Russia has warned of tensions in North Korea slipping out of control, after Pyongyang said it was placing its missile units on stand-by.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the situation could slip "toward the spiral of a vicious circle".
Kim Jong-un made the missile order after talks responding to US stealth bomber flights over the Korean peninsula, state news agency KCNA said.
The time had come to "settle accounts" with the US, KCNA quoted him as saying.
Annual military drills and fresh UN sanctions have angered North Korea.
After a late-night meeting with the army's strategic rocket force, Kim Jong-un "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists", KCNA reported.

He was said to have condemned US B-2 bomber sorties over South Korea as a "reckless phase" that represented an "ultimatum that they will ignite a nuclear war at any cost on the Korean Peninsula".

US mainland and bases in Hawaii, Guam and South Korea were all named as potential targets.
The US - which flew two stealth bombers over the peninsula on Thursday as part of the ongoing annual US-South Korea military drills - has said it is ready for "any eventuality" on the peninsula.
Thousands of North Korean soldiers and students later took part in a mass rally in the centre of Pyongyang in support of Kim Jong-un's announcement, beneath large portraits of his father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung.
A South Korean defence ministry spokesman described the North Korean decision as a "continuing measure", after its announcement to adopt "combat posture".
'Unacceptable' China, North Korea's biggest trading partner, immediately reiterated its call for all sides to ease tensions.
But Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov went further, voicing concern that "we may simply let the situation slip out of our control and it will slide into a spiral of a vicious circle".
While condemning Pyongyang's actions as "unacceptable", he gave a more general warning that "unilateral steps being taken around North Korea that manifest themselves in a build-up of military activity".

He added what was needed was not a build-up of military muscle and a pretext for using military means to achieve "geopolitical objectives", in remarks seen as an implicit criticism of US bomber flights.

'Joint efforts' In a statement, the US military said that the B-2 planes demonstrated America's ability to "provide extended deterrence" to its allies and conduct "long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will".
"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters on Thursday. "We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we'll respond to that."
The US had already flown nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over South Korea earlier this month, in what it called a response to escalating North Korean threats.
A Yonhap news agency report citing an unidentified military official said increased activity had been noted at North Korea's missile sites, but this remains unconfirmed.
"Intelligence personnel are closely monitoring North Korea's readiness with its short, middle and long range missiles such as Scud missile, Nodong missile and Musudan missile," South Korean defence ministry official Kim Min-seok said.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing that "joint efforts" should be made to turn around a "tense situation". He made similar remarks on Tuesday.
Unprecedented rhetoric Tensions in the Korean peninsula have been high since North Korea's third nuclear test on 12 February, which led to the imposition of a fresh raft of sanctions.
North Korea has made multiple threats against both the US and South Korea in recent weeks, including warning of a "pre-emptive nuclear strike" on the US and the scrapping of the Korean War armistice.

North Korea is not thought to have the technology to strike the US mainland with either a nuclear weapon or a ballistic missile, but it is capable of targeting some US military bases in Asia with its mid-range missiles.

While North Korea has issued many threats against the US and South Korea in the past, this level of sustained rhetoric is rare, observers say.
On 16 March, North Korea warned of attacks against South Korea's border islands, and advised residents to leave the islands. In 2010 it shelled South Korea's Yeonpyeong island, causing four deaths.
On Wednesday, Pyongyang also cut a military hotline with the South - the last direct official link between the two nations.
A Red Cross hotline and another line used to communicate with the UN Command at Panmunjom have already been cut, although an inter-Korean air-traffic hotline still exists.
The jointly-run Kaesong industrial park is still in operation, however, and over 160 South Korean commuters entered North Korea yesterday to work in its factories.

06:22:00

Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne has been released from hospital and is returning home after a health scare.   Lil Wayne, 30, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles on March 13 after suffering a series of seizures, and the hip hop star spent several days recovering in intensive care.  Fellow artists, including Nicki Minaj, Eminem and Drake, were photographed entering the hospital over the weekend.
The tattooed New Orleans rapper has a history of seizures

06:01:00

It's Good Friday and we'll in the mood of celebrations. Here's a story that challenges all of us.

While popes have for centuries washed the feet of the faithful on the day before Good Friday, never before had a pontiff washed the feet of a woman. That one of the female inmates at the prison in Rome was also a Serbian Muslim was also a break with tradition.

Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates aged 14 to 21, among them the two women, the second of whom was an Italian Catholic.

Catholic traditionalists are likely to be riled by the inclusion of women in the ceremony because of the belief that all of Jesus’ disciples were male.

The pontiff, who has largely disregarded protocol since his election earlier this month, urged his fellow clerics before the ceremony to prioritize the poor.

“We need to go out to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters,” he said at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica. It is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord.”

Francis, the first leader of the Catholic Church from Latin America, led a mass with a mixed group of young offenders at the Casal del Marmo prison outside of Rome.

