FRESH 4RM GIM

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The fiercest rivalry in the world of smartphones is heading back to court this week in the heart of the Silicon Valley, with Apple and Samsung accusing each other, once again, of ripping off designs and features. The trial will mark the latest round in a long-running series of lawsuits between the two tech giants that underscore a much larger concern about what is allowed to be patented. "There's a widespread suspicion that lots of the kinds of software patents at issue are written in ways that cover more ground than what Apple or any other tech firm actually invented," Notre Dame law professor Mark McKenna said. "Overly broad patents allow companies to block competition." The latest Apple-Samsung case will be tried less than two years after a federal jury found Samsung was infringing on Apple patents. Samsung was ordered to pay about $900 million but is appealing and has been allowed to continue selling products using the techn

January 2014 marked the 44th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil war, and the end of the short lived Republic of Biafra. Biafra did not live long enough to see its third birthday. Although the war ended 44 years ago, wounds from it still fester. Many eastern Nigerians still wonder and ask what would have happened had Biafra succeeded. What if the  federal government  had agreed to “let Biafra go?” Or if Biafra had hung on long enough for a United Nations resolution calling for the establishment of a new independent state in eastern Nigeria? Ostensibly, Biafra had the ingredients to succeed and become a successful nation. It had an educated and  skilled workforce , a charismatic head of state, a citizenry with a messianic zeal for their country to succeed, natural resources, a coastline, and perhaps most crucially of all – billions of dollars worth of  crude oil  flowing underneath its soil.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke THE recently-uncovered financial recklessness and obscene lifestyle involving Diezani Alison-Madueke is truly the apex of cumulative impunity by the Minister of Petroleum Resources. She is accused of living extravagantly at the expense of Nigerians by wasting about N10 billion to maintain one of the three  private jets  she is using for official and personal travels. More shocking disclosures are still streaming in. The details of the preliminary enquiry in the  House of Representatives  are unnerving. The minister is said to have spent €500,000 (N130 million) monthly or N3.21 billion in two years to maintain a Challenger business jet. Every time she flies the second jet on a round trip, taxpayers lose €600,000 (N137 million), while the cost of the third aircraft is still to be ascertained.  The irreducible minimum Nigerians demand of the House  Public Accounts Committee

Mikel and Moses Chelsea are planning a mass clear-out of more than 10 players in the summer, with Fernando Torres, Ashley Cole and Mikel Obi all set to leave. Manager Jose Mourinho admitted after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at  Crystal Palace  that changes had to be made in order to improve the squad for next season. While the Portuguese again revealed his frustration over his underperforming strikers, a number of players in different positions are on their way out according to a  London Evening Standard  report. The senior members of the squad who are vulnerable include Torres, Demba Ba, Samuel Eto’o, David Luiz, Mikel, Cole and back-up goalkeepers Mark Schwarzer and Hilario. Anxious to adapt to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, the club want to bring down the wage bill, which means they will let Luiz leave for £30m and are prepared to sell some of the 28 players currently loaned out including Romelu Lukaku, Marko Marin, Victor Moses, Ryan B

A  Federal   High Court  in Abuja on Monday gave an order of perpetual injunction restraining the lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, from effecting any leadership change in the  House of Representatives . Delivering judgment, Justice Adeniyi Ademola lambasted the decampee lawmakers. He said they no longer had any business, morally and legally, to stay in the House of Representatives. He said they should honourably resign from their seats as members, having moved to another  political party while their tenure had yet to expire. “Having perused the arguments of counsel and the constitutional provisions, it is clear and unambiguous that the defendants were sponsored by the PDP and won the election on its platform. It is also the  court ’s opinion that their tenure has not expired and there is no division in the PDP.

A  wedding ceremony  in the northern Nigeria city of Kano turned melancholic at the weekend as six young men between the ages of 19 and 25 drugged themselves to death as Tijani Usman (26) and Hafsat Ibrahim (18) tied the knot. Also in the ancient  commercial city , police on Monday arraigned a 20 year-old man, Sadi Ahmed before a senior magistrate court No 25 sitting in Nomans-Land over an alleged rape of a six years old girl. The six young men while popping in jubilation over their friends wedding took too many doses of  illicit drugs  in the spirit of celebration and eventually died in the process. The incident happened at Naibawa Quarters during the reception of the  marriage ceremony .