Embu College Talent Show: Volume 2-Update

So, we just started planning for the Embu College Talent Show and a lot was talked about on how the event would be. Great suggestions and ideas were given out and it's my obligation to update y'all on our progress.

1. We'll have the official Mr. & Ms. Embu College on that very night
2. The following, Churchill, Jalang'o and MC Jessy, have been proposed to be the MC. Only two of them will be chosen.
3. We have an array of artistes we wish to bring on board. Nine of them were suggested and we are only chosen four. They are: Juliani, P Unit, Ben Githae, Daddy Owen, Jaguar, Nonini, John De Matthew, Avril & Chantelle.

So make sure to keep it for all the 411 on the event.

Gadhafi killed in crossfire after capture, Libyan PM says

Libyans cheered the fate of ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi into the early hours of Friday after his death in what Libya's transitional prime minister described as a crossfire that followed his arrest by revolutionary forces.
"This is a time to start a new Libya, with a new economy, with a new education and with a new health system -- with one future," Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's transitional prime minister, said after proclaiming Gadhafi's death.
Gadhafi was captured alive and unharmed as troops from the National Transitional Council overran his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, Jibril said. But a gunbattle erupted between transitional council fighters and Gadhafi's supporters as his captors attempted to load him into a vehicle, Jibril said, leaving Gadhafi with a wound to his right arm.
More shooting erupted as the vehicle drove away, and Gadhafi -- who ruled Libya for nearly 42 years before rebel forces overthrew him in August -- was hit in the head, Jibril said, Gadhafi died moments before arriving at a hospital in Misrata, Jibril said, citing the city's coroner.
Grainy video broadcast on Arabic satellite networks captured some of the onetime Libyan strongman's last moments, as the bloodied but still-alive Gadhafi was being hauled onto a truck. Another video showed a dead Gadhafi with what appeared to be a head wound.
According to Ali Aujali, Libya's ambassador to the United States, troops found Gadhafi in a large drainage pipe. Daily Telegraph reporter Ben Farmer in Sirte old CNN's Anderson Cooper the pipe is about 3 feet wide and filled with trash and sand.
The phrases "The place of the rat Gadhafi" and "You scum" were painted around its exterior, apparently after the capture.
Jibril said Gadhafi was carrying a gun but did not resist his captors. Jibril said DNA samples confirmed Gadhafi's identity, and the International Criminal Court -- which had issued an arrest warrant for the ousted dictator on war-crimes charges -- has agreed to allow Gadhafi's burial.
Aujali said the National Transitional Council and the Libyan people wanted Gadhafi to be taken alive to answer for his crimes. In one video from the scene, a voice can be heard shouting, "No, no, we want him alive, we want him alive."

