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US Authorities have released more details in what they say was the apparent stabbing death of a  52-year-old Cameroonian woman whose fiance of Nigerian origin was found nearby splashed with blood Wednesday night at a home in Fort Bend County.

Osa Alohaneke, 56, faces a murder charge in the woman's death at about 7 p.m. in the 16300 block of Alametos Drive in the Mission Bend area, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies said they found the female victim, identified Thursday as Evelyne Ebane Epiepang, dead inside the house and  her sister injured. Alohaneke was standing nearby with blood on his clothes, according to a news release. He told investigators that Epiepang was his fiancee and they lived at the house.  Another man, a family friend, at the home was not hurt.

Epiepang's sister was taken to Memorial-Hermann Hospital-Katy. She had a puncture wound in her shoulder and a broken arm. Her condition was not released, but deputies said her injuries were non-life-threatening.

Deputies said they were first dispatched about 5 p.m. on a domestic violence emergency call from Epiepang. When deputies arrived at the house, Alohaneke had already left.

About two hours later, Alohaneke reportedly returned to the home and banged on the front door, but the two women were not home. A man in the house phoned the victim, and she and her sister returned. Deputies say the alleged fatal attack occurred after their return.

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Ngwa Bertrand

10.Apr.2015

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A residential area south of Sheikh Zuweid town in North Sinai was hit by mortar fire on Wednesday, killing nine civilians, said the officials. They added that two more civilians were killed as a missile hit a house in a village in North Sinai.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that two soldiers died in the provincial capital el-Arish as an explosive device went off while their vehicle was driving by.  The Sinai Peninsula has long been considered a safe haven for gunmen who use the region as a base for their acts of terror.

Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s former president, in July 2013, gunmen have launched terrorist attacks in Sinai, killing members of Egypt’s security forces. On January 31, the group killed 30 people and injured dozens in a series of coordinated attacks in Sinai.

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Apr.2015

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(New York Times)The average high school graduate would be fortunate to get acceptance letters back from more than half of the elite universities they applied to—and getting into just one Ivy League school would be a joyous accomplishment worth celebrating. That’s exactly what makes Harold Ekeh’s acceptance into all eight Ivy League schools so remarkable.

Value education and value opportunity.

That’s the message 17-year-old Ekeh touted after he got accepted into more than a dozen universities.

Ekeh, like many other students, took the time to apply to a plethora of universities as his high school graduation lay just over the horizon.

Rather than dealing with the emotional rollercoaster of a few acceptance letters mixed in with some rejection letters, Ekeh opened all 13 of the letters from the universities he applied to and realized he had been accepted to all of them.

This list of 13 schools ready to welcome Ekeh to their campus includes all eight of the Ivy Leagues as well as other prestigious universities like Johns Hopkins and MIT.

Based on his academic achievements, it’s no surprise that all the schools wanted to make Ekeh a part of their student bodies.

The Nigerian-born teen who now resides in Long Island graduated high school with a GPA of 100.5 percent and boasts a 2270 SAT score out of a possible 2400.

He also has a demonstrated interest in STEM that makes him a promising candidate for any university.

Ekeh was one of the semifinalists for the national Intel Science Talent Search this year for his research on how the acid DHA can slow Alzheimer’s.

It’s a research project that was extremely personal for Ekeh whose own grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was 11.

Outside of his grandmother’s diagnosis, Ekeh says he had a good life in Nigeria but his parents knew there was more opportunity for him in America.

“We had a fairly comfortable life in Nigeria, but they told me we moved to America for the opportunities like the educational opportunities,” he said, as reported by CNN Money.

These are the opportunities Ekeh has always cherished as they fueled his sheer drive and determination in the classroom.

When it comes to explaining how his incredible accomplishment was possible, Ekeh credits his parents.

“My parents’ hard work and my hard work finally paid off,” he said, according to the NY Post.

He added that he was “humbled” by the experience and insisted the accomplishment was not just a personal feat.

“It’s not just for me, but for my school and community,” he said, according to CNN Money. “We can accomplish great things here.”

Despite the plethora of options available to him, Ekeh believes he already knows what school he wants to attend.

“I am leaning toward Yale,” he added. “I competed at Yale for Model UN, and I like the passion people at Yale had.”

He has also already formed friendships with students at Yale as well as established great connections with mentors at the university.

If he indeed follows through with his decision to go to Yale, he will be following in the footsteps of another Long Islander who was accepted into all of the Ivy League schools—Kwasi Enin.

Enin is another African native who came to the U.S. as a child from Ghana and chose to attend Yale after he too was accepted into all of the Ivy League schools.

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Apr.2015

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(Reuters) - French forces have freed a Dutch man held hostage in Mali since 2011 by al Qaeda's north African arm, the French defense ministry said.

It said Sjaak Rijke, who was kidnapped in Timbuktu in November 2011, was freed on Monday during a special operation and had been transferred "safe and sound" to a temporary base in Tessalit, north-east Mali.

French forces had also killed two militants and captured two others during fighting that took place during the early morning operation, said Lieutenant Colonel Michel Sabatier, a spokesman for Barkhane, the French counter-insurgency operation in the region.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said Rijke was in good condition considering the circumstances and receiving medical treatment under Dutch supervision.

"The liberation of Mr Rijke underscores France's staunch determination to fight armed terrorist groups in the Sahel region as part of the Barkhane operation," the French ministry said in a statement.

In November Rijke's captors, the al Qaeda-affiliated AQIM group, issued a video of him along with French national Serge Lazarevic.

Lazarevic, held captive in the Sahara for three years, was released the following month in exchange for four Islamist militants with ties to al Qaeda in north Africa.

France launched an intervention against al Qaeda-linked militants in its former colony Mali in January 2013.

It has since created Barkhane, a 3,000-strong counter-insurgency force to track down Islamist militants, including AQIM, across a band of the Sahara desert stretching across five countries from Chad in the east to Mauritania in the west.

Dutch troops have been deployed in Mali as part of security and peacekeeping missions under the aegis of the United Nations.

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Ngwa Bertrand

06.Apr.2015

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