Celebrities who haven't aged in more than ten years

TIME is a celebrity's greatest enemy, because with it comes wrinkles, sagging and the degradation of their million dollar looks.

But a handful of stars have somehow managed to defy the effects of ageing, looking just as good in 2013 as they did in the early 2000s.
Here are ten celebrities who either have great genes, great surgeons or have located and drunk from the fountain of youth.
Nicole Kidman:

Nicole Kidman has as many wrinkles in 2013 than she did in 1992 ... none! Source: Splash News Australia

Tom Cruise:

Ageing appears to be a Mission Inpossible for Tom Cruise, who looks exactly the same in 2013 as he did in 1999. Source: Splash News Australia

Kate Hudson:

No wonder Kate Hudson’s smiling, she looks as good nowadays as she did in 2001. Source: Splash News Australia

Will Smith:

We want whatever he’s on! Will Smith had more wrinkles in 1996 than he does in 2013. Source: Splash News Australia

Jennifer Aniston:

Same haircut, same lipstick, same good looks. Jen Aniston hasn’t aged over the past 12 years. Source: Splash News Australia

Paul Rudd:

Paul Rudd was a stud in 1997, and he’s still a stud in 2013. Source: Splash News Australia

Halle Berry:

Is it possible that Halle Berry looks better in 2013 than she did in 2001? Source: Splash News Australia

Elijah Wood:

Elijah Wood hasn’t aged in the last 10 years, and it’s fair to say he’ll look exactly the same in another 10 years. Source: Splash News Australia

Jamie Foxx:

He’s still looking just as foxy in 2013 as he did in 1999. Source: Splash News Australia

Rob Lowe:

How about those eyes? Just as sexy in 2002 compared to 2013. Source: Splash News Australia

Lisa Curry posts cryptic message as mag claims Fifi Box has baby 'news'

SOMEONE isn't happy that Fifi Box and Grant Kenny are 'looking forward to baby number two'.

As Woman's Day hit newsstands on Monday with a story that said Fifi and Grant are expecting baby number two already the ironman's ex-wife Lisa Curry posted five words on Facebook.
"Breathe in ... Breathe out ... Repeat ..."
While the Woman's Day story was "untrue" according to Curry, it might have been difficult for her to see considering she has shared her struggle to have a child with her new, younger partner.
"I'm not sure how they can get away with headlines like that," Curry told news.com.au. "Leave Grant, Fifi and poor little Trixie alone."
Rival magazine New Idea broke the story that Kenny, 50, was 36-year-old Box's baby daddy last year, although the pair have never commented on the speculation.

Melbourne's Funniest New Breakfast Show on The Fox with Fifi Box and Dave Thornton. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied

The news that Kenny was baby Trixie's father originally stunned his friends and family who had no idea of the whirlwind romance between the intensely private businessman and very public radio presenter.
Now Woman's Day credits a "close friend" as saying: "Fifi would love to have a baby boy with Grant. They're in a really good place and Fifi would love nothing more than to give Trixie a little brother. I know she's already discussed it with Grant, who is pleasantly surprised at just how much he's enjoying being a dad again."
The story came out on the same day that New Idea published an interview with Lisa Curry in which she says she has given up on her dream to have a baby via IVF with partner Joel Walkenhorst who is 20 years her junior.

Grant Kenny, 50, and son Jett, 18, at Maroochydore Beach. Picture: Mark Cranitch. Source: News Limited

Curry and Kenny have three adult children from their high-profile 23-year marriage.
The youngest child Jett, a budding ironman, graduated from high school last year. Their eldest daughter Jaimi, 26, has been living in Brisbane while their middle child Morgan, has been living her dream as a chorus girl with the Moulin Rouge in Paris.
Kenny has largely avoided romance since splitting with Curry. Instead the workaholic threw himself into his business. In recent years Kenny has sold assets including Queensland-based Curry Kenny Aviation which netted an estimated $70 million.
Melbourne-based Box, 36, and Sunshine Coast-based Kenny, 50, have never discussed their relationship publicly but Woman's Day last month claimed they were 'a happy family now', secretly spending weekends together.
"It's one of Australia's most fascinating relationships and yet radio personality Fifi Box and former ironman champion Grant Kenny, who already has three adult children with Curry, both go to great lengths to keep their enduring love affair under wraps," the magazine reported.

Former Olympic swimmer Lisa Curry-Kenny with daughter Jami and Grant Kenny on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, after Lisa talked about her heart condition during a press conference. Source: News Limited

"Neither will even confirm that Grant, 50, is the father of 36-year-old Fifi's seven-month-old daughter Trixie Belle. But friends insist they are both madly in love with each other, regularly meeting and talking daily on the phone."
Unlucky-in-love Box has not been spotted on the Sunshine Coast, where Kenny lives, but Kenny could easily fly her up in one of his aircraft.
Meanwhile Curry's Facebook friends were quick to sympathise with the former swimming champ.