05:51:00

He happens to be an American, working in the City. But plenty of people working or staying in London from around the world feel the same way - even if they might put it more politely.
For a certain kind of "global citizen", London today feels like the new capital of the world - while, for people living in other parts of the UK, it all too often feels like another planet.
Our cosmopolitan capital is so different, so successful - have we got to the point where the rest of the UK would actually be better off without it?
That's the question I set out to answer, in my contribution to a new BBC 1 programme which was broadcast rather late on March 25th.
Faster To anyone who lives in London that will sound crazy. But to others it might strike a chord.
The rest of the UK might be living through the toughest squeeze in a century, but it doesn't feel like it, walking around many parts of the capital. And in many ways, it hasn't been like that either.
London had a recession, but it didn't last long. Its economy grew by nearly 12.5% between 2007 and 2011 - twice as fast as the rest of the UK. And the property market barely stopped either.
A recent study estimated that the value of London's property had risen by 15% - or £140bn since the financial crisis began.
That increase - just the increase - is more than the total value of all residential property in the north east of England.
London's top ten boroughs alone are worth more, in real estate terms, than all the property of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, added together.
Why, you might ask, would the UK want to walk away from all that wealth - give up the goose that lays so many golden eggs?
More The Office for National Statistics reckons that the average Londoner contributes 70% more to Britain's national income than people in the rest of the country - a difference of £16,000 each a year.
It's tricky to measure, but they also seem to pay more in taxes than they get back in government spending.
But of course, one big reason for that is that most other places have not been doing nearly as well. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, the divide between them has widened since the financial crisis, because London has been growing so much faster.
So, whatever the capital's success is doing for other parts of the UK, you might say that it doesn't seem to be helping them to catch up.
It made me wonder playing host to a "first-rate" global capital also came with a massive catch: that as well as subsidising the rest of the country, London's very success was also holding it back.
This is an idea that's been debated for decades - at least since London's massive expansion in the inter-war period, when planning rules didn't really exist and London became "Greater London", with a much greater population to match.
Wrong size But the film set me thinking about all the ways that policy gets distorted by so much of Britain's economic, political and cultural all being concentrated in one place.
Without London, the UK would look like a rather different economy - one less focussed on financial services, more reliant on manufacturing. That could make a difference to macro-economic policy.
But more interesting, perhaps, would be the impact on policy-making in general, if the bulk of decisions stopped being taken in Whitehall.
Whether it's the "spare room subsidy" or the government's "new homes bonus", every politician you talk to, outside London, will have their pet example of a "one-size-fits-all" policy dreamed up in Whitehall which fits the priorities of London and the south east a lot better than the rest of the UK.
The chief executive of Birmingham City Council, Stephen Hughes, liked the thought experiment. He told me getting rid of London would be a fantastic challenge to big cities like Birmingham.
Because, instead of complaining about those one-size-fits-all policies, he and his colleagues would have to get on with coming up with their own.
Slow Travelling around for the film brought home another crucial way in which London has got things sewn up: Transport. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't fully appreciated this point before making the film.
You don't, if you spend your time going between London and other parts of the UK.
You can cover the 120-odd miles between London and Birmingham in a train in 84 minutes. Birmingham to Manchester is not much more than half the distance, but I found the fastest train between the two actually took longer: about 90 minutes.
Similarly, it's only 40 miles from Manchester to Leeds, but the fastest train takes nearly an hour.
You might think High Speed 2 will change this - isn't it all about bridging the North-South divide?
But when you're sitting in Birmingham or Manchester, you can see why many people outside London think high speed rail will actually make things worse.
They worry that a faster connection to London will simply make it even less attractive to go anywhere else.
'Second tier' Alexandra Jones, who runs the think-tank Centre for Cities, told me about research they had done, showing that businesses in cities like Manchester or Leeds tend to look first to London when they need to buy in specialist help or establish a joint venture in a particular sector, even when the talent or expertise they need is also readily available, more cheaply, in a neighbouring city.
Transport is surely one of many reasons for that. Why would you look closer to home if the nearer city takes just as long to get to?
Over time, you can see how London's dominance could become ever more entrenched, with Britain's "second tier" cities never reaching critical mass.
By now you might be thinking that all I have managed to do is take a circuitous route to a pretty standard conclusion: Britain has a really big North-South divide, which is very hard to change.
Trust But I did come across some signs of progress - in Salford Quays, for example. It turns out it's all about what economists call "agglomeration" - linking businesses and others kinds of economic activity together in such a way that they can start to punch above their weight.
You might be familiar with Salford Quays. It's where the BBC has moved a big chunk of its operations.
But that's not why I went there. I went there because Brian Robson, now a professor emeritus at Manchester University, told me Salford was an example of what Britain's other cities might look like, if they were given the freedom to think about what works in this new economy, and chart their own course.
Robson has spent years thinking about how to help the UK's other cities get more of the action. He says the new city deals - and other moves the government has been taking to give Britain's "city regions" more scope to pool and control their own resources - are genuinely encouraging.
Lord Heseltine's recent report, "No Stone Unturned", was all about this. Fans would see the chancellor's decision to accept many of its proposals as another step in the right direction.
There are more examples in my film. By the end, I couldn't help thinking that it's not London that the rest of the country has a problem with - it's the UK's over-centralised system of government.
For generations, officials in Whitehall have taken more and more power away from Britain's cities - and trusted them less and less.
This government isn't the first to say it wants to change that. But you never know, maybe this time it might really mean it.

07:40:00

Social media sites have evolved into the global equivalent of the office watercooler, but could the buzz they generate be analyzed to predict real-world outcomes?

Leading British economist Noreena Hertz thinks so. She believes analyzing the chatter from Twitter and Facebook for example, will become a dominant force in the business of forecasting.

"Over the past few years I have been really quite obsessed with how technology is changing the way that we make sense of the world," she told CNN at Names not Numbers, an idea-sharing and networking conference in the UK.

Last year, Hertz carried out an experiment to demonstrate the power of social networks as a tool for better understanding human behavior.

"I was really interested to see whether we could make predictions or forecasts by listening in on what people were saying on social media," she said.

Her and a team of computer scientists, sociologists, and economists worked together to develop a method of research that they hoped would enable them to predict the winner of talent contest "The X Factor".

By developing a sophisticated algorithm, the team effectively "listened in" on hundreds of thousands of tweets at once and deduced not just the number and subject of messages but also, for the first time, the sentiment. In doing so they were able to make an accurate guess about who would stay and go each week.

"We were pretty much beating the bookies," she said.

Hertz has made a career out of challenging the predictive powers of traditional forecasting models, which she says are far from perfect.

After all, she says, analysts in the Middle East failed to predict the Arab Spring and very few experts saw the financial meltdown coming -- something she did three years before in her book "IOU: The Debt Threat".

An influential economist, Hertz has a knack for prescience that has put her ahead of the curve among her peers.

Her work is all about conducting research that gives raw data some context. It's about understanding the culture, language and psychology of social media users, which, she says, has huge implications for both business and government.

Under her school of her thought, in order for social media marketing to have any real value we need to understand what people's actions really mean. "If somebody tweets 'I like Coca-Cola', does that mean that they're actually going to buy Coca-Cola? One can? Two cans? Three cans? If they retweet someone else's Tweet, does that mean they're going to buy it?"

At the age of 19, Hertz gained her degree at University College London (UCL) and then moved to the U.S. to study for an MBA. In her early twenties, she found herself in St. Petersburg educating Boris Yeltsin's advisers in market economics. Here she gained inspiration for her PhD thesis, "Russian Business Relationships in the Wake of Reform", at the University of Cambridge.

In 2002 she wrote the book "The Silent Takeover," which discussed the migration of power from government to corporations. In it she correctly anticipated that unregulated markets and huge financial institutions would, in the near future, have grave consequences for the rest of the world.

Today, Hertz is a professor at a number of universities and one of the world's respected thinkers. Her pioneering concepts surrounding social media analytics have the potential to impact government policy, public security and economic growth.

Her work highlights the inadequacy of the majority of data used by governments and corporations as an empirical measure of what we, the people, want.

"Language is too complex for a computer to understand," she said. "It's not going to be able to make sense of what people are saying en masse. We need a new type of discipline that puts together computer scientists and social scientists, who can add context to the situation."

She may, so far, have only predicted the winner of a national singing contest but with the developments made in her "X Factor" experiment, Hertz has presented us with an unprecedented opportunity to foresee the events of the future by simply "listening in on what the world really thinks."

