5 Things to Stop Doing if You Want to Live Longer

by Jumoke

There are a number of things you can resolve to do in order to turn back your biological clock and live longer, whether you’re in your 20s or 30s, all the way to your 60s, 70s, and beyond. In fact, research has shown it’s never too late to start healthy habits.
But what about the things you might stop doing — in the name of your longevity?
1. Stop eating mainly processed foods
One of the major dietary changes that’s taken place in many countries over the last 30 years has been a shift to consuming more processed foods. Along with processing comes an increase in added sodium, more saturated fat, more sugar, and less fiber. The result? More cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes.
There are a number of things you can resolve to do in order to turn back your biological clock and live longer, whether you’re in your 20s or 30s, all the way to your 60s, 70s, and beyond. In fact, research has shown it’s never too late to start healthy habits.

2. Stop smoking
If you’re a smoker, you know how hard quitting can be. Some estimates suggest smoking can rob you of a decade of life.
3. Stop sitting still
If you don’t feel you have time to exercise, consider this: You may not need to hit the global minimum recommendations of 30 minutes a day, five or more times per week, to extend your life.
4. Stop holding a grudge
Anger can be a tough emotion to release, especially if you feel justified in your outrage. Maybe the best question to ask yourself is this -– is it worth the cortisol? Levels of this stress hormone go up when you’re stressed or angry, with negative effects on your heart, metabolism, and immune system. High cortisol has been associated with greater mortality in a number of studies.
Learning to forgive takes practice, but your body will thank you for it.
5. Stop keeping to yourself
Staying social can be a good longevity booster, mostly by helping you manage stress and by strengthening your immune system. Good relationships keep you strong, while bad relationships can leave you in a negative frame of mind, and put you at risk of depression and even heart attacks.

The Igbo Creation Story Compared with the Biblical

The Igbo of southern Nigeria have a common creation story comparable with the Biblical story of creation. In the mythical lore of the Igbo creation story, it is believed that the general God ‘Chukwu abia ama’ or ‘Eze enu’ floated in the air. In this regard, the biblical account has also made us believe that the almighty God floated in the air as well, in that there was nothing that existed before him. Hence, he created the heaven and the earth in the beginning. Inductively, for God to create the heaven and the earth in the beginning means that both the heaven and the earth were not and the almighty God existed. Existence means to be; for something to be is for such thing to exist, and for the almighty God existing without the heaven and the earth means he had only the air to exist upon.

The Igbo account also talks about ‘Chukwu’ having no beginning and end. The book of Genesis records that ‘In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,’ the gospel of John also records that ‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.’ Invariably, the two quotes point to the fact that God, as the Igbo believe, had no beginning, and as such has no end. Something to note on this, the Igbo account, though as mythically complicated as it is, implies that when there was no earth ‘Chukwu’ swam in the air the and only had birds for food. And in the bible, it says ‘And the earth was without form and void.’ Let’s draw an analogy from the Igbo account that says ‘there was no earth’ and the biblical account that says ‘the earth was without form.’

The point in this analogy is to bring out the basic of formlessness that exists in the two creation stories. It is similarly comparable to note that there is a factor of formlessness in creation – a factor which is seen in both creation accounts. In creation, there exists a form that is amoebic in nature, a form that has no form, and to create is to transform this formlessness into something.

The two creation stories involve a set of complication about the entity of God. The Igbo account reveals that Chukwu had the appearance of a pair of Siamese giants one of which had a masculine figure and was called Mmuo, while the other figure had a feminine appearance and was called and was called Agwu. The bible reveals that God had and has ‘God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit.’ This trinity of God is believed to be the said God that said, ‘Let us make man in our own image.’ The complication in the two creation story is that, were these Mmuo and Agwu of the Igbo creation and the Father and son and Holy Spirit of the bible all existed from the beginning with Chukwu abia ama and God respectively?

This simply shows that creation stories present a situation that either can’t be unraveled or that requires one to go over ones head before one grasps the concept implied therein.

Iranian billionaire sentenced to death

Tehran (CNN)Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, authorities said Sunday.

Zanjani and two others were convicted of embezzling billions of dollars from the national oil company, judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Ejei said.

One of the charges he faces is "corruption on earth," which carries the death penalty, according to Iranian state TV.

The oil mogul was sanctioned by the EU and the United States for helping Iran evade sanctions.