"BS magazine stories hey!!!! I think of you, your family and all your feelings every time I read them. BS. Xxxx Lots of love to you. Hope you're OK," Vanessa Manion posted.

Oops! The worst celebrity wardrobe malfunctions of 2013

Iggy Azalea happily flaunted her pins at the 2013 MTV EMAs in Amsterdam. Picture: Getty Source: Supplied

FROM nipple slips to dangerously thigh high splits that went askew - even the most sophisticated celebrities suffer wardrobe malfunctions.

Here are some of 2013's most memorable.
Iggy Azalea: The Aussie rapper flashed her private parts on the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards. She then took to Twitter to respond to all the hype, saying "I don't give a f*** about a bikini line."

Iggy Azalea exposed a tad more than she bargained for at the MTV EMAs. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images

Kylie Gillies: The good-natured Morning Show co-host was able to laugh about this moment when the wind caught her cut-out frock at the Prix de Marie Claire Awards.

Photos of Kylie Gillies’ windswept moment quickly went viral. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images

Lady Gaga: Gaga gave her little monsters their money's worth when her black leather pants tore up the backside during her Born This Way concert. And on opening night, too.

This is one costume change Gaga didn’t count on. Picture: Splash News Source: Splash News Australia

Eva Longoria: It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but plenty of hungry photographers captured the moment Eva Longoria lost her footing in the rain at Cannes Film Festival. Too bad she had opted to go commando that day.

A sky-high split, a drizzly day and an absent pair of knickers spelled disaster for Eva Longoria at Cannes. Source: Getty Images

Katy Perry: The singer's performance at the Opera House earlier this year made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons. Damn that Sydney Harbour breeze.

US pop star Katy Perry performed live at the Opera House for Sunrise. Picture: Supplied Source: News Limited

Stefanie Scott: The Disney star was all smiles on the red carpet at the Nickelodeon's 26th Annual Kids' Choice Awards ... until this happened.

Stefanie Scott didn’t know where to grab, so she just crossed her legs and hoped for the best. Source: Splash News Australia

Jennifer Lawrence: The lovable J-Law suffered every actress' worst nightmare when her skirt appeared to fall apart at the Screen Actors Guild awards as she headed to the stage to accept her award.

All eyes were on J-Law at the SAG Awards ... and then this happened. Picture: YouTube Source: Supplied

Rita Ora: The British singer accidentally flashed her underwear while out on the town celebrating her 23rd birthday. She didn't seem too fazed though.

We wonder what boyfriend Calvin Harris thought about this awkward moment ... Picture: Splash Source: Splash News Australia

Rosario Dawson: Ruthless winds at Cannes Film Festival meant that the Seven Pounds actress accidentally exposed her undies at the As I Lay Dying premiere. The face says it all.

Rosario Dawson was well aware of her cheeky red carpet flash at the As I Lay Dying premiere. Source: Splash News Australia

Rebel Wilson: Honourable mention goes to this ballsy bird for faking a double nipple slip while hosting the MTV Movie Awards. Rebel, we salute you.

Rebel Wilson made sure all eyes were on her while hosting the MTV Movie Awards. Picture: Getty Source: Supplied

Obama economic adviser to stay an extra month

Gene Sperling will stay on an extra month or so as director of the National Economic Council, the White House said Wednesday.
Sperling, who has held the job for nearly three years, will participate "in the process around the State of the Union address that the president will deliver at the end of January, and to continue work on some of the issues that he's been focused on," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
His projects include a pair of upcoming conferences, one on helping low-income students attend college and another on ways to address the long-term unemployed.

Sperling will also help with the transition to his successor Jeff Zients, who until this week has been supervising improvements to the troubled health care website.

Judge's strike at U.S. surveillance won't be last word

Judge Richard Leon's criticism of government snooping on Americans' phone records is almost certain to meet with conflicting decisions from other courts.