06:59:00

Apple, as the reports go, is working on a "smart watch," although the secretive company won't say anything about it, of course.

So, after months of speculation, what does its chief rival in the mobile world do?

Announce that it definitely is working on a smart watch.

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, said as much during an interview in South Korea, where the company is based. And he said it's not a knee-jerk reaction to Apple's rumored plans.

"We've been preparing the watch product for so long," Lee told Bloomberg. "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them."

He did not give any details on when the watch may be released, what features it will have or how much it will cost.

With its Galaxy S line of smartphones, Samsung has become the first competitor to provide a real challenge to the dominant iPhone. While Apple's iconic phone remains the single-most popular mobile device -- the release of the iPhone 5 led to a record sales quarter and was the most popular of the 75 million devices running Apple's iOS system that were sold in those three months -- Samsung moved into a solid second place with its Galaxy S III.

The S III outsold the iPhone 4S during the third quarter of last year before the iPhone 5's release, and the company announced last week that the Galaxy S4 is on its way.

Now the companies seem poised to go head-to-head again in what appears to be an emerging market -- wearable tech.

Nike's fitness-oriented FuelBand has led the charge. But few new products have captured the imagination of the tech-minded such as Google Glass, an eyewear-like headset that offers augmented-reality images as well as basic smartphone-like features. The device is due later this year and has started popping up on the faces of field testers.

Then there is Pebble, the smartwatch that raked in about $8 million on Kickstarter and has begun shipping to backers.

But will there be a market for these devices outside of early-adopter technophiles and loyalists who will scoop up any new product their favorite company creates? Early signs say the public might need a little more information first.

According to an unscientific survey of users by mobile deals site BuyVia, 26% of respondents said they were interested in buying a rumored iWatch, 38% said they were not interested and more than a third, 36%, said they weren't sure. (The survey was conducted before Samsung confirmed it's in the game as well.)

The top five features respondents said they'd like to see in a watch were e-mail and texting, phone calls, GPS, Wi-Fi and weather updates.

"While consumers are seemingly divided about their desire to own the rumored Apple iWatch, it's fascinating that the most desired features for the watch mirror popular iPhone capabilities," said BuyVia CEO Norman Fong.

"It's as though consumers are only interested in a watch that offers everything the smartphone does, only in a more convenient 'package.' What they seem to crave is a way to more easily access iPhone features everywhere they go."

06:42:00

Professor Chinua Achebe, one of the world’s most celebrated writers, is dead.
Achebe who was based in the United States had been hospitalised in recent days in Boston, Massachussets where he passed away at 82 years.

Chinua Achebe

Professor Achebe  was best known for his classical novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He also authored several novels, short stories and poems.
His last book, ‘There was a Country’; A personal history of Biafra, was published last year. He was a professor at Brown University in the United States since 2009.may his soul rest in perfect peace

06:33:00

If you're handing over cash for a heavily discounted iPad from some random guy in a McDonald's parking lot or at a gas station, then yes, you should consider your purchase a risk.

But when you're like Suzanne Nassise and you buy Apple's popular tablet from a well-known retailer, you expect it to be legit. Nassise says she walked out of a Walmart in Brockton, Massachusetts, last month with what she believed was a new $499 iPad.

When she got home and opened the box, she told CNN affiliate WCVB, she thought, "'Wow, it's a little on the light side -- Apple's an elegant product.'"

Then she tried to turn it on.

When nothing happened, Nassise looked at the plastic rectangle more closely. The imitation iPad -- an iFake, if you will -- tried to replicate a real iPad's charging port and speakers, the latter of which were small, painted-on dots.

Susan Nassise paid $499 for an iPad at a Walmart in Brockton, Massachusetts, only to open the box and find a plastic fake.

"When I realized it, I was upset," she told WCVB. "I just paid $500 for a paperweight."

If her story sounds familiar, it's because it has happened at retailers in a variety of states over the past few years. Numerous shoppers have purchased what they thought were iPads, only to open the box and find a worthless decoy inside. To make matters worse, some stores have refused to give refunds on the grounds that the buyers might have been trying to scam them.

The majority of news reports on the problem have involved iPad purchases at Walmart, although other retailers are not immune.

In December 2010, the year the first iPad hit shelves, a man in Dorchester, Massachusetts, said he spent $800 at a local Best Buy on an iPad that turned out to be fake. The store said the same thing had happened to five or six other people, he told his local NBC station, WHDH.

The next year, Ken Lemal told a similar story after the businessman purchased what he thought was an iPad from a Walmart in Woodstock, Georgia. Like Nassise, Lemal's iPad was packaged in a way that suggested he was buying a product straight from the manufacturer.

"I think that probably somebody switched (the iPad) and took it back with the cellophane and everything," Lemal told CNN in a recent interview. "An employee says, 'Oh it's wrapped up, we'll stick it back in inventory,' and it gets sold to somebody else. I think that's what happens."

That same year in Vancouver, British Columbia, several iPad shoppers at Future Shop and Best Buy stores said they opened the Apple packaging to find plastic bags filled with modeling clay. Last November, a man in Miami accidentally gave his wife a fake iPad for her birthday, thinking he'd spent $480 on the real deal.

In January, a woman in Randolph, New Jersey, said that she, too, wound up with a fake Apple tablet after shopping at her neighborhood Walmart.

"When I got home and opened the box, I thought it was a real iPad," Jamie Frick told the Newark Star-Ledger. "I took out the charger and then tried to plug it in the iPad, and that is when I started to notice everything."

So how is this fraud happening? Retail chains aren't saying. But the prevailing theory begins with a scam artist buying an iPad, replacing it with something of similar size and weight and then repackaging the box so it looks ready for the sales floor once again. Then the person returns the box for a refund. Other speculation has focused on unscrupulous store employees raiding storerooms to make similar swaps.

Walmart at first declined to offer Nassise, the Massachusetts woman, an exchange or refund because of a policy against returned merchandise that has been unwrapped. But after the local ABC station got involved, Nassise eventually received a refund for her purchase.

Walmart spokesperson Dianna Gee said the company is aware of the problem and is working to address it.

"We're actively reviewing our transactional records, and then going back and looking at the video that matches up with that to determine how this product is getting back on our shelves," she said. "If it appears that it is fraudulent, we will share all that information with local law enforcement."

Best Buy, which has seen similar fake-iPad episodes, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Walmart's Gee recommends that iPad shoppers open the box and check the tablet carefully before making a purchase.

Lemal's experience made him wary of purchasing items from anyone other than the manufacturer. But he did learn a valuable lesson: Double-check the serial number on the box.

