MISSING MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370 CRASHED INTO SOUTHERN OCEAN

Missing Malaysian Airlines MH370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean according to flight data, the Malaysian Prime Minister has said.

Najib Razak held a news conference on the latest developments this afternoon.

He said flight data had shown the aircraft was last recorded in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysia Airlines officials have told the families of passengers from missing flight MH370 to assume "beyond doubt" that no one survived.

The airline said in a text message to family members that "we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean".

Speaking at a press conference in Malaysia today, prime minister Najib Razak said: "Based on new analysis we have concluded [the jet] flew along southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of Indian Ocean west of Perth

"This is a remote location far from any possible landing site.

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform that in accordance with this new dqayta Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

KNIFE ATTACK IN CHINESE MARKET

In echoes of the recent Kunming train station attack that the Chinese government blamed on Xinjiang militants, three people are killed at a market in Changsha by knife wielding assailants, one of whom is shot dead

One person was shot and killed after a knife attack that left at least three people dead in a Chinese market Friday, state media said, in the second such attack in two weeks.

Another person was injured in the attack in the southern city of Changsha, according to local radio station Hunan Jiaotong.

The attack comes two weeks after 29 people were killed in a knife attack at a train station in southwestern China that the government blamed on separatists from the far west Muslim region of Xinjiang.

Besides the attacker who was shot to death by police, another was captured and three escaped, the Hunan Daily newspaper reported. Changsha is the capital of Hunan province.

The media reports gave no details on the identity of Friday's attackers.

US. RAPPER, CHRIS BROWN REMANDED IN PRISON WITHOUT BAIL

LOS ANGELES - A US judge ordered US rapper Chris Brown on Monday to remain behind bars for allegedly breaching his probation stemming from his notorious 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna.

The 24-year-old, arrested Friday after being booted out of a rehab facility in Malibu, will have to stay in custody until a probation violation hearing on April 23.

Judge James Brandlin said he found it troubling that Brown had told a group therapy session there: “I am good at using guns and knives,” prompting his ejection from the center for drug and anger management.

Brown also violated the center’s internal rules by “touching elbows or standing very close to a female client,” the singer’s attorney Mark Geragos acknowledged.

Geragos asked for Brown to be allowed to begin another rehab program immediately, but prosecutor Mary Murray opposed this, saying the court had given him “repeated opportunities.

“He’s put himself in custody,” Murray told the Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

Brown was arrested in February 2009 after getting involved in a physical confrontation with Barbadian superstar Rihanna that left her with a bruised and battered face.

He pleaded guilty to the assault and was sentenced to five years’ probation and community service, as well as being required to take part in domestic violence counseling.

California authorities filed probation violation charges against Brown last year, giving him an additional 1,000 hours of community service work on his sentence for beating the pop star.

In October, Brown checked into the rehab facility two days after being charged over an altercation in the US capital Washington, in which he allegedly hit a man trying to take a picture of him outside a hotel.

In February, judge Brandlin said Brown was doing well with the court-ordered treatment program, but ordered him to remain at the rehab facility.

The judge warned him at the time that any negative change in behavior “could dramatically change your custodial status.”

CHINA FINDS NO TERROR LINK TO NATIONALS ON MALAYSIA PLANE

Intelligence checks on 153 Chinese passengers on a missing Malaysian airliner produced no red flags, China said Tuesday, as Malaysia marshalled ships and planes from 26 countries to search an area the size of Australia.

Eleven days after contact was lost with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and its 239 passengers and crew, there has been minimal progress in determining precisely what happened or where the plane ended up.

Lending fresh weight to the belief that the plane was deliberately diverted, the New York Times reported that the first turn it made off its flight path was programmed into the Boeing 777′s computer navigation system, probably by someone in the cockpit.

Rather than manually operating the plane’s controls, whoever altered Flight 370′s path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer situated between the captain and the co-pilot, the newspaper said, quoting US officials.

The head of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said he was unable to confirm the report.

“The aircraft was programmed to fly to Beijing … (but) once you are in the aircraft, anything is possible,” he told a daily press briefing.

Two thirds of those on board were Chinese, and Malaysia had asked authorities in Beijing to run an exhaustive background check on all their nationals as part of a probe into everyone aboard.

Particular attention was paid to a passenger from China’s Muslim ethnic Uighur minority.

On Tuesday China’s ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang said no evidence had been found that would link anyone to a possible hijacking or terrorist attack on the jet.

MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MISSING

A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost contact with air traffic controllers early on Saturday, the airline said in a statement, the plane likely missing in Vietnamese airspace.