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon posed a basic concern as he opened a sparsely attended hearing into the federal government's telephone and Internet surveillance program exactly one month ago: Could the plaintiffs bring the case, and did he have authority to handle it?
It was a humble start for a 64-year-old jurist who could not have foreseen the national security issues that would consume much of his time for the next dozen years when he was nominated by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001.
Now Leon has claimed his 15 minutes of fame with a 68-page decision challenging the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's surveillance program.
Yet for all of his colorful phrasing (he described the NSA's collection of millions of Americans' phone records as "Orwellian"), Leon's is far from the last word in a debate that began six months ago with the unauthorized disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Leon's stinging rebuke flies in the face of decisions rendered in secret by 15 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges who have approved the widespread snooping every 90 days since 2006. It also challenges a 1979 decision in which the Supreme Court denied privacy protections to telephone records.
Those decisions and others, including a November ruling by a federal judge in California upholding the sweeping phone data collection program, form the basis for the government's claimed authority to conduct such surveillance operations. Now they appear destined to be vetted in full — and in public — for the first time by the nation's highest legal authorities.
"Only the Supreme Court can resolve the question on the constitutionality of the NSA's program,'' said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the strongest advocates for the surveillance programs. "It has been more than 30 years since the court's original decision of constitutionality, and I believe it is crucial to settling the issue once and for all.''
That prospective venue for settling the national security debate, made even more contentious by Leon's ruling, is about the only thing lawmakers, civil liberties advocates and legal analysts can agree on.
"It is not clear one way or another how this will be ultimately decided,'' said University of Notre Dame law professor Jimmy Gurule, who applauded Leon's decision as a "victory for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.''
The Justice Department, which has yet to comment on its all-but-certain appeal, said it remained confident in its authority to continue the programs. "We believe the program is constitutional, as previous judges have found,'' spokesman Andrew Ames said.
That previous judicial review, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told a Senate panel last week, includes a decision rendered in November by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller. He denied an appeal by four convicted terror associates who claimed in part that the phone collection program violated their Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
"Judge Miller was ruling on a real-world terrorist case,'' Feinstein said Tuesday.
Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor who specializes in computer crime law, said other federal courts are more likely to follow the Supreme Court's 1979 ruling in Smith v. Maryland and approve the phone-tracking program. He called Leon "an outlier in his approach to the main Supreme Court case."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which would consider the Justice Department appeal, mostly has backed the government in cases involving national security. It is dominated by conservative judges, but three new judges named by President Obama will tilt the balance of power.
If the issue does go to the Supreme Court, it would be decided by a different set of justices than those who decided the Smith case. The court has not addressed directly the issue of informational privacy. But two petitions for review involve conflicting lower-court rulings on the privacy of cellphone data during arrests, and the court is likely to hear one or both of them next year.
"They will give the court an opportunity to begin to develop a theory of informational privacy," says Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law scholar and dean of the University of California-Irvine School of Law.
Having laid down a marker, Judge Leon now plays the role that U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson of Virginia played in December 2010, when he was first to strike down the individual mandate at the core of President Obama's health care law.
Hudson's verdict represented the initial shot across the bow in a case that wound up at the Supreme Court. Within hours of his ruling, Randy Barnett, a Georgetown University Law Center professor who first argued that the law was unconstitutional, got an e-mail from Yale Law School professor Jack Balkin. "Your argument is officially not frivolous anymore," Balkin wrote.
"It changes the dynamic when you have a federal judge endorse the argument that you've made, even one," says Barnett, a libertarian who agrees with Leon's decision. "This is a necessary first step to an outcome invalidating the bulk data collection program."
Leon clearly recognized that by granting conservative gadfly Larry Klayman's request for a preliminary injunction but staying its impact while the Justice Department mounts what will be a vigorous appeal — something the judge predicted at the Nov. 18 hearing.
"However I come out," Leon said, "I know it's going upstairs."

Mandela’s Candid Opinion Of Nigerian Leaders

Six years before his death last Thursday, Nelson Mandela took a look at Nigeria and expressed sadness at the political, economic and social degeneration of the once touted giant of Africa.
He came up with a damning verdict. He blamed the leaders for abandoning the people. Madiba, as he was popularly called by South Africans, accused Nigerian leaders of betraying their people in a candid interview with Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed in 2007.
In the interview conducted in his home, the former South African late hero blasted Nigerian leaders for lack of genuine interest in the success of their people. He lamented the poverty level in Nigeria and the bad education system.
Though he acknowledged Nigeria’s effort in the fight against apartheid, he accused Nigerian leaders of letting their people and Africa down.

