MTVBase hits One Million ‘Likes’ on Facebook

Step aside Omotola – there’s a new FB millionaire in town, and it’s none other than MTVBase. The pan-African music network is rolling out the drums to celebrate the big feat, becoming the biggest music community on Facebook in Africa. Commenting on the stride, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa, Alex Okosi, stated, ‘It is gratifying to see the positive results of the investment we have made in ensuring that young music lovers can explore and exploit multiple media platforms to connect with the MTV Base brand and actively interact with the content they love.’ Nigeria has over six million Facebook users, with the bulk of that number young men and women drunk on the spirit of social media. Just like Omotola, and Enoch Adeboye who have huge following here in Africa, MTV is building up its influence, riding on its continental operations, with engaging music and video contents. MTV Base Africa was launched in February 2005 throughout the African continent to deliver a uniquely engaging mix of entertainment, interactivity, aspirational imagery and programme content.

Waje goes naked in ‘I wish’

Surreal and sensitive, Waje‘s new video, ‘I wish‘ tells a million words with the visuals. The very talented singer makes a bold move, shedding her clothes in a scene.

Champions League win greatest achievement –Drogba

Didier Drogba has described winning the Champions League in his final season with Chelsea as his greatest ever achievement. The 35-year-old netted a late equalizer and the penalty shootout-winning goal against Bayern Munich in last year’s final, as the West London club defied the odds to lift the trophy for the first time in its history. And, ahead of participating in the quarterfinals with current club, Galatasaray, Drogba said that the events of May 19, 2012, outstrip anything else he has experienced. “I didn’t expect to be back in the Champions League,” Drogba told UEFA Magazine. “But I have a special relationship with the competition; I have played in the tournament back-to-back for nine seasons with Marseille and Chelsea. “Last season I finally lifted the Champions League trophy; my last season with Chelsea was the peak of my career.” The Cote d’Ivoire international initially joined Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua after leaving Stamford Bridge, but he quickly returned to Europe with Gala following a dispute over wages. He has underlined his happiness at the Turkish club, which will face Real Madrid in the next Champions League round. “Life is great here. It’s a cosmopolitan city, it’s a lovely place and culturally it’s a very nice place for my family to be,” Drogba said. “I’m here to play football at the highest level again, the club are well established in Europe, and they have won the UEFA Cup in the past and are trying to take it to the next level.” Netherlands star Wesley Sneijder arrived at Galatasaray just days before Drogba, but the Ivorian insists the pair are still some way from their best. “Our transfers got an amazing reception,” Drogba said. “We are trying to live up to what is expected from us.” “Wesley hadn’t played football for six months and had to build up his match fitness. I hadn’t played for a few months either, I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said I’m 100 percent; however, I’m best to give everything for the team.”

Spill: Govt agencies want Shell to pay $11bn compensation

Two Federal Government agencies on Thursday at a parliamentary hearing demanded $11.5bn compensation from Royal Dutch Shell for the damage caused by an oil spill at its offshore Bonga field in December 2011. Shell has said that there is no legal basis for the proposed fines, although government has not publicly charged foreign oil companies any amount for oil spills, Reuters reported. The National Assembly can recommend fines the government should impose on oil companies but it has no power to enforce them. The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency told the National Assembly that Shell should pay $5bn as a fine for environmental damage caused from a 40,000-barrel spill on December 20, 2011 at the Bonga offshore rig. The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency sought $6.5bn as compensation for 100 communities, which it said were affected onshore by the oil spill. The spill was one of the biggest in the history of Africa’s largest energy industry. Shell has taken responsibility for the Bonga offshore oil spill, but said the onshore damage was the result of a different spill and was not its fault. It also said it had cleaned up areas affected by both spills. “We are going to do post-impact assessment to determine the effect on the environment. By May, the contractor would get to the site and by the third quarter of the year, the job would be concluded,” Managing Director of Shell’s offshore Nigeria unit, Mr. Chike Onyejekwe, told the lawmakers. He added, “We cannot do or say anything now until we do the post-impact assessment study. We have received over 300 letters of claims and we are replying to them.” The National Assembly told Shell to submit its clean-up plans and assessments to lawmakers next week when a date for a future hearing would be set. NOSDRA and NIMASA are asking Shell for compensation, which would equate to around $287,500 per barrel for the 40,000-barrel Bonga spill. In comparison, BP has total provisions of $42.2bn for compensation for the four million barrels spilled in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which amounts to around $10,550 per barrel. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are spilled in the mangrove creeks onshore Nigeria every year, destroying the environment and livelihoods.

Christians mark Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday

Hundreds of Christians streamed through the cobblestone alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, hoisting wooden crosses and chanting prayers to mark the crucifixion of Jesus. Throngs of pilgrims walked a traditional Good Friday procession that retraces Jesus' steps along the Via Dolorosa, Latin for the "Way of Suffering." They followed his 14 stations, saying a prayer at each and ending at the ancient Holy Sepulcher church. Along the route, Franciscan friars in brown robes chanted prayers in Latin and explained the different stations to crowds through a megaphone. Leonard Mary, a priest from Irondale, Alabama, was dressed as Jesus wearing a crown of thorns. He was flanked by men posing as Roman soldiers and had fake blood dripping down his chest as he lugged a giant cross down the street. "The most perfect love that was ever seen in the world was when Jesus died for us. He showed us the perfection of love," said Mary. Good Friday events began with a service earlier in the morning at the cavernous Holy Sepulcher, which was built on the place where tradition holds Jesus was crucified, briefly entombed and resurrected. Clergy dressed in colorful robes entered through the church's large wooden doors as worshippers prayed in the church courtyard. Later Friday, a service was due in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built atop the traditional site of Jesus' birth. Christians believe Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and resurrected on Easter Sunday. Roman Catholic and Protestant congregations that observe the new, Gregorian calendar, are marking holy week. Orthodox Christians, who follow the old, Julian calendar, will mark Good Friday in May. Less than 2 percent of the population of Israel and the Palestinian territories is Christian, mostly split between Catholicism and Orthodox streams of Christianity. Christians in the West Bank wanting to attend services in Jerusalem must obtain permission from Israeli authorities. Israel's Tourism Ministry said it expects some 150,000 visitors in Israel during Easter week and the Jewish festival of Passover, which coincide this year.