He was arrested in December 2013.

Babak Zanjani is seen, center, in court in a photo

Ndi ara: Nigerian Cristiano Ronaldo fan stabs Nigerian Lionel Messi fan to death in Mumbai

A Nigerian man named Chukwuba Nwabu pictured top left, who is a Christiano Ronaldo fan, killed his friend, Obinna Micheal Durumchukwu pictured top right, who is a Lionel Messi fan, after an argument over who is a better footballer between the two stars at a birthday party organized by a Nigerian student in Mumbai, India over the weekend.

The men were at a party thrown by a Nigerian at his house, when the argument ensued and they began fighting. One stabbed the other to death.

A senior Indian police officer who spoke on the incident said

"The friends entered into the debate as they were ardent football fans. The victim entered into the heated conversation and considered Lionel Messi to be the best football player but the accused were supporting Cristiano Ronaldo. When the accused started leaving, the victim threw a glass on the accused which hit his face and the glass broke. The accused picked up the piece of the broken glass and, in a fit of rage, slit the throat of the victim. The fight which started from football debate ended up with a murder. We have arrested the accused under sections 302(murder) and 34(common intent) of the Indian Penal Code. We will produce the duo at Vasai court on Monday" he said

'Alias' Star Actress, Jennifer Garner Looks to Have Become a Christian Actress

 

Jennifer Garner

Jennifer Garner is feeling thankful after her role as Christy Beam in Miracle from Heaven.

The film focuses on 10-year-old Anna Beam who lives with a chronic disorder, but is miraculously cured after she lives through an accident. As a mother of three, herself, Garner, 43, was touched by the movie.

"I think for most of us, it's playing pretend, but it's a pretty real story," she told PEOPLE. "I don't think you have to dig very deep when there's a child. The great thing for us at the end of the day is we can shake it off and go home and be surrounded by health, and that perspective was a real gift to the movie."

Garner stars alongside Kylie Rogers who formerly appeared in ABC's The Whispers, and Martin Henderson who plays Garner's husband, Kevin Beam.



Miracles from Heaven hits theaters on March 18.

I lost my virginity to a man I called my uncle

When I was fifteen, I lost my virginity to a man I called my uncle. The experience had been a blend of unfortunate circumstance, which started with a struggle of rape and culminated in a sensual pleasure and a serendipitous fulfilment of an erotic fantasy.

My birth name is Chimamanda, modernism changed it to Amanda, and Arthur turned it into Mandy. Arthur is my uncle’s name – the uncle to whom I lost my virginity.

As a teenager, I was fond of Arthur. My mother was fond of him too. He was the last child of my mother’s parents, young, dark, and attractively charming.

It was ten years ago and he was almost twenty-six.

Arthur would always buy me things and take me to places each time he visited our house. My mother knew he loved me, but she didn’t realise her brother’s love for her daughter had a deeper meaning. He would always remind me how beautiful I was and would make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world.

I had just finished from SS1 and had gone to spend the long vacation at Arthur’s. While with him he taught me how to be an irresistibly attractive girl. He told me there was only one thing on a guy’s mind when he walked up to me and eventually asked me to visit him – sex. He taught me the resistance theory. But I didn’t know he was working on my mind. He learnt I was fascinated with romance, chivalry, and fantasies. He knew romance films usually took me outside the real world for ninety minutes. He knew my weaknesses and he took advantage of them.

He was a rake, a Don Juan, as I read in the book he gave me. He had many girlfriends and sometimes he would invite one over and I could hear her moan in pleasure when they had sex. I admired his chivalrous and gallant treatment of women, and I realised maybe that was one of the reasons he had them many. On my birthday he had particularly made it an indoor celebration with a few of his female friends and had bought me the most beautiful dress I had worn at my age.

That night of virginity loss was different. I had been reading a novel – a Tracey Fobes’ ‘Heart of the Dove.’ I remember it was Arthur who gave me the book to read. I also remember he was always asking to know on which page I was. Until now I never understood why he always wanted to know the page I was on. A page in the novel described Lucinda Drakewych’s first sex experience with Richard Clairmont. Richard, a character in the novel, had made Lucinda feel like a woman when he went down on her centre with his tongue.

That particular page kept playing in my head and I felt horny. The book was lying on my chest and I was half asleep when my uncle came home that night.