                     Nelson Mandela: 1917-2013

FULL TEXT OF OBASANJO'S REALITY LETTER TO PRESIDENT JONATHAN

December 2, 2013
His Excellency,
Dr. Goodluck E. Jonathan, GCFR
President and Commander-in-Chief
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Presidential Villa,
Asokoro, Abuja.
Dear Mr. President,
I am constrained to make this an open letter to you for a number of reasons. One, the current situation and consequent possible outcome dictate that I should, before the door closes on reason and promotion of nation interest, alert you to the danger that may be lurking in the corner. Two, none of the four or more letters I have written to you in the past two years or so has elicited neither an acknowledgement nor any response. Three, people close to you, if not yourself, have been asking, what does Obasanjo want? Four, I could sense a semblance between the situation that we are gradually getting into and the situation we fell into as a nation during the Abacha era. Five, everything must be done to guard, protect and defend our fledgling democracy, nourish it, and prevent bloodshed. Six, we must move away from advertently or inadvertently dividing the country along weak seams of North-South and Christian-Moslem. Seven, nothing should be done to allow the country to degenerate into economic dormancy, stagnation or retrogression. Eight, some of our international friends and development partners are genuinely worried about signs and signals that are coming out of Nigeria. Nine, Nigeria should be in a position to take advantage of the present favourable international interest to invest in Africa – an opportunity that will not be open for too long. Ten, I am concerned about your legacy and your climb-down which you alone can best be the manager of, whenever you so decide.

Mr. President, you have on a number of occasions acknowledged the role God enabled me to play in your ascension to power. You put me third after God and your parents among those that have impacted most of your life. I have always retorted that God only put you where you are and those that could be regarded as having played a role were only instruments of God to achieve God's purpose in your life. For me, I believe that politically, it was in the best interest of Nigeria that you, a Nigerian from minority group in the South could rise to the highest pinnacle of political leadership. If Obasanjo could get there, Yar'Adua could get there and Jonathan can get there, any Nigerian can. It is now not a matter of the turn of any section or geographical area but the best interest of Nigeria and all Nigerians. It has been proved that no group – ethnic, linguistic, religious or geographical location – has monopoly of materials for leadership of our country. And no group solely by itself can crown any of it members the Nigerian CEO. It is good for Nigeria. I have also always told you that God has graciously been kind, generous, merciful and compassionate to me and He has done more than I could have ever hoped for. I want nothing from you personally except that you should run the affairs of Nigeria not only to make Nigeria good, but to make Nigeria great for which I have always pleaded with you and I will always do so. And it is yet to be done for most Nigerians to see.

For five capacities in which you find yourself, you must hold yourself most significantly responsible for what happens to fails to happen in Nigeria and in any case most others will hold you responsible and God who put you there will surely hold you responsible and accountable. I have had opportunity, in recent times, to interact closely with you and I have come to the conclusion painfully or happily that if you can shun yourself to a great extent of personal and political interests and dwell more on the national interest and also draw the line between advice from selfish and self-centered aides and advice from those who in the interest of the nation may not tell you what you will want to hear, it will be well. The five positions which you share with nobody except God and which place great and grave responsibility on you are leadership of the ruling party, headship of the Federal Government or national government, Commander-in-Chief of the Military, Chief Security Officer of the nation, and the political leader of the country. Those positions go with being President of our country and while depending on your disposition you can delegate or devolve responsibility, but the buck must stop on your table whether you like it or not.

Let me start with the leadership of the ruling party. Many of us were puzzled over what was going on in the party. Most party members blamed the National Chairman. I understand that some in the presidency tried to create the impression that some of us were to blame. The situation became clear only when the National Chairman spoke out that he never did anything or acted in any way without the approval or concurrence of the Party Leader and that where the Party Leader disapproved, he made correction or amendment, that we realised most actions were those of the Chairman but the motivation and direction were those of the Leader. It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman for all that goes wrong with the Party. The Chairman is playing the tune dictated by the Paymaster.

But the Paymaster is acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seems to be the major ingredients. Up till two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with you statement. You said the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that statement that you made to me judging by what is going on. I must say that it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and honourable path. Although you have not formally informed me one way or the other, it will be necessary to refresh your memory of what transpired in 2011. I had gone to Benue State for the marriage of one of my staff, Vitalis Ortese, in the State. Governor Suswam was my hospitable host. He told me that you had accepted a one-term presidency to allow for ease of getting support across the board in the North. I decided to crosscheck with you. You did not hesitate to confirm to me that you are a strong believer in a one-term of six years for the President and that by the time you have used the unexpired time of your predecessor and the four years of your first term, you would have almost used up to six years and you would not need any more term or time. Later, I heard from other sources including sources close to you that you made the same commitment elsewhere, hence, my inclusion of it in my Address at the finale of your campaign in 2011 as follows:

