful owner had a problem with someone jacking their belongings ... thus the burglary charge. The cops got a search warrant and recovered some of the items.

According to police, numerous furniture items, a pool heater, bicycles and other items were taken from the home which was in the process of foreclosure.

Bayelsa crash: Dep Gov to work out memorial modalities with families of victims

Yenagoa— Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, has said that a state memorial service will be held in honour of Bayelsa women, who lost their lives in the Saturday tragic road accident along the Ahaoda axis of the East-West Road in Rivers State.

The governor, who described the accident victims as eminent women who played significant roles in the politics of the state, said the government was working out modalities for their interment.

He spoke as the Ijaw National Congress, INC, announced the postponement of the Ijaw Day celebration indefinitely in honour of the victims of the auto crash.

Dickson spoke when INC, its youth wing, the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC and the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council paid him a condolence visit at Government House, Yenagoa.

Governor Lamido: Obasanjo Is Still Our Father

 Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido has said that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo still remains an icon and a political father to him, despite OBJ quitting the ruling party.

He said this as he left the Presidential villa after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday.

He said that Obasanjo’s political grandsons (Jonathan, himself) might have made some mistakes which angered the ex-President for him to have resolved to dump the party.

Mr. Lamido said:  “Baba is more than a party man. He is an icon, a national symbol and a leader and an inventor, a creator of all the institutions today in Nigeria from the presidency to the governors who are his own sons, are all his creations. And so, when a father is angry with his own children, we will only say we are sorry to him. But then we cannot be renounced for whatever it is.

“No matter what we are, we may not be able to live up to his expectations. We might have made some mistakes, but abandoning us is not the solution because the country is first before anything else. So, he is our baba even up to the president. Baba is our baba no matter what. He is angry with us, but then, what do we do? He gave us the life at a time when Nigerians were fighting us, he stood for us."

Jega Summoned To Senate Over Postponement Of Elections

The Nigerian Senate has summoned the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Attahiru Jega, over the postponement of the country’s general elections.

The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, raised the motion for Mr. Jega to be invited to explain why the general elections which were scheduled for February were postponed to March and April.

Mr. Jega was also invited to show how cards readers would be used at the elections. The INEC chairman is expected to attend the session with the card readers to prove its efficiency to the lawmakers.

Are You A Voter?

THERE are only 19 days to the last chance for voters to collect the permanent voter’s card, PVC. How many Nigerians know if they are eligible voters for the elections? It is doubtful if any Nigerian with certainty can say his name is on the list.

The 2010 Electoral Act, the law that governs elections in Nigeria is specific about the roles of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the registration of voters and the maintenance of voters’ register. The law invests INEC with the responsibility of updating the voters’ list.

According to Section 17 (1), “The Commission should design, print and control the issuance of voters’ cards and names to appear in the register”. It also has the additional responsibility of displaying the list, so that excluded names, wrongly included names and misspelt names could be corrected before the elections.

Buhari Promises Borno State that He Will Fight Terrorism if Elected

On Monday February 16th, BN brought you the news that the Borno State government had declared a public holiday because of Muhammadu Buhari’s visit.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that during his visit, he promised to take drastic action to end Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria if voted into office.

Buhari made the promise when he paid a courtesy visit to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai, in his palace in Maiduguri.

He said it was regrettable that the insurgency had crippled social and economic life, especially in the north-eastern part of the country.

“It is not going to be easy tackling the insurgency but we are determined to face it squarely.

It is sad to say that before the insurgency, people used to do businesses right from Kano to Maiduguri up to Cameroon and Chad Republic,” Buhari said.

He said that an estimated two million people had been put out of business by the insurgency.

He also stated that his government would mobilize all human and material resources toward tackling the insurgency in a short while.

The Ultimate Goal Is To Be Better Today Than Yesterday With A Plan To Become Even Better Tomorrow

How do we stack up? It’s a question we seem to constantly ask ourselves. Our brains want to know how we are measuring up compared to everyone else. Do we matter more than other people matter? Is our position more valuable than another person’s position? People can spend their entire lives trying to determine where they stack on the proverbial totem pole of the human race, however, those who do will one day be sorely disappointed to find out that there was no ranking measurement against anyone else at all. There was only the assessment of how their life measured up to their own personal potential.

“Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…if you do so, you are insulting yourself.” –Bill Gates

Schools reopen as Liberia turns page on Ebola epidemic

Students stand in line before heading to their classrooms at Don Bosco High School in the Liberian capital Monrovia on February 16, 2015. Children trickled back to school in Liberia after the restart of lessons that had been delayed for months by the deadly Ebola outbreak, as the country begins to turn the page on the crisis. AFP PHOTO

Children trickled back to school in Liberia on Monday after the restart of lessons that had been delayed for months by the deadly Ebola outbreak, as the country begins to turn the page on the crisis.

The school term began a day after the leaders of Liberia and Sierra Leone, in their first trips abroad since the peak of the epidemic, vowed at a summit in Guinea to eradicate the virus by mid-April.

“Of course I am very happy to be back to school, though most of our friends did not come today. But I am sure they will soon,” said Fatima Sherif, 18, at Kendenja High School, in the capital Monrovia.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE THINKING

Some time ago, there was a trader named Ikenna. He amassed a huge wealth through hard work. He had everything in his house. One day, he set out on business journey. When he was passing through a forest, he felt tired and wanted to take rest for some time. He sat under a tree to relax.

While relaxing, he felt thirsty and desired for a glass of water. He said, ‘How I wish I had some water with  which  I could quench my thirst right now!’ There was a miracle. No sooner did he wish for water than a pitcher appeared before him. He quenched his thirst and felt relieved.

After some time, he felt hungry and wished for food. He said to himself, ‘If a plate of tasty food be available to me now, I would be really lucky.’ As soon as he thought of it, there appeared a plate of tasty food before him. He ate to his  satisfaction. Too much of food made him drowsy and he murmured, ‘How can I sleep on this rough surface?