For a moment I struggled with him. I can’t remember exactly the things he did to me but I remember his finger and tongue tickled my naked body, and I also remember I had wanted more.

Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris Celebrate Their 1-Year Anniversary in a Cute Way

Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris

What do you get the girl that has everything? A sentimental locket, of course.

Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift celebrated their one-year anniversary on Sunday in the most adorable fashion – first, there was a "one-year cake," as Harris put it in a Snapchat, and then there was a special locket for Swift.

"We got a one-year cake," Harris said in his Snapchat shared on Sunday, showing him and the singer getting excited about their apparently homemade anniversary sweet.

SOS: @CalvinHarris posted a video Snapchat with @taylorswift13 celebrating their one year anniversary together! pic.twitter.com/w3qgbsa5R1

— Taylor Swift Updates (@SimplySFans) March 6, 2016

"We got one year cake, it's one year," the DJ continued, adding a small, "Yay" at the end of his video.

Later, Swift shared a close-up of a gold locket, presumably gifted to her by her musician beau.

Champions League Does Not Need The Likes Of Leicester, Says US Sports Executive

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Closing off European football competitions to include only elite clubs could make them far richer, according to the American sports executive who has held talks with the leading English Premier League teams about a shake-up to long-established league structures.
The Relevant Sports chairman, Charlie Stillitano, held talks with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United on Tuesday in London about this year’s International Champions Cup (ICC), an annual pre-season friendly tournament organised by his company. Stillitano confirmed they also discussed “restructuring the Champions League” – an issue high on the European Club Association agenda amid a power vacuum at Uefa.
Stillitano revealed that the European governing body has been keen on working with the ICC, which already attracts some of the world’s wealthiest teams to compete in games across the globe for a lucrative but meaningless prize. “We have even talked to Uefa in the past because they had an interest in our summer tournament,” Stillitano told the US satellite radio station SiriusXM. “That is something they would like to integrate into their portfolio.”
Joining forces with Relevent’s ICC would currently be incompatible with Uefa’s existing sponsorships. There are no plans with Uefa presently on the table but discussions have not been closed off.
Arsenal are the only team from the talks to go on the record in denying they advocate a breakaway Super League for Europe’s leading clubs.
Discussions within the ECA about the merits of advocating guaranteed Champions League places for prestigious teams come at a time when Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are all in danger of missing out on qualifying for Europe’s top competition next season.
“What would Manchester United argue: did we create soccer or did Leicester create [it]?” said Stillitano, who met United’s executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, on Tuesday. “Let’s call it the money pot created by soccer and the fandom around the world. Who has had more of an integral role, Manchester United or Leicester? It’s a wonderful, wonderful story – but you could see it from Manchester United’s point of view, too.”
If the Premier League season ended now, Leicester and Tottenham would qualify for the Champions League alongside Arsenal and Manchester City.
“Maybe that is absolutely spectacular unless you are a Manchester United fan, Liverpool fan … or a Chelsea fan,” Stillitano said. “I guess they don’t have a birthright to be in it every year but it’s the age-old argument: US sports franchises versus what they have in Europe. There are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful elements to relegation and promotion and there are good arguments for a closed system.”
Stillitano believes Europe’s biggest clubs deserve to make more cash from the Champions League, given their contribution to making it such a financial success. He said fans are more likely to watch the Juventus v Bayern Munich and Arsenal v Barcelona games in the current round of 16 rather than matches involving PSV Eindhoven and Ghent.
“This is going to sound arrogant and it’s the furthest thing from it … but suddenly when you see the teams we have this summer in the ICC you are going to shake your head and say, ‘Isn’t that the Champions League?’” Stillitano said. “No, the Champions League is PSV and Ghent.”
Voicing the complaints he hears from clubs, Stillitano said: “I could make a lot more money, I can be a lot more visible, I can help my sponsors out but right now I am locked into doing certain things that are really historic.”