U.S., NATO and French officials said transitional government fighters captured Gadhafi's convoy after French warplanes and a U.S. drone forced it to a halt on the way out of Sirte. Following Gadhafi's death, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Thursday that the alliance "will terminate our mission," launched in March under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians.
Amnesty International called for the National Transitional Council to mount "a full, independent and impartial inquiry" into Gadhafi's death and said his inner circle and family should be "treated humanely and, if captured, given fair trials."
Abubaker Saad, who was a Gadhafi aide for nine years, said it didn't really matter whether Gadhafi was dead or alive as long as he was no longer a fugitive.
"As long as he was on the run, he represented a very ominous danger to the Libyan people," Saad said. "He represented a very ominous danger ... to the idea of the democracy in Libya."
The streets of Tripoli echoed with celebratory gunfire, car horns and cheers as crowds ran or danced through the streets. Celebrations extended into early Friday in Tripoli and Misrata, where crowds waved flags in the city's main square long after midnight.
On the surrounding roads, drivers leaned on their horns and came to brake-squealing stops as bands of revelers darted in and out of traffic.
"A black era has come to an end forever," the Libyan ambassador to Britain, Mahmoud Al Nacoua, said in London.
National Transitional Council Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil will officially announce on Saturday Libya's liberation, media committee member Mohamed Elkish told CNN on Thursday. Council officials have said after such a declaration a new government would soon be announced and the democratic transition would begin.
Gadhafi's killing caps a revolt that began in February and left him a fugitive for the past two months. The mercurial former army officer, who seized power in a 1969 coup, was the third Arab leader ousted in the Arab Spring upheavals that began in neighboring Tunisia in January.
Also killed Thursday were Gadhafi's son Motassim and his chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, said Anees al-Sharif, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council's military arm in Tripoli. Other reports say al-Senussi was captured. Jibril said Gadhafi's defense minister, Gen. Abu Baker Younes, also died.
Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, said Libyans still face a difficult political struggle. But, he added, "We should not underestimate the significance of this day."
"Gadhafi was the head of the state, the most important symbol of the country. He repeatedly tried to rally his supporters to fight on," Gerges said. "I hope that this particular day will not just mean the end of an era, but basically represent the beginning of a new era."
Gerges said the recent fighting around Sirte and another holdout of pro-Gadhafi loyalists, Bani Walid, exposed "some major tribal and regional cleavages" that Libyans will have to bridge in forming a new government. Those differences "could easily escalate, given the extent and the intensity of differences in Libya."
But he said Gadhafi's death sends a signal to other strongmen in the region: "If you oppress your people, if you don't engage your civil society, if you stay in power for so many years, this will be your end."
Fran Townsend, CNN national security contributor, said the transitional leadership "faces very serious challenges," citing groups outside Libya's borders, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, as well as internal strife among the country's tribes.
"There will be those around them who seek to take advantage," Townsend said. "There will be tribal differences, there will be Gadhafi loyalists who melt into the population and attempt to launch an insurgency like what we saw in Iraq."
Prince Idris Al-Senussi, whose family was overthrown by Gadhafi 42 years ago, told CNN, "I feel now that finally I can go back to a free country. A country that I have loved ... and I feel proud that the Libyan people have done it themselves."
The confirmation of Gadhafi's death came after hours of conflicting reports on the deposed leader's status. When those reports first reached U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to Afghanistan, she reacted with one word: "Wow."
Clinton said the end of Gadhafi would "add legitimacy and relief to the formation of a new government."
In a brief address from the White House, President Barack Obama praised Libyans for lifting "the dark shadow of tyranny" with the aid of Western air power.
"One year ago, the notion of a free Libya seemed impossible," Obama said. "But then the Libyan people rose up and demanded their rights. And when Gadhafi and his forces started going city to city, town by town, to brutalize men, women and children, the world refused to stand idly by."
NATO, spearheaded by Britain and France, backed up the revolt by bombarding pro-Gadhafi forces. In a statement from his office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Gadhafi's ouster marks the start of "a new era ... one of reconciliation in unity and freedom."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday "is a day to remember all of Colonel Gadhafi's victims," including the 270 dead in the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and "the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime."
Other world leaders sounded encouragement for a new Libya, but cautioned that the road ahead won't be easy.
"In the coming days, we will witness scenes of celebration, as well as grief for those who lost so much," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "Yet let us recognize, immediately, that this is only the end of the beginning. The road ahead for Libya and its people will be difficult and full of challenges."

Kenyan troops close in on Somali’s second key town

By Boniface Ongeri in Liboi and David Ochami in Nairobi
Kenyan troops were by Monday evening moving quickly to secure the town of Afmadow in Somalia, 100 kilometres from the border.
It comes just two days after the Kenyan armed forces captured another key town, Qoqani, following two days of heavy aerial and ground bombardment. Afmadow is the town where two Kenyan soldiers, Evan Mutoro and Jonathan Kangogo, captured by Al-Shabaab militia on July 24, were detained before being taken by their captors to the coastal town of Kismayu. The two soldiers are still unaccounted for.
"The Kenyan troops supported by tanks and other military vehicles have taken up positions near Qoqani," Saleban Mohamed, an elder in a nearby village, told AFP news agency.
"I saw around 32 trucks and tanks, with hundreds of troops," he added.

Military helicopter. Government says it is in Somalia for the long haul vowing to fight Al-Shabaab to the end. Photo: File/Standard