Flight MH370, operating a Boeing B777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) and had been expected to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET) the same day.

"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370," Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement.

"Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search-and-rescue teams to locate the aircraft," it said.

An official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said the plane had failed to check in as scheduled at 1721 GMT (12.21 p.m. ET) while it was flying over the sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh city.

"Its code didn't appear in our system," Bui Van Vo, the CAAV's flight control department manager, told Reuters by telephone.

China's official Xinhua news agency also quoted the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) as saying the flight lost contact while flying through Vietnamese airspace.

The CAAC said 158 Chinese nationals were on board the plane. China's aviation regulators said they had not received any signals from the plane and that there had been no reports of any aircraft crashing in Chinese waters.

"We are extremely worried," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. "We are doing all we can to get details. The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe."

Chinese state TV also said there had not been any immediate reports of a plane crashing in Chinese waters.

If the plane is found to have crashed, the loss would mark the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year, after an unblemished safety record since the jet entered service in 1995.

Last summer, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crash-landed in San Francisco, killing three passengers.

Boeing said it was aware of reports that the Malaysia Airlines plane was missing and was monitoring the situation but had no further comment.

Malaysia Airlines said it was contacting the families of those on board flight MH370 and had set up support facilities for those affected.

FAMINE IN MOZAMBIQUE

The Mozambique Agriculture Minister, Jose Pacheco, has warned that more than 300,000 people face famine.  which affects mainly the central and southern regions of the country, has been caused by various factors, including drought, flooding and insect plagues. Crops are also being destroyed by animals such as elephants and hippos.

He also said the government is helping peasant farmers produce more food via financial packages to buy fertilizer and to help them irrigate their fields.

TENANT ACCUSED OF KILLING HOUSE OWNER

A husband and wife who rented the house of a US woman are accused of killing her and leaving her body in a closet after she returned home from her Australian holiday.

Nancy Pfister, 57, was the daughter of the late Betty and Art Pfister, longtime residents of Aspen, Colorado, who co-founded the Buttermilk ski area west of town.

On Monday evening, authorities arrested William F Styler III, 65, and his 62-year-old wife Nancy Christine Styler at the Aspenalt Lodge in Basalt, where they were staying after apparently moving out of Pfister's home on February 22. Both face first-degree murder charges.

Authorities said the Stylers rented Pfister's West Buttermilk Road home during the autumn.

Pfister returned from a holiday in Australia on February 22, and she was found dead four days later. A friend discovered her body in an upstairs cupboard at Pfister's home on the evening of February 26. A cause of death has not yet been released.

Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said the investigation is ongoing, and he did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.

Aspen is a ski resort town in the Rocky Mountains, about 100 miles (161km) southwest of Denver.

OSCAR PISTORIUS'S MURDER TRIAL

As the first day of oscar pistorius's murder trial came to a close, the court heard from witness, Michelle Burger, who testified to hearing "blood-curdling" screams from a woman before she heard four gunshots on the night the double-amputee Olympian killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

"The prosecution's witness Michelle Burger was very strong, initially we had heard from Mr Pistorius' bail hearing that the prosecution had a witness who was 500 metres away.

"This witness however said she was 170 metres away"

Oscar Pistorius, 27, says he killed Ms Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was a dangerous intruder.

FUEL SCARCITY IN NIGERIA

NIGERIA - Oil marketers in Lagos State on Tuesday said the distribution of imported petrol to filing stations has commenced nationwide.

The marketers in separate interviews in Lagos disclosed that vessels laden with imported petroleum products had berth at the high sea.

One of the major marketers  said that the delay by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) in approving the first quarter fuel allocation to marketers, was responsible for scarcity.

He added that ships laden with petrol had started to berth since the early hours of Tuesday on the high sea.

The marketer said they would immediately begin the discharge the product into system 2B for channelling to all NNPC depots.

He gave Nigerians the assurance that the observed queues at filling stations would disappear by Thursday 'when all stations would have received the product before the close of work on Wednesday.

EARTHQUAKE HITS OFF OKINAWA - JAPAN

TOKYO - A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan's Okinawa Island early Monday, but US geologists said it was too deep to cause a tsunami.

The quake hit 68 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of the city of Nago at just after 4:00 a.m. (2000 GMT), at a depth of 70 miles (112 kilometers), according to the US Geological Survey

SNOW STORM TODAY- USA (pictures)

FOOTBRIDGE COLLAPSES AT BOLIVIAN PARADE

The four-day annual event is Bolivia's most celebrated festival, drawing at least 20,000 musicians and dancers, and tens of thousands more tourists to the regional capital.