"If you have an issue, don't rely on the retailer to just check the item that's inside the box; call Apple and verify the serial number that's on the box itself," he said. "Either require them to do it while there, or when you get home ... (that will tell you) if it had been sold prior to your date of purchase."

06:27:00

LAGOS—There were indications, yesterday, that the Boko Haram sect might have infiltrated Lagos State, following raid of a building in Ijora Badia area of Lagos, suspected to have been used as a hideout by the suspected terrorists.
This came as the Islamist group holding the French family of seven in Nigeria has warned against any attempt to use force to free their hostages who were  kidnapped in northern Cameroon last month.
Arrested in the Lagos building were two persons; a Chadian simply identified as Aminu and another man from the northern part of the country whose identity could not be ascertained.

TERROR ABODE—Residents at the building used as hideout by the suspects at Ijora, Lagos.

Recovered at the end of the raid carried out by a combined team of  Operation Messa, OP MESSA and personnel of the Department of State Security, DSS were AK 47 riffles and some explosives said to have been hidden  inside the ceiling.
Vanguard gathered that the operatives stormed the building following information on a terror network coordinated by Iranians in Lagos.

Suspects whisked to Abuja

The suspects were said to have been  immediately whisked into the operatives’ van which headed straight to the airport, enroute Abuja.
Investigation revealed that the suspects moved into the building located on 24 Oyegbemi Street last month. Their movement reportedly aroused suspicion from residents of the area who alerted security operatives.
Residents of the area told Vanguard that the operatives stormed the building, a bungalow  at about 6am and arrested the Chadian, Aminu.
They reportedly came again at noon. “This time, they went round the entire vicinity and arrested some other persons”, a resident said.
The suspects as gathered, occupied three rooms in the building. “But we became suspicious following unusual movements in and around the building, with most of the visitors carrying bags. As you can see, the building is located close to this drainage and with the location of the place, nobody was sure of what they were into, until today (yesterday)”, another resident said.
Five major oil companies’ tank farms are located around the area. The oil companies are; AGIP, AP, Conoil, Oando and NICO.
Reports also had it that eight other persons were  arrested, among whom were two soldiers and six civilians.
Although some of those arrested reportedly tried to explain that they knew nothing about the recovered explosives, the officials were said to have replied that their claim would be determined at the end of investigation.
Contacted, spokesman  for 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Colonel Kingsley Umoh, confirmed the raid but did not state whether the suspects were members of the Boko Haram sect.
He explained that similar raids were also carried out in other volatile areas of the state, adding that yesterday’s raid was carried out following a tip-off.
He said: “The OP Mesa as you know, is a joint security body which carried out its routine raids yesterday and made some arrests.
“The raids were simply part of those carried out everyday based on information at our disposal.  The raids give the public confidence that  security bodies are working.
“It is the way the OP Mesa was designed and once our sources give us tips, we swing into action”, he said, advising Lagosians to go about their legal businesses without fear.
He could also not confirm whether explosives were recovered during the raid.
Lagos State Director, DSS, Achu Olayi, confirmed the raid but added that it was too soon to say if the suspects were Boko Haram members or not. He could also not disclose the type of ammunition recovered during the raid.
Spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Ngozi Braide when contacted, said she was not aware of any raid carried out by policemen from either of the divisions yesterday.
Also, the monarch of the area, Oba Fatai Ojora, who reacted to the incident said  he had begun investigation to ascertain the identity of the owner of the house.
When news of the arrest filtered round, residents panicked, with some of them making effort to flee the environment, for fear of possible explosion.
Boko Haram warns against rescue of French hostages
Meanwhile, the Islamist group holding the French family of seven in Nigeria has warned against any attempt to use force to free their hostages.
Mr. Tanguy Moulin-Fournier was kidnapped along with his wife, four children aged between five and 12, and brother on February 19, while vacationing in northern Cameroon.
In the video, released from an undisclosed location in Nigeria, the spokesman of Boko Haram, Imam Abu Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Abubakar Ash Shekawi, also known as Abubakar Shekau, warned against any attempt to use force to free their captives.
The video recording distributed to the media, yesterday, showed Moulin-Fournier making the previous demands by Boko Haram for the release of their members held as prisoners in Cameroon and Nigeria.
Specifically, the group demanded the release of wives and children of members supposedly arrested in Nigeria as well as members of the group they claimed to have been detained in Cameroon.
No fewer than seven construction workers seized in BauchiState were reported by one of the militant groups to have been killed earlier this month when the group suspected that there was attempt by the government to rescue them.

06:21:00

Kenya’s ambitious Harambee Stars flew into Lagos on Wednesday afternoon hoping they would not be too much of a mincemeat for African champions Nigeria in Saturday’s 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Calabar.
A delegation of 20 players and 11 officials slept over in Lagos before flying into Calabar today, to be accommodated at Channel View Hotel.

                                                            

However, the Kenyans were not happy that they had to spend the night in Lagos having thought they would be given a chartered flight by the Nigeria Football Federation to fly to Calabar immediately.
“They have put us in a two star hotel here in Lagos but we don’t mind since it is just one night and then we leave for Calabar. We are trying to prevail upon them to give us a training ground,” an official, identified as Hussein told Goal.com.
He said the weather was very hot and this may affect the Kenyans especially coming from cooler Nairobi.
The supercharged Nigerians, with a full house training in CanaanCity for the showdown, believe they have all going for them as they file out against a side that has never beaten them.
Nigeria and Kenya have clashed at senior level 13 times previously, with Nigeria coming out tops in 11 of them, the remaining two drawn.
Their first-ever meeting was on May 8, 1968 when the Nigerians, on the way from an Olympic Games qualifying match in Ethiopia, stopped by in Nairobi for a friendly and inflicted a 2-1 defeat on their hosts.
Another friendly in Nairobi eight years later ended 1-1, but in August 1981, Nigeria won yet another friendly in Nairobi 3-1 with goals from Henry Nwosu, Ifeanyi Onyedika and Emmanuel Osigwe.
Fatai Amoo and Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory) scored in a 3-0 defeat of the Harambee Stars in a World Cup qualifier in Nairobi in April, 1985 with the Eagles completing the rout 3-1 in Lagos two weeks later.
Left out of the squad to the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, and therefore with a point to prove, the much-traveled marksman is raring  to go goals-wire if fielded.
Harambee Stars will remember Martins with pain in their hearts as he pumped in two of those goals in Nairobi in November 2009. Given to brace accomplishments in World Cup qualifiers, Martins also hit double in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Algeria in Oran and Zimbabwe in Abuja, and even in his first competitive match for Nigeria – a 2-0 defeat of Rwanda in Abuja in June 2004.
There are also Cup of Nations’ hero Sunday Mba, the pacy Ahmed Musa and Ukraine-based newcomer Michael Babatunde with so much to prove.
The elegant Victor Moses, who shocked Africa with the way he easily adjusted to the African game in his very first tournament, in South Africa, will once more be cynosure of all eyes at the U.J.Esuene Stadium, where he scored a brace against Liberia’s Lone Star in a Cup of Nations qualifier in November last year.
Hard-as-nails enforcer Fegor Ogude and the unflappable John Mikel Obi are set to compound the situation for the Harambee Stars on Saturday evening.