Strange: Man Hangs Self After All-Night Vigil

The Lagos State Police Command on Saturday said it had begun investigation into the alleged suicide committed by one Taofik, who hung himself on a tree after an all-night prayer vigil in Iju-Isaga area of the state.
The Spokesperson of the command, SP Oladapo Badmos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the surname of the deceased had yet to be ascertained.
Badmos said the Police Division at Iju got a report of the incident brought by Pastor Odunike Abiodun of King of Kings Church, No. 45, Taju Bello Street, Iju Isaga.
“The pastor brought the report on Saturday at 7.50 a.m. that the man was found dead at about 5.30 a.m.
“The deceased hung himself on a tree in a valley close to a river, near the King of Kings Church,” he said.
The police spokesman said that it was reported that the deceased had earlier participated in an all-night prayer at the Church.
She said that the scene of the suicide had been visited by detectives from the division.
“Investigation is ongoing to unravel the cause of the death and the corpse has been deposited at a morgue for autopsy,” Badmos said.(NAN)

Why PDP Members Exchanged Blows In Imo

Members of the public who didn’t know what was going on thought they were witnessing a Royal Rumble.
Such was the enormity of the free-for-all that ensued among some members of the Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the Party Secretariat in Owerri, the state capital.
The fight occurred between two rival factions jostling for control in the state – one faction led by Chief Nnamdi Anyaehie and the other by Vitalis Okafor.
A Caretaker Committee headed by Okafor was on January 29 inaugurated to steer the ship of the party in the state, which did not sit down well with the Anyaehie-led group.
The rivalry came to a head on Saturday when the Anyaehie-led group invaded the secretariat with the aim of chasing everybody away, The Punch reports.
This was rebuffed by the other group, leading to the fracas.
It took the timely intervention of the security operatives attached to the party secretariat to break up the fight and restore normalcy.
The fight reportedly left several persons injured on both sides, while the police have condoned off the area to forestall any further breach of the peace.

Ways to Know If He is the Right One

What contributes most to the longevity of a relationship is the way two people love each other. Love has to be unabashed and real.
But it’s not just the love you feel; it’s the openness with which you share it, and in what ways you show up to express it.
Here are some of the ways you can tell that you have found someone who really knows how to love you.
1. They will love you without condition.
Real love comes without any expectations. You don’t have anything to prove, nothing to win. Yes, at the beginning of a love affair, you’re trying to entice and impress each other, but as time goes on there’s no need to perform in order to make love last.
2. They will listen — really listen.
This is a big one. Real listening means that you throw your own agenda out the window and really absorb what the person is saying, without judgment. It’s not always easy to do, but truly loving someone means being able to be there for them through thick and thin, and being a good, empathetic confidant.
3. They will love you for who you are, not an idealized version of what they want a partner to be.
You are who you are and absolutely nothing can change that.
4. They will give you space.
At the beginning of a relationship, it’s normal to be inseparable, to want to do every last thing together. But there comes a point where each partner needs some space. When and how this happens varies from person to person and one relationship to another.
But since real love means letting your partner be his or herself, you need to respect your partner’s need for independence and the autonomy to sometimes do things without you.
5. They will fight for you.
When you’re having a down-and-out day, your partner will be the first one to remind you how incredibly awesome you are. Your partner will be your biggest defender against conflicts with others. They will remind you of the strength you forgot you had, and give you the fighting words when you’re too upset to find them yourself.
6. They will hang on during the storms.
Conflicts in relationships are natural, but when left to fester they can destroy relationships. Fighting is normal, and healthy. Fights are opportunities to work through stuff. But someone who truly loves you will never stay angry. He or she will work through the anger to get to the other side — that other side being a deeper understanding and mutual respect.
7. They will make you feel safe.
It goes without saying that a partner who’s physically or verbally abusive needs to be kicked to the curb. But all partners should give you a sense of safety. Usually it’s a pretty intuitive thing. You just know when you can trust someone, and this is solidified when they demonstrate that trust to you throughout the relationship.
Finding someone who loves you doesn’t mean your relationship will be without bumps. There are no perfect people or relationships — knowing and accepting that is half the battle.
What you need is a partner is who willing to try, who wants to make the effort to understand you, whose love is generous, demonstrated in concrete actions, and not just words or ideals. Once you’ve found that person, you’ll know it in your bones. And you’ll never let them go.