“…PDP should be praised for being the only party that enshrines federal character, zoning and rotation in its Constitution and practices it. PDP has brought stability and substantial predictability to the polity and the system. I do not know who will be President of Nigeria after Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. That is in the hand of God. But with PDP policy and practice, I can reasonably guess from where, in term of the section of the country, the successor to President Jonathan will come. And no internal democracy or competition will thereby be destroyed. The recent resort to sentiments and emotions of religion and regionalism is self-serving, unpatriotic and mischievous, to say the least. It is also preying on dangerous emotive issues that can ignite uncontrollable passion and destabilise if not destroy our country. This is being oblivious of the sacrifices others have made in the past for unity, stability and democracy in the Nigeria in giving up their lives, shedding their blood, and in going to prison. I personally have done two out of those three sacrifices and I am ready to do the third if it will serve the best interest of Nigerian dream. Let me appeal to those who have embarked on this dangerous road to reflect and desist from taking us on a perishable journey. With common identity as Nigerians, there is more that binds us than separates us. I am a Nigerian, born a Yoruba man, and I am proud of both identities, as they are for me complementary. Our duties, responsibilities and obligations to our country as citizens and, indeed, as leaders must go side by side with our rights and demands. There must be certain values and virtues that must go concomitantly with our dream. Thomas Paine said “my country is the world”, for me, my country I hold dear.

On two occasions, I have had opportunity to work for my successors to the government of Nigeria. On both occasions, I never took the easy and destabilising route of ethnic, regional or religious consideration rather I took the enduring route of national, uniting and stabilising route. I worked for both President Shagari and President Yar'Adua to succeed me not just because they are Moslems, Northerners or Hausa-Fulani, but also because they could strengthen the unity, stability and democracy in Nigeria. We incurred the displeasure of ethnic chauvinists for doing what was right for the country. That is in the nature of burden of leadership. A leader must lead no matter whose ox is gored.

In the present circumstance, let me reiterate what I have said on a number of occasions. Electing Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in his own right and on his own merit, as the President of Nigeria will enhance and strengthen our unity, stability and democracy. And it will lead us towards the achievement of our Nigerian dream.

There is press report that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has already taken a unique and unprecedented step of declaring that he would only want to be a one-term President. If so, whether we know it or not, that is a sacrifice and it is statesmanlike.

Rather than vilify him and pull him down, we, as a Party, should applaud and commend him and Nigerians should reward and venerate him. He has taken the first good step.

Let us encourage him to take more good steps by voting him in with landslide victory and the fourth elected President of Nigeria on the basis of our common Nigerian identity and for the purpose of actualizing Nigerian dream…”

The Game Mourns Mandela With A Tattoo

Compton rapper, The Game has a brand new Mandela tattoo to his side as tribute to the fallen anti-Apartheid icon. The star, who already has pictures of Barack Obama and Trayvon Martin printed on his body, jumped on Instagram yesterday to show off his new 7-hour ink, a sizable tattoo to Mandela. 

Jay Z Sings For Mandela

Roc Nation rapper Jay Z also pays tribute to Nelson Mandela. Although the super star hasn’t made his way to South Africa yet, Jay Z performed a show-stopping tribute to the Great Madiba at the Staples Centre, Los Angeles last night.

Just before the rapper performed his Forever young classic, he screamed out to the sold-out ground, "We wanna dedicate this song to Nelson Mandela." He then continued, "That man spent 27 years in prison and came out to be a president."

According to TMZ, the crowd sang along and put cell phones in the air. But some critics are hammering on Jigga because during his summer tour, he frequently performed the song and dedicated it to Trayvon Martin.


It’s not like the song is NOT appropriate for Mandela, but doesn't he have another song for the ex South African president?

Twitter Demon Waconzy Blasts Again

Hip hop singer, Waconzy, is gradually becoming a Twitter demon, as he takes to the social media at every opportunity, to either attack fellow entertainers or to make some comments that many find irritating.

Fresh from his Twitter war of words with hip-life crooner, Flavour, the ‘Amosu’ singer went back to the medium to throw some scathing words at his fellow musicians who have babies outside wedlock rather than getting married properly.

Though he did not mention names of the artistes involved, the ‘Celebrate’ songster may be talking about the likes of Peter and Paul Okoye, Wizkid, Ice Prince, Terry G, 2Face Idibia, and a host of others.

Read his tweet here:

Rihanna Heads To Court Over $6.9 Million Lawsuit

Bajan beauty Rihanna has been ordered to attend a deposition in court over a $6.9 million lawsuit she filed in 2011 against LaRocca Inspection Associates Inc for breach of contract. The singer reportedly sued the company over water leaks at a mansion she acquired in Beverly Hills, California in 2009 which she later sold for loss of up to $2 million.
According to documents obtained by RadarOnline.com on Wednesday, Rihanna hired LaRocca Inspection Associates in August 2009 to conduct an analysis of the property for repairs to be fixed by the owners. The singer alleged in court documents that LaRocca did not make sure water seepage problems in the hardwood floors were fixed before she closed escrow on the 8,500sq ft home for $6.9 million. Reports by Uk’s Daily today claim the lawsuit says heavy rains in 2010 flooded several rooms in the mansion and extensive leakage followed.