Pope Francis washes women's feet in break with church law, sparks a debate

Rome: In his most significant break with tradition yet, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at a juvenile detention center - a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men. No Pope has ever washed the feet of a woman before, and Francis's gesture sparked a debate among some conservatives and liturgical purists, who lamented he had set a "questionable example". Liberals welcomed the move as a sign of greater inclusiveness in the church. Speaking to the young offenders, including Muslims and Orthodox Christians, Francis said that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion in a gesture of love and service. "This is a symbol, it is a sign. Washing your feet means I am at your service," Francis told the group, aged 14 to 21, at the Casal del Marmo detention facility in Rome. "Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us," the Pope said. "This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty. As a priest and bishop, I must be at your service." In a video released by the Vatican, the 76-year-old Francis was shown kneeling on the stone floor as he poured water from a silver chalice over the feet of a dozen youths: black, white, male, female, even feet with tattoos. Then, after drying each one with a cotton towel, he bent over and kissed it. Previous Popes carried out the Holy Thursday rite in Rome's grand St John Lateran basilica, choosing 12 priests to represent the 12 apostles whose feet Christ washed during the Last Supper before his crucifixion. Before he became Pope, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio celebrated the ritual foot-washing in jails, hospitals or hospices - part of his ministry to the poorest and most marginalised of society. He often involved women. Photographs show him washing the feet of a woman holding her newborn child in her arms. That Francis would include women in his inaugural Holy Thursday Mass as pope was remarkable, however, given that current liturgical rules exclude women. Canon lawyer Edward Peters, who is an adviser to the Holy See's top court, noted in a blog that the Congregation for Divine Worship sent a letter to bishops in 1988 making clear that "the washing of the feet of chosen men...represents the service and charity of Christ, who came 'not to be served, but to serve'." While bishops have successfully petitioned Rome over the years for an exemption to allow women to participate, the rules on the issue are clear, Peters said. "By disregarding his own law in this matter, Francis violates, of course, no divine directive," Peters wrote. "What he does do, I fear, is set a questionable example." The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said he didn't want to wade into a canonical dispute over the matter. However, he noted that in a "grand solemn celebration" of the rite, only men are included because Christ washed the feet of his 12 apostles, all of whom were male. "Here, the rite was for a small, unique community made up also of women," Lombardi wrote in an email. "Excluding the girls would have been inopportune in light of the simple aim of communicating a message of love to all, in a group that certainly didn't include experts on liturgical rules." Others on the more liberal side of the debate welcomed the example Francis set. "The pope's washing the feet of women is hugely significant because including women in this part of the Holy Thursday Mass has been frowned on - and even banned - in some dioceses," said the Rev James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of "The Jesuit Guide". "It shows the all-embracing love of Christ, who ministered to all he met: man or woman, slave or free, Jew or Gentile." For some, restricting the rite to men is in line with the church's restriction on ordaining women priests. Church teaching holds that only men should be ordained because Christ's apostles were male. "This is about the ordination of women, not about their feet," wrote the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger. Liberals "only care about the washing of the feet of women, because ultimately they want women to do the washing." Still, Francis has made clear he doesn't favor ordaining women. In his 2011 book, "On Heaven and Earth," then-Cardinal Bergoglio said there were solid theological reasons why the priesthood was reserved to men: "Because Jesus was a man". On this Holy Thursday, however, Francis had a simple message for the young inmates, whom he greeted one-by-one after the Mass, giving each an Easter egg. "Don't lose hope," Francis said. "Understand? With hope you can always go on." One young man then asked why he had come to visit them. Francis responded that it was to "help me to be humble, as a bishop should be". The gesture, he said, came "from my heart. Things from the heart don't have an explanation".

Obese airline passengers should pay extra, says economist

Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that "pay as you weigh" pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends. Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight. "To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers," Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management. "As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines" and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel. Bhatta put together three models for what he called "pay as you weigh airline pricing." The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person. A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare. Bhatta's preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit. That would lead to three kinds of fares - high, average and low, Bhatta said. Airlines have grappled for years with how to deal with larger passengers as waistlines have steadily expanded. Such carriers as Air France (AIRF.PA) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) allow overweight passengers to buy extra seats and get a refund on them. Asked about charging heavier passengers extra, Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said: "We have our own policies in place and don't anticipate changing those." United Air Lines Inc requires passengers who cannot fit comfortably into a single seat to buy another one. A spokeswoman said the carrier would not discuss "future pricing." About two-thirds of U.S. adults are obese or overweight. In a 2010 online survey for the travel website Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net), 76 percent of travelers said airlines should charge overweight passengers more if they needed an extra seat.