Friday, 23 May 2014

France To Treat Boko Haram Like Al-Qaeda

     France To Treat Boko Haram Like                                  Al-Qaeda


champagneFrance has declared that the Boko Haram sect would be treated like Al-Qaeda, just as the sect’s members.
French Ambassador to Nigeria, Jacques Champagne de Labriolle, who made the declaration in Abuja, said that his country would not hesitate to offer intelligence support, pointing out that collective effort was needed to tackle insurgency.
According to Ambassador de Labriolle, France believes that the mobilization against Boko Haram should be the same as the mobilization the world has seen before against Al-Qaeda and for the same reason.
This comes as the U.N. Security Council Committee on Al Qaeda Sanctions also blacklisted the Boko Haram sect after the insurgents kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls.
The U.N. listing entry described Boko Haram as an affiliate of Al Qaeda and the organization of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The Nigerian Government has sought international support in its fight against the sect after it abducted over 200 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.
The sect, since the abduction of the girls has continued to carry out different devastation attacks on the Nigerian people, with many lives lost in the northern states of Borno, Kano and Plateau.

Kerry Says Only America Is Helping Nigeria To Find Kidnapped Girls

Kerry Says Only America Is Helping Nigeria To Find Kidnapped Girls


U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gestures during a news conference at the APEC ministerial meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali islandThe U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, says that despite help on the ground from Britain, France and Israel, the United States is alone in helping Nigeria locate more than 200 school girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamists.
Mr. Kerry was speaking during a dinner at the State Department on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the US Diplomats Corps.
With 80 military personnel sent to neighboring Chad for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, the United States is the biggest foreign participant in the effort against the militant group, Boko Haram.
Washington has also deployed surveillance drones, spy planes and about 30 civilian and military specialists to support Nigeria’s security forces.

