Obama will not meet with Netanyahu during US trip

US president refuses to meet Israeli PM during his planned trip to Washington in March to address Congress.

US President Barack Obama will not meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli leader travels to Washington in March, the White House has said.

Deadly blast hits hotel in Somali capital

Suicide bomber rams car into Mogadishu hotel housing members of a Turkish delegation ahead of visit by their president.

A suicide car bomb has exploded at the gate of a Mogadishu hotel where Turkish delegates were meeting, a day ahead of a visit by their President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Somali capital, police have said.

Nigerian parents left their twins, 9, alone in the US and traveled to Nigeria

Nigerian parents, Jerusalem and Gladys Monday, have lost custody of their 9 yr old twins after they left them mostly to themselves in their New Hampshire apartment for four months and took their other three children to Nigeria. They left their twins in the care of an uncle who hardly visited. More of the story below from AP...

Thailand's ex-PM decries 'death of democracy'

Yingluck Shinawatra calls five-year-ban from politics an assault on democracy, and vows to fight corruption charges.

Yingluck could face 10 years in jail if convicted [Reuters]

Thailand's former prime minister has decried the "death of democracy" after a military-appointed legislature banned her from politics for five years and launched criminal charges for negligence over a controversial rice subsidy programme.
Yingluck Shinawatra denounced the decisions on Friday as an assault on democracy, and vowed to fight the new corruption charges.
"Democracy has died in Thailand today, along with the rule of law," she said in a statement posted on her Facebook page.
"That move to destroy me is still ongoing and I face it now," she said after plans to hold a press conference were called off on the advice of junta officials.
Both the impeachment and corruption charges revolve around her administration's controversial rice subsidy programme that intended to benefit her rural base but cost billions of dollars. The susbsidy scheme inspired protests that felled her government and led to a military takeover in May.
The impeachment carries an automatic five-year ban from politics, while the criminal charges could see her sentenced for up to 10 years.
Experts say the impeachment and criminal charges are the latest attempt by the country's royalist elite, and its army backers, to nullify the political influence of the Shinawatras, whose parties have won every election since 2001.
Yingluck, Thailand's first female prime minister and the sister of self-exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, was dumped from office by a court ruling shortly before the army seized power in a coup on May 22 last year.

Japanese hostage 'not enemy of Muslims'

Mother of Kenji Goto, being held by ISIL, pleads for his life, as deadline for payment of $200 million ransom looms.

Junko Ishido said she would let Muslim students coming to study in Japan to stay at her home [Michael Penn]

Tokyo - As the clock ticks down to the end of the deadline ISIL has given the Japanese government to pay a massive ransom, the mother of hostage Kenji Goto, appealed for her son's life, explaining: "My son is not an enemy of Muslims."

APC Wants Violence - Gov. Aliyu

 Niger state governor, Babangida Aliyu has fingered the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to cause election violence in the nation.

This was in a statement released by spokesman, Israel Ebije, in Minna on Thursday.
The statement is the governor’s response to APC’s allegation that the PDP and INEC are planning to rig the national elections.

Plateau Will Vote For PDP- Sango

Mr. Damishi Sango Former Minister of Sports has declared that the people of Plateau State will vote for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the general elections because the ruling party was conceived and delivered in the state.

Damishi Sango

He made the declaration when he led a group of senior citizens on a courtesy visit to the governorship candidate Senator Gyang Nyam Shom Pwajok in Jos.
He said: “We are here as members of Plateau Elders Forum to express our support for the ruling party PDP and all its candidates for the general election next month.