Women Need More Sleep than Men – Study

According to a study, it turns out your wife should be the one sleeping in, not you.
The study examined 210 middle aged men and women, and found that women suffered greater health issues from lack of sleep than men.
“We found that for women, poor sleep is strongly associated with high levels of psychological distress and greater feelings of hostility, depression, and anger. In contrast, these feelings were not associated with the same degree of sleep disruption in men.”
“One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself,” says Professor Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University and author of Sleepfaring: A Journey Through The Science of Sleep.
He continues “During deep sleep, the cortex — the part of the brain responsible for thought memory, language, and so on — disengages from the senses and goes into recovery mode.
“The more of your brain you use during the day, the more of it that needs to recover and, consequently, the more sleep you need. Women tend to multi-task … and so, they use more of their actual brain than men do. Because of that, their sleep need is greater.”
But why do women need more sleep than men?
“This is because women’s brains are wired differently from men’s and are more complex, so their sleep need will be slightly greater. The average is 20 minutes more, but some women may need slightly more or less than this.”
So in every sense, yes, women’s brains are more complex, and need more time to relax and recover overnight.

Hmm: Kim Kardashian Beats Jesus Christ, Barack Obama To Most Monthly Views On Wikipedia

A curious study by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab is currently setting tongues wagging in different directions.
The study focused on creating a database of every person who has had their Wikipedia biography page translated into at least 25 different languages as of May 2013, and it came up with some expected names and quite a few shocking ones.
Top on the list by number of languages his biographical page has been translated into is Jesus Christ, with 214 languages in total.
He also attracts 281,000 views per month on average.
US President, Barack Obama comes in second with 200 languages.
However, the most shocking name comes in third position – Corbin Bleu, actor in High School Musical!
The revered Chinese philosopher Confucius comes in fourth place, and renowned British scientist Isaac Newton is fifth with 191 languages.
The top-ten ranked world figures, where they were born and number of languages their biographical pages have been translated into are:

1. Jesus Christ(Judea) 214
2. Barack Obama(Honolulu) 200
3. Corbin Bleu(New York) 193
4. Confucius(Qufu) 192
5. Isaac Newton(Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth) 191
6. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart(Salzburg) 177
7. Leonardo da Vinci(Vinci) 174
8. Adolf Hitler(Braunau am Inn) 169
9. Huang Xian Fan(Fusui County) 167
10. Albert Einstein(Ulm) 166

The study found that Italy and AS Roma legend, Francesco Totti leads the pack of footballers with 102 languages.
He is followed by Lionel Messi (95), Pele (88), Diego Maradona and Cristiano Ronaldo (both 87).
As per musicians, Pop legend Michael Jackson towers above the rest with 147 languages, and is followed by Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne and John Lennon.
Perhaps the most astonishing discovery of the study is that KUWTK star and wife of Kanye West, Kim Kardashian has at least 1.5 million views monthly on the average, five times as many as Jesus Christ!

AC Milan Loses $100 Million And Is In Dire Need Of Investment

on forbes

MILAN, ITALY – MARCH 01: Mattia De Sciglio of AC Milan in action during the TIM Cup match between AC Milan and US Alessandria at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on March 1, 2016 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Things have gone from bad to worse for AC Milan. The Rossoneri lost $100 million during the 2014-15 season, or a quarter of the combined $398 million lost by the 20 Serie A teams, it was reported yesterday.
For AC Milan, controlled by Silvio Berlusconi, last year’s huge loss paints a particularly dire picture. The team ended 2014 with a net loss of $102 million, so with a second consecutive season of $100 million losses, over the last 11 years (2005-2015) the club has accumulated net losses of $504 million. The Rossoneri badly need an infusion of cash for a new stadium and to fund a competitive team.
But for AC Milan fans the prospects are not good, despite Berlusconi’s recent statement that guarantee his team will be in the Champions League final within five years.
To begin with, there will be no Champions League money for AC Milan this year, and probably not next year, given the team is currently in sixth place, despite the fact that this season the Rossoneri are paying $113 million in salaries, the third- highest Serie A payroll behind Juventus and Roma.
Now AC Milan’s financial problems may have Italy’s former Prime Minister looking to sell the furniture. Striker Luiz Adriano is reportedly for sale. Meanwhile, to quell its supporter’s fears that its most promising players are on their way out, the Rossoneri has had to publicly disclaim it is interesting in dumping striker Carlos Bacca, whom English powerhouse Chelsea is interested in obtaining, and AC Milan general manager Adriano Galliani recently ruled out the sale of 17-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, amid reports of interest from Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool.

Recommended by Forbes

But how will AC Milan field a competitive team?
Berlusconi’s sale of roughly half of AC Milan to Thai financier BeeBee Taechaubol was suppose to give the soccer team, “deep pockets” but turned into a debacle. Now Berlusconi is pursuing Chinese investors. But with so much time wasted dealing with Taechaubol, Berlusconi is now dealing from a position of weakness, meaning the value of the team is falling.