Labyrinth Connects the Holy Grail to Sebastian Stan's Abs, Illumimati

Labyrinth Connects the Holy Grail to Sebastian Stan's Abs, Illumimati

Labyrinth Connects the Holy Grail to Sebastian Stan's Abs, Illuminati
If you turned into the first night of the CW's Labyrinth ready to begin a spectacular four hour reboot of the 1986 David Bowie fantasy film of the same name, then you might have been just as confused as I was when this title card came up.
Labyrinth Connects the Holy Grail to Sebastian Stan's Abs, Illuminati
There was a legit record scratch in my living room when this shit popped up, but there's no such thing as a punch I can't roll with and what better way for CW to appease jonesing Reign fans like myself then slip-slapping a period drama into the Thursday time slot the week after Reign'sfinale? Don't make me live in the present. This Labyrinth may have substantially fewer Goblin Kings with nut-hugging leggings turning the world upside down for 15-year-old girls, but it does have THIS guy:
Labyrinth Connects the Holy Grail to Sebastian Stan's Abs, Illuminati
Considering Labyrinth was filmed in 2012, I'm tempted to say the recent turn of Sebastian Stan in Captain America: Has Heavy Romantic Subtext With the Winter Soldier had everything to do with this airing now. Which hey, savvy! Sebastian Stan is as talented as he is handsome.
Labyrinth is also based on the novel by Kate Mosse (note the last "e") with this snazzy cover:
Labyrinth Connects the Holy Grail to Sebastian Stan's Abs, Illuminati
I guessed this before I knew it because frankly Labyrinth feels very much like watching a novel. There's the wish-fulfillment proxy, spritely blonde Brit Alice Turner, who's been hooked up with an archaeological digging gig by her archaeologist friend (wish #1) days away from inheriting a beautiful house in Carcassone (wish #2) and then stumbles on a pair of embracing skeletons and a series of twinkly trinkets (wish #3– the trinkets, I mean) during the dig that give her visions of mysterious medieval woman Alais and ultimately compels her to cross paths with Sebastian Stan while he lays out in his pool (wish #4).
Alais is Alice's way-back olden-times ancestor, and Alais really slayed the game when it came to being a virtuous 13th century daughter. She was up at the crack of dawn to apprentice with an herbalist, and then she'd go clean the rotting bodies out of the river etc.etc. Because of her non-stop 24-hour, 365-days a week lifestyle of 100% righteousness, her dad entrusted her with a batshit crazy secret. You ready for this? You're not but here it is anyway:
What if the Holy Grail was not a sacred goblet but a symbol of all the wisdom of the ancients?(Like I guess pyramids.) Now what if that precious wisdom had been divided into three books?And those books entrusted to three guardians who all happen to live within about four blocks of each other in Carcassonne? And what if those guardians were getting pretty concerned about a band of Catholic Crusaders about to march through Carcassonne raining death, destruction and religious intolerance? Are you asleep yet?
Yes. Labyrinth is about the Holy Grail re-framed as a quintessence of ancient wisdom (how to make bronze/Pythagorean theorum) that must be protected at all costs, and now Alais has been inducted into the Illuminati, basically, and must help hide the Grail. Also the Crusading Catholics want to kill all the Cathars, an apparently extremely chill people, and the Viscount of Carcassonne, Draco Malfoy is like "Nuh uh, not in my religiously tolerant and extremely fertile area of Southern France, oh no you don't!"
Plotty, yes, things are plotty! And as if this wasn't enough plot for all of us, Alais has a sister Oriane with a toxic waste dump for a heart, all humping Alais's husband every time Alais goes down to the river, and Oriane's pissed off her dad gave Alais the sacred unpaid Grail internship instead of her. Oriane will catch them all, those Grail books, just to show him!
(BTW, how "novel names" are Oriane and Alais? These are just not names designed to be spoken often out loud on camera.)
The final shocking twist that you probably guessed from the title card: maybe, just maybe, Alice is a reincarnated version of Alais, because she sort of has an idea where one of the Grail books might be. But in this world there's a big bad as well, a mean pharmaceutical executive who ceremonially slit a guy's throat last episode like it was NBD and is, I'm assuming, the reincarnated mean older sister.
So yeah, plotty, and a kind of dry story, yeah. HOWEVER. This series is extremely refreshing to the eyeballs. A lot of it is filmed on location in France, there's shots of what I'm pretty sure is a bonafide castle, there's actual French accents, I mean it's a Francophile's dream. It is so French someone gets tortured with a créme brûlée torch, that's how French it is.
Also there's John Effing Hurt putting in what looks like four hours of filming but making them count, like he does.
Our first night has left off with Alice and Sebastian Stan partnering together to investigate evil pharmaceutical lady, and the infamous siege of Carcassonne about to get underway in the past. If you're still not sure if you should watch it, feel free to take this brief quiz:
1. Do you like castles?
2. Do you enjoy fan fiction based on or about the Bible?
3. Do you believe in past lives?
4. Do your past lives believe in you?
5. Have you ever said or do you own a mug that says "Je T'<3ime [Eiffel Tower figure]"?
If you answered yes to two or more of the above questions then catch up on this shit and join me Friday for the second half of Labyrinth, minus of course Sir Didymus and David Bowie's prominent, throbbing manhood.

Mike Myers: Kanye West Was Right About George W. Bush


Mike Myers: Kanye West Was Right About George W. Bush


Mike Myers has long been considered collateral damage of Kanye West's infamous "George Bush doesn't care about black people" speech, his face a mix of terror and exasperation as the rapper seethes over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. But in a new interview with GQMyers says that he was "proud" to be standing next to Kanye.
 In fact, Myers iterates that he believes it takes away from Kanye's core message to focus on his face, as opposed to—as he puts it—someone speaking truth to power.
I don't think so either. But the question itself is a little beside the point of what actually went down in New Orleans. For me it isn't about the look of embarrassment on my face, it is truly about the injustice that was happening in New Orleans. I don't mind answering the question but the emphasis of it being that I'm the guy next to the guy who spoke a truth. I assume that George Bush does care about black people—I mean I don't know him, I'm going to make that assumption—but I can definitively say that it appeared to me watching television that had that been white people, the government would have been there faster. And so to me that's really the point—the look on my face is, to me, almost insulting to the true essence of what went down in New Orleans. You know, there's a great line by the great Northern English poet Elvis Costello, as sung by Nick Lowe: "What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?" [Myers seems both dubious and slightly irked when I tell him that it was the other way round—the song was written by Nick Lowe but made famous by Costello.] The point being that. What is so funny about peace, love, and understanding? To have the emphasis on the look on my face versus the fact that somebody spoke truth to power at a time when somebody needed to speak? I'm very proud to have been next to him. Do you know what I mean?
Myers seems almost to accept his position in history as being assigned by the cosmos.
I'm not downplaying its remarkableness. I mean it is what it is, dude. You know, I'm having a remarkable experience on this planet, a truly extraordinary experience. Given where I'm from, I am so grateful for the extra-ordinariness of it. I'm having an extraordinary experience on the planet.
GQ's Chris Heath does not specify if Myers immediately ripped a bong after that statement.

