FRESH 4RM GIM

A transgender student is accusing a North Carolina community college of discrimination after she claims the school’s security harassed her after using the women’s restroom,  WBTV 3 reports . Andraya Williams  says she was leaving the restroom at  Central Piedmont Community College , in Charlotte, when a security guard approached her. “As I was exiting, the female security guard was coming in and she stopped me and asked me could she see me my student ID,” says Williams. “And I told her yes and I asked her why. And she asked me was I male or female. And I told her female and she laughed.” Williams claims the security guard called for back-up and the situation spiraled out of control from there. She says even though she showed other security officers her ID, Williams, who identifies as transgender and considers herself to be female, claims security escorted her off campus and told her not to return until further notice.

Louisiana State University gymnast,  Lloiminicia Hall  may not be a household name, but by the looks of her dance moves within her perfect 10 floor routine, she’s poised to be the next viral sensation. This LSU sophomore somersaulted into our hearts with her amazing tumbles and before she finished her first big flip, we were in love. And by the looks of her flips and dance moves, you will be too. It was that perfect 10 routine that granted LSU the regional title and advanced them to the NCAA championships, which will be held in Birmingham, Alabama on April 18-20. Lloiminicia is a three-time All-American and two-time reigning SEC Floor Exercise Champion. She is a superb all-arounder who ranks as one of the country’s best floor exercise performers and one of the best in LSU history. As if that’s not impressive enough, Lloiminicia is one of only six gymnasts in the school’s history to record two or more perfect 10’s!

The internet's got end-of-the-world fever: here's what's really happening Tetrads, blood moons and the apocalypse: sometimes it seems that there’s just too many mystical-sounding buzzwords floating around not  to throw up your hands and proclaim the end of days. At least, this seems to have been the inspiration for apocalypse-mongerers who have been busy greeting a fairly rare (but completely foreseeable) astronomical event as the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy of global catastrophe. To explain what’s happening as succinctly as possible: on the 15th of April you’ll be able to see the first total lunar eclipse in a series of four (a phenomenon known as a tetrad to astronomers), which will also happen to coincide with the Jewish festivals of Passover and Sukkot in 2014 and 2015. Lunar eclipses in  general  are sometimes called ‘blood moons’ because the light bouncing off the moon is refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere giv...

I’ve been having disagreements for years about the usefulness of college degrees as a measure of someone’s ability to be an outstanding employee.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t think it’s  ever  a bad thing to have a degree.  I just think people make an assumption about formal education that’s often untrue.  They assume that if two people are exactly the same in terms of age, life and job experience and demographics, and one has a college degree and the other doesn’t – that the one who has the degree will be a better employee and have a more successful career.

Google is planning to launch -- or perhaps re-launch -- its ambitions to take over the living room with a new set-top box, according to reports. According to the  The Verge , Google's new set top box, Android TV, is already in the works -- with major video app providers building the platform. According to the documents obtained by the news site, Google reportedly notes that Android TV will be "an entertainment interface, not a computing platform." Less than a week after  Amazon revealed its Fire TV , the marketplace for streaming has gotten crowded -- with Apple TV, Roku and Google's own $35 Chromecast. The set top box will mark the third time the search engine company has tried to bring its own streaming device into the living room. Google TV, which was launched in October 2010, was a smart TV platform that integrated the Android operating system and the Google Chrome web browser -- overlayed on top of Internet-enabled televisions.

There was a mild drama at Golden Eaglets training session in Abuja on Monday as some of the potential Eaglets 'collapsed' due to the nature of the training. With players still coming in droves, the coaching crew was forced to give time for more trials but it all turned out to be a ruse. Gabriel Adewale who is attached with Dynamics FC in Ekiti said the training regimen is not a child's play, adding that the standard he met on ground is very high. "Messi is really trying o," Adewale gushed out as he was being helped by the medical team." Laziness is different from maximum power and I can see clearly now." Others who failed to meet up with the schedule equally admitted that they were not used to the sort of training conducted by the Eaglets technical staff.

The Federal Government has accepted the recommendation for the scrapping the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC). This is contained in a Government White Paper on the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies in Abuja on Monday. The committee headed by the former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, had in its report submitted on April 16, 2012, recommended the reduction of Federal statutory agencies from 263 to 161. It directed the merger of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, and Nigerian Meteorological Agency into a body called Federal Civil Aviation Authority. The white paper said their respective enabling laws be amended accordingly to reflect the merger. The Federal Government accepted the scrapping of FRC and directed the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate ...

The hunt for underwater signals from missing Flight MH370 is likely to continue for days before a robot submersible is deployed to comb the seabed, the Australian search chief said on Tuesday. The detection of sonic pings consistent with those emitted by aircraft black box recorders had raised hopes that a submersible would soon be sent down to the ocean floor. However retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said more signals were first needed and acoustic listening would continue until the batteries powering the emissions had expired. "We need to continue that [search] for several days to the point at which there is absolutely no doubt that the pinger batteries will have expired," Angus Houston said. "Until we stop the pinger search we will not deploy the submersible." Further signals would help to focus the hunt for a possible crash site, he said.