Opinion: Is this the end of the West as we know it?

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures while speaking at a rally at Macomb Community College, Friday, March 4, 2016, in Warren, Mich. (Carlos Osorio/AP)

 

By Anne Applebaum  On Washington Post

 

Back in the 1950s, when the institutions were still new and shaky, I’m sure many people feared the Western alliance might never take off. Perhaps in the 1970s, the era of the Red Brigades and Vietnam, many more feared that the West would not survive. But in my adult life, I cannot remember a moment as dramatic as this: Right now, we are two or three bad elections away from the end of NATO, the end of the European Union and maybe the end of the liberal world order as we know it.

In the United States, we are faced with the real possibility of Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, which means we have to take seriously the possibility of a President Trump. Hillary Clinton’s campaign might implode for any number of reasons, too obvious to rehash here; elections are funny things, and electorates are fickle. That means that next January we could have, in the White House, a man who is totally uninterested in what presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reagan — as well as Johnson, Nixon and Truman — would all have called “our shared values.”

Anne Applebaum writes a biweekly foreign affairs column for The Washington Post. She is also the Director of the Global Transitions Program at the Legatum Institute in London. 

Trump has advocated torture, mass deportation, religious discrimination. He brags that he “would not care that much” whether Ukraine were admitted to NATO; he has no interest in NATO and its security guarantees. Of Europe, he has written that “their conflicts are not worth American lives. Pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually.” In any case, he prefers the company of dictators to that of other democrats. “You can make deals with those people,” he said of Russia. “I would have a great relationship with [Vladimir] Putin.”
Not only is Trump uninterested in America’s alliances, he would be incapable of sustaining them. In practice, both military and economic unions require not the skills of a shady property magnate who “makes deals” but boring negotiations, unsatisfying compromises and, sometimes, the sacrifice of one’s own national preferences for the greater good. In an era when foreign policy debate has in most Western countries disappeared altogether, replaced by the reality TV of political entertainment, all of these things are much harder to explain and justify to a public that isn’t remotely interested.
And Americans aren’t the only ones who find their alliances burdensome. A year from now, France also holds a presidential election. One of the front-runners, Marine Le Pen of the National Front, has promised to leave both NATO and the E.U. , to nationalize French companies and to restrict foreign investors. Like Trump, she foresees a special relationship with Russia, whose banks are funding her election campaign. French friends assure me that if she makes it to the final round, the center-left and center-right will band together, as they did two decades ago against her father. But elections are funny things, and electorates are fickle. What if Le Pen’s opponent suddenly falls victim to a scandal? What if another Islamic State attack jolts Paris?
By the time that happens, Britain may also be halfway out the door. In June, the British vote in a referendum to leave the E.U. Right now, the vote is too close to call — and if the “leave” vote prevails, then, as I’ve written, all bets are off. Copycat referendums may follow in other E.U. countries too. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, sometimes speaks of leaving the West in favor of a strategic alliance with Istanbul or Moscow.
It’s not hard at all to imagine a Britain unmoored from Europe drifting away from the transatlantic alliance as well. If the economic turmoil that could follow a British exit from the E.U. were sufficiently severe, perhaps the British public would vote out its conservative government in favor of the Labour Party, whose leadership is now radically anti-American. Everyone discounts Jeremy Corbyn , the far-left Labour leader, but they also discounted Trump. Corbyn is the only viable alternative if the public wants a change. Elections are funny things, and electorates are fickle.
And then? Without France, Europe’s single market will cease to exist. Without Britain, it’s hard to see how NATO lasts long either. Not everyone will be sorry. As Trump’s appealing rhetoric makes clear, the costs of alliances (“millions of dollars annually”) are easier to see than the longer-term gains.
Western unity, nuclear deterrence and standing armies gave us more than a half century of political stability. Shared economic space helped bring prosperity and freedom to Europe and North America alike. But these are things that we all take for granted, until they are gone.

Ben Carson announces his next act: Convincing Christians to vote

Ben Carson speaks at a luncheon in San Diego in January 2015. (Earnie Grafton/Reuters)

Ben Carson’s presidential campaign, borne out of his Christian faith, has officially ended.
On Friday, he announced his next campaign: to drive Christian voters to the polls to cast their ballots for someone else.
He will be the national chairman of My Faith Votes, a non-profit organization, he said in his address at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday afternoon.