Challenge to Sex-Toy Ban Might Come To A Supreme Court Near You

Challenge to Sex-Toy Ban Might Come To A Supreme Court Near You

Challenge to Sex-Toy Ban Might Come To A Supreme Court Near You
A lawsuit out of the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs is raising the question of whether the Constitution of these here United States protects the right to sell sex toys. Keep your Rabbits close, folks, because the answer isn't completely clear.
Since 2009, Sandy Springs has had a local ordinance in place banning the sale of obscene materials more generally. It captures sex toys under the following definition:
Any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs is obscene material under this section. However, nothing in this subsection shall be construed to include a device primarily intended to prevent pregnancy or the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Last week, a couple of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance. One is an artist who claims he wants to use sex toys in his work. The other is Melissa Davenport, who has an even more compelling hook for her argument: she suffers from multiple sclerosis. The accelerating nerve damage brought on by that disease, she says, diminished the pleasure she took in sex. Sex toys solved that problem, and she speaks to other MS sufferers about their benefit, and even sells the toys.
Their complaint alleges various violations of the Fourteenth and First Amendments, mostly relating to the over-breadth of the ordinance and its infringement of their right to privacy.
In a landscape of sexts, sex tapes, and pretty frank dildo discussions on the television just about every day, the ordinance seems charmingly quaint. But in fact, there is a split between federal appeals courts on this issue just now. It comes as fallout from Lawrence v. Texas, the groundbreaking 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas' sodomy law. Sodomy laws had traditionally survived on the principle that local views of morality were a legitimate reason to regulate private sexual conduct. The Lawrence court more or less killed that idea, holding that,
the fact that the governing majority in a State has traditionally viewed a particular practice as immoral is not a sufficient reason for upholding a law prohibiting the practice.
In 2008, the Fifth Circuit was asked to consider the constitutionality of a Texas-wide statute banning the sale of sex toys, and it struck it down under Lawrence, writing that,
These interests in "public morality" cannot constitutionally sustain the statute after Lawrence. To uphold the statute would be to ignore the holding in Lawrence and allow the government to burden consensual private intimate conduct simply by deeming it morally offensive.
But in 2007, the Eleventh Circuit (which includes Georgia), upheld a similar Alabama statute, saying Lawrence didn't apply because the sale of sex toys was a "public, commercial activity."
To the extent Lawrence rejects public morality as a legitimate government interest, it invalidates only those laws that target conduct that is both private and non-commercial.
This "circuit split," as any law student knows, makes the next case eligible to get up to the Supreme Court, particularly since the Eleventh Circuit is unlikely to reverse itself on this case if it gets there.
Were I the only judge of it, I would likely go with the Fifth Circuit's approach, which legal experts seem to agree is the right one. Partly, that's because I'm strongly on the side of not letting "public morality" be the only reason to legislate something and partly because I turn into a raging libertarian on the question of whether people should be able to get their vibrators without risking a misdemeanor, heavens to Betsy.
But then, I'm no conservative wing of the current Supreme Court, of course.