"The Kenyan soldiers are heavily armed and they have started digging trenches near Qoqani," Abdulahi Sayid Adam, another witness said.But there was some sad news after a military helicopter exploded seconds after take off from Liboi Airstrip in Garissa, killing five soldiers including the pilot.
Department of Defence officials blamed the crash on a technical fault. The soldiers, a major, a sergeant, two privates and a technician were killed when their China-made Dolphine helicopter crashed and caught fire, military sources told The Standard.
"It crashed while taking off and caught fire, all the five soldiers on board died. It was not brought down," said Military Spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir.
Armoured vehiclesThe soldiers were reportedly taking missiles to the war front inside Somalia when the incident occurred, the source said.
The helicopter exploded about 500 metres from Liboi Airstrip.
Kenya continued to flex its aerial prowess as it rained bombs on strategic Al-Shabaab strongholds, pushing its assault deeper toward central Somalia. At the same time, the Government announced it was ready to fight Al-Shabaab to its logical conclusion, adding that the military offensive against the terror group, dubbed "Operation Linda Nchi" (Operation Protect Kenya) would continue until the militia are subdued.
Kenyan troops combed villages in Somalia in hot pursuit of the militia with armoured vehicles, as its fighter jets overflew the enemy’s territory.
Witnesses said they saw dozens of Kenyan military vehicles pouring over the border, backed by planes and helicopters even as reports said Al-Shabaab, which denies kidnapping Kenyans and foreigners, had amassed more men to back up its militia in Afmadow where they were being pinned down by the heavy firepower of the Kenya army and air force.
Quoting witnesses, AFP reported that Al-Shabaab commanders confiscated at least 100 trucks late Sunday from the Lower Shabelle region, outside the capital Mogadishu, to transport gunmen southwards.
Internal Security minister Prof George Saitoti and Defence minister Mohammed Yusuf Haji said military operations against Al-Shabaab would be sustained until "desired effects" are achieved, blaming the group for a spate of kidnappings, sea piracy and killings of Kenyans and foreigners.
Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula said troops went across the border on the request of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which controls very little territory, but is backed by the international community.
"What we are doing is in pursuit of a request by the Government of Somalia, and also our own interest as a country to fight a group that is terror-based," said Wetang’ula.
By "desired effects", the ministers implied that Kenya’s military hopes to degrade Al-Shabaab’s capacity to launch cross-border attacks on land and in the Indian Ocean.
They justified that attacks on Al-Shabaab inside Somalia are legitimate self-defence acts to protect lives and the economy in accordance with the UN charter and international law.
Defence Minister Haji said that Kenyan police and military forces will pursue the Somalia extremist group in its bases in the centre and south of the war-torn country to eliminate immediate security threats near the border and protect shipping lines in the Indian Ocean from pirates who operate with support of the terror group.
Saitoti declared the operation a legitimate response of self-defence against "a chronology of provocation by Al-Shabaab."
The two spoke after meeting Parliament’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee to discuss the operation.
Saitoti enumerated a host of abductions of Kenyans and foreigners, which he blamed on Al-Shabaab and said the Government received intelligence that the extremist militia "continued to recruit Kenyans into its ranks."
He said Al-Shabaab shelled a Kenyan security post near Liboi last month and was responsible for landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) found in Mandera in July. On September 8, Al-Shabaab claimed to hold two Kenyan officers in Kismayu, a coastal city in the Indian Ocean, after initially detaining them in Afmadow.
Haji did not name a third soldier in his account but said the two were abducted after "their vehicle broke down and they were sent to seek assistance."
Saitoti said under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Kenyan forces will engage in security and military operations in "self-defence" and geared to "preventing aggression".
HideoutThe minister said Kenya would step up aerial border surveillance and provide armed escorts to locals, tourists and expatriates.
Haji said that besides abducting the two soldiers, Al-Shabaab had tried to attack the port of Mombasa and ambush ships off the Kenyan coast in September.
The Defence minister said that lately, Al-Shabaab was acting in concert with pirates and had attacked vessels entering Kenyan waters.
In what appeared to be a well-calculated and aptly prepared military assault, more troops were lined up in strategic positions as aerial and ground combat forces launched missiles in the open sandy grounds of Somalia and hideouts of the terrorists. Kenya’s disciplined officers will be backing TFG forces in a bid to find a lasting solution to instability in the country that has been at war for two decades.
Maj Chirchir also confirmed that the chopper was part of a contingent of military personnel and hardware that had been deployed to pursue Al-Shabaab militia following insecurity on the Kenya-Somalia border.
The five are the first casualties Kenya has suffered in the onslaught against the militants in Somalia that heightened when they kidnapped two Spanish aid workers.
Kenya has military bases in Wajir, Liboi and Hulugho. GSU personnel are also at hand to support the army.

Mr. & Ms. Embu College Beauty Pageant 2011

Last Sato saw the fairest maidens of them all crowned as the Ms. Embu College 2011. Florence Muriithi (pictured above) was crowned the Ms. Embu College 2011 after four other hot contestants whom I might say gave her stiff competition. In second place was Christine and in third place was Von Vini. The event was the first of its kind in college and successful considering that no funding was pumped into the event, making it a cost-free event. With the success of this event, one obviously anticipates that the Embu College Talent Show will even be more successful.