According to DailyMail, ‘the company’s lawyer Gregory Pyfrom in court papers sought $7,500 in compensation for efforts over the past two years to depose Rihanna. But Rihanna's attorney Miles Cooley countered that Rihanna has 'consistently agreed' to be deposed and that both sides agreed not to depose the singer until after the matter was mediated. Cooley also countered that Rihanna's deposition was delayed several times due to Pyfrom's vacation plans. However, the judge denied Pyfrom's request for compensation.
Rihanna filed the lawsuit under her given name Robyn Fenty and alleged negligence, fraud and breach of contract.

Kim Kardashian - No Surgery Or Dieting Got My Body Back!

Kim Kardashian is probably one of the sexiest curvy women in the world and rumors of her leaning towards knives and extreme dieting to gain back her curves post pregnancy have been put to rest. The reality TV star recently banged the cover of Us Weekly magazine in a white string bikini to prove she finally made it without any surgery.

The mother of one agreed to had gained too much weight during her pregnancy with North West but was determined to get back her body in a not-too-extreme way. "I did gain a lot of weight, I did. It was hard for me. Everyone was really not the nicest with me when I was pregnant and you lose sight for a second, like, 'Wait, what if I never get my body back to normal again?'

"For a second you think that. So I said to myself, I really want to commit to something and it's important for me, and because I was not a dieter that became a huge challenge.”

Bet the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has put her enemies to shame seeing how incredible she looked on the Us Weekly cover. However she says she’s not so satisfied with the way she looks, “It was OK. I think I still have about 10 pounds to go.” She told Extra TV at the 2013 Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Breakfast on Wednesday, "I don't think I'm ready yet, I don't want to be seen. I'm not bikini-ready yet!"

Kim also laments on the surgery rumors to get rid of post-baby body, "I think [the rumours] really upset me just because I worked so hard," Kim said, "I always worked out, but it was a challenge for me. And so because I stuck through with it, I was so proud of myself for doing that, but it really upset me when people would always try and make it into something else of why I lost the weight."

Well, worry no more Kim, it’s all gone anyway and you rock the new you so well!

Super Minister Diezani Disappears In London, Upsets Other Ministers

At least nine Nigerian ministers were embittered by what they described as the nonchalant and disrespectful attitude of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the just concluded Honorary International Investor’s Council (HIIC) in London.

The ministers were irked by Ms. Alison-Madueke’s disappearing act in London.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who led a delegation to London, had ordered his cabinet members to attend a meeting with Nigerians resident in the United Kingdom. But the Petroleum Minister took off on her own mission, without telling any of her colleagues her whereabouts. Her action angered other ministers who saw her behavior as a display of reckless indifference to and disregard for her colleagues.

According to a minister who spoke to LiveReporters, he and his colleagues discovered, after the parley with Nigerians, that Ms. Alison-Madueke had arranged for Mr. Jonathan to visit some places in London with her. He added that the Petroleum Minister and Mr. Jonathan did not return until past midnight.

Mr. Jonathan had fallen violently ill last Thursday and had to be hospitalized last Thursday in London. The president did not attend the meeting with Nigerians either, as he ended his participation at the HIIC yesterday.

“Not only did Diezani not attend the meeting [with Nigerians], she also did not offer explanations for her absence or apologize to her colleagues for her non-appearance,” the minister told LiveReporters.

Our source added that Ms. Alison-Madueke also did not attend the first day of the investment council events as she spent most of her time at the King Edward VII Hospital in Westminster where the president was treated. “The Minister of Petroleum Resources did not attend the inaugural meeting of the HIIC as she knew that President Jonathan was not going to be able to make it,” said the source.

When contacted today a source at the Petroleum ministry said the minister had a different investment meeting in London with investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who are interested in getting oil blocks they intend to use in making two major refineries function to full capacity.

 However, the assertion is at variance with recent announcement by the federal government, which announced plans to sell Nigerian refineries.

LiveReporters learned that Ms. Alison-Madueke was one of the last persons with President Jonathan before he suddenly took ill and had to be hospitalized. Our cabinet source said that the Petroleum Minister did not alert her colleagues about President Jonathan’s hospitalization until very late.

In order to forestall an embarrassing situation, presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati, was asked to quickly draft a release informing the public that Mr. Jonathan had fallen ill. The release did not disclose the nature of illness or the hospital where the president was hospitalized.