06:38:00

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Lady Gaga's manager says the pop star is "doing unbelievable" a month after she had hip surgery that caused her to cancel her U.S. tour.

Vincent Herbert said in an interview Tuesday the 26-year-old Grammy winner is "doing wonderful, doing great."
Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, cancelled her "Born This Way Ball" tour last month. She'd hurt herself while performing some time ago.
Herbert says Gaga is finishing her new album, "ARTPOP," and is "ready to get back to work."
He calls the new album "very, very refreshing" and says the "Born This Way" singer continues to "push the envelope."
Herbert adds: "I can't wait for the world to hear her new music and see her come back healthy, strong and better than ever."

06:38:00

The part two of the power couple wedding Tuface and Annie will hold this weekend in Dubai with D’banj, Faze, Sound Sultan,Tony Tetuila, Dotun Omoteye, Hycinth Idibia serving as 2face Idibia’s groomsmen, however, Plantashun Boyz Ahmedu Augustine Obiabo aka Blackface is not in the picture.
Blackface may not also be part of the 250 guests expected to storm Dubai to share the happy moment with Tuface; a man he’s known almost all his life even as Larry Gaga another childhood friend of Tuface is named best man.

Blackface, Tuface

Tuface met BlackFace at the Institute of Management technology in 1996 shortly before Plantashun Boyz was formed with Richard Chibuzor Oj (Faze). They quickly stuck as friends until undisclosed internal crisis forced the group to split.
However, real trouble between these two started with the noise raised over the original writer of African Queen. Tuface almost lost the shine he garnered from the success of the song after allegations of ‘unlawful usage of intellectual property’ was allegedly raised by Blackface. The matter was quickly and amicably settled but their relationship never again remained the same even after they came back briefly in 2007 to do a Plantashun Boyz re-union album titled Plan B.
Blackface has not been sighted at significant events concerning Tuface, this wedding may not be different.
The wedding will hold at the Sefinah Ballroom of Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Reception will hold at an exotic Island called Royal Island Beach. Guests will be conveyed in luxury boats from the wedding venue to the Island. The wedding after party will hold at Nigerian owned club, Kiza Nite Club.

06:32:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sony Corp took the wraps off its next-generation video game console called "PlayStation4" on Wednesday.

The company revealed the new console, which will succeed the seven-year-old PlayStation 3, in New York.

05:55:00

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and the United States have started talks on operational plans in the case of armed conflict over a group of East China Sea islets claimed by Tokyo and Beijing, Japanese media said on Thursday, prompting China to complain of "outside pressure".

The dispute in recent months had escalated to the point where both sides scrambled fighter jets while patrol ships shadow each other, raising fears that an unintended collision or other incident could lead to a broader clash.
The United States, which has announced a security "pivot" towards Asia, has said repeatedly it takes no position on the sovereignty dispute, but believes it is important for China and Japan to work out their differences peacefully.
Shigeru Iwasaki, head of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces' joint staff, and Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific, are expected to agree that the allies will accelerate the drafting of the plans when they meet in Hawaii on Thursday and Friday, Kyodo news agency said.
They will likely review several scenarios including one under which Japanese and U.S. armed forces conduct joint operations in case China invades the islands, Kyodo said. The Nikkei business daily carried a similar report on Wednesday.
"China is extremely concerned by these reports ... The Chinese government has the determination and ability to maintain the nation's territorial sovereignty," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
"No outside pressure will affect the resolve and determination of the Chinese government and people to maintain territorial sovereignty."
The rocky, uninhabited islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are located near rich fishing grounds and potentially huge oil and gas reserves.
Senior U.S. officials including State Secretary John Kerry have said in recent months that the islands are covered by the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.
Asked about the media reports, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo and Washington had been in close cooperation on security matters, but declined to comment on what will likely be discussed at the meeting.
China is also in dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over parts of the South China Sea also potentially rich in natural resources. WHAT DO U FEEL ABOUT THIS?

05:47:00

After being hit with a double whammy of the flu and laryngitis, Rihanna's pulled out of her second concert this week.

The 25-year-old was supposed to perform in Baltimore on March 12, but the show's since been postponed. On Sunday, the "Diamonds" singer also had to cancel her Boston show because of her illness.

"#BOSTON this is the hardest thing for me to deal with! I feel like we've been waiting on this day forever, and I'm hurt that I let you down," Rihanna tweeted March 10. "I hate disappointing people that never ever let me down!! I'm so embarrassed about this! Thank you for your prayers and well wishes!"
Her Twitter account has been quiet since, and according to a statement, she's still trying to recuperate. She plans to next take the stage on March 14 in Philadelphia.
If you bought tickets for either her Boston or Baltimore show, you should hold on to them pending more information about rescheduling her dates.

05:49:00

WARRI— A FINAL year Physics student of the Delta State University, Delsu, Abraka, has been arrested by men of the 3 Battalion, Nigeria Army Effurun, Warri
Ebruke Oghenekohworho, 34, was arrested in connection with last week killings of two Prison officials, a mechanical Engineering lecturer of PTI and release of five prison inmates in Warri.
The military men last Monday also recovered a Toyota Camry number plate No. LAGOS LND 519 BE belonging to the mastermind of the attack on prison officials simply identified as Kelvin in an encounter that saw the kidnap kingpin fleeing, leaving behind his GSM handset at Kokori junction in Ethiope East Council area of DeltaState.
Commanding Officer, 3 battalion, Lt. Col. Ikechukwu Otu gave this details, in an interactive session with newsmen, saying that Ebruke a.k.a Ajanti is the driver of the kidnap kingpin, Kelvin. Also caught by the soldiers is one Mr. Atibaka Tega.
He said the duo were apprehended following analysis of phone calls made by Kelvin from his recovered handset.
Lt-Col Otu said they had earlier encountered Kelvin two days earlier at Kokori before the Warri attack on prison officials, who were escorting nine inmates to a State High Court for trial.
According to him, his men intercepted Kelvin and his boys, Wednesday, at Okoimode village in a maroon colored Honda Pilot Jeep with plate No. Lagos GQ 646 LND and shot dead one Mr. Victor Kala who turned out to be one of the rescued inmate from their prison attack escapade in Warri, saying that the jeep whose owner was also kidnapped was subsequently released by soldiers while the car and the corpse were handed over to the police area command in Warri.
Speaking to newsmen during the parade of a set of multiple criminals nabbed during the week, Mr. Ebruke said he has since retired from robbery, criminal acts and cultism of the black axe bent for a long time and now a member of Golden Temple Power of God Church, a spiritual Church from where he help to fight criminals and criminal acts around his communities.
Ebruke who claimed to be a final year Physics student of Delsu and speak English very fluently said he does not know anything about the notorious Kelvin nor does he know anybody called Kelvin but admitted knowing one criminal named Kelly, adding that he does not know how is phone number came into Kelvin’s phone as claimed by the soldiers who said they trailed and got him through analysis of calls from Kelvin’s phone.
He said his arrest was master minded by some persons in his community who he claimed he had some problems with, saying that his pastor would soon be around to clear him.