A political crisis is brewing in Agauta 11 Constituency in Anambra State following moves by a group known as Aguata North Democratic Forum (ANDF), to recall Ikem Uzoezie, the lawmaker representing the constituency, from the State House of Assembly. The group has already written a notification letter to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, through the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Awka, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu. Addressing reporters in Igboukwu at the weekend, the group, led by its Chairman, Ben Obiapuna said that their resolve to recall was not negotiable as he was no longer doing what he was sent to the House to do. ANDF also noted that it was because of Uzoezie’s undue interference that the town failed to benefit from the Obi administration’s package to town unions because Igboukwu had no president general.

The President of Imo State natives in Lagos State, Dr. Femi Ferguson, has urged the Igbo and the Yoruba to come together to save Nigeria from the current political and security impasse. Speaking on the deadlocks at the ongoing National Conference due to conflicting interests, he said the way out was for  Igbo and Yoruba delegates to harmonise their interests and present a common front. According to him, the Yoruba have been good to the Igbo living in the South-West. Fergusion said Igbo, whose businesses were located in Lagos were doing well due to the conducive environment which the Yoruba, their hosts, provided for them since they began to settle in the western part of the country.

A ccess Bank Plc. has announced its audited result for the financial year ended December 2013. Analysis of the results released on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday validates the bank’s capacity for sustainable growth. The results showed an increase in its deposit base from N1.201 trillion N1.33 trillion, representing 11 per cent growth over last year’s figure while loan book rose by 33 per cent from N609 billion in 2012 to N810 billion in 2013, demonstrating commitment to empower critical sectors of the economy. The performance for the financial year under review is a strong testament to Access Bank’s position as one of Nigeria’s leading Tier 1 banks. Meanwhile, Access Bank’s earnings grew to N206.7 billion from N206, while it recorded an improvement in its cost of funds from 4.5 per cent to 4.6 per cent with Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio decreased to 2.7 per cent from 5.0 per cent, owing to the bank’s enhanced risk management framework.

The much postponed meeting between the NFF technical committee and the Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi will finally take place on April 22 to discuss the Eagles’ final World Cup list. In an exclusive chat with Daily Sunsports, chairman of the NFF technical  committee Barrister Chris Green said there was no rift between his committee and the Super Eagles manager. Hear him: “ We had to postpone the meeting with the coach for the reasons which everybody knows. But now we have fixed the meeting for April 22 in Abuja. This is to allow frayed nerves to calm down. We do not want anything that will distract the coach, the NFF or the players for that matter. The  world cup is very crucial, so we must all rally round the coach and the players to succeed. This  no time for apportioning blame, but a time to  focus on the huge task ahead. The coach as well as the NFF know the enormity of the huge task ahead, so we would not toy with the emotions of millions of Nigerians who...

The Presidency yesterday reacted to a newspaper publication over the alleged plans by the wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan to install governors in Bauchi, Bayelsa and Rivers states, describing it as spurious. It has therefore called on the said states to ignore what it called the mischief makers, who are bent on disrupting the peace prevailing in those states. A statement signed by Ayo Adewuyi, a ‎Media Assistant, Office of the First Lady, stated that the First Lady, does not interfere with the Peoples Democratic Party’s selection nor election process, insisting that the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, as the leader of PDP in Rivers State, enjoys the follower-ship of the people of the state and that the First Lady was solidly behind him. It also described as mischievous the insinuation that  the the First lady was working in favour of a governorship aspirant ‎from the riverine areas of Rivers State which may be clearly against w...

The Nigerian Human Rights Commission [NHRC] yesterday released its final report on the massacre at an uncompleted building in Apo, indicting the Army, the Directorate of State Security (DSS) and the Attorney-General of the Federation [AGF] for the murder of eight squatters. In the 83-page report, the commission said the security agencies had “no credible evidence” to tag the eight youths killed last September as Boko Haram members. The incident took place on September 20 in Apo District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where the security agencies stormed an uncompleted building on the information that the squatters were terrorists. They acted on an allegation that over 100 Boko Haram fighters under the leadership of one Suleiman were hiding and planning to attack Abuja from the building, and had buried arms at the nearby Gudu cemetery. In its report, the NHRC  queried whether security forces applied proportionate force to the alleged threat and whether those killed...

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday assured the international community that he was more committed than ever before to making the 2015 elections more credible than the 2011 exercise. The President said his commitment to credible polls was based on the outcome of the 2007 elections when even the world leaders were in difficulty of whether to congratulate the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and himself, because the event was flawed. He stated this when he received the outcome of the National Stakeholders’ Forum on Electoral Reform by former Senate President Ken Nnamani, who is the Chairman of Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership  and Development. “Let me commend you of your efforts, your painstaking commitment to come up with this formidable report or communique that outline some key areas that the relevant department of government will look into it to strengthen out electoral process.