This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right

This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right

This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right
Back in 2000, the first X-Men movie felt like a milestone: one of the first movies to capture comic-book storytelling on film. But now, 14 years later, X-Men: Days of Future Past actually feels like a good movie in terms of storytelling and stylistic innovation, not just a good comic-book movie. Minor spoilers ahead...
I didn't have high hopes for X-Men: Days of Future Past. It features every single X-Men who's ever appeared in any of the films, pretty much. Early reviews said the plot was overcomplicated. And most of all, like Amazing Spider-Man 2, this was supposed to be Fox's first salvo in a new campaign to create a "mega-franchise," featuring annual films and tons of spin-offs. I figured it would be another exercise in planting seeds for future movies.
But actually, Days of Future Past is a disciplined film. Every moving part is there for a reason. The plot is not overcomplicated at all, but straightforward and compelling (with a minimum of hand-waving here and there.) Nobody is shoe-horned in, and in fact the supporting characters are all there to move the plot forward. And most of all, this is a film with a strong focus on character, in which great actors get a chance to deploy their superpowers.
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, it's the dystopian future and mutants and non-mutants alike are being wiped out by merciless shape-shifting robots called Sentinels that adapt to any mutant power. Professor X figures out that they can use Kitty Pryde's powers to send Wolverine back in time 50 years to inhabit his own younger body, and he can try to change history by undoing one action that started this whole robot apocalypse in the first place. So Wolverine finds himself back in 1973, getting the band back together for the first time.
This movie passes THE test
There's really only one test of an action movie: During a big action sequence, are you thinking "Oh, neat," while trying to figure out which moment from the trailers is going to appear next? Or are you actually catching your breath, because you're fully caught up in the suspense and the emotional stakes, and you're sucked into the moment?
There's one key sequence about halfway through Days of Future Past, where I actually found myself on the edge of my seat. I wasn't sure where this was going, and I was fully invested in the characters and their jeopardy. That's the sign of a great action movie.
This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own RightHow do director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg accomplish this? First and foremost, by letting the characters breathe and emote — this film has one of the most high-powered casts, acting-wise, of any comic-book movie ever, and the best thing you can do is let them work. There's a distinct lack of rushing from plot point to plot point, unlike a lot of other summer action movies.
Also, Singer films the whole thing as a political thriller, with the emphasis on tense political maneuvering, that we know will lead to the apocalypse unless something changes. Singer's fully in his wheelhouse here, based on past films like The Usual Suspects. And the "1970s thriller" stuff actually works better here than in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, despite the latter also being an excellent film.
This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right
And the action is mostly superfun, with Singer going out of his way to showcase how frickencool mutant powers are — except for a few key sequences where he changes gears and uses the action to underscore the intense emotional stakes. There's no noticeable shaky-cam or "look how much money we spent" pauses — when Blink creates holes in space, Kitty Pryde phases through stuff and Quicksilver (a standout character) moves at superspeed, the superpowers are used as stylistic enhancements, making everything more slick and entertaining.
In a way, the presence of Quicksilver in this movie is a saving grace, and not just because he's such a fun character here. Because everything moves in slow-mo around Quicksilver, that means Singer is unable to use slow-mo or any kind of tableau effects anywhere else in the film, or Quicksilver will lose his impact. Quicksilver actually makes the rest of the movie move faster.
Last summer, I praised Man of Steel for (among other things) great superpowered combat sequences. But Days of Future Past moves the ball forward a bit more.
It's all about Professor X and Magneto
Don't get me wrong — Hugh Jackman is great in this movie. As the time traveler who finds himself back in the 1970s, he's a great "fish out of water" viewpoint character. Jackman is immensely likeable as the big lunk, who has been entrusted with a complicated intervention, and he does carry huge chunks of the film.
This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right
But another reason why Days of Future Past works as well as it does is that the focus is clearly on Professor X and Magneto, and their relationship. The whole edifice rests on the shoulders of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen (in the future) and James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (even more crucially, in the past). And like I said, Singer is smart enough to give them space and let them act, instead of just blurting out plot points on the way to the next VFX showcase.
This is nothing new: the four previous X-Men team movies had a large focus on the Xavier/Magneto relationship, with First Class revolving around their early friendship. But their conflict has never been less ideological, and more about personalities, than it is in Days of Future Past. There are fewer scenes this time around where Xavier says we can all get along and Magneto talks about mutant supremacy. And a lot more scenes where they talk about their messy relationship, which is a lot messier since Magneto shot Xavier in First Class.
This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right
As the future Xavier explains to Wolverine, 1973 Xavier is in a bad place, not really the leader or visionary that we expect him to be. He's basically holed up in his mansion with Beast as his caretaker/wingman, and when Wolverine shows up to recruit him to save the world, Xavier tells Logan to sod off. There's a certain amount of Wolverine giving Xavier therapy (which is as funny as it sounds) but also a lot of Xavier finding himself.
And for once, Magneto is a lot more together than Xavier. Not only that, but the movie lets Magneto be right about some stuff, particularly about Xavier's self-destructive tendencies. Without giving too much away, we see all the usual themes about mutants and assimilation of the other through a very different lens, one that lets Magneto have a very valid point for once.
It's a battle for the soul of Raven
The other key player is Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) who turns out to be crucial to the dystopian future Logan is coming from. There's a reason why both Xavier and Magneto need to unite to save Raven from herself, and both men's relationships with her wind up being crucial.
This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right
There's some very neat explorations of this mostly non-romantic triangle, in the film manages to point out just how paternalistic Xavier is towards the girl he grew up with, and how ruthless Magneto can be with the people closest to him. Neither of them ends up coming out of this very well — but Xavier's salvation, in particular, depends on realizing what a jerk he's been to Raven.
And Jennifer Lawrence, once again, shows that she can do a lot with a bit of juicy material, completely selling how wounded and betrayed Mystique feels, and how tired she is of being an emotional, as well as physical, chameleon for the men in her life.
This Is The First X-Men Movie To Be A Great Film In Its Own Right
Mystique has wound up carrying the banner of Magneto, fighting the enemies of mutantkind while Magneto was indisposed, and in some ways she takes on Magneto's traditional role as the mutant antagonist for the bulk of the film. Mystique is targeting Bolivar Trask (a brilliant but somewhat underused Peter Dinklage) who's experimenting on mutants and inventing the robots that will one day ruin everything.
All in all, this film delves into the usual X-Men themes, but because the characters are allowed to be more complex and their relationships somewhat ideological, the themes become richer and less black-and-white as well.
The last time Bryan Singer made a comic-book movie, he paid tribute to Richard Donner's winky film-making of the 1970s. This time around, he's much more influenced by classic thrillers, and much more focused on making a great modern action movie that happens to have superheroes (and a decent amount of humor) in it. Comparing this film to Singer's first X-outing, from 14 years ago, shows just how far comic-book movie storytelling has come.