05:46:00

At least 48 people have been killed in a series of car and suicide bombings mainly in Shia areas in and around Iraq's capital, Baghdad, officials say.

The co-ordinated attacks targeted markets, restaurants, bus stops and day labourers during the morning rush hour.
Iraq's deadliest day in six months came on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Violence has decreased in Iraq since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, but bombings are still common.
Sunni Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda have vowed to step up attacks on Shia targets and state officials this year in an attempt to provoke sectarian conflict and weaken the Shia-led government.
In a sign of concern over the security situation, the cabinet announced that it was delaying elections scheduled for 20 April in the provinces of Anbar and Nineveh by up to six months.
Political crisis Police sources told the BBC that more than 150 people were also injured in Tuesday's violence, which are reported to have included at least 15 car bombings as well as several roadside bombings and shootings.
Most of the attacks took place in predominantly Shia districts of Baghdad over a period of about two hours during the morning rush hour.

The first occurred at around 08:00 (05:00 GMT), when a bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the eastern district of Mashtal, killing four people and damaging several cars, according to the Associated Press.

Minutes later, two day labourers were killed by a roadside bomb planted where they gather every day hoping to pick up work in New Baghdad, a neighbouring area just to the south.
In the north-eastern district of Sadr City, five people died when a bomb was detonated beside a police patrol, and three commuters were killed by a device stuck to the underside of a minibus in which they were travelling, AP reported.
Another two people were killed by a blast on a commercial street in the area.
"I was driving my taxi and suddenly I felt my car rocked. Smoke was all around. I saw two bodies on the ground," Ali Radi, a taxi driver who was in Sadr City at the time of one of the attacks, told the Reuters news agency.
"People were running and shouting everywhere."
The deadliest of Tuesday's attacks appeared to have taken place near the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in the eastern district of Qahira. Seven people were killed there and another 21 wounded, officials said.
Another six people died and 15 were hurt when a bomb exploded outside a restaurant close to a main entrance to the heavily-fortified Green Zone, which houses government offices and the embassies of several countries. A plume of black smoke was seen over the capital afterwards.
Attacks were also reported in the Shia districts of Husseiniya, Zafaraniya, Shula and Utafiya, as well as the Sunni district of Tarmiya.

The first blast occurred outside a restaurant in the eastern district of Mashtal

A mortar shell landed near a clinic in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, killing two people, while a suicide bomber targeted a bus stop in Iskandariya, south of the capital, killing five people, AP said.
Police also said three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been set off and weapons fired in the northern province of Kirkuk.
The attacks came amid heightened security in Baghdad, which saw new checkpoints set up and key roads closed, the AFP news agency reported. Soldiers and police were searching government vehicles which would usually be allowed to pass uninspected, it added.
Tuesday is believed to have been the deadliest day in Iraq since 9 September last year, when 76 people were killed in a wave of attacks, some of which targeted the security forces.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says no group has said it was behind Tuesday's violence, but the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, has in recent months stepped up its attempts to revive the insurgency.
Such co-ordinated attacks are not unusual, but it is assumed that the timing may have been chosen to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the invasion, our correspondent adds.
It comes at a time of deep political crisis in the country, with the Prime Minister Nouri Maliki sharply at odds with a wide range of political forces, including the Kurds, most of the Sunni groups, and many factions within his own Shia community.

05:36:00

The Vatican has denied that Pope Francis failed to speak out against human rights abuses during military rule in his native Argentina.

"There has never been a credible, concrete accusation against him," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, adding he had never been charged.
The spokesman blamed the accusations on "anti-clerical left-wing elements that are used to attack the Church".
Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, led Argentina's Jesuits under the junta.
Correspondents say that like other Latin American churchmen of the time, he had to contend, on the one hand, with a repressive right-wing regime and, on the other, a wing of his Church leaning towards political activism on the left.
One allegation concerns the abduction in 1976 of two Jesuits by the Argentina's military government, suspicious of their work among slum-dwellers.

As the priests' provincial superior at the time, Jorge Bergoglio was accused by some of having failed to shield them from arrest - a charge his office flatly denied.

Judges investigating the arrest and torture of the two men - who were freed after five months - questioned Cardinal Bergoglio as a witness in 2010.
The new Pope's official biographer, Sergio Rubin, argues that the Jesuit leader "took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them".
Another accusation levelled against him from the Dirty War era is that he failed to follow up a request to help find the baby of a woman kidnapped when five months' pregnant pregnant and killed in 1977. It is believed the baby was illegally adopted.
The cardinal testified in 2010 that he had not known about baby thefts until well after the junta fell - a claim relatives dispute.
Turned in? In his book The Silence, Argentine investigative journalist Horacio Verbitsky says the Jesuit leader withdrew his order's protection from Francisco Jalics and Orlando Yorio after the two priests refused to stop visiting slums.
The journalist is close to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who often clashed with Cardinal Bergoglio on social policy.
"He turned priests in during the dictatorship," Verbitsky was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

The man who is now Pope once talked about the two priests to his biographer.

"I warned them to be very careful," he told Rubin. "They were too exposed to the paranoia of the witch hunt. Because they stayed in the barrio, Yorio and Jalics were kidnapped.''
Both priests were held inside the feared Navy Mechanics School prison. Finally, drugged and blindfolded, they were left in a field by a helicopter.
Orlando Yorio, who reportedly accused Fr Bergoglio of effectively delivering them to the death squads by declining to publicly endorse their work, is now dead.
AP news agency quoted Francisco Jalics as saying on Friday: "It was only years later that we had the opportunity to talk with Fr Bergoglio... to discuss the events.
"Following that, we celebrated Mass publicly together and hugged solemnly. I am reconciled to the events and consider the matter to be closed."
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for defending human rights during the dictatorship, believes Fr Bergoglio "tried to... help where he could" under the junta.
"It's true that he didn't do what very few bishops did in terms of defending the human rights cause, but it's not right to accuse him of being an accomplice," he told Reuters.
"Bergoglio never turned anyone in, neither was he an accomplice of the dictatorship," Mr Esquivel said.

