By John R. Platt | Takepart.com Tanzanian officials have arrested a poacher and smuggler whom they say is responsible for thousands of  elephant deaths  across several African nations. Boniface Matthew Mariango—nicknamed “Shetani,” or the “Devil”—was  arrested  on Oct. 29 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, after evading authorities for more than a year. According to Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit Task Force, Mariango allegedly managed up to 15 criminal poaching and ivory smuggling syndicates. He is accused of operating in Burundi, Zambia, Mozambique, and southern Kenya for several years. Information from an informant is said to have led to his arrest. The arrest comes one month after the similar capture, also in Tanzania, of a Chinese woman named Yang Feng Glan. She has been called the  “Queen of Ivory”  and is charged with smuggling 706 elephant tusks. Authorities allege she has been an active ivory sm...

By Okechukwu Okugo Jaxon Buell of Florida, was born with a very uncommon condition diagnosed as Microhydranencephaly. He was born with some part of his brain and skull totally missing. And there is no known cause or no known cure. As a matter of fact, because of the rarity of his case, doctors gave him a few weeks to live on earth. Defying all odds and proving all doctors' prognosis wrong, this adorable baby has lived more than a year and 2 months. His mom, Brittany Buell told WTLV, as reported in Yahoo! Parenting: "We never thought he would make it through the pregnancy, let alone months and let alone making it to his first birthday, so for him to reach that milestone is a humongous deal...I think the doctors thought he would only make it a few weeks. They sent me home with hospice, and he was thriving in my eyes, so I cancelled hospice within two or three days of being home." The doctors had previously ruled in their diagnosis that Jaxon would never walk, ta...

HARARE (Reuters) - Suspected poachers have used cyanide to kill 23 elephants in Zimbabwe's Hwange national park, raising the death toll there and in the northern part of the country to 60 since late September, officials said on Thursday. Hwange national park in western Zimbabwe currently hosts 53,000 elephants, twice the park's carrying capacity. Park rangers recovered most of the tusks after the 23 elephants were killed with the deadly poison last Friday but poachers got away with three tusks, officials said. Cyanide is widely used in Zimbabwe's mining industry and is relatively easy to obtain. "The possibilities of trying to control this huge source of cyanide, which is creating so much revenue for the country, is going to be extremely difficult for us to do," said Brant Williamson, a local conservationist told the state broadcaster. "People have access to this awful poison and they don't understand the devastation that it causes by...

I am a lover of soups and everyone around me knows that. Each time I visit a new environment, all I ask about on entering any of their restaurants is the different types of soups available and I opt for those I have not eaten before. Sometimes I get disappointed but most times I am elated especially when I am in the eastern part of Nigeria. I have to give the credit of this article to a friend Miss Patience Chieme who was willing to share with me the recipe for this soup. When I tasted the soup the very first time, I knew only few Nigerian soups can compete with this in terms of taste, colour and expected nutritional value. It will also interest you to know that the leaves of Oha do not lose their nutritional and photochemical properties easily during preparation. Let’s look straight into how this delicious soup can be made. What are the ingredients to make Oha soup? Beef (700g), stock fish (500g), blackfish (300g) and grained crayfish (As approp...

Suya as it is being made and sold in many places should not be eaten because of the risks and dangers associated. I will try as much as possible to explain this in very simple and clear terms. This is to enable even a layman read and understand the message of this post. I promise not to mention terms such terms as benz[a]anthracene, Fasciola hepatica and Taenia saginata . In fact, forget I mentioned those three. All I just want you to know are the risks and dangers associated with eating just any Suya. What is Suya? If you are reading this, you probably know what Suya is. But by way of definition, Suya is a spicy skewered meat which is a popular food item in various parts of Nigeria and is enjoyed as a delicacy in many parts of West Africa. It is traditionally prepared by the Hausa people of northern Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and some parts of Sudan. It is an African barbecue with ginger powder and pepper as the main sauce ingredients. Health and ...

If Mayra Rosales of Texas could loose over 800 pounds and progress from sitting permanently on a king-size bed to walking on her two legs, then you can shed off any weight you have right now! But it requires a great deal of determination, discipline, watching the kinds of food you eat and etc. etc.

By Okechukwu Okugo Floyd Mayweather Jr., the undisputed and undefeated world boxing champion and the best pound for pound "hit-man" the world has produced, flew with his Nigerian friend and car dealer in U.S. popularly known as doctor Bugatti to Miami to finalize the purchase of a $3.5 million 2015 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Doctor Bugatti whose name is Obi Okeke was born and brought up in Nigeria before escaping as a refugee from Nigeria during the civil war with his mother and siblings. But later returned after the war. As a heavyweight car dealer in America, he has sold cars to many other American celebrities, the likes of Chris Tucker, Ellen DeGeneres, Jessica Simpson etc. He started out in 1987 as a Chevrolet dealer and then managing stores for Ferrari, Maserati, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz but today runs his personal show in the sales of exotic fast and furious cars in U.S. He is the co-owner of Fusion Luxury Motors in Chatsworth, California. Doctor Bugatti ...

The amazing work of art was created by 40 year old, Ojo Obaniyi, who has workshop in Ibadan. He made the car with fibre and straw artisans use in making hats, dresses, mats and bags. He is pictured buying fuel in the car at a filling station and driving the car. You can see that creativity also lives in Nigeria, Africa!