Bolivian authorities say four people were killed and more than 60 injured when an overloaded metal footbridge collapsed onto a group of musicians marching in the opening parade of carnival in the highlands city of Oruro.

Dozens were on the bridge when it collapsed and the normally festive, even raucous, parade of colourfully clad musicians and dancers became a funereal march.

CHINA TRAIN STATION STABBING

CHINA- Security official Meng Jianzhu visits the wounded in Kunming Hospital in southwest China after a brutal attack by knife wielding assailants at a train station left at least 29 people dead and 143 people injured.

Police fatally shot four of the assailants, captured one and were searching for the others following the attack late on Saturday in Yunnan province.
The attackers dressed in black storming the train station and slashing people with large knives and machetes were women - one of the slain and the one who was captured and later brought to a hospital for treatment.

THE MURDER TRAIL OF OSCAR PISTORIUS BEGINS TODAY

The murder trial of Oscar Pistorius begins today as South Africa prepares for what is expected to be a marathon legal battle that throws a spotlight not just on the world-famous double-amputee athlete, but on his homeland's criminal justice system and gun culture. More stories soon......

12 YEARS A SLAVE WINS OSCAR

No matter where you're from in the world, your dreams are valid"- Lupita Nyong'o. CONGRATS!

74 PEOPLE DEAD IN BOKO HARAM ATTACKS

NIGERIA,  Maiduguri —

At least 74 people were killed in attacks blamed on Boko Haram militants this weekend, Over 250 people had lost their lives since the turn of the year, even before the latest attacks,
The attacks will likely renew fears that Nigeria is struggling to contain the Islamist insurgency and the perception that militant fighters are able to roam the northeast with impunity, attacking at will.

Witnesses said the final death toll could rise and dozens of homes razed in the blasts.

Yobe and Adamawa states have been under emergency rule since May 2013 and an increased military presence had pushed Boko Haram out of towns and cities into more remote rural areas.

NIGERIA VS MEXICO FRIENDLY MATCH

The Super Eagles of Nigeria left Lagos for Atlanta, United States  last night for the international friendly against their Mexican counterparts on Wednesday at the Atlanta Georgia Dome

The Nigerian delegation is headed by NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari,  National Sports Commission and Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi  and Coach Stephen Keshi 

Unilag Student Caught With Charms!

While growing up, there was this song, “Bata mi a dun koko ka…”. This song was meant to instill in us the values of education because if you are unread, your sole of your shoes will be flat but would sound with a rhythmic sound, which portrays your confidence!

Our source in the University of Lagos have it on good authority that a female student has been caught by fellow students for accumulating charms, which she later confessed were designed to hold the souls of male lecturers to ransom by doing her biding.

Now the bubble has burst because she allegedly had a quarrel with her “Best friend”, who divulged the secrets of how she has been using her charms to arrest lecturers who give her unmerited marks and also make her their sex mate.

It has been revealed that majority of Nigerian male lecturers are in the habit of trading examination scores for sex with female students thus it is very easy to have them tied down by various “Babas”. Amefrica Voice is on the case and will be bringing you the full gist as it unfolds.

BREAKING: Aita’s New Single Release Date Postponed!

The new single by gospel Artist, Aita slated for release on March 1, 2014 has been postponed by 3 weeks! This could not be unconnected with the fact that the Music Video, which was expected to be released simultaneously, has not been completed.

Competent source from KingZion Records have it that the bitter cold currently being experienced in the North East of the USA could be responsible for the delay because according to gist, the last time an attempt to shoot a video outdoors resulted in the Artist falling sick wit cold.

Another scheduled recording for today was also cancelled because the temperatures dropped to 13 degrees in Washington DC Metropolitan Area; the frigid Artic Air has struck again in the North Eastern part of the country. The National Weather Service advise that some places from the central U.S. to the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys could be having some frosty high temperatures, as low 20 to 30 degrees below normal.

However, Naija Chit-Chat can exclusively reveal that the Rhythm of Gospel Awards Nominee's much expected single is titled Hero From Zero, which is dedicated to those who have been looked down upon yet conquered adversities.

In the meantime, fans are encouraged to vote for him in the forth-coming awards ceremony by clicking here. Aita is nominated in category #7, #32 and #47, closes tomorrow March 1, 2014.

Keep in touch and stay warm for the release, which promises to be soul-soothing. 

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