“It is my faith that motivated me to be involved in the political process to begin with,” Carson said in a statement provided by the organization. “I believe Christians in this country can easily determine the next president of the United States and all other national and local leaders, should they simply show up at the polls.  When we do vote, We The People will once again solidify our commitment to the Judeo-Christian values upon which our nation was founded.”
In his speech at CPAC, Carson said Friday that a Christian voter who stays home is effectively “voting for the other side.” He spoke of his new effort as an apparent way to increase Republican voter turnout. “I will still continue to be heavily involved in trying to save our nation. We have to save it.”

Johnnie Moore, a spokesman for My Faith Votes, said that the 501(c)(3) organization is non-partisan and non-denominational. “This is not about a candidate, it is about a cause: that people of faith have a moral responsibility to vote, and if they do they also have a disproportionate effect on the election’s outcome,” Moore wrote in an email.
But he said the campaign which Carson will lead will have a particular focus on Christians. The organization, founded several months ago, plans to reach voters through televangelists, YouTube and radio personalities and local preachers. So far, it has recruited mostly evangelical leaders, and it plans to reach out next to Catholic figures, Moore said.
“The majority of evangelicals in this country will vote for whoever the Republican candidate is,” Moore said. But drumming up Republican votes is not the goal, he added.
In a 2015 Pew study, 56 percent of evangelical Protestants said they identified as Republican, more than any other religious group but Mormons. Republicans were more likely to attend religious services of any faith — 44 percent said they attend services weekly, compared to 29 percent of Democrats.
Evangelical voters have boosted candidates in the past — George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the 2008 and 2012 primaries. But this year, exit polls in most states that have voted so far have shown evangelical voters splitting their votes, especially among Republican candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
A handful of faith leaders have expressed concerns about voting for any candidate at all in a campaign that has descended into mud-slinging.

“If the church practiced evangelism the way we practice politics very often, we would never see a convert. How could you convert somebody to your faith by name-calling, shouting, insulting other faiths or other people?” said Mark DeMoss.
DeMoss, who owns a public relations firm for Christian businesses, advised Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. This year, he said he has not donated to any candidate and he would not work for any of the four remaining Republican campaigns even if they invited him.
“It feels like it’s reached new lows of personal insult,” DeMoss said. “I think a lot of Christians wear a Christian hat most of the time, and then put on a political hat and act like they never had a Christian hat.”
If Christian voters are so discouraged by the eventual Republican nominee that they consider sitting out this election altogether, it will be Carson’s new job to urge them to vote.
And if they do flock toward the same candidate, they could sway the election, Moore said. According to a tally by My Faith Votes, 25 million people who identify as Christian were registered to vote, but did not vote, in 2012 — enough to change the outcome of a presidential election if even a large fraction of them were to cast ballots.
DeMoss thinks Carson is suited for the job of prodding a weary flock of faithful voters toward the polls. “He was kind of a bright spot,” DeMoss said. “He never took off his Christian hat.”

Why I ran away from Enugu – Pregnant teenager [PHOTO]

Detectives from Festac Police Station, Lagos state, have disclosed that a teenage girl simply identified as Chidinma who ran away from her family house in Enugu State about five months ago, has been found pregnant in Lagos.The Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, ASP Aliyu Giwa, confirming the development on Thursday, said the 18-year-old girl was caught at Diamond bank in Festac Lagos on the 12th of February after five months of frantic search by her anxious parents.
“She was however 3 months pregnant by the time detectives picked her up at a branch of Diamond Bank in Amuwo Odofin,” Giwa revealed.
According to Chidinma, “I would have gone back home, but I was waiting for my dad who offended and made me run away from home, to call me.”
Only her mother was said to have called her and often sent her money, Nollywood.com gathered.
Chidinma said, “My boyfriend is Umar Idris. He is 21 years old. He asked me my age. I didn’t want to tell him my real age, so I lied I was 21.
“I lived with Idris for five months. It was within this period I discovered I was three months pregnant.
“I’m in love with Idris who works as a hair stylist.
“I have strong feelings for Idris. He didn’t treat me bad. He took me to his house, fed me and bought clothes for me. I don’t see my sleeping with him as paying him. I’m ready to marry him. I don’t think my parents will say no to our marriage,” Chidinma said.