5 Relationship Rituals Real Couples Use to Stay Connected   Send Each Other Selfies "Because I travel so much for my business and my husband is sometimes on long calls and shifts at the hospital (and it's difficult to talk on the phone), we have this ritual where we send each other selfies. I text him 'send face,' and he sends a photo of his face, regardless of where he is or what he is doing. I do the same when he texts. I love this ritual. It started when he was in residency and he got an iPhone. He was on a 36-hour call, and I was missing him. So, he sent me his face. This ritual has helped us stay close to each other even when we both have busy schedules. Even during the most busy and stressful day, getting his face reminds me that my marriage is by far the most important thing in my life." — Priyanka, 32, and Ragu, 33, married 3 1/2 years     Create a Goofy Nickname "A couple of years ago, when Adam and I first started ...

By Okechukwu Okugo The future of African elephants is undoubtedly in jeopardy as a result of the apocalypse declared on them by poachers because of their ivory. For example, Gabon in West Africa which holds a substantial amount of Africa's remaining forest elephants in 2004 had an estimated 28,500 elephants but by 2012 the number fell to about 7000 elephants according to National Geographic; plummeting with more than 20,000 in number due largely to poaching. In the African continent, people are poisoning, spearing and shooting the elephant dastardly at such a rate some scientists declared them "ecologically extinct." Today, "there are now fewer than 500,000 wild African elephants - maybe no more than half the number - and barely 32,000 Asian elephants" according to National Geographic. Yet with all these dire future facing this beloved animals, some people still call out for a mass killing of elephant populations in some areas. In the late 20th century...

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Less than two years after he was released from prison, Lewis Jackson found authorities waiting for him as he boarded a ferry boat on remote Sapelo Island carrying a cooler full of contraband valued by some as a mythical aphrodisiac. Inside the cooler, investigators found zip-top bags filled with the ping-pong ball sized eggs of loggerhead sea turtles, animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. Stealing eggs of the threatened species is a federal crime. Jackson was arrested July 7 in coastal Georgia with 84 sea turtle eggs swiped from a turtle nest on the barrier island's unspoiled beach. Authorities knew to look for him because it wasn't his first offense. He had served six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing 156 loggerhead eggs in May 2012. Now Jackson, 60, could return to prison for up to five years. He's scheduled for sentencing by a U.S. District Court judge Wednesday after he pleaded guilty in August to w...

By Okechukwu Okugo  On 21st October, 2015, Taloa Foster, a 33-year-old woman from Ada driving probably under the influence, fell out of her truck on Wednesday morning at about 8:45 a.m. along state Highway 1, east of Ada, Oklahoma. But fortunately, one of her twin boys in the vehicle bounced into action, taking possession of the driver's seat, he drove the car a considerable distance before steering off the Highway and crashing the car to a stop on a curb, safely. Eyewitnesses reported what happened and called Ada firefighters, Mercy EMS, Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Pontotoc's County Sheriff's deputies to the scene. The hero-boy and his twin brother were unhurt. The mother reportedly told authorities that she fell off the vehicle when one of his boys unbuckled his seat belt and she was trying to buckle it back. But troopers found a nearly empty bottle of liquor in the pickup. Fortunately, she was not reportedly hurt as a result of the fall.  Oklahoma Hi...

By Okechukwu Okugo Do you look down on certain jobs or professions? Many people do. 2010, in Nigeria, I have a friend who after graduation went into waste disposal; and converted his old Volkswagen bus popularly known as "Danfo" in Nigeria into a garbage packing vehicle. A business he started when he graduated from one of Nigeria's highbrow universities. After introducing him to another friend, Joe and he learning what he does for a living; Joe told me in private that he is highly disappointed with what my friend chose as his job. Recently in New York as I was discussing with a friend of mine from one of the countries in South America and I suggested to him, after he complained that he is thinking seriously of a private business he can set up for himself, to learn and open up a barbering shop. And bluntly, he told me that that is the least job anyone can think of engaging in. Then I asked him two simple questions: "Do presidents cut their hair?" "D...

© Cultura Flirting    From across the bar, you spot your husband laughing — at another woman's joke. You experience a ping of jealously, but then let it slide. After all, he's just flirting , not cheating — or is he? The question of whether flirting equals infidelity is an age-old one with different answers depending on who you ask. So to get to the bottom, we asked experts whether it's anything to worry about. "Flirting can feel like cheating because they both evoke similar emotions," says Julie de Azevedo Hanks , Ph.D., licensed clinical social worker and owner of Wasatch Family Therapy. "It's common for spouses to feel worried or jealous when their spouse's attention is focused on another person, especially when it hints at sexual attraction . Whenever our primary love relationships are threatened it usually triggers anxiety and fear of loss." But almost across the board, all the experts we spoke to, including Hanks, ...

Nigerian Most Popular Female Blogger Linda Ikeji has just acquired a new home in Banana Island Ikoyi Lagos. Find below graphics of the newly acquired mansion and the beautiful advice from our able and proud female Nigerian blogger to young Nigerian women like her.   BELOW ARE HER WORDS OF ADVICE TO THE YOUNG LADIES....... Now to all the young girls looking at these photos, please read below.. My name is Linda Ikeji. I'm a blogger. I'm 35 years old and I have never...never ever in my life slept with a man for money. Not only have I never done it, I have never even considered it...and here I am with a house that cost me over half a billion naira. Listen, you are beautiful and you are stronger than you know. There's absolutely nothing you can't achieve if you set your mind to it, put your heart and soul into it. Up until five years ago, I was a struggling entrepreneur. I can't tell you how many offices in this Lagos I s...