Yesterday, as Mr. Jonathan attended the HIIC, Ms. Alison-Madueke arrived late at the venue and left early, only to disappear again with the president as other ministers met with Nigerians and labored hard to explain the policies of the Jonathan administration.

President Jonathan remains in London today, but has no public activity planned for him, according to a Presidency source. He is scheduled to return to Nigeria tomorrow.

Rivers State Government Challenges Okonjo-Iweala To Tell Nigerians How Finances Are Being Managed

The Rivers State Government has called on the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to clarify her statement concerning the management of the economy.

Specifically, the RSG wants her to tell Nigerians how much oil Nigeria produces daily; clarification that the benchmark price for oil in the 2013 budget is $79; and whether crude oil was sold at prices that hovered around $110 per day throughout the year.

The government also wants to know how much Nigeria earned from its oil sales in 2013 and what percentage of the budget is funded by these receipts.

In a statement signed by Ibim Semenitari, Commissioner of Information and Communications, the RSG noted that the position of the federal government has been that there are shortfalls in production, but it wondered whether this takes into cognizance the over $30 differential between the benchmark price of $79 and the actual sale price which averaged $110 per barrel during the period.

“The position of the Rivers State Government is that the differential of over $30 should have been enough to fund the shortfall in production? Unfortunately there has been no accounting for this huge differential.”

Speaking in Sokoto last weekend at a retreat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, stated that $5billion was missing from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

In a rebuttal, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stated that the $5billion Governor Amaechi referred to “has been shared to the three tiers of government to make up for the revenue shortfalls during the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee process,” and that “part of this fund also went for SURE-P payments and the balance for subsidy payments to oil marketers.”

Said the RSG, “Governor Amaechi’s position in Sokoto was that the ECA is being managed like a piggy-bank contrary to provisions of the law and in a manner that does not allow for transparency and accountability. A position which the Honourable Minister’s rebuttal now seems to confirm…

“According to her, the SURE-P is being funded from the ECA. But the President in his broadcast had stated that SURE-P, ‘is designed to manage and reinvest the Federal Governments share of the savings from the partial reduction of subsidies on petroleum products.’”

Full text of the statement:

PRESS RELEASE

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - $5 Billion is not missing from the Excess Crude Account- The Rivers State Government's position



In response to the warning raised by Governor of Rivers State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, CON, at the 2nd Retreat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in Sokoto, drawing the attention of Nigerians to the fact that $5billion is missing from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Honourable Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, put out a rebuttal stating that the claim is “shocking and false”. The Minister went on to say “the $5billion which Governor Amaechi referred to in his statement has been shared to the three tiers of government to make up for the revenue shortfalls during the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee process”. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala also said that “part of this fund also went for SURE-P payments and the balance for subsidy payments to oil marketers”.

The Rivers Sate Government would like to address the issues as raised by the Honourable Minister:

First, the Rivers State Government wishes to acknowledge as highlighted by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, that it received the sum of N56.2billion, for January to September 2013 as statutory allocation from the federation account.

The federation account is funded from receipts from oil and other sales (with oil accounting for over 90 percent and taxes - VAT- custom duties etc.). When more crude is produced and sold above the quantity anticipated by the budget for any given year, the funds are by law meant to be kept as future savings in a stabilization account, also known as the excess crude account.

Contrary to the coordinating minister’s claim, that “Mr. Amaechi was closely involved and actively participated in making requests to the presidency for the account to be shared for the purpose of augmenting the regular allocations from the Federation Account whenever there was a shortfall,” Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his colleague governors have only attended only one meeting where ONE REQUEST was made for the sharing of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account. Beyond that one meeting, there has been no other meeting where it was decided that money from the ECA be shared among the three tiers of government

There is a position of the National Executive Council’s (NEC) on the matter of the Excess Crude Account. This position is that the savings in the ECA belonging to all the states is not to be touched. Indeed this is in tandem with the position of the Honourable minister that the ECA is savings for all to be set-aside for the rainy day and not to be “shared” in the manner she now seems to suggest. The Rivers State Government finds it curious and very disturbing that our rainy day savings has been “shared” in complete breach of the known procedure for doing such and in what might be considered an under the table and clandestine manner.