08:46:00

From the Vatican to Buenos Aires, Catholics worldwide rejoiced when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became the new pope.

He's the first Jesuit and the first Latin American in modern times to lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

But in some ways, he's just a normal guy.

Here are five things to know about Pope Francis:

1. His name says a lot about him

Unlike other recent pontiffs -- John Paul II, Benedict XVI -- Pope Francis doesn't have a numeral after his name. That's because he's the first to take the name Francis.

Why Francis?

St. Francis of Assisi was born the son of a rich cloth merchant. But he lived in rags among beggars at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Those close to Pope Francis see similarities between the two men.

"Francis of Assisi is ... someone who turned his back on the wealth of his family and the lifestyle he had, and bonded with lepers and the poor," said the Rev. Thomas Rosica, the Vatican's deputy spokesman. "Here's this pope known for his care for AIDS patients and people who are very sick. Who is known for his concern with single mothers whose babies were refused to be baptized by priests in his diocese.

"He scolded those priests last year and said, 'How can you turn these people away when they belong to us? '"

Pope Francis, the pontiff of firsts, breaks with tradition

2. He's not actually the first pope from outside Europe

Sure, Francis is the first non-European pope in modern times. But back in the 8th century, a Syrian -- Pope St. Gregory III -- led the church from 731 to 741 A.D.

We've also had popes from Bethlehem (St. Evaristus, from 97 to 105 A.D.), Jerusalem (Pope Theodore I, from 642 to 649) and modern-day Libya (Saint Victor I, from 189 to 199). Several other Syrians have also been pontiff in the last few millennia.

Of course, the majority of popes have been Italian. But with Francis' appointment, the tide could be shifting to outside Europe.

First Latin American pope 'very exciting,' faithful say

3. He's a pope of the people

honor St. Francis of Assisi, an admirer of nature and a servant to the poor and destituten some ways, Pope Francis is just a normal guy.

"The new pope is a very humble man," said the Rev. Eduardo Mangiarotti, an Argentine priest. "He takes public transport every day."

He also chose to live in an apartment instead of the archbishop's palace, passed on a chauffeured limousine and cooked his own meals, CNN Vatican analyst John Allen wrote in a profile published by National Catholic Reporter.

In his first public act as pontiff, Pope Francis broke with tradition by asking the estimated 150,000 people packed into St. Peter's Square to pray for him, rather than him blessing the crowd first.

"He is a very simple man," said Luis R. Zarama, auxiliary bishop of Atlanta. "It's very clear from the way he approached the people and asked them to bless him and pray for him. It's a beautiful sign of closeness and humility."

The pontiff broke with another tradition by refusing to use a platform to elevate himself above the cardinals standing with him as he was introduced to the world as Pope Francis.

"He said I'll stay down here," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "He met each of us on our own level."

From public transport to popemobile: Bergoglio's journey

4. He comes with a side of controversy

Francis opposes same-sex marriage and abortion, which isn't surprising as leader of the socially conservative Catholic church.

But as a cardinal, Francis clashed with the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over his opposition to gay marriage and free distribution of contraceptives.

His career as a priest in Argentina coincided with the so-called Dirty War -- and some say the church didn't do enough to confront the military dictatorship.

As many as 30,000 people died or disappeared during the seven-year period that began with a coup in 1976.

Francis, in particular, was accused in a complaint of complicity in the 1976 kidnapping of two liberal Jesuit priests, Allen wrote. Francis denied the charge.

"The best evidence that I know of that this was all a lie and a series of salacious attacks was that Amnesty International who investigated that said that was all untrue," said Jim Nicholson, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. "These were unfair accusations of this fine priest."

Opinion: Francis, open up the church

5. He faces a host of challenges ahead

Francis takes the helm of a church that has been rocked in recent years by sex abuse by priests and claims of corruption and infighting among the church hierarchy.

He may need to find a way to draw new Catholics into the church where it is in decline, said Phillip M. Thompson, executive director of the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University.

And he'll also need to find ways of working with shifting viewpoints among Catholics. In the United States, for example, 90% of Catholics are using contraception and 82% think it is morally permissible.

"The church has conservative positions on human sexuality, bioethics, etc., but liberal positions on issues such as economic regulation, the death penalty and immigration," Thompson said. "A church divided against itself seems unlikely to renew our political or cultural structures.                                                                             whats your take on this?                                                          

05:01:00

With its orange paint, muscular look and mounted steer horns, an unusual race car has been turning heads on the streets of this capital city.

But that's not even the most interesting thing about it.

This is a Rally Fighter, believed to be the first production vehicle to be designed through crowdsourcing, the process of drawing input from a global community of interested people via the Internet.

"If Henry Ford had had Twitter and Internet access, he surely would have made his automobiles in a very different way," said John B. Rogers, president and co-founder of Local Motors, the Arizona car maker that built the Rally Fighter. The company's slogan: "Made by you in America."

The Rally Fighter is built for speed but has five-point seat belts, not air bags.

Rogers spoke at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin on the use of crowdsourcing to make the best possible automobile in the cheapest and most efficient way.

Local Motors claims that its Rally Fighter is the first vehicle in the world to be created following this principle. Rogers said it was produced in 18 months, about five times faster than through conventional processes.

The design was chosen through a 2009 vote by a community of hundreds of people on the Internet. The winning design was submitted by Sangho Kim of Pasadena, California, and the result is a car with a 6.2-liter engine, eight cylinders, automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive and 430 horsepower. The Web community also participated in the design of several vehicle components, like the doors.

Local Motors says it spent $3 million on the car's development, much less than what is spent on commercial models by the major automakers. How did it achieve that? To Rogers, it was by rethinking the vehicle's features.

"It costs $10 to design a five-point seat belt like the Rally Fighter's, compared to the $6 million it takes to develop an airbag," Rogers said.

The price of the car includes a six-day stay at Local Motors' Arizona plant to build it.

The price of this car is $99,900, which includes a six-day stay at Local Motors' Arizona plant -- to build the car.

You see, when someone buys a Rally Fighter, they don't get an assembled car but a kit. It includes detailed instructions in the form of manuals, wikis and YouTube how-to videos -- plus the support of Local Motors' experts.

Dozens of the cars have been sold, mostly in the U.S. and some in Kazakhstan, Russia and Great Britain, Rogers said. The goal is to sell 2,000 Rally Fighters before abandoning the model and starting work on a new one.

Founded five years ago, Local Motors is now home to more than 25,000 community members and 50 full-time employees.