Boko Haram Targets Vigilantes, 30 killed

Boko Haram Targets Vigilantes, Killed 30

GunmenIt has been a week of raids by the Islamists group, Boko Haram, and again on Friday the sect raided three villages and killed those accused of being against their ideology in the North East.
More than 30 people were reportedly killed in fresh attacks in early hours of Friday in north-eastern Borno State.
The raids took place as the US Security Council approved sanctions against the Islamist group.
Residents from the two of the villages that came under attack said militants had attacked in a convoy had gathered all vigilante members of the community before opening fire on them
One villager from Moforo in Marte district, who escaped across the border to Cameroun, told newsmen that the second village attacked was Kimba village in Biu district.
The gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect may have killed three people in Kimba town in Gur ward of Biu Local Government Area of Borno State.
The attackers were said to have burnt down almost half of the town and shot three people who are said to be receiving treatment at Biu General Hospital.
Kimba is said to currently be a ghost town as everybody there has fled to seek refuge in Sabon Gari, while other fled to Mandara Girau and Biu.
About 25 men were killed in Moforo and another eight men in Kiribi.

Could Kim and Kanye Be Planning Two Weddings?

       Could Kim and Kanye Be                Planning Two Weddings?

Are Kim and Kanye Setting Up Two Weddings Right Now?
The confusion about where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are actually getting married isn't getting any less confusing, with reports that two separate ceremony sites are being set up in two different European cities today.
The #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple were long rumored to be getting hitched in Paris, but it recently came out that Kanye had also booked a historic fortress in Florence for the ceremony. Guests, who won't find out the plan until the day of, were reportedly going to arrive in Paris today and, after an private nighttime tour of the Palace of Versaiiles, fly to Florence for Saturday's "I dos."
But, TMZ reports, an aisle and seating are apparently being set up on the Versailles grounds today, and the site has been shut down for a "private event." And, as TMZ helpfully points out,aisle=vows! Le gasp!
Are Kim and Kanye Setting Up Two Weddings Right Now?
Speculation is that Palace rules preclude Kimye from throwing an epic party on the grounds, so an intimate family-and-friends ceremony may go down there, with the larger ceremony and reception in Florence.
But we're talking about Kanye West, here. Why should a god only have one wedding ceremony?