The appropriate procedure as the Honourable Minster knows is that usually members of the NEC have to make recommendations to Mr. President should there be need recourse to the Excess Crude account. The Rivers State Government is certain that its Chief Executive and Governor did not participate in any such meeting where any such approval was requested or even discussed and given

The second issue is the pertinent matter of the receipts accruing to the Rivers State Government. Since it is not procedural for states to receive allocation from the Excess Crude Account, it may smirk of mischief to suggest as the Honourable Minister did that Governor Amaechi refused to acknowledge, “Rivers State has received N56.2 billion from the Excess Crude Account between January and September 2013.” Neither Rivers nor any other state would have any inkling that the money received by Rivers State government and other state governments for that matter were funded from the ECA. According to a communiqué issued by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation after the June allocation meeting, “ the sum of N7.617 billion refunded by NNPC and the N35.547 billion from the Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P); formed part of the total distributable revenue for the month.” The communiqué confirmed that the gross revenue for the month was N863.026 billion. This was higher than the N590.777 billion received in May by N272.249 billion. It said very unambiguously, “the higher revenue was a result of increased crude oil production due to the completion of pipeline repairs in some terminals. There was also a significant increase in non-oil revenue during the period due to the receipt of accumulated arrears on companies.”

The Rivers state government therefore finds puzzling the suggestion by the Honourable Minister that the savings for 2012 has been used to fund the budget for 2013.

For the purposes of clarity and for avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State Government may respectfully request the Honourable Minister to shed more light on the following,

·      How much oil does the country produce per day?

·      Clarification that the benchmark price for oil in the 2013 budget is $79?

·      Is it a fact that crude oil was sold at prices that hovered around $110 per day throughout the year?

·      How much exactly has Nigeria earned from its oil sales in 2013 and what percentage of the budget is funded by these receipts?

The position of the federal government has been that there are shortfalls in production but does this position also take into cognisance the over $30 differential between the benchmark price of $79 and the actual sale price which averaged $110 per barrel during the period. The position of the Rivers State Government is that the differential of over $30 should have been enough to fund the shortfall in production? Unfortunately there has been no accounting for this huge differential. Perhaps the Honourable minister may assist us in putting this in better perspective.

Governor Amaechi’s position in Sokoto was that the ECA is being managed like a piggy-bank contrary to provisions of the law and in a manner that does not allow for transparency and accountability. A position which the Honourable Minister’s rebuttal now seems to confirm, as can be noted in the third issue she raised in her response.

According to her, the SURE-P is being funded from the ECA. But the President in his broadcast had stated that SURE-P, “is designed to manage and reinvest the Federal Governments share of the savings from the partial reduction of subsidies on petroleum products.” It was not and is not meant to be that SURE-P is to be funded from ECA nor can the Federal Government unilaterally withdraw money from the ECA to balance payments to oil marketers. Indeed the statement of the accountant general of the federation previously quoted lays credence to this position – “ N35.547 billion from the Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P); formed part of the total distributable revenue for the month.”  It has been the understanding of the Rivers State Government that SURE-P is funded from the extra money realised from the pump price of petroleum, which Nigerians protested against when the pump price of fuel was raised. Is the Honorable Minister telling Nigerians that the SURE-P is now being funded from the ECA! Might it then be true as was recently suggested in the National Assembly that over N500billion of SURE-P money may be missing?

The Government of Rivers State holds the office and person of the Honourable Minister in high esteem, but as a government we owe the 5.6 million Rivers people whose mandate we hold a responsibility of accountability. The issues raised by Governor Amaech were raised purely out of concern for the need for accountability and safeguarding the wealth of “future generations of Rivers people.” It is for this purpose and to this end that we most respectfully seek clarification of the following. 

·      How much oil does Nigeria produce?

·      Where is the differential between the oil pump prices?

·      What price is our oil being sold for?

·      How much have we earned from our crude oil sales in the last year?

·      What percentage of budget 2013 does our crude oil sales revenue fund?

·      Can the Honourable Minister assist in shedding more light on the subsidy savings since the reduction in petroleum subsidy?



As a government that is also a major stakeholder in the administration, we believe that answers to these very pertinent questions would put paid to whatever false or misleading information may have been put out or peddled in the public domain.

Signed

Ibim Semenitari

Commissioner of Information and Communications,

Rivers State

Nigeria State House Confirms President Jonathan Had Acute Abdominal Pain

President Goodluck Jonathan will return to Nigeria on Sunday and be at work the following day, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati has said. 
In a second statement on Saturday, Mr. Abati for the first time indicated that the president was examined and treated for “severe abdominal pains,” but that doctors have now certified him fully fit to return home and continue his official duties.

The latest revelation is consistent with LiveReporters exclusive reporting about the President’s state of health

“After a thorough evaluation of the President's symptoms, medically referred to as acute abdomen, the doctors concluded that no surgical intervention was required.”

It was not clear what was the spokesman identified as “acute abdomen,” but Live Reporters has learned that Mr. Jonathan was treated at King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes in Westminster, London.

In an earlier press statement, President Jonathan threatened LiveReporters for reporting that his health crisis was preceded by a heavy birthday celebration in his honour at his hotel.