Besides the Rally Fighter, the car maker is working on a prototype military vehicle -- the XC2v -- for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Pentagon.

Local Motors has also launched challenges to communally design the best pizza delivery vehicle and the best shoe for driving, projects requested by Dominos Pizza and Reebok.

Rogers said he also wants to build a crowdsourced motorcycle, a boat and a more affordable $10,000 car.

06:00:00

David Villa believes the historic comeback win in the Champions League against AC Milan has banished any doubts about Barcelona's recent form.

Striker Villa, 31, scored as his side became the first in the competition to overturn a 2-0 first leg away loss.
That setback in Italy was followed by back-to-back defeats by Real Madrid but Villa said: "When you go through that, the bad days are forgotten.
"We do not care who we get in the quarter-finals."

Barca had started the season in record-breaking form under manager Tito Vilanova before his absence due to cancer treatment coincided with a run of results in which they went 13 games without a clean sheet, were knocked out of the Spanish cup by rivals Real and lost to Jose Mourinho's outfit in the league.

The criticism that had been directed at them under the control of stand-in coach Jordi Roura was answered in a stunning round-of-16 second-leg display which began when Lionel Messi scored the first of his outstanding double in only the fifth minute.
This was later added to with two expertly crafted second-half strikes from Villa and rampaging left-back Jordi Alba.
"We have seen the return of the old Barcelona and now we need to continue in the same vein," Alba said.
"With what remains of the season we need to keep playing with the same enthusiasm, intensity and hunger we showed today."
The scale of Barca's victory has seen them reinstated as leading contenders for the Champions League but Roura attempted to calm expectations.
"Before we weren't so poor and now we are not so great and I wouldn't describe ourselves as favourites for the competition," Roura said.
"At any stage of the game until the final goal we could have gone out if we had conceded, and I would have said the same, that we played well and were composed."
Although disappointed to go out after his team's exploits at home, AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri was circumspect in his evaluation of the tie after he had been left with an inexperienced squad following the summer exits of leading players such as Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
"It has been an extraordinary match from Barcelona but this is not the disastrous result it will may be depicted as, but a chance to grow," the 45-year-old said.
"To lose and go out after the first leg we produced at home upsets all of us but the lads shouldn't beat themselves up."

05:11:00

Black smoke poured from the chimney fixed to the roof of the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday morning, indicating that the cardinals' first two votes of the day were inconclusive.

The 115 voting cardinals are taking part in the second day of the secretive conclave to elect a new pope.

Whoever it may be will take on the leadership of a church that has been rocked by child sex abuse scandals and corruption claims in recent years.

White or black smoke?

No smoke emerged after the first vote Wednesday morning, meaning the cardinals then entered a second round of voting.

The black smoke that poured from the chimney at 11:39 a.m. local time (6:39 a.m. ET) indicates that no result came from that second ballot, either.

The cardinals will now go to lunch, when they will be able to have informal conversations and mull their options.

The smoke came somewhat earlier in the day than expected because once the cardinals are familiar with the voting procedures, they can move relatively quickly, according to the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman.

They will have two more opportunities to vote later Wednesday.

A two-thirds majority is required to confirm a new pontiff to step into the shoes left empty by the historic resignation of Benedict XVI at the end of last month.

04:48:00

In the beginning, these four-rotor machines learned to flip through 360-degrees, "dance" to music and even play the piano. Today, increasingly complex flight maneuvers are being attempted as quadrocopters work together to build a six-meter tall model tower and juggle balls and poles. It is an extraordinary and slightly befuddling sight to behold.

Quadrocopters are controlled by varying the relative speed of each rotor blades, or pairs of rotor blades to generate thrust and control pitch, roll and yaw. They've been around for a long time, says D'Andrea, but what's making them so popular now as a creative tool is the shrinking size and cost of technology.

"In order to fly these things you need gyros. Only recently have they become small, accurate, and cheap enough to put on these vehicles," he explains.

The tiny motors driving each rotor are also extremely powerful and cheap now, he says, as are the batteries.

Last month, ETH Zurich released video footage of their latest stunt showing a quadrocopter balancing a pole before tossing it to another quadrocopter which successfully catches and controls the pole.

03:25:00

Mr Chavez had been seriously ill with cancer for more than a year, undergoing several operations in Cuba.
Crowds of supporters gathered outside the Caracas hospital where he died, chanting "We are all Chavez!"
A self-proclaimed revolutionary, Hugo Chavez was a controversial figure in Venezuela and on the world stage. A staunch critic of the US, he inspired a left-wing revival across Latin America.
Following his death, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro will assume the presidency until an election is held within 30 days, Foreign Minister

"It is the mandate that Comandante President Hugo Chavez gave us," Mr Jaua told state television, adding that Mr Maduro would also be the candidate of the governing United Socialist Party (PSUV).

It was not immediately clear when the election would take place.
Mr Chavez's illness prevented him from taking the oath of office after he was re-elected for a fourth term in October.
The exact nature of his cancer was never officially disclosed, leading to continuing speculation about his health, and he had not been seen in public for several months.

03:10:00

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has released a list of 24 players picked from the Nigeria Premier League that will form part of the squad to take on Kenya in a 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil qualification game on March 23 in Calabar. Africa Cup of Nations stars Sunday Mba and Godfrey Oboabona are among the players that will contest for a place in Keshi’s first game since the triumph in South Africa. The players are expected to arrive camp in Abuja on Sunday March 10. They will stay at the Bolton White Apartments, their regular camping site. Keshi also called up the three other players from the NPL that did not make any appearance at the Afcon. Goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim, defender Azubuike Egwueke and midfielder Reuben Gabriel return to the squad despite not tasting action in South Africa. The list of Europe-based players that will join the squad will be announced on Thursday, March 7. NAME CLUB Goalkeepers Chigozie Agbim Rangers Daniel Akpeyi Heartland Dele Ajiboye 3SC Defenders Azubuike Egwueke  Warri Wolves Papa Idris Kano Pillars Godfrey Oboabona Sunshine Stars Benjamin Francis Heartland Solomon Kwambe Heartland Chibuzor Okonkwo Rangers Ezekiel Bassey Lobi Stars Mohamed Zubaru Niger Tornadoes Umar Zango Kano Pillars Midfielders & Forwards Reuben Gabriel Kano Pillars Gomo Ohanduku Sharks Mannir Ubale Kano Pillars Sunday Mba Warri Wolves Gambo Muhammed Kano Pillars Pius Samson Ranchers Bees Obinna Nwanchukwu Heartland Saka Ayo Enyimba Jiya Muhammed Bayelsa FC Emeka Ezeh Rangers Anthony Okputu Lobi Stars Adepoju Taofeek 3SC

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